Car Advice - Mummy Cars!
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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.
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I go to an Audi approved independent and can get a full service for around $400.
Don't mention tyres though
Still rather have a nice European motor any day.
It's not losing your license that's the challenge - all them horsies under the bonnet wanting to go for a gallop
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@MajorRage Ha! I wasn't really suggesting an S3 as a mummy car, but any model A3 is pretty good. 2.0TDI might be the trick, good economy and still has a fair bit of poke. As for the insurance does Mrs MR not have any no claims due to accidents or just because she's not the named driver? If the latter you ,might want to consider multi-car insurance which allows you to be named driver (and therefore get the NCD) on one car and Mrs MR on the other. I'm doing this for all my lot and get a pretty good deal, plus Mrs Cato now has 5 years NCD and one of the smaller Cats has three years NCD.
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@dogmeat Using the dealer for the service is helpful if you buy new as they're pretty hot on warranties and will use any excuse to invalidate them. I pay about £250 for my Audi and about £450 for MY car (911) but that's only every two years so pretty reasonable really. Mind you if you add on a full brake fluid change it ups it a bit.
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@Catogrande She's down as a named driver, but I've only recently learned that she doesn't accrue NCD as only one driver can accrue that. Wish I'd known that as would have changed her to the named driver after 5 years, in which case she'd now have 3 years.
S3 and 911 as your two cars. Very good. Very very good.
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@MajorRage said in Car Advice - Mummy Cars!:
@Catogrande She's down as a named driver, but I've only recently learned that she doesn't accrue NCD as only one driver can accrue that. Wish I'd known that as would have changed her to the named driver after 5 years, in which case she'd now have 3 years.
S3 and 911 as your two cars. Very good. Very very good.
MR, don't you have an insurance history from outside the UK that you can transfer over for her? I managed to get the NZ AA* to send an email confirming lifetime NCB for all named drivers on our cars. Reduced our UK insurance from "completely fucken stupid rip-off" to "I guess if that's what I have to pay then I will"
- this is despite NZ not really having NCBs any more. They surprising still keep note for the purposes of insurance history overseas