What do you drive?

[KenjiOgiwara]

I'm too cheap to buy cars. Prefer to have my money where they don't depreciate. BUT I really fancy buying a Jeep Wrangler and an Audi RS E-tron GT. I keep having new car infatuations every month to be fair haha.

Need more money tbh.

[villa4europe]

I'm the same with infatuations, been lucky enough to buy 2 of them too, abarth 695 and a 4 series BMW, proper "shut up salesman, this is what I want" moments for both (audi I listened a bit more and knocked some money off and 2 months off the delivery time due to black brake calipers rather than red) 

More current one is a cupra formentor which I don't think is beyond the realms of possibility but with it being I new I doubt the Apr makes the monthly payments viable on a lease option, also think the bronze alloys and the matte navy blue paint job which looks awesome with add around £5k to the price which I can't justify 

[Big Salad]

Just counting down the days till the '21 Ford Bronco is released.Getting one in the color seen below

 

[chrisp65]

2 hours ago, av1 said:

I've been working with a lad today that has talked about absolutely nothing but cars. I think I now know the BHP of ever variant of every engine on the road. 

I'm not a petrol head myself so found most it very boring but as he seemed keen on the subject I told him that I was looking for a new car and asked his thoughts on my 2 car shortlist, the Skoda Octavia saloon and the Seat Leon estate. The very first thing he said was avoid a automatic gearbox because both use a DSG gearbox and they are rubbish. 

I was actually considering an auto, so I was wondering if he was talking rubbish or if these things have a bad reputation? 

I’ve currently got a car with a VAG DSG.

As it happens, I looked up car reviews on YouTube and a couple of them mentioned that not all VAG DSG boxes are as great as they could be and that the one in the car I was looking at had a weird delay between pushing the accelerator and anything much actually happening.

I bought the car anyway, and it’s fine. I think sometimes, car reviewers have to find some tiny thing to talk about, and they also want to measure every car against their favourite sports car. My car is a mid sized Skoda, the Car Wow reviewer who’s normally fairly decent, gave it a 0-60 acceleration test and said it was ‘meh’. But who would buy a mid sized Skoda automatic because they want blistering acceleration?

The problem for Top Gear, and Car Wow, and What Car, is that they can’t say ‘perfectly adequate for the average commute’ against 90% of the cars they review.

Anyway, yes, I’m 9 months in to owning a Skoda with a DSG and right now I’m considering phoning them up and asking if I can extend the lease.

Oh, hang on: negative part of my review:

Mine is top of the range (if you can imagine such a thing in a mid table Skoda), it’s got a giant touch screen with hand gesture control, so you don’t actually have to touch it, just waft some tai chi moves in front of it, which is almost always brilliant. Except for when I want to indicate right. The hand motion in front of the screen for flicking the indicator stalk to turn right, is the exact same gesture to turn on the radio and select BBC Radio 5.  That’s a genuine criticism, it **** drives me insane.

Could that be why nobody with an Audi ever bothers to indicate?

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by chrisp65

[Guest av1]

17 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I’ve currently got a car with a VAG DSG.

As it happens, I looked up car reviews on YouTube and a couple of them mentioned that not all VAG DSG boxes are as great as they could be and that the one in the car I was looking at had a weird delay between pushing the accelerator and anything much actually happening.

I bought the car anyway, and it’s fine. I think sometimes, car reviewers have to find some tiny thing to talk about, and they also want to measure every car against their favourite sports car. My car is a mid sized Skoda, the Car Wow reviewer who’s normally fairly decent, gave it a 0-60 acceleration test and said it was ‘meh’. But who would buy a mid sized Skoda automatic because they want blistering acceleration?

The problem for Top Gear, and Car Wow, and What Car, is that they can’t say ‘perfectly adequate for the average commute’ against 90% of the cars they review.

Anyway, yes, I’m 9 months in to owning a Skoda with a DSG and right now I’m considering phoning them up and asking if I can extend the lease.

Oh, hang on: negative part of my review:

Mine is top of the range (if you can imagine such a thing in a mid table Skoda), it’s got a giant touch screen with hand gesture control, so you don’t actually have to touch it, just waft some tai chi moves in front of it, which is almost always brilliant. Except for when I want to indicate right. The hand motion in front of the screen for flicking the indicator stalk to turn right, is the exact same gesture to turn on the radio and select BBC Radio 5.  That’s a genuine criticism, it **** drives me insane.

Could that be why nobody with an Audi ever bothers to indicate?

 

Thanks mate. 

If I could ask another question, just regarding the lease. I've always had relatively cheap cars so I've always just bought them so know nothing about leasing, PCP etc. My next purchase is going to be a new or nearly car so it's something I'm considering. 

Buying or leasing in some form seems like a debate most my friends have really strong opinions on in each camp. Is it something you'd recommend? 

[chrisp65]

1 minute ago, av1 said:

Thanks mate. 

If I could ask another question, just regarding the lease. I've always had relatively cheap cars so I've always just bought them so know nothing about leasing, PCP etc. My next purchase is going to be a new or nearly car so it's something I'm considering. 

Buying or leasing in some form seems like a debate most my friends have really strong opinions on in each camp. Is it something you'd recommend? 

My missus has a Toyota on a PCP, that works for her, she does low mileage and wants a specific car and knows she’ll want a new one in 3 years time. So she’s happy to be on the PCP treadmill using the equity in the current one, to reduce the deposit on the next one, to have a shiny new car again in 3 years time. She’s also weirdly good at driving a good deal and convincing the dealership she might buy from Nissan further along the road. 

She has the option, sometime in the future, of paying the remainder and keeping a three year old car that she knows and likes. I see that as the main advantage of the PCP, the option to keep a known and serviced 3 year old car, or trade it in, or walk away.

I’m not massively bothered by cars, I need something that can get me to Lincoln without too much fuss and not using up too much fuel getting there. I also had next to nothing I could use as a deposit a few years ago so I had a go at leasing. It works for me, there’s not much room to haggle, but I can compare all the companies prices from my ipad. 

The car I’ve got now is a lease, only needed a deposit of less than £700 and they delivered it to my door. I’ve never been anywhere near the dealership, I think it was somewhere up around Wigan. With a lease though, you do need to keep that car in decent condition. On the day you hand it back, they send out a forensics team to look for dings and scratches. if you haven’t kept on top of it, they can sting you with a crazy bill. With a PCP car, any dings just mean its worth slightly less when you come to trade it in for the next one. At the end of the lease, no matter how much you might like that car, its going, you have no equity and you have to find another deposit and start afresh. But it means I’ve had the randomness of driving a Mercedes Estate, a Hyundai Hybrid and bright metallic green Skoda over the last couple of years. Just whatever happened to be the best deal available on that week in the summer, once every couple of years.

Worth keeping an eye on mileage as well. I had a lease Merc that wanted 15p for every mile I did over the agreed mileage and I went over by 20,000 miles!. The Hyundai wanted 14p for every mile I went over. This Skoda, is 3p for every mile over. So basically, they’ll charge me £30 for every extra 1,000 miles I go over the agreed number. Which is a small enough fine to be aware of, but not worry about. 

What Car Leasing is a good site for looking at what lots of different cars would cost you as a lease without actually having to talk to any sales people. Once you know the lease cost, you can then find out if the PCP cost is better or worse for you.   

 

 

[AlwaysAVFC]

15 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

She has the option, sometime in the future, of paying the remainder and keeping a three year old car that she knows and likes. I see that as the main advantage of the PCP, the option to keep a known and serviced 3 year old car, or trade it in, or walk away.

I’m coming to the end of my PCP, I was always with the intention of trading in but it’s come at the time of having just moved into a new house. So have been a bit wary of trying to take out new finance having just got a mortgage and a couple of other hard searches on my credit report, plus working out how much we have to spend on a new car once our bills settle down. So have managed to get a 0% on purchase deal on my current credit card, so will make the final payment on that. That will give us a bit of time for things to settle down and can decide whether to then trade it in for something else. 
Anyway, my point being that the flexibility of PCP has worked really well for us, allowing us to change our plans. So may well do the same again. It will probably depend whether the Mrs is going to continue working from home, which looks quite likely at the moment, as that will affect mileage massively.

[Guest av1]

34 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

My missus has a Toyota on a PCP, that works for her, she does low mileage and wants a specific car and knows she’ll want a new one in 3 years time. So she’s happy to be on the PCP treadmill using the equity in the current one, to reduce the deposit on the next one, to have a shiny new car again in 3 years time. She’s also weirdly good at driving a good deal and convincing the dealership she might buy from Nissan further along the road. 

She has the option, sometime in the future, of paying the remainder and keeping a three year old car that she knows and likes. I see that as the main advantage of the PCP, the option to keep a known and serviced 3 year old car, or trade it in, or walk away.

I’m not massively bothered by cars, I need something that can get me to Lincoln without too much fuss and not using up too much fuel getting there. I also had next to nothing I could use as a deposit a few years ago so I had a go at leasing. It works for me, there’s not much room to haggle, but I can compare all the companies prices from my ipad. 

The car I’ve got now is a lease, only needed a deposit of less than £700 and they delivered it to my door. I’ve never been anywhere near the dealership, I think it was somewhere up around Wigan. With a lease though, you do need to keep that car in decent condition. On the day you hand it back, they send out a forensics team to look for dings and scratches. if you haven’t kept on top of it, they can sting you with a crazy bill. With a PCP car, any dings just mean its worth slightly less when you come to trade it in for the next one. At the end of the lease, no matter how much you might like that car, its going, you have no equity and you have to find another deposit and start afresh. But it means I’ve had the randomness of driving a Mercedes Estate, a Hyundai Hybrid and bright metallic green Skoda over the last couple of years. Just whatever happened to be the best deal available on that week in the summer, once every couple of years.

Worth keeping an eye on mileage as well. I had a lease Merc that wanted 15p for every mile I did over the agreed mileage and I went over by 20,000 miles!. The Hyundai wanted 14p for every mile I went over. This Skoda, is 3p for every mile over. So basically, they’ll charge me £30 for every extra 1,000 miles I go over the agreed number. Which is a small enough fine to be aware of, but not worry about. 

What Car Leasing is a good site for looking at what lots of different cars would cost you as a lease without actually having to talk to any sales people. Once you know the lease cost, you can then find out if the PCP cost is better or worse for you.   

 

 

Thanks again, lots of food for thought. Seems like there is no blanket "better way of doing it" it rather depends on each individual's circumstances and deals available at the time of shopping. 

[villakram]

5 hours ago, Genie said:

I’d only heard good things about DSG gearboxes personally.

No idea what specifically DSG gearboxes are, but autos are >95% of the market over here and are generally bulletproof to >150k miles these days, modulo early life cycle issues like Ford had with their latest (18/19) Focus models. It helps if they have a manual select mode, to scratch that itch or if you ever need to act all manual.

[Xela]

8 hours ago, BOF said:

Those last 2 posts. Ah the British car industry Thank McGrath for oddballs like TVR, Lotus and Caterham.

It was a right of passage for us brummies to have a BL car!

My first car was a Metro. 1.3. Blue with 4 different styles of hubcaps. Tweed style interior. 

It met its match in a collision with a fellow BL motor - a Montego Countryman estate driven by an old Welsh fella called Ifor (funny how you remember these things). He didn't stop at a give way sign, he stopped when he imbedded his car into mine. RIP brave Metro. 

[Xela]

5 hours ago, av1 said:

I've been working with a lad today that has talked about absolutely nothing but cars. I think I now know the BHP of ever variant of every engine on the road. 

I'm not a petrol head myself so found most it very boring but as he seemed keen on the subject I told him that I was looking for a new car and asked his thoughts on my 2 car shortlist, the Skoda Octavia saloon and the Seat Leon estate. The very first thing he said was avoid a automatic gearbox because both use a DSG gearbox and they are rubbish. 

I was actually considering an auto, so I was wondering if he was talking rubbish or if these things have a bad reputation? 

No issue with the DSG on my Audi 3.2. Its a 6 speed so may have been superceded by later versions but its smooth as silk. In 'normal' mode it can be in 6th at 30mph and really low revs but stick it in 'sport' and it'll go like a scolded cat. 

I much prefer it to the previous older VAG auto boxes, which were the Tiptronics. As for CVTs, not a fan, but they will become more common in Hybrid/EV cars. Honda seem to be using them a lot now in petrol cars, yet still offer DCT (generic name for DSG) in other markets. 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

4 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Lovely looking car

Agreed,  proper looker of a car.

[Genie]

The Renault 5 EV prototype looks a little bit awesome 

 

[Xela]

It does look nice. I also like the look of the Ioniq 5 form Hyundai

[Genie]

I’m really surprised legislationhas not been updated yet to get rid of wing mirrors. They create a huge amount of drag which of course reduces range (or burns fuel).

With camera systems now I’m surprised they are still being used.

[omariqy]

On 04/11/2020 at 13:57, omariqy said:

It's that time again. I am 3 years into a 4 year PCP deal for my BMW X1. I now need a bigger car - one with 7 seats!

Probably the worst time to look for a new car and sell a car. Prices have gone down massively just in the last week. My options are:

1. Get to the 50% mark and give the car back

2. Part ex

3. See if the lender will let me sell it privately

For the next car I've looked at the following:

1. Buy a Skoda Kodiaq (New) on PCP

2. Buy a used Audi Q7 or Volvo XC90 with a mixture of cash and a bank loan

I am thinking in this current environment it might be better to have a car that I can sell rather than be stuck in a finance deal. Am I missing something? Anyone been in the same position?

Plumped for a used Audi Q7. Arriving from Scotland in a couple of weeks!

[Ingram85]

On 08/03/2021 at 07:01, Genie said:

I’m really surprised legislationhas not been updated yet to get rid of wing mirrors. They create a huge amount of drag which of course reduces range (or burns fuel).

With camera systems now I’m surprised they are still being used.

But with a wing mirror it’s a glance with the eyes. If it’s a display in the center console it’s two large head movements. More time, less safe. 
 

Edit: D’oh, just acted this out on the bog. It’s the same lol. Yeah get rid of the mirrors.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Ingram85

[BOF]

1 minute ago, Ingram85 said:

But with a wing mirror it’s a glance with the eyes. If it’s a display in the center console it’s two large head movements. More time, less safe. 

And less accurate. There is a delay; however small; between what's happening outside your car and it being presented on a display. If you're going at a decent speed that delay would be very significant.

[Genie]

1 hour ago, BOF said:

And less accurate. There is a delay; however small; between what's happening outside your car and it being presented on a display. If you're going at a decent speed that delay would be very significant.

Delay would be thousandths of a second, insignificant. Screens could be placed inside of the current wing mirror locations.

I suspect the answer to my own question is safety. There’s no redundancy if the camera failed / power went off. 

[BOF]

16 minutes ago, Genie said:

Delay would be thousandths of a second, insignificant. Screens could be placed inside of the current wing mirror locations.

I suspect the answer to my own question is safety. There’s no redundancy if the camera failed / power went off. 

The actual figure would be interesting, but yes redundancy would be a tricky one. With the time delay, the redundancy and the reduced image quality compared to real world, It's an example of technology making things worse.