We are finally getting rid of our Citroen Picasso .... YAYYYYYY!!! I've never really liked them but Mrs eno was rather set on them. I've finally persuaded her ..... along with the fact that we have to tighten our belts  budget wise, that we need to go in another direction.

We lease our cars through Motability.. a scheme which allows disabled people to stay mobile, wether in specially adapted cars or standard cars driven for them by parents or carers (both the kids qualify for the scheme). For a deposit payable up front you get a brand new car every 3 years the size of the deposit is dependant on the type, make and model of the car. Included in the package is all the servicing and repairs including replacement tyres.

Mrs eno wanted to go for another Picasso but with a deposit of nearly £2500 for the base model it was a no go .... and I didn't want to have to deal with the Citroen dealership again.
Looking through the latest deposit price guide I was surprised to find that several Volvo estates fell within our £1800 budget. I was even more surprised to find that a V70 fell well within the budget at just £1500..... even more surprised that it was the R-design V70, admittedly only the 2.0L diesel ..... However on reading the reviews it's a rather good buy. Only a few % less power than the 2.4L diesel but significantly better fuel economy and handling .... as the engine is lighter. Couple this with looks that are rather good ..... especially with the 18in alloys ... sports body kit ... and lowered suspension...  plenty of toys inside as standard..... including leather sports seats, climate control, cruise control, rain sensing  wipers, auto folding wing mirrors and loads more .... and you get plenty of motor for your £1500 deposit.
I know you're all going to say VOLVO  YAWN!! ...... but they have certainly bucked their ideas up since the big square slow boxes driven by old codgers in flat caps clogging up the roads. .... Just look at the T5 driven by the police .... soon to be replaced by the even more fearsome T6.

A few pics .... just to wet the appetite.
Interior

Dash


Front


Rear


Mrs eno rather likes this colour too ....... it'll certainly get us noticed.

I was looking at them, albeit second hand, this time last year when I eventually settled for my Mondeo.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.. and whilst I'm happy with the Ford, looking at the pictures I feel I missed out   

Enjoy, eno

Interesting...as it happens, my 'better' half is also entitled to a vehicle through the motability scheme, and our first 3 years is up on march 2nd this year. We therefore had the difficult choice of choosing our next car in december, although this time our budget was virtualy nothing, unlike 3 years ago, when money really wasnt the issue it is now, and we plumped for a (at the time) top of the range Ford Focus 2.0 Ghia...

My other half has severe back related problems, so the car we choose has to have certain atributes, a saloon is best for lifting of the boot and an auto would be heaven - but it seems saloons are out on the motability scheme, and autos are always £££££...

Our choice was severly limited, rather than a couple of grand, our budget was around £250! That meant looking at other makes rather than ford as they just dont do very good offers unless we wanted a 1.6 focus....

We had looked at volvo amongst others, but the deposits where huge, or not a lot but for a very basic car - or nothing for a lot of car, such as a chevrolet (like the resonably priced car on top gear - ugggh)

We visited our local vauxhall dealer, finding that we could have a Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 for nil deposit...but they where the most unhelpful bunch or whatnots ive ever encounterd. We couldnt even drive a vectra to see if we liked it because they didnt have one. And if we did order it, we couldnt be sure we would get it as there was only '240' in the whole of the UK....

We then ventured to mazda to look at the mazda 3 saloon, but discoverd we could stretch to a mazda 6 TS, £250 deposit. Helpful dealer, had a drive, liked it, ordered it, and collect it on the 2nd of march. And as the mazda 6 is essentaily a mondeo with (in my view) a nicer exterior, i think weve done rather well

todayshorse wrote on Jan 10^th, 2009 at 5:17pm:


Nicer to driver better interior and much more comfortable than the mondeo as well.
Loved the test drive I had in one shame they are quite expensive to insure really.

indeed, we had no idea the 6 was so cheap on the deposit - vauxhall was really a last resort, id driven a friends CDTI Vectra, and although im personaly no fan of vauxhalls it wasnt as bad as i had feared - but with the dealer not letting us have a drive in a 1.8 (admittedly the most powerful 1.8 out there at over 140bhp, it has VVTi) it was a no-no. I got the impression the dealer took the view that as we were getting it for 'free' then it didnt really matter. But as your aware, its certainly not free! And theres no way we would commit to a three year deal without even sitting in one let alone driving one....the interior i feel is the vauxhalls biggest low point, its not nice really!

Mazda couldnt have been more helpful - i was quite suprised! They were a little reluctant to reveal just how much ford is actualy underneath, far more then they were letting on im sure as driving it revealed it to be very 'ford' like in the way it handled and general overall 'feel' - and i havent driven a new mondeo (yet) but our focus gave me enough understanding as to where ford are at and the mazda was very similar.

I really really wanted a diesel but our budget just couldnt stretch to one, and in all honestly we dont do a lot of miles so its not really an issue - maybe next time, as they do a 6 with a 2.2 diesel or somthing, with all the bodykit and extras - looked superb in the showroom!