Help Buying A New Car

tempnam

Looking for some guidance here as I don't have a great deal of mechanical / motor knowledge.

Anyway I'm in the market for a new car. This may seem boring to some but i'm being realistic!

Here are my main requirements....

- Comfortable ride

- Not too expensive to tax/insure

- Room for a pram + shopping in the boot

- 'Respectable' looking - ie not a 'boy racer' looking car (as I use the car for work / going to meetings with clients)

- Something that will last me at least 5 years

- A solid/sturdy feel if that makes sense. Currently drive a 2003 Almera and it just feels a bit hollow or rattely when driving on motorways / shutting the doors & boot etc.

- An upgrade from my current car - I want something nicer than the likes of a Focus / Almera / Astra / Megane class of cars.

Budget is €10K but at a push for a good deal / good car I could go up to €12K & I have a 2003 Almera 1.5 saloon with 75K miles on the clock as a trade in ( I honestly have no idea what that might reduce the price by)

I was looking on carzone at:

1. 2009 2.2L Lexus IS 220d for €12,450 with 110,000 miles on it

2. 2009 2.2L Honda Accord ES ITDEC for €11,995 with 132,000 miles on it

So I don't know if that's reasonable mileage or how much longer you would expect to get out of them - are they coming to a stage where lots of money will need to be spent on maintenance or repairs?

I'd appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks for reading!

Matthewjohn

How about a Seat Exeo?

http://www.carzone.ie/search/SEAT/Exeo/2.0-TDI-/36913699365018470/advert?channel=CARS&featuredListingClickThru=true

Or Volkswagen Passat?

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Volkswagen/Passat/1.9-TDI-/36513757953735220/advert?channel=CARS

drunkmonkey

The Lexus is a lovely car but there a complete pig on diesel.
BMW 320d or 520d series would be a nice car but they have random exploding engines between 2007 and 2011 in the 2.0l diesel, best avoided. If you can stomach the 3.0L tax you'd have a super car in a 330 or a 530.
Audi a4 and a6 are grossly underpowered, their performance doesn't match their price tag.

The new shape Mercedes C Class is worth a look, your budget wouldn't be a million miles off a 2008 C220 CDI Sport.

Does it have to be a diesel?

Don't rule out the Lexus, if you can live with the fuel economy.

tempnam

The Passat is nice - seems to be a few available. Anything to look out for with them??

Don't like the Seat. Not sure what it is but it just looks very plain and boring to me!

The main thing that concerns me with the cars I've seen is that the majority of them have more than 100,000 miles on them.... Is this something that could affect them over the next couple of years while I'd own it?

tempnam

drunkmonkey wrote: »

The Lexus is a lovely car but there a complete pig on diesel.
BMW 320d or 520d series would be a nice car but they have random exploding engines between 2007 and 2011 in the 2.0l diesel, best avoided. If you can stomach the 3.0L tax you'd have a super car in a 330 or a 530.
Audi a4 and a6 are grossly underpowered, their performance doesn't match their price tag.

The new shape Mercedes C Class is worth a look, your budget wouldn't be a million miles off a 2008 C220 CDI Sport.

Does it have to be a diesel?

Don't rule out the Lexus, if you can live with the fuel economy.

Doesn't have to be diesel. As I said being completely honest I don't know a whole lot about motors so I was under the impression that Diesel engines had better fuel economy and would last a lot longer?....

Shane Fitz

tempnam wrote: »

Doesn't have to be diesel. As I said being completely honest I don't know a whole lot about motors so I was under the impression that Diesel engines had better fuel economy and would last a lot longer?....

Time for the pen, paper and calculator.
You'll get both sides of the diesel debate here. But it will boils down to how many miles a week/month you do and if its all long journeys or short stop start.

A saving of a few hundred €'s a year in fuel costs could be totally swallowed by possible higher maintainence, insurance and tax cost. Depending on what car you got

mathepac

Annual mileage?

How are the miles / kms accumulated?

Lots of short around-town runs?

A decent 15 / 20 km run daily?

tempnam

mathepac wrote: »

Annual mileage?

How are the miles / kms accumulated?

Lots of short around-town runs?

A decent 15 / 20 km run daily?

Probably only around 9,000km per year.

Mix of short city runs as well as motorway driving.

anthony4335

Kia C'eed 1.6 CRDI estate, seem to be a great car. Worth a look.

drunkmonkey

9,000km a year completely rules out getting a diesel, with that kind of milage the world is your oyster, something like this is in your budget http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/320-I/201335218112952/ there's no price on this one http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/**SOLD**-318i/36513742231291230/ but i'd say within budget as well and it's for a good garage. There's a good few out there to look at.

bazz26

You can rule out any of the junior executive premium cars like the 3 Series, A4 and IS220, the boot on them is very small and definitely not fit a pram into any of these. A split folding rear seat was an optional extra on most of these cars too. A hatchback would be more practical.

At only 9k km a year doing short runs, you have no use for a diesel imo.

166man

bazz26 wrote: »

You can rule out any of the junior executive premium cars like the 3 Series, A4 and IS220, the boot on them is very small and definitely not fit a pram into any of these. A split folding rear seat was an optional extra on most of these cars too. A hatchback would be more practical.

At only 9k km a year doing short runs, you have no use for a diesel imo.

I can fit a pram into the A4 without too much issue?

Diesel is mad though and you'd be even more mad to go for an Is220d, they had awful trouble with head gaskets going bang on them. They are a Toyota engine too funnily enough.

tempnam

bazz26 wrote: »

You can rule out any of the junior executive premium cars like the 3 Series, A4 and IS220, the boot on them is very small and definitely not fit a pram into any of these. A split folding rear seat was an optional extra on most of these cars too. A hatchback would be more practical.

At only 9k km a year doing short runs, you have no use for a diesel imo.

I can fit the pram into the boot of the Almera - I can't imagine these cars are smaller??


So the general consensus is that there is no benefit to a diesel? isn't diesel cheaper though? - are the tax rates the same for petrol & diesels?

What about the Mazda 6 / Ford Mondeo / Opel Insignia / Toyota Avensis?

Also - the issue about the high mileage already on the cars I've been looking at... what is the typical life-span (mileage wise) from these cars.... If there is already 130,000 miles on the clock are they likely to require a lot of work in the years to come?

Scortho

tempnam wrote: »

I can fit the pram into the boot of the Almera - I can't imagine these cars are smaller??


So the general consensus is that there is no benefit to a diesel? isn't diesel cheaper though? - are the tax rates the same for petrol & diesels?

What about the Mazda 6 / Ford Mondeo / Opel Insignia / Toyota Avensis?

Also - the issue about the high mileage already on the cars I've been looking at... what is the typical life-span (mileage wise) from these cars.... If there is already 130,000 miles on the clock are they likely to require a lot of work in the years to come?

Diesel is cheaper to run but costs more to buy and when problems go wrong, swirl flaps, dmf and dpf, it'll cost a fortune.
You need to be doing serious mileage to get savings from diesel.
9000km a year is 4.0 L v8 territory

bazz26

tempnam wrote: »

I can fit the pram into the boot of the Almera - I can't imagine these cars are smaller??


So the general consensus is that there is no benefit to a diesel? isn't diesel cheaper though? - are the tax rates the same for petrol & diesels?

What about the Mazda 6 / Ford Mondeo / Opel Insignia / Toyota Avensis?

Also - the issue about the high mileage already on the cars I've been looking at... what is the typical life-span (mileage wise) from these cars.... If there is already 130,000 miles on the clock are they likely to require a lot of work in the years to come?

It's not just about the size of the boot but also the access to it. While the A4 might take the pram because it is fwd the 3 Series and IS220 which are both rwd have a smaller boot due to the rwd setup.

Also you are only driving 9000 km per year, why is fuel consumption such an important factor for you? Have you done any maths around the cost difference of running both other than the headline savings at the pump? It would take you years to actually benefit from the extra cost of the diesel at your annual mileage.

MHMotors

tempnam wrote: »

I can fit the pram into the boot of the Almera - I can't imagine these cars are smaller??


So the general consensus is that there is no benefit to a diesel? isn't diesel cheaper though? - are the tax rates the same for petrol & diesels?

What about the Mazda 6 / Ford Mondeo / Opel Insignia / Toyota Avensis?

Also - the issue about the high mileage already on the cars I've been looking at... what is the typical life-span (mileage wise) from these cars.... If there is already 130,000 miles on the clock are they likely to require a lot of work in the years to come?

You wouldn't be going to wrong with 1.8 or 2l diesel Mondeo, also skoda superb is another fabulous car with the double hinge boot access, would suite you down to the ground with pram.

tempnam

bazz26 wrote: »

It's not just about the size of the boot but also the access to it. While the A4 might take the pram because it is fwd the 3 Series and IS220 which are both rwd have a smaller boot due to the rwd setup.

Also you are only driving 9000 km per year, why is fuel consumption such an important factor for you? Have you done any maths around the cost difference of running both other than the headline savings at the pump? It would take you years to actually benefit from the extra cost of the diesel at your annual mileage.

No I havent done any calculations around the cost difference. Fuel consumption isn't an important factor. The main boxes I need to tick are the ones I outlined in my OP.

As I said I was simply under the impression that diesel was more economical.

The other question I asked was about buying a car with high mileage already on it. Are these cars likely to give trouble in the next couple of years or should they have another 100,000 miles in them?

bazz26

tempnam wrote: »

No I havent done any calculations around the cost difference. Fuel consumption isn't an important factor. The main boxes I need to tick are the ones I outlined in my OP.

As I said I was simply under the impression that diesel was more economical.

The other question I asked was about buying a car with high mileage already on it. Are these cars likely to give trouble in the next couple of years or should they have another 100,000 miles in them?

Yes a diesel will be more economical than a petrol but you have to look at the bigger picture - purchase price difference, usage, repairs if something goes wrong, etc. It only becomes more economical to run a diesel if it saves you money from usage rather than a few cent at the occasional trip to the pump. People are the same with motor tax, they will happily spend thousands more on purchasing a car to avail of cheap tax where it can take them 5 years or more to actually make back the difference.

lomb

I went into an Audi dealership a while back looking at a new car. They advised me when calculating finance quotes that petrol cars have very poor resale when I suggested a quote on a petrol and more or less didnt provide me with a quote on one. Something tells me a petrol 3 year old car is impossible to sell on a forecourt for anything like good money. The banks have probably been burnt on the half rule with road tax changes and all that. Diesel is still a contender on low miles.

tempnam

OK so I had a look in a good few places today. Saw a couple of cars that were OK but nothing outstanding.

I then came across a something which ticked all my boxes and looked spotless.... Except for 1 wheel. 1 wheel was scraped and damaged but not a mark on the rest of the car.

Anyway we sat down for a chat and straight away I'm told the car had 2 doors replaced. I asked if it had been crashed and was told the doors had been scraped (possibly by been driven/reversed along a wall says he).

This is in a well known and reputable dealer by the way. He said he wanted to be up front and not hide anything. Is this just covering their ass in case I found out on my own about the door replacement?

We couldn't agree a price so they are ringing me back tomorrow. Should I walk away? Is there any way to find out the real reason for the door replacement? I'm still interested but if it was crashed it would put me off...