General Chat

Ten years ago, I took scrappage of £2000 on Fred's car (I didn't tell him!) to buy Moley, my Smart.

I have just seen a Vauxhall advertizement offering £4000 scrappage on new Vauxhalls.

The temptation is there.

We bought a new car in 2009
Hubby was a Ford pensioner so he had a generous discount so a £14000 plus car he got for just over £9500 , a Ford Fiesta Zetec diesel
He gave up driving so it became my car as a named driver

So for insurance needs it was transferred to my name in 2015 after he passed and the insurance renewed

It still only has 24000 plus miles on the clock

Now I look at newer Fords . not such a generous discount , and I would really love a newer one with its built in assets like sat nav ,safe mobile connection etc but am so not wanting to let go of my car as it was “ours” and hubby drove it so it still has his connection

I don’t need a new car cos it’s a lovely car to drive. It’s just as a ten year old car its a bit outdated

It doesn't matter if it is outdated. Think whether you would get any use out of the gizmos. It is a low mileage car so if you like it and it is reliable I would stick with it Shirley.

Thanks Ann

It’s my thoughts too i just get a bit sidetracked when I am in granddaughters new Ford and think this is a really lovely car

The car we have now has things on it which I will never use, hands free mobile phone thing, CD player , heated seats, it does have assisted parking and can apparently parallel park itself, I like the warning sounds that happen if I get to close to something though.

Our other Smart, the four door, has all the gubbins, heated seats, things that bleep when you do something or other, a wheel that has God knows what attachment to it and I don't like it, they are all turned off.

I used to drive an ex-BT Bedford Viva van which was like a motorized shoe box and that is what I want. It had lovely, basic seats that put your back exactly where it needed to be and a nice, big, hard rimmed steering wheel with a couple of dials on the dash.

All you could ever desire, and I still do.

We bought our Subaru Forester in late 2005, although it is actually a 2006 model.

That means it counts as 14 years old. Has no gizmos, except radio with CD player

We have always kept our cars as long as possible ......... the shortest we kept one was bought second-hand in 1967 and we traded it in 1971 for a new Toyota.


We sit in our daughter's 2-3 year old Toyota SUV with rear camera for parking, heated seats, and all the gizmos.

Love riding in it in the winter with the heated seats, wouldn't like to have one.

Anyway, I don't drive!!

OH is 81, and quite happy with our Forester, which is paid off and not costing much in maintenance. Once it does start costing money, we'll get rid of, and not buy another one ................ taxis and public transit will be fine.



One thing to consider is how distracting these gizmos are as we get older ....... OH is finding that he has to pay a little more attention to what is going on with other traffic now.

I find that the gadgets and gizmos are selling points rather than anything useful, well that’s my opinion anyway. :-D

After our car accident, in March 2018, o.h. bought a Kia Picanto. It's a much newer car than we have had for a while. I am on as named driver but just cannot feel confident driving it. Far too many distracting gizmos and the worse part is that I cannot judge the end of the bonnet so it restricts where we go, as I can't share the driving as before.. I am fine driving my old Fiesta (18yrs old) but the steering is heavy and makes my shoulders ache so can't do long journeys now.

Oh to be young and strong!

Lizxx