Why is it...

Mr Benevolent

...that most people buy cars without knowing the first thing about the car they're buying? Let's take a '00 Polo. A bag of ****e, right? Fine. So why do people insist on buying them? Let's face it, most of them are knackered, so they're not cheap own in the long run. Take another example - an '01 Laguna. You'd need mechanic driving around with you in the car, just in case.

Why oh why do people refuse to do the slightest research when buying a car, new or secondhand? Obviously that doesn't apply to us Motors regulars, hell I'm even researching the automatic Corsa my girlfriend just inherited. To be frank, it seems to have the most unreliable autobox ever designed (manual box with an automatic clutch), but I'm researching it anyway, just to make sure I know the potential problems and how to fix them cheaply.

Considering a car is the biggest frequent purchase most people make, why the ignorance?

Max_Damage

From working in retail, I've come to this conclusion: The general public are stupid and completely ignorant.

andyseadog

people make their first preference looks.

after that comes reliability, service costs etc

johnos1984

I'm sure this thread will end up getting locked but I find people just become headless at times and ignore the bleeding obvious at all times in life.

Buying a car is just an expensive way to get caught out.

And when more than two people go car shopping together.....

Anan1

I reckon a lot of it can be put down to simple disinterest. Most people buy a car the way I buy a new television - a couple of hours of research and bang it's done.

david

Confab wrote: »

...that most people buy cars without knowing the first thing about the car they're buying? Let's take a '00 Polo. A bag of ****e, right? Fine. So why do people insist on buying them? Let's face it, most of them are knackered, so they're not cheap own in the long run. Take another example - an '01 Laguna. You'd need mechanic driving around with you in the car, just in case.

Why oh why do people refuse to do the slightest research when buying a car, new or secondhand? Obviously that doesn't apply to us Motors regulars, hell I'm even researching the automatic Corsa my girlfriend just inherited. To be frank, it seems to have the most unreliable autobox ever designed (manual box with an automatic clutch), but I'm researching it anyway, just to make sure I know the potential problems and how to fix them cheaply.

Considering a car is the biggest frequent purchase most people make, why the ignorance?

Is it the 3 cyl 1.0? I could write a book about that engine.

Midnight_EG

I think the easiest way to answer this will be to generalise a lot to be honest.

For example...most young people are going to buy sub 1.4l cars for insurance reasons. This includes Polo's, Golf's and Micras etc.

Young women may only look at the outside of a car and how cute or beautiful it is, such as a Hyundai Coupe or a Mini Cooper and not care about the internals...just looks.

Young men generally want a relatively powerful, 2l and under performance car, such as Glanzas, Civics, Integras and other such 'boy racer' cars. Some of these may actually care about the state of the car and will want to check out the engines and underbody...or else they'll just hop in it and rag it.

Getting older, it's hard to generalise because people simply move on from what they were...their car choices get skewed and can sometimes take a massive jump, such as a pretty young woman in her Micra hops into a 3 Series BMW or a young boy racer goes from his Glanza to an A4 and drives within limits.


Then we have the enthusiasts...well they're a different breed :P



Mods, delete if necessary, not sure if I can post this without seeming a bit... against the charter?

Anan1

Midnight_EG wrote: »

Young women may only look at the outside of a car and how cute or beautiful it is, such as a Hyundai Coupe or a Mini Cooper and not care about the internals...just looks.

I actually think men are just as guilty in this regard as women - they just buy a BMW 318Ci or an Audi TT instead.

Midnight_EG

Midnight_EG wrote: »

Mods, delete if necessary, not sure if I can post this without seeming a bit... against the charter?

They're not (quite) that bad in fairness :pac:

johnos1984

RoverJames wrote: »

They're not (quite) that bad in fairness :pac:

How many times have they left you back in now

Anan1

RoverJames wrote: »

They're not (quite) that bad in fairness :pac:

I'd have had him.:D

Mr Benevolent

david wrote: »

Is it the 3 cyl 1.0? I could write a book about that engine.

Nope, the 1.2.

Nonoperational

There is an awful lot of ****e spouted about certain cars too. Saying the 2000 polo is ribbish is very unfair. To give the other side of the coin, I learned to drive in a 2001 1.4L 8v seat Ibiza. Never gave a moments bother until we got rid of it with 120,000 miles on it. My mother had it from new. Great little car.

I bought my own car then, a 2001 1.4 civic which was an inferior car to the iniza in every possible way. Rubbish to drive and very uncomfortable.

My mother drives a 2005 1.2 3 cylinder Ibiza now and has done for about 5 years. 70k miles up on it, both brothers learned to drive in it and it's had a seriously hard life. Still perfect though. Drove it recently, grand for what it is. The 1.2 3 cylinder is slow but you could put in a 3.2V6 in there and she wouldn't know the difference. Complete different mentality to people like us who care about what they drive.

It seems to be the cool thing to do on the motors forum now to rubbish certain fundamentally good cars, especially VWs. Then on the other hand if someone asks for a recommendation for a 2 door supercar they get 10 people telling them to buy an Octavia because it's great and has a big boot. It gets a bit tiresome after a while...people have agendas and notions about what other people should do and like and throw the toys out of the pram when they are disagreed with!

People think about Cars very differently to enthusiasts. They have preconceived notions about what they want and it's hard to change. I realise on reading back the thread that my reply might be missing the point of what you were saying OP and if it is please ignore my rantings!

2001 civic rubbish to drive? Did you buy a heap or was it fine and you just didn't rate it?

KamiKazi

Anan1 wrote: »

I'd have had him.:D

Not a mod anymore? How come, tired of handing out ridiculous bans for idiotic reasons?

Gary ITR

Anan1 wrote: »

I'd have had him.:D

He'd start PM'ing essays, so not worth it


I bought my last car without knowing the last thing about it, in fact I pm'd the seller asking the bottom line price, he sent it back and my reply was 'ok I'll take it', he made me have a test drive first lol

andyseadog

It seems to be the cool thing to do on the motors forum now to rubbish VWs.

its like the honda drivers thing from a few years ago.

most vw (diesel) drivers seem to think the cars are the be all and end all. really the cars arent amazing quality, and dont even half live up to the credit they are given in most cases.

im not going to rubbish vw's but they are over rated and average at best

Senna

A motoring forum is probably the worse place to ask this question, everyone on here has an interest in cars and we start researching our "new" car 6 months before we buy one:D

But i bought a washing machine last week, went into currys and picked one after 3 minutes of looking. I'm sure there's a washing machine forum somewhere ridiculing people who buy Hotpoint SD786, cause everyone know the Electrilux TG897687 is far better.

KamiKazi

KamiKazi wrote: »

Not a mod anymore? How come, tired of handing out ridiculous bans for idiotic reasons?

Bit below the belt that is, a very decent mod he was. Most of the time :pac:

Nonoperational

RoverJames wrote: »

2001 civic rubbish to drive? Did you buy a heap or was it fine and you just didn't rate it?

I thought it was very uncomfortable, very bad on rough roads and I was expecting the 1.4 to be a bit better than it was. I bought it because I thought it was cool and it was a mistake. But then I couldn't afford the Vti or Type R which were different cars altogether. They were what I wanted and I couldn't rate the bog standard 1.4.

andyseadog wrote: »

its like the honda drivers thing from a few years ago.

most vw (diesel) drivers seem to think the cars are the be all and end all. really the cars arent amazing quality, and dont even half live up to the credit they are given in most cases.

im not going to rubbish vw's but they are over rated and average at best

For a while alright the T and red Di boys thought they were the business but to be fair the 1.9 TDi engines before the mid 2000s were pretty solid lumps. And for 90bhp they felt a bit faster then they were.

Voodoomelon

Midnight_EG wrote: »

Young men generally want a relatively powerful, 2l and under performance car, such as Glanzas, Civics, Integras and other such 'boy racer' cars.

If anything, I think you'll find young men aren't after that kind of car at all. Only a select few want those kind of cars, most young men are after diesel saloons and hatchbacks for some reason, usually german.

But it all comes down to how much people know about cars. In terms of men, you have your petrol head who knows exactly what they want and will just go out and buy it based on lots of research; they do their homework.

Then you have men who know a little about cars, ie, what a badge or model signifies and they make their decision based on that, typically ill-conceived notions that a certain brand is better than another or a diesel/small engined car is infinitely cheaper to run that a petrol/larger engined car.

Then you have men who know little to nothing about cars and as mentioned above will purchase on a whim, much like a tv set. They don't care enough about the car or cars in general to do any kind of reading up on it.

Then you have all women in general who have as little interest in cars as the type of man above who has little interest. There will be some women who know a little about engine choices etc, but I have yet to meet one. Reliability and the mechanical aspect of things I would imagine are right down the bottom of the list when a woman buys a car. Style, desirability, image, colour etc would be far more predominant, much like they are the bottom of the list when a man dresses himself in the morning.

Gary ITR

KamiKazi wrote: »

Not a mod anymore? How come, tired of handing out ridiculous bans for idiotic reasons?

And you just got banned for that one

andyseadog

:eek:

Gary ITR

Senna wrote: »

But i bought a washing machine last week, went into currys and picked one after 3 minutes of looking. I'm sure there's a washing machine forum somewhere ridiculing people who buy Hotpoint SD786, cause everyone know the Electrilux TG897687 is far better.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1044

Nonoperational

I wish I could be a mod and ban annoying people :-)

caesar

Confab wrote: »

..... why the ignorance?

See below.

Anan1 wrote: »

I reckon a lot of it can be put down to simple disinterest. Most people buy a car the way I buy a new television - a couple of hours of research and bang it's done.

Senna wrote: »

A motoring forum is probably the worse place to ask this question, everyone on here has an interest in cars and we start researching our "new" car 6 months before we buy one:D

But i bought a washing machine last week, went into currys and picked one after 3 minutes of looking. I'm sure there's a washing machine forum somewhere ridiculing people who buy Hotpoint SD786, cause everyone know the Electrilux TG897687 is far better.

It’s really that simple.

Marketing....well I really mean branding has a lot and I mean a lot to do with it.

In general some people also think their smart consumers with their hours of research....the thing is at some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in. I have fallen into this trap, e.g. spending hours looking at the specs of different laptops when in reality there is only a 50 quid each way difference and all I do is internet browsing, use word etc., watch the odd film. It really makes no odds, the value of my own time has been wasted for the most part and the difference I'd probably blow on a night out.

Applies in some respects when buying a car as well...for some people that is.

Gary ITR

caesar wrote: »

See below.





It’s really that simple.

Marketing....well I really mean branding has a lot and I mean a lot to do with it.

In general some people also think their smart consumers with their hours of research....the thing is at some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in. I have fallen into this trap, e.g. spending hours looking at the specs of different laptops when in reality there is only a 50 quid each way difference and all I do is internet browsing, use word etc., watch the odd film. It really makes no odds, the value of my own time has been wasted for the most part and the difference I'd probably blow on a night out.

Applies in some respects when buying a car as well...for some people that is.

I dunno, like I outlined above I did bugger all research. I knew I was buying a good car which was mechanically sound but other than that I knew feck all about it, half the fun for me was finding stuff out while I owned it

ThisRegard

Confab wrote: »

Obviously that doesn't apply to us Motors regulars,

This right there is the problem a lot of people have with the Motors forum. While there are some very knowledgeable people around here there's an awful lot of ****e talk taking as gospel, dated pub talk such as never buy a Fiat as it will disintegrate into rust around your feet etc etc with no interest in listening to actual facts from elsewhere.

Mr Benevolent

ThisRegard wrote: »

This right there is the problem a lot of people have with the Motors forum. While there are some very knowledgeable people around here there's an awful lot of ****e talk taking as gospel, dated pub talk such as never buy a Fiat as it will disintegrate into rust around your feet etc etc with no interest in listening to actual facts from elsewhere.

True, but few listen to that stuff. Thanks to this and other fora I'll never buy the following:

Any Volvo
Any Saab
Any pre-07 Opel
Any Mercedes between 1995 and 2005
Most Volkswagens (except the Phaeton)
Megane I/II
Punto 2 16V (or is it the 8V? I get mixed up.)
407
206
307
Micra K12
Primera
Almera
Avensis (boredom factor)
IS200
IS220D
Any bog-spec model

Confab

Confab wrote: »

True, but few listen to that stuff. Thanks to this and other fora I'll never buy the following:

................Any bog-spec model

:eek: This and other fora have not served you well so

dgt

If one wants to buy a second hand car, best source out an enthusiast of the model in question, or stick with the one make of car they know is good for them. Naturally everyone elses opinion will differ, some relevant and factual, some got theyre opinions from toilet paper used to wipe theyre arse...

Glowing

I was just about to jump in there all defensive of the ladies, but in this instance I'll have to agree. I don't claim to know a lot about cars, though I'm learning a by the day - but i'm the ONLY one out of my circle of female friends who have any interest at all in what I drive and how it works under the bonnet!

Reliability, practicality and price (followed by style) are the priorities for the majority of my mates, in particular those with kiddies or packs of dogs to cart around. Nothing wrong with that either though

padma

I had a purple renault clio before, first phone call, from a girl,

Girl " is it purple?"
me "yes"
Girl " can I buy it?"
Me "yes"
Sold within half an hour,
I had to test drive it for her just to show her it had a good little engine on it. Hope she learned how to drive in it and felt like the bees knees :pac:

VolvoMan

Anan1 wrote: »

I actually think men are just as guilty in this regard as women - they just buy a BMW 318Ci or an Audi TT instead.

When I meet a guy that says he would rather have the likes of a 318i/Ci with an M-Pack than a T5 I usually feel like punching him in the face.

johnos1984

VolvoMan wrote: »

When I meet a guy that says he would rather have the likes of a 318i/Ci with an M-Pack than a T5 I usually feel like punching him in the face.

In fairness ones a coupe and ones a saloon

But seeing as I like saloons I know where my money is

feelites

polo hatch 00 is not bad at all, low fuel consumption, low tax, low insurance, quite reliable so people buys it

lagunas.. they buys it because its modern looking cheap car...



i wonder other thing, why 80% of irish youngsters buy them raw rattle boxes called civics??

Testament1

feelites wrote: »

i wonder other thing, why 80% of irish youngsters buy them raw rattle boxes called civics??

Because VTi, SiR and Type R Civics are pretty damn good cars with cheap reliable performance. Others will buy the 1.4, 1.5 models because they like the style of the Civic but due to reasons such as high insurance costs cant yet afford to buy the performance models. BTW I've never owned a Civic in case you think thats skewing my view of them but I have driven mates VTi's and SiR's before and they are pretty impressive cars.

Mr Benevolent

RoverJames wrote: »

:eek: This and other fora have not served you well so

No, I mean that I'll never buy a base spec car. Mid spec or above for me.

andyseadog

feelites wrote: »

i wonder other thing, why 80% of irish youngsters buy them raw rattle boxes called civics??

because theres some strong pull off the vtec :rolleyes:














*waits for angry responses*

good engines, good cars, got a bad name

Bigus

padma wrote: »

I had a purple renault clio before, first phone call, from a girl,

Girl " is it purple?"
me "yes"
Girl " can I buy it?"
Me "yes"
Sold within half an hour,
I had to test drive it for her just to show her it had a good little engine on it. Hope she learned how to drive in it and felt like the bees knees :pac:

Yeah but sure it'd be worth fixing a purple one, even if it was rubbish !



Q:
What's the difference between Pink and Purple ?

Answer;





GRIP:eek:

kyote00

In fairness, one cylinder machines are pants and white is so last decade....

Senna wrote: »

But i bought a washing machine last week, went into currys and picked one after 3 minutes of looking. I'm sure there's a washing machine forum somewhere ridiculing people who buy Hotpoint SD786, cause everyone know the Electrilux TG897687 is far better.

andyseadog

kyote00 wrote: »

In fairness, one cylinder machines are pants and white is so last decade....

white is soooooooooo back in

Stheno

The bf's wishlist for his last car was:

1. Black.
2. Big enough for the kids stuff, and to hold a wheelchair if his Mum was visiting.
3. NCTed for as long as possible.

That was it, three weeks later, I'd finished going through different options with him and finalised it down to three different cars.

Went down to test drive one (5 year old C5, 1 owner, no NCT, tb changed etc relevant to the mileage), had a chat with the dealer (turned out I knew his son), did a deal dependant on it passing the NCT and a missing rear door handle being rectified.

Deal done, bf arrived down a week later, handed over the cash, signed the relevant forms and drove away

He's a heavy foot, and the clutch went on it (known failure on older C5's) but that aside, he does low mileage, and he's had very few problems with it, gets it serviced every year (mileage less than 12k a year) and generally doesn't really think about the car and it's servicing etc unless prompted.

Don't think it's a gender thing, I've known a fair few blokes who through sheer neglect/couldn't carelessness about their cars have wrecked them, women can be the same.

I'm not a massive car person, but I do like them and don't want constant hassle, so I do tend to look into what might go wrong when I buy one.

Current car is a now 10 year old Alfa 156, bought it from a colleague nearly three years ago, one owner from new, fsh, well treated, pretty much everything that should go wrong in that time has gone wrong, but I expected it, and have doubled the mileage on it since I've had it, think that's a big difference if you look into a car, buying an older car you should expect and know what could go most commonly wrong. Just last week I was down talking to my mechanic chatting about the next service it needs, and mentioning a few bits and pieces extra I'd like him to check.

Expecting to buy an older car and have it run like a dream is a bit unrealistic tbh.