How much does the car you drive cost you?

[Mich the Tester]

There has got to be something in that then.

New shape just out with dealers offering 0% finance.

Top Gear review. Sort of.

It's OK. Looks like it's parked outside a cool hotel. Anyone recognise that place?

All New Suzuki Swift - Designed For Life

[Paddy]

Too right!

The problems hat you have described with your car is caused my lack of maintence. If you took it to an honest garage that did ALL of the work in the service book you would not have problems with leaks.

You’re a/c must be properly recharged at least every two years. The water trap must be drained and new filters fitted.

Diesel filters must be changed and water drained at each service. They must check for deterioration in the pipe-work. The trouble is that most garages cut corners and don’t to a full job. When my car goes in for service a check everything before I drive away from the forecourt.

The most reliable make of cars I had was Mercedes (4 in total). The most unreliable were German Ford (3 in total). I am on my fifth French car and none of them have let me down and they have been the cheapest and most reliable and comfortable next to the Mercs.

I will never buy Ford again, I was constantly concerned on when it will next breakdown. The breakdowns in the German Fords were ALL due to major component failures. They all rusted very early.

I am happy that French cars are not popular because this makes them very cheap to buy, and I not concerned about the resale price because I always get my monies worth.

AA call-outs with Mercedes = 1
AA call-outs with Ford = 12 (I lost count after that)
AA call-outs with Citroen and Renault = 0

[Doggy Styles]

I'm sure there are lots on here with anecdotal evidence of this and that, but I prefer to trust Which reports on used cars.

They canvas several thousands of drivers with experience of the cars, a much bigger sample than on here. No cars are perfect, but some are clearly better than others.

[gingerjedi]

I bought a 7 year old Mazda 6 a few months back £3.5k with 38k on the clock, perfect for all the abuse a toddler can throw at it (I was going to type 'perfect for child abuse' ).

At the same time a mate of mine bought a 2 year old S-line DSG TDi 170 A3 for £16k, his car has 80k on the clock.

If you're going to spend that sort of money you'd want a low miler wouldn't you? I think he's bonkers.