I solved my car dilemmas! (Long)

Yellow for the win :-D Liquid Yellow at that! Pearlescent yellow, in the sun it has all kindsa colours in it, purples, greens, it's a brilliant colour. For the love of god don't get silver. I hate silver cars, it's one of the reasons why the Vee went. There is no satisfaction in cleaning them, cos they hardly look any better when you're done.

Ah not anymore though! One of the good things to come out of the Nissan buy in apparently. Obviously I have no personal experience to call on, but that's what I've read heh.

I was wrong with ZF, it's actually Aisin.

Renaults are the ones to avoid....

It's not 'impending' it's here, and the effects are starting to snowball. Just about every major housebuilder has pulled out of part-completed developments and laid off hundreds, if not thousands of staff. 100% mortgages just don't exist any more, 90% attracts hefty penalties and even 80% mortgages are a struggle at competetive rates these days.

All this means that car dealers are really struggling to shift stuff - the ready supply of never-ending credit raised on the back of house price rises has dried up.

That's an amazing deal on the C6 and I'd be tempted, too, at that price.

A few of us at work are checking the deals available almost daily to see what's out there - Audi are desperate to shift A6s, personal leases on A6 Limited Editions can be had for under 300 quid a month, and Saab have just thrown a load of toys at the 9-5 Estate, meaning you get a £35k car for £26k. Even better, some of the brokers have got that down to £21k in the last week.

It's all good news if you're getting a car allowance, though, as there are some great deals to be had out there - I'm toying with the idea of walking into a Pug dealer with a few days left of August to see how much I can get off a new 407 Coupe - the only problem with this is that the 'everything but the kitchen sink' GT spec. is now discontinued - replaced by 'Sport Multimedia' which doesn't have the JBL audio or leather. But it's worth a try, even if I have to add the JBL kit and leather.

No no, as I said elsewhere, Renaults are apparently ok now thanks to Nissan.

Didn't Nissan fit self-destructing CVT boxes to the Micra?

Dunno, but anyone buying a CVT Micra deserves anything they got tbh.

Given that he's supposed to know what he's talking about with regards to this kind of stuff..... he is well aware that there isn't a big auto Alfa saloon or coupe available within the constraints of my budget, whilst ignoring the fact that for 8 years now we have owned and run at least 1 Alfa as a daily driver.

Anyway, who cares. I'll continue posting when I drive something vaguely interesting - my D-Day is something like the end of the month to decide if I need to order a Kraut saloon or take the cash. Then there's 2-3 months in which I'll be shopping around looking for my ideal car.

Who knows, I may even be able to get a Brera JTDM Q-Tronic by then....

This has apparently caused confusion - what I mean is, I didn't stop worrying about depreciation only after I'd found out it wasn't going to matter to me, because I wasn't going to have a future to save money for - I signed for the Clio before I was told that (although I must admit, I 'knew' deep down anyway...). But I'd have bought it either way anyway 'cos I liked it and it puts a smile on my face :-)

It's not all about you; why do you always assume I'm having a go?

Nah it doesn't read bitchy to me, but perhaps that's my problem?

This is the dilemma I have at the moment. I now have money, but I'm finding it hard to bring myself to spend it on something that will depreciate a lot. So far I've looked and tested a couple of MX-5s, a Robin Hood Caterham thing, an MGF,a couple of Focii a VR6 and a Imprez and a Puma. All very nice at what they're supposed to do, but I could also find an old, but well treated Xant or Mondeo that will do me for 1/4 of the price I'm looking to spend. It was more fun looking for a car when I couldn't afford one..

Mike P

BX autos used a ZF gearbox AIUI.

Oh, and the GM auto in my Clarton was made in France. I broke it at

Are you trying to say that my gran deserved to die simply because she bought a CVT Micra? Because thats what it looks like. You cad.

You better bloody had make a day trip. I'm doing my first one, and accomadation booked, and ticket booked from vagabonds.com as the office site is currently "Out of stock".

Did you know so far confirmed is Specimen Christian Death Wayne Hussey solo Voltaire. Plus a couple of other TBCs

I saw Wayne Hussey with The Misson before, he was good. And drunk. He piggyback rode his minder out of the stage...

There will definitely be a daytrip - it's just that I'm going to Convergence, so the money for that means no Whitby. That, and the accommodation is fiercely expensive lately.

Richard

Well you could, but I was of the impression you were looking for something fun as a 2nd car? Not just an old Mundano...?

"Everything they got, from the car" then heh! Unreliability etc heh!

Well you could always go for a real classic - get the right car and depreciation becomes something that happens to other people.An F40 or 959 might be out of reach, but I'm sure there are classics in your price range that are both fun to drive and practical enough.