Try an Audi A3 (3 or 5 door) or A4 Avant: new or used depending on your budget. Dlesels can be had with DSG or Multitronic (CVT).
Have one of those and perhaps you'll like driving again.
Edited by Avant on 20/06/2009 at 01:34
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Try an Audi A3 (3 or 5 door) or A4 Avant: new or used depending on your budget. Dlesels can be had with DSG or Multitronic (CVT).
I rate Audi cars very highly. A friend has an A4 Avant and is very pleased with it.
I test drove an A3 in 2006 when I bought my present car (A BMW 3 series Touring). Lovely car. Fantastic DSG gearbox. Shame that it was too small for my needs.
An A4 would be ideal if it were a hatchback. I need more practicality from a car than a boot offers. That is why I want a large-ish hatchback. Estate cars are even more practical, but there are three stopping factors:
1) They all carry a hefty premium to buy over a saloon (typically £1000 extra),
2) I don't actually need so much space - just a hatchback
3) They are ugly - they all remind me of a hearse!
Having said that, the front runner has to be an A4 Avant, I suppose. Just to confirm, though....does the 2 litre diesel come with a DSG gearbox, or one of those CVT "lackey-band" gearboxes? (Not really happy with a CVT, to be honest)
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The A4 comes with a Multitronic (CVT) gearbox and, according to various forums, is very unreliable.
How about a Skoda Octavia hatchback? They come in diesel with the DSG gearbox.
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?Is this not a case of the tail wagging the dog??
In simple terms no. While the idiots who will use the dealers time and expertise before buying elsewhere for the sake of £50 or so do exist, they are in the minority. When spending that kind of money, most people will want to deal with someone fairly close to home if possible. Also, MOST people coming into a showroom generally either want to buy a car now, or are interested in seeing what is available for when they buy in the future. The first is a potential sale now, and the second is an opportunity to sow seeds for the future. The few idiots are unfortunately a fact of life in any customer service environment.
However, the service provided by main dealers is imho often very poor (and I say this having briefly worked for one in the past, as well as from a customer perspective), and it is this poor service that has led to people?s attitudes to main dealers, rather than the other way round. A case in point, I recently was considering changing car. Although financially not the smartest move, I fancied a relatively inexpensive new car, and after some web-based research both on the cars themselves, and deals available narrowed my choice down to three cars, which I then test-drove.
At the end of this process, I decided I quite fancied a Kia Rio (not the most exciting car in the world I know, but I want a simple tool to do a job). Sat down with a local-ish dealer to try and negotiate a deal. If he?d have offered a deal within a couple of hundred quid of the best main dealer (not broker) quotes I?d received, I was ready to buy the car there and then. However, his attitude was basically ?this is list price, take it or leave it?. Unsurprisingly, I walked away, and was so put off by the whole experience I ended up not buying a car at all.
The poor relationships between dealers and customers is a situation caused mainly by dealers, and it is primarily their responsibility to sort this out. The rise of the internet is a symptom of this (and NOT the cause of subsequent poor service). As others have said, there is now a significant (and I suspect growing) group of customers who would prefer to use a broker rather than a main dealer, in some cases simply to avoid having to deal with the latter. Dealers need to wake up for that , rather than ?blaming? internet sales.
I should as an honourable exception however point out my local Skoda dealer, Elmside Garage (in Beckenham, Kent). They were excellent when we were looking at the Fabia, and I would have happily bought from them. Unfortunately, for reasons unfathomable to me, my wife couldn?t get on with the car, so we had to pass on that
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The A4 comes with a Multitronic (CVT) gearbox and according to various forums is very unreliable. How about a Skoda Octavia hatchback? They come in diesel with the DSG gearbox.
Thanks for the tip. It is something worth researching further when the time comes.
I love these forums - other drivers are really helpful with advice.
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When I'd posted above I realised I'd forgotten to mention the 3-series Touring - but then I see that's what you've got now. Sounds like just what you need, but maybe you want a change. I had several long drives in 320d's but couldn't find a comfortabe driving position - but that's just me. Others rave about them.
There's also the VW Golf Plus and Golf estate (which like the A4 Avant doesn't look van-like): you can have diesel with DSG on these. I had an estate and loved it, and would still have it if I hadn't got a good deal on a 170 bhp Octavia TDI. The Golf hatch can have this engine, but for some reason not the Plus or the estate.
Before that I had an A4 Avant with Multitronic - never a problem although I don't know how reliable they are at high mileages.
The Mercedes B-class would also fit your needs, but I had one of those too and wouldn't recommend a diesel automatic - the droning noise was appalling. There's a thread about this car running at the moment.
Edited by Avant on 20/06/2009 at 18:43
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The 3 series is OK, but not "me". I am a poor driver, to be honest, and out of my depth in the car. Also, I don't like the BMW image. I know that I should not let it bother me, but it does. (Great engines, though).
I'd never considered a Golf Plus. That IS a an interesting suggestion. I'll have to find out more about that - thanks! The Octavia is a seriously talented car as well, having checked out "What Car?"
Shame about Multitronic, it doesn't seem to like high mileages - and I intend to keep my next car to 100k miles.
Being an old boy (in my fifties), I might just do what SWMBO keeps urging and settle for a smaller car anyway, in which case the Audi A3 comes back into consideration as well.
Come to think of it a smaller car that ticks all the boxes may be a better option than a larger car which has some key "desirables" missing.
It's all a case of trying to find as good a fit as possible. For most of us there is no "perfect car" out there.
This forum has been a really valuable resource for picking up useful advice. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.
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It's not difficult to provide good customer service...but it has to have the commitment from the shopfloor and the management
John Lewis manage it in the dept store field, Amazon manage it for internet shopping
...and First Direct manage it in banking...so why can't many more car dealers?
To someone like me, the experience of walking into a car show room is akin to arranging some double glazing. I'm expecting 'hard sell', and 'tactics' (and to a minor degree I know about cars)...it's no wonder that people that are clueless about cars hate the experience. The system is so flawed, that when I post the next bit, I have no doubt some of you might laugh...but i'd like openness, honesty and trust to come into the equation, after all i'm spending a huge chunk of my money...how about posting the price you're willing to sell it at, rather than leave it to me to try to haggle it down, which to some/many = confrontation...i'm the customer and I don't like doing that. It's no wonder internet sites are becoming more popular, the discount is already sorted and published...you just e-mail or ring... and that's what you pay.
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...how about posting the price you're willing to sell it at, rather than leave it to me to try to haggle it down...
It's what's known as a 'disorderly market' and has ever been thus.
Put another way: horse trading on four wheels instead of four legs.
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