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New car?
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- Lemon Half
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Re: New car?
Are you looking at Volvos exclusively? (I'm assuming you want an estate, but there are plenty of those from other manufacturers.) It's your budget I'm thinking of.
Would I buy a big old Swedish/Chinese bus that's shed 90% of its original on-the-road price but is loaded with expensive comfort electronics that I perhaps don't need? And which could easily swamp my maintenance budget at the pop of a fuse? (That's part of the reason why these big old barges tend to depreciate so fast in the first place.)
Or would I spend my five grand on something a bit newer but simpler and generally bullet-proof? (I'm thinking Japanese here, but that's just my own preference these days. Probably wouldn't want another VW, after seeing how fast my wife's Golf can devour a £750 note. )
Questions, questions. It might be that your location or your hobbies or other needs dictate another Volvo, but I'd be inclined to keep an open mind. Honest John is quite good at the "best rugged estate for £5000" sort of query.
Commiserations about the Volvo!
BJ
Would I buy a big old Swedish/Chinese bus that's shed 90% of its original on-the-road price but is loaded with expensive comfort electronics that I perhaps don't need? And which could easily swamp my maintenance budget at the pop of a fuse? (That's part of the reason why these big old barges tend to depreciate so fast in the first place.)
Or would I spend my five grand on something a bit newer but simpler and generally bullet-proof? (I'm thinking Japanese here, but that's just my own preference these days. Probably wouldn't want another VW, after seeing how fast my wife's Golf can devour a £750 note. )
Questions, questions. It might be that your location or your hobbies or other needs dictate another Volvo, but I'd be inclined to keep an open mind. Honest John is quite good at the "best rugged estate for £5000" sort of query.
Commiserations about the Volvo!
BJ
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- Lemon Half
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Re: New car?
You'd get something like a Mondeo estate at least 5 years newer for the same money. Not glamorous but plenty space and easy parts and service.
Scott.
Scott.
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: New car?
I want an estate, as it’s practical and as well as e.g. cart a load of rubbish to the tip (managed an old tumble dryer and freezer in the Volvo), you can shove a pram and a “big boned” dog in the back with room to spare. It also has a handy inbuilt cargo net to discourage said dog from jumping over onto the back seats (less faff than a dog guard). Can’t do that with my other halfs Ford Kuga, which just about fits the pram in the back. It doesn’t have to be a Volvo, but it’s the only car I’ve had that genuinely has pushed all the right buttons for me. The only other estate I’ve had is a Ford Focus estate and it was OK but didn’t enamour itself to me.
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Re: New car?
JessUK98 wrote:Can’t do that with my other halfs Ford Kuga, which just about fits the pram in the back. It doesn’t have to be a Volvo, but it’s the only car I’ve had that genuinely has pushed all the right buttons for me. The only other estate I’ve had is a Ford Focus estate and it was OK but didn’t enamour itself to me.
Focus estate would definitely have been too small for you, although it's a joy to drive. Mondeo estate has the same suspension, I believe. But the most capacious car in its class, AFAIK, is the Mazda 6 estate. Might be worth a look?
BJ
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Re: New car?
JessUK98 wrote:I want an estate, as it’s practical and as well as e.g. cart a load of rubbish to the tip (managed an old tumble dryer and freezer in the Volvo), you can shove a pram and a “big boned” dog in the back with room to spare. It also has a handy inbuilt cargo net to discourage said dog from jumping over onto the back seats (less faff than a dog guard). Can’t do that with my other halfs Ford Kuga, which just about fits the pram in the back. It doesn’t have to be a Volvo, but it’s the only car I’ve had that genuinely has pushed all the right buttons for me. The only other estate I’ve had is a Ford Focus estate and it was OK but didn’t enamour itself to me.
We had a V70 for a couple of years, and found it the least spacious and most impractical and expensively unreliable (more problems in 2 years and 18000 miles than the Toyota had in 10 years and 100k) large estate we'd ever had. It was a 54 plate but all the safety features and intrusions meant the storage bins were quite small. Ours had the built in dog guard thing and it was a real pain as it meant the flat load area was an inch or so less than a sheet of plasterboard. A bargain at under £6k for an 8 year old car, the first owner had lost £8 a day in depreciation!
Alternatives of the same size are plentiful and I've had a few for a day or so as pool/hire cars for work...
Mondeo - supposed to be a good drive and just felt better than anything else similar on the motorway. Hold their price well.
Mazda 6 - similar to the Mondeo but rattly and just felt plasticky.
Skoda Superb - not tried one but pretty big.
Honda Accord - beware some models have large wheelarch intrusions and the silly sloping rear door.
Toyota Avensis, not quite as big as some of the others, and hard to come by.
Passat - apparently OK but not as big as some, and personally I'd avoid the electronic handbrake versions.
Vauxhall Insignia - a bit uncommon, large, and apparently very underrated as a used runabout.
Hyundai i40 - apparently very capable and cheap to run
Citroen C5 - comfy old barge that would waft along forever and was the biggest of the lot. Reputedly not as relialbe as some of the others but I know several people run them and they are cheap to mend, and if I was after a £1500 runabout this would be the one I'd look for.
BMW 5 series - premium large car, very comfy, and a nice place to sit waiting for recovery when the I-drive fails.
Audi A6, Merc E-class, again a nicer place to sit whilst carrying slightly less than the alternatives.
With the Audi or BMW I'd avoid anything with "M-sport" or "S-line" on it, as this means at got bigger wheels, lower profile tyres, and stiffer suspension, which translates in the used market to "dreadful ride but looks cool".
Paul
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Re: New car?
JessUK98 wrote:I want an estate, as it’s practical and as well as e.g. cart a load of rubbish to the tip (managed an old tumble dryer and freezer in the Volvo), you can shove a pram and a “big boned” dog in the back with room to spare. It also has a handy inbuilt cargo net to discourage said dog from jumping over onto the back seats (less faff than a dog guard). Can’t do that with my other halfs Ford Kuga, which just about fits the pram in the back. It doesn’t have to be a Volvo, but it’s the only car I’ve had that genuinely has pushed all the right buttons for me. The only other estate I’ve had is a Ford Focus estate and it was OK but didn’t enamour itself to me.
Neighbour got the FWD V70 and hated it compared to his older 960 model.
Turning circle poor for one but more servicing costs than his old one.
When my 760 Volvo needed work, I found a P reg 965 (the last of the original shape RWD) with around 110,000 on the clock for less than £2000.
This was in 2008 and, so far, nothing major has been needed.
I have seen some lower-mileage 960/965s on Ebay for £1500.
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: New car?
DrFfybes wrote:
Mondeo - supposed to be a good drive and just felt better than anything else similar on the motorway. Hold their price well.
Mazda 6 - similar to the Mondeo but rattly and just felt plasticky.
Paul
<whispers>
Is the same car ....
</whisper>
Mazda 6 is a Ford Mondeo wearing a Kimono
Jaguar X Type is a Ford Mondeo wearing a chesterfield sofa
Fiat 500 is a Ford Ka wearing an Italian dress (as is the Fiat Panda and the Lancia Pissalong, sorry, Ypsilon)
The motor industry has many similar examples of cross-manufacturer platform sharing, or of nicking ideas wholesale (BMW X5 is a Range Rover L322, which in itself contained the electronic guts of a beemer E39 5 series on the earlier versions, for example).
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Re: New car?
MonsterMork wrote:DrFfybes wrote:
Mondeo - supposed to be a good drive and just felt better than anything else similar on the motorway. Hold their price well.
Mazda 6 - similar to the Mondeo but rattly and just felt plasticky.
Paul
<whispers>
Is the same car ....
</whisper>
Mazda 6 is a Ford Mondeo wearing a Kimono
Jaguar X Type is a Ford Mondeo wearing a chesterfield sofa
Fiat 500 is a Ford Ka wearing an Italian dress (as is the Fiat Panda and the Lancia Pissalong, sorry, Ypsilon)
The motor industry has many similar examples of cross-manufacturer platform sharing, or of nicking ideas wholesale (BMW X5 is a Range Rover L322, which in itself contained the electronic guts of a beemer E39 5 series on the earlier versions, for example).
The same car underneath, but as you say, dressed differently. This makes a big difference to how a car feels to sit in. Bentleys are built on the same platform as an A8 or Phaeton but not the same car, in rather the same way a Golf has better interior than its Seat cousin.
Like Bentley and Audi, the Mazda 6 and Mondeo use different engines, different gearing, different suspension and different interiors.Ford sold a lot of their Mazda shares a decade ago, and diverged after that. Even looking at 2008 onwards models, Mazda came with a choice of 1.8, 2.0, and 2.2L engines whereas the Mondeo had a 1.6L though to 3.0L. Mazdas own 2.2D put out 163 BHP, compared to a choice of 155 or 200 from the Ford PSA units.
Kylie Minogue was built on the same platform as Ann Widdecombe, but would fare very differently on "Strictly"
Paul
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Re: New car?
bungeejumper wrote:JessUK98 wrote:Can’t do that with my other halfs Ford Kuga, which just about fits the pram in the back. It doesn’t have to be a Volvo, but it’s the only car I’ve had that genuinely has pushed all the right buttons for me. The only other estate I’ve had is a Ford Focus estate and it was OK but didn’t enamour itself to me.
Focus estate would definitely have been too small for you, although it's a joy to drive. Mondeo estate has the same suspension, I believe. But the most capacious car in its class, AFAIK, is the Mazda 6 estate. Might be worth a look?
BJ
I have a Mondeo Estate 14 plate (or at least I had - today it passed its two week anniversary in the fixers and they still don't know what is wrong with it). I like it a lot but it is mahoosive in car parks.
DM
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Re: New car?
dionaeamuscipula wrote:I have a Mondeo Estate 14 plate (or at least I had - today it passed its two week anniversary in the fixers and they still don't know what is wrong with it). I like it a lot but it is mahoosive in car parks.
Reversing sensors. When I got my Passat estate (another sixteen footer), my fitted Dolphins were the best £130 I ever spent. I have a camera on my current Toyota, but it isn't quite so reassuring somehow.
BJ
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Re: New car?
bungeejumper wrote:dionaeamuscipula wrote:I have a Mondeo Estate 14 plate (or at least I had - today it passed its two week anniversary in the fixers and they still don't know what is wrong with it). I like it a lot but it is mahoosive in car parks.
Reversing sensors. When I got my Passat estate (another sixteen footer), my fitted Dolphins were the best £130 I ever spent. I have a camera on my current Toyota, but it isn't quite so reassuring somehow.
BJ
Indeed - this is why I have the 14 model on which sensors were standard, rather than the 2016 (?) update on which they are not (on the titanium model I have).
DM
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Re: New car?
DrFfybes wrote:
Kylie Minogue was built on the same platform as Ann Widdecombe, but would fare very differently on "Strictly"
Paul
<LoOTP mode>
How very dare you compare that brazen hussy with the sainted Widdy!!!
</LoOTP>
Anyhow, back to the plot
Toyota Avensis - not as hard to find the estate version as might be thought. Good car, and as mentioned not quite as large as most of the others mentioned, so easier to park. Reliable, reasonably fuel efficient, well equipped on the mid to upper trim levels. My own car is a 2003 Avensis, only let me down once - broke a drive shaft when I got a torque kick-back driving on ice, so hardly the car's fault! Failed starter motor doesn't count, as that happened in the car park at the garage where I work
Vauxhall Insomnia, sorry, Insignia - unwieldy when parking, or driving in general for that matter, feels like you are plotting a course for a thames barge. Reliable enough though.
Skoda seems to be easier to park that the veedub Psst it is based on. Strangely, the last Psst I sat in seemded to be Tardis in reverse - bigger outside than inside
Beemer - avoid. Indicator fluid is so eye-wateringly expensive that most owners never top it up once it runs out
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: New car?
So I am now in possession of another V70. This one doesn't have heated seats. I don't know why this bothers me though as I never really used the heated seats in my last one. It wasn't even anything I was looking for in particular.
It also doesn't have tinted rear windows. Other than those tiny things, I'm really happy. Newer, less milage, has a built in sat nav (I expect needs updating and I'll never use it), aux port and runs very nicely. It's going to take a while to get used to 6 gears though. I keep forgetting
I was toying with the idea of getting the rear windows tinted as it was handy with the baby in the last one as I didn't need one of those sunshade things. It's winter now though so probably no point, and it's probably something that you'd have to declare as a modification on your insurance.I doubt anyone will look in the back and think "Ooooo, National Trust picnic blanket, I'm having that". I'll just have to remember that I have a load cover I can use.
It also doesn't have tinted rear windows. Other than those tiny things, I'm really happy. Newer, less milage, has a built in sat nav (I expect needs updating and I'll never use it), aux port and runs very nicely. It's going to take a while to get used to 6 gears though. I keep forgetting
I was toying with the idea of getting the rear windows tinted as it was handy with the baby in the last one as I didn't need one of those sunshade things. It's winter now though so probably no point, and it's probably something that you'd have to declare as a modification on your insurance.I doubt anyone will look in the back and think "Ooooo, National Trust picnic blanket, I'm having that". I'll just have to remember that I have a load cover I can use.
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Re: New car?
JessUK98 wrote:So I am now in possession of another V70. This one doesn't have heated seats. I don't know why this bothers me though as I never really used the heated seats in my last one. It wasn't even anything I was looking for in particular.
It also doesn't have tinted rear windows. Other than those tiny things, I'm really happy. Newer, less milage, has a built in sat nav (I expect needs updating and I'll never use it), aux port and runs very nicely. It's going to take a while to get used to 6 gears though. I keep forgetting
I was toying with the idea of getting the rear windows tinted as it was handy with the baby in the last one as I didn't need one of those sunshade things. It's winter now though so probably no point, and it's probably something that you'd have to declare as a modification on your insurance.I doubt anyone will look in the back and think "Ooooo, National Trust picnic blanket, I'm having that". I'll just have to remember that I have a load cover I can use.
Oooh, someone's spent money. The NT picnic blanket was an optional extra on the V70 and only standard on the XC models.
Paul
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Re: New car?
monabri wrote:If you know the registration, have a shufty at its mot history
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history?_g ... 1565205381
Thanks monabri I didn't know you could do this so I looked at my own car for fun.
Just as well I did there showing that my car has done 582,768 miles instead of 52,768.
I think a phone call to them is in order.
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Re: New car?
maximan wrote:monabri wrote:If you know the registration, have a shufty at its mot history
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history?_g ... 1565205381
Thanks monabri I didn't know you could do this so I looked at my own car for fun.
Just as well I did there showing that my car has done 582,768 miles instead of 52,768.
I think a phone call to them is in order.
Worth a try, but you might have to get your MOT tester to correct it (they presumably entered the wrong mileage at test time).
Scott.
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Re: New car?
Once the mileage is locked in during the mot , then I'm not sure it can be changed. Clearly you've not done 500k miles on a year and its finger trouble on behalf of the tester. I had a similar problem when the tester transposed 2 numbers and added several thousand miles onto the clock..I mentioned it to the mot test centre and they said they couldn't correct it ( or maybe they couldn't be bothered, maybe too much hassle for them?).
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Re: New car?
JessUK98 wrote:So I am now in possession of another V70.
It might be worth trying to find out when it's timing belt was changed and how frequently they should be changed.
If you can't find out how long this belt has been running, then personally I would look to have the belt changed next summer as a precuation.
As you have found out, it's not worth waiting until it has worn out.
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Re: New car?
I had the wrong mileage entered at an MOT, and the testing station later corrected it. It was within 2 or 3 weeks of the test though.
I asked about it here viewtopic.php?f=58&t=12408
Scott.
I asked about it here viewtopic.php?f=58&t=12408
Scott.
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Re: New car?
Thanks swill453 and monabri for the replies.
After thinking about it I also thought it must be the testers fault.
I rang my garage and they are not sure what to do but will look into it.
They did mention in passing it may have to wait until the next MOT.
After thinking about it I also thought it must be the testers fault.
I rang my garage and they are not sure what to do but will look into it.
They did mention in passing it may have to wait until the next MOT.
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