Not sure if this has come up before (if it has no doubt DD will confirm) but some friends of mine were on the verge of buying a new Mazda 3 last week. They'd done their homework, looked at several cars and had a test drive. Just before signing up and parting with their cash, however, they decided (for reasons they can't even explain) to take another test drive and bring the car home with them. Everything was fine until just prior to returning the car the lady of the household decided to try to park it on her drive only to discover that due to the sloping ground level their drive's odd contruction, the car grounded quite noticeably and the drive would have had to be dug up/relaid in order to accommodate it.
Even though they liked the 3, their preferred solution was to return it to the bemused dealer and buy a Honda CRV.
Has anyone else in the BR been in a similarly embarrassing situation when changing cars?
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Never been that close, but I am concious that my drive isn't too long so I always check the length of the vehicle and try and get a test drive to take it home and see if it fits. Anything longer than my current A3 will be a tight squeeze.
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I have to be careful with the width getting a car into our garage. The Megane is a surprisingly wide car. Have to fold the mirrors in, fortunately they're electric.
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Temporarily had a Saab 9-5 Aero estate which didn't fit on the drive, and had to be parked on the road. Changed jobs soon after, so got a 3-series estate as the next company car!
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I once had a customer who bought a Rav4 off me. They measured the height and although it was tight it should just about fit.
When they got the car home they found that because they had an up and over garage door it wouldn't fit. They had measured from the floor to the top of the door appature but didn't take into consideration the door reduced the usuable height by about 2 inches.
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IIRC Rover were doing some sort of returns policy at one time with their cars. The TV advert had someone putting their new 800 in their garage only to find the door wouldn't shut...
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IIRC Rover were doing some sort of returns policy at one time with their cars. The TV advert had someone putting their new 800 in their garage only to find the door wouldn't shut...
If only more manufacturers had that kind of foresight, the industry wouldn't be in the mess.... oh, Rover you say?
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In our old house, the garage used to slope inwards the more you walked into it. (I know I know but we never built it).
This was almost imperceptible until you parked a car in there. Polo - no problem. Mondeo - exactly. So once we started getting cars of that size, the garage was no use whatsoever - until Dad started getting bikes.
I remember a couple of months before we moved house, the car got broken into when parked up somewhere. Both front windows were smashed but the idiots left everything of value that was in the car (so probably vandals). Anyway, because this was at night, we had to park the car in the garage.
We eased it in...gently.....geeeently.....*WOAH* and were pleasantly surprised when it was fully in until......dunk. Dunk. Exactly - the door woulnd't open! Cue Dad climbing out of the back of a saloon in a pitch black garage with us all merrily laughing away.....
...guess who had to get it out though!
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Adam
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...guess who had to get it out though!
Not you surely?! ;-)
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How did you guess?
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Adam
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the lady of the household decided to try to park it on her drive only to discover that due to the sloping ground level their drive's odd contruction, the car grounded quite noticeably and the drive would have had to be dug up/relaid in order to accommodate it.
If they live near you, I'm not surprised, I needed Sherpa Tensing and oxygen to get to your front door from the kerb!
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You need a gang of sherpas and oxygen to stand up in your high heels, never mind Volvoman's drive !
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Is ND so short that he needs cubans then?
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No, I prefer Santa Damianas to Monte Christos.
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"Has anyone else in the BR been in a similarly embarrassing situation when changing cars?"
Errr well yes.. I got a new Maestro. It really doesnt get more embarrasing than that.
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ND - Yeah but you were carrying HF at the time weren't you :)
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When loaded up with passengers, my Passat 1.8T Sport would touch the end of the drive as you drove over it. Any speed bumps over a certain height were also a problem. Once I remember checking one speed bump afterwards and the car had managed to gouge a line through it - quite literally!
Not a problem of course being a company car ;-) The Mondeo has no such problems. I put it down to the very soft suspension of a Passat, and the Sport having lowered suspension.
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My BIL did this a couple of weeks ago.Same car.Only he put a deposit on it before taking home on second test drive..He also grounded and was highly embarrassed by it..He decided to cancel but admitted to garage what happened. They were very good about it surprisingly but gave him his deposit back..Very lucky I think.Anyway he bought the Honda HRV and now prefers it to the Mazda 3
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Steve
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Steve, judging by your contribution to HF's thread about her MoT, I'd say that you and Volvoman are in the same part of the country. Either your BiL is V's mate, or there is a very, very bemused Mazda dealer in Orpington.
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Steve, judging by your contribution to HF's thread about her MoT, I'd say that you and Volvoman are in the same part of the country. Either your BiL is V's mate, or there is a very, very bemused Mazda dealer in Orpington.
I havent had the pleasure of meeting volvoman as yet.But I think VM does live around Orpington.To add.You may be right as I had BIL round and had his mate telling of same problem.From the look of things Mazda may need to look at this problem.Or people may go elsewhere..As has been the case.Apart from that no one has any problem with the car. And would have bought it without reservation.I like it myself
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Steve
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Correct Steve.o - lived here for 20 years now.
Don't think it's the same people (will check) but do think there's a possible problem with the 3. Checked out their drive yesterday and it doesn't look too bad really (might be deceptive though). I can't help thinking there's going to be a lot of scraped road humps around. Do you know what part of the car grounds?
Well done on checking out HF's car BTW. I'd be happy to help her but know very little about cars and although I could point out the more obvious faults I wouldn't want anyone to rely on my knowledge.
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On a slightly tenuous but funny link.The owners of the business park where Mclaren used to reside,decided that traffic entering and leaving the area should be slowed by placing a number of brick built speed humps around the area.Unfortunately nobody consulted Mclaren because when the humps were finished it was discovered that the F1 road cars Mclaren were producing on the site could not get over the humps.oops!!.
The humps were immediately de-capitated by the builders to enable the half million quid cars to exit the business park.Even then it took a great deal of effort to guide the cars in a crab like manner sideways over the remainder of the humps.
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Not a new car but same issue. Aeons ago as a teenage plane spotter was asked to hel a guy get his Bedford Dormobile off the multi storey car park. He'd driven on five up plus baggage but after dropping his pax off it had risen on the springs and, combined with differing slopes on the down side, was to high for the ramps; five spotters in the back was enough to give him the extra few mil clearance he needed!
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