I need a second car following an office relocation (budget up to 8K). Three questions;
1) Is there a site where I can see in advance what insurance groups cars are normally allocated to? As I may have to re-start with no NCB, iinsurance will be a significant cost (given my inner-London, no-garage address)
2) The car will have lots of short start-stop runs from cold, probably averaging 50 miles per day. Is a petrol or a diesel engine better able to cope with that sort of (ab)use?
3) I'm 6' 5" tall, with a dodgy back. The Skoda Fabia and the C2 seem pretty good for leg room (I'm not worried about room in the back), the Fiesta reasonably so, but I don't like the lack of a footrest. Yaris seemed a bit cramped, and comments on the ride in the Jazz puts me off. Any other ideas? I'm happy to buy up to 1 year old - but need to keep the running costs low.
Any help appreciated.
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re (1) Try:
www.tinyurl.com/pf16
re (2) and (3) Forums experts just at lunch at the moment and will be along shortly.
DVD
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Tbaks DVD - I have an image of hundreds of experts all sharing a long communal lunch somewhere.........
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How about a Fiat Panda. Has excellent write ups, is tall, and is group 1 insurance (2 for the highly acclaimed diesel)?
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Hadn't really thought about the Panda after bad 'Which' write-ups in the past, and my (now outdated?) prejudices about Iatlian cars (reliability, depreciation, need to have long arms and short legs...). But perhaps I should take another look....
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Its worth a look. They come in at £6000 aswell. It won car of the year and every report on it Ive seen likes it!
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Ive seen pre-registered "53" plate Fiat Stilo 1.2 Active 3 doors on sale at local Fiat main dealers for £7995 and as low as 7.5k on the web. Its got loads of leg and headroom and is nicely styled and well finished. Ive just ordered a Stilo 1.9 JTD Dynamic from Jamjar and after various test drives I chose the best drivers car for such a low price.
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sounds a good price for the Fiat - though I'd be a bit concerned that low and sporty might equal a rather hard ride. Is the one you've ordered a 3 door, and if so how would you describe the ride quality?
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