After diesel gate - diesel or petrol Mercedes?

[Tony MB]

I'm like LostKiwi in as much as I can't justify £ 25,000 + sitting on my drive. I only ever had 1 car on finance and vowed never to do it again...I do most of my own repairs unless special equipment prevent me,and now modern cars have more "elastictrickery" it's becoming more difficult. "Bangernomics" has always worked for me and I will carry on the theme this is my first MB so the jury's out at the moment but either way I won't lose a fortune. My old 54 plate Rover diesel cost £1400 three years ago and apart from usual service items hasn't let me down so the cost per year of ownership is nominal I still have to sell it so whatever I recoup on the sale will contra the cost of the Merc .
I just hope the Merc is as good.

 

[Clio]

I'm doing a 'bangernomincs' of sorts, Tony MB in that I drive a 19 year old Renault Clio. I've had it since it was two and normally only drive around 5k per year - 60k original mileage on the car. It's only a 1.2 engine, but its a nippy little thing once you get it up to speed and it hasn't cost too much to keep on the road.

Sadly, my mileage is now set to go up considerably and the car has quite a few problems including the bodywork so it looks likely that I will be changing it as well. Not sure what to buy next, but I would love to buy a little two seater sports car although I'll probably end up with something like a Fiesta . Need to sort out my husband's car first though.

 

[turbopete]

Fiesta is probably one of, if not THE best car in its class/price bracket to drive. if I didn't need such a big car as the Mondeo, id have one! (and I have had them in the past)

id tend to agree with others though, best to replace the C class with something 3-4 years old where most of the depreciation has already occurred, or fix up the current car and run it till it dies.

 

[Clio]

Fiesta is probably one of, if not THE best car in its class/price bracket to drive. if I didn't need such a big car as the Mondeo, id have one! (and I have had them in the past)

id tend to agree with others though, best to replace the C class with something 3-4 years old where most of the depreciation has already occurred, or fix up the current car and run it till it dies.

Thanks, turbopete. Do you think 3-4 is a fair average for most cars?

I had a short test drive in a manual (1.0 EcoBoost) and automatic (1.6) and you could hardly tell the difference. The 1.0 is an amazing engine. Both were too high on price unfortunately, but I'm quite tempted!

 

[Tony MB]

Thanks, turbopete. Do you think 3-4 is a fair average for most cars?

I had a short test drive in a manual (1.0 EcoBoost) and automatic (1.6) and you could hardly tell the difference. The 1.0 is an amazing engine. Both were too high on price unfortunately, but I'm quite tempted!

Hi Clio ...You won't go far wrong with Ford cars all very good that's why they sell so many as fleet cars.
Many years ago I owned a MK1 Fiesta hatch back proper little work horse that was, I carried all manner of things in that including HGV lorry wheels. It was stolen 4 times from my house (never damaged think it was people wanting a ride home from the pub) each time I got it back after police found it....It just would not die sold it for £50 to a neighbor who later wrote it off

 

[Clio]

It was stolen 4 times from my house (never damaged think it was people wanting a ride home from the pub) each time I got it back after police found it....It just would not die sold it for £50 to a neighbor who later wrote it off

That was unlucky! We used to live in a village and cars like the Fiesta were always getting stolen by (mainly) lads wanting a free ride home.

 

[LostKiwi]

It was stolen 4 times from my house (never damaged think it was people wanting a ride home from the pub) each time I got it back after police found it....

Even thieves don't want them!

 

[turbopete]

Thanks, turbopete. Do you think 3-4 is a fair average for most cars?

I had a short test drive in a manual (1.0 EcoBoost) and automatic (1.6) and you could hardly tell the difference. The 1.0 is an amazing engine. Both were too high on price unfortunately, but I'm quite tempted!

id say for most of the 'average' cars then yes its about the norm. for example, my own car has a list price new of around £22k. now I NEVER usually buy from a franchised dealer for the brand I'm buying, but this car came to me, a little over 4 years old (actually about 4.5 years old), 62k miles from a Ford dealer (who claimed they had no margin in it when I tried to haggle with them on price) for a smidgen under 1/3rd of the new 'list' price. I looked around a while before buying it and at the time, petrol/diesel, it didn't matter, they were all around £100 of each other on price, no matter where I looked (for a sensible mileage car)

ive heard nothing but good things about the 1.0 ecoboost (turbo petrol) 3 cylinder engines so far (I don't think the 1.6 auto has the ecoboost, but it could be a low powered version of it) with the exception of the fact that if you use the performance (especially on higher powered versions of the 1.0) they can be quite thirsty (ive heard that real world, 30mpg can be the norm! no idea if that's true, depends on the driver and roads, I guess) which I could believe especially as the same engine is fitted to the Focus and, believe it or not, the Mondeo too!

but back to the topic, yes I think that if you buy at around that sort of age bracket, with the exceptions of mostly specialist cars like Porsches, etc, the majority of cars will have lost a huge chunk of cash by that age. (another example was mine/dads 203, 23 months old finance repo prior to us, it had been in the showroom of the dealership for a year, 7k miles, original paperwork from original selling dealership said the car was invoiced at £35k, we paid around £20k and ran it between us for 12 years)

 

[Arudge]

Even thieves don't want them!

Behave

 

[Arudge]

seems they were going to be introduced may this year, for testing at least. no idea if they have been, but id assume not past testing stage yet. (link is an online 'trade' magazine)

http://garagewire.co.uk/news/mot-changes-to-be-introduced-in-may-following-dpf-investigation/

Thanks for that, It's one of those statements that government makes when it knows it has a problem, has no idea just how their going to tackle it, so we'll issue this statement, it may frighten some of them.

Might being the operative word.

 

[Arudge]

I and my ex used to love buying old cars and doing them up. Sometimes we bit off more than we could chew (thank heavens for Haynes manuals!), but we loved it.

Our aim was to buy, do up and sell at a small profit each time and put the profit into the next car until we could afford a decent car. We were doing quite well, but lost the lot on one car

I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you had a go.

In the unlikely event you stick with the Mercedes you will get all the help you need from these guys on this forum, it's a good crowd. Some of us are a bit strange, some a bit damaged, and some have a face only a mother could love. But all that most of us want to do is help and keep them rolling.

 

[sonic]

LostKiwi very much my thoughts as well, regarding depreciation.
The last three MB's we have had were sold at 90K miles, 115K miles, & 119K miles. Almost nothing went wrong with any of them.

 

[Alex M Grieve]

I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you had a go.

In the unlikely event you stick with the Mercedes you will get all the help you need from these guys on this forum, it's a good crowd. Some of us are a bit strange, some a bit damaged, and some have a face only a mother could love. But all that most of us want to do is help and keep them rolling.

And some of us are all of the above!

 

[Tony MB]

Even thieves don't want them!

 

[Tony MB]

I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you had a go.

In the unlikely event you stick with the Mercedes you will get all the help you need from these guys on this forum, it's a good crowd. Some of us are a bit strange, some a bit damaged, and some have a face only a mother could love. But all that most of us want to do is help and keep them rolling.

I resemble those remarks !!!!

 

[JBell]

Agreed on all counts, although I've been told by a friend in the industry that diesel sales have fallen dramatically and that they're struggling to shift second hand diesels. As usual, the government has gone off half cocked!

Blame Gordon Brown for saying we should all drive diesel as it is the future.

I have a lovely 2010 C250CGi estate for sale

 

[Clio]

Thanks, turbopete. Why would you not buy from a franchised dealer - price? We've found that most of our local dealers aren't interested in negotiating. Do you tend to buy from independent dealers or privately? We used to buy privately, but you hear so many stories of scammers etc that it's put us off, plus there doesn't seem to be much in the way of private sales in my area these days.

The 1.6 Fiesta wasn't an EcoBoost, only the 1.0. In fact, the 1.6 was a powershift model and it there seems to be a lot of problems with this over a number of years. I think it may have been resolved now to some extent.

Wow ... a year is a long time for a car to sit in showroom, but you seem to have got a good deal.

 

[Clio]

Blame Gordon Brown for saying we should all drive diesel as it is the future.

I have a lovely 2010 C250CGi estate for sale

We bought into Brown's idea too, which is why we purchased the diesel MB

 

[MalcQV]

An interesting thread with opinions on old and new cars in general.
I have done all manner of car owning. New and old, Exotic the lot. My ex-wife whilst we were married had two brand new cars. Since we divorced she has bought another but I only had one (purchased privately) and a few lease/company cars so mostly I have bought secondhand from around 3 years to 21 (that was an extreme).

I or we (my Fiancee too) have just three cars between us, I say us but she does not drive, no licence The Spider in my avatar is hers but I drive it. In fact it was mine at one time but gave it to her as an incentive to drive but it never happened.

I have another weekend car worth a couple of £'s but the CLK is the newest car I own but I keep thinking I should have a new or nearly new car instead.
The thing that grates me is how much I would loose on a new car, but then apart from it having a warranty I would end up in that loop replacing it every few years (no bad thing I suppose) but talking with my neighbour who has a new A4 (company car) and his wife a almost new 2 series BMW we were discussing dents, stone chips etc.
A few weeks back this dippy bugger drove his CLK into a post It was a low one and I misjudged it. A couple of little scratches on the bumper which almost polish out. Then just the other day, and why I was chatting to my neighbour, his wife's 2 series was further down the [shared] access road So I parked mine in front and my Fiancee's son reversed his bike into my door. It dented and scratched it but was a genuine accident as he never noted it there and it rarely if ever is.
But I don't care about these marks and knocks not a jot but if it was a new car then I'd be pretty annoyed.

With all this in hand I feel next year I will replace the Alfa with something a bit nicer (for her) not much newer but a bit exotic. V8/V6 SLK, Maserati 4200/Spyder or perhaps a late Alfa Brera Spider 3.2V6 and me, well I want something a bit newer but not too new.
So far though I love my CLK (despite not being bothered about dents and marks) and think maybe a later model CLK or spend some serious money making it good.

The new car thing is great, no worries (warranty) all new, chosen spec etc but the thought of depreciation and getting it dinged.. it would end up another weekend car and I do not have the space (and money might fail me a bit too ).

I do know though, that I am not having a diesel (famous last words). Decisions, decisions.

 

[JBell]

With all this in hand I feel next year I will replace the Alfa with something a bit nicer (for her) not much newer but a bit exotic. V8/V6 SLK, Maserati 4200/Spyder or perhaps a late Alfa Brera Spider 3.2V6 and me, well I want something a bit newer but not too new.
So far though I love my CLK (despite not being bothered about dents and marks) and think maybe a later model CLK or spend some serious money making it good

Sell the Alfa and Merc and get yourself a CLK55 or 63