We sold the firms 2 daihatsu Sirion 56 plates in OCtober and picked up 2 hyundai Getz 1.1 cdx on 58 plates with 10 miles and 14 miles each on them for £6,499 (5 door/black).
Everyone loved the sirions who didnt miss a beat in there 108,000 miles and 87,000 miles respectivly.
The 2 getz so far have been brilliant. Fuel economy is nearly as good as the sirion, the equipment is the same level and the car internal feels better/more long lasting.
That was the only real complaint about the sirion - the plastics and fittings where a bit cheap and fiddly. Nothing broke but the plastic did scratch easily. Other than a replacemnt wing mirror (v.expensive) and an exhaust the sirion only cost us services and tyres.
Im not saying the getz interior plastic is Merc standard, but it is certainly built to last.
One of the getz i took this weekend has already hit 30k. The staff who use them prefere them to the sirion on long journeys but do miss the 'high up' feel around town the sirion provides.
Overall, we are very peased with the 2 cars and couldnt reccomend them highly enough. The 5 year warranty with the mileage we are likely to do is just perfect.
BTW - anyone else with a small business that needs to supply pool vehicles, can I reccomend using B segment or smaller hatchbacks. Firends who have a smililar size company in a different industry dont do as much motorway driving as us, but always go for the 'sales rep' saloon cars. After 2/3years the loss they make is huge compared to smaller vehicles.
Staff dont mind the smaller vehicles as long as they have 5 doors, air con and a cd player.
It has saved us a small fortune.
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That's just the sort of lateral thinking by your company, Davey, that will help to get us out of the recession. If the space isn't needed, modern, well-built small cars can do the job just as well, and save money and energy.
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Glad to hear the Sirion was reliable long term as the misses hopes to keep hers until nature takes it. Shes racked up 9000 miles in 8 months and hers has so far not missed a beat. We actually chose this over a heavily discounted Getz on account of better practicality for small family needs, but the Getz ran it very close.
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I wouldn't be at all happy doing regular motorway journeys in a little car.
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There are little cars and little cars - it depends perhaps mainly on seat comfort, driving position and how high top gear is. Oddly enough, we found that the Ford Ka that SWMBO had was less frenetic on a motorway than the Jazz that followed it.
Two Minis have followed the Jazz - the second, a Cooper with six gears, being not surprisingly more relaxed than the previous 5-sped Mini One.
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i agree Bill Payer its bad enough being tailgated in a 30 by a moron when you are in a tin can of tiny dimensions but once on an open motorway theres no way i feel safe and im always glad to get out of anything small
cant even remember the last time i drove the wifes fiasco
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No small cars here either. Everything is a compromise and usally the driving position is bad.
My solution to getting out of the recession is to buy British built - Jaguar XF.
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> My solution to getting out of the recession is to buy British built - Jaguar XF.
I have argued that one for months.
If the government had put a British-built clause in the scrappage scheme it would have greatly helped the UK car industry.
Rather than £2000 for any old car (which effectively = subsidise a small Korean car), they should have offered 3 or 4k off a British car.
So then Micra builders in Sunderland in particular would have been laughing all the way to the bank in overtime, and would have given the edge to things like Astras, Civics and XFs in their respective classes.
Would have done the economy far more good. Unfortunately it would have ultimately stuffed the likes of Ford as people realised that they aren't as British as some folk think.
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If the government had put a British-built clause in the scrappage scheme it would have greatly helped the UK car industry.
No they wouldn't have, in the long run it would have destroyed it. What happens when the germans say, only german built cars, the French only allowed french built cars, the Italians Italian cars. O the Nissan factory then won't do any exports, Honda will loose lots of sales, same with Toyota.
What about the fact that many of Nissans components are sourced from mainland europe? next you'll be wanting a 80% British components rule.
Restrictive import practices are whats causing all the problems, not the solution to it.
No matter which car you buy more of the money from that cars sale goes into the British economy than it cost to build in the first place. The manufacture of products isn't as important as the services provided. This is why you have things manufactured in China, becasue they are the easy things to get right, services are difficult and more highly paid.
Edited by carl_a on 26/07/2009 at 18:53
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