Hi. I saw some hits on my website, Speedmonkey, from here and thought you might like these too:

Best family car for under £18k - Octavia or Yeti - http://www.speedmonkey.co.uk/2012/10/are-car-prices-to-high-we-try-and-buy.html

Best used car under £18k - Octavia - http://www.speedmonkey.co.uk/2012/11/buying-secondhand-our-guide-to-buying.html

Hope you don't mind me barging in like this.

Cheers

Matt (Speedmonkey)

Thats a weird site. You catagorically say on a number of occasions that you would never recommend a car at the very end of its life cycle (why not? Thats surely the best time for a value for money deal?) and then you go on to recommend the Octavia as the winner! :wonder:

Also, everything is based on the manufacturers on the road price. Surely no one in their right mind walks into a showroom and slaps the asking price down. Many things are missing and havent been taken into consideration that would be important considerations for a family making a purchase of a new car.

Hi. Not all all. I love old cars, although have a number of writers on the site so some of them may have different opinions. The article about new cars was meant to be a hypothetical study in order to highlight the fact new car prices are extraordinarily high and that Ford and Vauxhall in particular are pricing themselves out of the market. It also showed that Skodas are priced well. My own belief is that if you want a newish car then a 1 or 2 year old one is the best bet.

Hi. Not all all. I love old cars, although have a number of writers on the site so some of them may have different opinions. The article about new cars was meant to be a hypothetical study in order to highlight the fact new car prices are extraordinarily high and that Ford and Vauxhall in particular are pricing themselves out of the market. It also showed that Skodas are priced well. My own belief is that if you want a newish car then a 1 or 2 year old one is the best bet.

Got ya, but in reality, you can haggle 25% off a Ford Focus, on a VW Golf, you'd be lucky to get 13% so I guess I just dont see the worth of basing a study so strictly on the rrp.

Also, raise the budget or move catagories and Ford and Vauxhall seem to compare far better than the competition, particulalrly the Germans imo. I dont like Vauxhalls and have pretty much vowed never to own one or have to go to one of their dealers but from the perspective of someone that needs a fast family wagon in estate format, four wheel drive, decent brakes and lots of kit as standard... the new 170mph Insignia VXR SuperSport is very appealing imo and its available with 6k off (meaning a 24k price) already! But thats another conversation. ;-)