Boring SUV crossover type car choice
Discussion
The time has come to replace my Mum's 10 year old BMW 320Ci with something a bit more practical for her now that she's both getting on and has young grandchildren visiting her. She struggles getting in and out of the BMW due to its low height and ridiculously high kerbs where she lives in Cyprus. Plus the roads out here make the UK's look racetrack smooth, the answer to everything out here seems to be concrete and as much as you like, with speed humps that appear everywhere (including new dual carriageways and main "A" roads) and are best described as driving over a sleeping elephant.
I reckon one of these new fangled crossover SUV type cars is the perfect solution, rather than an out and out 4x4 due to purchase cost, running costs and mainly size, as she managed to write my X5 off doing a 3 point turn a few years back!
Having had a nosey around the three main candidates are:
They'll all be around 1.6l auto petrol and all with top level spec for the car. I've discounted diesel, as she'll stick petrol in it and complain about the diesel smell on her hands when she does get it right, so I'll get non stop phone calls telling me the car is about to explode. Performance is crap on all of the cars, which is a good thing with her crap driving (fits in well over here). I've also ruled out the Vauxhall Mokka, Hyundai ix30 / 35, Chevrolet Trax, Ford Kuga, Kia / Suzuki whatevers, Tiguan etc, either on price / availability / ease of servicing, or size so no need to go through options.
My question is what horror stories do we have of the above three cars and thoughts on which you'd go for, if you were a 72 year old woman with dodgy knees and a serious lack of driving ability!
I reckon one of these new fangled crossover SUV type cars is the perfect solution, rather than an out and out 4x4 due to purchase cost, running costs and mainly size, as she managed to write my X5 off doing a 3 point turn a few years back!
Having had a nosey around the three main candidates are:
- Nissan Juke
- Subaru XV
- Renault Captor
They'll all be around 1.6l auto petrol and all with top level spec for the car. I've discounted diesel, as she'll stick petrol in it and complain about the diesel smell on her hands when she does get it right, so I'll get non stop phone calls telling me the car is about to explode. Performance is crap on all of the cars, which is a good thing with her crap driving (fits in well over here). I've also ruled out the Vauxhall Mokka, Hyundai ix30 / 35, Chevrolet Trax, Ford Kuga, Kia / Suzuki whatevers, Tiguan etc, either on price / availability / ease of servicing, or size so no need to go through options.
My question is what horror stories do we have of the above three cars and thoughts on which you'd go for, if you were a 72 year old woman with dodgy knees and a serious lack of driving ability!
MonkeyMatt said:
Any reasons for dismissing two of the best cars in the class, but considering a yet to be launched honda?
Yeti. She doesn't like the look of it and too much of a brand snob to go with it. Mazda. Not launched yet, so can't say, but it's priced way higher than other comparable ones here.
sammc123 said:
Have you not considered the Suzuki X Cross? I must admit I did go and have a look and test drive one of these and was pleasantly surprised with the drive and there is also lots of gadgets to keep you entertained for a while.
Can't stand Suzuki bikes and the build quality of the anodised tat that the "gixxer" owners onpbsess over is s
te. She's very superficial and will be doing no more than pottering about, but still has her own ridiculous social status to maintain.
If she doesn't need awd then what about something like a Nissan note? Mrs JKH has one, a 1.6 petrol auto, and it has been a very good car over the past 5 years or so we have owned it. Interior space, especially in the rear, is much better than a juke or similar, whilst it still has a reasonably high ride height and seating position. Cheaper than a crossover to buy and run.
I've got a captur as my company demo(I work for Renault) it's a well specced car, nav, cruise, auto lights and wipers and lots of other bits, the boot space is good as is cabin space. The down side is the 1.5dci 90bhp engine leaves me a bit cold, it needs the 110bhp (which is now available) and my back was a bit creaky after a long journey a few weeks back.
It's a good car, I'd have a qashqai over it given the choice. The jukes small inside, small boot and begs for damage with its odd proportions.
It's a good car, I'd have a qashqai over it given the choice. The jukes small inside, small boot and begs for damage with its odd proportions.
It's taken me a lot of time to get her onto this sort of car and away from BMW (I'm not shelling out Cyprus prices for an X1) now that they don't do Duty Free cars anymore. The Note simply wouldn't get her interest, so that's out.
The Qashqai is too big. She's a crap driver and 72. She wrote off my X5 doing a three point turn, so it needs to be small, hence why I'm looking at these crossover things.
The Qashqai is too big. She's a crap driver and 72. She wrote off my X5 doing a three point turn, so it needs to be small, hence why I'm looking at these crossover things.
Back in 2004 I got a cracking 4.4 V8 one with a load of tacky (I was younger) Schnitzer kit on it for quite a steal as nobody wanted it due to the ridiculous tax charged on gas guzzlers here. As I blagged it duty free it was a steal, although the annual road tax was over £1000 even back then.
Anyway, I left it over there and used to pop over two or three times a year and asked my Mum to just turn it over and drive it occasionally just to save things getting stuck on in the heat. I came over about 5 years ago and she picked me up in the 320 which was very unusual, my car was parked on her drive with front and rear bumpers hanging off, exhaust ripped off, full front of car caved in and front wheels pointing in opposite directions.
Turns out she'd reversed back and hit a high kerb, and beached the exhausts on it. She then decided to plant it and scraped the hell out of the exhausts. By planting it, she shot forward, hit the kerb on the other side at a silly speed and bounced up onto the pavement doing some damage I'm guessing to the steering g then. She then repeated the "planting it" in reverse, smashed up the kerb, hit a concrete seat and ripped the bumper off. Same again, shot forward, smashed into a shop front and killed the car at that point.
All of the above is second hand based on what her passenger told me. Either way I was more pissed off that her solution was to ignore and hope it goes away because "I didn't know what to do about the insurance stuff" completely ignoring my expertise and job! Oh and the fact that the drug dealer look got me a rather nice queue of Cypriot and holidaying bimbos.
Anyway, I left it over there and used to pop over two or three times a year and asked my Mum to just turn it over and drive it occasionally just to save things getting stuck on in the heat. I came over about 5 years ago and she picked me up in the 320 which was very unusual, my car was parked on her drive with front and rear bumpers hanging off, exhaust ripped off, full front of car caved in and front wheels pointing in opposite directions.
Turns out she'd reversed back and hit a high kerb, and beached the exhausts on it. She then decided to plant it and scraped the hell out of the exhausts. By planting it, she shot forward, hit the kerb on the other side at a silly speed and bounced up onto the pavement doing some damage I'm guessing to the steering g then. She then repeated the "planting it" in reverse, smashed up the kerb, hit a concrete seat and ripped the bumper off. Same again, shot forward, smashed into a shop front and killed the car at that point.
All of the above is second hand based on what her passenger told me. Either way I was more pissed off that her solution was to ignore and hope it goes away because "I didn't know what to do about the insurance stuff" completely ignoring my expertise and job! Oh and the fact that the drug dealer look got me a rather nice queue of Cypriot and holidaying bimbos.
We had a Juke, shortest amount of time we've ever had a car before moving it on, less than a year I think. Obviously we were aware that it wasn't practical and that the fuel tank was annoyingly small but thank god for the warranty! Exhaust fell off on a car less than a year old, sump went and countless electrical issues.
Had several Nissans over the years but the Juke was not a good experience for us.
Gone Honda this time round and the car and dealer service has been superb so far.
Had several Nissans over the years but the Juke was not a good experience for us.
Gone Honda this time round and the car and dealer service has been superb so far.
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