The hunt is over, family bus purchased....

SB118

SB118

SB118

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,700
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
.... after giving up looking until we actually NEEDED a bigger car, the wife spotted this one online, about 4 miles away :D

V-reg (2000) Zafira Di Elegance, T&T till end of october.

Interior is pretty much immaculate (as much as cloth seats a plastic can be), exterior has a couple of scratches and one trolley dink in the rear passenger side door/panel. Rear windows lightly tinted, towbar with twin electrics.

Engine starts and runs with no smoke or rattles, clutch doesn't slip, brakes are great (over-servo'd to hell i'm guessing), so far everything works :)

Now she has to sit and look at it locked in on my dads hardstanding as she needs to use her 306 for work for another fortnight, haha :D

28533310150719988290315.jpg
<--sellers pic
 
Certainly is a bit of a bus.

I see plenty of these doing ridiculous speeds on the motorway, I guess the percieved stability of a big blob like that gives people a false sense of confidence.
 
sigma said:
Certainly is a bit of a bus.

I see plenty of these doing ridiculous speeds on the motorway, I guess the percieved stability of a big blob like that gives people a false sense of confidence.
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Quite freaky to drive it the first time, bonnet slopes away quite steeply, you can see the bottom of the windscreen and nothing else. I know the front of the car is out there somewhere but i'm not sure where!
 
Costs so far...

The engine cooling warning light comes on if you run the AC for more than a minute, fan on the front of the AC rad has seized, on ebay they're from £35 upwards....... unless you buy one advertised for an Astra G (same unit) and then it's delivered for £25 all in :)

No heat inside, turns out there is a motorised heater matrix shutoff in these and it sometimes packs up. So often that Vauxhall have discontinued the motorised valve and now just sell two pieces of moulded plastic pipe to replace it. £23

Mot yesterday, straight through. :)

Haven't been allowed to put any biodiesel in this one until after the baby was born, she didn't want the car dying on the way to hospital (she's quite happy for mine to run on it day & night, but not hers!).

Power deliver? n/a. This is maybe the slowest car i've ever driven, weighing in with an impressive 80bhp in something the size of my first bedsit. Although things have improved now we're on biodiesel, it picking up faster and holding it's revs if it gets to a shallow incline or weak headwind.

I can see why these are so popular, loads of space inside, nice seating position, very very overpowered brakes (brake test machine at the mot went off the stop of the scale and had to rescale it's readout, my 406 is around the 220-250kgf mark, the zafira was hitting 420kgf!).

Downside? Shockingly bad visibility, wing mirrors are too small, rear pillats are too big (and overlap the view in the rear mirror). Not a fun car to drive in heavy traffic trying to change lane.
 
SB118 said:
... very very overpowered brakes (brake test machine at the mot went off the stop of the scale and had to rescale it's readout, my 406 is around the 220-250kgf mark, the zafira was hitting 420kgf!)
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Are you likely to chew through disks and pads with that much force?
 
SB118 said:
3rd sprog has just arrived, enough room in the back for dog cage too.
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Back in the 80's and 90's I swear a saloon was plenty big enough for a family of 5. Do these things really make driving a family about that much easier? Not that I plan on having 2+ kids and also raising them myself, but I cannot imagine having to suffer driving something like that, the idea depresses me no end.
 
hurfdurf said:
Back in the 80's and 90's I swear a saloon was plenty big enough for a family of 5. Do these things really make driving a family about that much easier? Not that I plan on having 2+ kids and also raising them myself, but I cannot imagine having to suffer driving something like that, the idea depresses me no end.
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With compulsory child seats up to the age of 12 or 4ft 5 I don't think you can easily fit 3 kids on one row any more.
 
My g/fs step dad is in his 60's, retired farmer, kids grown up and long gone, in fact grand kids almost in high school. He has a renault scenic 7 seater, for reasons no one can work out. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely car, top spec model, very luxurious but I can't see the advantage of it over say a mondeo titanium estate or bmw touring for similar money.
 
hurfdurf said:
Back in the 80's and 90's I swear a saloon was plenty big enough for a family of 5. Do these things really make driving a family about that much easier? Not that I plan on having 2+ kids and also raising them myself, but I cannot imagine having to suffer driving something like that, the idea depresses me no end.
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This depresses me too, I've much told the mrs that if she wants us to have a sensible car when we have kids then it'll be hers; I don't want kids, so if she does then she can sacrifice her car. End of.

Or we wait until we can afford to run one as a 3rd car, although I can think of a million better things to spend money on that a people carrier.

Not sure I could cope with that Zafira though, 80 bhp diesel must be traumatic in town?
 
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