Is this the way a family car ought to be?

 

 

Chevrolet UK recently announced a new car – the Chevrolet Captiva LS Diesel 5-seat manual transmission at £18,295. That’s what you call a big cheap Chevrolet car.

 

It’s the answer to customers’ feedback when they’re presented with the Captiva range.

 

First, let’s listen to buyers’ remarks about the Captiva. Next we revisit the big ideas in the Chevrolet Captiva. Then we look at how the Chevrolet Captiva LS Diesel 5-seater satisfies family car buyers needs.

 

When family car buyers’ are presented with the petrol Captiva LS they ask about a diesel option. The salesman would say there was only a diesel Captiva available with On-Demand Four Wheel Drive. 100% of buyers would reply saying they don’t drive Off-Road. What’s more they didn’t want to pay for unnecessary 4WD. They want a big a big cheap Chevrolet car with Chevy quality, reliability and durability.

 

They want an impressive SUV style family car and MPV 5-seat space with car-like performance, at an honest price. It needs to be a fuel efficient car and have car-like handling. But they don’t need four wheel drive. And most don’t need 7-seats.

 

The big idea behind the Chevrolet Captiva is it’s a big family car. If you’ve looked at any family car ratings or reviews and applied the values to the Captiva it would score highly. If you’ve looked at family car comparisons or prices the Captiva is a winner.

 

Now we have a Captiva diesel without four wheel drive and without 7-seats. This means it’s lighter and must be more fuel efficient. It should not only be a more economical car with good gas mileage, it should have better CO2 emissions and maybe fall into a lower Vehicle Excise Duty band so you might pay less for the tax on your windscreen.

 

To find out more - see updates as I get better info’ at

 

http://www.chevroletreviewsandprices.co.uk/chevrolet_captiva_guide_and_price_list.htm

 

I’ve got some great posts coming – what have a Kit-Kat, pump prices and car prices got in common? They are key indicators of what?

 

Regards

Ralph

What today’s car fuel prices cost you

 

 

Today in the UK:

 

Petrol is 120.9p per litre, £5.62 a gallon.

Diesel’s 132.9p per litre, £6.18 a gallon.

 

Below I take an annual average of 12,000 miles per annum and divide it by a cars combined fuel consumption – mpg – to calculate the number of gallons needed. The gallons are then multiplied by the price of fuel. This gives you an annual total cost.

 

Today, you pay a premium to buy a diesel car, new or used. I divide this premium by any saving in buying diesel to calculate how many years/miles it will take to get your money back. I predict you may no longer get this premium back when you sell or part-exchange a diesel car.

 

Here’s an example:

 

Small city/budget car – Chevrolet Matiz 0.8S manual

 

12,000 miles divided by a combined fuel consumption of 54.3 mpg equals 221 gallons per year at a cost of £1,242.00. Another example:

 

Super-Mini – Chevrolet Aveo 1.2 16v manual

 

12k/51.4 mpg = 233.46 gals at a cost of £1,312.00.

 

Chevrolet don’t offer diesel options in these car classes. Maybe this may be the reason:

 

Top selling super-mini

 

1.2 16v manual 12k/48.7 mpg, needs 246.4 gals, cost £1,385.00

 

1.3 CDTi 16v (75PS) – 62.8mpg needs 191.1 gallons costing £1,181.00

 

You’re £204.00 better of with the diesel but you pay a £805.00 more for the diesel model. It takes about 4-years to get the diesel premium back.

 

Here’s a top selling MPV

 

1.6 16v – 12k/39.2mpg, needs 306.1 gallons – cost of £1,720.00

 

1.9 CDTi  (120PS) – 47.1mpg needs 254.8 gallons costing £1,574.00

 

You’re £145.00 better of with the diesel but you pay a £1990.00 premium for a diesel over the 1.6 or £1,265.00 over 1.8 petrol. It takes at least near 9-years to get your diesel premium back.

 

Chevrolet Epica manual large saloon

2.0 petrol – 34.5mpg, needs 347.8 gallons to cover 12,000 miles at cost of £1,955.00

 

2.0 diesel – 46.3mpg needs 259.1 gallons costing £1,601.00

 

You’re £354.00 better of with the diesel and only pay a £1,000.00 more for a diesel Epica. It only takes 3-years to get the premium back.

 

Here’s a surprise:

 

Chevrolet Captiva manual SUV

 

2.4 petrol – 31.7mpg – 379 gals at a cost of £2,127.00 for 12,000 miles

 

2.0 diesel – 37.1mpg – 323 gals – cost £1,999.00

 

Only a £128 difference.

 

Of course it’s not all about money. All car salespeople tell you that. Maybe we can talk about it in another post. And we also need to talk about high cars and other aspects.

 

Note the costs of the above range between £1,200.00 and £2,000.00. And these are economical cars in their classes.

 

 

Regards

Ralph

www.chevroletreviewsandprices.co.uk

Bad blogging is not posting regularly

Bad news, when I haven’t made a post since January.

I started this blog with some 20 posts describing the Chevrolet Captiva in great detail. You can view these pages by way of the button in the right-hand column of this page.

I then repeated the exercise for the Chevrolet Matiz.

These posts were then edited in GooglePages.

Since then there’s been a lot to post about. However I kind of liked this blog when it was dedicated to the Chevrolet Captiva.

So I’ve put descriptions of the Chevrolet UK model range on a proper website – www.chevroletreviewsandprices.co.uk

Two new Chevrolet models have been announced this year. The Chevrolet Epica and Chevrolet Aveo. Both are described on the above website. I’ll probably start new blogs for each to go into greater detail.

I’ll keep this blog alive with seasonal and topical posts.

Both the Chevrolet Epica and Aveo are interesting cars.

The Chevrolet Aveo is a super-mini which fills the space left empty by cars like the Corsa and Clio as they’ve grown super-size. They’re super-size super-minis. Some people still like their cars to be as small as possible which is why the Matiz is popular.

The Chevrolet Epica is a large 4-door saloon. It’s the same size as a Merc E-Class or BMW 5-Series. Diesel cars in this class, like the A6, start in £28,000.00 region. The Epica diesel starts at £14,595 – HALF THE PRICE.

Anyway, I’m back blogging. Be back soon.

Regards
Ralph
RalphSpence@chevroletreviewsandprices.co.uk