Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

zagubov

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Excellent idea.

The lovely Mrs zag served up pancakes and bacon with maple syrup today. Jolly good combination.:j

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Excellent idea.

Nom, nom, nom. Bacon roses.

ukmaggie45

CKhalvashi wrote: »

I went for the S-Max because of the amount of crap I had to cart about at the time. It was a 5 seater with a huge boot most of the time, and excellent at that.

C-Max is on different running gear, so I've got no idea on reliability. Only advice is to give the 1.6 diesel a miss, as anything we've had as a company with that engine has given nothing but problems.

<snip>

A decent one of either could be bought for less than £3000 if you don't get the award, although it won't be new.

My first one I still see around occasionally, and even at 9 years old is still running as a licensed taxi (at a guess, it has 350-450000 miles on it now), so not being put off by a 150k motorway mileage car is my advice.

Hope this helps.

Thanks CK, that's really useful. When the current post cull is over I'll come back and bookmark. We have to cart a load of carp around too - stuff to lottie, wheelchair, which even when folded takes up a lot of space. We could take wheels off if we really needed to, but prefer to keep it as put together as possible for speed on the occasions when I need it.

hjd wrote: »

DH had an S max for a few years at the same time as I had the C max (I still have the C max - his S max is no more after an unfortunate misunderstanding over the depth of a puddle!)
S max is definitely roomy and doesn't feel too big to drive. It's quite a driver's car. He had the 2 litre diesel (it was an 09 plate) but I expect they have changed the engine line up now. Test drove the 1.8 diesel before purchase, which was also fine, but the 2.0 had that little bit extra.
My C max is a 1.6 petrol (11 reg). The main problem is the gearing/engine, which is gutless pulling away at low speeds. You can never pull away in second as it will stall, however high the revs. It's fine once it's going but that is the main reason I would like to change it. We live just off a busy main road and so often have to accelerate out into a gap, and there have been a few heart in the mouth moments.
With both cars we liked the visibility and large amount of glass - really dislike ones with small windows. Both cars good to drive (other than above) and reliable. No provision for a spare at all on the S max - that was a major anti point, but it may have changed since. I have a spacesaver on my C Max.
Access good into both, certainly better than into the Volvo XC60 DH now drives.
Hope that helps.

Thanks hkd, very useful to know that the C-Max is sluggish from stopped - if/when we test drive can watch out for that. Oh dear to the passing of the S-Max! :eek:

SingleSue

We keep the wheels on too Maggie, too much faff to keep taking them off and putting them back on again although it does mean my sizeable boot then looks teeny tiny.

zagubov

One of the gas struts that lift up the boot/hatchback door of our car broke when we opened the boot in the high winds last week.

Just checked online to see how cheap it is to replace ourselves.

Made us realise we've misunderstood the scale of the problem and the job of fixing it. Got an expensive trip to the garage ahead of us.:(

vivatifosi

How old is the car zag? Can it be repaired with second hand parts from a breakers at a local garage?

ETA... a lot of gas struts are made by the same companies, so you may not even need one off the same car, though that's a question for a specialist and depends on the fixings.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

How old is the car zag? Can it be repaired with second hand parts from a breakers at a local garage?

ETA... a lot of gas struts are made by the same companies, so you may not even need one off the same car, though that's a question for a specialist and depends on the fixings.

Car's not too old, but it's the screw securing the strut to the frame that's come out and can't be easily reattached. The strut itself has failed now as a results so need a strut and the screw for it and get inside te frame to fit it. Plus all the website warn against updating one strut without replacing the other one, as the new one may shorten the life of the other one.

ukmaggie45

Watching 84 Charing Cross Road on BBC2. I've seen it before, love it, have my tissues on standby!

We were going to have Roast Beef for Valentine's Day but OH has gone down with a rotten cold so is asleep at the mo... It'll be leftover cauliflower cheese from yesterday instead! Not quite as bad as it sounds as it has plenty of mini tomatoes and bacon bits in it too.

PasturesNew

I had my freezer/instant mix dinner ... without meat.

Yorkies, stuffing, broccoli/cauli, peas, mash, gravy.

CKhalvashi

OH is doing her final flight now.

ETA into Heathrow is 30 minutes early