It was a different car to my previous 1.7tdi Astra estate in white. Supposedly sportier and more exciting. Plus cruse control for the first time, two zone climate control, trip computer etc. Heck it even had mirrors you could adjust from a little joystick knob near the gear stick. It even folded them in and turned on a mirror heater. The climate control had a temperature selector and it worked perfectly for a year, less so for another and the rest it was selectively working down to not working now.
Exciting is out, practical is back in. Although to be fair to the seat car it was also very practical. More space than the Astra estate which was of the old shape that was nearer the boxiness of a volvo estate than the curves of modern Astra estates.
Now it is hard to choose a car because there's no overriding function or feature we're looking for. The seat was chosen for more capacity, a bit of luxury features (now almost universal features) and a bit more punch / handling. This time capacity is good but we aren't fixed by it (a smaller car could just as well work, set just change the way we do things like take less kit ). Not too bothered by performance because almost all cars will do what we want it for. Even tiny engined cars carry cruise motorways at 70mph these days.
Vans too can handle motorways and are increasingly becoming easier / nicer to drive.
No, our issue is no single feature is important to us. Cars are a tool to do what we want to do not a hobby. I wish I was like Janne with a real petrolhead's take on cars. It would be easy to choose and find a good car for us.
I've been talking about a new vehicle on this forum for possibly a year or two. That's how long we've been talking about it without any clear direction. Recently, a better / more secure job, things have meant our budget can be stretcged but that isn't fixed. £4000 to £5000 is our budget but we could go to £9000 for a car or £13,000 for the right van but only if something grabbed us. That's not happening.
Looking for the vehicle for over a year has been at most a half hour drop into a couple of dealerships. Sure we get all excited about a £40k citreon spacetourer van based mpv with all the bells and whistles. Not going to afford it and everything else is uninteresting.
Did the longest car search for 5 years in May. An hour round two dealerships or more! Looked at kia cars and a new style ceed estate. Looked dull but decent. Apart from it being outside mucky as if it had been well used, unable to start the engine despite it having a battery pack attached when we turned up and the alarm went off if you looked at it from a different angle or too close.
Then our will to continue sapped away and we haven't been able to look since.
Meanwhile I have detected a change in the feel of gear changes (in my near constant paranoia our car is about to fail that starts a year after buying it)l. Hard to say what it is just a noise I hear but don't register fully when I change gears occasionally accompanied by an almost clunky grind feeling like the last bit of a gear change it "falls" into the the gear selection. I'm the only one to notice it and it happens at motorway speed. L
It does not happen of course, just my inbuilt car replacement clock alarm going off!
So if any petrol head on here can tell me what is a good vehicle to go for (preferably within hour and half drive if Lancaster, UK)... Well I'll probably believe you and buy it.
