Car Comparison or Car Reviews?

When I started making car comparisons on carbuyersinfo I added my own little car reviews to the data. I would check the figures, carefully go over them and highlight similarities and differences I considered important.

Then I thought to myself, am I putting on people my 43 years experience selling cars – being Mr KnowItAll? So I stopped making my appraisals.

I thought I’d simply present the data as a car comparison for visitors to appraise for themselves.  They could look, study and consider their findings their very own. 

A year ago I immediately came under fire for this. I’ve been told car buyers are not practiced, they buy every 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years and welcome help and advice. They say my experience is valid. I’ve still resisted for a year.

However, a lot has changed over the past year. New models have been introduced. New car prices have rocketed by 10% at a guess. Engines have been tweaked to change mpg, emissions and performance. Safety has improved.

That’s a bone of contention – same engine, different chips, same cost, different price – not Nissan, Toyota or Suzuki though, amongst others.

This all needs pointing out.

As I’ve little more to do than change the data, I’ve formatted car comparisons as car reviews by adding my pennies worth to show I’ve evaluated and examined the data myself.

I’ve tried to compare cars side by side to show similarities in cars prices. Similarities and differences in car dimensions. I’ve greatly improved comparisons for mpg, emissions and performance and their significance.

I’m resisting getting angry about chipping engines and only offering them as buyers are walked up the trim options and price range. I think it’s obvious when you look at comparatively straight forward model ranges.

I hope it’s OK

Regards
Ralph

Real Reasons to Change Your Car – At Last

Over the past decade there’s not really been any good reason to change your car. Cars are durable and reliable these days so you can hold onto it, get your money’s worth and dilute the horror of depreciation.

There’s wasn’t any real improvement in cars’ styling, comfort, performance or economy. Safety and emissions have improved.

Things have changed recently – even leapt forward.

In the early 90s a small car with a 1.2 petrol engine returned something like a combined mpg of about 47 mpg at best. It was the same in 2006/7, although emissions had improved. Now, they’re achieving much higher figures.

Fiesta 51.4, Corsa 53.3, Polo 51.4, Suzuki Swift 56.5 (46 around town), Toyota Yaris 54.3 mpg. Plus many of these cars have CO2s under 120 and respectable performance.

Another good reason to consider a change is improvements in car safety. Prior to 2006 the best most small cars achieved in Euro NCAP tests was 4-stars – good frontal protection, poor side protection. Many only achieved 3-stars making seat belts and airbags pointless. Also ABS and ESP were not standard.

Now, ABS is standard which helps prevent an accident. ESP is standard on a Swift as it will be on all cars late 2011. ESP is a major leap forward in accident prevention. And new models all appear to be 5-star Euro NCAP rated, giving you better side protection.

So, improved fuel economy, emissions and safety might be good reasons to part-exchange your old shed of a car.

Be careful if tempted by small car diesel engine options. You have to calculate if the savings in mpg will more than pay back the extra price you pay for a diesel car and diesel fuel. Diesels emit particles which are not town friendly.

There’s also the bonus of 5 or more years warranty with some manufacturers. This helps predict and fix your costs. When you buy a new car you’re subscribing to fixed costs you can do little about – servicing, replacement parts, insurance, VED, fuel – only car insurance is negotiable.

However, those costs could be considerably lower than your present car if you pick the right replacement.

You can make car comparisons over on carbuyersinfo.

Regards
Ralph
To help find the best car for you we measure up each car make, model, body, trim, engine & transmission. We compare car measurements, performance, fuel economy, and CO2 emissions figures. Also side by side are safety and car insurance groups. It could help Save You Time & £££s in running costs.

What Do You Do When You Make a Car Comparison With NO Difference?

I’m in the process of updating carbuyersinfo car comparisons manually – for many reasons not explained here.

One reason is I personally get to see differences and similarities – I’m not a ‘bot. To a robot a difference is a difference. They don’t understand similarities or significance.

I’ve been concentrating on Ford Fiesta comparisons – by demand.

If you compare a Fiesta with a Mazda2 or the new VW Polo, you don’t get any significant differences on paper to make real on-the-road differences.

It’s coming down to style, comfort as personal tastes and price. But all the prices are the same.

It’s like lorries.

The only real difference between a Fiesta and Polo is Polo’s BlueMotion and GTi. Ford concentrate on Focus performance. I think wisely because Clio and Corsa performance is getting too wild.

So here’s the message. If a car is of a similar size, engine options, economy, emissions and performance, as they are, subject to style, comfort – your shout – hammer the price.

Over four decades I was a car salesperson and never understood why one size engine cost more than another. They simply manufacturer a different bore in the block and make the pistons and maybe rods a slightly different size – NOT at a different cost.

Now they’re selling the same size engine in a different state of tune at a different price at – NO extra cost to them – but a different price to us.

Why can’t they do like Nissan and Suzuki and give us the best they can – today – at THE ONE PRICE. Some manufacturers only have one standard – their best.

You maybe won’t have heard an old story about IBM ordering a shipment from Japan and stating they’ll only accept a specified percentage of faulty goods. They were shipped goods with 100% quality. A parcel followed with the faulty goods and a note questioning why IBM would want them.

That kind of arrogance – being right and knowing you’re right – has served liked minded manufacturers. The problem is when you get so big a percentage must leak – Toyota’s and accelerator mechanisms.

I’m rambling. Modern cars of the same class are so similar. They’re the same price range. Where can you get something different?

I’m going into this in-depth later, but how is it you get one engine size in different states of tune/chip at different prices? Suzuki don’t do that. Mazda don’t. They give you one engine in what they think is the most appropriate state. You maybe know Suzuki could deliver an engine in a crazy wild performance state – they must think it’s not appropriate, wise.

Meantime, just keep saying you can buy something somewhere else cheaper.

It maybe OK to sell a cosmetic at one price in one package and sell the same in a different package at a higher price. Cosmetics cost tens or hundreds of pounds. Car cost tens of thousands of pounds, even hundreds of thousands.

Buyers want the best product at the best price – naturally. It’s important with motoring – a car can take 25% of your take home pay! Yep, depreciation, interest, VED, insurance, petrol, maintenance, replacement tyres, brakes, exhaust, etc, etc, etc.

Fact is most cars in the same class are similar so let’s have the best price pending a better car.

I should say I like all the above mentioned cars. It’s just the marketing pricing and promotion of difference that pee’s me off.

It grieves me to say as a lifetime salesperson, you’ve got to go in there and negotiate, go for their eyes, throat, heart. You are talking about significant amounts of take-home pay and a subscription to costs for insurance, VED, petrol, servicing, replacement parts – you have a lifetime value.

Regards
Ralph

Caution When Making a Car Comparison for mpg

Today, I updated the car comparison for Mazda2 vs Ford Fiesta. They’re  so similar in size, fuel consumption, and emissions, which only leaves style, comfort and price to decide with.

However, when making a car comparison I have heard buyers talk about insignificant differences in fuel consumption as being an advantage. It’s worth remembering DVLA figures are lab’ tests and not what you’ll likely achieve on the road. They’re for the purpose of comparison.

An important point the DVLA make is it’s not advisable to rank a number of cars with very similar figures. They don’t say what they mean by similar. But people do this.

For example a Ford Fiesta 1.2 does 38 mpg around town, a Mazda2 1.3 achieves 40.9 mpg. The combined figures are 51.4 and 54.3 mpg. Would you call the difference significant and likely to be achieved on the road?

The Mazda2 is a bit quicker but that depends on who’s driving. The fastest cars on the road appear to be Kangoo diesel vans.

The good news when cars are so similar you can decide on the basis of style, comfort and price.

The caution is be careful about making decisions based on mpg when figures are similar. What’s important is once you’ve decided on a car you’re stuck with the fuel costs and there’s nothing you can do to significantly change your mpg.

Similar cars have similar mpg figures. You have to check though. In other words it’s the size and type that make the difference – small to large, hatch, estate, 4×4, MPV, petrol or diesel, manual or automatic.

When I say you’ll have to check, you’d be surprised at the mpg some large, automatic, estate and MPV cars achieve nowadays. It’s worth making comparisons.

Regards
Ralph

How To Make A Car Comparison

Have I got this right? You go to a car showroom and you want to know what you’re getting for your money and how much you’ll have to pay for it. You don’t want to get ripped off, do you?

Well, the car salesperson will be glad to meet and greet you. Say you go to the master seller, Ford. You want a new Fiesta and to know what you’ll get. They’ll talk about the Fiesta Studio, Edge, Econetic, Zetec and Titanium. They’ll talk any money from 10 to 15 grand.

Renault talk Extreme to Initiale and RenaultSport. Vauxhall, Expression to SRi and VXR. Out in the Far East they just ship the full spec’.

What this does is distract from a car’s fundamental features – performance, versatility, comfort, durability, reliability, style, prestige, economy and safety.

These values were confirmed in an NCAP survey carried out by Mori. From memory, NCAP were pleased to find subject to a car fitting a buyer’s life (versatility) and budget (economy) they next considered safety.

Performance and reliability were then thought important.

The sample denied style and prestige were important! Let’s get this out-of-the-way. There’s little difference in cars of the same class so it can come down to style.

Comfort wasn’t mentioned. However, in my four decade experience comfort can be the main source of dissatisfaction when chatting about a buyer’s part-exchange.

Let’s formulate how you make a car comparison:

1. Size’n'Style – big estate car, huge 4×4, tiny city car, medium family saloon, compact MPV.
2. Interior space, comfort – versatility.
3. Driving performance, comfort.
4. Economy of cost, fuel, VED, insurance, servicing.
5. Safety.

Personally, I think durability and reliability are for pundits with their stories of problems, pains and pitfalls.

Size, Interior, Driving, Economy, Safety = S.I.D.E.S., easy to remember. They’re the fundamental features to compare when you make a car comparison.

Regards
Ralph

Car Comparison Sites Changes

Carbuyersinfo car comparisons were designed to be quick and easy. I thought visitors had little patience, weren’t interested in BS, adjectives and superlatives, so I kept it simple.

However, visitors spend four times the amount on a product pages than I think necessary to select a comparison. Same goes on each comparison page. It appears they actually read whole pages judging by the time they spend on them.

I’ve always believed if a person is interested in something they will read volumes about it but I didn’t want to be too interrupting. The idea was visitors discovered if there was any interest then they could research in the real world at their local dealer.

So if visitors want to read it, I’ll write it. I’m making changes to my car comparisons sites pages. There’ll be more detail about car price ranges and I’ve made a start adding more detail to car fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and performance figures plus car dimensions.

Recently I listed all these efficiency figures for small cars on one page. I’ll be taking a slightly different approach with MPV cars and estate cars assuming capacity and versatility are important when deciding if a car fits your lifestyle.

My most visited pages are nothing like the top 10 best sellers in the UK. My most compared car is the Suzuki Swift. OK, very closely followed by the Fiesta, but also the Micra and Jazz. So they’re places to start changes.

I’ll get back to you.

Regards
Ralph

Looking for a New Renault Scenic for sale – Top Tips

My last post suggested you should look for the very deepest discount in a new car. The problem is if you’re looking for a new Renault Scenic – especially Grande – for sale you’ve got a problem.

Ideally Renault only make cars to order – not for stock. Renault dealers – generally – are not holding old pre-price increase stock. So it’s difficult to find, albeit spoof, deep discounts.

If you’re looking for a new Renault Scenic for sale chances are you could be looking at a new year delivery and maybe a new increased price.

What to do?

Bear in mind a Renault Grand Scenic has a max’ load capacity over 2,000 litres and challenges larger more expensive MPV cars. It’s why they’re in demand. MPV cars are heavily searched on the ‘net according to my stats.

But try for a deep discount! If you have a versatile MPV or estate car part-exchange that’s clean and saleable then ask the earth for it. Calculate the value of any finance deals.

Here are a couple of tips.

Renault have their own retail group. The most successful – last I heard - was Renault Croydon. Phone Dan the new car sales manager and say ‘that Legend Ralph suggested you ring, what can you do?’

There’s an alternative. Renault run an employees scheme. It’s great, everyone has a car. Some are pure perks and hardly used. Some are spec’d like christmas trees. They’re then sold on the used car market. They go where they’ll sell – Renault Croydon. Phone Trevor and say, ‘Uncle Ralph sent you. Clever Trevor can save you a fortune in depreciation.

Dan’s – new cars - Tel. Number is 0208 276 4041.

Trevor’s – used cars - Tel. No. is 0208 276 4042.

No, I’m not on commission. They do look after my friends and family. I’ve three brothers and a sister plus my three kids, we’ve a total of fourteen between us. My wife has two brothers and three sisters plus even more kids. If you phone it’s a thank-you from all of them.

Regards
Ralph

What to do about car price increases – new & used

On 9th September 2009 I posted on this blog notice used car prices were going up and to watch out for new car price increases. A couple of days previous to then I warned used cars were in short supply and earlier in March 2009.

Here’s what’s happened recently, what’s happened in the past and may happen in the future.

The bottom fell out of the used car market as of October 2007, long before the full realisation banks were bust in September 2008. My experience over four decades is things happen in the used car market before most other industries.

Low used car prices meant it cost too much money to trade up to a new car. Because the supply of used cars has decreased their prices have since  increased because supply and demand.

New car prices have increased since early 2009. You’ll hear many reasons but the fact is the value Hyundai i30 Estate price range has increased from £13,100 – £16,300 to £13,558 – £17,150. The Renault Scenic price range has increased from £14,000 – £21,300 to £15,520 – £22,670. The Ford Focus entry price has increased from £12,500 to £15,195. A Tiguan which started at £18,600 now starts at £19,765. Sounds crazy when we’re in a recession.

If new car prices continue to increase they could exceed buyers car saving budgets. Then buyers start to jump in. In the 70s some figured the pound in their pocket bought less than it did the previous year and decided to both spend and borrow. If you work out what a £200 re-payment will buy today and what it might buy in the future then payments in years to come are worth less.

New cars can also be promoted by some unbelievable deals. This is because dealers may have stock with several price increases in it. So they can promote huge discounts on current new car prices.

With used cars a manager will no longer have to slash prices to move old stock. They just wait for the value to go up. They will also worry where their next stock is coming from. You may find high part-exchange prices being promoted. Finding clean mpv cars and estate cars 3-years old and older is nigh impossible.

It all sounds messy and something to walk away from. But keep an eye on car prices and inflation because it can devalue your savings. Low rate car finance can be a consideration but I’m not here to encourage borrowing.

If you buy a new car then haggle for the deepest discount possible. Also, if you part-exchange a clean sellable car ask for more than it’s worth. Finding a used car will be hard work but still worthwhile because cars suffer acute depreciation from new. Remember today’s discount is tomorrow’s depreciation. Make sure if you buy near new it really is cheap.

If you do buy a new or used car you’ll add to an increase in car sales. When car sales increase you know good-times are coming.

Best of luck
Ralph
carbuyersinfo car comparison sites – differences and similarities revealed

Skoda Fabia Estate Review – Revealing!

I’ve updated the Fabia Estate Comparisons page on carbuyersinfo by replacing the table of data with a Skoda Fabia Estate Review. Last week I did the same thing for the i30 and created a Hyundai i30 Estate Review.

It struck me they had a similar load space and they’re both known as value brand. So I updated the comparison between the two and tried a new format. The Fabia has a lower entry price. I thought the i30 was fuel efficient but the Fabia is even more so. The Fabia also has the slightly larger load space.

When you compare the Fabia with a Clio Estate, the Fabia is more spacious and thousands cheaper. There’s the same price difference between the Fabia and Peugeot 207 SW.

The shocker is when you compare a Skoda Fabia Estate with an Audi A4 Avant at over twice the price. On paper there’s little difference.

OK the Audi is a premium brand but when value cars like the Hyundai and Skoda of similar size and space have such efficient engines it does make you wonder what the difference is for double the money.

The A4 and Fabia are both on VW Golf platforms.

I was given to believe quality meant meeting people’s’ expectation, first time. With value brands delivering style, space, performance, economy and safety with reports of high-ranking reliability and customer satisfaction it’s maybe time to buy on price – especially with the way things are at the moment.

Regards
Ralph

Is the Best Estate Car Load or Lifestyle?

‘What’s the best estate car,’ is a frequently asked question. I’d normally say the best car is the one that fits both your purpose and purse. Safety is the most important feature once you’ve found a car to fit.  Surveys suggest car buyers then look at performance. They deny being influenced by style and prestige.

When it comes to best estate car, I’ve suggested first settling on a size – small, medium, large and then deciding between value, popular and prestige brands.

However the main benefit of an estate car is its load capacity. Or is it? Many estate cars now have sloping roof lines which limits both load and access. They’re called lifestyle cars in the trade. In other words they’re bought to suggest a lifestyle.

Lifestyle estates only have about 75% capacity compared with more purposeful estates.

It’s interesting that MPV cars are also classed as estates by the DVLA. Some medium size MPVs can equal the load capacity of some large estates and have far cheaper entry prices.

I’ll be looking more closely on carbuyersinfo’s car comparison sites main pages and make sample lists of estate cars by load capacity. I might list MPVs by overall length as the original idea was to have maximum interior space in the most compact size.

Regards
Ralph