thinking of a new car

[Richard_C]

Yes I bought mine from nearby but not my usual dealer, I guess the smaller ones don't buy this sort of thing in on spec. They had just got it in, so didn't have time to do anything bad with it. It had balance of its original warranty so I knew I could use my normal dealer for any work.

Oddly, the fuel consumption of the auto is much worse, on paper. I think it's to do with the silly way the tests are conducted but it does put the tax up 2 steps. In real life I suspect the auto is reasonably close to the manual. The torque is so good you don't have to shuffle gears too often to make progress.

I wouldn't be worried about mileage. I also looked at Grand Picassos and there were some really rough low mileage ones about (school run use?). Something that has done a few hundred miles a week is more likely to have been used on motorways or fast a roads and have less wear and tear, cold start short runs and so on. Somehow you can tell if a car is 'right', the story of age, mileage, service etc adds up, and the interior is a fair guide to how well it has been looked after.

[Xantidote]

SAAB is no more

a little off-topic, but I read something recently about SAAB and electric car production. Not much use in the context of this thread though

[qprdude]

Yes. Saab is still alive at Trollhattan. 2.0l petrol turbo version of the 9-3 already out but the electric version not yet in production.