sayerbloke Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 After nearly 6 years with the Astra Coupe, I'll be picking up a new car tomorrow. It's not a Vauxhall (or any other GM product), which would come as a surprise to anyone that's known my car choices in the past. Vauxhalls were certainly on the shortlist but a dealer near here had something else which seemed a decent enough car at a reasonable price... so I took it for a test drive, decided I liked it and, so, tomorrow I become the owner of a... Details to follow tomorrow! . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 So come on what did you treat yourself with. Go on tell us, it was a 911 wasn't it, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 Ford Focus ST or a Mondeo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-bmw Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 Silver Boxster! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sayerbloke Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 Nothing quite that interesting, I'm afraid! The missus said she didn't mind what I went for, providing it had 4 doors. That was a sensible enough suggestion, given the boy is now big enough to be in the next stage of car seat and whilst swinging one of the baby seats into the back of a coupe was one thing, having to climb into the back of one each time to get him in/out would be rather more of a trial! We'll likely still be using the Signum as the main family car so it wouldn't be a daily occurrence, but it was something I was happy enough to go along with. I went into it with a relatively open-mind but still expecting there was a reasonable chance I'd be getting one of the last Vectras. I was OK with that, because whilst the first generation Vectra was generally regarded as one of the worst cars of its time, they got it right the second time round. This will be a long post if put everything in here, so I'll send this one and put the rest in a second post which I'll hopefully have done in a few minutes... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sayerbloke Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 I set up some basic criteria in Autotrader to see what sort of cars were out there and then did the same in Drive24 (Which has some absolutely fantastic filters available!). I did the same thing earlier in the year and there was quite a bit more variety around at the time. Having found things that met the basic requirements, I could start paring it down in other ways. I eliminated anything that was too ugly to my eyes, which of course had to be done manually because neither site has a filter set up to do so . Next to go was anything I deemed too slow, which in this instance I decided should mean anything taking more than about 10 seconds to do 0-60mph. Perhaps that shouldn't have been quite such a priority but I'm not going to apologise for that (And I feel I'm perhaps in sympathetic company!). Also, I had a 1.2i loan car a couple of years back and for my journeys and driving style, it was no more economical than my 2.2i Astra coupe. Something capable of about mid 30s MPG would be fine and anything over that would be a bonus. Same approach with tax and insurance; ideally costing no more than the Astra and a bonus if it's less. After that I had a list of cars I decided I'd like to go see first, with a few more in reserve if they didn't work out. Mostly it was Vauxhalls in the first wave but I decided to start with something that wasn't. I figured I'd either be able to knock it off the list pretty quickly or, if it turned out to be any good, that I'd be comparing it to cars I already knew a fair bit about anyway and would hold few surprises. (Very) long story short, I took it for a test drive and decided, yeah, why not, something different will be a nice change! . Mini review and pictures to follow later, of course, but I will tell you now what it is. Rather unexpectedly, but later on this morning, I'll be picking up the keys to a... '57 plate Honda Accord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 Couldn't you just post that you're getting a Honda Accord. Save you a lot of typing. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 So to those of us in the real world, what is a '57 plate? 2010 build or similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasdrury Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 So to those of us in the real world, what is a '57 plate? 2010 build or similar? Sep 2007 to end of Feb 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 An Accord is much better than a Focus or Mondeo anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 Agree with MrMe. The Accord is a good looking car. Good reviews too! Which engine? Type S with the 2.4? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theduisbergkid Posted August 3, 2014 Report Share Posted August 3, 2014 Great cars. Let's have some pics then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eldavo69 Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 The French seem to think that they're ok. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesB Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 Ils sont d'accord? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eldavo69 Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 Si Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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