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Advice on what new car to buy.

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Joe Paxton

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But you could swap a £60k+ Jag for 3 or 4 brand new Dacia (or even 5 if prepared to have the poverty spec version)

A interesting thought, if you had 4 grown up children all still at home, would you you prefer them all to borrow your jag all the time, or each have a basic Dacia.

If I had 4 grown up children all still at home, I think I'd be pushing for the older ones to get a move on!
 
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richw

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But you could swap a £60k+ Jag for 3 or 4 brand new Dacia (or even 5 if prepared to have the poverty spec version)

A interesting thought, if you had 4 grown up children all still at home, would you you prefer them all to borrow your jag all the time, or each have a basic Dacia.
I wouldn’t have a Jag or Dacia. Two opposite end of the scale. I like something in the middle. Personally if spending £60k I’d have a £15-20k nearly new comfortable estate for myself, Focus sized (I’ve got a 5 year old Seat Leon SportTourer at the moment which is perfect for my needs) I’d then get the kids a nearly new Hyundai i10 or Kia picanto each, they are all similar money but better quality than the Dacia option
 

HOOVER29

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Anything basic should not have a touchscreen, KIA/Hyundai seem to be the best of the bunch at the moment (plus have the best warranties), My step-mum has had both a Mk.1 facelift Kia 'Ceed and recently a 2018 Hyundai Ioniq and they were exceolent vehicles.
Peronally, even though I am not a driver, I prefer touchscreens for sat nav duty as it's much quicker to type things in though I like proper controls for everything else.
I believe most new cars will come with some sort of autonomous tech as it's becoming the law to have certain things fitted.

Also I understand you should avoid Ford Ecoboost engines like the plague as they are beset with reliability problems that cause expensive repair bills, plus I am not a fan of anything French, their electrics are still iffy and it shows in how the reliability of Nissans has gone down with supposedly lots of electrical issues on the new Qashqai now they use a lot of French electronics.
I know of some garages that won’t touch the Ford Ecoboost engines.
Don’t by a new or newish small vw as build quality has gone out the window.

If you’re after a small car buy a 4 or 5 yr old fiesta with low miles
A car supermarket will be best as you can look over everything
 

DustyBin

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I know of some garages that won’t touch the Ford Ecoboost engines.

Won’t touch or won’t change the timing belts? If it’s the former, that’s an awful lot of custom to turn away!

Don’t by a new or newish small vw as build quality has gone out the window.

So I’ve heard (I’ve not driven or been in a newish Polo or Golf though).

If you’re after a small car buy a 4 or 5 yr old fiesta with low miles
A car supermarket will be best as you can look over everything

Any dealership will let you look over their cars. Personally I’d go to a main dealer if buying a newish car.
 

E27007

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Won’t touch or won’t change the timing belts? If it’s the former, that’s an awful lot of custom to turn away!



So I’ve heard (I’ve not driven or been in a newish Polo or Golf though).



Any dealership will let you look over their cars. Personally I’d go to a main dealer if buying a newish car.
There is a hierarchy in used car sales. The best cars are in the franchised dealerships, those dealerships retain the best they don't want the risk, , less desirable / hard to sell cars are sent away to auction / disposed of to the trade. the further away from the dealer you go, , the greater your risk.
Those car supermarkets are commission sales, they do not own the car, the cars you see there could be owned by a private individual with a side hustle in S/H cars
 

A0wen

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There is a hierarchy in used car sales. The best cars are in the franchised dealerships, those dealerships retain the best they don't want the risk, , less desirable / hard to sell cars are sent away to auction / disposed of to the trade. the further away from the dealer you go, , the greater your risk.
Those car supermarkets are commission sales, they do not own the car, the cars you see there could be owned by a private individual with a side hustle in S/H cars

Bit in bold - that's utter balderdash.

One of the biggest car supermarket chains 'Car Shop' is owned by Sytner Group who run 140 dealerships (mainly premium brands such as Audi, Jaguar and BMW).

Motorpoint are privately owned but their stock tends to be ex-fleet e.g. from the car hire companies etc or ex-lease. One of my former company cars (which was a lease vehicle) turned up in one of the supermarkets after I'd returned it.
 

InkyScrolls

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Thank you for your replies so far. That is very helpful. I shall have a look at the cars that were mentioned.

My current car is a Skoda Estelle.

I didn't realise just how old my car was! It shows how bad my memory is! I have just now gone through my paperwork and realised that i bought it in January 1978 which means it is now just over 44 years old. I meant to buy a new car years ago but i just keep putting it off. My car is in such bad shape now after almost daily use for 44 years and has extremely high mileage so i have told myself i need to 100% get it done and buy a new car by the end of this year.

I use my car every day to get to and from work. I work in a very rural location and finish late at night so a car has always been essential to get to and from work. But when i go any further i use the train to get anywhere else in the UK. So it is mainly just for work. However i also used it every year (at least before the corona virus started) to go on holiday to other countries at least once a year. I have driven it to all different places in Europe and even parts of Asia and Africa so it has very high mileage. But for the most part i just need a car for shorter journeys to and from work every day

Preferably i am looking for a 4 door average size car. I definitely do not want a very large car or SUV or any of these ridiculous monsters that drive around on the roads these days.

The reason i do not want an automatic transmission is because i have never driven one before. I have always driven a manual transmission so that is what i am most familiar with. But i suppose i could give it a go and take a test drive and see what i think of one. The same goes for why i do not want an electric car. I would just prefer something more familiar to me.

I think the main problem for me is that cars these days are just so different to how cars were built over fourty years ago so it is such a big change to adjust to. So that is why i am looking for a very simple basic car with a basic standard dashboard without any of these new added features.
If I were you I would sell your car as a drivable classic - don't scrap it! There'll be someone out there who'll pay good money for it.
 

dgl

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I but HubNut would like an Estelle, though I think he has enough cars to keep going as it is!

As for reliability Suzuki have just come first in a what car? survey, doesn't surprise me one bit.
 

Jamesrob637

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Why doesn't the OP look for a Škoda Favorit or Felicia? Basically a modern Estelle yet still relatively simple.
 

A0wen

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Why doesn't the OP look for a Škoda Favorit or Felicia? Basically a modern Estelle yet still relatively simple.

Perhaps because even the *youngest* of those is now over 20 years old, so good luck finding one in good condition.

According to 'How Many Left' - the website which can tell you how many of a car model is still registered and roadworthy, the Favorit has fewer than 100 left and the Felicia fewer than 1000.

Much easier and better to buy a newer, basic car - there are no shortage of sensible options depending on the OP's budget.
 

Bletchleyite

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Perhaps because even the *youngest* of those is now over 20 years old, so good luck finding one in good condition.

According to 'How Many Left' - the website which can tell you how many of a car model is still registered and roadworthy, the Favorit has fewer than 100 left and the Felicia fewer than 1000.

Much easier and better to buy a newer, basic car - there are no shortage of sensible options depending on the OP's budget.

I wonder does the OP mean a Superb, Octavia or Fabia? All those three are still available as traditional estates (though the latter is now little more than a slightly bigger hatchback). The Octavia seems to be particularly well-regarded as a good all-round family estate car (in the same market as the Focus and Astra estates).
 

DustyBin

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I wonder does the OP mean a Superb, Octavia or Fabia? All those three are still available as traditional estates (though the latter is now little more than a slightly bigger hatchback). The Octavia seems to be particularly well-regarded as a good all-round family estate car (in the same market as the Focus and Astra estates).

Possibly, but that doesn’t fit with the description of “relatively simple” as they’re no more simple than the other cars that share the same VW platform.
 

Bletchleyite

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Possibly, but that doesn’t fit with the description of “relatively simple” as they’re no more simple than any other car that shares the same VW platform.

Depends how old you go. Anything in the last 5 or so years has modern features like touchscreens, but go 5-10 years old and they won't. The OP didn't seem to be talking about wanting it to be tinkerable, just for the user interface to be traditional. My 2018 Ford Kuga has traditional physical controls, not a touchscreen, indeed not wanting a touchscreen or leather (I hate leather seats, sticky and sweaty) was why I bought the base model.
 

DustyBin

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Depends how old you go. Anything in the last 5 or so years has modern features like touchscreens, but go 5-10 years old and they won't. The OP didn't seem to be talking about wanting it to be tinkerable, just for the user interface to be traditional. My 2018 Ford Kuga has traditional physical controls, not a touchscreen, indeed not wanting a touchscreen or leather (I hate leather seats, sticky and sweaty) was why I bought the base model.

But that can apply to any car, as you say.

To me, “relatively simple” and “modern Estelle” suggests something out of the ordinary in terms of unsophisticatedness, as opposed to a 5 year old Octavia, Focus, 1 Series etc.

Anyway, we can only speculate as to what @Jamesrob637 actually meant, so it’s a pointless debate really!
 

birchesgreen

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My Sandero has a touch screen but physical controls and to be honest i never use the touch screen, i think the only real thing to control using it is the radio, i prefer to drive with just the sound of the road and my own demons.

Its sad so few Favorits are left, i only had my old one scrapped last year - after it spent 9 years slowly decomposing on my mum's driveway.
 

DustyBin

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My Sandero has a touch screen but physical controls and to be honest i never use the touch screen, i think the only real thing to control using it is the radio, i prefer to drive with just the sound of the road and my own demons.

Same here (although you can add the sound of the engine and exhaust in my case :D).

The B&O system in my new ST is actually quite good, I should really use it more. Most of the controls are touchscreen, but the radio (among other things) can be voice activated or controlled using buttons on the steering wheel.

Its sad so few Favorits are left, i only had my old one scrapped last year - after it spent 9 years slowly decomposing on my mum's driveway.

Do they have much of a following? It’s sometimes surprising what these things fetch on eBay. I know someone who had a fairly rotten but complete Nova on her driveway. She was actually willing to pay to get rid of it, but I persuaded her to stick it on eBay. Easiest (circa) £400 she’ll ever make!
 

birchesgreen

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Do they have much of a following? It’s sometimes surprising what these things fetch on eBay. I know someone who had a fairly rotten but complete Nova on her driveway. She was actually willing to pay to get rid of it, but I persuaded her to stick it on eBay. Easiest (circa) £400 she’ll ever make!
Very good car if you want a decent "old" one.

Favorits seemed very popular for a time and very reliable, which makes it a surprise that so few are left.
 

DustyBin

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Very good car if you want a decent "old" one.

Favorits seemed very popular for a time and very reliable, which makes it a surprise that so few are left.

In the absence of any serious reliability or corrosion issues, I suspect they simply became unpopular/undesirable to the point that the secondhand market collapsed.
 

MattRat

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Has OP looked at van cars, as in cars based on small vans? Those tend to be very basic as they are based on vans, and van drivers want basic.
 

A0wen

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Very good car if you want a decent "old" one.

Favorits seemed very popular for a time and very reliable, which makes it a surprise that so few are left.

In the absence of any serious reliability or corrosion issues, I suspect they simply became unpopular/undesirable to the point that the secondhand market collapsed.

Mechanically they were tough, but unrefined - the engine was Skoda's own design that had been used in their previous cars. Being of an older design they did need to be serviced regularly, more so than an equivalent age Ford or Vauxhall did for example.

Another thing which finished a number off was the fitment of a catalytic converter - a number of 'older' engine designs didn't work well with that. Lada had a similar problem because their cars were still carb fed and they had to fit a catalytic convertors to them and they destroyed their catalytic converters in 3 years, just in time for the first MOT which of course they failed on emissions. The problem was catalytic converters were and still are expensive, so a large bill often saw the car written off.

Lastly, trim wise they were still a bit 'old school' - the Felicia was better. But this did mean the Favorit landed in the banger market quite young, being cheap they tended not to get looked after and were only one large repair bill away from being scrapped.

Has OP looked at van cars, as in cars based on small vans? Those tend to be very basic as they are based on vans, and van drivers want basic.

TBH unless the OP needs the space - which given they've been running a Skoda Estelle suggests not - then most modern small cars would be both cheaper to buy and a better bet.

The 'van' cars such as the Citroen Berlingo, Fiat Doblo, Ford Tourneo are good if you're on a budget and need alot of space - but if you're just after a basic, smallish car then a new or nearly new small hatch is the better way to go.
 

MattRat

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TBH unless the OP needs the space - which given they've been running a Skoda Estelle suggests not - then most modern small cars would be both cheaper to buy and a better bet.

The 'van' cars such as the Citroen Berlingo, Fiat Doblo, Ford Tourneo are good if you're on a budget and need alot of space - but if you're just after a basic, smallish car then a new or nearly new small hatch is the better way to go.
OP wants a car that lacks technology. These cars offer that. They get a normal car, they'll have a lot of things they'll never use, but the difference between that and extra space is, it's more likely they'll use that space, than the tech.
 

A0wen

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OP wants a car that lacks technology. These cars offer that. They get a normal car, they'll have a lot of things they'll never use, but the difference between that and extra space is, it's more likely they'll use that space, than the tech.

If you think those vehicles are stripped out of technology, you are sadly ill informed. They have much of the same technology you'll find in their regular car counterparts - and they share the same engines and gearboxes.

You'll find air con, various safety systems, airbags, sat nav, bluetooth stereos, safety systems etc etc The cost savings on equivalent sized cars are achieved by using cheaper plastics, maybe a pladtic lined boot rather than carpeted, less sound deadening materials etc.
 

DustyBin

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Mechanically they were tough, but unrefined - the engine was Skoda's own design that had been used in their previous cars. Being of an older design they did need to be serviced regularly, more so than an equivalent age Ford or Vauxhall did for example.

Another thing which finished a number off was the fitment of a catalytic converter - a number of 'older' engine designs didn't work well with that. Lada had a similar problem because their cars were still carb fed and they had to fit a catalytic convertors to them and they destroyed their catalytic converters in 3 years, just in time for the first MOT which of course they failed on emissions. The problem was catalytic converters were and still are expensive, so a large bill often saw the car written off.

Lastly, trim wise they were still a bit 'old school' - the Felicia was better. But this did mean the Favorit landed in the banger market quite young, being cheap they tended not to get looked after and were only one large repair bill away from being scrapped.

They’re a car I know very little about so that’s interesting, thanks.

Catalytic converters on old cars are a laugh a minute (not) as you say. My Granada has (or rather had) four of the things. Fortunately the front two can be removed and it will still pass the emissions test, and the lambda sensors can be fitted to the replacement length of pipe so it runs well enough too (if anything better as the front cats were quite restrictive).
 

trebor79

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I will merely say, in favour of our company Tesla which I regularly drive, that it may have automatic this and that, but I never use them, I just drive it like a normal car. It's also very nice to drive.

It's greatest upside is that it has no fluids in it, which are between them the source of the majority of car technical failures. Being all-electric, there's no petrol, no lubricating oil, no radiator coolant, no transmission fluid, no brake fluid, which all just makes for great reliability. The one fluid in it is the windscreen wash!
Teslas certainly do have fluids. Brake fluid of course. And there's a lot of lubricating oil (in fact the motor is oil-cooled, as well as it lubricating the gearbox), and battery coolant. Granted the oil and battery coolant are sealed systems (there is a top-up point for hte battery coolant under the frunk, but you void the battery warranty if you open it - Tesla only job should it be required)
The reason i do not want an automatic transmission is because i have never driven one before. I have always driven a manual transmission so that is what i am most familiar with. But i suppose i could give it a go and take a test drive and see what i think of one. The same goes for why i do not want an electric car. I would just prefer something more familiar to me.
Seriously, try an electric car. If you want simple and easy, it doesn't get simpler and easier. Press accelerator it goes. Lift off accelerator, it stops. I barely ever use the brake pedal. Costs peanuts to run and I never use the automated stuff other than cruise control, just pretend it doesn't exist.
 
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