Help - luxury saloon for £4K

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Toronado
A 740 Turbo Wagon would probably only run you back £2500 or so. And they get rave reviews.
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I'm guessing your not from the UK as £2500 is an awful lot for a Volvo 740 turbo! :) The most I'd imagine one would probably go for might be £1500 if it was absolutely immaculate with low mileage etc...

<cough> although if I saw a nigh on perfect 740 turbo like one of the pics in the brochure, that was nearly as good as new I'd pay a lot :lol:
 
555
I is so soz dat i is typin wrong it ent my fault i wuz raized badly! :P

All i did was type "ent" you know what it means so what does it matter??
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I am English (sort of). You are English (one assumes). I can understand you - though it helps if I squint and am drunk.

But we are in the minority. This site is US-based (and Americans don't speak English), but many, many members - even more by percentage of regular members are from non-English speaking countries. They may struggle occasionally with well-written English - so you can see how littering your post with regional colloquialisms can be thought of as inconsiderate.

What does it matter? Well, for a start it's in the site rules you agreed to, but for a second, if you're trying to get a message across it is best to do it in a way which enables more people to read it. Anything else is a waste of your effort - and the readers'.


But thank you for adjusting your language accordingly. The gesture is appreciated.

555
i keep seeing alot of nice Impreza's advertised. i would love one, but she's hard to persuad. Subaru's are built to last ent (sorry, aren't) they??
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No.

Buy a £4k Impreza and be prepared for a world of pain.

I tell you, if you want luxury, the A8 is unbeatable, and the examples I showed you are all on practically run-in mileage (100,000 on a 4.2 V8? Piece of, mate)

If I was after a budget luxury car I probably wouldn't think of anything else.
 
I've had 3, E34 shape 5 series', and I might buy another after this.

Don't get a 318 or 518 though. As good as BM engines are the M40 1.8 four pot is rubbish. The hydraulic tappets block and wear flats on the cam. The 518 is gutless too.

I had a 1992 525i with 168000 on the clock and it felt tight and crisp, so if it's been looked after, miles aren't a problem, no electrical faults either.

I've got a '93 525iSE now and the only breakage was a thermostat, which was a tenner.

My neighbour has a '98 728i. It's sweet but it costs a lot to run.

I really want a mid eighties 5. Maybe an M535, but A 1987 530auto would be ace.


Kurtis
 
There is know way insurance on an 4.2 V8 is going to be accesable! they'd be a fortune, we dont need a mini limo anyway.

I love all japanese cars Young Warrior, but a Skyline will be A) to expensive to insure & buying one for under 4k is a mistake! & we need four doors, she wouldnt be able to get in & out of a coupe (she got funny knees). & a Celica would be seriously down hilll from a Supra!

I think were getting a Volvo estate of some sort, not my 1st choice but it'l do i supose.
 
555
There is know way insurance on an 4.2 V8 is going to be accesable! they'd be a fortune, we dont need a mini limo anyway.
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Actually not.

There's many, many indicators insurers use when calculating premiums (premia? Whatever).

Engine size is just one (this = big). Power is another (this = lots). Speed/acceleration is another (this = not "much". Big car = slow accleration, and it's limited to 155mph). Car value is another (this = pennies). And then you run into where the A8 excels - desirability (nice car, but what car thief/joyrider is going to nick this?), parts availability (nearly everything on the car is Audi parts bin, available throughout the range) and average cost of accident for this car (parking scrapes - it's possible to tool any car, but the average driver of these was Mr. CEO, who was a lot more careful about his company car than Mr. Middle-Manager-in-the-Vectra).

Everything else is on the driver - and the driver could afford to insure a Supra... (though it was only a MkIII).

In fact, I've just run a quote through confused.com. I'm 28 with 7y NCD, parked on driveway (night) and office car park (day), no claims in 3 years, no points in 5 years. The best quote was:

Admiral.com - £392.70

Consider that I pay £304 for my 1.8i V6 MX-3.

The insurance IS accessible. The Audi A8 is THE luxury bargain - and as for "need", you should always buy a car which meets every one of your specifications but offers the most on top, within your budget. The A8 meets every one of your criteria, is inside budget and offers so much more on top that it just doesn't make sense to strike it off. I promise you, as long as you can get a clear HPI check on it, you will not - or rather your father will not - be disappointed, but he will be if you don't suggest it.
 
ultrabeat
No-one agrees with me on the S-Class?

I have to say I'm surprised.
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I quite agree with you on the S-class.

My dad has just bought a '93 S500 SEL for £3k and its a wonderful car, built back when Merc made bulletproof cars.

Rated in its time as one of the (if not the) best cars in the world.

Heres one on E-bay

Regards

Scaff
 
Don't A8s have (expensive but light) aluminum panels though? I know when I looked them up even the smallest engine one was in group 17.

And yeah older Mercs are nice and solid cars, was tempted to one but decided against the dodgy foot operated handbrake (Manual car).
 
Yep. But don't crash it... :D

The 4.2 V8 is group 20 but, as I demonstrated, only costs me £90 more than my group 14 car with the exact same details. Insurance groups are only a guideline though, the other factors are much more important. The typical crash in my car is expensive, because it involves the car being driven like a nob, and tends to end up with expensive part replacements, write-offs and expensive medical care (or funerary costs). The typical crash in an A8 would probably involve buffing up the bonnet badge.
 
Yeah insurance groups are pretty daft, when I last insured my 1.2i SEAT Ibiza with Norwich Union (Group 5, was about £415 I'm 21 with 1yr NCD and experience) it would have only cost me another £20 or so to get insured on my bros 2.5 20v Volvo 850 (Group 12 I think). Ford Probes are another good example.

Talking about big luxury cars being in accidents, my Grandads Merc 300 was hit by an articulated lorry when it stalled in the middle of the ring road. Laughably the artic got off worse :lol: Merc just needed a new wing, headlamp/indicator and bumper. Oh and unfortunately it knocked out the air-conditioning :sly:
 
A tip I learned to cheapen your car insurnce is this. Wjen choosing the options that you want such as being insured to drive abroad, or that they pay for legal fee's if its not already included click the legal fee's box to be included in your insurance and the price will go down. Funny how things work but according to my mum something similiar like that happens with mortgages.
 
If an A8 is group 20 insurance there would be know way it'd be insurable. I know all the things your saying but my mum used to work for an insurance company & when looking at a few previous cars that were group 20 A cossie & a mits GTO (import) they are ludicrusly high to insure.

For some reason our supra is only 14. But an A8 is out of insurable reach & besides she'd never agree to having one, there to big for the one we could afford they'd be to old & to many miles. Of course i'd like one, but im being realistic. We dont need a luxury mini-limo thing, we jus want something thats nice to be in.

Besides everytime i get out of an A8 and get into my piece of tosh Clio, its going to seem worse & worse (the clio i mean).

I personally want a 5series BMW anyway, cause next door have an Audi & i dont want to be the same as them. Or (maybe) a nice fast Volvo estate.
 
555
If an A8 is group 20 insurance there would be know way it'd be insurable.

But an A8 is out of insurable reach
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Genuine like-for-like insurance quote, based on a 28 year old living in a C-postcode, 7y pNCD, parked on a driveway, same insurers:

Group 14 MX-3 V6: £304.05
Group 20 A8 4.2 V8: £392.70
 
Well i'll beleive that when we ring up our insurance company and get a quote. Not that i doubt you, its just. Well..........

It looks like were getting a volvo anyways. & aparently all of a sudden my dad dosent want an Audi!!?? dont ask, i have no idea myself!!
 
555
ring up our insurance company
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That's a problem right there.

Try using the interweb - 10-15% discount on many sites. Try, in particular, http://www.confused.com, where you only have to enter your details once and they search up to 30 insurance companies at once (many online services close at 10pm though, so try to get in before that for the best set of results). This doesn't include well-known cheapies like Elephant, or more specialised ones like Liverpool & Victoria.


Shop around for insurance - or you'll get royally boned.
 
Confused asks for tons of questions and then if you want to change car you have to go through thew hole process again. Get a quote using norwich union asks little amount of questions and are fairly cheap.
 
No, you don't.

You only have to change the details pertaining to the car - or whatever factor you wish - and you merely have to click "Next" to confirm any other details are correct. These are the same questions most insurers ask when you take up the insurance, with a couple extra for the wierder insurers, and provides you with a more accurate quote. Then it searches 30 different insurers. That's an awful lot of man-hours you save. Norwich Union are just one insurer - though they underwrite many others - and give you just one quote, which I've NEVER found to be acceptable, given their level of service included compared to other - and cheaper - insurers.

For reference, my two quotes are both with Admiral.
 
What I ment is that just use norwich union as a quick estoimate. It wont be much more expensive than the cheapest on confused.com and once you have decided on the car do it on confused.

Famine once you have the quotes from the insures I tried to go back to change some details and the thing said I couldnt for some reason something about secure itemas and connection and connection timed out.
 
Yes - you cannot go back, since the last step was to submit your details and get quotes.

If you go into the main page again you can retrieve your quotes (up to 5 stored at a time) and amend them.
 
oh I didnt know about that bit but I got some cheap quotes even though I mistakenly entered the car I wanted a quote for as Imported.
 
You can see how amazingly varied the insurers are.

My quotes ranged from £304 to £770 - and my cheapest quote offered me the most in terms of service too.

How some of these guys get business escapes me.
 
Aparently he wants eitehr a volvo or an Impreza now. But he dosent seem to beleive me that Impreza's are fast. I know they aren't all fast, but the turbos's are arent they?!
 
Yes, they are.

The WR1, like my brother has, does 0-62mph in 4.2s, 0-100mph in 10.7s and a standing quarter mile in 12.2s. It'd make your Supra look really very silly indeed.


But all turbo Imprezas are group 20 (well... sort of. Those that aren't effectively are) and, unless they have a Cat 1. alarm, immobiliser, anti-hijack system, steering wheel lock and Tracker and are kept in a locked, alarmed garage for 364 days of the year you can forget about insuring one. For £4,000 you're only going to get a problem car or high-miler grey import which will very quickly become a problem car and if you're expecting it to be "luxury" you'll be in for a large and unpleasant surprise. Unless you consider black plastic and bucket seats to be luxury.

Impreza and luxury do not belong in the same sentence, without a negative in there. And if you're worried (unjustly) about insuring an A8, you're going to have a complete eppie when it comes to insuring an Impreza.
 
Well according to what i read, the impreza was group 14, same as el' Supra! I would imagine they are expensive to insure, but not group 20! thats Ferrari/Cossie teritory. I know import one's are dearer.

I know there not luxury, but i know i'd rather have that than a Audi/volvo/BMW. Much nicer to look at & you look (slightly) less of a burk.
 
No, you don't. Any man driving an Impreza instantly becomes a fat tosser - maybe not in reality, but in the minds of the people that see them. On the same basis, any woman driving one becomes an airheaded bimbo.


Scoobies - especially in the price range you're looking at - are legendarily easy to steal. They're still attractive to thieves because, if they can get hold of one, the cops can't catch them until the helicopter is in the air. In fact, as car security improves - or at least aftermarket stuff, because the Impreza is so weak - typical Impreza thefts involve breaking into the owner's house and taking the keys at gunpoint. As such - combined with the fact that the typical Impreza crash is a fatal one and involves more than one vehicle being written off - they attract a MASSIVE insurance premium. My brother, at the age of 35 and with 15 years' NCD, has special conditions imposed on his insurance (the aforementioned Tracker, anti-hijack system, Cat 1 alarm and kept in a locked, alarmed garage overnight) just because he has an Impreza.

Now, here is Parker's page on the 93-01 Impreza. The lowest iG for a turbo Impreza there is 17. Now, you go to confused.com and try getting a quote for one. Then compare it to the (iG20) Audi A8 I suggested earlier. I'd put money on it being 4-8 times higher with the Scooby. In fact, I'd lay decent odds that an F355 would be easier to insure than a Scooby.


If your dad is after a luxury car in the sub-£4k sector, he'd be better off setting fire to his money than buying an Impreza - which fits none of the criteria and will ruin him.
 
Famine
No, you don't. Any man driving an Impreza instantly becomes a fat tosser - maybe not in reality, but in the minds of the people that see them. On the same basis, any woman driving one becomes an airheaded bimbo.
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Just like a CLK driver is a businessman's wife, and a Mitsubishi Evo driver is a nerd?
 
He dosent want a luxury as such, he just wants something thats got 4 doors & is fast.
A luxury saloon (ala 5 series/a4/6/8 etc) was the obvious choice, but its not down to me what car we get is it. Its down to my dad & you tell him not to get a Impreza cause it'll get nicked. We dont care about it getting nicked if it only cost £4k. Besides the last car (RS turbo) got nicked (it was a insurance right off so we didnt care) & several of the motorbikes we used to own got nicked, so honestly we wouldnt really care that much.
Either way, i know what you have found out about insurance groups, but they all vary. According to what i've found Impreza's are 14 (well one we looked at anyway).
Looks like were getting a Volvo again now! i just dont know!
 
An iG14 Impreza is a 2.0 sport. It's about as quick as the Sheffield Wednesday defence.

And I DIDN'T say don't buy an Impreza because it'll get nicked. I said don't buy a £4k Impreza because it'll break down all the time, you'll get stiffed for insurance and then you'll wake up one night with a bunch of guys standing over you wearing Ronald Reagan masks demanding the keys to it at the other end of a shotgun.

Why buy a car at all if you're not going to be able to go anywhere in it because it's broken down again, or has been stolen?

I know you said that you're 20, but how old are you really? "We dont care about it getting nicked"? Come on.

Incidentally, did you do what I suggested and try getting a quote on a Scooby? Bet you didn't. Remember:

Famine
My brother, at the age of 35 and with 15 years' NCD, has special conditions imposed on his insurance (the aforementioned Tracker, anti-hijack system, Cat 1 alarm and kept in a locked, alarmed garage overnight) just because he has an Impreza.
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And he STILL pays close to £1,000 a year.
 
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