Car Accident

ThePrettyDamned

I wouldn't get a diesel if you're often crawling, efficiency goes to nothing and costs skyrocket.

Either sort your car and keep it (it's fine, Ford are reliable and cheap to maintain) or consider a petrol eco car. Ford eco boost are good apparently (going on my mate, who's an automotive engineer for Nissan).

But to be honest, your focus isnt even half way through its life. I'd have the timing belt done, then start a wee savings account so that when the time does come to change it, you have a nice little packet pre-saved.

Danny1969

If you buy a newer car any savings in improved fuel economy will be negated by the cost of buying the newer car so a pointless exercise. Just keep the current one and do whats needed, your an engineer, if it needs something doing then do it. 

TTony

thomasross20 said:

It seems the Civic beats even the new VW Golf in terms of fuel efficiency.

Most of the quoted mpg figures are pretty much make-believe (they're calculated under very false and optimised conditions that won't reflect your typical experience) nowadays.  You'll be lucky to get within 10%-20% of the quoted figure.

So I wouldn't place too much importance on a comparison of brochure-quoted data.

Also, the reviews are merely opinions, published by people who aren't you, and mostly written by people who seem to be frustrated motoring journalists.  So I'd disregard them too.

Go sit in a few different cars.  See what you like in terms of the layout of the controls, the feel of the thing you touch, whether the spec includes stuff that you'll actually use.  Then take a few out for test drives.   Do they respond well to your driving style on your typical journey?  What's the warranty like?  What are the servicing costs like?  

And the newer the car, the more packed full of gadgets it will be.  Some gadgets in a car are great (until they go wrong).  Others might seem a little unnecessary - mine has 9 buttons just to set the seat position (or 13 if I include the "memory" buttons) which will also be pita (pun joke) when they go wrong.

And then think that it's a depreciating asset and will be worth roughly 20% less each year that you have it - the more you spend, the more you lose.  

Enjoy ....

stickyfiddle

menamestom said:

A guy at our place has just got a new Golf and is complaining about small the boot is compared to his 3 year old mk6 Golf he traded in. If you want more space and have liked your Focus might be worth considering a Cmax? Also, don't totally write off Petrol, you save on your initial outlay, save at the pumps and some of the smaller turbo variants are efficient, like the 1l ecoboost. Also, I expect tax to start moving in Petrol's favour due to pollution issues Diesel is causing.

I'm surprised by that as the stats say it's bigger. Could be he has a full size spare and can't use the lower boot floor option.

Anyway, I love my Golf (1.4, 140hp TSi with DSG. Not sure that gets called at home). I wouldn't have bothered with the DSG in the UK but it drvies very well and has plenty of poke for a non-sporty model. They are a bit pricey in the UK though.

RaymondLin

This is merely a personal opinion, not based on any material facts and figures so feel free to take it with a pinch of salt.

Honda has been the most reliable cars around for years, there is this survey I've saw somewhere by garages on whom they count what percentage of cars going in to fix faults, Honda has almost always come top (least amount), with Toyota right up there.

Cars like BMW and VW are somewhere in the middle of the ranking, out of like 70+ manufacturers.

Diesel cars vs Petrol car debate.

It is generally considered that unless you do a lot of motorway miles and over 20k+ miles per year, stick to petrol.  Otherwise your engine won't get warm enough to get the benefit and it needs to be warm enough for the DPF(I think) for it to work, if you drive short distances a lot actuall is harmful to the engine, not only you don't get the mph benefit, you will need to service it sooner.  Not to mention Diesel cars generally cost more to buy than the same car in Petrol.  Since Petrol is around 5% cheaper to buy at the pumps, you really ought to do the maths and work out whether you will get these savings, if you are so much as breaking even, then I wouldn't bother.  A petrol engine is quieter, it's easier to maintained.

I wouldn't worry about putting things in the back seat as a problem, the car is a transport at the end of the day, it's not like you need to give people lift as well.  if it's just you and your gear then don't let putting gear in the back seat be a reason to spend money on a car when the current car all it needs is a timing belt.  People put too much emphasis on mileage on cars, history is equally if not more important.  I take it you have own the car for a while and it has been faultless, you know its history so keep servicing it as normal on schedule it should be fine for another couple of years at least.  Save now for that time for a better car instead of spending now.  Your car has already lost the bulk of its depreciation so don't worry about it losing and what it will lose in the next 2 years.

lastly, buy secondhand, don't buy new (there are exceptions).  Buying a new car is a fools' game.  Even getting a 6 months old car can save you enough money for a couple of PRS's so unless there are a specific circumstances that you have to buy new, don't.

 

thomasross20

Thanks, all. I'll see how I feel when the repairs are done. Maybe I'll put it in for a full service and get all niggles sorted and keep it as I'm loathe to spend money. Golf looks ok but I do think a little expensive. Audi would be pretty cool but maybe lavish. Honda does look good and I honestly keep reading you wont get less than 60mpg even in towns but we'll see. FYI I do 35 miles each way. Roughly 40 minutes each way.

Danny, I've done some minor repairs before but honestly prefer to just hand over the cash and get somebody else to do it - lazy, I know! I do enough "engineering" at work!

I'd always buy used, definitely...

Petrol vs diesel - I'll check out the more eco friendly petrols - all recommendations welcome.

I bought my Focus for £8.5k about 5 years ago. It's great to have a car paid off....! Only thing it's really needed is brake pads/discs. It does need some minor body work but might skip that).

Oh, and I also heard that about Hondas - majorly reliable along with Toyotas. I was surprised, given the marketing by VW, that they weren't up there in the top!

Cirrus

TTony;416288" said:

Some gadgets in a car are great (until they go wrong).

Amen! My girlfriend's got a little Fiesta titanium with the cruise control, heated front windscreen etc. To be fair I really enjoy driving it but there's two things that drive me mental

- The automatic windscreen wiper setting is a total crapshoot and it varies from minute to minute - it might either be frantically wiping at max speed in a gentle mist or it'll just never wipe in steady rain. Which means in practice the car doesn't have any intermittent wiper setting at all - it's either off or on.

- The Climate control is mental. It DOES control the climate, but this is how it asserts its authority: the first 15 minutes of any drive will be spent furiously attempting to get the interior of the car to a climate I could only describe as Saharan. The next 10 minutes will be hell on earth. After that, the temperature for the rest of the drive will gradually fall until eventually it's cold and you're shivering.

Fucking technology. This is the reason we didn't send a Ford Fiesta to land on that comet.

mike_l

Cirrus said:

 

Fucking technology. This is the reason we didn't send a Ford Fiesta to land on that comet.

So not your shirt then?

 

I'm inclinded to agree there's too many gadgtes on cars these days, more stuff to go wrong.

stickyfiddle

mike_l said:

Cirrus said:

 

Fucking technology. This is the reason we didn't send a Ford Fiesta to land on that comet.

So not your shirt then?

 I'm inclinded to agree there's too many gadgtes on cars these days, more stuff to go wrong.

And bloody touchscreens!! It's lovely when you're in traffic, but trying to select a different track when doing 70 (and still actually concentrating on the road!) is not easy...

mike_l

Ah yes touchscreens, biggest load of crap in a long time.

I sell loads as they go wrong so often. I can see a time when these things will be causing cars to be scrapped at low mileages/ages as they'll be too costly to replace.

Not forgetting the distraction whilst driving.

imalone

TTony said:

thomasross20 said:

It seems the Civic beats even the new VW Golf in terms of fuel efficiency.

Most of the quoted mpg figures are pretty much make-believe (they're calculated under very false and optimised conditions that won't reflect your typical experience) nowadays.  You'll be lucky to get within 10%-20% of the quoted figure.

Sure about this? The Honda Civic for instance claims 78.5mpg, 20% would be 15.7mpg, which would be really terrible. Even for town driving I'd have thought something like that would be getting in the 30-40 range.
Edit, this site looks rather useful, though don't know where they get their data from: http://www.fuelly.com/car/honda/civic
Edit 2: yes massively misread ttony's post. Though having googled a bit the civic seems to get closer to its claimed value than other small cars.

stickyfiddle

FWIW I get 40mpg in the Golf at a steady 85 (well, 140km/h) with the AC on. It's hugely shit in stop-start traffic (more like 20mpg), but that may the DSG hurting it too.

thomasross20

That's not the Golf Bluemotion diesel though?

He meant wtihin 20% of the figure, so 78.5mpg - 15% which is still really good.

ICBM

Cirrus said:

- The automatic windscreen wiper setting is a total crapshoot and it varies from minute to minute - it might either be frantically wiping at max speed in a gentle mist or it'll just never wipe in steady rain. Which means in practice the car doesn't have any intermittent wiper setting at all - it's either off or on.

Same on my Renault - so I do it by leaving it off, and every now and again when I can't see, touching the fingertip wash-wipe lever just enough to make it wipe without activating the wash… which is basically exactly how I did it on my old 2CV twenty years ago, because they don't have an intermittent setting at all. So much for progress.

stickyfiddle

thomasross20 said:

That's not the Golf Bluemotion diesel though?

He meant wtihin 20% of the figure, so 78.5mpg - 15% which is still really good.

Yeh, mine's the petrol. I kinda forget diesel exists out here..

Jalapeno

Hey Tam, sorry about your prang, but that's why we have insurance, and everyone bumps somebody at some point - no big deal.

On transport of gear - amp in the boot (somehow) and guitars on the back seat. That way guitars are protected from a rear-end, or getting hit by the amp in the case of an emergency stop.  Side-on and you're buggered either way

RaymondLin

The best gadget i my car is keyless entry.  Such a simple thing that I never thought I would need but get used to it so quickly.

 

Doors open when it senses you are near, starts car with keys still in pocket.  locks the car by pressing a button on the door handle.  I never have to get the key out of the pocket or bag.  It makes it so easy when carrying lots of shopping to the car and not having to put anything on the floor first. 

imalone

thomasross20 said:

That's not the Golf Bluemotion diesel though?

He meant wtihin 20% of the figure, so 78.5mpg - 15% which is still really good.

That is a rather good point.

TTony

imalone said:

thomasross20 said:

That's not the Golf Bluemotion diesel though?

He meant wtihin 20% of the figure, so 78.5mpg - 15% which is still really good.

That is a rather good point.

I think the manufacturer-quoted mpg figures are more critical now because mpg obviously links to CO2 calcs, which affects tax banding, some company's company-car policies, manufacturer's compliance with EU guidelines, et al.  Hence most of the rules are stretched to show how fuel efficient a car is.  Or isn't.

I used to be able to get pretty close to the quoted figures in my old (2003) A6, partly because I got to know the car pretty well in 10 years and how it responded to my driving.  I can't get anywhere near the quoted figs in my (2014) Merc, despite really trying (occasionally).

frankus

The upside of spending £950 a month on travel is that you get a house the size of the Pentagon for the same price as a bedsit in Kensington and your nearest neighbours are in a different timezone (or century in some parts of Suffolk).

When my kids are older and married, I intend to move to somewhere like Lincoln or Ipswich, super glue a chipolata onto my hand and blend in ... go off the grid... "high 6, brother"