I'm stuck - help me choose

[Howard]

I hate comparing diesels to petrols anyway, they're totally different driving styles

[arbitor]

I hate comparing diesels to petrols anyway, they're totally different driving styles

Totally differnt power delivery is what you meant

TDCI is an awesome car

[herulach]

I'd second/third/fourht the get something else votes. Neither are stunning looking, the golf is a golf, and the 1.4 will be frustratingly slow (never driven it, but i have driven my mum's 1.6 which is). The focus is a focus, theres millions of them and theyre incredibly bland imo, also, not convinced about reliability.

If it were my money id get a 147, however, to follow the sentiment of clarkson, you can never actually recommend someone to buy an alfa. So i'll say either get something bigger (s40 or mitsi galant would be my choice) and stand the higher petrol costs (insurance not likely to be too much of an issue).

[dave87]

Missed this yesterday, but what about a Fabia? VW quality without the price tag

[Nick F]

hmmm

Manual, 104,400 miles, Fire Black, Black Leather, ABS, Alarm, Alloy wheels, Audio remote control, Bose Speakers, Body coloured bumpers, Full service History, 9 Months MOT. £2,700

£2,700

Within my budget but I bet the insurance would be stupidly high?

[Howard]

Eek... My humble advise is to stay away, theyr'e nice cars, but they fall to pieces Especially with that mileage

Unless you can live with it of course

[mycarsavw]

It'll spend more time off than on the road - looks gorgeous though

[kalniel]

Heart > Head

[Nick F]

Cheapest insurance quote I can get is......

£1913

Looks like it won't be this car then!

[Howard]

Heart > Head

It's not even that pretty IMO, the 156 is far more gorgeous

[herulach]

It's not even that pretty IMO, the 156 is far more gorgeous

Especialy the sportwagon. mmmmm............ alfa

[frazered]

Too high a mileage for that engine too IMO, they've been known to need TLC as they get on a bit, AFAIK

totally wrong these engines will do 200k plus if looked after right - not expensive I spend approx £500 a year max, if we were talking S4 then yeah a spare £4k in the bank for blown tubos is a must... but we are not...

as for insurance, I don't think my £350 insurance pa is bad at all... I obviously don't know the age of the OP nor his claim history

anyhow

am a firm beliver in older looked after exec cars - the depreciation is someone elses hit and you can find some really tidy models (non-german) out there (saab etc)

[stroberaver]

totally wrong these engines will do 200k plus if looked after right

That's the impression I was under - I'd read on more than one occasion that in racing spec, the same VAG 1.8T block can output silly horsepower, which makes them pretty much bulletproof for road use assuming they're not neglected.

Mine's only on 25k though, and still running peachy.

[Howard]

totally wrong these engines will do 200k plus if looked after right - not expensive I spend approx £500 a year max, if we were talking S4 then yeah a spare £4k in the bank for blown tubos is a must... but we are not...

as for insurance, I don't think my £350 insurance pa is bad at all... I obviously don't know the age of the OP nor his claim history

re the first paragraph.. Fair enough, I just sure I read a couple of posts here in the past about things dieing

And if you read his post you'd see that he's a new driver... that means insurance rape-age

[mycarsavw]

And if you read his post you'd see that he's a new driver... that means insurance rape-age

Which is why I still recommend a small engined VAG car.

/thread

[arbitor]

To be fair a polo would be a great first car...

The real problem with alfas from people i know that have had them, is the little bits like elctric windows motors and stuff like that, just gernally not that cheap, lovely engines though