Guest cgbowser Posted March 14, 2004 Report Posted March 14, 2004 Having now visited the Great Trade Centre in White City and being underwhelmed by the quality of their stock, I am looking at a Ford Direct model, got around 15k to play with but no sign of any diesels. They have quite a few 2.3 Zetec & Ghia up to 15k. Any thoughts on the kind of discount I should be looking for? or do they operate a fixed price thingy? I live about 10 minutes from Prestwood Motors, but most of their stuff is a little too rich for me! Chris Quote
Ivor_E_Tower Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 Ford Direct stuff tends to be only 18 months old at max, mostly well under a year old so they will be outside your budget. Try www.mpvs.co.uk or www.galaxyworld.co.uk (or is that one a ".com"?) Quote
iainkirk Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 www.motorpoint.co.uk have got an 03 reg Zetec diesel in State Blue with 8k miles on for Quote
Guest cgbowser Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 Thanks guys, Off to have a look this afternoon at a 2.3 Ghia 03 reg 6700 miles on it Quote
Richmond Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 Ford Direct stuff tends to be only 18 months old at max, mostly well under a year old so they will be outside your budget. I hesitate to disagree with Ivor, but I paid a Ford main dealer about Quote
Ivor_E_Tower Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 Diesels seem to fetch more whether from Ford Direct, Ford dealers or independent traders. V6's may start off with a much higher list price, but after a few months, they tend to be priced less than the diesels, and the 2.3 petrols are even cheaper.Ford direct stuff sometimes has very low mileage - many have been effectively pre-registered by Ford and have sat on a disused airfield in Cambridgeshire for some months..... Others have been Ford management cars and have perhaps 17,000 miles on the clock. Because they are Ford-owned, they tend to be less than 2 years old. Following the recent facelift, Ford seem to have released quite a number of pre-facelifted used Galaxys into the Ford Direct system..... Quote
iainkirk Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 03 2.3 Ghias on Motorpoint website are around Quote
Guest Actuary Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 I wouldn't touch the Great Trade Centre - they weren't interested in helping out with a car I bought from them (the one with the problem gearbox that took Ford 3 months to source!). I spoke to a lawyer about it a few days ago and he said that - based on the facts as I had given them to him - it was "obvious" that there was a fault with the car when I acquired it. Quote
Guest cgbowser Posted March 15, 2004 Report Posted March 15, 2004 In the end I have bought the a car from Thames Valley Ford. It is an 03 registered april 2003, 2.3 Ghia, 1 owner just past 7000 miles priced at 15999 but got them down to 14999 plus 1 yr RFL and Full tank. Popping back on Sunday with the missus to let her give it a spin, then off to the bank for a bankers draft. I'm looking forward to finally taking possession after a lot of time lurking and reading all the really useful stuff on the site. As for the Great Trade Centre, if you know what you are doing, you should be ok, but if like me you only have a faint idea of what to look for, I think you could get burned. Thanks for the help guys Chris Quote
Richmond Posted March 16, 2004 Report Posted March 16, 2004 Popping back on Sunday with the missus to let her give it a spin, then off to the bank for a bankers draft. A word of warning. We test drove a 2.3, seemed fine to me but my wife decided that she needed a bit more power and that we should buy a V6, which we did, obviously, and we have been paying for it at the pumps ever since. Quote
Ivor_E_Tower Posted March 16, 2004 Report Posted March 16, 2004 ...and keeping the insurance company in profit too, no doubt ;) Quote
Richmond Posted March 16, 2004 Report Posted March 16, 2004 ...and keeping the insurance company in profit too, no doubt ;) It's not too bad ( Quote
Dally Posted March 16, 2004 Report Posted March 16, 2004 Richmond I pay more than twice that for my insurance! Quote
Richmond Posted March 17, 2004 Report Posted March 17, 2004 Dally, Blimey; I can only suggest that you get older. It's easy enough to do, but once you start, you can't stop ;) . If you haven't done so, try Direct Line. To my surprise they are the cheapest I could find for both my cars. I have buildings insurance with them as well, which I think gives a me a small discount. I used them some years ago and made a claim, after which the premiums went through the roof, and I changed. I suspect they are only after (what they perceive to be) pretty low risks. Quote
Denis Posted March 17, 2004 Report Posted March 17, 2004 Richmond, I'm just changing from a 2.3 to a V6, looking at the consumption figures I figured the V6 only used about 10% more? Thought it was worth it, the V6 being more fun to drive. Quote
Dally Posted March 18, 2004 Report Posted March 18, 2004 Denis I changed from a 2.3 to a V6. Felt more than a 10% change - Used to get about 280 miles out of a tank on my 2.3 - get about 210 out of my V6. But I agree, it is worth it for the drive if you aint doing too many miles per annum! Richmond I called virtually every insurance company when I took out insurance and they were all more expensive then Frizzell (Liverpool and Victoria) bar Tesco who were about Quote
Guest nimrod Posted March 18, 2004 Report Posted March 18, 2004 3 points is not normally a problem! most places will let you get away with 6 with only a minimal increase! but its when you have 9 points between you that it get difficult! its then that a few places will refuse to quote you! As for the running costs of a V6 I'm gutted about the increase on fuel in the budget :o means I'l be paying at least 39/40p per litre now :o oh! the joys of LPG :unsure: Quote
Guest cgbowser Posted March 18, 2004 Report Posted March 18, 2004 Got the RAC Report back and they were very happy with the car. There was a bit of trim missing from one of the front fog lights, a couple of stone chips and some marks on one of the seats where a kiddies car seat has been. The RAC guy said it had been serviced in December at 7000 odd miles and the oil was brand new (I didn't ask whether they had overfilled it or not :unsure: ) Garage said they would replace trim. The RAC guy also said he had looked at about 30 cars at the Great Trade Centre and he said they were either very good or extremely bad, and nothing in between. Certainly the ones I saw were pretty scrappy. Just waiting for the loan payment to arrive in the bank then off we go. Typical RAC though he said "You should have the brakes checked as they appear to be working fine but I can't see all of the parts (just covering my back he said)" Cost was Quote
Richmond Posted March 19, 2004 Report Posted March 19, 2004 Richmond, I'm just changing from a 2.3 to a V6, looking at the consumption figures I figured the V6 only used about 10% more? Thought it was worth it, the V6 being more fun to drive. I've no experience of a 2.3. Mine gives about 26 mpg (according to the trip computer) on long motorway runs at highish speed. I dread to think what it's doing around town; about half that I guess. I'm not sure I'd say the V6 was fun to drive, but it's a comfortable car to drive at any speed (within reason; I haven't taken it up to the advertised 135 mph or whatever it's supposed to do; the idea that it would be safe to drive it at anything near that speed, even in the absence of any other traffic, is ridiculous). Quote
Ivor_E_Tower Posted March 19, 2004 Report Posted March 19, 2004 Take it to a track day - I'm sure it's quite safe to drive at 135mph if you can find a long-enough, deserted straight! Quote
Richmond Posted March 19, 2004 Report Posted March 19, 2004 Take it to a track day - I'm sure it's quite safe to drive at 135mph if you can find a long-enough, deserted straight! I think 'straight' is the important word here; taking it round a corner at a third that speed is an interesting operation. Is there a simple upgrade to the suspension etc which makes the thing a bit less like a hippo when cornering at speed, does anyone know? How about a Galaxy race series? The sight of a dozen MPVs wallowing around Brands Hatch would be entertaining; if they can do it with tractor units and caravans, why not with Galaxys? Quote
Guest nimrod Posted March 19, 2004 Report Posted March 19, 2004 It had better be a petrol galaxy only race! imagine the after race chatter in the paddock from all the TDI drivers.......... Well I was showing 34mpg down the back straight before the esses so I throttled off through the bends and it rose to 42 mpg! I was well chuffed but lost three places :P Quote
Richmond Posted March 19, 2004 Report Posted March 19, 2004 If V6s are allowed to enter they'll have to build a petrol station at Hawthorn bend. Quote
Guest nimrod Posted March 19, 2004 Report Posted March 19, 2004 Nah! I wouldnt need it, what with two fuel supplies on board! and if I do stop it will only be to change the DVD or get the aircon re-gassed :P Quote
Guest nelse Posted May 22, 2004 Report Posted May 22, 2004 Back onto the subject of ford direct, some pointers, the availability of the cars on the public site are not always reliable, i bought one and it came up as no longer available almost immediately, but others which seemed available were actually not or at least the dealer said they were'nt. The other point is make a note of any reg numbers of cars your interested in along with prices, but don't tell the dealer, when he does his search get him to print off the details and give you the prices, it's amazing how often a car on the public site suddenly increases by Quote
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