It's been a little while since I posted a thread about anything I was thinking of buying or had bought, I've had an '07 Volvo V50 2.0D for 2 months short of 2 years now, I will most likely actually keep it the full 2 years before swapping it. As some of you may know it replaced my last Jag, an XJ6, now I have had a string of oldish luxury cars over the last 5 or 6 years, some of which were poor buys (BMW 540i, XJ6) some were good (XJ8, ST220 (not a luxury car I know)), I've wasted some stupid money on swapping old cars around, more than I care to think about really. I said to myself I was going to keep the Volvo at least 18 months, well I've more than succeeded on that front ...something that was in no small part due to me more or less ignoring OcUK motors and all things car related, as the more I read and look at other people's cars the more it makes me want various cars.
Anyway I've been having a think and I would like to get a new car in the not too distant future. I'm not going to go back into buying big old luxury cars, I still love them in many ways but I'm just not prepared to go down that road again and I just don't feel the need to spend so much on motoring anymore.
Strange as this may sound I am not really sure what I want, I have a clearer idea of what I don't want though, in the past I have always had my heart set on a particular car that I 'must' have no matter what ...which is how the 540i happened, etc, not this time though. What I do know is that I don't want another 4 cylinder diesel, I would much rather have a 4 pot petrol to be honest, despite what I said about them having no torque in the past, fact is ... diesels all seem to sound like a bag of spanners (I don't care if you agree or not, they sound awful to me) and I do get frustrated with mine both because of the way it sounds and the fact that although it has reasonable torque ...you have such a narrow power band to actually use it in, it's annoying. Also the Volvo is so incredibly dull to drive, the steering is lifeless, the gearbox isn't very nice and the clutch lacks ...'definition' ...its just really, really dull and 2 years will be quite long enough with in thank you, I want something else.
So I want a petrol engine, although I do generally prefer autos ...not so much in anything short of a V/l6 ...I think really with the sort of car I have in mind here, manual would give me a 'better' experience. Besides I've got used to them again since I bought the Volvo anyway and I don't mind.
I want the car to be fairly comfortable and quiet at motorway speeds, I want the usual refinements, climate control, steering mounted audio controls, cruise control and a way to connect my ipod to the cars audio system (the Volvo doesn't have anyway to do this, not even an auxillary jack, which is annoying as I have to use an FM transmitter and it's not very good tbh). While the following things aren't really necessary and aren't deal breakers by any means they are nice to have; auto-dimming rear view mirror, auto wipers, auto headlights and heated seats.
I'm not set on a particular size of car really, I tend to prefer larger cars though, certainly nothing smaller than a Focus sized car at the very minimum as that is small by my standards, but I wouldn't rule it out as it's 'big enough' really, the Volvo is the smallest car I have had in a good while, but I've found it's fine, I don't really find myself wanting for space at all, the fact that it's an estate has proved very useful at times too. So I would certainly be open to another estate but it's by no means a requirement.
I want to keep running costs sensible too. I'm not sure weather I even want to go as far as something like on Octavia vRS, which is something I have considered before, but I quite like how cheap my insurance is now, I have no objections to paying a bit more but I think I'll stay away from the very highest groups this time.
I was actually looking at ST220s earlier, I've had one of these before, a 2004 one in ink blue, that was a nice car with a great engine, comfortable with plenty of equipment too, however as I said above with regards to the Octavia vRS, I know the running costs will be alround quite a bit higher than the Volvo and I'm not sure it's worth it to me right now, with regards to the ST220 I reckon my fuel and insurance bills would double annually. What is also a concern is that the MK3 Mondeo platform is old now, although the ST220 does a great job of making it look fairly contemporary ...it's not really, it's all old tech now and I'd like to move forward to more modern cars in many ways. However it does offer all the equipment I asked for despite it's age, and it looks good still. The MK4 Mondeo isn't a car I like very much until it's in Titanium X Sport trim, basically I only really care for the top spec ones from the last couple of years and they are a bit too expensive still, the ones that don't have the sport body kit and the facelift bits look fat and ungainly imo.
Then I suppose there are the truly ordinary cars, like the Mazda 6 with a petrol engine, Honda Accord etc ...even the Golf GTi (bit small but could be fun) ..I do believe these are quite economical when driven sensibly too, I suppose the same would hold true for the vRS as they use the same engine, just a bit harsh on the insurance.
I just don't know what I fancy, any suggestions or ideas would be welcome. So the budget is no more than 10K, lets keep it 2009 or later ideally and I've set a loose millage limit of 70k. The Volvo is currently on 82k so I want it to be less than that. Reality is this is probably just going to be an 'ordinary' car purchase, just something newer with a petrol engine, as the running costs I am keen to keep down do more or less preclude anything with a proper turn of pace I suppose.
This thread may be mostly directionless rambling, but I just don't quite know where to go tbh. If I could make any choice I'd be test driving F10 5 series and XF Jags as daily drivers and Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers as fun cars.
Anyway I've been having a think and I would like to get a new car in the not too distant future. I'm not going to go back into buying big old luxury cars, I still love them in many ways but I'm just not prepared to go down that road again and I just don't feel the need to spend so much on motoring anymore.
Strange as this may sound I am not really sure what I want, I have a clearer idea of what I don't want though, in the past I have always had my heart set on a particular car that I 'must' have no matter what ...which is how the 540i happened, etc, not this time though. What I do know is that I don't want another 4 cylinder diesel, I would much rather have a 4 pot petrol to be honest, despite what I said about them having no torque in the past, fact is ... diesels all seem to sound like a bag of spanners (I don't care if you agree or not, they sound awful to me) and I do get frustrated with mine both because of the way it sounds and the fact that although it has reasonable torque ...you have such a narrow power band to actually use it in, it's annoying. Also the Volvo is so incredibly dull to drive, the steering is lifeless, the gearbox isn't very nice and the clutch lacks ...'definition' ...its just really, really dull and 2 years will be quite long enough with in thank you, I want something else.
So I want a petrol engine, although I do generally prefer autos ...not so much in anything short of a V/l6 ...I think really with the sort of car I have in mind here, manual would give me a 'better' experience. Besides I've got used to them again since I bought the Volvo anyway and I don't mind.
I want the car to be fairly comfortable and quiet at motorway speeds, I want the usual refinements, climate control, steering mounted audio controls, cruise control and a way to connect my ipod to the cars audio system (the Volvo doesn't have anyway to do this, not even an auxillary jack, which is annoying as I have to use an FM transmitter and it's not very good tbh). While the following things aren't really necessary and aren't deal breakers by any means they are nice to have; auto-dimming rear view mirror, auto wipers, auto headlights and heated seats.
I'm not set on a particular size of car really, I tend to prefer larger cars though, certainly nothing smaller than a Focus sized car at the very minimum as that is small by my standards, but I wouldn't rule it out as it's 'big enough' really, the Volvo is the smallest car I have had in a good while, but I've found it's fine, I don't really find myself wanting for space at all, the fact that it's an estate has proved very useful at times too. So I would certainly be open to another estate but it's by no means a requirement.
I want to keep running costs sensible too. I'm not sure weather I even want to go as far as something like on Octavia vRS, which is something I have considered before, but I quite like how cheap my insurance is now, I have no objections to paying a bit more but I think I'll stay away from the very highest groups this time.
I was actually looking at ST220s earlier, I've had one of these before, a 2004 one in ink blue, that was a nice car with a great engine, comfortable with plenty of equipment too, however as I said above with regards to the Octavia vRS, I know the running costs will be alround quite a bit higher than the Volvo and I'm not sure it's worth it to me right now, with regards to the ST220 I reckon my fuel and insurance bills would double annually. What is also a concern is that the MK3 Mondeo platform is old now, although the ST220 does a great job of making it look fairly contemporary ...it's not really, it's all old tech now and I'd like to move forward to more modern cars in many ways. However it does offer all the equipment I asked for despite it's age, and it looks good still. The MK4 Mondeo isn't a car I like very much until it's in Titanium X Sport trim, basically I only really care for the top spec ones from the last couple of years and they are a bit too expensive still, the ones that don't have the sport body kit and the facelift bits look fat and ungainly imo.
Then I suppose there are the truly ordinary cars, like the Mazda 6 with a petrol engine, Honda Accord etc ...even the Golf GTi (bit small but could be fun) ..I do believe these are quite economical when driven sensibly too, I suppose the same would hold true for the vRS as they use the same engine, just a bit harsh on the insurance.
I just don't know what I fancy, any suggestions or ideas would be welcome. So the budget is no more than 10K, lets keep it 2009 or later ideally and I've set a loose millage limit of 70k. The Volvo is currently on 82k so I want it to be less than that. Reality is this is probably just going to be an 'ordinary' car purchase, just something newer with a petrol engine, as the running costs I am keen to keep down do more or less preclude anything with a proper turn of pace I suppose.
This thread may be mostly directionless rambling, but I just don't quite know where to go tbh. If I could make any choice I'd be test driving F10 5 series and XF Jags as daily drivers and Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers as fun cars.
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![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
