Almost time to buy another car...

Solari · 4 Feb 2008 at 13:39

Well my Pug was done me well for a first car but now I'm wrestling with ideas for my 2nd car. I was keen on a 2 seater but to be honest it's just going to cause too much inconvenience so that's out the window

I quite like the look of these (not necessarily that large an engine) but am a bit unsure about how reliable/expensive to maintain they are and don't want to be making an uninformed purchase.

Any opinions? I'm quite tall (6'2") so am looking for something that's comfortable to drive long distances, but not too big as parking up my road is a bit of a mare.

ci_newman · 4 Feb 2008 at 14:07

Budget?

Solari · 4 Feb 2008 at 14:09

ci_newman said:
Budget?

Up to 4K. Don't want to go overboard

Also nothing too sporty or mad as I had a small scrape a few months ago and lost any potential NCB... d'oh!

Sol

Solari · 4 Feb 2008 at 18:33

Bump... is the Selespeed the semi automatic tiptronic style thingy? Would like to hear people's opinions on Alfas... reliability/maintenance costs etc.

Thanks.

Lashout_UK · 4 Feb 2008 at 18:40

Avoid the Selespeed at all cost........I'll say that much!

Solari · 4 Feb 2008 at 19:29

Lashout_UK said:
Avoid the Selespeed at all cost........I'll say that much!

Hum... a bit of googling reveals http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/top10_worst.html

Oh dear.. bit of a shame as they are really nice looking cars IMO.

BIGWEB · 4 Feb 2008 at 20:46

avoid selespeed and that one is prob due an expensive cam belt change

Solari · 4 Feb 2008 at 20:57

Cheers chaps, I must admit I'm put off by the reliability figures I've found while sniffing around the net. Real shame but I don't want the thing spending loads of time being repaired.

I'm looking for something different that is going to be fun and comfortable to drive, like I say very top end of the budget is £4K, and I don't want to get hammered too much by a costly insurance group. While, for example the Focus is alright, it doesn't really appeal to me. Am I just asking too much for the budget as I don't really see much I like. I do like some of the Civics I've seen however as well as Audi A3s (but the Audis look like dogs reliability wise?)