Spent the day looking around a few car supermarkets in the midlands, and thought it might help some to share some experiences.
The sites:
Carland at Cannock has gone! Along with the pushy sales service. Motorhouse has taken over, there seems to be a discrepency between the website and what stock is actually on site (apparently they list stuff when it's undergoing prep, and can be up to a week pre-emptive of the car's arrival), so do ring ahead, but their prices are very good. I only was on the up to 18months old site, so it promises that there's a good range with another site housing the older stuff. Diesel prices seemed shockingly high, with a rough £1500-2000 premium over the petrol equal. Gave a terrible p/x offer. And beware the admin charge of £239.
Motornation: Looked around, but not especially competitive on price against motorhouse (typically £500 more), but a better choice of diesel vehicles, albeit generally a bit older - much of the stock is 05/55. Salesman was slightly more pushy, but could've been a one off.
Onto the cars (mainly seen at motorhouse):
Focus II is dull. I knew it. But having sat in a couple of French cars, I hadn't realised just how dull it is, inside and out. But (having test drove one at dealers) it is a better car to drive than any others I'll mention. I was looking at 1.6 petrol LX's and lacked much of the equipment of the Clio and C4.
Renault Clio - you could feel the quality, which surprised me. And somehow not in such a dull way as a Focus. Bit small still, but comfortable enough. If I'd have been able to find a 5dr Dynamique 1.4 with a/c instead of 3dr for under £8000, i'd have bought it. Drives nice enough, although test-drives don't tell you much about high-speed where the steering is supposed to be worst. It was refined, and quick enough.
Megane II - not as plush inside as the Clio. Harder, less appealing plastics, but it may be because I was sitting in an Expression (Clio was Dynamique 1.4) model. Despite having a 1.6 engine, and being a facelift model, it was over £1000 cheaper than the Clio of the same age - and it's difficult to argue with something like that when it was a bigger and more comfortable car - loads of storage solutions and the only one with an armrest to calm your (my) driving style. Sadly, the flat battery coupled with the Megane rep for unreliability meant I walked away since the salesman showed little interest in actually getting it started for me to check the other electrics (radio, mirrors, wipers etc). But I did think this was the bargain of the day, even though I've not driven - can't be that diff from Clio I imagine. Not a fan of keycards with buttons though - I argue a key is a smaller less obtrusive thing to have in your pocket and the insertion place is difficult to see, though accept were it keyless it would make sense.
Citroen C4 - best looking car I saw. Easily. Lovely bluey-silvery colour highlighted it to the degree I actually went back for the key to see it. Spacious but was the only one I felt cocooned in, which I liked. Hadn't expected to like it, and it wasn't helped when given a key that had a broken unfolding mechanism or the beige interior - but there were others with a more practical grey. It felt quite well built with many damped cubbies, lots of apparent equipment, but was unsure of the engine/chassis and cabin layout (3 places to look for info might bug me). Bit older than the others being a 55 v 06 plate. Going to go to a dealer for a test drive tomorrow and will mull it over.
Astra - more expensive (£300) than equivalent Focus (LX-Club). Less comfortable seats, and mainly silver stock at Motorhouse. I know it shouldn't matter, but having driven in a silver Focus for a long time I'd wanted something that stood out a bit more. Also I drove one last Friday, after the Focus, and it's not as good to drive. Particularly good selection at motornation though.
207 - Much like the Clio. Test driven yesterday and felt it to be much the same there too. Yet at the supermarkets it was consistently more expensive, quality's similar, so I fail to see the advantage, and the Clio had more rear space.
And a quick question to those out there - it seems to me that I'm likely to lean French - do you think this is a wise plan, or is reliability as bad as suggested?
Anyway, just thought I'd post this as it might help anyone else looking at car supermarkets in the midlands, apparently easter weekend is a busy time for them.
{Minor edit of a couple of sentences made - DD}
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"or is reliability as bad as suggested?"
It's a percentages question. There are plenty of perfectly reliable French cars out there and I'm sure someone will be along soon to say they and their family have had no problems. Equally there are some Japanese lemons out there.
However pretty much every survey suggests that a higher proportion of French cars give trouble.
BTW I had a Focus II as a hire car recently and having been a fan of Mk1 was looking forward to it. However like you I was underwhelmed by the interior (an important aspect for me).
Good luck!
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Clio's - from mk1 through to Mk2 facelifts have consistently been the most reliable of the renault offerings. 50k and 5 years in the wifes Mk2 has been problem free.
Like you, test drive of the Mk3 is very positive. Its very well screwed together, and is probably the best of that sector around at the moment - Its really quite large now tho.
Nicole should be getting her 1.5dci Clio 3 some time next month.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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