I need to buy a car - help please?

Sammy_Girl

Thanks Guys.

What's your thoughts on the Ford C-Max? Today, I saw a couple of nice 56 plate, automatic, petrol with c15k on the clock. Price range is £6499-£6999

They had good boot space for the car, and seemed quite spacious to hold a baby seat if necessary.

Pincher

I'm a fan of Mitsubishi COLT.

I had a "55" petrol 1.3 AMT Elegance 5 door, but it got written off last June, so I have a "56" 1.5 DI-D CZ2 AMT now. The diesel has a CO2 of 121g/km, so the road tax will be £90 from April. Fuel consumption is 48.7/61.4/70.6 mpg. AMT is a semi-automatic gearbox, so no clutch pedal, but it's more efficient than the manual.

The 2004-2008 COLT have removable back seats (I mean take them out and leave them in the garage), the same as the Mercedes A class: but ONLY on the 5 door version. Without the backseats, it gives you 645 litres of cargo space, exactly big enough for most IKEA kits (I have moved them).

From 2008, the backseats are no longer removable: which reduces cargo space and length available. All back seats are 60/40 split foldable.

From 2006, they renamed the trim levels to CZ1, CZ2 and CZ3. The leather trim CZ3 is few and far between.

I would go for an Elegance (=leather seats), which is worth the extra money(not much). The electric window is more sophisticated, everything is just a little bit better. The petrol 1.3 AMT fuel consumption is 37.7/48.7/56.5, CO2 is 138 g/km, so the road tax is £120. For low milage use, the petrol is more refined. High milage, the diesel DI-D is great.

harveybobbles

CMAX is a good car. The Ford auto box isn't, however.

Octavia is a good car and can get 55/06 ones for well under 6000 with 60k up them. Elegance or L&K are the ones to have.

JQ.

My OH has a C-Max 1.8 TDci Zetec - it's a great car. The boot is absolutely enormous. Quite nippy, very comfortable, not massively economical, about 38mpg. However, we have the manual, so can't comment on what the auto is like, bearing in mid what's been said above. We'd definately buy another one, although we intend to keep it forever, so no need.

Pincher

Externally, the COLT looks just like a C-Max, especially the current model.

The C-Max is better because it's a £17k+ car new. A new COLT is from £8k+. C-Max is a bigger car (4372mm vs 3870mm length).
The back seats are also removable.
When in 2 seat Mode, the C-Max has 1620 litres of cargo space.

I like the COLT, it's easy to park, yet flexible enough for most things. I easily moved a double oven, including packaging, from IKEA. Anything bigger, I would need to hire a Transit any way.

Have a look here:

http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Mitsubishi/Colt/results-Mitsubishi-Colt.asp

There is a lot of diesel models at the moment, mostly ex-Motability, fresh from a three year lease. Watch out for the third service, which you need to budget for if not done. The 1.5 DI-D engine is a three cylinder from Mercedes. Mitsubishi stopped doing the COLT DI-D around 2008 because they can't make a profit at £10,000, but it's a great engine.

MX5huggy

Sammy_Girl wrote: »

I've recently been made redundant and so have to hand back my company car.

This bit concerns me, should you be considering spending so much on a car, and are you trying to get another job where a company car is possibility?

Sammy_Girl

Thanks for the advice. We are going to research more into the C-MAX. Also, I am going to see if there are any Mitsubishi dealers locally to have a look at the Colt in more detail - as that certainly looks interesting online.

MX5huggy wrote: »

This bit concerns me, should you be considering spending so much on a car, and are you trying to get another job where a company car is possibility?

Thanks for the concern My personal situation requires me to have the use of a car. We did consider getting a much older and cheaper car - but possible false economy issues, the need to drive long distances, it didn't seem feasible. Fortunately DH is in stable employment to afford the car. I am not looking for positions that come with a company car as I am now looking for "local" work.

goldspanners

Pincher wrote: »

Externally, the COLT looks just like a C-Max, especially the current model.

it doesn't. the cmax is much bigger than the colt.

Pincher

goldspanners wrote: »

it doesn't. the cmax is much bigger than the colt.

I think you should read the next paragraph.