Test driving older cars?

rG-tom · 16 Mar 2006 at 23:09

Hey guys,

In light of a possible job coming up, I may need to be getting a car that can stand up to high mileages in reasonable comfort soon, and the two on my shortlist atm are mark 2 mondeos and peugeot 406s....now I want to have a look at the differences in person between the specs and engines etc, and take each for a drive to see how they feel etc, much like i would when buying a new(er) car, but obviously there aren't really any dealer facilities....

....do you think that a car supermarket would be a good idea for this kind of thing? Obviously with no intention to pay their inflated prices over private sellers in this price range, but just to get a feel for cars?

Cheers

Tom.

rG-tom · 16 Mar 2006 at 23:20

-Mike- said:
Sorry this isn't brilliantly useful but if you really are going to be doing high mileages and are going diesel, the mondeo TD is a rubbish engine compared to the pug lump. I vote the 406

Edit : Assuming you are looking at mondeos of the age where the 1.8TD was fitted and not the tdci.

cheers mate i knew this

I think it'd be a false economy to get a diesel at this price range, as the decent diesel engines ie the hdi cost far more to buy in the first place, and the non TDCI/HDI engines are pretty poor compared to the petrol equivs

Oh yea i forgot to mention the actual buying budget is probably going to be as close to a grand as possible :x not exactly sure yet.

rG-tom · 17 Mar 2006 at 01:38

also, would I possibly have a problem test driving cars due to my age? For example, I know some company car policies require 21+ or some such, would any age limit apply for test driving, or would a dealer not be iditiotic enough to rule out a certain age of customer

Tom.

rG-tom · 17 Mar 2006 at 08:45

Jonny69 said:
Just take it round the block. What's the chance of crashing or getting pulled up? You're at your most cautious in a new vehicle so not going to do anything silly are you?

i highly doubt a dealer would let me take a car out round the block if i wasn't covered by their insurance though :/ For private sellers maybe, but even still I dont particularily like the risk.

Tom.