Be Excellent To Each Other

So I'm told. I've only had it 6 months though, so it's well not my doing.

Micra is currently at £501 on ebay.

Wooo!

Awesome, if it keeps going you'll be able to fill up your 7 Series with petrol.

Danielle needs a car. We're thinking small (she's nervous about parking and narrow British roads) and automatic (she's never driven a manual, and didn't get on with mine after a brief go) for about £2-3k. There seem to be a fair few coddled Micras and the like about for that money, often with low mileage for the age (like, 20-30k for five years old). Plenty of Protons, Kias and the like too, and an odd excess of Citroen C2s and C3s.

Is there any model I should look for and/or avoid, assuming anyone here has relevant experience?

Out of that list, I would go for a micra. Good reliability, good resale value in comparison.
However I've never even looked at a small automatic, let alone driven one, so have no idea if it is a good car to drive or not

Avoid a Peugeot 107, unless she'll never be going uphill.

They're all going to be gutless wonders, sadly. She can't afford to ensure much else, with zero no claims or UK drivin history!

You should probably take this opportunity to buy that 7 Series like Trooper's. It's an automatic and if she's nervous about crashing into things then a larger car makes more sense.

Plus, she's American, so a 7 series is small

Right? Post a picture of the car she learned to drive in, Doc.

Also Micra / Corsa. Be on the looked for an ex-Motability car that's been converted to an auto, they normally run cheap.

Being sensible Micras must be just about the easiest to drive car I've ever tried. They turn like taxis and the visibility is more or less like sitting in a goldfish bowl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Marquis



3.1 m wheelbase, 5.8 m long, 2.0 m wide. 4500 lb kerb weight. Smallest engine was a 5.8 l V8 (Danielle can't remember which one she had). 3-speed autobox. Even the largest engine, a 7.5 litre V8, generated just 202 hp! She was sixteen and a half and driving that monstrosity on public roads.

Noted. Ta.

The sort of vehicle that causes Captain Schettino to get into trouble.

That's fucking eye-wateringly bad.

Looks like the 7.5 litre engine was standard on the top-level "Grand Marquis" trim, so that must have been what she has. 202 hp in a two-and-a-quarter-ton chassis! Apparently it's performance was charitably described as "stately".

A brand new Nissan Micra 1.2 gets 80hp, and weighs a far bit less than half. The power-to-weight ratio wouldn't be too different!

Err, eh?
Not converted to auto, converted to hand controls or something and then un-converted again, doncha mean? But anyway, plenty of choice in the granny's shopping car market. Don't rule out a CVT, they're slightly less annoying to drive than a 3 or 4 speed auto.

What on earth is a Perodua Kenari?!

Sucessor to the Perodua Nippa isn't it? Think it's a rebadged Daihatsu.

Can't go wrong with a K11 Nissan Micra. They may be "gutless" but they are surprisingly good to drive, economical, reliable and more to the point - comfortable, especially on our roads. I bought a lime green one (well, half of one - my ex-wife paid for the other half) back in 2003 and it was ace.

Naturally I am now looking at 3 litre Audi A4s and Jag X-types, with 70-90k on the clocks, for £2500 ish. You can get a lot of car for that money if you buy a big cruiser.

...and then she can pay £2k/year to insure it. Oh. Unless I can find an insurer that will understand her circumstances, and not assume she's never driven before.

Admiral/Elephant only charged me an extra £100 (or something like that) to put kate on the M5, this was when she was 23, and had only passed the year before.

A Sith Lord.

As it stands, I'd be keeping the Picasso though. Unless I switch it around. Hmmm. Then I'm putting my NCB in her hands though!

I would have thought since your married she would have had more valuable things of yours in her hands before now (*)

Some places will do a 'family' insurance bundle and reduce things down (direct line do) , it may well be worth calling up and seeing what they say - I assume she has something or at least a company she can point to which will say she had previous insurance in the US ?


(*) Macbook / iphone / ipad / etc

Cubist.

Nah, you get Motorbility cars for people a ropey leg that get converted to auto - especially in smaller cars where auto is a rarer option.

She holds laptops better than she drives

Yeah, she has documentation. There may be some specialist UK insurers that can do stuff for her. We'll look on the "immigration advice" forums we usually use for things like this, they'd know about stuff like that there.

Koinkidink! I just bought a clio 1.6 auto (1998 ish) with a dead engine. Should have the engine swapped in a couple of weeks and it is to be my interim automobile. can she wait 6 or 7 months? I'll be finished with it then and you can have it for £799.991

The thing to look out for with Micras is the timing chain needing replacing.

How the fuck Nissan managed to find a chain that a 1.0/1.2 can stretch I have no idea. Though actually, it might just be the 1.0.

also I've had a few where the electric boot latch shorts out and the boot flies open as youre driving along. It's amusing the first few times but y'know.

£550 on ebay now, 1h 45mins to go, exciting times!

I've taken down the PH advert that had it up for £545

It went for £550 in the end, dude is coming to pick it up today, so we shall see how that goes.

In other exciting news, the insurance on the 500 is due, so i've had that a year already!
£470 last year for me and Kate, renewal came through at £553. A quick check on confused has got that down to £387, which isn't too bad at all I think.

and why do confused always call you 5 minutes after you do a quote? Annoying.

Why are you putting your real number into confused?

Because they send all your details through to the insurer when you click buy

Silly Trooper. No meerkat for you!

I already have a few meerkat toys

Interestingly, doing exactly the same quote with the same details comes out £60 more expensive through CTM with the same insurer...

Insurance quotes are the world's biggest shell game. You'll have 30 different quotes from different insurance brands there, even though it's probably only about 3 different insurers.

Three tiny superficial chips/scratches in the windshield, each the size of a grain of salt.

Worth bothering about?

Indeed. My Beemer is insured with Elephant, the 500 was insured with Admiral last year and they had the high renewal price, and the cheap renewal was from Bell insurance.

Every single company I have just mentioned is the same place
I phoned up Admiral and had a word and they are matching the Bell quote, funnily enough...

nah, not unless you can get the done free.

Well, that's the thing. AutoGlass still shows up on your insurance renewal.

The Tomcat is fixed!

Experience suggests this is a temporary state of affairs that will soon be rectified.

And when they confirm your details you can point out that the last digit is wrong or you've typed in the last two digits the wrong way around.

Woo! Will you be attending any shows with it this year?

Even knowing something was obviously coming, I still gasped.