Anyone bought a new car recently?

[Fluoxetine]

Had a bit of a car epiphany over the past 12 months - Much as I loved my V8 barge, it had cost me somewhere around £4-5k in maintenance / running costs over the year and spent much of the time sat mouldering in the driveway.

Impending Brexit changes meant I had to either sell it, or register it in Ireland (where the annual road tax on it would be £2k per year). I chose the former.



It was fun - Doubt I'll ever own another 5.5 litre V8 petrol anytime soon.

We decided to drop to one car and also sell the missus's Clio - Had a mad notion to go EV, and had a long test drive in the VW ID.3.

It wasn't for us - I liked it, but < 200 mile range doesn't suit (we make the drive from here to Scotland a few times per year, which is 260 miles), there's a lot of reports of glitchy software, and it was the thick end of £40k* for a Golf-sized car (*Tour Model, in Ireland).

We tested a Golf 8 back to back and the missus preferred it, as did I - A bit of research found that the Mk8 shared the same suspension / engines with the late Mk7.5, so we bought one of those instead. Same research also highlighted the >150bhp models get IRS instead of Torsion Beam, so we plumped for a late 2017 1.5 Evo GT 150 TSi with DSG box, Adaptive Cruise, Active Info Display (digital dash), Full LED lights and Winter Pack etc.





It was a rush to get it in and registered here before 31/12/20, otherwise we'd have 23% VAT to pay on it (due to Brexit) in addition to 19% registration tax. I'd eyed up Paul's lovely Mk7.5 Golf GTi in the classifieds here, but it would have cost me the equivalent of £23-24k to have it road legal / on Irish plates...

[LotusLee]

Bought my 12 plate SWB Caddy just over a year ago from a mate who converted it to a 3.2 v6 petrol FWD a few months prior. Its a very neat install as he wanted it all to look factory fitted and everything works as it should. I've managed 6000 miles in it and its been great, all the practicality of a van but also one of those cars that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time you drive it or fire it up I never realised there was a Caddy scene when I bought it and have ended up with quite a list of potential mods to work my way through, so far I've mostly been making it more car like inside, swapped the rubber flooring for Touran carpet, Touran seat consoles,2017 Golf R seats and mk5 Golf GTI stainless pedals. Not sure what mods next maybe Bilstein lowered suspension kit. bigger brakes, respray ,rear spoiler etc but happy to stick with the sheddy white van man look for now.
I'd post a pic but not done it since the demise of photobucket. Lee

[greyrigg]

Had a bit of a car epiphany over the past 12 months - Much as I loved my V8 barge, it had cost me somewhere around £4-5k in maintenance / running costs over the year and spent much of the time sat mouldering in the driveway.

Nearly as cool as the Avantime, loved that car.

Malcolm

[LotusLee]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hja5sdjpxdpu ... l.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xcwoy27aaln9 ... l.JPG?dl=0

[Scotty C]

looks good they way it is Lee, proper wolf in sheep's clothing

[LotusLee]

Cheers Scotty, Think I'll run it as it is for a while as I keep changing my mind whether to lower it or not. There was an unexpected bonus after I sent everything off to update the v5, road tax cost remained the same as the original 1.6 deisel due to being 'light goods' vehicle.

[Fluoxetine]

Had a bit of a car epiphany over the past 12 months - Much as I loved my V8 barge, it had cost me somewhere around £4-5k in maintenance / running costs over the year and spent much of the time sat mouldering in the driveway.

Nearly as cool as the Avantime, loved that car.

Malcolm

I quite enjoyed the Avantime

The V8 S Class Coupe was fun too, but part of me wishes I'd bought the twin-turbo V12 CL600 instead (and I did come close to buying one )

It feels odd not having anything 'sporty' or interesting these days, but running such cars over here costs 2-3 times as much in terms of road tax / insurance. There's also Irish Vehicle Registration tax (VRT) which is up to 37% of what the Revenue feel the car is worth, plus 21% VAT. (Thankfully no 10% import duty, because Lotus are made in the UK and not the EU ).

A relatively affordable £50k V6 Exige suddenly becomes an £79k V6 Exige with a £2k PA road tax bill...

[pshanks76]

I just traded my mk7.5 Golf GTI - only had it just under a year and sad to see it go but my missus has a hip injury and the seats just aggravated it so had to go.

Ended up going for a 330d x-drive msport touring as a replacement. Seats seem to work for her, plenty space and a nice drive. Lack of winter wheels and current terrible road conditions in Aberdeenshire means I haven't had the opportunity to drive it in earnest yet but working on that now!

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[douglasgdmw]

BMW looks lovely, Sandra loved our old F31 Touring.

If the ride is a bit wallowey when pressing on then the AC Schnitzer springs are a worthwhile upgrade (although your one may have the proper M-Sport springs, ours was an early X-drive which had softer springs).

Good choice bypassing the big grill BMW's as well

[a4drk]

I just traded my mk7.5 Golf GTI - only had it just under a year and sad to see it go but my missus has a hip injury and the seats just aggravated it so had to go.

Ended up going for a 330d x-drive msport touring as a replacement. Seats seem to work for her, plenty space and a nice drive. Lack of winter wheels and current terrible road conditions in Aberdeenshire means I haven't had the opportunity to drive it in earnest yet but working on that now!

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Lovely car Paul .........

[pshanks76]

I just traded my mk7.5 Golf GTI - only had it just under a year and sad to see it go but my missus has a hip injury and the seats just aggravated it so had to go.

Ended up going for a 330d x-drive msport touring as a replacement. Seats seem to work for her, plenty space and a nice drive. Lack of winter wheels and current terrible road conditions in Aberdeenshire means I haven't had the opportunity to drive it in earnest yet but working on that now!

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Lovely car Paul .........

Thanks David, winters on today

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[Corranga]

Not quite in the same league.....working from home has meant things have changed a bit. It's brilliant fun and pretty much free to run



(photo taken in it's spiritual home)

I really like that, kind of tempted by one for the wife but perceived quality of the interior has always put me off.
In-laws had an 11plate focus and the interior looked like a JVC midi system I had in ‘94.

How do you find it?


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Perhaps not exactly what you're asking, but my mother in law has had a 2009 1.6 TDCi Zetec Fiesta from new. It's now on 115k miles, and honestly, other than the rattly boat anchor diesel up front, you'd never know it's not 2 years old with 10k on the clock. The glossy silver plastic looks a bit Halfords, but even the steering wheel barely has any wear on it, and the car feels as tight now as when I drove it on 09 with 100 miles on the clock, I'm amazed.
If the ST holds up even half as well, they'll be great for years to come.

Also, I really want one, but the other half kept saying things like "it's just a Fiesta, it's dull, it's the same as my mums car" which is why we ended up with the Cooper S. I was thinking about replacing our Panda with one, but as we don't really have to commute nowadays, even having 2 cars sitting on the drive seems overkill...

[ScottJ-PS]

I sourced a Fiesta Zetec 1.0 eco turbo for my mum 5 yrs ago. Was 2 yr old with 1 yr warranty left. A metallic blue, bit lighter than azure, still,looks mint. Only failure was MoT last week, rear suspension bushes which apparently is a common fault. In her 80s now and having only done 1000m last year I expect it to last as long as she is still driving .

[Alistair]

Not quite in the same league.....working from home has meant things have changed a bit. It's brilliant fun and pretty much free to run



(photo taken in it's spiritual home)

I really like that, kind of tempted by one for the wife but perceived quality of the interior has always put me off.
In-laws had an 11plate focus and the interior looked like a JVC midi system I had in ‘94.

How do you find it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it's a 14 plate st3 with 44k on the clock and the interior is rock solid - not a single rattle anywhere. The screen in the centre of the dash is pretty smal by modern standards and the sony hifi controls can be a bit confusing but other than that I can't fault it. I know some people really hate the interior but it doesn't bother me at all. Seats are fab recaros and the bum warmers are better than those in our volvo.

Car itself is hilarious - more than quick enough (197bhp on overboost for 15 secs) and on pilot sports it just grips and goes. Ride is a bit lumpy but that's expected from the genre.

The big plus for me is the mrs donkey loves it and finds it dead easy to drive - which wasn't the case with the m2 and definately wasn't the case with the evora.

For cheap fun motoring it would take some beating IMHO

Another vote for the ST - we got one for Mrs F in September last year and it's an epic little car - there is often a fight for the keys!

Seats are amazing, not much will beat it over a B road, and as it's ST3 there are plenty of grown up comforts like quickclear windscreen, climate control, auto lights and wipers etc. Agree there are too many buttons on the Sony stereo - but it's good once you get used to it.

Build quality seems great so far - touch wood.

The blue ones are a lovely colour too....

[Shug]

Not really spoken about it on here, but earlier in the year, we finally got out of lotus ownership after me having at least use of an Elise or Evora since 2002!

The Evora wasn't getting any younger and getting a newer one didn't fulfil Elaine's requirements for an upgrade, namely something that felt a bit more premium inside and she really missed the open top of the Elise. Top that with us never using the rear seats due to the bulk of the required child seat and the bloody height of my son, a 2 seater was back on the cards.

So, got a Jaaaaaag. 2015 F Type S with the mild chassis revision to make it a bit more compliant and the adaptive damping/dynamic mode stuff the S adds. Got this one with a frankly stupid 3700 miles on the clock, as owner 1 had it as a sunny day car and clearly never got much sun.

Obviously it's no Evora in terms of steering feel, but in terms of drama - flick it into dynamic and it's almost psychotic with the *noise*, throttle response and rifle shot gearshifts. But in normal, it does a really passable impression of a classic Jag cruiser. Best of both. Love it.

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