Fiona has bought a car!

Zip · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:44

Rilot said:
I get the impression that everyone thinks it's a POS.

She likes it and that's the important thing. Not too shabby on the old performance either: 164bhp and 0-60 in 8.2s.

Just done some reading and it's a Mazda unit in the car. Shared with the 626.

I just noticed its a manual.
Nice to know she can drive one

Have you driven it yet or wont she let you? Whats it like to drive if you have

Fusion · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:46

Sounds good to me, and as you've shown- what else can you get for the money? Not a lot.

Dogbreath · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:46

Looks very clean, though I'm not convinced it's a huge bargain for an 11 year old example. Watch out for the rear brake calipers, the handbrake mechanism sticks for a passtime on these.

The engine is completely different to the Ford Duratec, though not a bad unit at all.

In truth they aren't bad cars, but parts can be very expensive.

Rilot · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:47

Zip said:
Have you driven it yet or wont she let you? Whats it like to drive if you have

Yup. Gave it a good thrashing before we bought it.

Hadles well for a FWD car. Got some "interesting" torque steer but nothing to worry about. Feels a bit heavy but is reassuring. It could never be described as a sports car but it's an adequate GT IMO.

Dogbreath said:
I'm not convinced it's a huge bargain for an 11 year old example.

OK, maybe not a bargain but I haven't bought cars in this price range for years so anything that runs and look good for <7% of what I would pay for a car gets a "bargain" rating from me.

[TW]Fox · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:47

Fusion said:
Sounds good to me, and as you've shown- what else can you get for the money? Not a lot.

£1000-£2000 is a really difficult budget to buy for.

You've got too much and expect a bit more than the sub £1k bargains but not enough for the plethora of decent stuff that starts at around 2.5-3k.

Rilot · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:52

[TW]Fox said:
£1000-£2000 is a really difficult budget to buy for.

You've got too much and expect a bit more than the sub £1k bargains but not enough for the plethora of decent stuff that starts at around 2.5-3k.

Bang on as always Fox. You are dead right.

So many nice cars just out of reach, but so much scrap in the <1k bracket.

bam0 · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:53

Rilot said:
In what ways? Different heads? Injection system?

As you've said you know now it's a different engine completely, something in particular to watch out for is oil starvation in the 6th cylinder, I remember readin about it when I was looking at getting a probe a few years ago. Can be mitigated by slightly overfilling it, I can't remember all the details but i'm sure google can fill you in, nice car though, hope you enjoy it.

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:53

Rilot said:
Mondeo Ghia X: Fiona hated them all. <--- this would have been my first choice.

What's the matter with the girl?

(Agree with yourself though, I've got 2 Mondy's, 3 if you count the Mk1 that's for sale

)

Zip · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:54

What car did she drive before this?
If it was a corsa or a pug or something else with a ridiculously small engine its a big improvement

[TW]Fox · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:56

tb2000 said:
What's the matter with the girl? (Agree with yourself though, I've got 2 Mondy's, 3 if you count the Mk1 that's for sale )

Girls love image.

A Mondeo is big family car. A Mazda MX6 is a sporty coupe.

Why do you think people pay double for a Cougar what they'd pay for the same Mondeo even though they are so similar? Image

[TW]Fox · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:56

Zip said:
What car did she drive before this?

An E32 BMW 750i V12 I think

Rilot · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:57

Zip said:
What car did she drive before this?
If it was a corsa or a pug or something else with a ridiculously small engine its a big improvement

1991 BMW 750i.

She never drove it though as it was always up on axle-stands having something fixed. She also got fed up with having an auto and wanted a manual.

Morba · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:59

Zip said:
I just noticed its a manual.
Nice to know she can drive one
Have you driven it yet or wont she let you? Whats it like to drive if you have

im sure its a low percentage of people with only an auto license, its not like the states where most cars are autos, i guess its more common to have autos in oz?

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:00

[TW]Fox said:
Girls love image.

A Mondeo is big family car. A Mazda MX6 is a sporty coupe.

Why do you think people pay double for a Cougar what they'd pay for the same Mondeo even though they are so similar? Image

Yep I know, silly when you think about it but that's certainly how it is for the most part.

Zip · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:06

Morba said:
im sure its a low percentage of people with only an auto license, its not like the states where most cars are autos, i guess its more common to have autos in oz?

Well most instructors cars you learn to drive in down here are autos.
We dont have a licence for one or another or both, once we pass get our licence we can drive what ever we want, auto or manual.
A lot of girls i know are scared of driving a manual :rolleyes:

and some just dont like them and dont even know how to drive them.
Every time i look for cars i find that 65-75% of cars down here are autos :mad:

So i would say most cars down here are auto. Holden dont even put manual gears boxes as an option in Commodores anymore unless they are the top spec or sports model IIRC.

[TW]Fox · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:09

Zip said:
So i would say most cars down here are auto. Holden dont even put manual gears boxes as an option in Commodores anymore unless they are the top spec or sports model IIRC.

It's very different over here, the vast majority of cars are manuals. Automatics are irritating, pointless and ridiculous options at £1000+ in smaller cars, and only really standard on larger executive cars.

Zip · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:12

[TW]Fox said:
It's very different over here, the vast majority of cars are manuals. Automatics are irritating, pointless and ridiculous options at £1000+ in smaller cars, and only really standard on larger executive cars.

Commodores are the big V6 and V8 sedans.
Be thankfull england is like that and manuels.
I hate autos :mad:

Rilot · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:12

[TW]Fox said:
It's very different over here, the vast majority of cars are manuals. Automatics are irritating, pointless and ridiculous options at £1000+ in smaller cars, and only really standard on larger executive cars.

You do still get a lot of women who buy the little cars with auto-shifters.

2 of Fiona's friends can only drive autos and they won't drive anything bigger than a Corsa and they are under the impression that large car = hard to drive.

Both of them have to bend over whenever they buy a car as auto Corsas seem to command about £1k over manual ones.

Zip said:
I hate autos

I love autos but only in the right car. My A8 for example would be stupid with anything other than an auto box.

Zip · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:16

Rilot said:
You do still get a lot of women who buy the little cars with auto-shifters.

2 of Fiona's friends can only drive autos and they won't drive anything bigger than a Corsa and they are under the impression that large car = hard to drive.

Both of them have to bend over whenever they buy a car as auto Corsas seem to command about £1k over manual ones.

I love autos but only in the right car. My A8 for example would be stupid with anything other than an auto box.

Im glad your fiona knows how to drive a manuel

I dont see why its so hard for people to learn to drive a manual :confused:

Clutch in, gear change, clutch out. not that hard :confused:

And most women cant do that. They think they are good at multitasking :rolleyes:

Hate · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:18

i must admit when my GT4 was being undersealed i was given an auto celica. It was nice pootling through traffic without having to change gear. although on smaller engines the indecisivness is what gets to me, larger engines have power everywhere to use whereas smaller engines need to think about kicking down a peg or two.