Help please - which new car?

Chippy_Minton_2

kerrymay wrote: »

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

Feel sorry for him already.

Working all week and cooking your dinner what you been upto watching
THE JEREMY KYLE SHOW ?

thornbridge

Forgot to say a new Honda has free 3 years top of the range aa European cover too

BigAde

kerrymay wrote: »

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

Economy, reliability and practicality seem to be most important to you based on what you've said. So with that in mind...(just my two penn'orth)

Him: Fiesta Diesel or Mini 1.6 diesel. Both good fun to drive, both will do 60+ mpg and be reliable to boot.

Her: Mondeo Tdci diesel estate. Has the space for day-to-day as well as longer trips, will still do 45-50 mpg. Very reliable.

Good luck.

Chippy_Minton_2

BigAde wrote: »

Her: Mondeo Tdci diesel estate. Has the space for day-to-day as well as longer trips, will still do 45-50 mpg. Very reliable.

Too big for her.:rolleyes:

BigAde

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

Too big for her.:rolleyes:

wrote:

We still need a car that we can all fit into comfortably at the weekends and when we go on holiday

Doesn't drive like a particularly big car compared with some... Worth a test drive though.

kerrymay

Thanks for all your suggestions - must admit, never heard of the perodua myvi but will have a look at it and hubby was thinking about a mini diesel too so may go down this route. I have been told by a few people now that Hondas are very reliable so will put this on the list to be considered too. Does anyone know whether the Suzuki Swift is any good on the motorway though as this is my husband's preference?

As for you Chippy Minton - no, I haven't been watching Jeremy Kyle all week but I suspect you might end up as a guest on there one day, something along the lines of 'My husband is stuck in the dark ages - if I can't make him realise I'm his equal I'll leave him?'

thornbridge

Don't know about Suzuki's on the m/way but they are a bit cheap and plastic inside. A good budget car but remember the depreciation if you have it a few years and it's got lots of mileage on the clock you won't get much when you sell or part ex it

Chippy_Minton_2

kerrymay wrote: »

?

As for you Chippy Minton - no, I haven't been watching Jeremy Kyle all week but I suspect you might end up as a guest on there one day, something along the lines of 'My husband is stuck in the dark ages - if I can't make him realise I'm his equal I'll leave him?'

Guest,no.

I'd see myself more as the expert.:p

JonathanA

How about a Focus 1.6 TDCi (£35 tax, 60mpg & good to drive) and something along the lines of a Toyota Verso for you. I think that whilst you may not like the Zafira, it would be worth trying cars of a similar size as each have different seats & seating positions etc, so whilst you may not be comfy driving the Zafira, you may be comfy driving something of a similar size. (My wife is also not very tall and I remember her saying she never wanted to drive anything bigger than her Fiesta, until we got a Galaxy, which she thinks is brilliant!).

Don't Mercedes do something a bit bigger than the A class - is it the B - would that be big enough for the family at weekends?

Lum

Speaking purely sensibly, for his mileage then some sort of diesel cruiser would seem best for the motorway trips, but since you stated small and nippy then the thought of a diesel barge may not be too appealing to him since he wants something that he can have a bit of fun with.

For you it sounds like as you're not doing a huge amount of miles then the diesel vs petrol argument isn't worth much. You pay more for a diesel car and it'll take you a long time to recoup the difference and since you're talking about selling on a car that's a mere 6 years old I don't think you'll ever see the benefit, but what you need is something big enough for two adults, 3 kids and the assortment of luggage and bikes and stuff that always accompanies kids on any journey longer than about 15 minutes.

So my suggestions:

Him: Mazda MX-5
Pros: Small, feels fast, fun, economical, cheap to run, cheap to insure
Cons: You wont be taking the kids anywhere in it, except maybe one at a time. Stupid people on the internet or at work may make comments about his sexuality

You: Ford Mondeo estate
Pros: Big enough for running 3 kids around, small enough that a short person can still drive it well enough, reasonably economical. The modern day Mondeo is a bloody good car with some arguing that it's a better buy than a BMW 3 series.
Cons: Not exactly a fun car (still better than a Zafira though!), maybe seen as a bit of a step down from driving a Merc if you care about badge snobbery

The biggest downside to this is that if he has to take the kids anywhere, he's going to have to take your car, no question about it, but this is offset somehow because based on your posts I don't think you'd object to driving an MX-5 too much. The rest of the time you'll be saving money by not having to lug around the extra weight of 3 seats and a huge boot.