Automotive Chat

The Cross Bar
#41

Gonna start learning to drive soon, can’t avoid the need now I’ve got a small family, as much as I really can’t be arsed.

Long way off buying a car, but it’s something I’ll have to start thinking about. I’ll be trying to spend as little as possible, will only need a small little run around that gets me from A to B, probably some sort of little hatchback, anyone got any recommendations for someone who is clueless about cars?

I’d imagine I should be considering things like reliability and the potential cost of upkeep. I see that Seat and Skoda cars often use the same parts as Volkswagen, I guess meaning parts are readily available and fairly affordable, is this the kind of thing that should be considered?

Specific recommendations welcomed, but any general advice would be great too, cos I’ve got no idea where to even start.

Wouldn’t mind electric, or hybrid, but got no idea what the starting prices are. It looks like you can get an old Toyota Prius for a few grand, would one even be worth buying? Are hybrids any good?? As I’d imagine fully electric will be out of my price range and generally unfeasible for me.

1 Like
#42

VW own seat and skoda and use modular production methods which means that those three brands are more or less the same cars with some slight differences.

I love a hybrid. They’re quite and easy to drive and if you’re mostly doing city driving the petrol won’t get used much, and what’s really cool is that when you do use the petrol it will charge up your battery as well - some models also charge up the battery when you brake and go downhill etc. so you really end up not using too much electricity or petrol.

1 Like
#43

For me, a hybrid makes no sense if you are doing very little miles and not driving often. unless it is a plug in hybrid, doing low mileage means the battery will spend a lot of time not charged or with low charge and can impact on the life of the battery.

A used Prius has most likely been a taxi and again I would avoid.

Looking at a “cheap” if there is such a thing anymore, there are a lot of small petrol cars that are economical with available spares, etc. Peugeot, Renault, Skoda, Vauxhall, Ford, etc.

1 Like
#44

Thank you, that’s actually very helpful, as I will absolutely be being doing a low number of miles and using the car infrequently, ideally like once a week perhaps, or maybe once every fortnight.

1 Like
#45

As Cristo says, VAG (volkswagen audi group) owns vw, audi, seat and skoda so every single model of these manufacturer is a pick and mix of parts and engines based on either of the vw or audi chassis, just different bodies.

The used car market has changed hugely since Covid and bargains are a lot more difficult to come by, they are about but you really have to search, my Mercedes CLS recently chewed an auxillery belt that caused a catastrophic oil leak so had to bin it off. I had my criteria… Saloon, auto, cruise control, diesel and comfy and ended up in a 3ltr V6 Jaguar XF, I’m into my cars so wanted a decent looked after example with full service history and any remedial work carried out, I spent a solid week looking through auto trader, ebay and Facebook, car specific forums and Facebook groups and ended up with an absolute bargain from an old boy on an owners page on face book. The type that had spent thousands on maintenance.

Decide a budget and factor in you’ll pay either side of a couple of hundred quid of it, haggling isn’t really much of a thing any more and I find it quite uncomfortable doing it, having said that if it looks too good to be true it will be and don’t ever be afraid to walk away from something that is a piece of shit just because you need a car. The amount of times during my younger days I’ve walked into buying something that was nice and shiny on the outside but a piece of shit under the bonnet and ended up costing me a fortune to fix or maintain.

Once you’ve settled on what you want, owners forums are absolute gold mine of information, you get a feel for any common issues or niggles that come up and can find out if they’ve been fixed or not before you buy or if you’ll have to be the one that foots the bill.
As with anything, condition is alway key, I now never ever buy anything that hasn’t had a full service history with invoices and stamps to back it up, wouldn’t worry at all if it wasn’t a full dealer service history (dealers are just an excuse to charge more anyway) and then you can check the mot history via the government’s mot checker site and it’ll show you every mot the car has had, whether it’s passed or failed, any advisories and what it’s failed on, this is also a good tool for correlating mileage.

Lastly, something else I do, again once settled on a make and model, I youtube it, reviews, buying guides all of it because you get a good idea of what the car looks like inside and out so you know what to expect and again any common mechanical issues to look out for.

3 Likes
#46

Tha k you for that comprehensove post, will 100% be returning to it in a few months time when Im ready to start looking.

Good thing is that I will be using the car infrequently so I can afford to bide my time, and if needs be, even rent a car if I need to make a trip before I’ve managed to make a purchase.

Definitely wary of rushing into a purchase given my total lack of knowledge about cars and the market. I’ve got family and friends who no doubt can help me not get ripped off, but its good to have some idea of what I’m doing before asking for help.

#47

I’d argue a hybrid is perfect for that.

When you assume electricity prices will come down eventually, hybrid or electric will be the best option for short trips.

If you want something reliable and gets from A to B, cheap - Japanese.

Toyota, Honda, Mazda all make wonderful cheap cars that are so so reliable, much more than any German equivalent

1 Like