Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok Beex hive mind, your help/advice/opinions are needed.

Darryl has called me this afternoon to ask me loads of car buying questions (He's in Pirbright, Woking, so not anywhere close).

He has a 306, but it needs some work doing on it, more than he paid for the car, so he's looking at scrapping it and putting the money towards another car. His questions are;

1. He had a bump earlier this year for which he was deemed 'at fault', when he calls his insurance to change the car, will that get taken into consideration for the re-calculation, or will that happen when he comes to renew his insurance?

2. He drives A LOT of miles. Yorkshire to home each way each week is 3 hours without anything else on top, so he wants something economical, should he be looking at a diesel or are they much of a muchness these days?

3. He want's something with similar boot capacity (personally I think he could do with an estate when he's carting all of his mates and their luggage back and forth too) and at least a 1.6, his budget is about 1k.

Any (serious) suggestions are very much welcome and thanks will be given.

An insurance bump will be in effect when he changes car, as it will be a new policy even with the same insurer.

Economical? The recent Fiestas are rather good, roomy, and look OK as well, and not bad to insure.

It all depends on the budget really. An older 1.6 petrol like an Astra or something will certainly be pretty heavy on fuel.

Don't bother with a diesel at those small engine sizes and cars.
I will recommend what I always recommend for a bog standard car, get a Focus.

306 Estate. 50+mpg, voluminous boot, low insurance group.

Kalmar, he's only going to have 1k. Maybe not even that if his insurance is horrific.

Trooper, even 2nd hand they hold their value well, so out of his price range I think.

Mali - I think you might be right.

Cheers guys, I will have a look around for him on auto trader and see what's about.

> 1.6 isn't really that small, but a Focus certainly won't be too expensive - there are plenty of diesels below £1k, but they're not going to be in great shape:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used ... ice-from/0

If he needs something a bit bigger, try the Focus C-Max or a Galaxy:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used ... ype/diesel

Problem is, "Roomy", "Economical" and "Cheap" don't really go together.

This one seems okay: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

It's a bit tatty, but it's taxed and tested until July.

Buy Malia's then he can get an MX5

I think he might actually be tempted by something like that, particularly with the amount of ferrying around he does.

I found him this http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p dunno if it's any good or what he's looking for though.

This price range is pretty much a gamble to see if you get a "good one" - a 1.6 petrol is a brick like that is going to be somewhat thirsty though. A brand new one only returns 42.8 MPG combined

Well he's driving the non estate version of it right now. I don't know what to tell him, I'd rather he'd had another month or two to save up really, but I'm not sure how drivable his current 306 is.

The problem with a Galaxy is that it is fairly big, and I don't think the insurance is that friendly. A Focus C-Max might be a better choice.

To be quite honest, if it was me, I'd get something like a Fiesta and just struggle a bit when I need to move people / stuff around.

Galaxy?!? They do about 20MPG.

Seriously, like Grim... says, less might be more here. The 5 door 1.2 ecotec Corsa I used to have, for example, seated 4 + luggage comfortably, got decent mileage however you drove it and when empty had similar performance to an astra/focus sized car with a bigger engine, just because it's smaller and lighter.
Even that 12 year old one had airbags and crumple zones so it's not like they're death traps either.
You'll easily get a reasonable one for under a grand and they are pretty reliable and cheap to maintain too.

A mates (new one, admittedly) does about 30 (-40 on a motorway), but yeah, they're not exactly economical. I only put it because I forgot the name of the C-Max


Was that four Kalmars, though, or four Grim...s?

I might go and take a look at this later on. It does seem a bit cheap though, is it likely to be because of the mileage, or is there anything else I should be looking out for?

Nothing in particular I don't think. Just make sure you take it for a good spin. Nice cars those though, I had one for a while. Also can traders actually say "no warranty"? I thought they were legally obliged to cover certain things.

As it is from a dealer, it's covered by SOGA, so that's slightly more reassuring than from a private seller. Interior looks messy though. If yo're working around that price point, you might be able to pick up a lower mileage car in better condition. buy these cars on condition, and don't worry too much about a full service history.

I'd expect it to be pretty reliable and not need much spending for a few years.
Cheap because it's high mileage and the interior looks a bit manky. And also because it's a big car that's not very economical to run - see earlier discussion (if this is for the same person).

Yeah, I've only just noticed the big stain on that interior picture, so who knows what else there might be. I'm assuming it's probably a former company car/rental.

The Zetec focus that dealer has might be worth a look.
I think that also, later than 2002 you might pay a lot for road tax with a 1.8. So make it either older or smaller.

Doctors call for ban on smoking in cars

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15744352

I expect Grim...'ll be along in a minute to remind us all how his 6MPS ate its engine then Mazda said it was his fault and didn't honour the warranty. Not that a trade car with 154k will have a Mazda warranty. Also it's not an MPS.

Actually, this one is for me, but most of the criteria are the same:
Budget - probably up to about £1500-ish at the moment. Maybe a bit more for the right car. Alternatively, I could spend a lot less on something terrible, and re-assess the situation in x months time.
Probably about 50-60% of my travelling will be on motorways, so something more economical might be a better idea.
I'm currently using GJ's Stilo, and am marveling at how the climate control can clear a misty windscreen in seconds, so (assuming that's a feature of climate control as opposed to something else about the car) I've got that down as an essential, which seems to rule out quite a few cars of that age/price.
Size-wise - I'm unlikely to be ferrying loads of people/stuff about, but I'd like to be able to do it comfortably if I have to.

I'm in no major rush, but ideally I'd like something by next weekend. Suggestions/advice/warnings all welcome.

I think a Focus has been ruled out due to lack of climate control, but if I've made any incorrect assumptions about the miracles of climate control or the failings of air con systems, then I'm all ears.
I think it is over £200 (possibly closer to £250) for the tax, so I think I am slowly talking myself/being talked out of this one. I'm quite happy getting round in a 1.6 or a comparable speed diesel.

I loved my 6. Top tip - don't expect it to survive rear-ending a Volvo XC90

Aircon does help clear the screen, by heating the air and then condensing out the moisture on the cold elements, the dry air then sucks the mist off the screen.
However from a cold start I don't notice much difference whether it's on or off in most weather - other factors like how quickly the air heats up seem more important.

Bear in mind that on some Fords you get an electric heated windscreen - that really is magical for both mist and frost, definitely preferable to A/C.

I'm not arguing that they're good cars. One of Hel's mates has a diesel 6 company car that I had a go in while helping him move house. Lovely, comfortable driving position, quiet and pretty poke-y fun.

Obviously it being someone else's company car with "anyone he gives permission" insurance helped there.

Meanwhile, a bump in the road threw my back out while commuting in the Twingo, last week.

Anecdote time - I used to leave the office in winter, get into my old 306, put the air con on full blast and sit there and wait for ages before I could actually see well enough to even attempt to move out of the car park. In the Stilo, I just press a magic button and I can see in no time at all. Is that how it is with air con vs climate control, or is it just a case of different cars, or was the air con in my old Peugeot just rubbish?

I've had cars with both and they equally clear the windscreen well. Climate control just means you can keep it set at a preselected temperature rather than just indeterminate degrees of cold or hot.

This is why I hate buying cars, now I've got no idea what I want.
I might just get a bus pass instead.

Just wait ten years for your free one.

climate control is just air con controlled by a thermostat, isn't it?

Probably the aircon was a bit rubbish but it also depends on how damp the car is to begin with. When cars get old the seals seem to get tired and they just start letting in water here and there. If you get in a pretty new car, aircon or not, you shouldn't get loads of condensation (unless you get a car-full of rain-soaked people in there maybe).

Unless it's French. See my Twingo. Actually, Hel's Micra is bad and my Civic Type-R was even worse. So French or British, then - my Octavia was fine as far as I remember.

Nowhere near as bad as my M3 though, which got so wet there was ice up the windscreen in winter.

I don't know, I'm a complete spaz at this sort of thing, hence me asking you guys. All I know is that GJ's Stilo has a magic button that puts everything on full blast and clears the windscreen in about a minute or so, whereas every car I've driven with Air Con, putting everything up to full has had me sitting there for 5 or 10 minutes before I could actually see. Hence my assumption that it's a climate control vs air con thing. If that's not the case, that's great as it opens up a lot more cars for me to consider. However, my next question is, which cars don't have shit AC?

Also:



You're a wanker.

I was totally on my way
Bastards
Seven grand


It doesn't have to involve aircon, just 'set a temperature and let it do the rest'.

Toyota Corolla. e.g.

I bought the hot version of this last month and it's ace. Because it's a Toyota it'll just run and run and run, it's incredibly spacious (rear seats fold completely flat if necessary too, so the boot is colossal). Comfortable seating for four. Climate control available, although not sure if it's on the example above. Cheap to tax, insure and run. Economical.

No brainer.

Non-cheap new ones.

Ok, but GJ's Stilo is a cheap old one (depending on your definitions of cheap and old), so I'm better off going for climate control then?

It's one of those things you're not really going to know until you try it on the actual car I'm afraid.

Cabin preheat is the way to go anyway

Newer Land Rovers (and doubtless other cars) can be programmed to heat themselves to a schedule

I think you're confused (or, quite possibly, I'm confused) about climate control.

"Normal" heaters let you change the temperature (sort of, you move the slider up to 'hot' or 'cold') of the air and the speed of the fans. Climate control takes that away, and just lets you set an actual temperature in degC, and it takes care of how hot the air should be and how fast it should come out. If the car has aircon, the climate control can decide if it needs to be on or not. That's all it does - control the climate. It saves fiddling around, but it doesn't do much else.

That's my understanding of it, anyway.

Grim..., you are correct - that's pretty much how I described it further up the page.

I have openly admitted to being confused about climate control, but, in my limited experience, climate control = clears windscreen quickly, AC = clears windscreen slowly, hence my assumptions.
Obviously, I'm aware of setting a temperature as opposed to just setting it to hotter or colder, but the Stilo has a magic button that puts everything to max and clears things quickly, in a car with AC, putting that to max doesn't appear to have the same effect. Again, hence my assumptions.
If it's actually a case of the Stilo just having a better "airflow system" (for want of a better phrase), then that's fine, although it does appear to mean that it's going to be pot luck how much time I'll have to spend sitting in car parks waiting for my windows to clear, and I was just hoping there was something I should be looking out for, but apparently not.

Edit - Essentially, I have equated Climate Control with being AC, but better at doing stuff (be that making it hotter, colder, or maintaining the temperature).

Yeah, it's pretty much pot luck. Although it does sound like you've had some cars which were exceptionally bad for this to be so high up your list of priorities.

I have added this to my ever-fluctuating "maybe" pile.

Also, keeping a microfibre cloth handy and getting as much moisture off that way will help a lot.

Maybe I'm just mis-remembering, it's been about 4 years since I had to sit in an office car park waiting to be able to see properly, and I did end up getting rid of that car because the AC was knackered. Can't say I noticed much improvement in the Astra I had afterwards, but I don't suppose I really tested it in the same kind of circumstances.

Or just by a Ford, because they have heated front windscreens.