looking for a car with soft suspension (hence boring handling) and small engine

mattyprice4004

I have a Rover 75 diesel, and I love it.

My driving involves wafting down the M65, as well as pottering around to customer's houses.

No matter what the weather is like, how hot or cold it is, I know I can hop into my 75 and be in comfort in seconds. Plus it was only £1600.

Proper MoneySaving car, I'll have the damn thing for years yet.

waynedance

3rd the C5 as I have a top spec 2003 2.2 diesel which has wonderfully soft suspension and also a sport button for a firmer setting.

cyclonebri1

dada44 wrote: »

thankyou all for your responses.

yes - it seems strange that people here don't like 'dull suspension' yet it seems quite popular in asia (and france - peugeot and citroen)

I am looking at the peugeot 307 or toyota corrola.

curious - why are people saying they would never buy french?[/QUOTE]


Because some people actually believe Jeremy Clarkson, and he'd machine gun your granny if you recall.

Have no fear of French cars, it's the hype surrounding them that is the problem and for every Friday afternnon Renault or Citroen there's the equivalent VW or Ford.

Some amazing ureliability isses for VW on here recently but are all German cars tabboo? No they are not, the standard of reliability of ALL cars is fine today, but some folks appear to be the exception no matter what brand and model they buy

PS Don't spend that sort of money for that age car no matter what you chose, just an example because my daughter picked up her replacement car yesterday (not a sales pitch)

She was offered £1500 p/x for a 2004 Renault Megane hatch 1.5dci hatch, all the electrics, key free entry, c/l, 6 player cd, double elec sunroof, iso fix seats, etc etc, £35 tax band, 55mpg min and 60K miles. From main dealer when she bought it 6 years ago. No dings and dents, a couple of minor scratches that you need to look for to see, you could easily put it in a show room apart from it's age, but that is it's trade value.
It's up on the front for £2150 this morning, that's how little they are worth.

wannabehermit

dada44 wrote: »

thankyou all for your responses.

yes - it seems strange that people here don't like 'dull suspension' yet it seems quite popular in asia (and france - peugeot and citroen)

I am looking at the peugeot 307 or toyota corrola.

curious - why are people saying they would never buy french?

Sorry,I know it was a few days ago you asked, but not been back to this thread since. French cars are notoriously unreliable. DH has had a few Peugeots (405s & 406s) and he says they're OK, diesel ones anyway, don't know about petrol (although next doors 307 is often off the road). But Citroen and Renault are buckets.

I had a Renault Scenic (exes choice, not mine) and spent a fortune on it, it was off the road more than it was on it. As soon as I split up from my ex I got shot of it, and good riddance it was too, replaced it for a battered old Escort that didn't cost a penny in repairs. I know a few people who have renaults - Clios and Espaces mainly and they're hte same, hardly a week goes by without them spending money on yet something else that goes wrong on it.

Citroens are just cheap and nasty. We had a 'Poocasso' for less than 3 months (not what we wanted but all we could afford), it was awful, only had a handful of miles on it, but it was gutless, 2.0l with a top speed of 63mph, only 5 gears and had to knock it down to 4th to get up a hill on a motorway!!! My son who can sit in our Mondeo or Galaxy for 6 hours watching DVDs with no bother was puking after only 20 mins driving round town (no DVD). The finish was so cheap, DS2 got in it and within 10 minutes the tray on the back of the seat was broken and so was something else. We've had our Galaxy for nearly a year now and it's as it was when we bought it. Like I say we only had it for a couple of months so can't comment personally on reliablilitly but a friend of DHs has one, on a 52 plate with about 80,000 miles on it, he's spending on it constantly, a few hundred ££ a month. (in comparison our Mondeo is on a Y and apart from the control unit on the fuel pump (which is the same as on Golfs, Audis etc, made by Bosch, not Ford) it has needed no money at all spending on it, and has over 160K on the clock). Look on Autotrader at Citroens, they are dirt cheap, says it all really.

pitkin2020

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Because some people actually believe Jeremy Clarkson, and he'd machine gun your granny if you recall.

Have no fear of French cars, it's the hype surrounding them that is the problem and for every Friday afternnon Renault or Citroen there's the equivalent VW or Ford.

Some amazing ureliability isses for VW on here recently but are all German cars tabboo? No they are not, the standard of reliability of ALL cars is fine today, but some folks appear to be the exception no matter what brand and model they buy

You don't need to believe jermey clarkson do your own research, honestjohn.co.uk will give you a good listed of reported problems aswell as plenty of other sites out there.

There are no cars that are 100% reliable, if this was we'd all being driving them. Most marks have mechanical issues but French cars are known for their over complex electrical systems that even dealers can rarely fix for less than the price of a new car.

A quote from honestjohn.co.uk regarding the renault laguna
Worrying number of gimmicks from a company not known for high quality electrics.

pitkin2020

wannabehermit wrote: »

Sorry,I know it was a few days ago you asked, but not been back to this thread since. French cars are notoriously unreliable. DH has had a few Peugeots (405s & 406s) and he says they're OK, diesel ones anyway, don't know about petrol (although next doors 307 is often off the road). But Citroen and Renault are buckets.

I had a Renault Scenic (exes choice, not mine) and spent a fortune on it, it was off the road more than it was on it. As soon as I split up from my ex I got shot of it, and good riddance it was too, replaced it for a battered old Escort that didn't cost a penny in repairs. I know a few people who have renaults - Clios and Espaces mainly and they're hte same, hardly a week goes by without them spending money on yet something else that goes wrong on it.

Citroens are just cheap and nasty. We had a 'Poocasso' for less than 3 months (not what we wanted but all we could afford), it was awful, only had a handful of miles on it, but it was gutless, 2.0l with a top speed of 63mph, only 5 gears and had to knock it down to 4th to get up a hill on a motorway!!! My son who can sit in our Mondeo or Galaxy for 6 hours watching DVDs with no bother was puking after only 20 mins driving round town (no DVD). The finish was so cheap, DS2 got in it and within 10 minutes the tray on the back of the seat was broken and so was something else. We've had our Galaxy for nearly a year now and it's as it was when we bought it. Like I say we only had it for a couple of months so can't comment personally on reliablilitly but a friend of DHs has one, on a 52 plate with about 80,000 miles on it, he's spending on it constantly, a few hundred ££ a month. (in comparison our Mondeo is on a Y and apart from the control unit on the fuel pump (which is the same as on Golfs, Audis etc, made by Bosch, not Ford) it has needed no money at all spending on it, and has over 160K on the clock). Look on Autotrader at Citroens, they are dirt cheap, says it all really.

you sure someone hadn't replaced the engine for a 1.1?? We hired the 1.6 picasso on an 05 plate had already done over 100k and whilst I wouldn't say its sportyness would set you alight it was more than capable of achieving over 63 mph in fact it would happily cruise up the motorway in excess of 80mph.

I suspect if I had filled the boot with a couple of tonne it wouldn't perform aswell but with 2 adults, 2 kids and luggage it went well enough.

mikey72

Had a 106 for 4 years, ultra reliable. Got a renault now, excellent so far.
But then again, I had a Fiat for many years, that just ran and ran.
I think a lot of it is badge related.
People buy french, or italian, because they want a car.
No one buys a german car, or japanese car, for their "reliability", then admits they got it wrong.

I also think the type of customer is diffferent. Japs and german get serviced on the dot, at the dealer, and all the little jobs are put right at the dealer. So it's all "service" costs.
Other car aren't, and get fixed when they actually need it. So they have repair costs.

cyclonebri1

pitkin2020 wrote: »

You don't need to believe jermey clarkson do your own research, honestjohn.co.uk will give you a good listed of reported problems aswell as plenty of other sites out there.

There are no cars that are 100% reliable, if this was we'd all being driving them. Most marks have mechanical issues but French cars are known for their over complex electrical systems that even dealers can rarely fix for less than the price of a new car.

A quote from honestjohn.co.uk regarding the renault laguna
Worrying number of gimmicks from a company not known for high quality electrics.

You're right of course but dig back through my old posts and you will find that as a family, we have had at least 8 Renaults over the last 10 years, none of them has been a pup, all have had excellant toys and all have still been working when the cars went.

had I done the research I would have avoided them, at least my 1 and the wifes 3. We would have been the ones that lost out,

And to couteract your reply, no there are no 100% reliable cars, but equally there are no 100% unreliable ones. My standard reply, there are no unreliable brands any longer.

I just wish some in house punters had been motoring in the 70's, gord what a gaggle of carp we had to put up with then:mad::eek:, then Datsun shone a light and the rest is history.
Now who owns Datsun????;):rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

pitkin2020

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

You're right of course but dig back through my old posts and you will find that as a family, we have had at least 8 Renaults over the last 10 years, none of them has been a pup, all have had excellant toys and all have still been working when the cars went.

had I done the research I would have avoided them, at least my 1 and the wifes 3. We would have been the ones that lost out,

And to couteract your reply, no there are no 100% reliable cars, but equally there are no 100% unreliable ones. My standard reply, there are no unreliable brands any longer.

I just wish some in house punters had been motoring in the 70's, gord what a gaggle of carp we had to put up with then:mad::eek:, then Datsun shone a light and the rest is history.
Now who owns Datsun????;):rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I agree and TBH the internet can be hard to sift through at times with the amount of information available. Its hard to decipher if 10% or 90% of people have had all of these problems listed on sites.

Its only recently I have bothered to research cars prior to buying and I would say its only the last 2 cars I have bought out of 20 that I bothered to look for common faults before buying instead of after lol. The cars prior to this have been hit and miss, some good some god awful. One thing I have had with all the french cars though is electrical problems, I have had it on other marks too but the french cars were a 100% hit rate on electrical faults for me so it has put me off them.

A friend has a citreon xsara (not the people carrier) and before christmas lost all the dash lights, head lights, radio and indicators. Fuses were all checked and found to be fine so had an auto elec out he can't find the fault, another auto elec out still can't find the fault. All the fuses have been replaced as a precaution. If the fault can't be found the car will have to be scrapped as its undriveable.

wannabehermit

pitkin2020 wrote: »

you sure someone hadn't replaced the engine for a 1.1?? We hired the 1.6 picasso on an 05 plate had already done over 100k and whilst I wouldn't say its sportyness would set you alight it was more than capable of achieving over 63 mph in fact it would happily cruise up the motorway in excess of 80mph.

I suspect if I had filled the boot with a couple of tonne it wouldn't perform aswell but with 2 adults, 2 kids and luggage it went well enough.

We've since found out that the 1.6 is actually quicker and more powerful than the 2.0!!! The 1.6 has 110bhp while the 2.0 has a ridiculously measly 90bhp. We didn't even look at the 1.6 as I don't do cars that small. Not that it matters anyway as the car was not for us at all - too small, too uncomfortable, we thought we could deal with the ugliness of it, but it was undriveable, unsuitable for us and plain dangerous for a variety of reasons.