My recent purchasing a new car experience

StripeyMiata

motorguy wrote: »

Speaking with my trader hat on and even before i read on my gut feeling was your car was £1500 tops.

Anyone giving you £2,000+ for it was merely adding on discount they would otherwise have given you.

Sorry should have mentioned it was the 100HP model, they are rarer and seem to hold their value better. If you look on Autotrader exact cars my age/mileage start at £3500, including my actual car which is still for sale.

No problems getting 2 N.I. dealers to match the drive the deal price for me.

Thanks, something to remember for next time.


@mad_rich & @JonathanA thanks for the tips, I'm using Fuelly to calculate it. Although I haven't checked the tyres for a while so thanks for reminding me


The interesting thing was my previous car was rated at 42.2MPG but averaged 37.5MPG. The EcoBoost is rated at 65MPG but I'm averaging 35.2MPG so it's a hell of a difference.

I have got 52MPG out of it on a A-Road day trip run so the protential is there. I suspect it will creep up over the summer as we'll be doing more weekend trips out and no school run.

welfayre

The MPG figures you see quoted aren't meant to be "real world achievable" figures (although dealers like to keep that quiet).

They're supposed to give the buyer a benchmark to compare vehicles, at least that's what the manufactures say when pressed on it.

InsideInsurance

StripeyMiata wrote: »

Sorry should have mentioned it was the 100HP model, they are rarer and seem to hold their value better. If you look on Autotrader exact cars my age/mileage start at £3500, including my actual car which is still for sale.

Autotrader lists asking prices not selling prices.

Trade in will always be considerably less than private sale as either they've got to do it up and sell it to the public for a profit factoring in how long they are going to have cash tied up in the vehicle or if the car doesnt fit their profile for secondhand cars they'll have to sell it on to someone else who will be doing the same but you've got potential tax issues there.

If you want to truly maximise the value of the car you sell it yourself not trade it in. Trade in is just easier hence why so many do it.

StripeyMiata

welfayre wrote: »

The MPG figures you see quoted aren't meant to be "real world achievable" figures (although dealers like to keep that quiet).

They're supposed to give the buyer a benchmark to compare vehicles, at least that's what the manufactures say when pressed on it.

That's a fair point, but I think there is more of a discrepancy these days. A few years ago if a car was rated at 40MPG, knock 10MPG for 30MPG real world, seemed top give you a rough idea. It doesn't seem to work like that anymore, especially with these new small turbo eco engines petrol engines. My theory is that they are more stressed and working at higher revs than their bigger cubed non-turbo counterparts.

My EcoBoost/FIAT's TwinAir and Peugeot's Puretech engines are all meant to average in the 60's but in real life from my research they sit in the lower 40's if you are lucky.

Trade in will always be considerably less than private sale as either they've got to do it up and sell it to the public for a profit factoring in how long they are going to have cash tied up in the vehicle or if the car doesnt fit their profile for secondhand cars they'll have to sell it on to someone else who will be doing the same but you've got potential tax issues there.

Aye, that's why I was happy to take a bit of a hit and trade it in. It was a niche model, would have attracted boy racers for test drives and I couldn't be bothered with the hassle.

OddballJamie

StripeyMiata wrote: »

That's a fair point, but I think there is more of a discrepancy these days. A few years ago if a car was rated at 40MPG, knock 10MPG for 30MPG real world, seemed top give you a rough idea. It doesn't seem to work like that anymore, especially with these new small turbo eco engines petrol engines. My theory is that they are more stressed and working at higher revs than their bigger cubed non-turbo counterparts.

My EcoBoost/FIAT's TwinAir and Peugeot's Puretech engines are all meant to average in the 60's but in real life from my research they sit in the lower 40's if you are lucky.

I read they test them off boost, that's why the official figures are so high. They get something silly like a minute to get to 60mph, I'll try and dig it out when I get chance.

I put a few examples of NA and turbo cars on here a while back, from memory the Civic Type R was very accurate for official v real figures.

onomatopoeia99

StripeyMiata wrote: »

I would also (in hindsight) recommend using the trip computer during the test drive to see what MPG the car is getting. My car is the EcoBoost model, which is meant to get 65MOPG. At the minute getting 35MPG, apparently the new EU testing is a load of !!!!!!!!.

Come back when it's got 2,000 miles on the clock and tell us the numbers then.

While you don't seem to get the "don't go over 3000rpm in the first 500 miles" type instructions as much these days, engines in new cars still need to bed in which allows the internal friction to reduce. My father saw the same thing on his car, way less MPG than he expected in the first couple of months. I told him it would improve and this proved to be the case.

almillar

Stripey- use the EU figures to compare figures. What did your Punto do for you? What were the official figures for it? EG if the EU test says 40, and you get 30, you should be expecting to get three quarters of that in a Fiesta or a Ferrari that you buy. The test isn't a con, it's 2 standard routes simulated in a lab, so is much more reliable than your or my driving.

BeenThroughItAll

StripeyMiata wrote: »

Long complicated story with many twists

OddballJamie wrote: »

Although your posts do remind me of a certain M3 fanboy.

Funny, eh? Me too. Especially like the 'have you had it serviced recently, I suggest an oil change' post on the 'did this fall off my car' thread.

OddballJamie wrote: »

Neither did he.

Welcome back...

StripeyMiata

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Funny, eh? Me too. Especially like the 'have you had it serviced recently, I suggest an oil change' post on the 'did this fall off my car' thread.
Welcome back...

:rotfl:

Can I just clarify that the conversation had moved onto at that point from "this has fallen from my car" to "my engine is noisy" so I think my suggestion was still valid

Stripey- use the EU figures to compare figures. What did your Punto do for you? What were the official figures for it? EG if the EU test says 40, and you get 30, you should be expecting to get three quarters of that in a Fiesta or a Ferrari that you buy. The test isn't a con, it's 2 standard routes simulated in a lab, so is much more reliable than your or my driving.

It was actually a Panda, but had a Punto engine in it.

OK,

Old Car: FIAT Panda 100HP - Official 43.5 mpg
My Fuelly Figures - 35.9 Avg UK MPG

Current Car: Ford Fiesta Titanium X EcoBoost 125BHP - Official 65.7mpg
My Fuelly Figures - 34.0 UK MPG

Interesting best tank in the Panda was 46.1 vs 52.9 in the Ford.

almillar

So, with exactly the same driving conditions, you should be expecting to get 54 MPG from your Fiesta once it's run it.
Except that in the years between your Panda and your Fiesta being built, manufacturers have got better at making cars that scrore well on this standardised test (nothing wrong with that, really, in my book - the test is meant to replicate real life) - they'll have a longer top gear for example, so you mightn't do quite as well vs official as you used to.