Anybody know about cars?

[eggs]

Let me start by saying "I am not a car man", for pleasure i ride my motorbikes, for work, i drive my van, for family stuff, i drive the family car.
I know nothing much about cars.
The wife chose for the family car, a Golf Gti. Now it is 3yr old i am looking to change it.
Based on a practical point of view, ie economics and another child on the way (to make 2 in all), i am lookin at a large saloon car.
Does anybody know anything about these?

http://www.kia.co.uk/magentishome.asp

From what i can see is this, i can sell the golf and only put in another £1000 max for a brand new, well specified car.
Or i can listen to the wife and spend £20000 on the new golf gti.
As i said i know very little, and have very little interest in cars.

Are these Kia cars any good?
Should i leave her to it?
Can anybody recommend any other type of car?
I quite like the Peugeot 407 Estate, are these any good?

Any help please.

cheers

eggs

[shogun7]

Let me start by saying "I am not a car man", for pleasure i ride my motorbikes, for work, i drive my van, for family stuff, i drive the family car.
I know nothing much about cars.
The wife chose for the family car, a Golf Gti. Now it is 3yr old i am looking to change it.
Based on a practical point of view, ie economics and another child on the way (to make 2 in all), i am lookin at a large saloon car.
Does anybody know anything about these?

http://www.kia.co.uk/magentishome.asp

From what i can see is this, i can sell the golf and only put in another £1000 max for a brand new, well specified car.
Or i can listen to the wife and spend £20000 on the new golf gti.
As i said i know very little, and have very little interest in cars.

Are these Kia cars any good?
Should i leave her to it?
Can anybody recommend any other type of car?
I quite like the Peugeot 407 Estate, are these any good?

Any help please.

cheers

eggs

I think the Volvo Passat is an excellent choice

[chemi-cool]

I think the Volvo Passat is an excellent choice

Passat is made by VW, Volvo is made by Volvo.

Eggs,

It is difficult to recommend a car.
Every one will tell you that his car is the best choice.

Kia of S. Korea is reliable car but expensive on gas, all plastic and bad suspension.

There are many models and I don't know which one you have in mind.

Peugeot is good and comfortable car, tons of electronics.

If you are looking for a family car, I would recommend, Toyota Corolla, Volvo V70, Peugeot 407, Citroen C5, VW passat. Scoda Octavia, Renault Laguna and so on, all about the same size family cars.
I have no idea about UK prices.

Send us a picture of your choice.

Chemi

[rbartlett]

An excellent site for unbiased no stupid remarks (ie no clarkson) with actual test data recall notices running costs etc

http://www.fleetnewsnet.co.uk/


cheers

richard

[Capt Steve]

Chemi had some real good choices of cars listed in his email. I do know that the Peugeot's her in the U.S. do not hold up very well. I personally feel the Passat is an excellent car. It is a family car, and a sports car all in one. Even VW wagons are still sporty... My Ex wife had sportcars until we had children, and then she wanted size and space. She thought she woudl try the mini van thing.. Yeah, whatever.. it did not last, and she was back into a Sports Sedan....
Once you get kids out of a car seat, you will want something sporty..

[botrous]

Peaugeat is excellent , i own one , 405 Staichen , althought it's made in 1990 it still runs very well and have a very advanced computer.
As for me , leave it for your wife , not for economy reason but for the peace of mind

[eggs]

Thanks for the replies chaps. Im fighting a losing battle though, the wife is not for giving up the VW's.
Yep she's one of those badge snobs.

Botrous, you correct, leave her to it.

cheers

eggs

[botrous]

Cheers . . . . .

[Karl Hofmann]

Hi Eggs,

I do a fair bit of work on cars, and so I see more of what goes wrong. The Magentis seems like a good deal, with a long warranty, but I fear that your Mrs will get to know the service manager at your Kia agency well, also their values fall like a stone. On the other hand VW quality is slipping too, but if you get good service from your VW agent then I would go with your wifes request (My VW agent seems to be manned by monkeys)

My wife has a two year old Toyota, and this has proven to be superb, though they have had to replace all four alloys and four brake discs because of corrosion, but this was done on its second service (This is a common problem for all UK Toyotas) Toyotas used to be dull and boring, but they have worked hard on this, the Celica and MR2 are reasonable prices and dead sexy, even the Corolla feels as good as the Golf if not as sporty

Skodas have a crap name, but their build quality is the best to be found in the whole of the VAG group, the new Octavia is a honey, and the little Fabia VRS Diesel is a rip snorter.

A few years ago we had a Pug 306DT and although a great engine and chassis did suffer from electrical problems, and a lot of my customers say that this is the case with their newer stuff too, same story with Renaults too, nothing terrible, just niggley little stuff that drives you nuts.

Worth a look also are Mazdas and Hondas (You may have detected a slight bias in my preferences) but I would avoid Korean and Malaysian stuff despite their prices and long warranties, unless you like the coffee from Clix machines.

Hope that this helps

Oops, just seen that you are looking for a large saloon, in which case my suggestion is the Toyota Avensis.

Toyota Avensis

[nova]

Mazda6.
One of the most reliable cars ever built. Absolutely wonderful car!

[andrewuk]

Look at the crash test rating on the cars you may want to buy.
look on the ncap crash test site ,i haven't got a link to it but do a serch on google ,some cheap cars a not very safe at all .A minor crash could lead to serious injury to your wife and kids .
remember a lot of cars are made in asia like cheap domestic appliances and have had agressive cost out exercises done on them ,they are tin cans ready to be crushed on the slightest bump. The decent asian cars are not that cheap as they have been built to a decent standard.

[eggs]

Just to throw a lid on this thread, the wife want's the new golf gti, in 11 weeks this is what she will receive.
I gave up. I tried and tried to get her to have a mazda 6 2.0mzr, but no ,the VW gti it was.
Now i need to sell a 51 2002 2.0 5dr golf gti full service history, new pirelli's with just 22k on it.
any offers ??????

metallic, pearlwhatsit black.

one carefull lady owner.

used to toddle down to the shops.(and to her work, to keep me within the means to which i am accustomed, during my recent work drought).

Seriously, it is a good car, just passed it's first mot, nothing needed doing. Six months tax.

Genuine reason for sale, she is a car-park and badge snob at work.

cheers

eggs

[Capt Steve]

The humorous thing about this thread is you asked if anybody knew anything about cars, and we should have been smart enough to ask if it was for you or your wife. The wife always knows exactly what she wants, and once they get that mindset, you can forget about research, and what your prefer. If the car was a lemon, they woudl not believe it until they had what they originally wanted. .. it is almost like a proving step for them.
Also, if anyone thinks they want a van, and they try to justify it as, we can haul freinds around, or lots more room for the kids, etc... you are 95% fooling yourself if you think your wife really wants that vehicle. Most women here, woudl rather drvie and SUV then any van on the market. If not an SUV, then a 4 door sports sedan. Forget the van!

Later

[Karl Hofmann]

LOL Folk who buy those People Carrier thingies have just given up on life. If we need to shift a Steinway piano, then we can rent a van.....Kids should ride bikes to school, or walk

My wife would divorce me if I bought her a carrier, she trolls round all of the dealers and demands a 24 hour test of all the cars that she fancies, and then pulls pushes and twists everything on the car to see if it is as durable as it is stylish, for ages she wanted a Toyota MR2, and was set to have one, untill her 24 hours with one, when it fell by the wayside when she considered just how many times she would use the rag top, looks like it could be a Celica.


I hope that your VW agent is better than mine, The Transporter
went in to have a sticky pasenger window sorted, they fixed the window but broke the switch, when they replaced the switch they damaged the trim with a screwdriver, so when it goes back to have the trim replaced, I think I'll ask them to put the switch in the right way round this time
Instead of a new piece of trim, they offered me a free service, Ha! dream on, no way should they be allowed under the bonnet of anything. Pity really because the van itself is very good indeed but is let down by poor service.

[jsimon]

sell the wife trade in the kids
buy a new bike job done

[eggs]

Crikey, just noticed this thread at the bottom of another one I was reading.

To update, she got her new golf, then a Merc, then an Audi, then I put my foot down after she put a fag burn in the door trim......

Now she has an Astra, it's 2 years old and on it's third autobox. What a pile of $hit.

I'll let her choose the next one........but ban her from smoking in it.

Eggs

[Colin G]

Now she has an Astra, it's 2 years old and on it's third autobox. What a pile of $hit.

Thats quite an achievement, does she take it on a race track?

[Magoo]

Good to here you have it sorted after 5 years, perhaps a sedgeway will curb the smoking habit. Any more kids after 5 years.

[eggs]

Thats quite an achievement, does she take it on a race track?

Nahh, It's one of those design faults that Vauxhall deny all knowledge of. Yet when you dig into you find it is quite a common occurrence.
Apparently a seal fails between the coolant system and the autobox then contaminates the oil so it seizes.

Anyone want to buy an Astra that is coming to the end of it's warranty? Very reasonable running costs, only needs a new £4500 gearbox every 12000 miles. To you my friend just £0.80 and it's yours.

Good to here you have it sorted after 5 years, perhaps a sedgeway will curb the smoking habit. Any more kids after 5 years.

2 is enough for me, no more

Eggs

[Colin G]

Nahh, It's one of those design faults that Vauxhall deny all knowledge of. Yet when you dig into you find it is quite a common occurrence.
Apparently a seal fails between the coolant system and the autobox then contaminates the oil so it seizes.

i have been there with vauxhall in the past a similar scenario, 2.2 petrol engine chain driven but the oil jet fitted to lubricate the chain was prone to clogging up as it was literally a 2mm hole, resulting in the chain drying up and snapping, so i done a little digging found countless amounts of cars around the same mileage (40~k) snapping timing chains which supposedly last 100k.

When i confronted vauxhall they would admit no liability and assured me there was no known fault with the 2.2 vectra causing cam chain failure and quoted me over 3k in repairs.

So back to some digging managed to get hold of a copy of a vauxhall field remedy sheet as supplied to dealer technicians, rung them back up and as soon as i quoted the field remedy number they where willing to slash 50% of the repair cost.

The new oil jet had a much bigger hole that was the only real difference in the replacement timing kit expensive repairs from a little bit of plastic worth pennys