I've posted a few messages already, but thought I'd pop in here and introduce myself officially :)

I currently drive a Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 motobility lease hire vehicle - My daugher (now 22 yrs old) is severely mentally and physically handicapped, so although the Zafira is a gutless wonder (o-60 in about 3 months), it does everything that we need.... But I'm getting sick and tired of motobility finance constantly wanting repairs done immediately, rather than leaving minor stuff until it's near the end of the hire agreement - My car needs a lot of minor scratches sorting, which I'm happy to do, but would prefer to leave it until a month or so before the vehicle was due for change as mine seems to attract the dumb supermarket parkers like flies! You know the idiots that prang your car when it's parked and the promptly drive off leaving you with the bill!

Anyway, because of all that, I've been giving serious consideration to buying my own car again after a break of 15 years.... Only two cars really appealled to me in my £4000 maximum price bracket, the Vauxhall Omega and the Volvo V70.

The V70 is a lovely car, but my £4000 would only get me an early one, and the front tyre wear and other issues put me off it - Reliabilty is my prime concern, so why go for a car thats 10 years old when I can buy an Omega that's only 4-5 years old?

So it looks like the decision is made, thanks to the people on here who have been extremely generous in answering my basic questions - Cheers guys!

I have a year to find the car I really want, so I'm not in a position of having to buy the first one that comes along - I have the luxury of being able to take my time and choose the best I can find in that time....

Anyway, enough or this will get boring!

Thanks to everyone for the real welcome I've received in the few days I've been here..

Regards
Eddy

An official welcome to the site :)

Good luck with your car hunting.

Welcome to the forum Eddie.   :y  :y
A year should give you more than enough time to find the dream barge!
Good luck in your hunt!

Thanks guys....

Yes I hope to find something really nice in the next year - Of course, if anyone sees something within my £4000 price range a heads up would be appreciated, but remember it MUST be an estate!

Regards
Eddy

Welcome to the forum :y

Hi & welcome Eddy,
When I went for my most recent motability car (Oct 2000) I tried desperately to get a Omega estate under the scheme, but they just wouldn't do it - the depreciation was too high & ate away all their profits  :'(
The best VX could offer me was a 1.8 Zafira, the test drive was fun  ::) salesman had to change his underwear very shortly after  ;D

Then I heard about the new Mondeo, placed my order through motability for the 2.0 Zetec Auto Estate, Oct 30th & got my car 6 months to the day later, impressed>? NOT  :o
One of life's biggest mistakes for me I'm afraid, another lesson learnt the hard way  :'(

The good news - 3 years later - I found just what I wanted, a 3 year old Omega 2.6 CDX, FSH & excellent nick, 94k miles & 1/5 of new price!  8-) I've been a lot happier ever since :)

Good luck with your search, they are out there, I searched Autotrader etc etc, & ended up getting mine only 60 miles from home, the local 2nd hand car place wanted £3k more for the same year & spec!

Best wishes to your daughter too, she deserves a nice comfortable car to be driven in - I'm sure.

John

Hi Eddy & welcome :)

Welcome & happy Omega motoring  :y   http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n21/iggy21_2006/drive.gif

Hi Eddy and welcome to the forum :y

A big thankyou once again for the warm welcome guys...

Yes John (kjon51), I agree with you. The more I think about motobility finance and the way they do things, the more I'm convinced that buying my own vehicle is the better option.

Regards
Eddy

Hello Eddy and good luck - remeber when you find one, post the link in General Chat as everyone here always likes to share their opinions - and you never know some may help  ;)

Hello & Welcome, an Omega will be ideal huge estate for not huge cash.

Which engine are you after?

Martin Imber wrote on 13. Jan 2007 at 21:12:

Hello & Welcome, an Omega will be ideal huge estate for not huge cash. Which engine are you after?

I was originally thinking of a diesel, but the more I think about it the more I think I might go for a 2.6 V6. Ideally with an lpg conversion, but even that isn't essential as I could save the money and have a new system fitted in about 12 months - I've even tracked down a company that will fit one locally.

Regards
Eddy

Hello & welcome  :)

Hi and welcome to the Fourm Eddie :y

Howdoo Eddy.  Welcome to the forum.  Good luck with the car search, if you are patient then no doubt the right combination of estate/engine/fuel/price will present itself sometime.  Hope your daughter enjoys her new chariot.

cheers

B

Hi Eddy and welcome aboard. :y Good luck with the car purchase - you should be able to get a really decent Omega for that sort of money. :)

Hello and welcome :y

Welcome to the site Eddie   :)

Eddy Matthews wrote on 13. Jan 2007 at 21:17:

Martin Imber wrote on 13. Jan 2007 at 21:12: Hello & Welcome, an Omega will be ideal huge estate for not huge cash. Which engine are you after? I was originally thinking of a diesel, but the more I think about it the more I think I might go for a 2.6 V6. Ideally with an lpg conversion, but even that isn't essential as I could save the money and have a new system fitted in about 12 months - I've even tracked down a company that will fit one locally. Regards Eddy

The 2.6 is a good engine, very smooth and quite powerful, it does work well with LPG, what system would they fit?

Martin Imber wrote on 15. Jan 2007 at 18:01:

The 2.6 is a good engine, very smooth and quite powerful, it does work well with LPG, what system would they fit?

It would be either an SGI or VSI system - Not that it means a damned thing to me! :)

Regards
Eddy