Greyhound friendly car?

[bertiesmum]

Hey all, it looks like glenns dad is
going to hire me full time, which means I shall be hopefully getting a newer car.
My current car is a 1997 fiesta and poor
bert has to squish up in the back and I need
to find a car that is:
*priced up to £5000
*isn't a huge engine as insurance is a lot
for my fiesta!
*easy for bert to get into and big
enough for him to get comfy
*safe!
*must have power steering as fiesta doesn't!

In guessing I will need either a 4X4 or an estate but my
family don't really know anything about
them as they have micras!!
It's going to be a while until I can get it
but some ideas would be great :-)
thanks!!

[nicky]

Craig said he'd have a look and let you know
Nicky x

[bertiesmum]

Thanks!! My dad wants me to get a micra, but they are not practical and I don't want one! :-)

[Ian]

What about a Focus estate - maybe a diesel for better fuel economy? If you go estate premiums are lower because they think you aren't going to try racing in them. I went from a Peugeot 407 Saloon 2 litre diesel to a 2.2 litre Mondeo Estate which is alot more powerful, yet the premium for insurance remained unchanged. Emma has the current Focus model with a 1.8 diesel, and it's been pretty good. Does about 500 miles on a tank.

[stephanie]

I'll second what Mark suggested. We are looking into getting a new car and a Ford Focus Estate has been top of our list. We've been looking at a 1.6 Zetec which is good economically and insurance wise as its a smaller engine. I had a ford focus hatchback a couple of years ago and it was a fantastic car. Really loved it (Until it met a barrier on the M4 - oops!)Or you could try a Volvo. I had a Volvo V40 after the focus and that was an excellent car.
Stephanie

[bertiesmum]

Cool, my poor car is getting on a bit now, its done 105,000 miles bless it! The car has had it's
faults though such as new watermpump
clip, new cam belt, new starter motor which hasn't cost
much but is a pain, event after all of these faults i will truly miss the car! I guess it's cos it's my first!

I was looking into a focus, didn't think about a focus estate, haven't seen one before to be honest! I shall look into that and check the insurance :-) is the tax a lot on them? And would
you recomend diesel or petrol?

Thanks everyone ;D

[alison]

You could always have mine ...........

[bertiesmum]

How is your car Alison? I've still got to get brakes (mum got them for my birthday!) a wishbone ( what ever that is!) and soon a new clutch (can see why I want to get rid of it now!)

[Ian]

Mar 15, 2010 22:29:19 GMT bertiesmum said:

I was looking into a focus, didn't think about a focus estate, haven't seen one before to be honest! I shall look into that and check the insurance :-) is the tax a lot on them? And would
you recomend diesel or petrol?

Thanks everyone ;D

I always go diesel, should be cheaper to run and lower emissions. The only negative is that despite diesel being a cleaner fuel I believe the government charge more tax per litre, hence it's generally always a bit more expensive than petrol. Still get more miles per gallon though.

Also Steph mentioned the Volvo V40, that's certainly worth a look as well, not sure what servicing is like on Volvos though. I had an S plate V40 as a company car for some time, that was a 1.8 petrol, it was well built and went round bends well LOL! Back in those days us guys who had them for company cars used to joke about improving Volvos credibility. One guy wrote one off his within weeks of getting it, another got a speeding ticket for doing 90mph, and it's the only car I've ever been stopped by the Police in...LOL!

[bertiesmum]

What about a Nissan note? The boot looked quite big (someone was driving one infront of
me earlier!) the engine is a 1.4 so not expensive....I just don't have a clue!!! :-)

[nicky]

I changed my car just after Christmas - hubby's idea not mine.
I had a Kia Picanto which I loved but we couldn't drive to Suffolk in it and Betty couldn't get into Colin's car easily. We were also putting a lot of miles on Colins so we looked for something bigger for me, but not too big - I didn't want an estate (I had trouble parking a small car!!!).
I have now got a Renault Modus which is big enough for Betty and us to drive to Suffolk comfortably and Melissa can also fit in too. Its a 1600 engine (my previous car was 1100).
I have to admit I only looked at this car because I liked the colour - its Cadbury purple - a very girly thing.

Not sure if this helps Cass, but don't make a rush decision. Take your time and look at different cars and try them out. You'll find the right one for you and remember your insurance goes down when you are 21 (or old like me :lol)
Nicky xx

[andyips]

We have a Volvo estate for the greyhounds. Great car. However, i also have an automatic Hyundai I10. Again a fantastic little car, the perfect city/town car, and surprisingly quite spacious. With the back seats down you can easily get two greyhounds in there.

[Ian]

Mar 16, 2010 15:17:39 GMT bertiesmum said:

What about a Nissan note? The boot looked quite big (someone was driving one infront of
me earlier!) the engine is a 1.4 so not expensive....I just don't have a clue!!! :-)

I think the Note is quite new so might not be within your price range yet. The father in law had one as a lone car for a while, he didn't get on with it, but he's always tended to drive larger cars. So I wouldn't read too much into that. We looked at then when we were changing any car, along with loads of others, but we kept coming back the Focus as the most practical, in terms of size and ease of getting it serviced.

[bertiesmum]

Nicky I have to admit I did fall in love with your car when I saw it! It's Girly yet practical!
I just didn't know what brand or model it was :-) the reason I'm looking now
is so i can look at loads ready for when I can buy one :-)

[penny's shell]

Hi cassie
I don't really know much about cars but have always driven small cars. My last car was a ford fiesta which I loved driving but really wasn't practical for travelling with penny. Anyway just before Christmas Someone went into me in the snow and my poor fiesta was written off.
I was really reluctant to get a large car but knew that it was the best option for penny. I now have a Peugeot 306 estate. Although it's an estate becuase the 306 is a small car the estate doesn't seem as large as some other estate cars are. Penny is almost as happy in the boot of my Peugeot as she is in johns landrover (she has loads of space in that) and I feel so much happier knowing that she has space to lie down and is just safer than when I had to put the seats of the fiesta down to get her in there.
Also I am surprised at how happy I have been driving a larger car (although I think that after driving johns landy anything will seem small compared to that lol).
As I said I don't really know much about cars but am pleased with what I now have and my insurance didn't go up that much despite having got a larger engine ( went from 1.1 to 1.6) and it being a newer car and worth more money.
Hope you end up finding what you want.
Shell