***** Motors chat - round 12 *****

ba_barabus

ba_barabus wrote: »

Plastic steering wheel, basic seats, basic instrument cluster, basic aircon (not climate), different body styling and alloys etc etc

It's a plain jane model and tbh sat nav doesn't age well.

IIRC it'll also have a different suspension setup. It's a world away from the GT tbh. Not saying it's a bad car but just to assume a UK car is better specced isn't right.

To be honest, I use a dedicated sat nav anyway, so i'd never use a built in one, but i presumed the display could be changed to something else, and that it was just a generic screen.


The only issue you mentioned there that actually caught me off guard, was the plastic steering wheel. I hate them. But I genuinely only noticed there now that it was plastic.


To be honest, it's still a coin-toss situation between that and the 132 GT Line one. I just figured the 2 years newer would stand to me more in reliability terms (might give me a little longer before it collapses and dies).

Also, can i ask, on the GT Line one i linked to, there's a USB slot on the face of the radio.. what's that all about? Is it to play music off a USB stick, or is it just an extra phone charging point, or..?

wotzgoingon

To play music off USB stick.

ba_barabus

Deleted User wrote: »

Also, can i ask, on the GT Line one i linked to, there's a USB slot on the face of the radio.. what's that all about? Is it to play music off a USB stick, or is it just an extra phone charging point, or..?

Both IIRC

I'm gonna look at them both tomorrow. See can I play them against each other on price, and take the car off whoever gives the best price (if either move, at all). Working in my favour is that the GT Line 132 has been sitting there over 3 weeks, and the 152 is nearly two weeks there.


So they're not exactly flying out the door.

vintagevrs

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Has anyone here had any dealings with them? I'm always suspicious that an indy dealer says they'll do that, but then never actually do... Mind you AIG seem to be around a while?

IV no dealings with that dealer but loads of indy dealers offer first class service in sales and service, so don't be surprised. A local place to me has always been first class for a family member that deals with them. They drop a courtesy car at her door and take her car away for servicing etc and in general just sort stuff out and are always professional and courteous. She had issues with door lock on an XF and again genuine parts ordered in,l from Jaguar in Belfast, car collected from door with an Audi left on drive and door sorted, car cleaned and returned. As a result, no surprise that's where she will always deal with now.

vintagevrs

vintagevrs wrote: »

IV no dealings with that dealer but loads of indy dealers offer first class service in sales and service, so don't be surprised. A local place to me has always been first class for a family member that deals with them. They drop a courtesy car at her door and take her car away for servicing etc and in general just sort stuff out and are always professional and courteous. She had issues with door lock on an XF and again genuine parts ordered in,l from Jaguar in Belfast, car collected from door with an Audi left on drive and door sorted, car cleaned and returned. As a result, no surprise that's where she will always deal with now.

If I had an experience like that, I'd always return to them, too!

vintagevrs

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm gonna look at them both tomorrow. See can I play them against each other on price, and take the car off whoever gives the best price (if either move, at all). Working in my favour is that the GT Line 132 has been sitting there over 3 weeks, and the 152 is nearly two weeks there.


So they're not exactly flying out the door.

Those are relatively short times for car sales I would have thought. Dealers will have a bit of wiggle but if you try and say I can get it for X amount elsewhere, they'll probably say away you go.

Good luck with the purchase though.

shanec1928

Is there a reason that a van isn’t in the running if it’s for business?


Edit in regards to kkv search for a vehicle

wotzgoingon

shanec1928 wrote: »

Is there a reason that a van isn’t the running if it’s for business?

What?

extra-ordinary_

shanec1928 wrote: »

Is there a reason that a van isn’t in the running if it’s for business?

FYP :cool:

vintagevrs

vintagevrs wrote: »

Those are relatively short times for car sales I would have thought. Dealers will have a bit of wiggle but if you try and say I can get it for X amount elsewhere, they'll probably say away you go.

Good luck with the purchase though.

The plus side is that I'm not lying. I do have the option of going elsewhere. So if they tell me to feck off, it doesn't really hinder me.

A lot of it will come down to the actual condition if the interiors aswell though. They all look brand new in photos, but sometimes car interiors are rough as fcuk. Always puts me off them.

I've made a little pros and cons list and I think I prefer the 132 GT Line one. The lower mileage is a big selling point considering the amount I'll expect of it.


In response to a van, a car can suit my needs quite well, and although i wouldnt mind doddering about in a Ranger or Amarok, the hassle and inconvenience of commercial insurance (and going back to private down the road if the business fails) just makes it too unattractive to bother with.

I'll stop posting about it for the time being as i realise I'm taking over the thread a bit. Next post will hopefully be tomorrow or Thursday with a pic of whatever I bought.

.. which will probably be neither of the cars I was looking at, haha. :rolleyes:


I sincerely do want to thank everyone for their help and information. Some really great posters on here.

wotzgoingon

Damn forgot to tax the car during last month, it's out 2 days now. The tax office are still using my old email address so didn't see the reminder emails.

What reminded me was i was just browsing through the bangernomics thread and people were on about a cars tax and it just hit me so went out to car and sure enough it's out of date. Hopefully they will be quick enough sending it out.

hooch-85

Guards wont even look sideways at you unless its out more than 2 months in my experience, I normally don't tax my car until the middle of the subsequent month it expires.

I bought a Galaxy a few months ago, and it had no tax since 02/19. I had difficulty getting the logbook, so couldn't tax it (but the logbook went missing on it's way to Shannon, so there was no change of ownership notified either).

I was stopped three times in the space of two weeks with it. Never seen so many checkpoints in my life ( :rolleyes: ) but once an explanation was given, they all waved me on and were decent about it.

So I don't think two days is gonna mean anything to them.

Diabhalta

Too late to do it this year, but I was thinking about renting this beast here in Prague. It's €190 for 24 hours, 200 km limit. Not sure what's the story with insurance. Definitely some deposit, I would imagine €400 or something like that.

5,7 litre Hemi engine.

colm_mcm

200km is like an hours driving though

wotzgoingon

Your over in mainland Europe so long your putting 5,7 instead of 5.7 litres.

Diabhalta

colm_mcm wrote: »

200km is like an hours driving though

I'd say it's enough.

Diabhalta

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Your over in mainland Europe so long your putting 5,7 instead of 5.7 litres.

same thing.

Wall of text incoming:


So I looked at the two Meganes today.

First one I looked at was the blue, GT Line spec one, 2013, for €7,950.

It's a nice looking car. The colour looks well on it and the different colour roof rails/wing mirrors etc. set it off. The wheels are really nice, and the car itself seemed fairly well kept and quite tidy. Didn't seem to have too many marks or scuffs, although i did feel a bit like there was rear passenger side damage at one point. Not sure why. Just something looked slightly off about it.

The interior was nice. It didn't exactly pull me in and make me fall in love with it, though, which I had expected it would, as in the pictures, it's a million times better looking (the general quality of the layout and the better radio, leather steering wheel, red stitching details, etc.). It was quite nice, but I think I probably built it up a bit in my head and when I sat in it, had a bit of a Larry David reaction ultimately.

One of the biggest selling points of it, spec aside, was that it has 30k km less than the red one. It's got 120k on it. Unfortunately, when I sat in it, it was just over the 140k mark, which immediately lost appeal to me. Otherwise, it was a spritely motor, moved well, was comfortable, etc.


So I asked him what way he felt on price, and he said he would have a little bit of movement in it. I didn't start haggling as I told him I wanted to look at the red one, and made my way over to AIG to look at their version.


Second one I looked at was the red, 'expression' and 'energy' spec one, 2015, for €7,750.

For full clarity, I kinda took an interest in this car a day or so before viewing it, as I figured it was well priced for what it was. So, although people here are likely to give out about paying him, I sent Dublin Diagnostics' John over to do a pre-purchase inspection. He came back to me and said that he reckons the clutch is a little rough. He said it's not especially bad, but he noticed it so was obliged to say it to me. He said the air-con doesn't work, and the car was being jump-started by the lads, so it needs a new battery, but that they had one there for it and just hadn't fitted it yet. He commented that the bodywork was a bit rough around the edges but looked like the car still had all it's body original parts. He said, although it's just his opinion, he could see no particular reason not to buy the car.

So that made me feel like, even though I was leaning towards the blue one initially, I should at least look at the red one, as I spent money on the inspection.

Upon arriving at it, I quite liked the colour. It looks a bit 'Fisher Pricey' in the pictures on their ad, but in real life it looked a lot nicer. They did indeed jump-start it to get it going, but they said they won't replace the battery until it's sold (to be fair, they did have a brand new battery on the floor behind the passenger seat). Took it for a spin. Drove fairly samey to the GT Spec one (nothing obviously different that I noticed, anyway). The dash was a bit more basic with the knobs, but again, doesn't bother me, and the seats were more basic, and not the "bucket" type that the GT had, which is grand as I'm a fat bastard anyway, so bucket seats don't love me.

The steering wheel wasn't plastic-plastic, either (which was a genuine concern for me). It was a rubbery-type compound, but it felt decent enough to hold, and more importantly, allowed me to do my one-finger-on-the-wheel driving that I tend to slip into after a few hours on the road. My brother had an old 2003 Megane and it had an actual plastic steering wheel. And you had to hold it at 10 and 2 (clock face) or it'd just keep slipping out of your hand. Which I hated, so i was expecting that to be the case here. Thankfully it wasnt.

Nav screen was also a generic screen for the radio, settings etc so that was good, too.

Body work was rough in the sense that it had more than it's fair share of small scratches, and scuffs. No real dents or such. I'd often end up driving down overgrown boreens, so this didn't bother me at all. Front passenger wheel was scuffed to fcuk, too, but again that's something that tends to happen me, so it wasn't an issue.

I have to be honest, I struggled to find a 'real' difference, in practice, between the two. I like the face-lifted grill on the 2015 so that helped. The mileage on this was the same as advertised, and it has a fleet company surround on the number plate. Wheels didn't look anywhere near as good as the GT wheels, but weren't as small and 'button-like' as I anticipated, so i didnt mind them.

I felt good about it in general. I was planning to view both today, but the way my money worked out with the bank (will only give X amount over the counter at one time, daily withdrawal limits on the ATM etc.) I only had 7,250 on me. So I figured I'd make some offers over the phone after viewing them both and see who does the best deal, and I could collect tomorrow. Though I was leaning toward the 2015 red one.

Anyway, got the car back to AIG after a spin in it, asked the chap there (there were two lads coming and going, both fairly nice folks) and he kinda shrugged and pretty much said 'you had a mechanic look at it, you know it's in decent nick, and we think it's a good price'. Very much a 'price is the price' kind of thing.

So I said I'd have to think about it, and headed home. About 10 minutes after leaving it popped into my head to ask about the VRT process. Whilst discussing that, I asked again would be budge on price, and he said 'you can make an offer'. So I was honest and said, 'if you'd take €7,250, I'll buy it today'. He said he'd ring me back, which he did a few minutes later, and agreed that €7,250 would do.

So I went back, filled in the forms, and emailed him proof of address (for revenue seemingly). He emailed me back this evening with the car's new Irish reg plate. We agreed the car would have the new battery fitted, and be serviced before I'd take it. So I paid, got a receipt, and was told it'd be serviced in the morning and be ready for collection after 1pm-ish.

They said they'd include 6 month engine/gearbox warranty, and book the NCT for me to do it, and if it fails, they'll take care of getting it through. Normally I'd roll my eyes, but they seem to have been in business for quite a long time and they both seemed like very nice, genuine people, so I feel confident in them. Time will tell, I suppose.

But I know I'd feel more comfortable, as it's already a bit scuffed and scratched, bringing it down backroads with overgrown hedges and stuff, than I would the blue one, that has a much cleaner paint job.


So I'll collect it tomorrow and on, say.. I dunno, maybe the 12th of November, I'll post on here about the ridiculous cost of tow trucks and ask does anyone need any parts off a Megane..

Actually, speaking of parts.. does anyone need anything off my 2008 Galaxy before it goes to the scrapyard? I'm half-tempted to get a mechanic to look at it, just to verify it's knackered, before scrapping, but assuming it's given it's last rites, if anyone needs anything off it, you can have it.

colm_mcm

Does it have swivel seats?

Ta ceist agam

The 2 Dealers selling the Megane estates that KKV has been posting about must be wondering why the adverts are suddenly generating so many views and no calls. Lol

CIP4

@KKV best of luck with the Megane you really deserve to have a bit of reliability from a car. Hopefully it will plough on for several years with no major issues.

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Does it have swivel seats?

The Megane?

No, the Galaxy doesn't, unfortunately.

Ta ceist agam wrote: »

The 2 Dealers selling the Megane estates that KKV has been posting about must be wondering why the adverts are suddenly generating so many views and no calls. Lol

I actually wonder would they notice that. Haha. To be fair there's probably only about 10 people here chatting about it, or looking at it, at most, anyway.

CIP4 wrote: »

@KKV best of luck with the Megane you really deserve to have a bit of reliability from a car. Hopefully it will plough on for several years with no major issues.

I'm really hoping/praying I get at least 3-4 years out of this before it heads into the grave. I'll keep on top of servicing and such (not that it helped with the C5).


Folks, 1.5dci, i presume 10W40 is the right oil? This will be the 'newest' car I've owned, so just want to make sure..


EDIT: Mick has Oil for €3.50 a litre, which seems alright..? So was gonna pick some up, whilst im getting wind deflectors.

https://www.micksgarage.com/d/engine-oils-and-lubricants/products/2514119/kast-10w40-semi-synthetic-a3-b4-engine-oil-20-litre

Toyotafanboi

I've been following with interest up to this point KKV, i think those Meganes are generally a good shout.

Dying to know how you got on but I couldn't face all that. Any chance of a tl;dr version? :pac:

Toyotafanboi

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I've been following with interest up to this point KKV, i think those Meganes are generally a good shout.

Dying to know how you got on but I couldn't face all that. Any chance of a tl;dr version? :pac:

No bother: Viewed them both. GT Spec didn't blow my mind, and the lower mileage (30k less than the other car) was a big selling point, but was disappointed to see the mileage was 20k higher than advertised.


Base spec car sellers seemed really genuine, pre-inspection mechanic gave it a thumbs up, lads were willing to do a deal on price and the spec level, (although a lower spec than the GT) generally impressed me, so I bought (from €7,750 to €7,250) and will collect tomorrow.

Toyotafanboi

Sounds great! I think you were right not to get too caught up in spec's. Id sooner a better overall car with a few less toys. Day to day once a car has central locking and electric windows anything after that is luxury to an extent.

Best of luck with it, post a few pics when you get your hands on it.