The Car Thread

[EvilBoris]

Also the Stereotype of your typical A3 owner , which is pretty much the Same as a mini owner

[TheForce]

very nice Ikobo ! I love that Silverstone one, before I bought the one I have I almost bought a Moonrock S2K (just missed it) Love that colour as well.
The yellow one has to be seen in real live, the colour really comes to live then. On pictures I never liked the yellow S2K?s till I saw one with my own eyes, very nice indeed.
I bought a few weeks ago a similar frontlip spoiler as you have on the Silverstone, makes it look just that bit better.

As for buying something brand new... I bought a brand new Fireblade in 2008, crashed it a few months later on the Nurburgring Grandprix track, got myself (with the insurance) 2 weeks later the same Fireblade brand new and 18 months later it lost ? 5000,- in value... When I bought the S2K it had done 30,000 km ...


I was never a fan of those Audi TT models (I prefer the new ones) but with 412 BHP it should be pretty fun to fool around with !!

[charlesr]

Must be hilarious with that amount of power. 4x4ftw.
Take it on a trackday.

[Atticus]

Nice S2000s Colin. Wish I'd bumped into you the day before you sold the silver one

[Colin]

Why's that mate?

Found a ton of pics of the silver one now. To say i used to maintain it and keep it clean might be an understatement. Shiny.......

[Atticus]

2 years old with only 5k on the clock ... someone got a nearly new car for an amazing price.

The way it goes with buying new cars. I've only ever bought brand new once (with the Lupo) ... lost a few k when I sold it but it was a nice experience

[Soundwave]

Hey guys,

Those of you with VAG's that have the DSG gearbox...how are you finding them??

I'm getting ready to trade the Cupra in & I've been looking at new shape Leon FR's with the DSG box & just wondered what you think??

Ideally I want a manual but I've seen a nice one locally with the Auto so just curious about them really.

Ta

Neil

[CMcK]

I really like the DSG box in my vRS, I was reluctant to change from a manual but didn't have the option with that model. Now though I would spec it on any cars I buy in the future.
Very fast and smooth shifts and responds to the kickdown quickly. I really like the sequential shift option with the stick as it feels more natural than tapping the paddles. And you can pretend to be a BTCC driver!

[Soundwave]

I really like the DSG box in my vRS, I was reluctant to change from a manual but didn't have the option with that model. Now though I would spec it on any cars I buy in the future.
Very fast and smooth shifts and responds to the kickdown quickly. I really like the sequential shift option with the stick as it feels more natural than tapping the paddles. And you can pretend to be a BTCC driver!

Thanks for the input...will have to give it a try.
Ideally I've been looking for an Octavia Vrs but they seem to be like rocking horse poo round here for good low mileage ones so thought I'd look at the Leon FR instead & the only one I can find has a DSG so wasn't sure what to expect.

If you're happy with it in the Vrs then I'd expect it to be exactly the same in the Leon.

Thanks again

Neil

[Spatial]

Not sure if this is one for here or the irk thread, but what is it with car salesmen being so utterly appalling at their job? Do they have to attend some sort of University to learn how to be so feckless?

I'm in the middle of trying to sort out buying a new car. Was all going well yesterday when I test drove a Mitsubishi and then started talking about the important part - cost and payments. It appears that I have a tattoo on my forehead which says "I'm a massive chump!" because they did their best to try and muddle the finance figures - to the end of getting me to pay more when I'd expressly told them I wanted to pay less (and the car I'm looking at is even cheaper than the one I have now, but even with a massive deposit they want to charge me the same each month!).

I had to quiz them how much they'd give me for my current car (which was a pretty good deal actually) but they refused to write down any actual figures, including the grand total for the car I was looking to buy or what APR I'd be paying (talk about dodgy).

Then they also decided not to do me any of the current deals being advertised on their website for free fuel for a year as an incentive to make a purchase.

And then this afternoon when I've had the chance to work out the figures, it turns out I'd be ?100+ better off a month by just going to a bank and getting a loan.

Given the state of the car market at the moment and the slump in UK sales, you think they'd be falling all over themselves to get the deal done. They couldn't have been any more apathetic about getting my custom if they'd tried.

Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in giving your money to them - if something goes wrong or needs fixing, I can't imagine them falling all over themselves to sought it out.

And the worst thing is, this isn't the first dealership where I've had to deal with this sort of thing. In my experience it seems rife amongst the car sales profession. It makes buying what should be an exciting purchase into an absolute bind and and a financial minefield to boot.

[JSR]

I suspect that's because they don't make much money on the car you want, or that you don't want any additional features on the car (where most of their income lies, I've heard). What car is it?

[EvilBoris]

When I bought my last car, I was explitily told that my car could be serviced by any mitsubishi dealer as it had an official mitsubishi warranty. Something I was very keen to have because the dealer I was purchasing from was 50 or so miles from where I lived and their was another mitsubishi dealer very close to me.

turned out it was all lies and of course, I didn't have any proof I'd been told otherwise.

[Spatial]

I suspect that's because they don't make much money on the car you want, or that you don't want any additional features on the car (where most of their income lies, I've heard). What car is it?

It was the ASX4.

Thing is, they didn't even ask me about extras. Mitsu's accessory options in the UK are really, really poor tbh but I was quite keen to get a couple of added bits. They just never even asked.

I should have known something was up when they gave me the car and told me I could take it for the test drive myself - first time that's happened in 10+ years of car purchases. While at first that was liberating to not have a salesman yammering on at you while you try to get a feel for a vehicle, after I thought about it and combined their lackadaisical approach regarding hard figures and the general lack of info, it just seemed more and more like they couldn't be bothered.

When I bought my last car, I was explitily told that my car could be serviced by any mitsubishi dealer as it had an official mitsubishi warranty. Something I was very keen to have because the dealer I was purchasing from was 50 or so miles from where I lived and their was another mitsubishi dealer very close to me.

turned out it was all lies and of course, I didn't have any proof I'd been told otherwise.

That's pretty rubbish and a bit of a surprise to me. I also thought that as long as you had it serviced by an authorised dealer it didn't matter where you did it?

That's relevant to my next option though, as tomorrow I'm going to see about booking a test drive for a Nissan Qashqai with a dealership that's over an hour away. There's a local Nissan garage here but that only does servicing, which is why it so I was thinking it seemed like an idea that I'd buy the car and then get it serviced by the authorised service center which is only 30 minutes away.

[EvilBoris]

It was a used car from a mitsubishi dealer, it had a warranty with it but as it turned out it was provided by a 3rd party company, which my local mitsubishi garage didn't have an account with.

Also with the Mitsubishi I had, the genuine parts were incredibly expensive. I damaged one of the wing mirrors beyond repair, it cost me almost ?300 to get it replaced.

I'd actually done the same thing before to the same Mirror and was just lucky enough at the time to get one from a scrap dealer on ebay, but one never came up during the few months I had a search set on ebay, I had to pay for the parts just to pass the MOT.

Somebody also hit and run my car during the snowy weather 2 years ago and left me with an impractical to repair hole in the front bumper. I literally had to wait a year for a suitable Bumper to come up on ebay, there must not of been many of them sold then written off and ending up in the hands of scrap dealers. Probably a downside of having a slightly more obscure car.

[charlesr]

Warranties for cars beyond their initial manufacturer warranty aren't worth it in most cases - they don't cover most of the things that will cause you immediate expense (wear in tear e.g. clutch, cambelt, other belts, wheel bearings, bushes), so you would better off sticking the money in a savings account. My two cents.