Advice picking a new car

ahoudet said:
In terms of reliability, they've come a long way... Still a lot to do for after sales though.

I haven't had to wait for more than three days for my Alfa parts and the parts manager at Arnold Chatz in Hyde Park is great.

I'd highly recommend the Hyde Park branch but will never set foot in the Fourways one again, although it's 5 mins away
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I was looking at Arnold Chatz in Hyde Park, everyone recommends them to me.
 
XPD said:
But why are you paying so much?
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It's the maintenance plan that adds approx R20K :( I'll call a dealer and try get a service cost breakdown to compare.

You mention having adequate power, how many people do you usually drive with?
 
MikyMouse said:
I agree that is a concern, I'm still going to give it a test drive though so that I can compare it to the UP
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I'd recommend that. Try everything before deciding because you'll most likely live with it for a good few years.

Saw the facelift 500 convertible yesterday in red. Looked great :)
 
MikyMouse said:
I agree that is a concern, I'm still going to give it a test drive though so that I can compare it to the UP
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I don't know but the 500 just seems more special to me. Like your special child you know, the one that doesn't do well at school you suspect he might be a little emo but he's still your favourite.
 
ahoudet said:
I'd recommend that. Try everything before deciding because you'll most likely live with it for a good few years.

Saw the facelift 500 convertible yesterday in red. Looked great :)
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Agreed. At the moment I think that they are both nice cars. On the plus side the 500 has Bluetooth, aux and USB whereas the VW's one is a mystery to me (some dealers say that it's a disaster, others recommend a 3rd party device, others want to offer me another VW radio). The other thing is that the Fiat has a more powerful engine on paper (but car's don't drive on paper). I have to agree that Fiat is a bit of unknown territory, whereas VW is well established and tried and tested.
 
PS: I really want to like the VW, the power is my only real concern. But I'll go for another test drive today and see
 
MikyMouse said:
PS: I really want to like the VW, the power is my only real concern. But I'll go for another test drive today and see
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Look if that little 0.9 TwinAir Turbo is the 77kW version or you can get that for similar cash than by the power of Moses I would be spinning out of the Fiat dealership tooo-day. If it was between that and the UP.
 
Vegeta said:
Look if that little 0.9 TwinAir Turbo is the 77kW version or you can get that for similar cash than by the power of Moses I would be spinning out of the Fiat dealership tooo-day. If it was between that and the UP.
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The 0.9 TwinAir Turbo is the 62.6kw vs the Up's 55kw and it has 145Nm vs 95Nm - but I understand that car's don't drive on paper. It's also 2sec faster to 100
 
MikyMouse said:
The 0.9 TwinAir Turbo is the 62.6kw vs the Up's 55kw and it has 145Nm vs 95Nm - but I understand that car's don't drive on paper. It's also 2sec faster to 100
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Did you look at the Mazda 2? For R198k it comes with 82kW if i'm not mistaken. It's japanese, reliable, skyactiv so light on fuel and sensible like the VW. Except not a "popular" brand with atm bombers for example, it's also bigger(polo sized vs UP size). No turbo to worry about maintenance wise.

82kW = more wheelspin on the dealership tiles on your way out.
And for 12k more you can get that beautiful 7" BMW style infotainment system and leather bits here and there.
 
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Vegeta said:
Did you look at the Mazda 2? For R198k it comes with 82kW if i'm not mistaken. It's japanese, reliable, skyactiv so light on fuel and sensible like the VW. Except not a "popular" brand with atm bombers for example, it's also bigger(polo sized vs UP size). No turbo to worry about maintenance wise.

82kW = more wheelspin on the dealership tiles on your way out.
And for 12k more you can get that beautiful 7" BMW style infotainment system and leather bits here and there.
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I did have a quick look but was concerned by the few dealerships that are around. Also as soon as you add the maintenance plan it goes to R220k

New Ford Figo 1.5?
 
MikyMouse said:
I did have a quick look but was concerned by the few dealerships that are around. Also as soon as you add the maintenance plan it goes to R220k

New Ford Figo 1.5?
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It comes with a 3Year unlimited km service & maintance plan. I wouldn't let the few dealerships put me off Japanese cars are easy to work on and parts are easily obtained. They seperated from Ford so dealerships are starting to sprout up again now from scratch. Our local Ford still services, maintains and honours the warrenties even though there's also a local Mazda so i'm not sure if it's like that everywhere.
The Fiesta is in the same class but the Figo is a class below.

I'm actually surprised that few dealerships would be an issue since you have the Fiat as an option.
 
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Vegeta said:
It comes with a 3Year unlimited km service & maintance plan. I wouldn't let the few dealerships put me off Japanese cars are easy to work on and parts are easily obtained. They seperated from Ford so dealerships are starting to sprout up again now from scratch.
The Fiesta is in the same class but the Figo is a class below.

I'm actually surprised that few dealerships would be an issue since you have the Fiat as an option.
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I think it's only a service plan - maintenance is extra
 
MikyMouse said:
I did have a quick look but was concerned by the few dealerships that are around. Also as soon as you add the maintenance plan it goes to R220k

New Ford Figo 1.5?
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You keep harping on about this maintenance plan? Why is that? Do you want to pay for services in interest or what? Go with a service plan and warranty, save yourself the 20K and just pay for the services - you're buying a new car, you don't have to stres about timing belt services or the like. Heck - keep the car for 5years, do an average of 15 000km per year, and you're still not doing any big services.

The normal services are like R2k per service, with big ones being +/-R5k.
Go for yearly services:
Year 1:R2k
Year 2:R5k
Year 3:R2k
Year 4:R5k
Year 5:R2k

16k total, so you've saved 4k off the bat, you get to use that money in the meantime and you're not paying interest on it. Not sure what your reasoning is for wanting it in the first place.
 
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