Complete change of heart - new priorities, new spec me
- Thread starter iaind
- Start date
TBH I get the feeling that it is daily commute which you are bored with not the car as such. An amateur psycologist might say you are just transposing the boredom from the act of driving x miles to work every day onto whatever car you happpen to drive at the time. Over a period of time this shifts over completely to the car and you feel you have to replace it, but as Fox has said this will probably only be temporailry cured by a different car, especially if it is seen just as another "runner". I guess you need to properly and honestly bottom out your reasons at the end of the day.
Associate
Swap it for an ST220? I did exactly this about 6 months ago. Apart from increased fuel costs, other things are about the same price, you get all the toys, a nice sound, decent performance and the swap wont cost you much if you're patient.
I switched a 54 plate TDCi 130 with 65K for a 53 plate ST220 with 85K and the total cost to swap was about £400. The relative conditions of the cars were the same.
I switched a 54 plate TDCi 130 with 65K for a 53 plate ST220 with 85K and the total cost to swap was about £400. The relative conditions of the cars were the same.
Soldato
In your original list, the Mazda 6 stands out, you seem to like your Mondeo, the 6 is the same sort of animal really, and it's supposed to be good.
[TW]Fox;16164465 said:
Not a huge amount really, and I fully understand that anything I buy is going to cost money to run - I'd just hate to spend money getting it up to scratch and then still want to change it anyway. I jst used the next MOT as a milestone - there will probably be a few bits that were advisories this year that will need doing before then.
From a previous post it looks like the bushes would cost less than the 500 quid Ford quoted me, but there's still some niggly things. The drivers seat which is driving me mad is proving impossible to find second hand, so if the ratchet eventually snaps I'll need to buy a brand new one.
Again, it's all part and parcel of running a car, but if I'm wanting a change anyway having to spend that will just frustrate me.
I dont see how doubling the value of my car isnt going to yeild a better car
Was it boredom then that prompted you to change the diesel Toldeo for a perfomace Alfa, after 2 years? Seems a strangely familiar scenarioI hope you don't mind me saying this looks like a classic case of itchy feet which as I said if you left it for a while might well subside when you start to think logically that fixing the bushes on your Mondeo will see you through another couple of years till this happens again.
Pretty much, yep. Wasnt the most sensible upgrade, but it was the same idea! I'd rather scratch my itch for change with something relatively minor like a car, else I might get thoughts about selling me flat
I also wouldnt mind getting back to a petrol - plus I'm well aware that my car is getting to the sort of mileage where injector troubles are more common. While it wouldnt cost as much to sort as some people will tell you, it's still a hassle on a car that I'm still bored with.
That sounds about right to be honest. However, temporarily seems to be about 2-3 years, so I dont really see it as that daft
If the fuel economy was a bit better, I probably would. My budget would buy a ~2006 ST with low mileage
It does appeal in the right spec, although all of them seem to be bottom of the range diesels
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Because your budget isn't sufficient to move you up into the next generation of car. All you are going to end up with is one of the later models of cars in the same generation as the one you own now.
It's a bit like driving a 2001/51 330i Sport and deciding to replace it with a 2004/04 330i Sport or a 2004/04 Merc C320.. Yea its 3 years newer, yea its lower mileage but its exactly the same car in every single respect bar the fact the newer one has a 6 speed box. If that was what you were doing I'd post exactly the same thing - whereas if you were moving to an E90 or the new C, I probably wouldn't.
See my point yet?
The car industry tends to work in 7-8 year year cycles - fundamentally a car built in year 1 of this cycle is the same as a car built in year 7. There will generally be only minor cosmetic differences as most cars get a mid-life refresh, but they are when all is said and done, the same car.
If you want something newer, move into the next generation. If you cannot afford or are unwilling to spend the money to do that, then your car change really is fundamentally pointless.
A Guarantee a Honda Accord is not going to light your fire in ways you never thought possible. It'll be 'oooh this is different' for a few months then you will be EXACTLY where you are now, only several thousand quid worse off.
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Associate
How many miles do you cover a year iaind?
Associate
Because he's bored of it
Soldato
I've only had time to read the first page of this thread.
To be honest I think not having a 330ci because of running costs is a bit mad.
Im on my second 3.0i BMW now and haven't had a single big thing go wrong. Only consumables such as pads, discs.
Granted you will hear horror stories about something major going wrong, but if something major goes wrong an any car its always going to be an expensive job regardless of the badge on the front.
I paid £220 at a local BMW independant for the most expensive service there is. My thermostat wasn't working properly on my new 330ci, so I bought a new one for £43 and spent 4 hours fitting it myself. It took far longer than it should because I'd never done it before but I know for the future and I simply followed an online guide with pretty pictures.
I paid £7.4k for my 330ci sport with 60k miles. To spend that kind of money on something you don't REALLY want would bug me for the whole 2-3 years that I owned it.
To be honest I think not having a 330ci because of running costs is a bit mad.
Im on my second 3.0i BMW now and haven't had a single big thing go wrong. Only consumables such as pads, discs.
Granted you will hear horror stories about something major going wrong, but if something major goes wrong an any car its always going to be an expensive job regardless of the badge on the front.
I paid £220 at a local BMW independant for the most expensive service there is. My thermostat wasn't working properly on my new 330ci, so I bought a new one for £43 and spent 4 hours fitting it myself. It took far longer than it should because I'd never done it before but I know for the future and I simply followed an online guide with pretty pictures.
I paid £7.4k for my 330ci sport with 60k miles. To spend that kind of money on something you don't REALLY want would bug me for the whole 2-3 years that I owned it.
Caporegime
4 hours? How? It's a 45 minute job, and that includes bleeding the cooling system!
I know you said it was your first time, but 4 hours? I just can't see how it would take that long?
[TW]Fox;16165089 said:
By that logic though, replacing a mk3 mondeo with an e46 is also pointless...
About 12k
62k - all my reasons have been repeated ad nauseum above
Soldato
God knows, although that does include having to go and change the part
To be fair, I had no axle stands so used the front alloys on the floor with rubber mats over them to stop the car smashing to the floor if the jack failed, which resulted in me giving them a quick clean while they were off.
I couldn't find the correct Torx socket so decided to try my luck (read: graze every single knuckle) at attempting to undo the 4 bolts without taking the radiator fan off. I read that it could be done but didn't expect it to be that difficult/fiddly. Then.... I found out they had sent me the wrong part, so I went off like a mad man at 5:25 to the local euro car parts depot to change it. Got there just before it closed.
By the time it came back it was dark and I was fiddling around with trying to get the damn thing bolted on on with the use of a terrible inspection lamp.
Next time, it would be a 45 minute job thats for sure.
Replacing a Mondeo with an e46 would not be a sideways step so no, you couldnt say the same thing. Which is my point - uograde or dont bother. An upgrade could be a next gen version of what you have now or it could be a step up a class or whatever, but going sideways is daft.
and tommo you have owned your car for 3 weeks and already the socket set had to come out - is it not a little too soon to be saying how reliable it is? Your Z4 was newer.... if it hasnt cost you anything this time next year you can say that but its very early days so far! If you had not DIY'd that thermostat it would have dropp ed its first 100 quid bill already.
and tommo you have owned your car for 3 weeks and already the socket set had to come out - is it not a little too soon to be saying how reliable it is? Your Z4 was newer.... if it hasnt cost you anything this time next year you can say that but its very early days so far! If you had not DIY'd that thermostat it would have dropp ed its first 100 quid bill already.
I would say unless you replace it with something that is a clear upgrade (including an ST220) I wouldn't really bother.
I know what it's like to get bored of a car and want to change just to have something different, but unless you have a pressing desire for something specific I think it's really not the wisest thing to do. If you 'want' a 330CI and it's something you feel you really want to own and drive then get one, if not and there isn't anything that you can say that about that you can really afford, I'd stick with what you have for a while until you do figure something out.
I know what it's like to get bored of a car and want to change just to have something different, but unless you have a pressing desire for something specific I think it's really not the wisest thing to do. If you 'want' a 330CI and it's something you feel you really want to own and drive then get one, if not and there isn't anything that you can say that about that you can really afford, I'd stick with what you have for a while until you do figure something out.
Everyone is talking sense iand. Upgrade or save, there's really no point in going sideways.
One thing I don't understand, maybe I've missed something, is that you can get a very respectable 330Ci for the £7.5k you're talking about dropping on a yawnmobile.
Why not do that? It will still be an upgrade and you'll still be saving *some* pennies.
One thing I don't understand, maybe I've missed something, is that you can get a very respectable 330Ci for the £7.5k you're talking about dropping on a yawnmobile.
Why not do that? It will still be an upgrade and you'll still be saving *some* pennies.
Soldato
[TW]Fox;16165706 said:
My Z4 was only a year newer. All I'm saying is a lot of easier problems can be fixed yourself, if you have the motivation to do so even without any mechanical knowledge.
Maybe Ive been totally lucky over the last 15 months and while I've always got something saved up for when it does go wrong, I've never had to dip into it. I suppose I just can't see the point in spending £7500 on something that he doesn't really want. Especially when the logic behind it is that if something goes wrong with say an Audi that he doesn't really want or a Jaguar X-type that he doesn't really want, the bill to repair it is going to be significantly less than it would on a 330ci. If something big goes wrong, its always going to churn out a big repair bill.