daveydave

I have pretty much made a decision about my next car. But before I go into details: some background. I have had 6 cars since 1998, from 5 different manufacturers: two petrol and four diesel. I bought my current car, a Ford Focus with a small turbo diesel lump up front, just over eighteen months ago and I made a conscious decision at that point to buy a nearly-new diesel with the intention of keeping it for five or six years. Whether I keep it for that long is now in doubt. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Focus. It is quiet, comfortable and has sufficient toys and gadgets to keep my inner geek happy, but how it is powered is giving me serious food for thought. The decision to buy diesel boiled down to higher mpg/lower CO2: the EuroV engines were supposed to be clean, certainly compared to the filthy things you could buy 20 years ago, when diesel sales in the UK were way behind those on the continent. But perceptions have changed recently. The VW emissions scandal has cast ...

I meant to post about the new car when the '57' registrations came out in September (marking the car's 6 month anniversary) but obviously, I didn't quite make it. So having now owned the big brute for 9 months, what do I reckon. Without getting too gushy, I've got to say I love this car. It's roomy, comfortable, 100% reliable so far, has sufficient toys to keep me entertained during rush hour, is hugely relaxing on the motorway with its 6 gears and cruise control and is fairly economical too - a good thing at this time of ludicrously high fuel prices. There are only really two things that niggle: you really must keep the oily bits above 1800rpm when pulling away and the fact that it has a tendency to cancel your indicators at the most inopportune moments when negotiating roundabouts - a side-effect no doubt of there being no such things in Korea. But I think that's all pretty minor compared to the general niceness of the thing. I like it. Obviously I'm n...