Why did you buy the car that you drive?

[XTR]

Why did you buy the car that you drive?

When I left University I thought it was time to put good use to my student loan and decided to buy a car... I was looking at cars for around £3000. The BMW 316i Coupe was the top of my list.



Although the BMW 316 Coupe is massively underpowered I though I would get pretty respectable insurance quotes. £2600 fully comp. I decided that the BMW Coupe wasn't the car for me and started looking elsewhere.

So i put my heart on the older shape BMW. My plan was to buy a normal BMW and do it up to M3 spec.



Again the insurance was daft for me... so i started looking at more sensible sporty hatches such as the Ford Puma, Vauxhall Tigra, Megane Coupe... but I tried to stop away from the boring Saxo, 106, Corsa, etc... I didn't want the normal boring car...... I wanted something different....

After deciding I could afford to insure and buy a Megane Coupe I started to do some research into the models of them. This is when i decided i wanted a Monaco model as it is the top of the range model, with full leather, AC, electric everything. Slowly my £3000 price limit turned into... "i must have a Megane Coupe Monaco in Yellow... and don't care what the price is". So after a more specific search on Autotrader I found only 2 Megane Monacos in my area. A black one, and a yellow one. They were both the same price so i went to view them both. When i went to see the black one the salesman said "sorry sir. we sold this car an hour ago". So after a look around the car and thinking it was a pretty nasty car... dents all over... i carried on my travels to view the yellow one!!!!

I arrived at the garage at closing time. He had just drove the car indoors so he could lock up for the evening. I had a good look around it and set my heart on it. Decided it was the car for me and went back the next day to test drive it.

A few hours later I slapped a deposit down and it was mine... I went away to organise the insurance and the money. I couldn't wait to pick it up... my first car!!! After haggling with the salesman I said "the Monaco models are quite desirable cars." He seemed pretty pissed off as i didnt mention that I knew so much about the Megane Monaco. He assumed I was a young lad that didn't know much about cars as I let him do all the talking.




I bought the car "exactly" 1 year ago today.





So that's my story................. why did you buy your car? What was your previous car? Did you have your mind set on a specific model/colour? What other cars did you consider?

[Michael]

No car yet, still not old enough. What did the Megane cost you?

[dkmech]

Me want car.
Me has no NCB and is under 25 so me insurance quotes on anything with an engine are silly.
Me buys 106.
The end.

P.S. Even on that insurance in first year was 670 quid tpft. When i am over 25 i am thinking of getting a £3-4k Prelude and a £200 Suzuki SJ (lil' offroader).

[TiG]

This is a typical TiG story, get the facts, do the research drive the cars that made it to the short list and go the Octavia is the car for me.

Cars i drove where
Mazda 323 2.0 Sport
Mazda 6 2.0 (can't remember model spec)
Ford Focus ST170
VW Bora 1.8T (150hp)
Skoda Octava 1.8Vrs (180bhp)

Reasons why i bought this car over others, firstly and most importantly Zak's advice, this man knows cars and i trust his car judgement pretty much without question. That and his ability to help me realise my driving style and what suited me.

IT seems that I am without a doubt a turbo/high torque person, Love my car being able to pull massively from 2k rpm and oh my god it does.

That and i'm a practical person the boot on my car is huge, half leather seats which sets of the interior superbly. It goes so well, and can be hugely fast.

Full comp insurance at age 24 with 3yr ncb cost me £900. But i have had one crash in my car so it could well bad this year. Still this car suits me perfectly i'm going to live with it for a few years as it rocks

TiG

[Tumble]

Bought mine cos it was available, and I've always wanted a Landy.. chopped in my Daihatsu to buy it.... I got it re-painted when I bought it, because it was a bit "used" I WAS gonna get it sprayed bright, eye-bleeding orange.... but he ran out of that so i got it done in bloo instead.
The other deciding factor was the fact that it's got a big chunky Diesel motor, and a turbo.. god I love that whistle when I clog it

[McMav]

Bought my proton

a. Low Mileage
b. Loads of Warranty left
c. cheap
d. reliable.

Got it with 8500 miles on the clock and just a year old
now at 82000 miles 5 years on and still going strong though I just had to get a bit on the gear stick welded but 5 years and only general wear and tear. Looking to chang it once its (hopefully) though the 100k.

Next car looking like a small mpv like a scenic or a picasso diesel aswell.

Wife drives same caras I do for same reasons looking to change hers soon to a smaller car ala Corsa 1.2 life as posted on another thread.

[Shad]

Drove car. Fell in love. The end

[Moby-Dick]

I'd alwasy fancied the idea of a 200sx , and my car at the time, a Rover 820 Vitesse wasn't as much fun to drive as it could have been.

I was introduced to the sxoc forums and foudn them a great bunch of people.

I also wanted to buy something that had most of the work done to it ( it works out a lot cheaper and less hassle )

the for sale boards yielded a few pre modded cars and the one I bought was the best value

[Nox]

the sound the engine makes

the way it looks

the way it handles

its the best car ever made

and the looks people give me when I drive it

Nox

[Raz316]

I had a 306, good drive and all, nothing wrong with it. But a mates dad needed to sell his E30 which I had always thought was very stylish, so I bought it

[Jiff Lemon]

The cappo:

Saw a picture of one and loved the fact it was tiny. Talking to a bloke in the pub about cars a week later and he told me they had one in as a part ex. Next day I was up having a test drive - It was only at this point I realised the car was a convertable! When he dropped the rear pillar down I was in a state of utter shock! Never had I seen such amazing engineering.

Sat in car and shut my eyes - All the controls were exactley where I'd expect them - It was almost like the car was custom built for me. Test drove and was in love. An absolute hoot to drive (although my friend who was following in his car told me I shouldn't buy it as it was dangerous - "the rear end keeps sliding out when you go round corners"). Talked finance.They wanted too much so I decided to play hardball. Called back a week later figuring they'd be more likely to haggle - "sorry sir, we sold it the following morning"

4 Weeks of frantic hunting, I'd tracked one down in Sheffield. Checked it out, HPi'd it and picked it up on April Fools day. It was a cold week but I went to work topless that week (with heater on full reheat!). Wrote to the previous owner to find out more about it. He asked if he could buy it back! Apparently he'd traded it in for a jeep Cheroke as his girlfriend thought she was pregnant so wanted a "proper" car - It was a false alarm and he was left driving a petrol gussling big bus.

Currently driving a ZX turbo diesel after the Pug 205 Diesel died.

[Rob]

One - The engine, 120bhp Dci, variable geometry turbo. For a diesel - It Goes!

Two - The drive, test drove it round lots of winding tight roads, came back with such a grin I oredered it there and then.

The list...

Austin Allegro 1750 - JYD 665N ( You never forget your first car)
Vauxhall Viva 1.3
Ford Cortina 2.0 Crusader
Toyota Corrolla
Audi 100 2.3 (Lovely car)
Nissan Bluebird
Rover 620
New Megane 1.9Dci Privelege

[sdp]

What engine was that in the Allegro? My dads had 2 of em

Bought my 2nd mini cos they're brilliant fun and my first one got murdered by a cavalier . The noise @ 6.5k rpm in 2nd is my favourite thing atm.

[Howard]

Fiat Cinquecento... It was dirt cheap yet in excellent condition. It's small, light, cheap to run and insure.

[[GSV]Trig]

I bought the CallyT cos Joel had just got some points thru n couldnt really afford to insure it, I've known the car for a while and know its been looked after...

[Butuz]

Well after suffering with 2 mini's since i was 17, when i got my new job decicded to get a "real" car that would get me to and from work quicky, comfortably and reliably, and reliability was important as i was growing tired of spending weekends under the mini. I also wanted a car that was as much of a drivers car as possible (after all the mini is such a drivers car) and as the focus was top of the list regarding driving and handling, i went for that. THe result was a Focus 2.0 ghia and aside from new tyres, an exhaust and brake pads, nothing has gone wrong with it, its a 99T - 5 years old.

People who say ford are unreliable, havent had a focus!

Butuz