@planeman
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I’ve never been a fan of ‘shouty’ colours-bright green/orange – that kind of thing. I also dislike washed out colours.
Silver to me is just a cop-out choice, white is OK at a push but I really like red, black and dark blue.
I had a taxi last week and that was a Skoda Superb, brand new with a very odd black paint job, it wasn’t blck as such just a really really dark blue but you had to be closer than about 10 feet to notice the difference. The car was lovely and the paint job was also great.
The deal has been done. Pay and pick it up on Saturday.
Had a really good look at it and there are a few tiny marks on it, none anywhere near a major depth, could barely catch a fingernail in any. The front alloys have a little scuff on each one. The interior is immaculate. Everything works, apart from the USB slot which I forgot to try.
It has 2 new front tyres on it, can’t recall the make right now but they are at least a ton a corner. Also has new discs up front and they say pads as well.
It drives like a new car, rock solid, no squeaks or creaks or rattles. I thought it was a bit slow but I was doing 45mph in a 30 without realising, feels like a much bigger car. Also pulls surprisingly well from low revs in completely the wrong gear. Happy to go from about 25 in 5th with very little complaining.
The MOT was meant to have 11 months left on it which I knew was wrong, love the MOT history check site. So it’s having a brand spanking new one.
There was no movement on the price, which was good anyway especially with the tyres and discs/ pads. 15 months warranty (via Ford Protect, the dealers have quite a few Ford franchises in other parts of the country) and a fancy paint and interior treatment were thrown in for £35. Allegedly £500 retail.
I’m a happy person.
I’m pretty certain that I mentioned this on the MM forum but I had a test drive of the MINI on it’s original launch day. It was booked months in advance and as I was (and still am) a huge fan of the original Mini, I was really excited. I had a good lump of money to put down as a deposit, about a third.
I saw the car and almost gave my place in the line to the next person. I was 3rd.
I had the test drive anyway, they were ‘strictly limited’ to 15 minutes. Mine took over an hour. ?
When I took the car back I was asked by a BMW ‘customer relations’ manager what I thought, camera rolling over his shoulder into my face. My reply didn’t make the news, somehow. ‘What a bag of shite, where’s the space gone, it handles like a rollerskate on marbles and the engine is like that out of a lawnmower.’ ?
The Swift is cheaper than a MINI as well. I have no idea why they are so expensive, even 7/8 year old ones with big miles go for about £7k. ?
Just put a refundable deposit down on a 2012, bright red,5 door, 1.2,98 BHP Suzuki Swift SZ3. Under £5k. Which is a steal. The place is real close to me.
I had a quick look at it as it was on it’s way for MOT, service and valet. If there’s anything I’m not happy with after the test drive and inspection someone else can have it and I get my money back.
Hopefully the quest is over!
The roads around here are terrible, even in something a little bit soft like my mum’s Captur it’s very noticeable.
Anything that’s been lowered or runs on super low profile rubber would break me in minutes.
I’ve just been checking the photos of the 133, it’s a Cup version or someone has switched the wheels for Cup ones.
Either way I’m out. The ride would be too firm for me. ?
Back to the internet…..
It’s the shape before the rear engine one, the one Clarkson had Ross Kemp in the boot on Top Gear. It’s the standard Renault Sport, not the Cup. So not as stiff.
And yes, 133 is the BHP, 1.6 petrol, no turbo.
I’m well aware about heart over head. If it’s not near as dammit perfect, I’m leaving it.
I’m really hoping the Twingo has a full service history, a car like that needs it, preferably main dealer. It’s a car that if it’s as good as it looks might actually go up in value.
Mostly wasted afternoon. Phoned the dealer with the Mii to confirm it was still there and when doing some last minute checking found that a dealer on the other side of Cardiff had a Hyundai i10, 2014, full service history and just within my range. Phoned them to check it was still there.
Went to see the Hyundai and it was indeed there but broken, it was waiting to go the main dealer for a water pump change under warranty. It looks great but of course no test drive and they wouldn’t take a deposit as they have no clue when the work will be done.
Went to see the Mii and the keys were there but the car was M.I.A. 3 blokes checked the entire site 3 times and no sign of the car, where it was earlier was now a space. Needles to say they were a bit concerned and scurried off to check the CCTV.
Went to drop my mothers car off back at hers and stopped at the car sales place a few hundred meters from her back gate just on the off chance, they usually have fairly old stuff for a few hundred (probably p/x clearouts from bigger dealers) and the odd few big luxury cars.
They have red, 2011 Twingo RenaultSport 133 that’s immaculate. Mileage is about right. I’m in love. OFC with no-no claims the insurance is steep but not as bad as I thought. Shame there was no-one there to ask about it but I might cycle up tomorrow.
No problem. Thanks for trying.
I might call in tomorrow and have a look.
Off to see a almost loaded Seat Mii tomorrow. Under 13K on it and just within my budget.
Short youtube vid. Can’t get the embed to work.
I don’t like diesel. I wouldn’t do the mileage to make it worthwhile and there are plenty of people that have bought smallish diesel cars and ruined the particulate filter by only doing small journeys.
Whatever car I end up with will a smallish one, no bigger than Fiesta size. I just don’t need anything bigger. If I do need anything bigger I can borrow my mothers car and she can have mine.
Around Cardiff and Penarth (where I’ll be mostly using it) a smaller car makes a hell of a difference when parking and getting through traffic, especially at peak times.
I’ve looked at the Suzuki Swift and they aren’t cheap, unfortunately. I’d have to get a basic one about 6/7 years old with 60k plus on it for the price of a low mileage 3-4 year old fully loaded Mii/Citigo.
It had over 50k on it. I reckon it was a rental or maybe a loan car in a big city.
There are lots of them about around the 40-50k mark at 3 years old. I saw one advertised at 90k at 3 years.
The stone chips really amazed me, haven’t seen that many on a car in years, especially 3 years old. Again I reckon it was a rental. That had 40k on it.
The last one was under 30k but the paintwork was terrible and the tyres really put me off, if they bought cheap tyres what else did they skimp on, as was said decent tyres for them aren’t exactly break the bank money. Around £50 a corner for really good ones.
I don’t like diesels, never have. I drove a Transit for work for a while and the engine was a pig, anything below 2,000 rpm and above 3,000 and there was nothing. Also the noise was terrible.
All 3 cars were no good, one looked like it had been washed with a cloth that had fine grit on it, lots of noticeable swirls on the bodywork and 4 different brands of tyre, 2 i’d never heard of.
Another had lots of stone chips on the bonnet and chips on all of the doors and ruined wheels.
The last had a steering wheel that had seen a lot of use, same for the gear knob and the drivers seat was baggy and grubby.
Back to searching the net….
Thanks all.
The ones I’m looking at are all below the Parkers valuations.
Only issues I’ve been able to track down were with the earlier models, all rectified with a recall and not an issue in the 2014 models. I know it’ll need a timing belt change at 5 years old. MOT is at least 11 months.
The Twingo is damn expensive for what it is but I do like the idea, kind of like a modern Fiat 126.
The Citigo/Mii/Up are all the same car apart from some tiny cosmetic differences. I’d be happy with any of them but the Up is way more expensive and the Mii harder to get. The local Skoda and Seat garages (same group and next door to each other) don’t seem keen on selling anything other than almost new or brand new cars, the occasional slightly older ones are VERY expensive.
Ed, it’s a couple of squares dancing behind Windows, like some of the student parties I ended up at!
Just had a phone call from the DWP, they are finally going to cough up what they owe me! Should have the back money in less than 5 working days, then I can start looking for a car for real. ?
My mail.com addy gets tons of spam, at least 30 a day. It’s only used for shopping and insurance quotes, that kind of thing. Anything important gets forwarded to my gmail. The search is pretty good, not quite as good as Google but not far behind. My yahoo account also gets tons of spam but it’s all auto-forwarded to mail.com so is hardly ever checked, just when I get a reminder that I need to log in or the account dies.
I have 3 gmail accounts, all easily switchable on the Android app. Very handy.
I know about the soft sand work out, I took my fat bike down to Merthyr Mawr sand dunes a while back, only did about 9 miles and I was totally exhausted. I got plenty of odd looks that day, mostly the ‘what the ***k is that guy trying to do?’ type. ?
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