Internet ruining car buying/owning

Stevie Dakota

Before the interweb took over the world I had bought 3 new cars, a 1988 Peugeot 205 1.1 (trouble free), a 1996 Seat Ibiza 1.4 (trouble free) and a 1999 Seat Toledo 1.8 (trouble free). Not one of them gave any hassle and all were a pleasure to own.

Now every car buyer trembles handing over the cheque having read that pretty much every car from a Mercedes E-class to a Golf is going to let them down in a big way. And when you own the car you are just waiting for all that crap you read about to happen, whereupon you can quickly go online and rant about your car.

I am in the market for a new car and dread making a huge mistake.

I miss the old days.

drunkmonkey

Get your self a car that was made before the Internet - That Might be one way around it....

Suggest - Toyota Carina 1.6 petrol 1986
Has never failed to start in 22 years - god bless her little heart!!

dos30

Ignorance is bliss, eh!!

Biro

Well said! Everyone has an opinion on everything, and are more often than not wrong! Every car has problems these days, also, every car is infinately more reliable than they were 30 years ago!

Slig

See this thread for the cars to avoid at all costs
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055311126

RobAMerc

buy some car mags to get a good idea what they make of cars and why.

then try a few cars to get a good feel for what they are talking about and to kno what you like yourself.

make your own mind up - at least its been reasonably informed - i.e. not filled with crap by bored dreamers without enough to do in work !

Guy:Incognito

Slig wrote: »

See this thread for the cars to avoid at all costs
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055311126

That'll be every car ever made so. With the power of google you will find people with problems with any car you can think of.

Zube

Stekelly wrote: »

That'll be every car ever made so.

Except the Carina E! All bow before the Carina E!

Marcus.Aurelius

Zube wrote: »

Except the Carina E! All bow before the Carina E!

Carina Es had loads of trouble with door locks and lean-burn engines.

Carina II FTW!!!

Slig

Zube wrote: »

Except the Carina E! All bow before the Carina E!

Ya and if your checking the milage on one of them make sure you count the 0's:D what could be 20K on a standard car could well be 200K on the carina

vectra

Easiest way to ease your fewar about buying a trouble free car is start a thread titled.. "List only cars that are trouble free"
I would say that would be one lonely thread

Slig

Its very easy to complain about cars and thats the problem. Everybody that has driven an alfa will agree they are nice. however somebody who just had to replace a turbo(etc.) will make a lot of noise about it, where as somebody who has enjoyed a troublefree life with an alfa and only has praise for it will only be regarded as a fanboy.

PS I have no experience of Alfas

zilog_jones

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Get your self a car that was made before the Internet - That Might be one way around it....

Suggest - Toyota Carina 1.6 petrol 1986
Has never failed to start in 22 years - god bless her little heart!!

Depends what your definition of the Internet is, but the network we know of today technically started in 1969 (as ARPANET). It's been using basically the same protocols since 1983 and has been available for commercial use since 1988 (in the US at least).

Carinas only started production in 1970, so you'll have to go further back than that!

Also, don't forget that people who have problems with their car will go on the internet and moan, but people who don't have problems may say nothing at all...

S.I.R

all cars are ok, they only break under excessive use... but for crying out loud, if you car breaks , get it fixed move on, build a bridge get over it!! :rolleyes:

BigglesMcGee

While one off reports of problems are nothing to get worried over

If you see many people having the same problem and read about their dealing with the vendor i think it still helps though.

It BeeMee

Look at the advantages too:
for every problem you run into, someone somewhere has had the same issue, and someone somewhere will know the fix.

il gatto

The way the internet has developed leads to all this. The majority of the internet is now contributory, as in Youtube, message boards, blogs etc. It makes it very easy for people to put their ideas out there and as zilog_jones said, people tend to be quicker to moan than to praise.
Cars break down and have niggly problems. When you consider the thousands of individual parts in a car, that's no suprise. Most cars now cover far more miles than in years gone by. That's why people still look at cars with 80k+miles and think they're shagged. Chances are with some maintainance, it could do 200k. Years ago, most cars had a short commute to work and the weekly shopping/spin to the seaside or whatever. Nowadays that's no longer the case.
Buy whatever makes you drool or gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you look at it and whichever one is the nicest to drive. Worry about the other sh1te later. And the interweb is full of useful tips etc. provided you have a good bullsh1t detector.