HFS's Cars

[Famine]

He could always go for the best of both worlds and grab a nice Fiesta Zetec S:

Much as I like the Zetec S, I'm no longer really interested in owning one!

I love the Mk5 Zetec-S. I almost bought one new and, had it not been for the salesman wandering off in some sort of "making them wait" tactic, I would have done. Great little car.

Incidentally, the MX-3's rear seats can fold flat with just four button presses and the loading bay is then a ridiculous 51" x 39" (13.8sqft/1.2sqm). Just FYI.

 

[homeforsummer]

Also the fact that the sunroof is open suggests that the dealer is trying to hide the smell of werther's originals and failed incontinence pants, so I'd go with your assessment too.

You jest but I found a boiled sweet wrapper in the glovebox

The car didn't smell though.

I quite like the idea of the Cordoba, I really like Seats as a whole, though some (i.e. Ibiza) have gained a rather chavvy reputation, which is a shame IMO.

Yeah. You were lucky enough to not be on the forums when there was one guy who posted ad nauseum about how great SEATs were. It was so bad it almost put me off the marque completely but the company does still make some very good cars. If I was in any way able to afford to do the scrappage scheme the new Ibiza SC would be fairly high on my list.

I'm gonna guess it had a busted or cracked pcv hose.

Righty. How bad is this?

 

[nobuffalo]

Well after thinking about it, the oil cap was probably just left off. Funny though, I started feeling like Dexter trying to analyze the oil spatter.

edit: Is it spatter or splatter?

 

[homeforsummer]

I'd say splatter. But use whichever word you want

EDIT: I've just come back from driving the Cordoba above. Another, better pic:

It turns out that the car does feel as solid on the road as it does at a standstill. Mechanically the only problem with it seems to be that the handbrake pulls up quite high (as you can see in the interior pic on the previous page) though it seems to hold the car fine. Gearbox and clutch seem good - less positive than my car (and an even longer throw on the gearshift) but pretty light. Steering has decent feedback and isn't too light/heavy. Decent grip too.

Engine pulls well, as you'd expect. It's a proper "old school" diesel in that it's noisy and rattly on startup, but once you're moving it just sounds gruff and reasonably quiet. Performance and economy are much more important than refinement anyway. It was a nice drive really, and nice to get adequate performance without driving quite as hard as in my car.

Body: No rust apart from a few stonechips (easy to sort), no dents, a few scrapes but nothing serious. Interior: Pretty solid, comfy seats, good space, had a play with the rear seats to fold them flat and it seems pretty easy to do.

Now I just need two things really - money, and to have a go in the Civic on the previous page to see if I could live with an auto.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Civics in auto form are slower than all hell, please don't buy one. And Honda's lose a lot of the fun when you can't shift it yourself

 

[homeforsummer]

That's why I'd like to try it first. I've driven... three Civics now (well, two EKs and a Del Sol) and all have been manual. If the auto one feels fun enough for something that I'm only going to keep for a year or two then it's a tempting proposition because it's under a grand. If it was a manual I'd probably have put down a deposit already at that price (though if it was a manual it'd probably already have been snapped up by some chav cretin who'd drive it into the ground).

With regard to performance, some numbers for reference:

Car----------------------BHP----Tq(nm)---0-60--Top speed--MPG

Fiesta 1.3----------------59------103-----14.8-----96-------41
Civic EK 1.4---------------88-----127-----11.2-----110------41
Civic EK 1.5---------------112----134-----10.0-----117------43
Civic EG 1.5 coupe auto---101-----133-----11.0-----110------35
Civic EJ LS coupe---------103-----142-----9.8-----118-------38
Civic EJ SR coupe---------123-----143-----8.9-----119-------37
SEAT Cordoba Tdi---------90------202-----12.1-----112------57

...so as you can see, pretty much anything I'm considering at the moment makes my current car look a bit silly performance-wise, and most get close to the quoted average economy. Figures used for a general idea obviously. I've said myself numerous times that 0-60 figures aren't the most relevant, but they are the easiest to get hold of!

I'm disappointed I didn't get to even view that Civic Coupe SR I saw online as it's easily the least compromised of the above - better performance than any of them and still gets within a few quoted MPG of my car. Cordoba is still leading the pack (and just look at the torque and MPG...), I just need to really sort out monies.

 

[Famine]

Car----------------------BHP----Tq(nm)---0-60--Top speed--MPG

Fiesta 1.3----------------59------103-----14.8-----96-------41
Civic EK 1.4---------------88-----127-----11.2-----110------41
Civic EK 1.5---------------112----134-----10.0-----117------43
Civic EG 1.5 coupe auto---101-----133-----11.0-----110------35
Civic EJ LS coupe---------103-----142-----9.8------118-------38
Civic EJ SR coupe---------123-----143-----8.9------119-------37
SEAT Cordoba Tdi---------90------202-----12.1-----112------57
Mazda MX-3 V6-----------135-----168-----7.5------141------35

You know it makes sense

 

[Jondot]

Car----------------------BHP----Tq(nm)---0-60--Top speed--MPG

Fiesta 1.3----------------59------103-----14.8-----96-------41
Civic EK 1.4---------------88-----127-----11.2-----110------41
Civic EK 1.5---------------112----134-----10.0-----117------43
Civic EG 1.5 coupe auto---101-----133-----11.0-----110------35
Civic EJ LS coupe---------103-----142-----9.8-----118-------38
Civic EJ SR coupe---------123-----143-----8.9-----119-------37
SEAT Cordoba Tdi---------90------202-----12.1-----112------57

Right, so lemmy get this straight. Compared to the EK 1.5 (hatch, presumably), the automatic Civic coupe you've been looking at:

• Has 11bhp less
• Has 1 torque less
• Is a second slower to 60
• Will top out at 7mph less
• AND will cost you 23% more in fuel (8 less MPG)?

Why are you even considering it?!

 

[Jim Prower]

He said that the thing comes in under a grand.

for that price, he could keep it a couple years, then joyride it after he gets summat else.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Why are you even considering it?!

So he can practise being a retiree 40-odd years in advance. He'll start pretending to be deaf and write letters of complaint to the Daily Mail next..

When you put it in bare stats like that though, it seems like good sense to ignore the auto, and go for the SEAT. Alternatively you could pounce on the next Civic SR you see for sale, if they shift so quickly off the forecourt!

 

[Jondot]

He said that the thing comes in under a grand.

for that price, he could keep it a couple years, then joyride it after he gets summat else.

That was the SR that got sold before he saw it.

Besides, you can have a 1.5 Manual for £995:

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...icleYearOfManufacture=1996&vehicleRegLetter=N

 

[YSSMAN]

That SR looks like a hell of a lot of fun... Which reminds me, there is a Civic coupe nearby that I need to look at. A New Beetle too. Too bad I'd rather have a scooter.


Anyway, I like the sound of that Cordoba. The fuel mileage is solid, and the performance (while a little slow) doesn't seem to bad by comparison to the other cars. Hell, if I could get the same 68 MPG 47.5 MPG in a car like that, I'd take it.

 

[Keef]

You know it makes sense

Thirty-five mpg when and where? On the highway, sure. I wonder how much the V6 burns at idle compared to that 1.6 Civic. I'm not sure what your inner city traffic is like, but over here I'll spend several minutes of a 15 minute drive stopped at a light.

My mom's G6 with it's 3.4 V6 gets 33 mpg on the highway. And 16 in the city. Theoretically it should eat more than twice as much fuel at idle than my Civic.

 

[homeforsummer]

Let me clarify the Civic SR thing: It is the car in this post. I didn't so much as get a chance to even set off to see the thing before it disappeared. I woke one morning presuming it was for sale, checked Autotrader, and it had gone. The LS is the red one I posted a pic of on the last page. The LSi is the purple, automatic one. The SR, had it not been sold, would probably be the winner by now if it was in good nick, as it offers pretty much everything I want from my next car, and I like Hondas/Civic Coupes in general.

Jon: The auto coupe is also under a grand. £995, just like the SR was. The reason it's still under consideration, as Jim mentioned, is because it's £500 cheaper than the SEAT. Which is quite a lot and I'd need to be driving the SEAT for about two years at the least before it made up it's difference in fuel costs. That isn't to say that I'm not still very tempted by the SEAT. With regards to that Civic you posted it seems very nice, and indeed is the same spec as the car I drove in this post, not to mention the same price! That VTEC-E engine is pretty good actually - it's the one I've listed as a "Civic EK 1.5" in the post above. If I could find another of those, again, I'd be tempted. Especially at that price. It's got decent performance and very good fuel economy for a petrol engine (I strongly suspect the figure on Parkers, where I obtained all the stats, is pessimistic for the 1.5 Civic).

Famine: I did a double take on your post there before I realised what you'd changed, but I knew it'd be MX-3 related My main main problem with the MX-3 - they're currently rare as rocking-horse excrement unless I'm prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country. This is also the reason I've not even been able to view a 323 or Xedos 6 V6, both of which were alongside the MX-3 on my shortlist. (Oh, and the MX-3 gets pwned on torque by the SEAT )

Brad: The Cordoba is definitely up for consideration if I can get my finances in order. Though it's 57mpg, not 68! (That said, it'd probably do 68+ on the motorway). For the record, an average 57mpg in imperial gallons is 47.5mpg US according to my favourite converting tool.

So he can practise being a retiree 40-odd years in advance. He'll start pretending to be deaf and write letters of complaint to the Daily Mail next..

I'll probably end up writing for the sodding Mail, let alone sending letters to it...

But yeah, if I see another SR I'll be pouncing on it.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Thirty-five mpg when and where? On the highway, sure. I wonder how much the V6 burns at idle compared to that 1.6 Civic. I'm not sure what your inner city traffic is like, but over here I'll spend several minutes of a 15 minute drive stopped at a light.

My mom's G6 with it's 3.4 V6 gets 33 mpg on the highway. And 16 in the city. Theoretically it should eat more than twice as much fuel at idle than my Civic.

The MX3's V6 is a 1.8l. So really the difference there is not very great.

 

[homeforsummer]

From what Famine has mentioned before I think that 35 is the average, but I may be mistaken. And honestly, I mostly drive like a hypermiler without the slowwwwww so without wishing to brag I could probably beat pretty much any manufacturer's figure in normal driving... I currently murder the 41mpg average in my Fiesta I'm damn sure I could beat that auto Civic's 35mpg average and certain I could improve on the SEAT's already impressive figure.

 

[YSSMAN]

Brad: The Cordoba is definitely up for consideration if I can get my finances in order. Though it's 57mpg, not 68! (That said, it'd probably do 68+ on the motorway). For the record, an average 57mpg in imperial gallons is 47.5mpg US according to my favourite converting tool.

Whoops! I thought that was a little wrong... I converted from US MPG to UK MPG. Anyway, over 40 MPG is fantastic. Are there any other old-school VW's that would be worth looking at? You know you want to join the Vento club...

 

[niky]

Never buy a mid-90's Honda with an automatic. Not unless you're absolutely positive the previous owner was a meticulous 60 year old mechanic who changed the ATF regularly.

Not saying they can't be reliable, but I've seen too many secondhand Civic and Accord ATs which were just begging for euthanasia.

 

[Famine]

Thirty-five mpg when and where? On the highway, sure. I wonder how much the V6 burns at idle compared to that 1.6 Civic. I'm not sure what your inner city traffic is like, but over here I'll spend several minutes of a 15 minute drive stopped at a light.

My mom's G6 with it's 3.4 V6 gets 33 mpg on the highway. And 16 in the city. Theoretically it should eat more than twice as much fuel at idle than my Civic.

35mpg combined. I can push 40mpg on a long run if I really try, but it's considerably more boring.

Remember that a US gallon is significantly smaller than an Imperial one. It'd be 29mpg US.


hfs - The MX-3 has peak (or thereabouts) torque from 2,500rpm through to 7,000rpm, which is 2,000rpm more than the Seat can actually reach. So it pulls at least 75% as hard at any point of any gear and, in reality, will pull harder at most points of most gears 'cos the torque doesn't arrive in one giant chunk then vanish.

Also I've just watched two guys struggle to put something in their Prelude that I put in Red easily. With the dog in the boot. Dooooooooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

 

[slidesquad#1]

I'll have to back Famine up on this one. My first real car was a MX3 V6 (or a Mazda Eunos Presso V6, as the registration said), and they are fantastic little cars.

They're pretty good on fuel, sound sweet, and from memory, are very fun to drive. Mine just had a strut brace, and the steering was much livelier than the Legacy I replaced it with. If you haven't tried it, get your hands on one for a bit. You might be surprised.

 

[Famine]

The strut brace is standard.

 

[homeforsummer]

The only MX-3 V6 for sale near me is £500 above the wrong side of my budget, unfortunately.

 

[Famine]

You still haven't driven one yet

(though mine's awaiting a tax disc currently, it'll probably be available again come Tuesday)

 

[homeforsummer]

You still haven't driven one yet

I'll have to fix that at some point. It's a case of finding the right time at the moment.

On another note, I've not had so much as a peep about my car. No emails, no phone calls, nothing. Little disappointing but it's still up on fleabay for another two and a bit weeks so I'll see how it goes.

 

[niky]

I'll have to back Famine up on this one. My first real car was a MX3 V6 (or a Mazda Eunos Presso V6, as the registration said), and they are fantastic little cars.

They're pretty good on fuel, sound sweet, and from memory, are very fun to drive. Mine just had a strut brace, and the steering was much livelier than the Legacy I replaced it with. If you haven't tried it, get your hands on one for a bit. You might be surprised.

Mazda steering has always been better than Subaru. It's just that Subaru tends to build compacts with 300 horses and AWD, whereas Mazda does not. If Mazda had an equivalent to the Evo or the STi, I'd buy it in a heartbeat (has driven newest Impreza... still not impressed versus my five year old Protege).

 

[slidesquad#1]

Mazda steering has always been better than Subaru. It's just that Subaru tends to build compacts with 300 horses and AWD, whereas Mazda does not. If Mazda had an equivalent to the Evo or the STi, I'd buy it in a heartbeat (has driven newest Impreza... still not impressed versus my five year old Protege).

That's true. What's the closest they've gotten to the Evo/Sti? The GTR I guess, but they're near impossible to get your hands on.

I'm really interested in seeing how the 3 MPS actually drives with the FWD. Those have plenty enough power.

 

[homeforsummer]

Interesting note regarding the purple Civic - when I spoke to the dealer he said there was no profit left in the car for him and he was soon passing it onto a mate to sell. His mate's profit margins must be even lower as it's now up for sale at £699 down from £995. That's ridiculously cheap for a car in fairly decent condition.

I think in the meantime I'm going to have to wait on the Fiesta selling and having cash in my hand before I take the plunge with buying something else - although I do have some money in savings I have my next installment of uni course fees coming up and buying a car and doing that before selling mine would essentially wipe out every penny I have in savings, which I don't want to do.

Damn I need more hours at work...

 

[niky]

That's true. What's the closest they've gotten to the Evo/Sti? The GTR I guess, but they're near impossible to get your hands on.

I'm really interested in seeing how the 3 MPS actually drives with the FWD. Those have plenty enough power.

Oh... you mean the GTX? (wiki'd... oh... they had a GTR version? Didn't know that!) Interesting car... just not as much potential as bigger engined rivals from Subaru and Mitsubishi...

 

[slidesquad#1]

Oh... you mean the GTX? (wiki'd... oh... they had a GTR version? Didn't know that!) Interesting car... just not as much potential as bigger engined rivals from Subaru and Mitsubishi...

They are pretty quick for what they are though. Even the GTX is no slouch. One of my good mates has one with a few things done to it, feels pretty damn quick running 18 pounds. They would be quite a bit lighter than the Mitsi/Subarus too. Too bad it's never on the road for more than a few weeks at a time though, I think the poor guy is on his fourth or fifth gearbox.


Back on topic though, homeforsummer, getting rid of your car sounds like a pretty solid idea. At least then you'll know exactly how much you can spend on a car, and look around accordingly. Also "I'll give you $xxxx, cash in hand right now" makes it a lot more tempting for potential sellers to accept a bit less money than "hold on to the car for the next week while I desperately try to get rid of mine."

You're doing the financially astute thing 👍, which is exactly the opposite of how I go about getting my cars.

 

[homeforsummer]

Heh, thanks I'm just trying to make the sensible financial decisions at the moment. Not going for anything too flash, and making sure I have the money first. I'm more than aware that, yes, there are some good cars around at the moment which I wouldn't mind owning, but at the same time, there are still going to be some good cars around in two weeks, a month, two months time or whenever my car sells. As I'm not looking for one single type of car it means that I can pretty much pick something I like when it becomes available.