My first car, fiesta or astra?

Acme said:
For those wondering, the van was parked in third gear, and I was in a hurry and neglected to 'neutral check', starter motor jolted the van forwards into his wall which it was parked about 1ft away from... :rolleyes:
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Cat D? Bet you did it on purpose :D
 
arfoll said:
NCB is pretty irrelevant before you hit 25, in my experience it doesn't help remotely as much as it costs. This sounds like a good deal if you don't mind a small underpowered diesel and don't want hastle. Astra looks like the best choice to me from that list.

I'm curious though why are those the only choices is it because you're staying under 99g? If they're ordering it can't you negociate something like the polo 1.0TSI or fiesta 1.0 which wouldn't come with the BiK surcharge of diesel and likely cheaper RRP?
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I have no idea its just the choices given by the guys in HR that arrange this i guess. I assume it has something to do with the dealer they use but am not sure.

I wish i was under 25 but sadly i am a 33yo that has only just learned to drive lol, but my insurance is still bloody high :)

You certainly dont get in trouble for prangs etc but i do think there is something like a 250 excess on it. Little things like scrapes and such i think work generally just sort for you they are pretty good like that.

The fiesta is listed as cheaper than the astra by about 1k on the document so it is likely a base spec astra whereas my colleague who just got one of the fiestas was able to get a load of extras like heated seats/sensors/satnav etc if that makes a difference.
 
I'd go fiesta all the way. Very cheap and reliable car.
I had one and my sister did the same and both of them never let us down.
If driving in the city go petrol as has already been mentioned.
 
The astra
It's a more comfortable place to be sat and will make the motorway trips you do now and again a lot easier. It's also more spacious, the equivalent of a focus. The Corsa is comparable to the fiesta. My gran has a fiesta so I'll always look at them as an old ladies car. In fact, go to your local supermarket and see how many elderly people drive the fiesta compared to seeing probably none driving the astra.
 
Just a word of advice, feel free to ignore me.

Don't buy the Fiesta, at least not with that particular engine, Ford use the 1.6 HDi built by Peugeot which has a major design flaw, see the link below.

This happened to a mate and myself who stupidly thought it must be a one off, a quick Google search will prove to you this is a wide-spread problem.

I spoke to a few specialist garages after the turbo blew on mine and I had an independent assessment carried out and all the garages and the assessor advised they've seen this countless times on this particular engine.

It's not a simple turbo swap and will cost you about £3k to put it right when it goes wrong. *WHEN*.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/bff3d2_1307f92d7da342d4955dc4c73ddde15f.pdf

I don't know about the Astra but I do know which one I'd choose with hindsight. :D
 
Closing said:
Just a word of advice, feel free to ignore me.

Don't buy the Fiesta, at least not with that particular engine, Ford use the 1.6 HDi built by Peugeot which has a major design flaw, see the link below.
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He's not going to be buying it. Company car so it's on a lease. Chances are it'll be long gone by the time the turbo dies and some other poor sod down the food chain will have this happen.

I was once the lucky buyer of an 11 year old Octavia with partially jammed turbo vanes. I eventually learned how to put the car in limp mode at will with a quick flick of the right foot.
 
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Uriel said:
He's not going to be buying it. Company car so it's on a lease. Chances are it'll be long gone by the time the turbo dies and some other poor sod down the food chain will have this happen.
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Ah no worries then!

That's what happened to me, bought the car at 70k, brilliant runner, economical (full service every 10k with stamps) - one day i'm pootleing along and poof the turbo blows, no warning whatsoever.

Ah well gave me an excuse to get an ST. :D
 
Lol thanks for the advice guys :) waiting on confirmation that the astra is the latest model and if so I will get one of those, if not then the fiesta! Appreciate the help
 
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