Here we go again, tour de dealerships
Discussion
Thanks, that's really helpful advice, and kind of what I've been thinking, and what I've heard from others here. I've lined up three garages to get second, third and forth opinions from when they open tomorrow. The Ford main dealer (which I just accidentally spelled "Frod" amusingly) did indeed diagnose a cataclysmic failure, but were unable to tell me anything at all about the error codes or what they saw. They just said "Turbo failure, £100 fee for diagnosis and £2000 to repair". Won't be going back there. For bonus fun they also refused to search their own database to see if they had an auto Focus to sell me. "If you can point to one in the car park I'll get the key." We left after that.
btw, very best of luck to you and your wife in the hunt for her special new car. For me the colour is also weirdly critical, so I'm right with her there.
btw, very best of luck to you and your wife in the hunt for her special new car. For me the colour is also weirdly critical, so I'm right with her there.
jsp56 said:
Thanks, that's really helpful advice, and kind of what I've been thinking, and what I've heard from others here. I've lined up three garages to get second, third and forth opinions from when they open tomorrow. The Ford main dealer (which I just accidentally spelled "Frod" amusingly) did indeed diagnose a cataclysmic failure, but were unable to tell me anything at all about the error codes or what they saw. They just said "Turbo failure, £100 fee for diagnosis and £2000 to repair". Won't be going back there. For bonus fun they also refused to search their own database to see if they had an auto Focus to sell me. "If you can point to one in the car park I'll get the key." We left after that.
btw, very best of luck to you and your wife in the hunt for her special new car. For me the colour is also weirdly critical, so I'm right with her there.
Yeah, I got quoted over £3k for an electronic fault from a Vette main agent on mine. Diagnosed it myself in the end after swapping a lot of wires around, and finding an error in the codes pointing to a sensor on the wrong wheel! Cost me less than £200 in the end. Loads of similar stories from my dad's business too.btw, very best of luck to you and your wife in the hunt for her special new car. For me the colour is also weirdly critical, so I'm right with her there.
You sound like you would get on very well with my wife over a glass of,wine. She is mulling colours as I type.
. She is not a "red" person, but the Clio does have a nice deep metallic red option. Sadly, it doesn't stop there as there are all sorts of "personalisation" options she can spec too on colours I hope she keeps it to something that someone else will want to buy in a few years time. More a Constable than a Picasso I hope!
Keep your chin up and let us all know the (hopefully) good news after tomorrow.
jsp56 said:
Yikes! Good that you got that fixed. Looking forward to hearing what your wife chooses. :-) She does indeed sound like my kind of person. If at any point she says "I like that blue, but it might possibly be a bit purple." Then we are squarely on the same page.
You should take a look at a colour that Ford did some years ago called Paris blue mica. I had a car In that, and women used to come up to me in garages asking what colour it was. Basically, it was blue with a red mica on it. In a Mobil garage, with the blue coloured lights of the pumps it looked stellar!Don't think she will go for blue this time...
Raize said:
MINI Countryman?
She no likey "the van" model. . Saw the 5 door yesterday on the interweb, haven't seen one I the flesh yet... Not likely to look TBH.I must admit, after almost 4 years of the S, I don't think she would want another Mini even though they do a 5 door now. I was also a bit disappointed when we bought hers. I was given the go ahead to hillclimb it now and then (gently of course dear), but the handling was so erratic, it could potentially involve some significant rearrangement of the panels...
It would be very expensive to sort the handling, would make it uncomfortable for her daily use, and I would not do that to her. So a different toy is required and there is no room in the garage or on the drive unfortunately. Anyway, we enjoy our Sundays together, so competing doesn't have such an attraction these days.
jsp56 said:
That's lovely, but I definitely could not pull off something that cool.
Do I sense a whiff of modesty there? I am sure you could.She is just the same, but her car is more cute to her than cool. When we go out in something exotic and loud, she is hiding under the dash. I even bought the plate (which she wasn't at all keen on at first) about 15 years ago as a joke as I have always called her Babe since I saw the movie with the kids
Sorry, a bit oafish there
. Not really, that is my nickname for her.Anyway, back to the plot, it is looking a bit like this, or maybe a white one (yuk)
Yes that does have rear doors...
steveeeW said:
Cheers for the update! A rather fun & interesting read for a change, rather than a 'what car' thread. Lovely Corvette BTW!
Did you look @ any of Honda's range? I.E the Jazz, or civic?
Cheers. As mentioned, lots of cars have come and gone in the 10 years, but that is a keeper. Did you look @ any of Honda's range? I.E the Jazz, or civic?
We did look at the Honda range, but the exterior styling was not quite to her liking. Seemed well put together, but no reaction from the wife on wanting one. She felt the Civic looked quite dated, maybe something to do with the rather risky look being a bit marmite.
We are very lucky as there is a motor plaza a few miles from us with most of the main players al together in a small area, and a few stragglers within a few miles. We got to see pretty much everything apart from BMW, but she is not interested in them anyway.
Sometimes she can be odd about styling. Given what she said about Honda, I had to almost forcibly stop her from throwing her leg over a Dacia Duster in the Renault showroom
. Weird indeed...jsp56 said:
I also slight coveted the Mini, but then I sat in a neighbour's one and it wasn't nearly as nice as classical looking and sophisticated inside as I was expecting. I have no idea of why that matters, but it did seem to.
Yeah, quite funky which does not appeal to everyone - every person has their own view. Hers is quite well specced, a nice place to be in the daytime but with all sorts of colour changing mood lighting and stuff making it quite cosy at night too. She doesn't hammer it so doesn't really notice the bad handling. It is a bit gimmicky for me too, but as is clear from every what car thread on here, it really is horses for courses.I recently bought my step daughter an MX5 after she said she liked the look of them. She had the little Streetka for a couple of years and wanted something a bit more modern now her no claims could make insurance affordable. I couldn't really afford a brand new one knowing my wife's car is up for a change soon after.
Once again, the special editions came to my rescue as most MX5s I saw in the classifieds a couple of years old were very poorly specced. The Anniversary model, while being a 2010 car was actually quite nice, and she loved the pearl white colour and special wheels when she saw one.
So a few days later, an immaculate one owner 11000 miler in pearl white was on her drive with a big ribbon round the roof, and a teddy bear in the passenger seat holding a box of chocs
. She has had a bit of a tough time lately with her boyfriend getting killed, so it was nice to do something to cheer her up a bit.
[AbarthChris said:
I liked the initial rant, very funny
Actually, since you mentioned it, I just went back and had another look at that. We didn't bother with prices too much when looking on Saturday, just got a rough idea from numbers on the display placards. On speccing the Clio up online, she has picked a car that seems to be way under £20k, let alone the £25k she set as a maximum. SeeFive said:
Actually, since you mentioned it, I just went back and had another look at that. We didn't bother with prices too much when looking on Saturday, just got a rough idea from numbers on the display placards. On speccing the Clio up online, she has picked a car that seems to be way under £20k, let alone the £25k she set as a maximum.
Extra 5k in the lambo fund then! 
Time for an update. She drove her shortlist at the weekend and has decided to go for the new Clio Dynamique S 1.5 diesel. Specced up the car with her, and lo and behold it came out exactly the same as the immaculate one sitting In the showroom! So, to avoid the uncertainties of build time slots, I asked it it was for sale, and we bought that on Saturday.
It will be registered in September to benefit from the later reg for resale. With the paint and a few bits of extra carbon effect on the chin, arse and sills, it came to just shy of £18k list, which for French white goods is quite a lot of money, but it actually looks and drives in a way she likes, well the lower spec demo car did anyway. Ended up at £16.5k including 4 years servicing free, shockingly good trade-in price on her Cooper S, 4 years 100,000 mile warrantee, and 4 years all bells and whistles RAC on the car, plus the usual mats, 1st aid kit, warning triangle, hi vis vest etc.
Then the bombshell. Didn't fancy throwing away loads of deposit on pcp and want to own he car on day1, so was going to throw cash at it. But Renault are running a 0% finance for four years at the moment, so I just put 40% in and will do the rest on 0%. Result, and my better half is really chuffed, 4 doors, shiny, lots of toys, economical and a suspension for a change... and we can do some work on the house with the rest of the cash.!
There is also still time for me to go and buy some more ribbon, champers and a teddy bear to be in the car when she collects it! Happy wife = happy me
It will be registered in September to benefit from the later reg for resale. With the paint and a few bits of extra carbon effect on the chin, arse and sills, it came to just shy of £18k list, which for French white goods is quite a lot of money, but it actually looks and drives in a way she likes, well the lower spec demo car did anyway. Ended up at £16.5k including 4 years servicing free, shockingly good trade-in price on her Cooper S, 4 years 100,000 mile warrantee, and 4 years all bells and whistles RAC on the car, plus the usual mats, 1st aid kit, warning triangle, hi vis vest etc.
Then the bombshell. Didn't fancy throwing away loads of deposit on pcp and want to own he car on day1, so was going to throw cash at it. But Renault are running a 0% finance for four years at the moment, so I just put 40% in and will do the rest on 0%. Result, and my better half is really chuffed, 4 doors, shiny, lots of toys, economical and a suspension for a change... and we can do some work on the house with the rest of the cash.!
There is also still time for me to go and buy some more ribbon, champers and a teddy bear to be in the car when she collects it! Happy wife = happy me
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