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New car choice again.

To the OP (Paul); what are your absolute musts and what would the nice-to-haves be?

Not sure if you've seen the pickle of a thread that my car buying ended up being, more so as I owned it for all of 10days (not sure it was that long actually haha); but I had all sorts of choices, but I do and always have had a list of musts and nice-to-haves...

Re VAG; can understand where you're coming from, had a few pals and an Aunt & Uncle that had issues with their VW Passat and said they'd never go back; all are now in either Audi's or Skodas haha...!

I'm a huge fan of the Yeti; think it's a great car! Also a big fan of the Audi A5 (though I don't fit in it very well; odd layout in the front)... The Skoda Octavia and Superb also get my vote!
 
Tesla Model S, I have one and love it, smooth drivetrain, instant torque, good network for charging, look at used pricing they are coming down a lot.

Or Model 3 due on UK shores end of 2018 mind.
 
To the OP (Paul); what are your absolute musts and what would the nice-to-haves be?

For a start I would like to experience non of these :

" bad dealer experiences, poor customer services attitudes & niggly build quality "

We made the move to the VW from Volvo as I thought it would be a nice change to have a new car as opposed to an always bought 2nd hand older one. The VW image portrayed is one of quality German engineering that surpasses other mainstream competitors, how wrong that is. My old Ford Mondeo has been more reliable & doesn't rattle & sqeak all the time due to poor engineering applications, especially in fit & finish towards NVH suppression.

The car is lovely to drive, an engine to die for in both fuel efficiency & performance, just that the 90% rest of the car intermittent problems leaves that engine 10% behind.

VW dealers are a joke, well maybe not all, but this particular one tried to rip me off in the early days hence my transfer to Skoda for servicing, a quality dealership if I ever experienced one. VW customer services basically accused me of mis-representation when I complained over an overcharge & work that hadn't been carried out yet billed, they were & still are to my knowledge totally untrustworthy.

I am truly frustrated & exhausted with VW & unfortunately that attitude now applies to anything VAG. Maybe I am wrong with that & should try Skoda now but if a 15 yr old Lexus was bought & then brought with it a Lexus standard of customer & dealer satisfaction I empty my wallet on one now.
 
Petrol is my only choice, never wanted a diesel & can't see myself starting now in my advancing years.

Hybrid technology, not too sure about that, fancied a hydrogen Honda years back though.
 
If I had the budget for a Tesla, I'd buy a Panamera!

Seriously though, if I had £15-20k I'd buy a 2013/4 Merc S Class. So good it's funny.

Edit: only because I have a trusted Merc indie five miles away. I'd never take a Merc back to a main dealer when it's out of warranty.
 
I've had Skodas for many years, they are every bit as good as the VW/Audi cars, and many of the dealers are superb. They also as the 'bargain' bit of the group get some amazing finance deals. I'd go look at a Superb, an Octavia and a Yeti. See what you think. The superb is an amazing beast.
 
Attention has turned to Volvo, used to have a V70 & that was supremely comfortable & a nice vehicle to drive except for the atrocious lock to lock turning circle.

I have no idea what current Volvo cars are like apart from being horrendously expensive to buy.

I recently got a personal lease on S90 Inscription D4 for £250/month plus £2400 down (including VAT). It's a total joy (though definitely no sports car). About what I was paying for my two previous V70s from 2005-2011.
 
If I had the budget for a Tesla, I'd buy a Panamera!

Seriously though, if I had £15-20k I'd buy a 2013/4 Merc S Class. So good it's funny.

Edit: only because I have a trusted Merc indie five miles away. I'd never take a Merc back to a main dealer when it's out of warranty.
Only for the tax is so high here in Ireland (about €1800 p/a) I'd have an 03/04 Merc S-Class diesel in a heartbeat.

There's a brilliant Merc indie not too far from me too.
 
VW dealers are a joke, well maybe not all, but this particular one tried to rip me off in the early days hence my transfer to Skoda for servicing, a quality dealership if I ever experienced one. VW customer services basically accused me of mis-representation when I complained over an overcharge & work that hadn't been carried out yet billed, they were & still are to my knowledge totally untrustworthy.

Funny that, I used to use Skoda for servicing when I had a newer Audi. The local VW/Audi dealerships wanted to take my pants down for servicing so I went to Skoda on the advice of my then Seat owning friend, they were excellent. My current VW lineup are older (but mint) cars and are looked after by an independent VW specialist.

If I had the budget for a Tesla, I'd buy a Panamera!

Seriously though, if I had £15-20k I'd buy a 2013/4 Merc S Class. So good it's funny.

Edit: only because I have a trusted Merc indie five miles away. I'd never take a Merc back to a main dealer when it's out of warranty.

Haha, me too, I absolutely love the Panamera, I've owned a Porsche and driven four, I love them... A Panamera is a little bit above my means at the moment though.

S class, brilliant car but I'd buy a 7 series, or if I had the cash, an Alpina B7 instead personally... or an XF (which I nearly did about 3 weeks back when my mate was selling his, I resisted the urge).
 
Petrol is my only choice, never wanted a diesel & can't see myself starting now in my advancing years.

Hybrid technology, not too sure about that, fancied a hydrogen Honda years back though.

What are you not sure about re hybrids?

Reliability is proven by mega mileage toyota and lexus vehicles and batteries last 10+ years easily (the one in my lexus has lost 1 bar of capacity in 10 years for example).
Repair costs for the battery pack are on a par with turbo, egr, dmf or dpf systems on conventional cars. (yes replacement is costly and will be the main dealers preferred route but very unlikely to be actually necessary).

Effectiveness in reducing fuel consumption and emissions, well all i can say is that if I wanted a merc, bmw or audi of a similar vintage that had similar performance as my hybrid I'd be paying twice as much VED and have an average MPG in the mid teens rather than low 30's so from my point of view it's effective.

I'd certainly recommend a hybrid if you don;t fancy / need a diesel and an ev doesn't fit your usage (if you can get away with a 90 mile range then get a 2nd hand leaf and laugh all the way to the bank - really the savings are obscene).
 
Paul notes

VW dealers are a joke, well maybe not all, but this particular one tried to rip me off in the early days hence my transfer to Skoda for servicing, a quality dealership if I ever experienced one. VW customer services basically accused me of mis-representation when I complained over an overcharge & work that hadn't been carried out yet billed, they were & still are to my knowledge totally untrustworthy.

I am truly frustrated & exhausted with VW & unfortunately that attitude now applies to anything VAG. Maybe I am wrong with that & should try Skoda now but if a 15 yr old Lexus was bought & then brought with it a Lexus standard of customer & dealer satisfaction I empty my wallet on one now.

I had a new golf a few years back , had to nearly take them to court over their broken promises . and the golf was back and forth to the dealer 14 times in the first year with many problems with ecu and suchlike !!!

I would defo have a yeti but staying with my brand [Vauxhall] at the moment of which I have had many models and had wonderful service and reliability . we also have a 100k warrenty on a car that cost 6995 pounds 4 years ago which I think is not bad
 
Paul notes

VW dealers are a joke, well maybe not all, but this particular one tried to rip me off in the early days hence my transfer to Skoda for servicing, a quality dealership if I ever experienced one. VW customer services basically accused me of mis-representation when I complained over an overcharge & work that hadn't been carried out yet billed, they were & still are to my knowledge totally untrustworthy.

I am truly frustrated & exhausted with VW & unfortunately that attitude now applies to anything VAG. Maybe I am wrong with that & should try Skoda now but if a 15 yr old Lexus was bought & then brought with it a Lexus standard of customer & dealer satisfaction I empty my wallet on one now.

I had a new golf a few years back , had to nearly take them to court over their broken promises . and the golf was back and forth to the dealer 14 times in the first year with many problems with ecu and suchlike !!!

I would defo have a yeti but staying with my brand [Vauxhall] at the moment of which I have had many models and had wonderful service and reliability . we also have a 100k warrenty on a car that cost 6995 pounds 4 years ago which I think is not bad

I think you can have a crappy experience with any brand/dealership. My friend had a Vauxhall Astra, brought brand new in 2014. The dealer pushed her towards a diesel model and after 9 months the DPF came on and stayed on. They tried to charge her £1400 to change it and blamed the failure on her driving habits (lots of short journeys) despite the fact that she had discussed her needs with the dealer at the time she placed her order... to top it off, it just needed to be taken out for a good drive to re-gen it. She decided she couldn't trust them and also that she'd been miss sold the car given that it wasn't suited to her needs... she took them to court and won, they had to take the car back.

My dad had an issue with the same dealership a couple of years earlier when someone rear ended him in his Vectra Estate, the car was sent there for repair, it was delivered back with a multitude of lighting problems and the corresponding errors on the dash, and the automatic tailgate wouldn't close properly, you had to force it down to get it to latch, otherwise it would just open again... we had to go back to the insurer to get them to sort it. Really, really poor service.

My best mate's mother brought a new fiesta in 2014 and when she took it in for a service and inspection after 12 months and with under 4K on the clock, she was told that it needed two new front shock absorbers because they were leaking, they wanted to charge her for it, apparently it wasn't covered under the warranty... talking loudly about it in the show room on a Saturday afternoon got it sorted! :D
 
For customer service, the best is Lexus, then Honda, then Toyota.
Most german makes are crap, barring Merc, who are decent, but not close to Japanese car dealers.
Ford are a joke. Skoda are good.
 
The same is true of Honda (my current car) but as they age, ALL cars need some TLC. I just lift the phone, explain the glitch, and am driving away 1 hour later having had it fixed (normally, for free if there are no parts involved).
And they are friendly, knowledgable and great.
 
If I could find a petrol Lexus with a manual gearbox I'd be so tempted, only seems to be CVT within budget & I'm not sure on that at all.

GS300H / GS450H would be affordable & I would consider it except for the CVT.

Good reliability & CS is a requirement now so we will be looking at Honda,Toyota, Lexus(?) & maybe Skoda after all.

Anyone here have a recent model Hyundai or Kia as that has been mooted, not sure myself though ?
 


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