Post by Tim S KempPost by JackHOne question... given your lamenting going down to a smaller car from
your Volvo, why didn't you get something like one of these, instead
of the A-Class?
I had a certain amount of money, wanted an auto / cruise / climate, and was
looking for a low miles car that would be /shedloads/ cheaper to run. Last
diesel manual passat I drove wouldn't crack 39 mpg <ahem> despite my
colleague averaging 55 mpg when he drove us back...
*boggle*
I get 55 - 60mpg on a long 80ish run... more if I plod along a bit slower.
When I've cruised it along at around 55 - 60 one leisurely afternoon drive,
as I've said before, it reckoned it was doing 69mpg. I reckon on fill up,
it was about 5% optimistic in fuel computer terms.
What I do find, is, like the Golf TDI before it, it's quite laid back -
which means it's no real effort, to drive it
Post by Tim S KempThe A class was just an off-the-wall choice, it was cheap, came with a years
main dealer warranty, had cat1 alarm, is mega cheap to insure and service
<not at dealers> and will be replaced when I see a decent upturn in business
and the economy in general - probably with something heavily turbocharged or
a V8. It's been commented as "not as bad as I expected" by a couple of
people who've tried it, even I'm pleasantly surprised how bad it isn't.
Part of me wishes I'd borrowed an extra 6 grand and bought either the A4 or
the Signum I saw, trouble would be I could see me getting low 30s all the
time in the signum (it was a 150 manual elite 1.9CDTI) and the A4 was
already at 70k miles (although it had bose, leather, auto, changer, sunroof,
computer, cruise etc...) , not a problem mechanically but it meant that it
was about to become a depreciation risk. The A class can't lose more than
6000 quid no matter how many miles I put on it or how long I keep it. My
Volvo lost 12000 quid in three years.
I bought the Passat with 87k on it, for £3k - S reg (but hidden by a private
reg that came with the car), never had any bodywork, 16" Audi alloys (with
VW centre badges - they actually look like they're meant to be on the car),
and SE spec, so climate, electric windows, remote locking etc., and it came
with a half decent stereo too, although I've now put my MP3 HU in.
The plan is to, unless I have another dumbass episode where I consider
selling it to get something like a VTS, keep it three years - it should
still be worth around £2k min., if we then decide to get something newer -
the point is, I looked for about a month with the money just sitting in the
account burning a hole in my pocket, making sure I got the right car - 'buy
to sell', as they say, and I don't reckon given the nice comments we've had
about it since we got it, that we'll have any trouble parting with it for
sensible money when the time to say goodbye comes.
As it stands, looks like I might have something decidedly hairdresserish to
play with as of tomorrow, in need of a little TLC, and no, it's not an MR2
or MX5. :-)
Post by Tim S KempI've driven around in Micras and Jettas before when money's not been too
good, an A class for a year to three years won't kill me...
I liked my Micra K11s... I just found them juicy for a supposed economy car.
--
JackH