On the verge of buying a new (to me) car - boring MPV....

[dave_s13]

Bear with me, this is quite boring

Just been round to a local dealer who have the following cars in stock:-

Car 1
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...
2003 Ford Galaxy - Ghia
1.9TDI manual, 6 spd
75k miles, good service history.
Leather, cruise, climate, CD changer, good tyres, PDC front and rear, full MOT/

Issues - PDC not working, climate not blowing cold. Leather but not heated - combined with diesels taking an age to warm the cabin will likely mean cold seats.

Car 2
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...
2003 Ford Galaxy - Ghia
2.3i Petrol, manual 5spd
95k miles, no real service history to speak of.
4 nearly new tyres, good brakes.
Same sepc as above but cloth interior.

Issues: Climate not blowing cold, cruise not working, driver window switch intermittent

Price to change

Car 1
£1300

Car 2
£300

I'm trading in my 2005 Corrola verso 1.6 petrol, it's mechanically perfect, cosmetically a bit scruffy but it's just not big enough for us, had a new baby 2weeks ago so got 3 kids under 5 now!.

I only drove the petrol and it went very well indeed, even had a bit of grunt. Didn't drive the derv but assume it's similarly sound.

The dealer has stated he will fix all the issues prior to, or after sale, with me dropping the car back with him next week as needed or just waiting until it's sorted.

So the position is do I go for the cheaper petrol and accept it will use more fuel, be more expensive to tax (£280 vs £220) and depreciate more or shell out an extra grand for the diesel which could give issues with clutch, DMF, injectors, also they can be cold to sit in in winter etc. The car will be used mainly for local trips so I'm erring on the side of the petrol. It's also a chain driven engine so all good there. I'd just service it myself as soon as I got it.

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 1st November 16:35

[vikingaero]

Car 2, with the faults fixed PRIOR to sale, Never after.

[mnkiboy]

Unless you need diesel due to driving high mileage, i'd go for the mechanically simpler petrol car. You've also got £1000 in your pocket to fix any issues that crop up (and they will, on a big car of that age).

I wouldn't hold too much trust in the dealer fixing 'all the issues'. If the climate issue ends up needing an aircon compressor he's not going to fork out for the work on a car he only made a few hundred quid on. You can live without aircon anyway, so i'd maybe be tempted to offer £50 less and say you'll get it fixed yourself.

Edited by mnkiboy on Friday 1st November 15:30

[dave_s13]

mnkiboy said:

Unless you need diesel due to driving high mileage, i'd go for the mechanically simpler petrol car. You've also got £1000 in your pocket to fix any issues that crop up (and they will, on a big car of that age).

I wouldn't hold too much trust in the dealer fixing 'all the issues'. If the climate issue ends up needing an aircon compressor he's not going to fork out for the work on a car he only made a few hundered quid on. You can live without aircon anyway, so i'd maybe be tempted to offer £50 less and say you'll get it fixed yourself.

Cheers.

It's a shame as the car I'm trading in was bought without the air con working thinking it just needed a re-gas..nope. Anyway I managed to source and DIY fit a compressor from a breakers and get it all running for £180. That was pretty damn good going though and I was lucky it was just the compressor and nowt else.

The sensible thing is to ensure the car is sorted prior to picking the car up, you then run into potential "non-refundable" deposit territory, maybe it's best to do the deal, swap the cars and get a written agreement that all issues will be sorted at a later date with the option to reverse the transaction in the event something can't be fixed.

[rallycross]

I doubt it worth his while fixing those problems at that price - so I doubt you will get working a/c.
The petrol will be much nicer to drive but fuel bills will be high, fine if not doing many miles.
Even a diesel Galaxy gives big fuel bills.

[dave_s13]

rallycross said:

I doubt it worth his while fixing those problems at that price - so I doubt you will get working a/c.
The petrol will be much nicer to drive but fuel bills will be high, fine if not doing many miles.
Even a diesel Galaxy gives big fuel bills.

Probably do roughly 10k per year in this car at the most.

If it does 25mpg average that'll do.

I'm assuming he factors in the costs of repairs into his profit margins? If it is just a regas and a faulty cruise switch then it should be much to put right at trade prices, probably.

I'm going to do what I never usually and sleep on it. I'm a bugger for just buying the first thing I see

[GreatGranny]

I had the Alhambra with the same engine when we had our 3rd and it was a good car.

Went well with the torguey diesel, I averaged nearly 40 mpg with 45 on longer journeys.

Waswn't too bad with repairs either.

Blown turbo pipe which was £150
Various suspension parts for MOTs but it never cost more than £200 to get through it.
It even survived when my wife put £20 of petrol in it and ran it until it broke down. Local garage drained it, filled it up and away it went.

Ours came with PDC front and rear, climate, 6 speed, heated cloth seats and cruise.

Good family workhorse.

[Toaster Pilot]

Do modem diesels actually take that long to warm up? I don't think my old Felicia diesel takes much longer than a petrol car

[cat220]

I have a 2003 2.3 Galaxy. Bought it as a stop gap for family duties with a view of replacing it with something newer. However we've decided to hold onto it for a while longer, it's not missed a beat and in the world of MPV's it's a decent drive. A recent trip up the west coast, fully loaded including a roof box it returned 28mpg. That was a mix of fast A roads and lots of single track roads. I was more than happy with that.

The 2.3 petrol seems to be regarded as a reliable unit.

Cheers,
C

[C.A.R.]

Isn't the 2.3 a VR6 engine and the 1.9 a VAG PD?

If that is the case and you're going to do >12k miles pa surely the diesel will be a better bet, especially given the cars' size?

My boss used to run a 2.3 Auto, it was nippy for its size, but it did guzzle fuel.

One thing to look out for on both of them is interior trim damage / headlining - indicates that it has been used as a van. I'm not sure why that would make a difference, as most of them are driven flat-out anyway!

[cat220]

C.A.R. said:

Isn't the 2.3 a VR6 engine and the 1.9 a VAG PD?

If that is the case and you're going to do >12k miles pa surely the diesel will be a better bet, especially given the cars' size?

My boss used to run a 2.3 Auto, it was nippy for its size, but it did guzzle fuel.

One thing to look out for on both of them is interior trim damage / headlining - indicates that it has been used as a van. I'm not sure why that would make a difference, as most of them are driven flat-out anyway!

It's the 2.8 thats the VR6 engine. The 2.3 is the ford unit.

[rallycross]

cat220 said:

It's the 2.8 thats the VR6 engine. The 2.3 is the ford unit.

Im impressed you got 28 mpg on a run in your 2.3 thats good going.
What do you get just normal day to day use?

Last Galaxy I had was a 2.3 4 cyl petrol but kitted with LPG, and I remember on the motorway it was terrible on fuel I had to keep stopping to fill the tank up again (I was going quickly) seemed like a waste of time to me having to stop every 150 miles for gas (maybe I should have slowed down to a respectable MPV speed but was not in the mood to trundle along on a 400 mile trip). It was doing about 15 mpg.

[dave_s13]

rallycross said:

..... It was doing about 15 mpg.

the fook

How fast were you bloody going man

I'm hoping it will return 30mpg+ on a steady mway run.

Just noticed another



An hours drive away....doesn't sound like much and I've just rung the dealer to get the usual "yes it's mint, everything works" line.

I'm drawn to the in-car DVD player though, keep the kids happy and is has the potential to have none of the faults of the other one I looked at today.

It's a long way to go to find it's fooked....still might give it a look over at some point though, I hate buying cheap second hand cars

Looks pretty clean from the pictures though.

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 1st November 16:36

[M3DGE]

dave_s13 said:

rallycross said:

..... It was doing about 15 mpg.

the fook

How fast were you bloody going man

I'm hoping it will return 30mpg+ on a steady mway run.

Just noticed another



An hours drive away....doesn't sound like much and I've just rung the dealer to get the usual "yes it's mint, everything works" line.

I'm drawn to the in-car DVD player though, keep the kids happy and is has the potential to have none of the faults of the other one I looked at today.

It's a long way to go to find it's fooked....still might give it a look over at some point though, I hate buying cheap second hand cars

Looks pretty clean from the pictures though.

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 1st November 16:36

That does look clean - and the DVD will be a godsend with kids in the back!! Would never spec them new, portables/ ipads cheaper and more flexible, but a bonus in a second hand buy. I'd definitely have a look at this one before making your mind up. For what it's worth, I'd take the petrol one out of the two you've looked at - less likely to cost you big bucks, nicer to drive and you've got to drive a lot of miles to burn £1000 of extra petrol.

[dave_s13]

M3DGE said:

That does look clean - and the DVD will be a godsend with kids in the back!! Would never spec them new, portables/ ipads cheaper and more flexible, but a bonus in a second hand buy. I'd definitely have a look at this one before making your mind up. For what it's worth, I'd take the petrol one out of the two you've looked at - less likely to cost you big bucks, nicer to drive and you've got to drive a lot of miles to burn £1000 of extra petrol.

All set to go see it this morning, sold at the weekend...buggerit.

I'm consiidering this now

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...



Could be suicide but low miles, good spec only 10 minute drive away. Could be interesting!!

Assume that as it's the same car as the pug 807, citroen c8 then it can't be that bad.......????

[Toaster Pilot]

Looks clean that, or at least well presented! Know nothing about them though!

[dave_s13]

Toaster Pilot said:

Looks clean that, or at least well presented! Know nothing about them though!

It was a textbook example of how a low mileage supposedly perfect car can be a total fking shed!

Both front seat bolsters were worn flat, fag burns everywhere. Exhaust blowing, huge amounts of turbo whistle, dodgy electrics with the most poorly thought out and executed on board computer for nav/phone etc that I've ever seen, total crap and none of it worked!

Service history included 2 hand written lines on the front of the V5 saying it had a cambelt change....fk right off!

Muppets.

Paid full asking.......

Not really, there is no way on earth that thing hasn't been clocked.

Went back to see that first petrol Galaxy. Now have written confirmation all the faults will be fixed and should pick it up this week sometime. Rather randomly I just sold my car tonight completely out of the blue....I need to start another thread about that one as I no longer have a PX!!