Is buying a car now just the same as buying a toaster?
Discussion
JoeNorton said:
Some really valid comments here, I especially like the one about cars having no character, modern cars just seem so flat, sure they're reliable and economical and all that but, yawn, it's boring.
I too miss the days when a 3 hour drive to London or the Midlands would be full of excitement wondering whether the car would make it there or not. Those were the days!
JoeNorton said:
Some really valid comments here, I especially like the one about cars having no character, modern cars just seem so flat, sure they're reliable and economical and all that but, yawn, it's boring.
A BMW 320d is a great car but how many do you see? And although there's a billion different combinations for a Fiat 500, they're all the same, if you get my drift.
Bizarre argument. You know you don't have to have a BMW 320D, right? They're good cars so lots of people buy them but there is no obligation.A BMW 320d is a great car but how many do you see? And although there's a billion different combinations for a Fiat 500, they're all the same, if you get my drift.
As for all Fiat 500s being 'all the same', what do you expect, exactly? All models of car have always been 'all the same', where you expecting different numbers of wheels or the roof to be put on upside down occasionally to liven things up?
As has been said, there is MASSES of choice now. To pick one make, how many different models has Audi got now? I can remember when they did the Audi 80 and the Audi 100, and that was about it!
I think there is a huge amount of new cars that will be very tempting once they drop in value in a few years.
It may be true that due to fashion, crash regulation and brands using the same design over and over again
cars have become very similiar to each other, but that started a long time ago.
It's more the fault of people gambling on highest resale value and ordering the most inoffensive colour combinations known to mankind (excluding most PHers of course).
It may be true that due to fashion, crash regulation and brands using the same design over and over again
cars have become very similiar to each other, but that started a long time ago.
It's more the fault of people gambling on highest resale value and ordering the most inoffensive colour combinations known to mankind (excluding most PHers of course).
Devil2575 said:
kambites said:
Buying a car has always been like buying a toaster to most people.
Yes. My dad is a perfect example. He goes to the local Vauxhall dealership knowing how much he wants to spend and the salesman pretty much picks the car for him. He doesn't haggle and he has zero interest in handling and spec. He does notice if a car is a bit underpowered but I suspect his idea of underpowered and most petrol head's is very different. Also, something like that wouldn't make him change his car before it was time, i.e. when the garage that maintains it tells him that it's get close to the point of not being economical to repair. He generaly buys them at a few years old and runs them for 6+ years till they have well over 100k on the clock. To him a car is very much a functional item and his real passion is steam trains. I don't like the fact so many cars are only ordered in boring white/grey/silver/black combos these days - makes it very dull when you look out at a car park for example.
Bring back more colourful cars!
I could have chosen a silver/grey/black one, but I like this instead
/shameless photo-whoring.
Bring back more colourful cars!
I could have chosen a silver/grey/black one, but I like this instead
/shameless photo-whoring.
Edited by Riknos on Thursday 18th September 11:20
Two things spring to mind.
1) The "i love the 80s" chap in the OP who moans about all the silver cars with grey interiors is presumably not in a position to buy a brand new car. If he was he would realise that there are still thousands of exterior /interior combinations available but sadly the British public are mostly too conservative and listen to too much crap about resale values.
2) I have only ever bought 1 toaster in my life, it was £10 and barely survived a couple of years of Uni. I do find this whole business of likening a car purchase which for the vast majority of people is the second most expensive item they purchase to a common household item. The only way I see that as being true is if we consider the large number of people who purchase using loans/finance so look at a car as £250pm and don't give it as much thought as say spending £600 on a new TV which in their strange little world is more expensive.
1) The "i love the 80s" chap in the OP who moans about all the silver cars with grey interiors is presumably not in a position to buy a brand new car. If he was he would realise that there are still thousands of exterior /interior combinations available but sadly the British public are mostly too conservative and listen to too much crap about resale values.
2) I have only ever bought 1 toaster in my life, it was £10 and barely survived a couple of years of Uni. I do find this whole business of likening a car purchase which for the vast majority of people is the second most expensive item they purchase to a common household item. The only way I see that as being true is if we consider the large number of people who purchase using loans/finance so look at a car as £250pm and don't give it as much thought as say spending £600 on a new TV which in their strange little world is more expensive.
I'll be honest. The most exciting thing about specing the Skoda was being able to have race blue. It's our workhorse smoker Ffs. Where as the fun cars bought second hand are black and silver 
I too wish people would dare to be different.
I don't see it getting any better soon. Metallic paint on the missus last co-car was an extra £10 a month for a car she was never going to keep after 3 years. So it was recession white.
I too wish people would dare to be different. I don't see it getting any better soon. Metallic paint on the missus last co-car was an extra £10 a month for a car she was never going to keep after 3 years. So it was recession white.
Monty Python said:
The choice is there - IRC there are half a million different combinations of extras/colours on the Fiat 500 alone. I have to admit that the range of colours appears to have shrunk (unless you go for the "Individual" colours which are ridiculously expensive).
And yet 90% are still just plain whiteaka_kerrly said:
Negative Creep said:
And yet 90% are still just plain white
Because "experts" warn of the dangers of daring to be individual and suggest white/silver are the safe colours, this combined with some terrible trends perhaps started by manufactures promoting so many new cars in white.aka_kerrly said:
Two things spring to mind.
1) The "i love the 80s" chap in the OP who moans about all the silver cars with grey interiors is presumably not in a position to buy a brand new car. If he was he would realise that there are still thousands of exterior /interior combinations available but sadly the British public are mostly too conservative and listen to too much crap about resale values.
This. There are plenty cars other than that Facebooker's default German tat if people would open their eyes. There are lots of colours too.1) The "i love the 80s" chap in the OP who moans about all the silver cars with grey interiors is presumably not in a position to buy a brand new car. If he was he would realise that there are still thousands of exterior /interior combinations available but sadly the British public are mostly too conservative and listen to too much crap about resale values.
The problem is the British self-loathing and obsessive need to blend in to the background. Even Pistonheads is terrible. Chris Harris specced an RS6 in Fog Grey, someone else wrote some crap about the XFR-S being better in f
king grey with small spoiler and even the forums are full of dullards who point at anyone with a car other than grey and accuses them of being attention seeking or shouty.Grow a personality of your own, people of Britain. If your primary motive when ordering a new car was making sure you'd actually like it, rather than obsessing over how easily you can get rid of it when you realise that one grey diesel is just as naff as the next then you may might enjoy car ownership more. You'll certainly save time wandering round multi storey carparks blipping your key fob trying to work out which grey 320d is yours.
IanCress said:
Look at all those saloons. These days you could choose a 5 Series GT, or a Merc CLS, or an Audi Q5, or even a 4x4 Porsche diesel if you wanted. We've never had so much choice as we do now.
As for grey interiors, most manufacturers will offer a range of interior options. However, as most of these cars are bought / leased as company cars, they stick with safe colour schemes which are guaranteed to be worth money when it comes to sell them on.
I think the main point - is that YES they are all saloons - the older cars above.As for grey interiors, most manufacturers will offer a range of interior options. However, as most of these cars are bought / leased as company cars, they stick with safe colour schemes which are guaranteed to be worth money when it comes to sell them on.
But if we take an Alfa 164, Rover 827 and a Vauxhall Senator 24 valve - these are all different cars - having different chassis - and having different ways of doing things.
Bring an E34 535i or 540i (the 535i was the range topper E34 before BMW bought out the V8s afaik) into the equation and you have a different car again.
Now today we have all these variations of MPVs - and you have SUV type machines - but you have the situation where in a makers range - all these options will often have a more limited range of platforms to work with.
An S max is based on a Mondeo, a Mokka - is probably based on a Corsa or an Astra (I have that little interest in Mokkas I am too lazy to bother checking
)And Bluebirds (sorry), 405, P10 Primera and Sierra - were all different cars again to each other - even though the 405 and P10 Primera both had similar aims in terms of being good to drive etc.
Nowdays however platform sharing means manufacturers sharing platforms not just between cars within their range - but also between different makes.
For example Mk 2 Ford Ka is based on the 04 to 2012 Fiat Panda and its 500 sister afaik.
And lets get one thing clear - this whole trend of SUVs, MPVs, coupes jacked up SUV style - well hello there Mini paceman - is all about marketing appeal - not making better cars.
We have to accept for example that Quasqui for Nissan is about building a model brand - and early tests of the new Pulsar suggest a range filler rather then a class leader.
This is quite common these days - because at least in the days of the Senator Opel/Vauxhall will have tried to make a car to keep up with BMW.
That doesn't happen anymore imo - and its disappointing - what the industry needs is a car like the LS 400 (a saloon
) that shakes up the market and gives the opposition a fright because that car wasn't expected from its maker (Toyota who created the Lexus brand for the luxury market).Yours - a long time car enthusiast
You say the LS400 shook up the market, but isn't that exactly what the Quashqai and Juke did? When Ford, VX and VW thought they'd seen off the competition from Nissan after the Primera and Almera were dropped, along they came with two ground breaking cars that the private buyers loved.
Theres a valid point made by someone on Character - to those of us who like cars - character can be fun.
Ive mentioned before about the Daihatsu Fourtrack we had on the farm here - that thing had character.
Yes it steered its way around corners like the QE 2, the ride and gearchange weren't great, it was slow - it was noisy.
In short not great to drive by any objective standards.
But it had character, it was different - and it was fun because of that.
But you wouldn't use it for a 500 mile drive up and down the motorway network - its not the sort of machine you want to be in if its 12 pm on a wet Friday and you need to be somewhere in another European country many miles away by 10 pm.
Its also not a machine for 1000 miles a week type situations - or for fitting into the world of someone that just wants a nice easy to drive, well thought out car like a Golf.
Its the whole need to make cars fit owners needs - make them good on long journeys, make them easy to live with for trips to Tesco and taking kids to school that means a lot of character needs to be removed
Ive mentioned before about the Daihatsu Fourtrack we had on the farm here - that thing had character.
Yes it steered its way around corners like the QE 2, the ride and gearchange weren't great, it was slow - it was noisy.
In short not great to drive by any objective standards.
But it had character, it was different - and it was fun because of that.
But you wouldn't use it for a 500 mile drive up and down the motorway network - its not the sort of machine you want to be in if its 12 pm on a wet Friday and you need to be somewhere in another European country many miles away by 10 pm.
Its also not a machine for 1000 miles a week type situations - or for fitting into the world of someone that just wants a nice easy to drive, well thought out car like a Golf.
Its the whole need to make cars fit owners needs - make them good on long journeys, make them easy to live with for trips to Tesco and taking kids to school that means a lot of character needs to be removed
IanCress said:
You say the LS400 shook up the market, but isn't that exactly what the Quashqai and Juke did? When Ford, VX and VW thought they'd seen off the competition from Nissan after the Primera and Almera were dropped, along they came with two ground breaking cars that the private buyers loved.
The quasqui and Juke trade on style - and were marketing ingenuity on Nissans part.The LS 400 was just a marvellous achievement in terms of what it tried to do for Toyota in delivering a level of engineering and luxury previously unheard off for Japan and Toyota.
Just my viewpoint - to me its like the way Audi now - is a premium BRAND - but back in the days of the Audi 80 especially the B3 and B4 - the Audi was a premium CAR.
That isn't to say the modern Audi isn't a very good car because it is - but the difference is - so are lots of other cars on the road.
Back in the late 80s an Audi 80 was a much better quality car then a Sierra - but a modern A4 is not that much better then a Mondeo - imo
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