Not bothered what it looks like. I want arround 50meg from a saloon/large hatchback, I want all the gadgets I am used to in my 406 (climate/multi-cd/full electrics) but with much much better reliability and customer service.
Oh and steep depreciation is a must as well as I am looking at nearly new and am poor. (Mondeo looks good on this aspect as there are 04 plate TDci's going for £10k at car supermarkets)
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I had a mondeo before the car i have now(2ltr ghia)bought it when it was 18 months old and lost nine thousand of its value?Lovely to drive nice to look at reliability fairly good, plenty of toys!!servicing and parts pretty good too.In fact why the hell did i sell it!!!!serious i put the mondeo near the top of the tree for medium cars.
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Thanks, thats the sort of thing i want to hear, what sort of millage did you cover? I'll be looking at doing 100K between car changes
Luke
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When Mrs V finally decided on Mx5 as her first ever new car, we built up a friendly relationship with the local dealer, before actually buying.
Lots visits, chats, test drives,confirming forthcoming models & offers, before doing the deal.
She got the car & they closed down a couple of months later - did we really screw them on the £$£$ that much??
The dealer she's used for service,since, didn't even know the brand - let alone specification of the oil, they used. Turns out they ONLY use semi synthetic, across the range.we did get them to change the oil again, free, using Mobil 1, though.
Glad we've not got an Rx8 for them to look after!!
VB
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But good deals on Mazda 6, currently!
VB
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Luke, if you want dealer recommendations for your area, it would help if you could tell us where you are and what area you could cover.
If you're near Plymouth and want to consider a Nissan or Renault, I would recommend Mumfords. Their customer service is excellent. I have a Nissan Primastar van and always turn up looking scruffier than a scarecrow. They treat me with nothing but respect, courtesy and efficiency. If you go there ask to speak to Steve in the sales dept.
Recently my van has had to go in for bodywork repair under insurance. My policy does not give me a hire van. Mumfords were great, I have their demonstrater for the 10 days mine is in for repair and I did't even have to ask for it!
I was even given a van for the day the needed mine for the insurance assessor to see it. They know that the van is my ticket to earning money so they won't see me without - you just can't beat that for service!
H
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Sorry Hugo should have said, I am in Blackpool / Preston
I've only really owned peugeot 406's since they first came out. My first one they were great, when I bought a new shape HDi in 1999 they became aweful, they just didn't want to know about any of my problems. I have previously had to get tradaing standards involved.
I have had faults since day one. Infact a really bad but true story comes from the deleted Peugeot garage where I bought my car. After a year or two, the brake pedal went CRUNCH and was hanging off at one side (you could grab it in your hand and move it left and right about 6 inches)
I drove carefull to Peugeot just down the road and told them about it. About 5minutes later they gave me my keys back and said "there is nothing wrong, we have checked it and its perfectly safe" I agrued and said, no the brake pedal is hanging off, I went to show them and as if by magic, there was a shiney new mounting bolt on the pedal and it was nice and tight. They swore blind that they didn't touch it!
Looks like the dangerous fault fairies snuck into my car while it was at Peugeot and fixed it without telling anyone. wierd huh?
I am a fleet manager so I know which cars not to touch with a barge pole (better not name them, but lets just say some are french... ahem!) We have lots of VW's and the dealers are very good, but the cars worry me abit as 2 of our mark5 golfs have spat bits of the engine out of the exhaust from catastophic turbo failures at arround 20,000 miles.
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I am a fleet manager so I know which cars not to touch with a barge pole (better not name them, but lets just say some are french... ahem!) We have lots of VW's and the dealers are very good, but the cars worry me abit as 2 of our mark5 golfs have spat bits of the engine out of the exhaust from catastophic turbo failures at arround 20,000 miles.
Is it just me or is there something very bizarre about the OP's questions - he's a fleet manager yet is asking for reliability and customer service info? And he thinks VW dealers are good!!
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We have Mercs, Renaults, and lots of VW's so they are the only ones I have experience with, plus my own personal Peugeot.
If something happens to a car, the driver tells me, I phone the dealer and arrange to get it fixed, the driver collects thecar, if the driver complains to me that its not fixed then I have to get onto the dealer again and so on
Mercedes/Renault both deny that problems exist, and when you do get them to fix them, the fault always comes back or isn't fixed properly.
Peugeot do simular, and also try to put you off going to them by telling you there will be a 3-4week wait to even look at it.
VW are by far the best of the 4. They just take the car, fix it and return it. They don't argue, try to blame us or do anyting else to get out of fixing the car like the others do so I have nothing bad to say about VW's service. I just don't want to own a VW as from the frequency of faults I have dealt with, I'd say my Peugeot is more reliable
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Sorry to slightly off topc, but somewhere on the Honest John website is a list of the best car supermarkets, as rated by "What Car?" recently. I came across it a few days ago, but I can't find it now. Anyone know where it is?
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It's unlikely that any such list created would run to more than half-a-dozen lines.....:-)
Car reliability and/or service seems to affect all makes - one of my mates, for instance, always has the latest S-Class and he's forever moaning that the marque's reliability and faults discovered from new get worse each time he swaps models (about every 18 months).
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Preston Blackpool area - Good Honda dealer there - Halls I think.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Blackpool Honda in Devonshire Road in the resort is the main Honda dealer - Preston (service only) is Riding and Co, Hartington Road, which held the franchise for many years.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I went to Honda in Blackpool, I sat in one, it looked nice, the engine sounded nice, then the pushy sales guy tried to close the sale before I had chance to get out of the car. I arranged to come back for a test drive/proper look (as hopefully the sales guy would calm down abit if I came back another day) Anyway I got home and did a check on book prices, and they are generally £1000-£3000 above the A1 condition dealer price, so I won't be going back.
Seat on the other hand, although still had pushy dealers, at least had the cars sensibly priced. Seat Toledo is now looking like the best deal
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