Jezzer
Unspecified
D3S? Quite possibly the best diesel in the world!
New car thoughts (again...)
- Thread starter pianoman
- Start date
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
For the roads across the Yorkshire Dales, that Nova was pretty much perfect. 4ft 10in wide, light, Colway Road Plus tyres (intermediate tread compound) and giving 90bhp of lightly modded power. I’d have another in a flash for a fun car, but they’re silly prices now. Even then, Golfs were a bit stodgy for my driving.
AnilS
pfm Member
I think a Golf would've worn the miles better and held better value. And a roomier day-to-day proposition, but I had no end of fun in the Nova on the B roads, and thrashed it up and down from Essex to Lancs about twice a month. ON the subject of fun cars, I was a bit squeezed for cash a few years back and took a crash repaired Citroen ZX Volcano Disel off a friend in the trade. Planned on keeping to short-term to get me through. A really excellent little car that loved the bends and loved a few revs. really enjoyed that for a couple of years, bizarrely enough.
Brown Bottle
UTB
gintonic
50 shades of grey pussy cats
I read that as DBS, and thought you were talking about an Aston Martin
AnilS
pfm Member
My brother has some lovely cars (currently has Porsche Taycan tourer, GT3 Touring and a new Macan GTS).I read that as DBS, and thought you were talking about an Aston Martin
However, he did own an Aston Martin DBS, and it rivaled his Maserati Quatraporte, as the worst, most unreliable cars he's had.
Both were equally awful to drive (Maserati gearbox blew up twice and DBS had shaky suspension).
He's stuck to German ever since, although his McLaren LP12C and Ferrari 458 GTB, were fine but short lived.
OP what's your budget?
Jezzer
Unspecified
Have always loved Alpina alloys!Until you find it tedious to clean the alloys every few days
Agree, great car though.
absolutely not. The GTE looks like a 1980s rally weapon, the Golf looks like every other 80s marketing execs company car.
Jezzer
Unspecified
Yes, my mum’s Ignis is an auto. I notice the price has risen significantly in the last six years. I think she paid £12.5k in 2018. I see they now start at £18k!
Positives: Looks (I like the tiny SUV shape - almost like a Japanese Kei car)), economy, high-ish driving position, nippy and quite good fun to drive.
Negative: It’s a very lightweight car (if that’s even a negative) so the interior build is very plasticky.
I saw that the Swift is £12k though I have no experience of this model. The ‘hot’ Swift was always well regarded.
Positives: Looks (I like the tiny SUV shape - almost like a Japanese Kei car)), economy, high-ish driving position, nippy and quite good fun to drive.
Negative: It’s a very lightweight car (if that’s even a negative) so the interior build is very plasticky.
I saw that the Swift is £12k though I have no experience of this model. The ‘hot’ Swift was always well regarded.
raysablade
pfm Member
We are going through a similar process having decided that its not worth risking the DSG gearbox in the wife's Polo GTI beyond its warranty; that ends in October. The choice seems mid-boggling and so many issues to consider beyond the old power and size . However to my amazement even with a £30k budget she has whittled it down to only a 3 door Mini. That said, the Suzuki's mentioned above were overlooked and might work thanks for pointing them out. What really interested me in the process she went through is that where, in the past, there were a huge range of cars at every segment now, once you have identified your requirements, the choice is actually quite small.
Keys for her were:
Keys for her were:
- Having had the DSG for 5 years she wants another Auto.
- 6 or 7, 700 mile round trips a year, so can't be a "city" car.
- The help ease the pain of letting her beloved Polo go she wants the benefit something smaller, so less than 4m, that rules out EVs and most Superminis.
- Honda Jazz came close but; it is bigger than 4 m, the dealer annoyed her and they have some very odd wheel sizes that either rule out the Michelin tyres she likes or makes them ridiculously expensive
- Toyota Yaris hybrid came close enough to win but they seem to have a huge reliability problem with their 12v batteries.
Jezzer
Unspecified
Yes, it’s fine cruising on the motorway at 70. Once it gets there. The CVT box is adequate if a little unrefined (much like any CVT I’d wager). My mum’s previous car was a Mercedes A Class (the older upright model) and she prefers the Suzuki.
Haha. Raysablade -your shortlist and decision making mirrors mine, apart from the mileage which is now considerably reduced for us. A mate is trying to talk me into going back to a manual, mainly for how far the money will go, but both me and the wife are having none of it. We've had auto for 13 years - at first because of an shoulder injury - but wouldn't go back now to manual. BUT it does raise the question of the various auto boxes, so I guess it's the usual depressing trawl round dealers...
Jezzer
Unspecified
You’ll find that the Suzukis are a step down in perceived build quality compared with the Polo. Mum’s neighbour bought a Polo from new many years ago and they had nothing but trouble with it. They now have a previous gen Jazz. It’s been totally reliable (and is more solidly built than the Suzuki).
I've had a Jimny and a Grand Vitara, both reliable apart from brakes binding when worn; my job for this afternoon.