Justify your car decision.

Jez

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,075
Was thinking about this today, while cruising in an awesome Seat Ibiza hire car. This car is the worst car i have ever driven, by far. Its interior was woeful, it didnt exactly look great externally, and no matter what gear you are in, what speed you are at, there was literally no power. It was virging on being dangerous to drive in amongst fast moving traffic. Foot to the floor on the motorway i could barely keep up, i think it managed about 95 indicated after a few miles of flat.

This lead me to look around at other people in cars similar and consistantly asking myself WHY? What drove these people to purchase these cars in which they are driving, a lot i simply could not fathom, but i am guessing they must have had their reasons.

As an example i will start. The last car i bought was a 1992 Toyota MR2 Turbo. The reason for the purchase was that i was 18, and admiral quoted me £1200 to insure it, which came as a complete shock. I did quotes on other similar performance cars and they were all disproportionate. It also didnt help that eidolon on this forum had such an amazing example of one which i had ogled over before. The car i bought was £3750, so not expensive, but had slight mods taking it to around 250bhp, so it was rather nippy. Needless to say when i test drove it and felt the power, i bought it. The interior sucked, but then who cares, it was a 250bhp sports car at 18.

Whats your reasoning behind your purchases people? :)
 
Justify? Went to test drive one on a whim when I was bored one afternoon.. thought it was awesome.. bought it 15minutes later.

That's why I don't test drive many cars these days :)

edit: E39 drug dealer 520i made to look like an M5.
 
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Don't need practicality, don't need more than two seats, relatively good on fuel.

edit: S1 Elise
 
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Got all day?

I drive my Micra because it's cool, fun to drive, fast, sleek, stylish, Japanese high quality, looks great, excellent drivers car, cheap to insure, great on long motorway journeys.

I can continue if requested.
 
Violent-J said:
Got all day?

I drive my Micra because it's cool, fun to drive, fast, sleek, stylish, Japanese high quality, looks great, excellent drivers car, cheap to insure, great on long motorway journeys.

I can continue if requested.
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I assume the real reason you drive a micra is for economy reasons? ;)
 
2 Litre Hyundai Coupe.

It was the fastest thing i could reasonably insure at 18 (didn't cost much more than most other things), 0-60 is 8.3 seconds, looks pretty good imo, has a nice leather interior, cruise control is good for long journeys and air conditioning is always nice to have.
 
Alfa 156 2.4jtd mjet. Had a 156 1.8 liked the car hated the performance. Bought it at one and a half years old at an auction when it had lost over 10k from new. Like the 156 as they are different, are good value second hand and the 2.4 mjet engine is a cracker.
 
Primera GT

Wanted something a bit sporty, pretty fast with decent handling....and not a Mondeo. Car cost me under £2k and cost me £250 more per year to insure than my mums Micra 1.2, and it's a hell of a lot better car!
 
I needed a car to fulfil these criteria:

- Fun to drive at sensible speeds, with good handling and chuckability.
- Faster in a straight line than my old car (100bhp/tonne).
- Not a soft top (lots of driving for work, inc. in the winter).
- Comfortable enough to drive 400-500 miles a week in.
- Boot big enough for work gear (saxophones, clarinets, boxes etc).
- Economy better than 35mpg average.
- Reliable (not worried about minor mechanical problems, but has to start on 1st turn of the key every day)
- Not older than 1998ish.
- Budget of £4k.
- Reasonably cheap to run.
- Reasonably cheap to insure (<£600 FC).

All these factors screamed hot hatch at me, and having spent literally months deciding what I wanted, it was a toss-up between a Renault Clio Williams or a Pug 106 GTI. The 106 won on the reliability stakes, and I really can't think of *any* other car that would have fulfilled all my criteria - and I've thought quite hard about it!
 
gobbo said:
Primera GT

Wanted something a bit sporty, pretty fast with decent handling....and not a Mondeo. Car cost me under £2k and cost me £250 more per year to insure than my mums Micra 1.2, and it's a hell of a lot better car!
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That must be a GREAT car. :)
 
It was cheap (Leon 1.6), and I needed to shift my VTR quickly as it was falling apart.

Not really my ideal car (WAAY to slow), but I suppose its nice and easy to drive, and really comfortable.
 
Impreza Sport

Because:

I like the looks
I like the sound
It's quick enough in the straights for a first car, and around a twisty bit of road is a hoot
It was reasonablish to insure, compared to similar things

But most importantly of all..

Because it makes me smile, and that's more important than anything else. I could have chosen more sensible cars, but this makes me smile when I open the front door, makes me smile when i get in, and makes me grin like a loon on a decent bit of road.
 
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