Buying a car

Emp_Fab

Right - I've finally narrowed it down to one of two cars.

It's either this: A White Volvo V40 D3 ES

https://tinyurl.com/Volvo-V40-White



Or this: A Silver Mazda 3 SE-L Nav

https://tinyurl.com/mazda3-Silver



The Volvo is a 2.0L Diesel, no toys to speak of other than cruise control & bluetooth.  It averages 49.1 mpg (real mpg), does 0-60 in 9.3s.  5 Star NCAP, Insurance Group 21.

The Mazda is a 2.2L Diesel, with heated seats, sat nav, 7" touch screen, cruise control & bluetooth.  It averages 49.7 mpg, 0-60 in 7.8s.  5 Star NCAP, Insurance Group 24.

Both have full service history.  The Volvo is £500 more but has done 17,700 miles less.  The Mazda is a Euro 6 emissions engine and the Volvo only manages Euro 5.

WHICH ONE SHOULD I CHOOSE ?!!!

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT !!!!

ICBM

Get the Mazda, no question. The difference between Euro 5 and Euro 6 will make a huge difference to both you and its potential resale value once cities start bringing in diesel bans.

Plus the Mazda has better performance, better economy despite that and its larger engine, and thus is just a better car.

It also looks MUCH better. And it's cheaper.

No brainer. Don't worry about the mileage.

steveledzep

ICBM said:

Get the Mazda, no question. The difference between Euro 5 and Euro 6 will make a huge difference to both you and its potential resale value once cities start bringing in diesel bans.

Plus the Mazda has better performance, better economy despite that and its larger engine, and thus is just a better car.

It also looks MUCH better. And it's cheaper.

No brainer. Don't worry about the mileage.

^^^^ This.

ronnyb

I don't want to put a spanner in the works, pardon the pun, but there have been a lot of reported problems with that Mazda 2.2 diesel engine.

ronnyb

The 2.0 litre diesel in the Volvo is a PSA french engine used by Peugeot and Citroen and also Ford. Generally good apart from the usual problems when they're only used for short journeys.

Emp_Fab

ronnyb said:

I don't want to put a spanner in the works, pardon the pun, but there have been a lot of reported problems with that Mazda 2.2 diesel engine.

What? Where? Eh ?  Do you have any more info on that please ?

Emp_Fab

Oh frigging arse-biscuits    You're not wrong @ronnyb - DPF issues, timing chains stretching constantly....  

strtdv

Yeah I wouldn't own a Mazda with either the 2.2 or 1.6 litre diesels. The 2.2 has timing chain issues and the 1.6 blows injectors.

To be fair I owned a BMW with the n47 diesel engine which had known timing chain issues, but I wouldn't hold onto it out of warranty

RaymondLin

This has been going for so long, why not a petrol?

ICBM

Emp_Fab said:

Oh frigging arse-biscuits    You're not wrong @ronnyb - DPF issues, timing chains stretching constantly....  

Well that rules out both of them then. Euro 5 is going to be a major problem in a few years. 

RaymondLin said:

This has been going for so long, why not a petrol?

This.

Emp_Fab

Pissing shit bollocks.  I was kind of leaning towards the Mazda - which meant in my mind that I had rejected the Volvo.  Which in turn makes it harder to go back to now.  FFS - all this time in picking a car and I pick something with a self-destructing engine.

Emp_Fab

Right - fuck it.  I'm getting a bloody skateboard.

ronnyb

ronnyb said:

I don't want to put a spanner in the works, pardon the pun, but there have been a lot of reported problems with that Mazda 2.2 diesel engine.

Stretched timing chains, though i think there was a recall on this issue. The DPF problems caused rising sump levels a result of diesel fuel diluting the engine oil. The PSA engine is better.

Emp_Fab

Yeah - but it's only Euro 5.

I don't know if that will affect me at all, 6 is one more than 5 innit....

boogieman

I wouldn’t buy a euro 5 diesel. Prices are already dropping like a stone and they’ll be worth peanuts before too long. London has already slapped daily emissions charges on euro 5’s and other cities are looking at adopting the same idea.

We traded in our Jag XF euro 5 in December: the dealer is still trying to shift it but has dropped the price to only £1500 more than they gave us in part-ex. They must have spent at least £500 on sorting it out too as it needed an MOT, a new tyre, wiper blades, some dings knocking out and the wheels repainting. 

Emp_Fab

What do you lot drive then ?  You must have had to go through this yourselves ?  ...or are the rest of you not as anal as I am ? :-)

RaymondLin

Emp_Fab said:

What do you lot drive then ?  You must have had to go through this yourselves ?  ...or are the rest of you not as anal as I am ? :-)

I drive a Volvo C30 T5.

The miles that I do I wanted a Petrol, and I had a Yaris SR before that, a 1.8L one, so wanted something more powerful…its quite easy really.

1 - I wanted something small, hatchback
2 - I wanted only a few brands, I didn't want Vauxhall, no french cars
3 - Randomly I had to have Xenons too.  

I narrowed it down to BMW 130i, 125i.  I looked at Golf GTI but ruled them out because I just found them too common and boring to look at.  Audi TT, BMW Z4, Volvo C30.  I basically set my sights on more cylinders which limits the choices somewhat.  

But what really pushed things was my old car was due an MOT, an MOT that i knew 100% it would fail as it had developed hole in the exhaust before the cat, it sounded like a de-cat, muffler delete car, this was a month before the MOT.  I also was going away out of the country for a week around the MOT time so I had about 2 months to find a car.  Basically I checked Autotrader everyday on the 3 cars that I liked.  I saw my current car came out on an ad, called up the dealer, asked a few questions, paid deposit to buy the car subject to inspection on the phone and drove up a few days later to part-ex my car for it.

It was really as simple as having a car i want, a car popped up, paid and bought.

found it.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/69176/so-i-think-my-car-is-pretty-much-on-its-last-legs/p1

Then bought one.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/70360/ncd-a-227bhp-volvo/p1

ICBM

Emp_Fab said:

What do you lot drive then ?  You must have had to go through this yourselves ?  ...or are the rest of you not as anal as I am ? :-)

I am in terms of model.

You may need to be less picky about colour, mileage and service history at the price you can afford.

Look for a car which is in good condition rather than low mileage - a lower number of longer journeys adds the miles, but is less hard on the car - and if you’re worried then pay for a full service yourself... service history is meaningless by itself. And you don’t see the colour when you’re on the inside.

And don’t buy a diesel, unless you’re doing huge miles... you’re still paying too much and buying trouble.

stickyfiddle

You could have had a lot of fun in an MX5 by now... 

randella

Emp_Fab said:

What do you lot drive then ?  You must have had to go through this yourselves ?  ...or are the rest of you not as anal as I am ? :-)

Peugeot 308 - found a lightly-used 9 month old GTLine, ex dealer demo.  Most of the cars at the dealers are ex-hire stock at that age so it stuck out as a particularly nice car.  It's a Euro-6 diesel.  I have a reasonably long commute on fast A road so it suits me fine.

I've had years of Fords and wanted a change.  The engine choice in the Mazda 3 is poor (as you're discovering).  Golfs are a good deal when new but poor value secondhand.  The minicab firms have pushed up the used prices of the Octavia.

I did really want a Seat Leon, even narrowed it down to the engine and trim level.  For some reason as soon as I went out to buy one, the four cars near me in the Autotrader all vanished so that was that.

I did like the look of the Volvos, but again the used prices are... firm.  Blah blah blah, on it goes.

You get there in the end.

After all of that's said, what I really wanted to do was lease a C Class Merc but my wife (who will drive it half of the time) didn't fancy the idea as she likes small hatches so, as usual, we settled on a medium hatch.  Fine by me, I'm really happy with the Pug.