Cars

[Rover the Top]

how much was wrong with it? everything?

Micra

[theadore]

how much was wrong with it? everything?

Micra

Pretty much.



Timing belt, engine on last legs, lights... basically the car is worth about half a pack of chocolate hob nobs and it would be several hundred just to pass the MOT.

So I need a new car... anyone any recommendations on good cheap new cars (ickle ones for ickle wife) or something decent to look for used in the £2k - £3k bracket?

[Gibbon]

how much was wrong with it? everything?

Micra

Pretty much.



Timing belt, engine on last legs, lights... basically the car is worth about half a pack of chocolate hob nobs and it would be several hundred just to pass the MOT.

So I need a new car... anyone any recommendations on good cheap new cars (ickle ones for ickle wife) or something decent to look for used in the £2k - £3k bracket?

We went with a 57000 mile V reg 1.6 Golf for about 3 grand. Had it over a year now and it's been fantastic so far. In our search within that exact same price bracket - we'd narrowed it down to Honda Civics, Ford Focus Vtecs and Golfs. The Golf won through sheer build quality, but the Civic was a very close second.

Also worth an honorable mention - Toyota Corollas.

Good luck mate.

[theadore]

Think i'm going to need it. driving the car down to birmingham tonight on a last hurrah before driving it back and scrapping it saturday on the last day of the MOT... have to find something next week or the wife will ned to hire something to get to work.

I was looking at Golfs atcually... although I think it may end up being a Yaris based on it looking the prettiest.

[Rover the Top]

My sister's Citroen C2 is surprisingly a decent drive, quite sprightly despite being a 1.1. And I really don't like my mum's Yaris, even though my experience of driving it is taking it on and off their driveway... That's about my experience of little cars, don't know if you'll find them in your price range...

[Gibbon]

We tried a few Yaris' actually, but they felt HORRIBLE in terms of interior finsh and build quality. I was really surprised.

Tried a Honda Jazz too, which was very nice indeed, although a little over our budget.

[Gibbon]

Think i'm going to need it. driving the car down to birmingham tonight on a last hurrah before driving it back and scrapping it saturday on the last day of the MOT... have to find something next week or the wife will ned to hire something to get to work.

I was looking at Golfs atcually... although I think it may end up being a Yaris based on it looking the prettiest.

If'n you want a razz in the Golf, I'm sure we could arrange summat.

When we were looking around Sheffield at dealers, we found this place to be pretty good. And this is the place we eventually bought the Golf from. The salesman was a bit of an old school bigot, but the cars seemed good, and we went there because Charlie's boss is mates with the owner.

[Simon]

I would probably recommend looking at a Golf. You can pick up a similar spec Focus for a bit less (cheaper to insure too), yet the build quality won't be as good. My Dad's in the motor trade and I can ask him to see if there is anything he can find that might interest you.

On my Focus, I just had 2 new front springs fitted for nothing as a favour, and in the process of doing it they guy broke the seal on my strut and it lost all its oil. So a new strut at £40 it is then.

My ABS/traction lights have been coming on occasionally since I bought it, for maybe 5 mins at a time every week or so. Then about a week ago they came on permanently, meaning I lost ABS/traction. Anyway, we were doing the tracking at the same time as putting the new strut on, turned the ignition on in gear through the window, car stalled, and the lights have gone off.

[Gibbon]

Yeah, we nearly went with a Focus...I can't remember if it was a vtec or a zetec now to be honest, but it was a very nice little car. And then we drove the Golf, and everything about it was just a little bit better quality. Would have been happy with the Focus though, or even one of the fiestas.

[theadore]

Cheers guys. Hopefully come saturday when i'm standing in a car lot wearing a look of desperation and bafflement i'll at least remember the names of some cars.

[Simon]

Yeah, we nearly went with a Focus...I can't remember if it was a vtec or a zetec now to be honest, but it was a very nice little car. And then we drove the Golf, and everything about it was just a little bit better quality. Would have been happy with the Focus though, or even one of the fiestas.

Would've been a Zetec. The Fiesta models before the current ones can be picked up relatively cheaply, although I don't like them personally.

[Gibbon]

Yeah, we nearly went with a Focus...I can't remember if it was a vtec or a zetec now to be honest, but it was a very nice little car. And then we drove the Golf, and everything about it was just a little bit better quality. Would have been happy with the Focus though, or even one of the fiestas.

Would've been a Zetec. The Fiesta models before the current ones can be picked up relatively cheaply, although I don't like them personally.

Ah okay - so it's the Honda's with the ztecs. I always get those mixed up.

[iamarover]

While i remember, I got my insurance renewal quote through the post yesterday from elephant (the letter that essentially says if you want to stay with us for another year, do nothing and we'll sign you up for another 12 months for X amount of pounds). This year their quote was about £375. Last year ended up costing me around £300 ish.

As I have done for the last few years I've then gone to their site and filled in a quote as if i were a brand new customer and got a lower price. At this point I ring up the renewals line and get the nice member of staff to tweak the online new customer quote to make sure it has all the features of my current policy (in case i've made a mistake) and get them to tell me the new price and I go for that instead of the quote posted to me.

This year my policy will cost £310 rather than the original £375 quoted originally.

I've done this for the last 5 years or so. Always query the auto-renew quote as it allows the company to make more money from the lazy/stupid.

Same thing with house Insurance.

The autorenew letter quoted me £413.70 if i chose to let it auto renew.
The online quote as if I were a new customer was £307.65

I rang up and queried this and because I'm a loyal customer they took it down further to £303.45

kerching!

Always query the auto-renew quote as it allows the company to make more money from the lazy/stupid.