Wife new car advice

[Ngac]

I usually lease cars. Last 6 years she had 2 qashqai, and a sportage. Tightening our belts and kids no longer need buggys /prams so looking to buy her something under 8k a bit smaller but 5dr. Any advice what and where to get from? I usually lease so all new.. been looking at fiesta, juke,. Motorpoint seems very cheap compared to others, any advice on them? Wife not arsed so all on me! TIA

[Ilovejapcrap]

First off decide on a size ?

You mention fiesta so guessing not very big needed ?

Also what sort of mileage ?

If not much I’d deffo go petrol, if possible nice and simple. Can’t get much more simple than a N/A ( naturally aspirated ) petrol. But obviously you loose a little MPG.

Personally I’d go Japanese ( check out my username lol )

What’s the budget ?

[Eyersey1234]

Fiestas are good cars, see other posts for how my 11 year old one is doing, but depending on the age of your children might be a bit small. Have you considered a Focus or a C Max?

[Trevor555]

Ngac said:

Motorpoint seems very cheap compared to others, any advice on them? Wife not arsed so all on me! TIA

Motorpoint have some great prices, much of their stock is ex rental, so if that bothers you make sure you ask them who the previous owner is.

They might say all the V5's are held at head office so cannot confirm this. But they're not allowed to lie, if they tell you it's not ex rental and it turns out it is when you get your log book you can demand a refund.

Having said that, I've sold ex rentals and had no problems, many go out on long terms so same driver.

Take someone with you who can spot accident repairs, same with buying from anywhere really.

[Al U]

Ngac said:

I usually lease cars. Last 6 years she had 2 qashqai, and a sportage. Tightening our belts and kids no longer need buggys /prams so looking to buy her something under 8k a bit smaller but 5dr. Any advice what and where to get from? I usually lease so all new.. been looking at fiesta, juke,. Motorpoint seems very cheap compared to others, any advice on them? Wife not arsed so all on me! TIA

We were trying to buy an astra recently and due to the colour and spec that SWMBO wanted unfortunately it seemed that it was either Motorpoint or main dealer vauxhall that were the only trade sellers that had stock within a 200 mile radius. In the end we viewed 3 cars on 3 separate occasions at motorpoint. The first car was covered in visible smart repairs (we were looking for year old cars with less than 15k miles) so we didn't go for that. The second car had less marks but the marks that were there were worse and just wasn't really good enough for the money they wanted, and the third one was perfect.

We were in the office doing the paperwork to buy the car and just as we were about to pay I asked to see the service history thinking it would be a small formality on a car that was just over a year old and had done less than 15k miles. It didn't have the stamp in the book nor any evidence that the first service had been done. This was a deal breaker as without the first service done on time (1 year/12k miles) Vauxhall won't honour the warranty as the car has not been serviced as per the manufacturers schedule. At this point my wife had had enough and said that she did not want to buy from them so we ended up going main dealer Vauxhall.

I think to be honest it would probably be OK buying a car from Motorpoint but just make sure you check the condition of the cars and paperwork thoroughly as I definitely got the impression that once they've got your money the post-sale customer service will be non-existent. The positives is that they were never pushy with any sales tactics, desperate to sell add on products nor did they push us hard to take finance when we were intending to pay cash. Another plus is that they moved a car from Derby to our local motorpoint for us to view, Ok we had to give them a £300 deposit but when we viewed the car and said we didn't want it they refunded it. One other bug bear I had with them is that with test drives they will only take you on a pre-defined route, and yes you guessed it, all on 30mph roads.

Edited by Al U on Friday 29th December 03:09

[wack]

If she's had 3 SUVs she might not like driving a lower car, my wife didn't , bought a golf , she didn't like it, felt safer driving at height so I swapped it for a Skoda Yeti which she loved , I liked it as lot too

I'd go to one of the big supermarkets and have a look at a few cars , I know fords of winsford will just give you the keys to as many cars as you want to sit in with no questions or salesmen hassling you which I like , even if you don't buy anything you can rule cars out just by sitting in them

[kurt535]

toyota verso. 7 seater. get the 2.0 diesel, not the 2.2. buy European at your peril!

as a guide, I saw yesterday a 35k miler FTSH for £5.8k

[Ngac]

Thanks for all posts.

To answer a few she does about 4K a year since job switch!

Think small is better as we use mine at weekend etc

I’ll check out some suggestions

[Willy Nilly]

Ngac said:

Thanks for all posts.

To answer a few she does about 4K a year since job switch!

Think small is better as we use mine at weekend etc

I’ll check out some suggestions

Jazz, if you're looking at small cars. Dead reliable, economical, loads of room, piss easy to park, happy at "motorway speeds". Love mine. But not that cheap.

[MorganP104]

wack said:

If she's had 3 SUVs she might not like driving a lower car, my wife didn't , bought a golf , she didn't like it, felt safer driving at height so I swapped it for a Skoda Yeti which she loved , I liked it as lot too

I'd go to one of the big supermarkets and have a look at a few cars , I know fords of winsford will just give you the keys to as many cars as you want to sit in with no questions or salesmen hassling you which I like , even if you don't buy anything you can rule cars out just by sitting in them

The Yeti's a good shout. Quirky and characterful, without the associated reliability issues (it's a Skoda, after all), and an SUV-style driving position, which your wife will be used to.

Lots on the used market, and usually owned by sensible people, so unlikely to have been thrashed/abused.

[Trevor555]

Ngac said:

Thanks for all posts.

To answer a few she does about 4K a year since job switch!

Think small is better as we use mine at weekend etc

I’ll check out some suggestions

I wouldn't go diesel with that mileage.

[ZX10R NIN]

Vauxhall Astra's are GVFM at the moment & they're good cars perfect for a family of four.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[Sheepshanks]

Willy Nilly said:

Jazz, if you're looking at small cars. Dead reliable, economical, loads of room, piss easy to park, happy at "motorway speeds". Love mine. But not that cheap.

If you can get over the image then agree with that, and I don't think they're out of line on price - £8K should get a pretty late mk 2 (2009-2015). We have two in the family, both EX models with glass roof, which kids love.

[Ngac]

Willy Nilly said:

Jazz, if you're looking at small cars. Dead reliable, economical, loads of room, piss easy to park, happy at "motorway speeds". Love mine. But not that cheap.

Yes looked st these but quite pricey in comparison thanks

[Ngac]

kurt535 said:

toyota verso. 7 seater. get the 2.0 diesel, not the 2.2. buy European at your peril!

as a guide, I saw yesterday a 35k miler FTSH for £5.8k

Never even heard of these will look into it thanks

[Ngac]

MorganP104 said:

The Yeti's a good shout. Quirky and characterful, without the associated reliability issues (it's a Skoda, after all), and an SUV-style driving position, which your wife will be used to.

Lots on the used market, and usually owned by sensible people, so unlikely to have been thrashed/abused.

I love these but she isn’t keen unfortunately

[Ngac]

Al U said:

We were trying to buy an astra recently and due to the colour and spec that SWMBO wanted unfortunately it seemed that it was either Motorpoint or main dealer vauxhall that were the only trade sellers that had stock within a 200 mile radius. In the end we viewed 3 cars on 3 separate occasions at motorpoint. The first car was covered in visible smart repairs (we were looking for year old cars with less than 15k miles) so we didn't go for that. The second car had less marks but the marks that were there were worse and just wasn't really good enough for the money they wanted, and the third one was perfect.

We were in the office doing the paperwork to buy the car and just as we were about to pay I asked to see the service history thinking it would be a small formality on a car that was just over a year old and had done less than 15k miles. It didn't have the stamp in the book nor any evidence that the first service had been done. This was a deal breaker as without the first service done on time (1 year/12k miles) Vauxhall won't honour the warranty as the car has not been serviced as per the manufacturers schedule. At this point my wife had had enough and said that she did not want to buy from them so we ended up going main dealer Vauxhall.

I think to be honest it would probably be OK buying a car from Motorpoint but just make sure you check the condition of the cars and paperwork thoroughly as I definitely got the impression that once they've got your money the post-sale customer service will be non-existent. The positives is that they were never pushy with any sales tactics, desperate to sell add on products nor did they push us hard to take finance when we were intending to pay cash. Another plus is that they moved a car from Derby to our local motorpoint for us to view, Ok we had to give them a £300 deposit but when we viewed the car and said we didn't want it they refunded it. One other bug bear I had with them is that with test drives they will only take you on a pre-defined route, and yes you guessed it, all on 30mph roads.

Edited by Al U on Friday 29th December 03:09

Great to know thanks

[Ngac]

ZX10R NIN said:

Vauxhall Astra's are GVFM at the moment & they're good cars perfect for a family of four.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Blimey they are cheap for age. Will check used reviews cheers

[ZX10R NIN]

There's nothing that goes wrong with these but they suffer from being a Vauxhall but as you can see (especially in Elite form) they have great spec normally low miles & new enough to have a years worth of warranty (which you could extend) so you have some peace of mind, plus as the kids get older/bigger there's no need to get something bigger which would happen if you got something Fiesta sized.

[Evanivitch]

Renault Zoe can be had for that money. Not huge range but easy do 4000 miles a year on shop runs.