Would a 406 coupe HDi be a more sensible than most of my other whims?

Ok, let's try this another way. Everyyyyone has got one, because they make sense. I've had two. Therefore. I think Carl should buy one.

LOL... ok.

I've been offered a 2000 X plate 306 HDI Meridian for £1500 with a years ticket off of one of my best mates.

Bit leggy, but very well looked after and very tidy.

Drove it about a bit today, not as punchy as the Passat and no surprise given it's got just over half the BHP, but quite pleasant really.

Thinking about it anyway - given the plummetting values of both cars and IT rates together with some of the other 'shit on my plate' and the generally shit state of the jobs market, I'm thinking of handing the Passat back to the finance company soon.

The Nova is fine - drives very well, just not sure I would want to rely on it as my only car, so that might have to go as well to help finance the 306.

Over half way with the payments I take it ?

Voluntary termination ?

Fuck knows what I was looking at before. Looks like you are right.

Fair, but choosing a car based on tax is pointless unless you go for something that's free, or the cheapest band, and you're swapping from the highest band. A £450 difference over a year is quite a lot, a difference of like, £100-150 will just get swallowed up in other costs.

If you wanna save money, really, get a Fiesta 1.4 TDCi and enjoy free tax (£40 this year, free next year) and 65mpg. My mates girlfriend has one, it's not that bad, although I'd want like a Ghia spec or something as hers is base spec, and it's not even got aircon.

You could substitute the Fiesta with a Fabia or something, but I suspect they're a higher tax band. There's plenty of options though, but changing to save pennies which you're wasting on loan interest, on something which you're going to hate and want shot of in 3 months is a waste of time anyway, you'll just end up swapping the finance from car to car, adding a bit on each time... Don't assume a bank loan is a better idea than car finance - sometimes you can get it nice and low, certainly no need to go over 5 or 6%. You also have the back up of the finance company if it's a lemon, or the garage mess you around - although IME, if the car has a warranty, they won't help, even if the garage (GT GARAGES OF SCARBOROUGH) is utterley, utterley useless and can't fix a simple sensor fault, even when they've been told what the problem is repeatedly.

Scary.

180gm/km here. that's £170 for me at the moment, going up to 205 next year and 210 the year after.

Makes me smile slightly when I realise that there's drivers of 4 cyl diesel

150bp vectras paying more than my 180bhp merc.

Another five payments, aye.

Yup... given how little the car is now worth compared to what I paid for it, I reckon it makes sense having seen today how little stuff is on the same forecourt I bought it from, even if I were to go out and buy something else on finance straightaway at that time.

Which brings me to my next question - will a finance company consider taking the car back now and letting you pay the difference between the halfway value and the settlement fee today?

If so, I'll do that.

He said in one of the other numerous threads he's started recently, he's not fussed about whatever he gets being overly quick.

I have to say, I liked the Pug 406 HDi 110 I had - very torquey and smooth.

Very good on fuel too.

I am getting to thinking a late MK1 L&K 130 manual is the way for me to go. There is the comfort/toys elements, on a car that isn't as desirable as the MK2 to other buyer but above minicab spec, potential to stick a cheap H4 hid kit in later if the toys itch gets me, good choice of exhausts/remaps/coilovers/alloys if I decide I have some spare cash if things improve, but a nice sexy solid car if they don't.

I need to find a black L&K as I hate the thought of wanting to wash it every day. A white one would always look like a minicab, and I don't like colours much.

I think I got it way wrong. This stupid system is way confusing.

Yep, they'll do that.

Before you do it though, you have to really confirm that the outstanding payments are definitely greater than the current and future value of the car.

I know that you already know that - devil's advocate and all that.

My car is currently about dead level in that respect, but I genuinely believe that in the near future it will reach a value that it will pretty much hold level for a long time. The money owing will continue to decrease of course. I know it's only a ragtop golf, but they do tend to hold to a minimum value of sorts. In my case it would be a bit bonkers to get shot of it.

I miss the reliability of the old Octavia, but the smoothness of the Celsior. The Saab goes like stink, but the wrong gearbox (last owners cheap repair) means it is doing 50 at 2000 revs in top instead of closer to 70. Means it is very revvy but runs out of gears. Could easily handle a 6th gear but the car isn't worth another £4k for a maptun LSD 6speed. If I can see the road is clear and flowing I quite often drop into 5th at 35 and it won't bog. Normally I shift upto 5th at 40 and stay there until I don't want to go any faster. 75 is 3k rpm which is a little buzzy.

On the Whitby run I actually stayed at about 65 on the motorway because it was still at passing speed on the M62 and I just couldn't be bothered to go an faster.

Ok...

Going by what I've seen on eBay and the guide price today, it's worth about £4k if I sold it today.

The halfway value is £4365 - the value of the Passat is not likely to rise again over the next five months, methinks.

The settlement figure is about £5500, so I'd need to find just over £1100 if I did want to offload it now.

If I keep it til it's at the halfway mark, I actually need to make another six payments - £1700ish, in other words.

So I suppose I might be better off just keeping it until the sixth payment is made, and enjoy the use of it at the equivalent of an additional £100 a month over what I'd pay if I hand it back today.

The other possible plan is to, assuming I get this job I'm going for tomorrow or something else equivalent sharpish, is to just keep paying for it and try to put a big chunk extra away each month so I can pay it off asap and keep it without worrying about where the next months instalment is coming from should I end up out of work again.

I like the car, I'd just rather, in view of not being in a particularly secure position, not have such a big financial millstone round my neck if at all possible.

Had I foreseen the current set of circumstances approaching, I'd never have bought it in the first place - hindsight is a wonderful thing though, eh?

Having owned both, I'd say the 110 is more economical *and* faster than the 90. I had the 90 in a Ibiza and the 110 in a relatively lardy A3 and the A3 was quicker and better on fuel. It's not far behind the 130 either. ISTR it was the most thernally efficient production engine at the time.

A standard one really iasn't bad. If feels faster than it actually is, because of a big torque surge, but that's fun.

I had the 90 in a Mk4 Golf Estate, so not even the most aerodynamic shell -

58mpg was achieved on long 80ish runs on a regular basis.

That's 58 real mpg, not some fable as told by the fool computer.

The Passat 110 I had did 50ish mpg on similar runs.

For a fair comparison, you need to really try both in the same shell, really.

No, they're not bad at all.

However, they feel distinctly flat in the upper gears by comparison, if you nail it at motorway speeds etc.

That's one of the reasons for the six speed box in the non pikey versions though... keeps you in the happy zone more often. ;-)

Not so much need for that when they're mapped though.

You are probably right.

I managed about 50 average in both- real MPG, not computer MPG- but the best I have ever managed was 60 mpg in the A3 over traffic-free A roads in the highlands, and overall it was much quicker- more than 20 BHP would suggest. At the time I had the Ibiza a colleague had a 110 Passat, and despite the weight, it could leave the Ibiza behind.

My 130 Fabia got close though, but would vary more- heavy traffic or right foot would kill the MPG. Also, the Ibiza with 90 was quite light, the A3 wasn't.

Current car is a 140 DSG Leon, which overall seems slightly lower than the Fabia, but isn't bad for an auto.