Its costing me a fortune, that's why!

In what seems like a lifetime ago we decided that we would re-organise our vehicle fleet (all 2 of them). We didn't need 2 big cars.

I had an 04 Octavia Estate, which I loved and SWMBO had / has a 55 320d SE.

I was going to swap my car for a city car, so after some test drives and lots of investigation I got a really good deal on a dealer registered 61 plate i10 that was 4 months old with 20 miles on the clock.

It wasn't perfect, but for the price and cost to run (£20 tax and £130 fully comp insurance) its fantastic.

Then we started looking at BMW replacements, we wanted a car that would be flexible, slightly different, a jack of all trades if you like. Along came the Yeti, which we loved from the first test drive.

Next came the wait (and we are still waiting) - 6 months from order to delivery!

In the meantime the Citigo appeared on the scene, and with nothing much to do in the Yeti part of the forum I rather foolishly strayed into here.

Bad move....

All those research skills honed to perfection in the Yeti foothills kicked in.

Next move, lets go and see what one looks and drive's like - says us in a silly sort of way.

We had to take the i10 up for a service and drove the Peugeot 208 loan car (which was awful btw) straight to the Skoda dealer.

I hadn't even driven off the forecourt before declaring that the Citigo was streets (nay motorways) ahead of the i10.

I think I managed no more than a mile before I handed over to SWMBO, who then drove it for the rest of the 2 hour drive (she wouldn't give it back).

With the i10 being low mileage and in as new nick we worked out that with a following wind and a good sale price we could afford a Citigo.

Like others on here I assumed that the 75ps would be the model to have, but that was before I drove the 60. Bearing in mind this was a tight engine it seemed to have plenty of get up and go and was more than a match for the i10.

We wouldn't be using this car for journeys exceeding 100 mile radius from home, so not having the ability to chew up hours and hours on motorways wasn't a problem, that would be Yeti territory.

As we expected from previous visits our local dealer would'nt budge an inch on price - he even had the nerve to tell me that margins were so tight on these that they only made £75 a car. What tosh, they would go out of business at that rate.

So after reading about how good Preston Motors were I approached them via email. What a difference!. Lee and I spent most of a morning pinging emails back and forth and eventually a deal was offered. I was most impressed.

At the same time I sent my spec to my Yeti dealer (Lookers Stockport), it was they who gave me a fantastic price for the Yeti, and within a few hours George was on the phone offering me the same deal that Lee had and then some more off because I was a returning customer and I had been waiting for a long time for the Yeti.

I had not told George what Lee had quoted, in fact I didn't even mention that I was comparing dealers.

So we will be ordering a Candy White 60PS Greentech Elegance 5dr with Entertainment pack, spare wheel and 2 years additional warranty.

The i10 is white as well and we are hoping the neighbours wont notice the change and think we have won the lottery!!

Lead time is quoted as being between 12 - 16 weeks, still better than the Yeti delay.

Now what will I do while I wait for 2 cars to arrive ??

"They only make £75 on these"

That's laughable, I got a very good discount, and I'm not a returning customer.

Mick

There is only one thing to do now... plan to modify or buy something else!