Sister bought a car!!

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 15:49
Sister bought a car!! - stunorthants26
Having taken the advice about the Pinin, my sister and I dropped into a Suzuki dealer today and she fell for a black 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara 1600 3dr in black. Its done 44k with full history and with 6 months tax, cambelt service and a CD player fitted, she paid £4700 - is this a good price?

The dealer service costs seemed very reasonable with even the cambelt service only coming in at £421 and no other services coming in at more than £200. I thought that sounded reasonable for a 4x4.

Please tell me these cars are reliable?
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 16:49
Sister bought a car!! - GregSwain
Suzukis tend to be reliable, but parts prices are sometimes a bit steep (£50-odd for a ball-joint for an old shape Swift if i remember). Lots of parts are only available through main dealers as well. Still see a lot of old Suzuki 4x4s about, so they're obviously long lived.
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 16:50
Sister bought a car!! - Stuartli
See:

www.honestjohn.co.uk/index.php?url=/carbycar/index...m
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 17:45
Sister bought a car!! - nick
, she paid £4700 - is this
a good price?


If you are happy, it's a good price!
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 18:24
Sister bought a car!! - Aprilia
These are pretty tough cars and seem to have a certain 'following'. Parts are expensive, but on the other hand no more than for the Mitsubishi and its a much more straightforward car to work on - any independent will be able to service it. They don't go wrong much either.

Personally I don't like the drive of these 4x4's (rather 'agricultural') but I guess she likes the fashion/image aspect. Price-wise its not a bargain, but a fair price for a historied vehicle from a main dealer. You can't grumble.
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 18:29
Sister bought a car!! - Aprilia
PS - for run of the mill service items these people are pretty good:

www.japarts.co.uk/shop/

Timing belt and tensioner is about £60; job all-in with an independent should be about £200. Its not a complicated engine at all.
Earlier versions suffered with cracked heads, but that would be sorted by 2000MY because I believe they changed the head design.
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Sun 7 Jan 2007 22:01
Sister bought a car!! - stunorthants26
Thanks for the feedback - Im glad ive steered her in the right direction in the end although ive made her promise that she is to keep it for atleast 5 years as I was tearing my hair out to try and find something she liked!

I didnt get the impression that parts were all that expensive atleast compared to the Mitsubishi - the cambelt service is a whole 1/3 cheaper and most of the cost on the Suzuki looked to be labour for the cambelt change itself.

My sister said it doesnt drive aswell as the Pinin, but it had a better feeling of engineering and design ( for instance, the Mitsubishi doesnt have plastic wheelarch covers which on a 4x4 is unforgiveable stupidity of design ). She said the gearchange was light as were all the controls, far lighter than her MGF, and she said it was nice enough to ride in.

She likes the looks and said its very grown up looking in black, plus they seem to be sought after on the used market, most likely because its very good as it gets older whereas you wouldnt want a Freelander and all the associated problems that come with even a moderate age.

Im actually just relieved that I found something for her because I was running out of ideas!

The funniest thing she said - now she can go camping because she can drive on grass - bless her! I didnt have the heart to tell her that the MGF will drive on grass too ( great fun i might add having done it myself ) :-)
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