Just popped back in

paininthenuts · Thu Nov 17, 2016 5:34 pm

Well, it's 16 months since I said good bye to the Kizi. I quite often talk about cars to my friends, and am quick to say that the Kizi was my all time favourite toy. I loved it's attitude, and whilst it may not have been the fastest car on the planet, it thought it was, and that's what counted. Being the Sport addition meant it was also the best equipped car I have ever owned. I miss it very much, and always will.

This is what is really annoying. My wife and I retired last year and decided we could manage with one car. She had always dreamed of owning a convertible, and I had bought her one about a year previously. To appease her I decided the best thing was to sell both cars and buy a large convertible, as this appeared to be an obvious answer. I ended up buying a Vauxhall Cascada with a 2 litre 168 BHP diesel engine with loads of torque and great economy. To be fair it is a wonderful car, albeit without as much character as the Kizi. Six months down the line I realised that owning just the one car had become a big problem. She goes to the gym every day, and I play golf at least 4 times a week. I then went out and bought a little used Kia Picanto for the price of a chocolate bar (well almost). I owned it for 6 months and it was a great little car. The other day I spotted an absolute bargain, and couldn't help myself. I purchased a brand new Vauxhall Meriva (picture below) for the bargain price of £8500. This is about 60% of it's value. The Meriva is an MPV, and although not massive, has an enormous amount of room in it for my golf clubs and up to 5 people. I then sold the Kia at a loss. In short, the sale of my Kizi and my wife's old car, and the replacements that have followed have cost me about £15k. What's more, the original combination was arguably as good as what we have now, although they would now be a few years older. Never mind, I can't turn the clocks back now.

Speed_Racer · Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:14 pm

Are those suicide doors??

paininthenuts · Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:22 pm

Speed_Racer wrote:Are those suicide doors??

Yeh, they are brilliant and make getting in the back so much easier. Of course, it's not a great idea opening them whilst driving along. The London taxi still has them

Thu Nov 17, 2016 7:05 pm

Good to hear from you again.
It's interesting to see the vehicle choices you have over in the UK.

Fri Nov 18, 2016 12:17 am

Good to see old people check back in.

That was quite the lineup of vehicles in a short span of time. I wish we had access to the diesel vehicles you have available. They aren't as much fun to drive, but they have a good amount of power and are affordable.

paininthenuts · Fri Nov 18, 2016 9:24 am

Moto wrote:Good to see old people check back in.

That was quite the lineup of vehicles in a short span of time. I wish we had access to the diesel vehicles you have available. They aren't as much fun to drive, but they have a good amount of power and are affordable.

They can be real fun. My friend has a 3.0 diesel Mercedes E class. 0-60 in under 6 seconds and the mid range torque is amazing. It is faster than his Porch boxter

Fri Nov 18, 2016 5:39 pm

Despite the VW Dieselgate, some new diesels are on their way to the US market. The LA Auto Show is going on right now and two new exciting diesels were announced.
One is the Chevy Colorado ZR2 and the other is the all-new Mazda CX-5. Both will be offered with either a gas or diesel engine. Neither are sedans, but I find them quite enticing.

Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:03 am

I will be interested to see the real world US mileage for the CX5. I was impressed with the mileage on my Citroën Cactus in Iceland. never did figure out exactly what I was getting, but I figured it was between 50-65mpg.

It had good power down low, but it was a pig to drive on gravel mountain roads (auto was unable to lock a gear).

Mazda knows how to build gear boxes so I have a feeling it should be a good car.