The Car Thread: Mark III

[Finsbury Girl]

Nice one QualityChimp


Great impressions Wools

I've gone the complete opposite and am waiting patiently for a big dirty V6 Diesel Ford Everest Sport ; mainly for camping, MTB trips and 4WD around Oz so the 4WD aspect was important and supposedly these are very good offroad for the money, looked at a new Defender but it was like 50k more expensive

Unfortunately they're so popular there's a massive waiting list.......

This is what my dream offroad build would look something like (it will never get past the boss though ) To be fair stock is good enough, I'll probably only upgrade the shocks at some point.
878x640.webp

[wakka]

I didn't know you lived in Oz, Finsbury Girl. That Ford Everest Sport looks awesome (in stock format too), even if it is a dirty diesel guzzler

Congrats on the new car QualityChimp, sounds like you made the right call

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, I wouldn't want a Nissan Leaf if I was traversing the Outback - something monstrous with meaty bullbars to smash the errant kangaroos on the road.
Plus, that's lunch sorted.

Should be getting the new car Friday - excitement!

[fishbowlhead]

Year my mate when travelling in Oz hit a red Kangeroo in his rental, wrote the car off and the thing just brushed itself down and hopped off.

[Finsbury Girl]

I didn't know you lived in Oz, Finsbury Girl. That Ford Everest Sport looks awesome (in stock format too), even if it is a dirty diesel guzzler

Congrats on the new car QualityChimp, sounds like you made the right call

Yep I'm an Aussie, lived in the UK for many years (twice!) which is when I joined the forum waaaaaaay back in the day.

The Sport is really nice to drive but it's bloody big which will take some getting used to, but will fit my dog, a couple of MTBs, bodyboards and camping gear I need. I cannot wait for it to come (eventually.....) My first trip when I get it will be up to Fraser Island from Sydney ; will be EPIC

[wakka]

Just googled photos of Fraser Island. Wow, looks incredible

[QualityChimp]

Year my mate when travelling in Oz hit a red Kangeroo in his rental, wrote the car off and the thing just brushed itself down and hopped off.

The roo:

->Open Spoiler<-

[QualityChimp]

Just googled photos of Fraser Island. Wow, looks incredible

Yeah, the beach looks idyllic, but don't forget this is Australia where everything is out to kill you:

Embedded Tweet

[wakka]

Just run 'em over in your Ford Everest

[QualityChimp]

Joking aside, I love how the forum has people from all over the world.

[fishbowlhead]

The roo:

->Open Spoiler<-

He’d been living there a few years and traveled all over, said the thing was an absolute monster, that pic isn’t even an exaggeration of how buff the reds get

[Neon Ignition]

This morning, heading off from some traffic lights, a lorry veered into the rear side of my car and after 8 years the insurance company has already deemed it a write off because the rear axel is compromised. So begins a morning of relentless calls. I'm getting a hire car whilst things are sorted out which is expected to take weeks because the lorry driver is already trying to make out that I caused the accident by driving into him (even though that would mean I was intended not to drive to work, can't see a lorry next to my face and also managed to hit it with the rear wheel whilst turning and somehow avoid getting jackknifed into his bonnet).

Main issue is that I really don't want to get caught up in monthly payments on another car right now and ours was getting so long in the tooth that after deductions I'm not going to have much to get another 1-2 year suitable car. The bargain hunting mission begins...

[Anpanman]

Hope you are ok Neon could have been really bad.

Our car died four weeks ago, got it back today but as I've noted earlier I'm going to get a new one later this year.

[Neon Ignition]

Thankfully it was at a fairly slow speed, I spent all last night looking at cars and I'm now half minded to go for something that costs relatively little (£3-4K) and is long in the tooth. It would minimise how much cost there is to us and we'd only need it to last 12-18 months and then we could replace it with something we'd prefer. Seems like the wiser option than doing what I'd usually do and stretching money on something much newer and better.

[Neon Ignition]

A month on and I'm supposedly going to get the money through this week and have a week and a half to return the rental car. So begins a mad capped dash to find a car that isn't a repair trap and buying a car is son much worse an experience than it was last time. The shift to online buying means pricing is all over the place and I'm just not into the idea of buying something as expensive as a car without seeing it in person first even though I'd have little idea of what to look for.

Because the intention is that this is an interim car for 2 years or so I've prioritised getting as close as I can to keeping cost commitments down on budget (which obscenely limits options), mileage because we do a lot, reliability and features so it at least feels like an improvement on the last car. There's not much and it means travelling a lot this weekend afar...

On that list:

Budget
The issue here is that this was an unexpected commitment hence trying to ride it out to when we planned to get a proper newer car. However, as soon as you hit 10yr+ cars - which is most of what's available in budget - financing becomes an issue with limited options. We're thinking of extending the budget a bit by going for long term finance then in around 2yrs time we'll just pay off the outstanding balance in one go.

Features
This isn't too hard to hit to some degree. The old car had auto start, keyless entry etc but nothing major beyond that so we're aiming for finally having parking sensors etc.

Mileage and Reliability
Our old car was a 1.6ltr petrol hatchback which apparently had 180bhp. I won't lie, it never felt fast off the mark when you put your foot down. The rental car is a diesel which is an estate at 1.5ltr and 118bhp but it's easily the faster of the two. I want more power than the old car, I felt that was one of the niggles and had I had more power under foot then I might have been able to pull away from the situation that led to it being written off. I'm set to diesel as we do a lot of miles, largely on A roads and motorways and I'm getting so much better mileage from the rental which has chunkily reduced fuel costs. I've watched so many youtube vids etc because I'm such a car newb and I hate the whole car buying process. I'm using carcheck as I go to see iof anything concerning is on the last MOT or two also.

I've narrowed the list down to:

Vauxhall Astra
They can be had pretty cheap and pretty decently featured, it's well within the comfort zone also but there are some niggles such as a limited rear view and going too cheap risks issues

Ford Focus
The easy option as it's what we had for the last two cars. They're fairly sturdy, things break a few times per year but it's never been anything that expensive and I'm familiar with it

Volvo XC-60
It's bigger and considered reliable, main issue is there's a lot less choice on this front

Mazda CX-5
Pushes the budget the most but it's kind of the front runner at the moment. Again bigger and comes in two variants but almost every version is very feature heavy and it's said to be very reliable also. There's a 148bhp version that costs £35 a year in tax and a 2.2ltr 175bhp version that costs £180 which is broadly what the last car cost. Given how the rental car pulls at 115bhp I'm assuming the 175bhp will be a lot faster than the old car despite being heavier.