Bored of cars yet?

[imc]

I've been in Lancashire for the last week, seeing in the new year with my parents and a brother, and staying until a cousin from the US came for a visit, and other brother with his wife and child appeared also

Comments

[juggzy]

I was thinking about this on the bus this morning - see, everyone working full time for you!

OK, there's one level where you can sort of jokingly say that the car you need will come to you. On a more rational level, it's actually very common for people to do the research you have done, isolate the crite ria that they think are the most important to them, canvas opinion, narrow the target down to a few options, and then go for another car entirely that 'just turns up'.

What's actually going on here is this, I think: By doing the research and thinking about it a lot, you're probably the expert now, among your group of friends, on the criteria that you think you should judge by, and on the cars that fit that criteria (This expertise will disappear in a few months apart from a few broad brush strokes of opinion, but you'll always know how to recreate it next time you need to think about a car). And so, you have made sensible choices by the criteria that you have conciously chosen to honour, and you've internalised those criteria so that you can spot a car that sort-of fits them a mile away.

However, down in your subconscious, things are grinding away, and there's probably a criteria that is important to you, such as being a little bit more spacious, for example, or (for some people - I'm not saying this is you) maybe being gadgety, or whatever. And then another car comes along and it fits most of the concious criteria, but it also fits an unconcious criteria, and you are somehow taken by it.

The Hyundai fits, as I understand it: Japanese, VfM by virtue of age and low mileage (it's probably an ex-demo car, so look up the advantages and disavantages of those which are, basically, low mileage and being continually looked after by the garage, but perhaps not being treated that well by the people who've driven it) but there's something else that makes it stand out for you - figure that out, and then figure out if you rationally can add that criteria into the mix.

As to car tax, I feel that it probably is going to go up - although whether it will or not is a political thing. Certainly tax going up makes the green lobby happy, it's hard to argue against it and while it is regressive, it really only hits the middle classes as those undeserving poor who drive cars are merely being feckless and we're not supposed to take account of them because they should be on their bikes.

PS I think you want the Hyundai, and by this point, your instincts should be good.

[buzzy_bee]

FWIW, Hyundai are Korean, but they do have a good reputation compared to, for example, Daewoo. I'm probably biased against them though, both my admin assistant and my former in-laws have Daewoos.

[imc]

You didn't have to work full time, you could just say "yes, buy it!". :-)

But I appreciate your thoughts, and I think you make a lot of sense. The Hyundai is VfM because you're not paying for the badge on the front, but by the same token there don't seem to be many people around who can say "oh yes, I've had one, they're really reliable cars." Though, as it happens, my next door neighbour has a Hyundai i10 (but I've never asked her if she likes it).

Apparently this year's model beats the tax band, but I can't afford a new one. On the other hand, logic says that whatever the difference is (currently £60) plus the theoretical saving on fuel (currently about £12 per 1000 miles) will take a very long time to compensate for the 1.5K discount I'm getting by buying this one as opposed to a diesel Corsa or the megabucks I save by not buying a new one.