Car Advice - Mummy Cars!
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Right, I know there are loads of blogs out there and auto journalism is plentiful, but I don't want the views of these guys. I want the views of the real experts - the everyday users, the weekly shopping, running the kids to school, picking up the pissed up husband from the golf club ..
I'm looking at buying the wife a spanking new car, never done that, and want to do that at least once in my life. It'll be in the UK, and after discussions with the wife, we are looking at either Mazda 3, VW Golf, BMW 1 series or Audi A3. For some reason she refuses anything made by Vauxhall / Ford (no idea why) and I refuse anything made by Skoda ... and I think cars in the UK are cheap enough so there is no need to look at Hyundai (even though I reckon the I30 is a cracking looking car) / Kia etc.
So, anybody on the fern, or partners of the fern, have experience of owning these cars? Living with them everyday? Our offspring are 2 and 4, so legroom isn't that much of a consideration at the moment.
All thoughts appreciated!
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We have the last model A3, nice car, more boot room than the bmw. I'm not sure about the current model but it appears to have a roomy boot. If you want boot room I'd look seriously at the Audi. Otherwise the golf is a nice car to drive, I find the beemer to be a little less roomy
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@MajorRage said in Car Advice - Mummy Cars!:
I'm looking at buying the wife a spanking new car, never done that, and want to do that at least once in my life. It'll be in the UK, and after discussions with the wife, we are looking at either Mazda 3, VW Golf, BMW 1 series or Audi A3. For some reason she refuses anything made by Vauxhall / Ford (no idea why) and I refuse anything made by Skoda ... and I think cars in the UK are cheap enough so there is no need to look at Hyundai (even though I reckon the I30 is a cracking looking car) / Kia etc.
The Audi A3 is the same platform as the Škoda Octavia and VW Golf. I know a couple of people with the RS wagon and they're great.
The i30 isn't just a good-looking car, it's excellent. I've used them heaps as rentals and think highly of them.
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I share Mrs MR's dislike of Vauxhall's. We used a couple as rentals over here before buying and they were pieces of poorly designed crap. The worst thing about them was visibility and ability to accurately judge where corners/sides of your vehicle are due to the roof and pillars being narrower than the body.
I'm sure you get used to it after a while but given the narrow roads around here I like to be quite comfortable in knowing I'm going to miss something.
The wife often gets given a work Skoda to use and says it's a nice drive both in town and on the motorways. -
@MajorRage As Antipodean said, the Audi A3 is the same platform as the relevant Skoda and VW. What you get with Audi though is better spec and (I feel) better build quality. For sure Skoda have upped their game and VW has good previous in build quality but the standard you get with Audi is significantly better. Put simply, it is just a much nicer environment in which to sit.
We've had a series of Audis over the last few years staring off with an A3 1.8TFSI and then two S3s. We currently run the latest model S3 and it's brilliant. Bloody quick though so you might not want the mem-sahib running it around down to Tescos each day as the fuel consumption matches the performance. Good leg room for a mid sized hatch and good luggage space. We took four adults down through France from Calais to Nice in the summer with no issues at all.
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You guys earn to much.. or spend to much on cars.
My wife drives a Suzuki.... she has not complained.... or I wasnt listening.
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@Baron-Silas-Greenback we have one of them too, although the wife makes me drive it more and she drives the big car
I take the little car, she gets the kids, I think that is a fair trade off....
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I borrowed a Suzuki swift aka a 'faggotmobile' from my Mum for a few months when my ex wife ended up with the Holden. It was great for getting in road rage incidents and I needed a tin opener to get in and out.
Ran on the small of an oily rag though, I do miss that.
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Wife has a Golf GTi that I was a little rude about on another thread - but only because it's parents are the Beetle and Kombi. It is actually a really good car. So good that I bought it back from Hong Kong to NZ and we still have it. 10 years old now. Fast, practical, safe. A little light in the power steering (at speed) is my only complaint.
Have driven A3 when my Audi has been in for service and quite liked it. Audi build quality is usually good. The opposite can be said of Vauxhall these days. I did have a Chevette 30 years ago and got it to 300,000km but have had rentals since that were awful. Never driven a 1 series but the 3 series have always been good cars.
What I can recommend is a single cab (kids go on the back with the dog), 4wd (dragging boat off beach), flat deck (sheets of ply) hilux ute. Around the turn of the millennium was a good vintage.
I'm sure none of that helps whatsoever.
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@MajorRage if you go and test those 4 cars you mentioned the biggest things you will probably notice is the road noise (Mazda 3 the worse) and the handling around corners (A3 being the best). All of them are a solid build, but I found the difference in traction is something that you will pick up.
If you are willing to spend that little bit extra I would go with the Golf GTi. It's a fun car to drive, won't break the bank like the S3 and there are I found considerable improvements from the standard Golf models and the GTi.
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Thanks for the replies! Alot of good points raised
@Snowy - the hilux points helped out a lot! I will 100% buy a Hilux at some point, for sure - but not right now, but once I get the hobby farm cranking, for sure. At the moment, it looks like my daily drive will be a Discovery ..
@Baron-Silas-Greenback if I was in NZ, no way would I buy a new car and I'd happily go the Suzuki (for the wife ...)
@Catogrande S3 would be great, but yes, this is just for the missus who has zero no-claims as we have only had one car here. So the insurance would be a killer
@ACT-Crusader thanks for the road noise heads up on the 3, we are test driving one on Thursday, will take note of that
Seems like the forum likes the A3 ...
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Thoughts on buying a European model in NZ? higher costs for parts or servicing??
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@Paekakboyz Yes
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@Paekakboyz Absolutely. The dealership service departments will gouge you big time, but you can save by using an independent workshop. We have some up here owned by guys who broke away from the dealerships. Still more expensive than your average Japanese car I'd say
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servicing most vehicles through their 'dealerships' is always pricey and they will always try to tell you they are the only ones that can do it...
I had my vehicle serviced a month back for it's 15k service, $170 vs $500 at Dealer...and mine is a NZ new Jap car.
I had a Hyundai (our own one) and it was about $400-$600 for the dealer services, my old work Hyundai was more, but I didn't care cos I wasn't paying.