Car Advice - Mummy Cars!
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@MajorRage said in Car Advice - Mummy Cars!:
I'm looking at buying the wife a spanking new car, never done that, and want to do that at least once in my life. It'll be in the UK, and after discussions with the wife, we are looking at either Mazda 3, VW Golf, BMW 1 series or Audi A3. For some reason she refuses anything made by Vauxhall / Ford (no idea why) and I refuse anything made by Skoda ... and I think cars in the UK are cheap enough so there is no need to look at Hyundai (even though I reckon the I30 is a cracking looking car) / Kia etc.
The Audi A3 is the same platform as the Škoda Octavia and VW Golf. I know a couple of people with the RS wagon and they're great.
The i30 isn't just a good-looking car, it's excellent. I've used them heaps as rentals and think highly of them.
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I share Mrs MR's dislike of Vauxhall's. We used a couple as rentals over here before buying and they were pieces of poorly designed crap. The worst thing about them was visibility and ability to accurately judge where corners/sides of your vehicle are due to the roof and pillars being narrower than the body.
I'm sure you get used to it after a while but given the narrow roads around here I like to be quite comfortable in knowing I'm going to miss something.
The wife often gets given a work Skoda to use and says it's a nice drive both in town and on the motorways. -
@MajorRage As Antipodean said, the Audi A3 is the same platform as the relevant Skoda and VW. What you get with Audi though is better spec and (I feel) better build quality. For sure Skoda have upped their game and VW has good previous in build quality but the standard you get with Audi is significantly better. Put simply, it is just a much nicer environment in which to sit.
We've had a series of Audis over the last few years staring off with an A3 1.8TFSI and then two S3s. We currently run the latest model S3 and it's brilliant. Bloody quick though so you might not want the mem-sahib running it around down to Tescos each day as the fuel consumption matches the performance. Good leg room for a mid sized hatch and good luggage space. We took four adults down through France from Calais to Nice in the summer with no issues at all.
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You guys earn to much.. or spend to much on cars.
My wife drives a Suzuki.... she has not complained.... or I wasnt listening.
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@Baron-Silas-Greenback we have one of them too, although the wife makes me drive it more and she drives the big car
I take the little car, she gets the kids, I think that is a fair trade off....
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I borrowed a Suzuki swift aka a 'faggotmobile' from my Mum for a few months when my ex wife ended up with the Holden. It was great for getting in road rage incidents and I needed a tin opener to get in and out.
Ran on the small of an oily rag though, I do miss that.
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Wife has a Golf GTi that I was a little rude about on another thread - but only because it's parents are the Beetle and Kombi. It is actually a really good car. So good that I bought it back from Hong Kong to NZ and we still have it. 10 years old now. Fast, practical, safe. A little light in the power steering (at speed) is my only complaint.
Have driven A3 when my Audi has been in for service and quite liked it. Audi build quality is usually good. The opposite can be said of Vauxhall these days. I did have a Chevette 30 years ago and got it to 300,000km but have had rentals since that were awful. Never driven a 1 series but the 3 series have always been good cars.
What I can recommend is a single cab (kids go on the back with the dog), 4wd (dragging boat off beach), flat deck (sheets of ply) hilux ute. Around the turn of the millennium was a good vintage.
I'm sure none of that helps whatsoever.
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@MajorRage if you go and test those 4 cars you mentioned the biggest things you will probably notice is the road noise (Mazda 3 the worse) and the handling around corners (A3 being the best). All of them are a solid build, but I found the difference in traction is something that you will pick up.
If you are willing to spend that little bit extra I would go with the Golf GTi. It's a fun car to drive, won't break the bank like the S3 and there are I found considerable improvements from the standard Golf models and the GTi.
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Thanks for the replies! Alot of good points raised
@Snowy - the hilux points helped out a lot! I will 100% buy a Hilux at some point, for sure - but not right now, but once I get the hobby farm cranking, for sure. At the moment, it looks like my daily drive will be a Discovery ..
@Baron-Silas-Greenback if I was in NZ, no way would I buy a new car and I'd happily go the Suzuki (for the wife ...)
@Catogrande S3 would be great, but yes, this is just for the missus who has zero no-claims as we have only had one car here. So the insurance would be a killer
@ACT-Crusader thanks for the road noise heads up on the 3, we are test driving one on Thursday, will take note of that
Seems like the forum likes the A3 ...
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Thoughts on buying a European model in NZ? higher costs for parts or servicing??
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@Paekakboyz Yes
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@Paekakboyz Absolutely. The dealership service departments will gouge you big time, but you can save by using an independent workshop. We have some up here owned by guys who broke away from the dealerships. Still more expensive than your average Japanese car I'd say
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servicing most vehicles through their 'dealerships' is always pricey and they will always try to tell you they are the only ones that can do it...
I had my vehicle serviced a month back for it's 15k service, $170 vs $500 at Dealer...and mine is a NZ new Jap car.
I had a Hyundai (our own one) and it was about $400-$600 for the dealer services, my old work Hyundai was more, but I didn't care cos I wasn't paying.
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I go to an Audi approved independent and can get a full service for around $400.
Don't mention tyres though
Still rather have a nice European motor any day.
It's not losing your license that's the challenge - all them horsies under the bonnet wanting to go for a gallop
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@MajorRage Ha! I wasn't really suggesting an S3 as a mummy car, but any model A3 is pretty good. 2.0TDI might be the trick, good economy and still has a fair bit of poke. As for the insurance does Mrs MR not have any no claims due to accidents or just because she's not the named driver? If the latter you ,might want to consider multi-car insurance which allows you to be named driver (and therefore get the NCD) on one car and Mrs MR on the other. I'm doing this for all my lot and get a pretty good deal, plus Mrs Cato now has 5 years NCD and one of the smaller Cats has three years NCD.