New car ;)

[turbolag]

Yeah, there's such a glut of them on the market that they don't hold their value well, and the more expensive the version the harder it falls as they suffer the double whammy of higher insurance and taxation. Damn good news though for the canny used car buyer. It's a golden age for 2nd hand buyers at the moment, and all scrappage did was take the dross and tat out the market.

[sirwiggum]

Would disagree with the scrappage, took low mileage examples in for Kia Seeds.

[gRoberts]

Thankfully the model I have is ok on insurance, although more expensive then the 406, which I'm not happy about concidering I have full no claims and I'm over 25.

I was going to get a 407 but they are a little out of my range for the moment being.

[Welly]

I grew up with old Fords such as the Sierra and CVH-engined Escrotes which were pretty pooey.

Now though I would not shy away from any Ford. The handling and feel of modern-ish Fords is a big plus point and parts are generally cheap and plentiful.

I suspect the recent mahoosive invoice for the DMF forced the previous keeper to sell so well done to you

[gRoberts]

The invoice was only for £500, in comparison to normal bills of £1400+.

I'm going to have to check the car over as the guy had all the work done by a brother in law and ALL of the receipts are from the same company. Can't be too sure these days.

That said, took her out for a test drive Tuesday and it was a dream to drive. My 406 still is a dream to drive but this in comparison is far better.

I'll always have a place for the 406, one thing I'll miss is the paint work. I know I'll be dealing with rust soon on the Mondeo.

[turbolag]

Would disagree with the scrappage, took low mileage examples in for Kia Seeds.

I don't doubt it, but the bulk were still snotters. There were even things like Triumph Stags and stuff getting traded, and the rules meant they had to be dismantled, but for the most part they were smokers. The average book trade value of cars submitted for scrappage, was a little over £800, and bear in mind the true figure will be lower as a proportion of the cars will be so old that they won't be listed in Glass's or CAP..

A flick through the classifieds or the small dealers PX sections show's a lot less of the sub £500 tat, and the better stuff above that has taken a hit itself for economic and taxation reasons. The used-but-still-tidy old car market is now, in real terms, the best it's been in 15 years, especially for bigger cars. It's a canny buyers shangri la at the moment.

[Welly]

I'm a bit worried about the value of my S40 T5 taking a nose-dive as people seem to be shying away from 'big' petrols. The only saving grace I hope is that the car isn't too bad on fuel overall and I got it cheap enough to begin with.

[gRoberts]

I was looking at the 2.5 v6 Vauxhall Omega, but I've had bad experiences of Vauxhalls in the past. Then I looked at the 3.0 v6 Coupe.

All look and no doubt handle amazing but driving to and from Glasgow (400 miles) every fortnight, it might cost me an absolute fortune!

[Welly]

but I've had bad experiences of Vauxhalls in the past

Join the club, I thought that her indoors' Astra would be nice and easy to own........

Gotta keep it now to regain some value out of all the repairs

[gRoberts]

I wonder if Holden suffer the same issues. I'd be royally cheesed off if I paid a fortune for a Monaro or Ute to find it failing at every hurdle.

Does your astra suffer the issue where the horn doesn't work when the lights are on? Amazing fault lol

[Welly]

Not tried the horn fault but I wouldn't be surprised....

It's had the wavy thermostat changed (bloody expensive £90.00 stat), the Alarm module failed (sorry to the neighbours at 03:00am), the fuel filter decided to spring a leak, the eggsauce manifold gasket decided to spring a leak (loud ticky noise), the aux belt tensioner (£80.00) spewed it and screached, sometimes you 'flash' people when indicating (potentially dangerous) due to a wobbly, presumably expensive, stalk, the air con leaked but now fixed and the bodywork and interior get damaged incredibly easily.

Oh and the seats are sh*t.

And it looks sh*t now there's 2 other new Astras out since

[gRoberts]

Ah, is your mrs Astra the G/MK4? I was referring to the Astra H/Mk5. The G wasn't good enough to have that problem lol

Errr. Luckily I VT'd mine just as the header was filling up with Hellmans finest. Thankfully they didn't check the car, otherwise that'd be a hefty bill.

[Welly]

Yes, it's an SRi (read nothing into the badge), the last lot of the G's on a 53 plate. It rides and handles nicely but the mechanicals are bargain-basement rubbish.

[gRoberts]

Meh, rings a bell lol I had a 1.6 8v envoy. It was utter crap!

I was looking at the 2.2 sri coupes last weekend. I've always fancied the linea rossa coupe/cabby but costs were always a little more than I had liked.

[Welly]

Yeah the coupes/cabbys are still expensive even though they're sporting that fuggly old front end

There was a problem with the 2.2 with the chain cam wasn't there? something to do with the oil feed