Pick a car

cormie

Hi,
I'm thinking about getting a new car soon and would like some oppinions on what I should go for.

I'm 21 with a full licence and ignition passed so mayyyybe I could stretch over a 1l this time.

One important factor is that I want to display my company logo (in my signature) on the car . So I'm thinking along the lines of cars that would suit this purpose (focus, polo, 206, beetle, cooper). I'd probably go with a black car and tint the windows and have the logo white. I was also thinking of a dark grey car with a white border around the logo and the inner part black. Where do you suggest I put the logos? I was thinking on the bonnet, on the back window and on each side going at a diagonal angle across each door. Maybe some of the photoshop boyos could give their ideas with this a go

Now, the only one of the cars mentioned above that's available in a 1L is the polo, this would also be the cheapest car to get (I wont be buying a new car, my budget will only allow for a 2nd hand one). So if you take a 1.4L focus for example, a mock quote was €1700 TPFT, the same details with a 1L Polo gave me a quote for €1310 TPFT. So already I'm paying about 25% more per year on the Focus. Plus the fact it will cost me allot more to buy than a Polo. So Over the year, if you compare these 2 cars, a 1.4L will consume more petrol right? Approximately how much more though? If I'm doing say 8k miles per year,how much would I be looking to spend on petrol for both cars? The tax on the focus will probably be more too.

Now I don't really know anything about cars, 16V, model numbers or anything like that. The most important factors I suppose are:
-Cheap to run
-Cheap to buy
-Nice design for logo display
-A Solid car that wont break down every 5 months.
-Cheap parts/Cheap Servicing

So basically I'm looking for a cheap, nice looking car. I suppose paying the 25% extra on insurance for a 1.4 Focus over a 1L Polo isn't that much for a years car use and that will get cheaper as the years go on. I don't know if I can afford a Focus though.

I'm guessing without looking that a Cooper and a Beetle would be way out of my price range. I also prefer the look of a Focus for advertising purposes to a 206. I'd be looking to spend less than 8 K on the car/insurance/tax.

There is also the problem of trying to find the right model. Some can look bad and some can look good (another). Now I know the last one is modified somewhat. What exactly is the story with modifying a car, they can make them look great or terrible, I simply want the car to be a nice shape, tinted windows and I think when a car is lowered it looks allot better. Is all this expensive? I know tinted windows cost around €200, what about the rest? Allot of these costs would be avoided if I got a Focus. Although can they be lowered? I think I've seen a lowered one and it looks quite better than the usual.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks:)

Big Nelly

Buy Diesel, if you are doing any sort of milage it is the only way to go! changed from petrol to Diesel myself a while ago and you wouldnt believe how much cheaper it is(even with rising fuel prices)

Dont buy a Polo, girlfriends sister had one and she kept for about 6 months, she prefered a micra to it! said it was a ball of s**t......didnt like to drive it either myself!! not sure why!! have a Passat myself now and have drove a golf on numerous occasions and dont know why VW made the Polo so bad!!

What about the Megane?

cormie

hmmm.. SERIOUSLY contemplating a Focus now. I've seen some for the 7K mark on cbg.ie/carzone.ie. Would these be ok or would a Focus for this price be likely to run into allot of problems? Is it normal for a Focus to be 7k? What year/mileage/condition is average for a 7K focus?

Big Nelly

cormie wrote:

hmmm.. SERIOUSLY contemplating a Focus now. I've seen some for the 7K mark on cbg.ie/carzone.ie. Would these be ok or would a Focus for this price be likely to run into allot of problems? Is it normal for a Focus to be 7k? What year/mileage/condition is average for a 7K focus?

Focus have been dropping in price in last while because there is so many of them on the road....friend of mine was trying to sell his and had to keep dropping in the price to sell it because so many where on sale out there....could be a reason why so cheap! any links to ones you where looking at?

cormie

yeah theres millions of them out there. It doesn't really bother me though, they are a nice looking car and would be great to slap a logo onto. There couldn't be a better reason for the price drops so I'm happy with that:D

Well I saw this one but it's a tad over budget, something like that, black, black tints would do fine. The kit on that is nice and the wheels too. If I could get something similar in a 98 or 99 I'm sure a few K would be knocked off it. Would be more than happy to get one that looks like that regardless of year I suppose. Just as long as the condition was good and it was a 1.4L at max.

EDIT: I'd also prefer 5 doors. Also, how much would it cost to kit a focus to look like that? Tints, kit, alloys?

Stephen

The introduction of the 2005 model focus surely must have impacted resale values of the older models too. I would have loved to get a focus when I was shopping for my car back in february but they were just out of my price range.

cormie

So any views on the focus as a car? Is it reliable? Cheap to run? Cheap to service? Cheap parts (I'm sure parts are cheap because there are so many of them?)

Would it be my best option? I really want one now :rolleyes:

Big Nelly

Very reliable like most Fords, not sure about MPG on it! maybe someone that owns one can help! as I mentioned above I moved from Petrol to diesel to cut down on fuel.....I know my old 1.6l used to drink petrol!! service is more or less the same at this stage for any car it just depends on the garage!!

greglo23

as a confirmed ford hater i must admit the focus seems to be a good car. they have a problem with coils burning out but apparently a new one is'nt too expensive.
ford stands for; Found On Road Dead;Fix Often Repair Daily or backwards; Driver Returns On Foot

cormie

The focus seems to have a pretty good rating anyway:)

Now, the Diesel -VS- Petrol debate.. What advantages has Diesel over petrol? I heard rumours that you can use vegetable oil as petrol? :rolleyes:

I tried get a mock quote on a 1.8 diesel but it said it had to be under 1.6 to quote me. I thought there was something about a 1.8 diesel being the same as a 1.3 petrol or something like that? Does the fact it wouldn't quote me mean there is no way I can get a diesel so or is there a way around it?

The average price of a 99 Focus is abnout €7.950. Is this good? What kind of mileage should I be looking for?

bazz26

Might be better to wait until towards the end of November or December as a 99 Focus will be approaching 7 years old which will influence the value. This plus the amount of Focus for sale out there will make it easier to haggle with a dealer.

Also diesels these days are as powerful if not more than their petrol equivilants so insurance companies know this so that is why they probably will not quote you.

Also unless you are doing big mileage then you are not going to make any real saving on buying a diesel. You will pay about €2,000 more for diesel model over a petrol plus higher tax and insurance so you need to be doing big mileage to gain.

The average mileage for a petrol car is 12k so a 6 year old Focus should have about 70k on clock.

JohnCleary

I dont care what people will react to this but:

Get a new shape (96 - 99) Rover 214.
Theyre 103BHP as standard, high for a 1.4
Insurance is CHEAP
They're a nice car imo, stick a set of alloys on and they look luverly
CHEAP to buy

The *only* consideration is the Head Gasket. I would do the head-gasket every 60,000 miles and you need to check your oil and coolant every week. When I bought my 1999, with 60k on the clock I changed the gasket. She now has 100k of HEAVY (and I mean heavy, always bringing her close to the red-line!) and shes fine, not losing any coolant. I will do the head-gasket again at 120k to be safe.

I have not had ANY bother with her, the only bad thing is the braking system isint great, nothing 200 euro wont fix (I got a brake setup from an MG ZS 2.5 and fitted them in 2 hours)

cormie

214 is not a bad looking car at all actually. I know there is something up with Rover at the moment, but I'm not sure what. There aren't many of them for sale 2nd hand, but the ones that are are around the 5k mark. I think I still prefer the Focus and would feel safer because I'm ignorant as to what there is to feel safe about buying a Focus. I don't know what a gasket is even :rolleyes:

JC, would you have any reason to be against the Focus?

I wouldn't be doing allot of mileage, maybe 5/6 k a year? Although I have done about 20K since I got the car but this year I'll be doing allot less. If it's going to cost more starting I'd prefer to go with Petrol though.

Atomic Pineapple

If your using the car as a advertising device for your company I doubt it would be a good idea to use a too heavily modified car to promote it.

I drive a 1.4 Focus a 03 one its lovely to drive has decent enough power but it drinks petrol, a filled tank of €50 - €55 euro will usually get 350 - 375 miles out of it, but i do drive it pretty hard.

cormie

I filled my 1l micra up with €40 the night the petrol increase was announced. There is NOOO WAYY I've done anywhere near 375 miles and I had to put another tenner in today :mad: Does that sound wrong?

JohnCleary

cormie wrote:

JC, would you have any reason to be against the Focus?

The only Focus ive ever driven is a T230, which is a 2ltr turbo pushin 230BHP so, no, I have nothing against them

But take this from a Rover owner, theyre decent cars. You can get a Rover 214, 1999, for about €2k atm because of the 'troubles'. But think about it, youll be buying a 1999, so what if the company were still in production... you dont have a warranty so youd be paying for parts anyways :rolleyes:

Seriously though, you could get a decent 214 + Insurance + Service for less than €4k! I'm only paying 1100 fully comp, full license, 19, 1 years NCB on my Rover. It was nearly 1800 on a 1.4 Golf which only has 3/4 the BHP of the Rover... Silly insurance!

cormie

Interesting, what ins company are you with? I just did a few mock quotes with Tesco, I'm 21 with 1 yrs NCB under my own name, Full license and I've passed Ignition, it's quoting me the same as it is any other 1.4 L, about 1700 TPFT and 2000 FC.

My NCT is due for renewal on my Micra, it may just be worth my while to do a swap until I have enough money for a Focus, but the thing is, if I buy a rover now for say 2K, how much could I get for it when I want to sell it, would I lose more money on that or by keeping my 96 Micra, which will hold their value better?

There funk all Rovers on CBG.ie/Carzone.ie. Any suggestions where there may be a black one that will be cheap to insure for about 2K to buy? And it'd also be handy if they took my Micra in. What colour is yours? Fancy a swap

Are Rovers good cars or pieces of junk?

draffodx, point taken on modifying advertising car, I wouldn't go extreme, tints and alloys is about all really. No neon lighting or anything;)

x in the city

ur all over town with talk, buy a bike././

serious, theres loadsa rovers if u half open ur eyes, not a good car to get if u dont know what a gasket is, so stick with the micra...

cormie

haha, I can always learn

So are you saying a Rover will run into more trouble than a Micra?

JohnCleary

cormie wrote:

Are Rovers good cars or pieces of junk?

Some people will tell you they're junk, some people will say theyre great. I think theyre great because I havent had any troubles with mine after 100k miles, others will probably warn you to stay away!

-Edit- Funny you should ask actually, last night I was chatting with an International F1 Referee (swit swoo alright - hes my neighbour!), and we were talking about Rovers. He KNOWS his cars, and was always a Rover fanatic, his last Rover was the Rover 75 and he couldnt stop talking about how much better of a drive it was than the Jag X-Type (Theyre pretty much the same car). He also commented how 8 years ago Rovers were semi luxury cars, but in recent years people consider them the new age Lada... Its all a fad imo

bazz26

The Jag X-Type uses Ford Mondeo running gear and engines, I don't think Ford had any involvement in MG Rover.

JohnCleary

bazz26 wrote:

The Jag X-Type uses Ford Mondeo running gear and engines, I don't think Ford had any involvement in MG Rover.

Rover-MG used the BMW engine in the 75. I mean for a car that has the same features, looks the same, but the 75 is much cheaper and drives better

cormie

hmmm, well in terms of portraying my company image, if people view rovers as the new age Lada, that can't really be a good thing What are your views on that? the 214s do look quite nice indeed. If someone offered to swap you their focus for your 214, would you? Honestly?

JohnCleary

Well this is what my 214 looked like a few months ago (Ive done a little more since then but you get the idea)