Obligatory another "what car should I buy" thread

menamestom

guitarmangler said:

I’d look at either the ŠKODA 2.0 Octavia or try the Toyota Corolla Touring (it comes in 1.8 and 2.0). The Toyotas come with a 10 year/100000
miles warranty (as long as you service it with them. The Suzuki swace is the same car, just rebadged, and cheaper. The Toyota is the safe bet, all the taxi drivers around here use them. That and Octavia’s.

Corolla’s are a safe bet and super reliable, but they are ridiculously low in the back, I was in the back of a taxi the other day and couldn’t put my head up straight. Also the CVT gearbox does make them a bit odd when you out your foot down and they hold at a constant RPM.

Octavias are much more roomy.

Sporky

menamestom said:

Octavias are much more roomy.

But a VRS or Scout so you don't get the torsion bar rear suspension. The ones with the torsion bar are very boomy sounding. 

snowblind

Snap said:

Thought about a BMW X3? 

The budget would get op an X5. There's a world of difference between the two, not least the amount of space in the back. You just get more car for your money with the 5 series vs the 3 series. Not saying the 3s are bad. They can be cracking motors but you notice the step up going to a 5. And fwiw I have an X5 3.0d (2014) and it is quicker off the mark than my old V8 535i, probably because it has a thumping great turbocharger strapped to it. For a big bus the X5 handles remarkably well. Much more comparable to your average saloon than a lot of SUVs. I recommend the versions with the active suspension but if you don't have that and it feels a bit like a jelly on springs then a pair of Sachs shocks will fix that right up.

Emp_Fab

Those repair prices are stupid.  Ring up a few independent garages.  Christ, you could get a diff from a scrapyard.  £1,000 for pads and discs ?  I've just checked for a 2016 MX5....  About £160 for the discs and £50 for the pads.  That's £210 plus labour for the lot.  Even a useless mechanic could do all four in well under an hour. 

boogieman

Emp_Fab said:

Those repair prices are stupid.  Ring up a few independent garages.  Christ, you could get a diff from a scrapyard.  £1,000 for pads and discs ?  I've just checked for a 2016 MX5....  About £160 for the discs and £50 for the pads.  That's £210 plus labour for the lot.  Even a useless mechanic could do all four in well under an hour. 

That’s main dealer prices for you. When we had a Jaguar XF the dealer wanted £1200 just to replace the rear discs and pads…and that was 10 years ago. I ended up doing it myself for about £300. 

Roland

GuyR said:

I have the 520d tourer. It’s a magnificent car and not my first one.. 

I’m on my 4th 520. The diesel tourer is an excellent vehicle if you drive long distance, or shift a lot of equipment. Mine takes my gear, PA, and lighting, with space for a passenger. On a motorway run I get close to 50mpg. Overall lifetime mpg is 43.9. 

When the car passed the 100,000 mile mark I changed from main dealer to a local specialist. I’m hoping for at least 200,000 out of it.

goldtop

boogieman said:

Emp_Fab said:

Those repair prices are stupid.  Ring up a few independent garages.  Christ, you could get a diff from a scrapyard.  £1,000 for pads and discs ?  I've just checked for a 2016 MX5....  About £160 for the discs and £50 for the pads.  That's £210 plus labour for the lot.  Even a useless mechanic could do all four in well under an hour. 

That’s main dealer prices for you. When we had a Jaguar XF the dealer wanted £1200 just to replace the rear discs and pads…and that was 10 years ago. I ended up doing it myself for about £300. 

^ What he said. Not sure of the exact model of MX5 the OP has, but Amayama sells the rear diff of a manual ND at under £500:




Japanese main dealers can be super spendy. Probably because the cars are so reliable that the opportunities to gouge the customer are few and far between. I did get Lexus to do the timing belt, aux belt and water pump for the LS400 for £500 once, but that was a special offer to get older cars back into the dealership.

Adey

Roland said:

GuyR said:

I have the 520d tourer. It’s a magnificent car and not my first one.. 

I’m on my 4th 520. The diesel tourer is an excellent vehicle if you drive long distance, or shift a lot of equipment. Mine takes my gear, PA, and lighting, with space for a passenger. On a motorway run I get close to 50mpg. Overall lifetime mpg is 43.9. 

When the car passed the 100,000 mile mark I changed from main dealer to a local specialist. I’m hoping for at least 200,000 out of it.

Much like my A6. Loads of room 2.7l V6 diesel and I can get over 50mpg on a run. In the 16 years I've owned it (from 2 years old) and 130,000 miles it has done just over 40mpg on average. 

strtdv

Well I got a phonecall from the Mazda dealer, they're giving a pretty generous trade in allowance (£5700) which is comfortably £3k more than I'd get scrapping it, which has persuaded me it's probably worth buying the replacement from them. 

They've a couple of reasonably choices, a low mileage and very well equipped A4 estate in "40 tfsi" power, which is the obvious practical choice, and a more left field Cupra Formentor in 2.0/310 horsepower guise. Ironically it might be more comfortable than the Audi as it has adaptive suspension. 

It's worth noting that cars in Northern Ireland tend to cost at least a couple of thousand more like for like than they do in England, some of the suggestions would be well over budget over here, and estates are generally very difficult to get hold of. 

For example the cheapest BMW X5 3 litre with under 40,000 miles is £43k here. A 520d estate would start from about £27500 from a non-franchise dealer and there aren't that many about. 

Much as the idea of a massive estate holds a lot of appeal, day to day the A4/3 series size probably makes more sense

Sporky

I'd have the Cupra of those two. Somewhat more interesting, loads more "go". 

strtdv

Yes I feel the A4 is the car a sensible person in their 40s would drive, and I'm not quite there yet in either regard. 
Having said that, the physical controls for the heated seats and climate control etc on the Audi appeal, what were VAG thinking when they put those on a touchscreen menu? 

Sporky

Do they both have heated seats?

That's a basic requirement as far as I'm concerned. 

strtdv

Yes, and the Cupra has heated steering wheel too. 

Both have reversing camera, DSG gearbox, heated seats, powered boot lid/tailgate, 19" alloys, about 25,000 miles, and as far as I know the ubiquitous EA888 engine (albeit in significantly higher power form on the Cupra), and digital dashboard (which works very well from previous experience of a Golf GTD)

The Cupra has a Haldex 4wd system which allows for the sub-5s 0-60 but also needs regular servicing and accounts for most of the 15% difference in real world mpg. 
The A4 does the 0-60 run in just over 7 seconds but will get 42mpg on a motorway cruise, and is obviously cheaper to insure. 
Both fall foul of the luxury vehicle tax.

I previously ran a Mk3 Focus RS, and the main drawback apart from 26mpg fuel economy (bigger engine and permanent 4wd as well as manual gearbox so no 7th gear for cruising) was the fact that there was all this performance available that you rarely got a chance to use for more than about 5 seconds at a time, and I do wonder if the Cupra will feel the same. It might do the Jekyll/Hyde thing better though, the RS was just a hooligan all the time.

SteveRobinson

Roland said:

When the car passed the 100,000 mile mark I changed from main dealer to a local specialist. I’m hoping for at least 200,000 out of it.

I got 250,000 miles from my E30 and it would have done more.

strtdv

To be fair i think at an independent I'd be looking at closer to £2-2.5k to fix.
I'd been planning to change in the next 6 months anyway and I need a reliable car for work, I'd happily consider another MX5 as a second (or in our case third) car, ideally in the lovely crystal red they do and 184 horsepower version

TTony

There was a sweet spot in car design/production, when they were engineered and buitl robustly enough to allow longevity (so no 70’s/80’s rusting) and before they became so complicated that a relatively minor fault or damage rendered them uneconomic to maintain or repair.

(It helped if you stuck to the quality marques, but even some of the French tins could make 50k miles if handled gently.)

My 1997 A6 did 100k hard miles without complaint, my 2003 A6 managed a faultless 120k in my care, and 50% more with Monq.  My current 2012 E350 has had a much gentler life (only 60k miles to date) and my plan is to not replace it, not least because it’s a little difficult to buy anything new that has vaguely equivalent performance.

The only car I’d buy nowadays, if I was going to keep it, would be pre-mid 20teens, and then I’d spend the money keeping it well maintained.

strtdv

@TTony can't disagree with that, I think cars (certainly reliable cars for 15+k miles per year) peaked immediately prior to dieselgate. 

A 2014 BMW 535d would probably keep going for many miles but would require regular maintenance, and I'd probably need a backup car for when it was getting work done, and I'd rather not have a 3rd car taking up space on the drive (or out on the street as it would be in our case).

As it stands I'm happy generally running a car for a couple of years and then changing it (the MX5 was the first car in a decade I'd owned for more than 2 years, in part because we needed £300k in cash for house renovations a couple of years ago), so planning to get something that's a pleasant place to be for the commute, but probably won't be run for more than 3 years

nero1701

strtdv said:

dazzajl said:

£5.5k to replace a diff for an MX5? That’s somewhere between highly implausible and outright criminal. 

Not just the diff, but the rear hub carrier (£1200 fitted) and then also new pads and rotors all round (about another £1k) for the MOT so just a bad combination of lots of things at once. 

I could probably get it all sorted at an independent for about half that using non-OEM parts, but was planning on changing the car in the next 6 months anyway, and frankly my time is worth quite a bit to me

Id watch the garage forecourt carefully the days after you do a deal!

strtdv

@nero1701 I reckon you're happier not knowing! To be fair they won't sell it on their forecourt, they've nothing older than about 6 years old there. They'll probably change the diff oil to hide the noise and sell at auction

TTony

strtdv said:

, so planning to get something that's a pleasant place to be for the commute, but probably won't be run for more than 3 years

that shouts PCP to me.  

You’ll never own it, but you have worry free motoring for the 2-3 yr term for a reasonably low monthly cost.

I’ve never PCP’d a car because I’ve always bought-to-keep, but for a no-hassle vehicle for 3yrs it might suit your need?