My wife has just finished paying off the Sirion and we did wonder if it was worth buying a new car or not, they seem far more expensive than late 2008 when she got the Sirion.
To get something on a similar level it is looking like £10-11k as opposed to the £8.3k she got the Daihatsu for. She is only doing 7000 miles a year now, mainly local with the occasional run to Norfolk so its not like she is piling on the miles.
I also wondered what credit was like right now, the APR on the car loan was 10.9% in '08, is it less or more now on average?
She wants to have a look about incase there is something around she really likes but to be honest, the Sirion has just done 45k and is running perfectly so I wonder if I should steer her clear of looking at the shiny new stuff as Im sure she could talk herself into a new car given the chance.
The only car that really jumps out at me is the Picanto, it seems to tick all her boxes as she will only drive far eastern stuff and only a proper autobox.
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You could look at a Qashqai Stu. Some women find them a bit wide mind.
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Why take on debt if your health's not that good?
She'll only drive far eastern stuff presumably for reasons of longevity/reliability. The Sirion is likely to be good for another six years at least.
Unless you need something bigger just run the flippin thing into the ground.
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>>Why take on debt if your health's not that good? <<
I dont pay the finance so that its mostly irrelevant, we both fund our own cars, hence I drive an old car and she drives a much newer one :-)
We dont have a mortgage, car finance is the only debt we have ordinarily so its not an especially big burden, we are always conservative with what we can assume we can afford, all our financial decisions are based on a potential 40% drop in income no matter what.
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My suggestion would be to spend a bit of time and money in the spring on the Sirion, serious underbody hot wash, full brake strip clean lubricate fully plus paint calipers and full brake fluid change, gearbox oil change, plus its normal maintenance, then a seriously good waxoyling, inside the usual panels as well as full underbody.
Then i'd run that car till it dies, which i suspect with good regular servicing will be many years away, i get the impression that these could be as long lived as the excellent Toyota Starlet one of which resides round the corner and still looks and runs like it just left the showroom.
Nice feeling paying no interest to anyone, addictive almost.
My tuppence anyway..;)
Ah Bromptons as tight as i am..;)...i reckon that Sirion will make 20 years if looked after.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Tue 11 Dec 12 at 20:30
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I did have the keep it thought, that is my direction of travel, but the wifes mother enquired when she was getting a new car which set off questions about what she could replace it with, if she was going to. Gotta love in-laws :-)
GB, all the fluids get fresh on time in this house, the brake fluid is only 6 months old, we follow servicing schedules to the letter, which is a pain when the coolant/brake fluid changes dont occur when oil changes are due, but we still do it when its due.
Autobox oil isnt due until 5 years on these and its changing smoothly so Im sure it will survive another 12 months.
I thought the consensus would be keep it, just wanted to check as the wife is attracted to shiny objects on occasion and in the end, it is her hard earned money, I dont have to pay a penny whether she keeps it or not :-)
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Get a new one.
Not had any laughs from this site for a while.
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'sup to her really innit. She pays for it, she can do whatever rocks her boat.
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Well serviced excellent, just a waxoyling exercise then, and splosh a tub of Oilrag's favourite Castrol CL grease on those brake pipes and handbrake cables..;)
Outlaws? dangerous creatures those, best kept at arms length.
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>> Outlaws? dangerous creatures those, best kept at arms length.
Mine are dead.
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>>Outlaws? dangerous creatures those, best kept at arms length. <<
To my wifes credit she did exclaim " Ive only just finished paying for the last one ", but it then did sow the seeds of doubt, she is totally non-mechanical so the idea of total reliability is all important to her.
She did say a year ago that when she finishes paying off her car she will finance one for me if I want, but Im too proud to agree, plus the Charade is running so well id be a fool to part with it and I have been too foolish with cars for too long!
Last edited by: FoR on Tue 11 Dec 12 at 20:49
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Ah well, now then, new information re the finance offer ! Man ( woman ) maths opportunity knocks Stu. As in, she gives you her old car and you chop your old one in as the deposit on her new one. Got to be worth a punt...
;-)
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Yes but no. Her car does 15 mpg less than mine, not much of an issue if you do 7k a year like her but I will easily top 17k this year in mine so makes little sense for me. I actually like driving my car more too.
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My outlaws never keep any car beyond 3 years, and quite often they change some way before that.
It brings me much pleasure when they keep asking about changing the Sharan to tell them we are going to "hang on to it" for a bit longer. I think they hate their daughter driving a 7 year old car especially when I get a new one
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>> It brings me much pleasure when they keep asking about changing the Sharan to tell
>> them we are going to "hang on to it" for a bit longer. I think
>> they hate their daughter driving a 7 year old car especially when I get a
>> new one
>>
But they don't hate the fact they're flushing money down the drain buying a new car every three years. Mmm...
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>> But they don't hate the fact they're flushing money down the drain buying a new
>> car every three years. Mmm...
>>
Very odd attitudes to money. Cars are always the highest spec they can buy, but as the number of grandchildren has risen the xmas gifts have fallen....i.e. same budget just stretched further
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>> Then i'd run that car till it dies, which i suspect with good regular servicing
>> will be many years away, i get the impression that these could be as long
>> lived as the excellent Toyota Starlet one of which resides round the corner and still
>> looks and runs like it just left the showroom.
>>
My thoughts entirely. Daihatsus have a life expectancy on a par with that of the Galapagos giant tortoise.
My MiL has an old shape Cuore 5-door auto which I advised her on buying over a decade ago. All it ever does is potter around the shops and sit on her drive in all weathers. Once in a blue moon it gets serviced and it gets an Italian tuneup in the shape of a belt down the A40 when I'm over there.
Total of problems encountered in all that time is one failed battery. Still runs like a sewing machine, starts first turn every time, everything works, there's not a hint of corrosion anywhere on it and nothing's broken or dropped off.
If they thrive on neglect like that, god alone knows how long they'd last with care. I have to say that the build quality of cars out of that Daihatsu factory in Kobe is second to none. While it is a cheap small car and certainly slightly "tinny", the thing oozes care in production in every regard, even down to the cable routing under the bonnet.
There's a very good reason why Daihatsu consistantly topped the reliability indices for all the time they were in business over here.
Footnote: The old Cuore got recycled as the Trevis in the rest of Europe, gaining a chrome grille, round headlamps and a two-tone paint scheme. Every time I see one, I think "That's what Alec Issigonis would have made if he'd still been around and been given the task of designing a Mini replacement."
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Why did Diahatsu drop the fourtrak? It seemed to have a great following amongst those in the know, and was a brilliant no nonsense workhorse.
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Doesnt matter now, the exchange rate killed off imports sadly - if it hadnt my wife may well be in a new Sirion.
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Still a heck of a lot of aging Ferozas (SportTraks) running around these parts.
I think they're immortal.
One of my colleagues in Kuala Lumpur drives a Perodua Kembara, a.k.a. a Daihatsu Terios and gave me a demo while I was over there last.
It was one of the first ones made and as the Perodua factory wasn't ready in time for the launch, is actually an honest-to-god Kobe-built Daihatsu with a hasty rebadging job.
It's got considerably over 150,000kms on it and still sounds like it's new.
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>>plus paint calipers
Why would anyone need to do that?
I've seen plenty of calipers with stuck and corroded pistons, but, never with any significant corrosion to the body of the caliper itself.
I'm all in favour of doing necessary maintenance work properly, but, I don't see any benefit in invented work. The introduction to the workshop manuals for AEC trucks used to specifically warn against non-necessary work - probably on the basis of the the risk of a mistake or damage versus no real reward.
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>> "Is now a good time to change car?"
To which the answer is always surely yes! :)
Seriously, I think we both know that the best thing to do with any car is hold onto it for a great many years, extracting maximum value from the initial purchase cost, regardless of present market conditions and available finance deals.
But where's the fun in that?
If you really have to swap the Sirion, how about looking at the Hyundai i10 1.2 auto. My Mum has one and she's very happy with it. Not my kind of car, but it certainly does the job well enough.
If you drop on a brand new one already in stock (like my Mum did), then they can be had for less than £9k and on your drive way quicker than you can say "man maths".
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>> But where's the fun in that?
Have to say oilburner, is there a lot of fun changing from a Sirion to a Hyundai i10?
Unless you like the process of buying and selling.
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>> Unless you like the process of buying and selling.
>>
As it happens, I do. Strange as I am! There's that, and change for changes sake. There's the itchy feet that come along once every few months, and one boring motor has to make way for another one. Or worse yet, one decent motor is chucked out for a heap. I've been there too many times. I know I'm not the only one guilty of this madness!
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>>how about looking at the Hyundai i10 1.2 auto <<
She drove one before we got the Sirion and hated it, couldnt get on with the steering feel or the hard seats.
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Or 29.4 miles to the gallon....my last tankful.
Or 3250 rpm at 70 mph with the transmission buzzing in your ears.
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You just paid the finance off and you want to start again?
7k a year id run that one to the death and save your money. :-)
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Is now a good time to change car? - Runfer D'Hills
