cars and driving

I've always had Vauxhalls' I've had various models Cavlalier, Corsa and currently Mariva.
They've always been second hand and maybe I'm lucky but I've always found them very reliable. I loved my Corsa, the bodywork was immaculate when the engine died H chose the Mariva as it's high and easy to get into.
I do like cars and love driving. I'd love a Triumph Stag in racing green as my weekend runaround. Totally impractical for every day though.

It's not so much what you drive, it's how you drive and where you drive it that becomes problematic in old age. I need to hit motorways often and find it a bit nerve-wracking because of the speed and the need to think fast. If you stay in the slow lane you infuriate the lorry drivers, yet you really have to be totally with it to start dancing and dicing across the lanes. But I refuse to just purely drive locally. We have been a lucky generation, so am looking forward to a driverless car.

My SiL had a SAAB, MOnica. He was driving to work one morning when he was forced off the road to avoid colliding with a van which was coming toward him on his side of the road. He collided with a concrete lamp post, and knocked it over! He walked away with bruises and shock. The police attended and said if he hadn't been driving the Saab, he would most likely have died, the build quality was so good. He expected it to be written off, it was in such a mess, but they repaired it and he drove it for a few more years until GS was born and they needed something that would accommodate all his paraphanlia!

WE had a Meriva, was an ideal height to get into and was the perfect size for us. BUT at 6 years old and 72k miles the problems started. We now have a Mokka, a bit higher than the Meriva and a similar size, petrol this time rather than diesel.

I like driving and really like cars. Reliability and safety is most important to me now, but I do like a bit speed!
Buying a new car is agony, there's so many that fit my criteria. I have recently bought a new car and was surprised that those I thought I would like ( after much research) didn't cut it on the test drives. I ended up with something I had not considered, very sporty, all digital with lots of fun bits!

Car buying is such an individual decision.

A very apposite thread for me as I have been doing the rounds of car showrooms over the last week, trying to choose a new one.

I currently drive a Toyota Yaris which has not cost me a bean - just servicing and tyres. It has been wonderful and even takes our two cycles and two carry-on suitcases and other holiday paraphernalia.

However, I have decided to go larger and higher but can't find anything thus far. I liked the Honda HR-V but have read poor reliability problems as it is made in Mexico; liked the Nissan Qashqai but ditto with problems. Like the Lexus 300H but quite dear and ditto the Volvo XC60.

I have found a new car the Kia Niro that looked about the right size but it does not have the high seating position I fancy.

Friends have implored me to buy an automatic (seems like driving a dogem car to me but I understand the sense of it as we age) and we need a petrol engine as we do short trips but there are few about. Mostly diesels rule the showrooms.

If anyone has ideas, they would be gratefully received.

I would recommend the Land Rover Freelander. DH on his second. The only problem is that Land Rover, in their 'Wisdom' have decided to stop manufacturing it!
It is easy to drive and park.

DS2 is getting an electric Nissan! I'll be very interested to see how that works out. His partner has a commute to work each day and it seems that the range of the car will easily (?) cover that.

Candelle I have a Qashqai and we've never had any problems with it, the high position is perfect for my dodgy hips as is the camera. Could maybe give it a test drive, the first time I got in it everything just fit me I found it so easy for everything.

Our choice of car is governed by two factors:
1. It needs to be heavy enough to legally tow our caravan and
2. It needs to be high enough for my wife to get into/out of easily. There are not many vehicles that meet both criteria and when we find one we tend to stay with it.

In 2001 we bought a 1996 Isuzu Trooper and we kept it until 2013. We would have kept it even longer but Isuzu, who stopped producing the Trooper in 2002, stopped producing spare parts for them in 2006. By 2013 we were reduced to getting secondhand parts from scrapyards to keep it running so we decided it had to go.

Our current vehicle is a Vauxhall Antara (similar to the Mokka but a bit bigger).

We just bought a Shogun, not my choice. But we would have had another Volvo xc70 if they still made them and if Arnold Shark Clark were not the only dealer here. So candelle have a look at the xc60. Our xc90 (we kept it) has done over 140,000 miles but has problems with the transmission which means we don't want to do long journeys - it is still used every day for taking the dogs out.

The economy on the Shogun ?

I couldn't function without a car. Four miles from town where the bus station is and 8 miles to the nearest railway halt. I now have access to free public transport, but accessing it is difficult - we need to drive to get to it. I love my car. It's a beautiful shade of blue which on the registration documents is described as 'Botticelli blue' and I can spot it in a large carpark without difficulty (I can never find DH's black Peugeot.)

I had a Qashqai and didn't like it much!

Candelle, have you considered a BMW X1? They get very good write-ups!

I enjoy driving and I enjoy driving a nice car. We live several miles from any public transport and over 20 from a railway station so it's essential.

We've always driven a lot and having a comfortable car makes that easier as we get older. I have a BMW 3 Series estate, automatic petrol, and I love it. My Dh says I say that every time I get in it. It even parks itself in both bay parking and parallel parking places! It's quite unnerving to see the steering wheel moving all by itself but a sign that self-driving cars are on their way.

The thing that annoys me most about cars is the amount of money they lose as soon as you drive them off the forecourt. When ours was barely twelve months old, pristine, with under five thousand miles on the clock, DH had a look at a CRV - not a new one either. He asked the dealer how much we would get for ours. He was astounded that the car had lost over a third of its value in under twelve months! He decided to keep it, even though we could have afforded the CRV, he was so insulted.

I'll pretend I have read that about your Meriva wb
Mine is an 07 plate (had it two years) but has very low mileage as previous owner had it under DLA

haven't

Our Meriva was a diesel and it suffered the DPF problem that seems to be plaguing many diesels which are over 70k miles, very expensive to fix. It also had a software problem that I'm not convinced was fixed permanently and meant that I lost power steering.

The loss of value when you drive a new car off the forecourt is one reason why we never buy new. Its disgusting how much they offer on trade ins but I guess its why they are in business but it doesn't make it right.

The Mokka we bought was 5 months old with 500 miles on the clock, we paid £7000 less than the new price, dread to think what the seller got for a car that they hardly used.

I'm with you Monica on Saabs, I love them. I've been living with petrol head for 37 yrs and it doesn't look as if he's loosing his passion. His hobby and passion ( at the moment) is his 1937 ford HotRod which he races and drives around for fun. His 'proper' car is a Merc convertable. I have a Nissan micra, and then there's the Motohome. So I can't get away from cars!

I loved my MX5 which I had for a couple of years. Still hanker after them but they are not that practical as you get older! DH then bought me a BMW 1 series convertible, which I also loved. We currently drive a Hyundai estate for practical purposes (dogs in boy, car seat in back). I find it easier to drive than I expected especially with the reversing camera.

I used to have an MX-5 which I loved, but it was too expensive to bring it back to the UK. I love driving. I love the feeling that I have driven well, I have anticipated problems, I have selected the right gear for the road conditions, I have driven smoothly. I loathe automatics - we had one when we lived in the States. It's lazy driving unless needed because of physical problems.

If I didn't love cars I wouldn't have met DH let alone married him. We both belonged to the MG car club on the Isle of Wight during the sixties. He used to hold a Sunday morning 'clinic' outside the pub where he lodged, tuning engines and sorting out various problems. It became a meeting place for petrol heads so I used to go with my then boyfriend who had an MGA.

Boyfriend became a thing of the past. I didn't miss him but I loved his car!!

13 years ago I decided it was silly to be driving a family sized 4 door car so went out and bought myself a convertible. I still have it and it is so low mileage the MOT garage want to buy it.

We buy a car so rarely and have so little interest that it becomes hard work. 3 years ago we went to buy a new family car and I think eventually ordered one because we were getting fed up with looking. Yes, we did buy new because the secondhand ones were almost the same price, only about £1000 cheaper, probably because there was a long wait for a new one. DH still says he needs a 'co-driver' to work all the gizmos which hadn't been invented in his previous car which he had for 12 years.

We really don't need 2 cars as it is rare for us both to be out in a car at the same time but it seems daft to get rid of mine when it must be worth almost nothing.