The "New" Car

After last week’s escapade selling our old family car I had the slightly more fun task of picking up our new one this week. At least, when I say “new” it is new to us but actually a 3 year old Ford Grand C-Max which is now fully paid for apart from the thundering great personal loan that I’ll be stuck with for the next two years.

The car itself seems fine. The one problem we had is that seven seat MPVs, all the rage a few years ago, are becoming thinner on the ground. Many manufacturers seem to have morphed their MPV offerings into “cross-over” vehicles which incorporate all the compromises of off-road vehicles (increased weight, high centre of gravity, reduced interior space, poor fuel economy and crap handling) with the inability of a standard road car to drive across a field. Maybe I’m exaggerating but I am not really bothered about the styling of this kind of vehicle. I am purely concerned with the practicality.

In terms of pure practicality the Grand C-MAX does a pretty good job of it. Compared to our old Toyota Corolla Verso it has a couple of convenience items missing (no cruise control, and it has manual only air-conditioning) and the seat adjustment isn’t quite as simple but it makes up with it in other areas such as having rear sliding doors and the ability to completely fold away the middle seat so it becomes a 6 seater with easy access to the rearmost seats. It’s also pretty decent to drive for the most part. The only downside for me is that we had to get one with a diesel engine.

There has been much in the news recently about whether diesel vehicles are the major cause of inner city pollution. They are certainly a contributory factor but little is said about whether they are actually suitable for the average motorist. Many are not but, unfortunately, government policy has been promoting them until very recently. The problem for second hand buyers like me is that I am reliant on what was being sold 2 to 3 years ago. Unfortunately, in terms of 7 seat MPVs they were almost all diesel. I checked with our local mechanic to see what he thought of the particular model and he rather put my mind at rest by saying that they find the PSA-Ford engine to be very reliable as long as the oil is regularly changed.

I suppose I should be OK with it as the purchase price was pretty reasonable and the slightly improved fuel consumption should hopefully offset any higher running costs (although, as a bonus, the tax is £125 per year less than our old car). It’s early days so far but the indicated fuel consumption is around 47mpg which is far off from what the manufacturer claimed (60mpg) but still slightly better than our old petrol powered Toyota. I won’t really find out the true cost until it comes to service time or, more worryingly, if one of the many three letter acronyms that come with diesel engines decide to play up. Anyway, by the time we come to replace this car I would be hoping that we could get by with something a bit smaller – hopefully with an electric engine, 2nd hand market allowing.