"It's got to be cute"
Discussion
- Deep breath*
Doesn't test drive, doesn't barter the price, nothing...
She currently has a purple Vauxhall Adam. She bought this because "I liked the patterned dashboard".
She's now looking for a new car, initially wanting a Nissan Juke - fortunately I talked her out of this...
I said what about a Mini Paceman or something (you know, they're not terrible cars and they have colour changing LEDs inside etc.).
So she went to the BMW garage... Get this, she came away with a 'welcome' package for a Beetle Design. Which looks like the most atrocious car ever.
1.2litre, 105ps, 112mph max speed, the list goes on. All that for a lovely price of £20k!
Could someone out there help me suggest a car for her?
"It's got to be cute" "It's got to have character" "It's got to look pretty" "It's got to make me go 'wow'"
And for my sake, it's got to be something half bloody decent.
Help, please...
gr_96 said:
She likes the Beetle because it's "different" and has a colourful dashboard. By the sounds of things it's got to have a bit of colour...
nothing wrong with that - if she is happy, let her have the car she wants...life is too short to get a 'good' car (good in someone else's eyes) which the owner / driver isn't attached to - if she goes out, sees her car / gets in it and thinks each time - "how lovely" then she is in a better place than most drivers...
I would suspect that a lot of folks on PH buy cars due to emotional attachment, not underlying logic - just think of all the cars no-one would buy if logic was the main driving factor (e.g. any LR product!)
gr_96 said:
*Deep breath*
So my girlfriend's mum is TERRIBLE at buying cars, to the point where she goes in, sees something she likes and buys it.
Doesn't test drive, doesn't barter the price, nothing...
She currently has a purple Vauxhall Adam. She bought this because "I liked the patterned dashboard".
She's now looking for a new car, initially wanting a Nissan Juke - fortunately I talked her out of this...
I said what about a Mini Paceman or something (you know, they're not terrible cars and they have colour changing LEDs inside etc.).
So she went to the BMW garage... Get this, she came away with a 'welcome' package for a Beetle Design. Which looks like the most atrocious car ever.
1.2litre, 105ps, 112mph max speed, the list goes on. All that for a lovely price of £20k!
Could someone out there help me suggest a car for her?
"It's got to be cute" "It's got to have character" "It's got to look pretty" "It's got to make me go 'wow'"
And for my sake, it's got to be something half bloody decent.
Help, please...
My wife has a Beetle with that engine and she absolutely loves it. She's done 60k miles in it with no issues whatsoever and had veryt good fuel economy. I know it's not a very PH car, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it - remember it's a Mk.6 Golf.So my girlfriend's mum is TERRIBLE at buying cars, to the point where she goes in, sees something she likes and buys it.
Doesn't test drive, doesn't barter the price, nothing...
She currently has a purple Vauxhall Adam. She bought this because "I liked the patterned dashboard".
She's now looking for a new car, initially wanting a Nissan Juke - fortunately I talked her out of this...
I said what about a Mini Paceman or something (you know, they're not terrible cars and they have colour changing LEDs inside etc.).
So she went to the BMW garage... Get this, she came away with a 'welcome' package for a Beetle Design. Which looks like the most atrocious car ever.
1.2litre, 105ps, 112mph max speed, the list goes on. All that for a lovely price of £20k!
Could someone out there help me suggest a car for her?
"It's got to be cute" "It's got to have character" "It's got to look pretty" "It's got to make me go 'wow'"
And for my sake, it's got to be something half bloody decent.
Help, please...
Let her pick what she wants, it's her business, she just has different priorities to people who like driving.
Nothing wrong with the Juke, it's just a Note underneath, decent little cars if you don't need much practicality and can get on with the styling, quite good fun to chuck about actually..
Nothing wrong with the Juke, it's just a Note underneath, decent little cars if you don't need much practicality and can get on with the styling, quite good fun to chuck about actually..
Has she asked you for your opinion? Will she take your opinion? Will she take the opinions of strangers on an Internet forum? I suspect all answers will be no.
Her money, her choice. Just remember to say ‘ that’s nice’ in an Alexander Armstrong tone.
Remember, daughters eventually turn into their mothers.
Her money, her choice. Just remember to say ‘ that’s nice’ in an Alexander Armstrong tone.
Remember, daughters eventually turn into their mothers.
She has actually asked my opinion, it's just difficult to persuade her out of bad decisions. She sees something and jumps on it and doesn't even barter on the price.
Her money or not, I don't think I'd be a particularly good future son-in-law if I wasn't trying to help her out on something she's not particularly knowledgable on?
Her money or not, I don't think I'd be a particularly good future son-in-law if I wasn't trying to help her out on something she's not particularly knowledgable on?
TXG399 said:
My wife has a Beetle with that engine and she absolutely loves it. She's done 60k miles in it with no issues whatsoever and had veryt good fuel economy. I know it's not a very PH car, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it - remember it's a Mk.6 Golf.
Ditto - my missus had one for three and half years, never went wrong, the engine is actually quite torquey so it punts along fine and it was very well built. The only issue was she found it difficult to place as it can be tricky to see the ends of the car due to its shape. We only sold it as it is not homologated for towing so getting a tow bar proved difficult and wanted to use a tow bar mounted bike carrier.gr_96 said:
So she went to the BMW garage... Get this, she came away with a 'welcome' package for a Beetle Design. Which looks like the most atrocious car ever.
1.2litre, 105ps, 112mph max speed, the list goes on. All that for a lovely price of £20k!
The 1.2 TSi is a pretty decent engine tbh, a reasonable blend of performance and economy. It'll be quicker than her Adam (unless she had the 1.4T) so if she was happy with the performance of that I suspect she'll be happy with the 1.2 TSi Beetle.1.2litre, 105ps, 112mph max speed, the list goes on. All that for a lovely price of £20k!
As an aside it seems unusual for a BMW dealer to have a VW franchise as well.
Edited by Mr2Mike on Monday 6th August 12:37
OK, here goes. You make your list of what you think she needs. E.g. town car, motorway car, comfort, 2 or 4 doors. Auto or manual. Is an EV a possibility? Length and width and visibility for parking. How long she will keep the car (will she need space for grandchildren soon!) Then try and direct her toward a car that has a decent engine/transmission and reliability. As above, the 1.2 TSi engine is good, so trawl through VW, Seat, Skoda, Audi offerings. Toyota hybrids look swish. (For me the Nissan Puke/Joke is a no-go). A Fabia hatch starts around 15k for a decent version, and that is a 1.0 litre 3 pot, I believe.
If I were you, I would try to persuade her to go the whole hog with a BRZ/GT86.
If I were you, I would try to persuade her to go the whole hog with a BRZ/GT86.
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