Safe Speed Forums

When It Comes To Buying Your Car What Is The Main Reason For Buying It? And what Is It?
I have A Ford Escort 1.8 Diesel. It was The Only Thing I could afford at the time.

I answered "all above" - though I wouldn't really include "colour".

Many (probably most) contributors here will seek to get some pleasure from driving, but at the same time a car is primarily a tool for moving people and goods from A to B.

So my first consideration would be whether it will do the necessary "carrying" job, and also, at the same time, whether it will fit in my garage and be convenient to park.

Having established the general configuration of vehicle I then go on to look at what is on the market in terms of affordability, performance, equipment, reliability etc.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Price - specifically running costs. Like how cheap is it on fuel?

But unless you do massive mileages, fuel costs far less than depreciation.

I wouldn't buy a car with daft fuel consumption just because it looks good, but choosing something with an average of 34 as against 37 mpg will be lost in the noise. Assuming 12000 miles a year, and an average consumption around 35 mpg, each extra mpg is only worth about £35 a year.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

My ONLY reason for buying a car is performance. Engine size and colour are irrelevant.

If I cannot afford the car I want I will continue to drive my current cars until I can afford the one I really want.

Obviously there is a heirachy of sorts because the car I really want is an Aston Martin V8 Vantage or a BMW V10 M5 but I will probably never be able to afford either (I'm too old to wait for depreciation).

So I will continue to drive my BMW M3R and my Subaru STI for a few more years yet,

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

Reliability, value for money, grunt, smoothness, lots of toys, and straight line stability at speed.

The first says Honda, the second says get someone else to pay for it, the tihrd says biggest engine in the range, the fourth says auto, the fifth says top of the range in trim and the last says long wheelbase and wide track. I chose a Honda Accord 2.4 auto saloon with 17" wheels.

But surely that single-seat, hoodless roadster with no luggage capacity and 4 mpg fuel consumption is a bit impractical?

I would suggest even you decide on the practical requirements for a vehicle and once that is established go for the best performance on offer.

Unless, perhaps, you make all your "serious" journeys by foot, pedal cycle or public transport, and only use a car for fun?

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

OK, you've got me. I like comfort too, but my choice of cars would make that fairly obvious.

The car you describe would be my choice of car for the track but on the road you are correct that other factors do come into it.

Maybe I should have said that the MAIN reason for my choice was performance and I also want it to look good and be comfortable to drive over long distances.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

Tough one to answer. We've got a fun but impractical car and a less interesting but more sensible one. We're both petrol heads who enjoy our driving, so I suppose the purchase of the fun car was mainly influenced by the fact that we didn't want two boring practical cars. Or maybe my mid life crisis came 10 years early.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

In order as applied to my last purchase:

Practicality: originally was can I get 2 sets of Golf Clubs in the boot with ease. Its amazing how many fail this including Focus, Golf etc.
Now with child nearly here it must include 4 doors and ISOfix.

Performance/Handling: I could say this is for safety, but I suppose I would be telling porkies. I was doing 18,000 per year with two hours+ each day in the car. I wanted something that would be fun when the conditions allow.

Safety: does it hold the road, does it stop, can it climb my driveway when it snows, or is it like those RWD BMW & Mercs that struggle with the 1:1000 slope outside the house if their are 4 snowflakes somewhere in the region.

Equipment: must be available as standard or as an option:- AirCon (comfort; 2 hours per day), CD Multichanger (safety; changing CDs on the move is for idiots).

Do I fancy it: some cars are mens cars, some are girley cars or only used by hairdressers, so most two seat convertables are out then.

Affordability: can I afford to run it - not that big a problem as I am on Cash instead of Company Car, so £500/month to cover costs.

Then the rest...
Colour: don't care, except not silver beacuse a) everybody else has silver, and b) silver is dangerous in fog because it is hard to see.

Trim Level: as long as the equipment is there I am happy.


So what did I get? Subaru Impreza WRX in WR Blue. Not the STi version, but a few dealer fit options: wife loves heated seats and insisted on SL version with heated leather seats and sunroof - very good when back is feeling stiff, upgrade with CD changer, and finally PPP for the "flexibility" of the extra tourque.

Voted all of the above, but none in particular.

I look primarily for good midrange acceleration, and being over 6ft i have difficulty getting a good, comfortable driving position in some cars.

Local garage is good, just 5mins walk from home, friendly and helpful - lent me a car for a month once when a previous car expired, they get a very high amount of repeat business locally. So i tend to use them, and they are not part of a faceless chain.

Current car is 2.5l Mondeo, bit big for my needs ( car, not the engine ), but Focus had no car in range with comparable mid range performance at the time. But may consider TDCi as next car. Or a Skoda Fabia/Octavia vRS, but my local dealer has been dropped with Skoda reorganisation ( another example of big companies not appreciating the work of small local dealers that helped them improve their sales ), so any dealer servicing means 50-60 mile round trip.

Not too bothered by age, image or colour. Wont be bought new though.

Fuel economy comes 2nd to safety, rather have good midrange for overtaking decisively and safely than a few more mpg.

Thats Interesting About Colour -
Silver- I would agree with that
Green Would Be Dodgy As well For Toning In with The Hedgerows.
Red- Isn't that meant to have the highest rate Of Accidents?
White - Shows The dirt Too Much
Black - Night driving could be a Hazard?

Mine Is Blue

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RoADA Member -GOLD 2008
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

quote]

for the record....colour popularity



also..effect on value

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Speed camera policy Kills

Both my wife and I have white cars and I find them the least likely to show road grime. We can go for many weeks between washing them and they look OK. Sometimes just a wash of the wheels make them acceptable again.

I had a black car once and it needed to be washed at least every week and looked dreadful the day after driving in the rain. In fact I could say that of every dark coloured car I have owned.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

Maybe you don't have crap winters and road salt over there....

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Speed camera policy Kills

I must admit to being a bit of a fanatic car washer, but I would go along with Ross's view, ie that light coloured cars show muck less than dark coloured ones, and the opposite extremes of this spectrum are white and black cars.

When I've had white cars in the past I've usually found that you only notice just how dirty they are when you start to wash them (!) whilst very dark - and in particular black - cars are virtually impossible to actually get properly clean, not to mention showing every slight mark or blemish in the paint.

Even when it gets to the extremes of winter road salt, remember it dries very pale so again shows up more on a dark car, like this...

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

I voted price! I'm a Senior Citizen with fixed income

So the lesson is, if you don't want to wash the car often sludge grey is the best colour to go for.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Once I had realised it was going to be some years before I could afford to buy and run the car I really wanted* I decided that for going back and forth to work and the odd trip around the UK I needed something practical, economic, reasonably sized and reliable. I also thought that it may as well be as anonymous as possible and to that end bought a silver Focus TDCI.

By buying an ex-demo 6mths old I also knocked £5k off the new price and so have been sparred a fair wack off the depreciation.

Very few faults (wiper relay is the only actual fault), pretty good on tyres, smooth and comforatble enough, road noise is a little higher than with the previous Mondeo but still not bad. I am also managing to get around 47 mpg which is much better than 30mpg I was getting out of the previous car.

In the Poll I said make\model because I had worked out what I wanted prior to looking.

* 4.3 pre cat Griff

I picked "make and model" because I'm on my second Capri now after an unisured driver wrote my last one off Still, I got paid out by the MIB double what I bought the car for only 18 months previously

Originally though I didn't have any particular affiliation to Capri's but was looking for a car that gave the greatest bang for my buck, wasn't too expensive to run and was a bit different then the norm(this was 2001 so they were getting fairly rare).

Then I was out on my driveway one night and I saw a car-dealer owning neighbour of mine who has a different car each night coming down the street in 1987 2.8i making a wonderful rumble from the V6. Since I knew the guy well he give me the keys for an evenings test drive and money parted soon after

For me it fits the bill perfectly:- It isn't depriciating, it cost very little to run since I do a lot of my own work - a full service costs £35 Parts are cheap and readily available and its even reliable to boot. No really it is! It perhaps need to be 'kept on top of' more then newer cars but that amount to a fluid and visual safety check every 1-2 weeks which I even enjoy. It's not just a hobby car either, while I'm not dependent on it for work it gets a fair bit of use at evenings and weekends. Not bad for a car from 1981!

I can't think of a reason to sell it - plus I'd miss that engine sound over the moors on a sunny day!