Modern cars and car supermarkets
Discussion
We've been thinking of replacing the wife's car for years now and she decided that we should go and visit a car supermarket yesterday.
When we arrived I was a bit surprised not to simply be left to wander around and see what they had, but was dragged around by a sale guy (to be fair, he wasn't too bad, but clearly their aim is to make sure you don't leave without having bought a car) who first asked for loads of details (contact info as well as the kind of car we wanted, whether we were buying on credit and our budget).
Anyway, we wanted a mid-sized hatch and test drove a Citroen C4 and Renault Megane and looked at a few Focuses.
We also looked at some Mondeos and a few other makes.
The Citroen was OK, but the clutch was badly adjusted and rather spoilt the way it drove.
The wife liked the Megane (one of the original style ones) and it was quite nice to drive, but it looked cheap and tacky inside and the handbrake was horrible and I really disliked the line of the windscreen pillar which made it really difficult to see down the road as we turned out of a T-junction.
I know a lot people rave about Focuses and I've driven one of the early ones briefly and it seemed pretty good, but I was rather stunned by how cheap and tinny the '07 models seemed. So much so, that I decided there was no way I was paying the kind of money they wanted for them and we didn't even bother with a test drive. The latest Mondeos were much better I have to say, but far to expensive for our budget.
Another thing I was rather surprised at was the prices. I'd (probably foolishly) figured 'car supermarkets' were cheap places to buy cars, but they seemed quite expensive to me and a quick scan on Autotrader revealed that main dealers were selling C4s and Focuses of similar age/mileages for £500 - £1000 less!
OK you get a 2 year warranty at the supermarket and I suspect they inflate the trade in value of your car, but that's a big difference in fivers if you're not too worried about the warranty.
We jumped back in the 100K+ Xantia and it immediately felt better built, more solid, more refined and faster than anything we'd driven or looked at (that new Mondeo excepted, but it was still pretty close!).
Overall, I came away pretty disillusioned with modern mainstream cars and car supermarkets
M.
When we arrived I was a bit surprised not to simply be left to wander around and see what they had, but was dragged around by a sale guy (to be fair, he wasn't too bad, but clearly their aim is to make sure you don't leave without having bought a car) who first asked for loads of details (contact info as well as the kind of car we wanted, whether we were buying on credit and our budget).
Anyway, we wanted a mid-sized hatch and test drove a Citroen C4 and Renault Megane and looked at a few Focuses.
We also looked at some Mondeos and a few other makes.
The Citroen was OK, but the clutch was badly adjusted and rather spoilt the way it drove.
The wife liked the Megane (one of the original style ones) and it was quite nice to drive, but it looked cheap and tacky inside and the handbrake was horrible and I really disliked the line of the windscreen pillar which made it really difficult to see down the road as we turned out of a T-junction.
I know a lot people rave about Focuses and I've driven one of the early ones briefly and it seemed pretty good, but I was rather stunned by how cheap and tinny the '07 models seemed. So much so, that I decided there was no way I was paying the kind of money they wanted for them and we didn't even bother with a test drive. The latest Mondeos were much better I have to say, but far to expensive for our budget.
Another thing I was rather surprised at was the prices. I'd (probably foolishly) figured 'car supermarkets' were cheap places to buy cars, but they seemed quite expensive to me and a quick scan on Autotrader revealed that main dealers were selling C4s and Focuses of similar age/mileages for £500 - £1000 less!
OK you get a 2 year warranty at the supermarket and I suspect they inflate the trade in value of your car, but that's a big difference in fivers if you're not too worried about the warranty.
We jumped back in the 100K+ Xantia and it immediately felt better built, more solid, more refined and faster than anything we'd driven or looked at (that new Mondeo excepted, but it was still pretty close!).
Overall, I came away pretty disillusioned with modern mainstream cars and car supermarkets
M.
Edited by marcosgt on Sunday 17th October 12:16
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