I think I am going to pull the plug very soon

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The skip comments hark back to the days when Skoda were nothing to do with VAG.

I see a lot of police forces using them now - certainly where I live and work - I can't believe they would bother if they were that bad.

Not had any personal experience of them mind.

I would try a Focus C-Max as mine handled well and went well (ok it was new when I got it but still).

I've had cars at all sorts of mileages and never found a significant difference in bills / reliability.
 
OK that's all great. I am probably going to take the new car to the garage for a good check before parting with the money. I take it both C-max and mondeo or Superb can be good, also saw Honda Accord executive (but insurance could be a show stopper).

The important question now is:

shall I sell my car online or trade in asap, considering it does need some work doing? I am not a mechanic so it could cost me too much in a garage with new shiny parts.
 
I would be inclined to try and sell privately. If you are trading for a used , fairly priced car , you will probably be ,at best, disappointed with the price a dealer will offer you.By the sound of it you do not wish to be buying a car for much more than you hope to sell yours for, so will not be so much margin to play with. If you are buying a car for under £6k or so, look at what is for sale privately , there are always bargains to be had if you do some carefull research.
 
I would be inclined to try and sell privately. If you are trading for a used , fairly priced car , you will probably be ,at best, disappointed with the price a dealer will offer you.By the sound of it you do not wish to be buying a car for much more than you hope to sell yours for, so will not be so much margin to play with. If you are buying a car for under £6k or so, look at what is for sale privately , there are always bargains to be had if you do some carefull research.

I'd echo this 100%. A trader will want to bend you over at the moment.

Regarding work - I would also consider not doing the work if it is not major or affecting the ability of the car to work properly and / or is not illegal as it is - but factoring it into the price.

Get a rough idea from a couple of decent inde's what the likely cost will be.

Then stick the car up at the lower end of the typical for sale prices that you are happy with.

Then when selling it, you can obviously highlight what needs to be done and the likely cost - so you will come across as honest and conscientious.

99/100 times, a buyer will make an offer - but in this case, the offer will then have more focus on the work required - which you would have had to have paid for anyway and then sold it for more to make up the lost money.

I did this on my last car and in the end, didn't have to bother doing any of the work and sold my car quite quickly. I knew spending the money to fix it would have pushed it well into the newer and lower mileage examples.
 
OK, I will try a private sale

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/clas...3-a170-cdi-avantgarde-sale-needs-service.html

and will put on ebay shortly



Yesterday I had a look for cars in one garage, then asked for feedback - and he had sold a few faulty (clutch etc a week later) and he didn't take the responsibility. That sounds too familiar. I guess I am buying privately as well.
 
I wouldn't discount the trade but I would only go on word of mouth or doing what you did and getting a feel for the place and what the cars / people are like.

You can get dishonest private sellers as well of course...
 
When I decided to change the trollmobile for something slighlty more island friendly, it was a straight fight between the Yeti and the Abarth 500c.

The 500C one due to them making a manual version and therefore I did not have to accept the rubbish manumatic auto the force on you with the first versions.

To be frank...if the Yeti had a panoroof, and if the petrol engine 4x4 was auto optioned.......I think the Abarth would still have one.....but it would have been difficult.

If you really need a larger car...the Yeti covers most bases fully.

The Rollerskate....

Roof back. bike in rear seats, front wheel off.....roof back up...go.

averaging 39.9mpg so it says.....which is disappointing as it was at 43.7mpg until a quick spin yesterday. And thats all urban driving.


it is cheap tho....proper cheap.
 
Honda HR-V

most reliable car in the world, tallish, shortish, estateish, 4wdish, cheapish, fuel economy not so good.
 
I wish I could justify any of the Honda's like CR-V or Accord 2.2 diesels. Maybe I will be a happy owner of one 2-3 years later.

For now I have to be realistic.

Toyota Avensis 2.0 D4d T3-X looks very attractive and affordable. I might go for that unless there is something really wrong with it.

Skoda Superb is second alternative. They seem reliable and affordable if a bit bulky to drive in town. Sadly it is 6cm lower than avensis so would be borderline.

Ford Focus (c-max or estate versions) - now in third place due to things I recently heard about PSA HDI / TDCI engines. cough sludge cough and fairly cheap plastic interior even for higher models.
 
Have you tried any cars yet or are you still narrowing down?

I think when you look at some of them, this will help.
 
Have you tried any cars yet or are you still narrowing down?

I think when you look at some of them, this will help.

I thought I had narrowed it down to Focus. I've tried a couple apart from giving it a good road test. Zetec and Ghia were acceptable. Then I had a chat with mechanic about PSA engines. Considering many people have neglected them it could be quite a gamble.

I've not tried Avensis yet, but on paper it looks good. I will need to readjust to the long dimensions (c-max is my last bet to get a car with short front, longish back is OK), but at least the height is good. I've had rental yaris in Crete and it was tall enough as opposed to pretty much any other compact on the market that I've ever tried, golf included, a-class just scraping through the threshold.
2.0 d4d t-diesel should be fine as well, unless there are some serious mechanic faults creeping in all of them.
 
I know Toyotas had a problem and recall on brakes.
 
Still thinking...

Realistically I am still torn between Avensis, Octavia and Focus (c-max/estate) 2004+

Now I am trying to think about the handling and visibility of these cars

I want something that handles very smoothly or progressively, with plenty of pedal range - A-class 170CDI was OK in that respect. I really don't want a car that has over-responsive brakes, too short throttle, and very sudden accelleration out of the blue in the middle of the gear. I had a new rental SEAT LEON 1.2TSI for a business trip, and while it was surprisingly powerful for 1.2l (well done VW!) the handling and visibility were really chaotic. I'd really love a more composed, yet powerful car. You are probably going to tell me 2008 E-class, but sadly it is well out of my reach at the moment.
A good idea to rent them out for a day (if I can find 2004-6 cars), or just test drive what's on sale?

How bad are 100k+ diesel PSA engines in reality compared with VAG/D-4D?
 
The VW pump-duse engines are very robust the later common rail engines though quieter are less so.
 
Spoken to a mechanic yesterday.

He thinks I should go for 130+ bhp engine, as anything less is 'not powerful enough' in a family saloon / estate (He's got 6L!). Could I get a second opinion on this? I do drive quite a lot in town, many many hills, some 10% and even 25%, and motorway to top it all up. In other words - Bristol, Exmoor, South Coast, Cornwall, Wales, Birmingham... Is 105bhp 1.9 TDI enough (as there are plenty and insurance affordable) or is 130 a must?

He was OK with Octavia, but pointed to 2.0L TDI Pd, or perhaps Superb 1.9TD PD 130

Avensis 2.0 d4d was swiftly crossed out from the list, leaving an option of 2.2L

Accord 2.2 Executive is going to hit me very hard on insurance.

Any thoughts? I suppose I need to do some road tests now somehow (who's gonna give me their car for a day?!). Going round the block isn't going to help, even A170 can look impressive that way.
 
Spoken to a mechanic yesterday.

He thinks I should go for 130+ bhp engine, as anything less is 'not powerful enough' in a family saloon / estate (He's got 6L!). Could I get a second opinion on this? I do drive quite a lot in town, many many hills, some 10% and even 25%, and motorway to top it all up. In other words - Bristol, Exmoor, South Coast, Cornwall, Wales, Birmingham... Is 105bhp 1.9 TDI enough (as there are plenty and insurance affordable) or is 130 a must?

He was OK with Octavia, but pointed to 2.0L TDI Pd, or perhaps Superb 1.9TD PD 130

Avensis 2.0 d4d was swiftly crossed out from the list, leaving an option of 2.2L

Accord 2.2 Executive is going to hit me very hard on insurance.

Any thoughts? I suppose I need to do some road tests now somehow (who's gonna give me their car for a day?!). Going round the block isn't going to help, even A170 can look impressive that way.

Depends what you are "dragging around"= size/weight of body shell+ passengers [if any] and load [in an estate] Take a look at the relative torque figures and when they kick in revolutions wise which will give a good indicator of lugging capacity. The higher power motor will be the better motorway car but otherwise?? All else fails you may be able to boost the performance of the 105 BHP motor by "chipping it" for little extra money.
 
Depends what you are "dragging around"= size/weight of body shell+ passengers [if any] and load [in an estate] Take a look at the relative torque figures and when they kick in revolutions wise which will give a good indicator of lugging capacity. The higher power motor will be the better motorway car but otherwise?? All else fails you may be able to boost the performance of the 105 BHP motor by "chipping it" for little extra money.

Usually it would have minimal load, and just 1-2 people incl. me. It is going to be driven uphill a lot.

How much could be gained by chipping 105 (and what would happen with insurance in practice)?

1.9 105 - 250 Nm
2.0 140 - 320 Nm
1.9 130 - 285 Nm
A170 CDI - 180 Nm (but could mine be boosted a bit?) 30->40 or 70->80 was always a laugh on level roads, not so much uphill...
Are Nm purely an engine measure, or the whole engine+car power? Sorry I am still learning.

So on paper any Octavia has more power?
 
http://www.mybluefin.co.uk/curves/golfmk5tdi105bhp.pdf
quotes 27bhp and 55Nm increases which takes it up to 130 spec
Normally car manufacturers quote BHP and Nm[newton/metres] at the engine flywheel so what comes out at the wheels is dependent on transmission losses which will vary from model to model.
 

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