New Car Ideas!

[Gwadien]

A ten or twelve grand layout would leave me with very little safety margin. :\

How important is a new car?

Does your mrs have one?

IE, can you get a car once you have a positive interview coming up?

 

[Bodhi]

Yeah, I get that. But even if you lose 10 or even 15 mpg that's still pretty impressive.

It's also why I prolly won't be going 5-series. Their stated mileage is sub-30 before you take that into account...

The petrols don't suffer from this nearly as badly - stated average MPG of mine is 34.9, and I regularly get 33 in normal driving - I've seen 40 mpg on the trip into work, and 50 mpg through the roadworks on the M1 before now. In town it drops to about 25, and a heavy right foot will bring that down even further, but overall it's not too bad on fuel at all - certainly much better than my old Golf GTi, and not much worse than the 330d (that did 37).

When discussing how BMW's get on in the snow, it's important to consider where BMW are based, and what the weather is like in the winter there. Stick a set of snow boots on and you'll get further than a FWD or 4WD car on summer tyres. Biggest problem with BMW's in the UK are the fat gripp summer runflats they fit - great on dry or wet tarmac - useless in the snow. My previous two BMW's with non-runflats were fine, drove 5 winters on them and didn't die once.

To be honest though, I'd be tempted to keep on the Civic for a while in your situation. Keeps that safety net and you already know the car well - so if there's nothing else major waiting to fail on it, I'd probably run it for another year, as you could easily buy a new car, then have to spend £750 on that, no matter what make you go for.

 

[Scouse]

To be honest though, I'd be tempted to keep on the Civic for a while in your situation. Keeps that safety net and you already know the car well - so if there's nothing else major waiting to fail on it, I'd probably run it for another year, as you could easily buy a new car, then have to spend £750 on that, no matter what make you go for.

That's where my mind is at at the moment. If I was currently working I'd already be on my way to one of a couple of cars (and probably a 5-series as running costs when I'm working are trivial) but as I'm not, and xmas is coming up (so I could easily be out of work until Feb), then I think a fix-and-run is sensible.

I can trade it in before it's MOT next year and spend some time under no pressure whatsoever deciding what car replaces it...

 

[Job]

Yeah, I get that. But even if you lose 10 or even 15 mpg that's still pretty impressive.

It's also why I prolly won't be going 5-series. Their stated mileage is sub-30 before you take that into account...

The wifes new shape C1 is down at 84mpg on the motorway, best I've had is 75 on a run to cornwall...seriously, keep it at 70 and it cost us 20 quid...for two people plus a car full of stuff, couldn't bring myself to use my jeep, which does about 22.

 

[Scouse]

Wouldn't take a french car for free - other than to resell it @Job

 

[Trem]

So, it's looking like they're going to have to strip the gearbox out, replace the release bearing and the clutch at a minimum.

I reckon that it's gonna cost me at least 750+ quid. On a car that I'd get maybe a grand (prolly less 'cause it's not in great nick) part ex.

However, I could throw away 750+ quid now, hopefully get a year's use out of it (if it holds together) and then part-ex it at a time of my choosing. Or I can blow ten or twelve grand this week, whilst I'm out of work.

Thoughts?

Shop around for a recon gearbox maybe? Roughly £300 - £400 and maybe get it fitted by someone who is cheap? I dunno, I hate gearboxes.

By the way, Subaru Impreza wagon ticks every box and they are shunned by chavs so the image won't suffer. I loved mine, it was awesome.

 

[Tom]

Yeah, I get that. But even if you lose 10 or even 15 mpg that's still pretty impressive.

It's also why I prolly won't be going 5-series. Their stated mileage is sub-30 before you take that into account...

So instead of spending ten grand on a diesel, you spend nine grand on a petrol and keep the difference for fuel. Trust me, unless you're doing a minimum 20k a year, it takes a hell of a long time for diesel to pay back.

 

[Lethul]

There's a new Volvo being released as we speak, has a new V8, comfort mixed with muscle. Can't remember the model. Though, new Volvo's are expensive as hell, but sell for shit value, be warned.

Volvo got extremely good secondhand value in Sweden compared to other brands...

 

[Scouse]

So instead of spending ten grand on a diesel, you spend nine grand on a petrol and keep the difference for fuel. Trust me, unless you're doing a minimum 20k a year, it takes a hell of a long time for diesel to pay back.

It wasn't a diesel/petrol argument - it was just a double the fuel consumption argument.

I easily spend £60/week on fuel - say a 45 week year (for the weeks I don't) and we're looking at £2700 (with my Type-R). If I could halve that spend then that's a fair chunk of cash to go towards my weekends away biking habit

 

[old.user4556]

I think the argument is that the "equivalent diesel" is more expensive to buy in the first place, so you'd need to work out the total cost ownership over the length of time you own it.

The 120d list price was a good £2000 more than the 120i, and those residuals have carried into the second hand market.

 

[Tom]

Plus there's the fact that on long journeys the drone of a small diesel engine can be quite annoying (to me, anyway). My Mercedes was a 6 cylinder diesel so pretty quiet compared to your average 4 cylinder Audi (or whatever), but still nowhere near as quiet and refined as the 6 cylinder petrol I now run.

 

[Scouse]

Noise wouldn't be an issue - all cars are a noise reducing upgrade on an old unshielded type-r. And I tend to keep cars until they die - only had 3 in my lifetime. A 50% reduction in lifetime petrol costs would be very significant in my case. Even between the two models, say 25% would pay me back handsomely if I kept the car for more than a couple of years...

 

[Lethul]

You don't use winter tires in UK?

Never seen such "snow shoes" before and I live in a far more snowy place

 

[Tom]

People over here think winter tyres are only for snow. They don't realise the advantages they offer on cold roads. But then again people over here think it's ok to spend £20 on Chinese ditchfinders because "I'll never get into an accident, that only happens to other people".

 

[old.user4556]

You don't use winter tires in UK?

Never seen such "snow shoes" before and I live in a far more snowy place

Aren't they mandatory by law where you are? We can use them, but generally don't. It can be very expensive to purchase a set for a BMW, snow socks cost £50.

 

[old.user4556]

Chinese ditchfinders

Fuck you, you're owe me an excuse for why I started laughing out loud in the office!

 

[Lethul]

Aren't they mandatory by law where you are? We can use them, but generally don't. It can be very expensive to purchase a set for a BMW, snow socks cost £50.

Yes, from 1 december to 31 of mars they are mandatory. But the reason we use them are for safety rather than law

 

[old.user4556]

I would expect your winters are more consistently cold though? Here in the UK, being on the edge of two opposing air masses, it can be 13c followed by 5c followed by 13c as fronts push and pull. It's still reasonably rare to get snow as thick as the picture I posted above - that snow wasn't even forecast

 

[Raven]

I think its only dipped below zero once here, most nights have been 5ish and the days 12-15ish. Only had to de-ice the car once at least.

Little point spending all that money on winter tires because the roads are a bit wet.

If its icy just drive properly and you will be fine, people managed before they started marketing a need for winter tires.

 

[Lethul]

I would expect your winters are more consistently cold though? Here in the UK, being on the edge of two opposing air masses, it can be 13c followed by 5c followed by 13c as fronts push and pull. It's still reasonably rare to get snow as thick as the picture I posted above - that snow wasn't even forecast

Well, at least we used to. So far we still are around 3-10 degrees which is a bit mad for us in December.

 

[fettoken]

Been around 0 down to a few minus up north where my parents live though. But worse here in Stockholm since there's high humidity due to being a coastal city, plus winds = sucks.

 

[Billargh]

Fuck you, you're owe me an excuse for why I started laughing out loud in the office!

Got me too, but I'm luckily stuck in an office on my own all day today, hah.

 

[Trem]

I had winter tyres on an import from Japan I once had (Mitsubishi Colt Cyborg, fucking hilarious to drive) and I thought they were lethal on anything but snow, on wet roads (which we get more of than snow) they were like ice skates. Still didn't change them though

 

[DaGaffer]

People over here think winter tyres are only for snow. They don't realise the advantages they offer on cold roads. But then again people over here think it's ok to spend £20 on Chinese ditchfinders because "I'll never get into an accident, that only happens to other people".

To be honest, I could a. never see the point when I lived in London all those years, and b. like most Londoners, I had nowhere to put four spare tyres even if I wanted to.

 

[Hawkwind]

How the fuck does this do 60+mpg whilst doing 0-60 in 7.2 seconds and a 140+ top speed, and only cost £30/year in car tax?

:boggles:

VW Software

 

[Hawkwind]

You really can't help yourself can you?

They might seem OTT for EU but over here but there are shit loads second hand at decent prices. A 2015 F Type costs about 200-240K AED (depends on spec), my current car is worth about 120K AED so for about ~20K GBP I get a car I would quite like to drive. There are also loads here that get driven a few months then sold. Same goes for a lot of what would be considered higher end models.

http://uae.yallamotor.com/
http://www.autotraderuae.com/
http://www.emiratesauction.com/en/Cars/OnlineAuction.aspx

The Dubai Car Auctions you can get very good deals but have to have the cash up front. Even the Police sell (auction) off unclaimed cars left at the airport every six months, you can get some amazing deals on high end models.

https://www.dubaipolice.gov.ae/dp/j...84878&switchLanguage=en&noCache=1407817330143

 

[Wij]

Tesla S as a company car?

 

[DaGaffer]

Tesla S as a company car?

You being offered one?

 

[Scouse]

Fuck cars!

Spoiler

If my mate doesn't turn up soon I'm having it all. ALL I TELL YOU! ALLLL!

 

[old.user4556]

Are you meeting Toht?