Help please - which new car?

kerrymay

Hi everyone,

I would really like some advice from some people who know more about cars than my husband and I do! We currently run two cars, a Vauxhall Zafira which my husband drives and an A-class Mercedes which is mine. We have three children, two using boosters and one in a big car seat.

My husband wants to stop driving the Zafira backwards and forwards to work on the motorway (hour drive each way) and get a small nippy economical car. Any ideas?

We still need a car that we can all fit into comfortably at the weekends and when we go on holiday but I hate driving the Zafira. I'm a real shortie and don't feel comfortable with it. Initially we thought we'd just swap cars but the Merc is an 03 reg and things are slowly going wrong - not sure how many long motorway drives it's fit for and, as I said, I don't think I want to drive the Zafira anyway. We're thinking of selling both cars and starting again - 03 Merc and 04 Zafira. Any ideas what to do? We just keep talking ourselves round in circles!! I only use the car for nipping the kids to school, shopping in the week.

Thanks for any help!

Hintza

You take the Zafira and he goes and buys say Suzuki Swift?

My first port of call would always be the latest copy of What Car and then you can start norrowing down your selection.

Personally I would keep one of your cars (the one you feel is better re reliability and potential repair costs).

Chippy_Minton_2

Sell both cars, you start walking and hubby buys what he wants.

kerrymay

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

Sell both cars, you start walking and hubby buys what he wants.

We live too far from the kid's school to walk and I will also be back at work soon and will have to drive there and my husband wants to drive a small nippy economical car to work as he spends so long on the motorway.

kerrymay

Hintza wrote: »

You take the Zafira and he goes and buys say Suzuki Swift?

My first port of call would always be the latest copy of What Car and then you can start norrowing down your selection.

Personally I would keep one of your cars (the one you feel is better re reliability and potential repair costs).

We did think about the Suzuki Swift for hubby actually - but then read conflicting reports of how good it was for motorway driving??

Chippy_Minton_2

kerrymay wrote: »

husband wants to drive a small nippy economical car to work as he spends so long on the motorway.

No he don't, he wants a motorway cruiser for that. Big car, big engine, loads of power.

Do the decent thing and let him have what he wants and not what you've told him. You can always get a bus pass for work.

Anyway, why aren't you cooking his Sunday dinner?:p

BigAde

If you could give us estimated annual mileage for you both once you have gone back to work, that would help.

kerrymay

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

No he don't, he wants a motorway cruiser for that. Big car, big engine, loads of power.

Do the decent thing and let him have what he wants and not what you've told him. You can always get a bus pass for work.

Anyway, why aren't you cooking his Sunday dinner?:p

funny....I've been married to him for 12 years, you've never met him yet you know more about him than I do apparantly. I could get a bus pass for work, but then again he could get a train ticket. And I'm not cooking his Sunday dinner because this is the year 2009 and he's cooking mine, ably assisted by our little boy who will grow into a fine young man and not a chauvinistic pig as a result!:p

kerrymay

BigAde wrote: »

If you could give us estimated annual mileage for you both once you have gone back to work, that would help.

Husbands is about 22000 miles a year, mine is minimal at moment and mine prob won't be more than 10000.

thornbridge

Honda civic or Toyota auris or corrola both makes very economical and very very reliable.

We have a 1.4 civic it's roomy, economical and low insurance. It also has some punch for motorway driving.

I always get Toyota's or Honda's and have never been let down by them

skinback

Not my kind of car and is prob more of "ladies" car (without trying to sound sexist etc as previous post) but my partner has just purchase a perodua myvi through the scrapage scheme. For £5,495 you get a brand new car worth £7,495 and for value for money i cant find anything to beat it. I have turned my nose up repeatedly throughout the process of her ordering it, trying to persuade her to part with a bit more cash and get a nearly new bmw 1 series but to no avail. I do though hold my hands up and credit her on her "sensible" and "economical" purchase. There is no other new car that has all the extras that this car has as standard (air con , electric windows front and back, cd player etc). The weeks we spent looking at others we found that even having black paint as she wanted is on some a £400 extra!! it is petrol 1.3l but does a combined mpg of around 55-60 i think which is pretty good. Although a more obscure named car, if you look further into these thing you find that they are made from more reliabble manufacturers parts as for example i have been told this has a toyota engine. with 3 years guarantee i would not be too worried anyway but it is extra reinsurance. Oh and it has free rac, saving us £11 per month!!

Could you not purchase this and use it for the shorter journeys??

as another plus point these cars where in the which car top 5 for retaining their value and with £2000 off it straight away if in 3 years we sell it im sure alot of the value it has lost for being a few years old could be swaolled up by the £200o off it now

http://www.perodua.com.my/index.php?section=ourcars&page=myvi