Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2021 11:00:28 GMT
Still umming and ahhing here about this dilemma. I think I might have a plan emerging. Hand back the Civic after August, and at that point purchase a manual Ford Focus 1.6 hatch (for Group 10 or below insurance, depending on spec), budget up to £2500, with a view to the boy practicing/learning in it, and the car passing to his ownership when he's passed. In the meantime, it would serve as perfectly adequate family transport for the now very occasional trips the Leaf can't do. Then, if the need arises during this period for something bigger all of a sudden for a specific short term job, rent something. Or, if Mrs A objects to driving manual and needs to do something the Leaf can't (vanishingly unlikely), then also rent something. Then, once the car is "his", consider buying a large auto hatch/estate again for my use, probably something older and not financed, like the Mondeo 2.3s I was looking at. Thus allowing an upgrade to the Leaf a further year or two down the line to a more modern, longer range EV.
The only thing I don't like about dropping to two cars between 3 people is potentially someone losing NCB history. Which probably isn't a big enough disincentive to the plan above, given it'll save me about £100 a month over current expenditure, roughly.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,427 
|
Post by WDB on Mar 16, 2021 11:06:24 GMT
I don’t see how ‘no-claims discount’ is more than an illusion anyway, as is a ‘protected’ one. Insurers assess premiums on minutely calculated risk profiles, and anything they appear to give with one hand they will take away with the other.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2021 11:11:17 GMT
Ours are protected, but you're right, I don't really know the imapct of it on our premiums in any case. It's probably best to ignore the "issue", but, you know, old habits and feelings die hard. Like how some people are resistant to EVs.  |
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Mar 16, 2021 12:48:46 GMT
Wouldn't worry about it Al. I had a company car for 9 years and therefore didn't have my own insurance policy. All I needed to get get full NCB rights when I went back to private motoring was a confirmation from my employers insurers that I was in fact and provably, a driving God.
😎
|
|
bpg
Full Member
Posts: 2,812
|
Post by bpg on Mar 17, 2021 7:47:17 GMT
The cost of running a car is starting to rise by more than inflation. I see people in the UK reporting jumps in their insurance, we did not see this here, prices remained the same or slightly lower. Fuel on the other hand is making 'healthy gains', diesel is 10.5% higher than pre-covid, petrol up 12%. I also noticed the prices in the supermarkets are jumping too. Payback time.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2021 13:42:59 GMT
Just found this rather amusing resource for cheap cars: not2grand.co.uk/Excellent read. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2021 12:38:32 GMT
I have just twigged that the MkIV Ford Mondeo can be had at a very reasonable Group 12 insurance level. It applies to the pre-facelift 1.6 petrol in Edge trim. OK< that's the base spec but you still get AC and a heated windscreen, so it's not exactly slumming it. There are very few of them about, but most seem to be private sales, and I doubt it was a fleet engine choice ever, so likely to be owned by private buyers. I think it might fit in very well with the plan I outlined last week. 106bhp, but who cares, I'd barely ever use it and you don't want to be giving too much power to a teenager.
The later 1.6 EcoBoost is a much higher insurance group, as you'd expect having 158bhp, as are the older 1.8s and 2.0s.
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Mar 22, 2021 12:40:46 GMT
Hard to go wrong with a Mondeo.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2021 12:49:42 GMT
I can try. If anyone can, I can.
Mind you the S-reg 1.8LX estate I had once was easily the most reliable car I ever owned, and infact, probably, all round, the absolute best I've ever owned. And storming value for money when I bought it at a year old with 13k on the clock for £7k. Even at 100k miles I shouldn't have got rid. But I just can't help myself. And it's been pretty much downhill ever since.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2021 12:57:04 GMT
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,427
|
Post by WDB on Mar 22, 2021 13:12:41 GMT
Sorry but...
...which Mondeo is the Mk IV? Which one are they selling now? 🤷♂️
There was the 1993 original. Then they gave it the weird fish-lips grille. (Was that II or I.V? Anyway, I had one of those as a loaner for a few weeks in 1998.) Then there was the one that looked like a Xantia. Then the first of several huge, blobby things — I think that’s the one that got bizarrely product-placed into a James Bond film. And I think I could still buy a big, blobby one today but I’ve lost track of the iterations.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2021 13:20:03 GMT
The way I think it goes is the original was MkI, naturally, then the face lift to that shape was called the MkII (this is the one I had, fish lips), then came the MkIII which was the whole new body shape, then came the more angular one which was bigger than a Granada, in 2007, which was facelifted but still referred to as the MKIV after the face lift in 2011, then the current one which is a bit more blobby looking but not too different from the MkIV, which is the MkV. Which is the last Mondeo I think, aren't they discontinuing it? Shame. Bit of symmetry with the Cortina though which ended at MkV. I think the Sierra only got to MkIII.
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Mar 22, 2021 13:21:51 GMT
A Mondeo is a bit like a good portion of fish and chips. Just really good at being very satisfying without any pretensions to grandeur.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,427
|
Post by WDB on Mar 22, 2021 14:08:47 GMT
Did the Sierra ever get to Mk II? It got new lights and a saloon version but the last ones looked much the same as the first from ten years earlier. Similarly, the fish-lips Mondeo had the same body and interior as the original; it was a refresh, not a new model.
(But then a Spitfire Mk IX had most of the same parts as a Mk VIII, so perhaps we’re looking at the nomenclature problem from the wrong end. Or perhaps we should find something more important to worry about.)
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Mar 22, 2021 14:12:50 GMT
There are people who can give you chapter and verse on this sort of stuff. In general though, I find that they are best avoided.
|
|
