advice on 'girly' cars

[Dub_nut_g60 0]

i can be a tad slow on the uptake at times!!! :lol:

[NottsCounty 0]

I'll stick my two penneth in here...

 

My missus has just flogged her punto in which she had done nearly 100k in 5 years. Before she met me she had NEVER had it serviced (typical bird) so it had it's first service/oil change at 43k!!!

 

In the remaining 55k miles it needed

 

wishbone bushes

brake pads/discs/fluid

back box

 

You can't really complain at that!!! poorly maintained and it still carried on going.

 

The price when she bought it £4,495!!!

[Guest]

brilliant dinkus mate :)

 

my ex had a Punto, which apparently she has just cubed (with her inside it). But I couldn't believe the price of things, or the general state of it, I know I am basing the engineering of a small (cheaper) italian car on a VW coupe, but some of the aspects of it were terrible. AND, when she had to have a small section of exhaust replaced, I paid the same for my Magnex cat-back system, crazy!!!

 

steer clear of them, no reason at all to buy them with the choice in that market

[Kevin Bacon 5]

completly forgot about the Skoda's, Honda's and Seat's!!!

 

I can't see a 21 year old girl driving a Skoda somehow! Not if she's image concious :-)

 

Ka's are OK, nice wide track, decent caster, torquey 1300 motor and low kerb weight make it an excellent urban kart. Too tinny and noisy for long journeys imo and the interior on the base models is hideous. They also get boring after you've driven them more than 5 times.

 

I reckon a Fiesta ST (old shape) or a Rover 25 ZR130 make brilliant buys but their excellent handling will be wasted on her if she's not into driving dynamics.

[Toad 0]

I'm kinda with Kev here

 

How about the rover 25? they go ok, i was relatively impressed with the parents 1.6 16v (I had a maestro for a long time) and they're cheap as chips now rovers gone away. Front subframes bend very easily tho, although its only a couple of hours work to wack a new one in.

 

Been for a ride in a yellow MG ZR one and it was like a little go kart, buy new ish tho so you can get all the niggly things repaired under warranty, such as speakers, electric windows and gear knobs that fall off.

 

Have heard the ECU's go shonkey quite regularly.

 

Not really selling them here am I?

[StuartFZR400 0]

If I was looking into Feista's, I might even consider the older shapes with ultra low mileage with one careful owner, top spec with all the valour interior etc. Reliable cars not feeling too plasticy.

 

Skoda Fabia isn't too bad (seen the Classic with 32k for £4); depends how image concious she is /could de-badge/. But in that case...

 

Why not buy a Corrado for £2k then use the remainder £2 for insurance? LOL

 

or spot her money on the shares, double her money and buy a new Mini Cooper - now thats a "girly car"

[double-6s 0]

But G60's are girl's cars aren't they?

 

 

I thought it was vr's for the lads and g60's for the ladies???

 

 

:)

[vr6storm 0]

I'm kinda with Kev here

 

How about the rover 25? they go ok, i was relatively impressed with the parents 1.6 16v (I had a maestro for a long time) and they're cheap as chips now rovers gone away. Front subframes bend very easily tho, although its only a couple of hours work to wack a new one in.

 

Been for a ride in a yellow MG ZR one and it was like a little go kart, buy new ish tho so you can get all the niggly things repaired under warranty, such as speakers, electric windows and gear knobs that fall off.

 

Have heard the ECU's go shonkey quite regularly.

 

Not really selling them here am I?

 

 

.....especially with MG-Rover being bust for over a year too :wink:

[double-6s 0]

What do rover owners do about servicing and sh*t now? If they've got a car still under warranty for example?

[Dub_nut_g60 0]

But G60's are girl's cars aren't they?

 

 

I thought it was vr's for the lads and g60's for the ladies???

 

 

:)

 

will you behave!!! your getting as bad as dinkus!!!

 

Surely having 6 cylinders your trying to make up for something else your lacking?? :lol:

 

afaik, whilst rover is not about any longer, the companies that actually made the parts for the cars still are so there are still easily repairable. and almost every garage will be able to service it so its really not as much of a problem as people think it is.

 

I also think warranties are still valid, but not 100% how you get them sorted under it!!

[CazzaVR 0]

Seat Ibiza or Arosa

Skoda Fabia

Honda Civic or Jazz

 

Out of those, reckon the 3 door Civic (95-00) model is the best bet. Nice looking little car and totally reliable. My wife was looking at them a year ago, and there were some seriously low mileage cars out there for not much money.

[Toad 0]

What do rover owners do about servicing and sh*t now? If they've got a car still under warranty for example?

 

The warranty is with the dealer as far as I know, it's the dealer who bought the car from mg rovay and sold it to you. I think most of the dealers took on other franchises so they're still around. Our local one is now renault, but they've still got (a couple of) unsold rovers on the forecourt. They're very little money now, think £5k for a new mg zr thing.

 

The parts are all still being manufactured, there's some kind of law about it apparently.

 

My mates ex owns a 54 plater, with a £15k finance deal on it, she's pretty screwed as she can't get rid of it without loosing huuuge amounts of money on it, but she can't really afford to keep it.

[StuartFZR400 0]

Just to recap the Deisel or economical petrol car thing; is you friend aware of potential saving based on mpg. My gf would just say "oh, thats all right" if you said her car did 55mpg versus my 25mpg. Often worth doing the maths for them just to give an idea of what you can save for a given mileage - use big figures too (5 or 10k mile). And add somthing in like "and you could buy a cheap holiday to xxx for that".