Impress Me With Your Knowledge of Cars
Posted by: matthewr on 14 April 2004
A good friend of mine needs to buy a car and asked me for advice. I'm not sure why he has failed to notice in the 15 years he's known me that I know nothing about cars but I do know that lots of you lot know about plenty about cars.
First thing you should know about my mate is that he is, shall we say, careful with his money. His current car is a 15 year old Nissan Bluebird that has done about 300k miles AFAICT. Given this and his lack of knowledge about cars, his main criteria is reliability. He is likely to keep it for years and garage bills send his blood pressure through the roof.
His main car usage is in and around London but with reasonably regular motorway trips as well. He has no kids. He wouldn't want anything too small nor too big.
He also seems to want a "powerful engine good for tearing up and down the motorway but also good for nipping about town" although as his driving frankly terrifies me I'm not so sure this is such a good idea.
Budget-wise he seems to want to spend about £10k tops. He would need some convincing to spend much more.
His only other criteria "something reasonably classy but not too flash" and has mentioned a fondness for Audi and Alfa Romeo and BMW (I'm not sure if this is realistic at <£10k).
Finally, if one knows nothing about cars and admits to being "frankly terrified at the prospect of buying one" what's the best way to go about it?
Thanks in advance,
Matthew
First thing you should know about my mate is that he is, shall we say, careful with his money. His current car is a 15 year old Nissan Bluebird that has done about 300k miles AFAICT. Given this and his lack of knowledge about cars, his main criteria is reliability. He is likely to keep it for years and garage bills send his blood pressure through the roof.
His main car usage is in and around London but with reasonably regular motorway trips as well. He has no kids. He wouldn't want anything too small nor too big.
He also seems to want a "powerful engine good for tearing up and down the motorway but also good for nipping about town" although as his driving frankly terrifies me I'm not so sure this is such a good idea.
Budget-wise he seems to want to spend about £10k tops. He would need some convincing to spend much more.
His only other criteria "something reasonably classy but not too flash" and has mentioned a fondness for Audi and Alfa Romeo and BMW (I'm not sure if this is realistic at <£10k).
Finally, if one knows nothing about cars and admits to being "frankly terrified at the prospect of buying one" what's the best way to go about it?
Thanks in advance,
Matthew
quote:
Yes Alfa dealers are terrible. Alfa are in the process of "re-enfranchising" their U.K. dealer network, so hopfully some imprivement to come. You don't buy an Alfa for statistical and empirical reasons, logic and sense are calmly bypassed by emotion and lust. Alfas are for driving, I consider them to be the equivalent of a NAIT,
err, quite. I am quite sure there was never a purchase made of a Nait where it was expected there would be only half of the product remaining after a few years; for this reason it doesn't matter how bad Alfa dealers are perceived, their trick is up-front in-built obscelecence second to none - no need to worry about "out of warranty" disputes.
It is interesting to observe that in a market where so few miles are actually driven, so many cars bought each year, or consigned to the scrapheap before the end of their useful lives, (and so many claim that rear wheel drive instantly consigns one arse-first into a hedge - 10 points for the FWD marketeers there!) - so many cars are purchased on grounds of "oh I can't buy one of those, all [insert marque here] are driven by tossers" or "oh they're great but the dealers are terrible", or even "oh the dealers are terrible - but I bought one anyway", or the clincher - "I bought it and love it but am considering pushing it off a cliff as top gear said it was dreadful".
You're all mad! A nissan almera is a valid choice, regardless of whether or not the owner "connects" with the spirit of the macine. As is a lambo. Right, where's the keys for the david brown.
Rico - SM/Mullet Audio