|
| The quest begins..... |
In Mid October 2010 we were staying near Slough and went for a takeaway.
Across the road was a Ford dealer who had a 10 plate Tourneo on
the forecourt at £18000.
We went for a look.
It looked really good, 900 miles, 6 months old, GLX full spec with all the new features,
140 engine.
So began the long trail to a Caravelle.
There must have been some strange reasons why we would buy such a vehicle
It
seems on the surface totally illogical, but.... |
| What we were looking for ? |
| |
|
| |
Height |
We have become accustomed to driving along with a grand view over other traffic and over the normal hedge height
in the countryside, hence a minimum requirement was a eye height of 1.7 Metres |
| |
|
| |
Comfortable
seating |
We both are prone to back trouble, and have found the Tourneo seating extremely comfortable for long distances |
| |
|
| |
Good
looks |
The new vehicle had not to be ugly.
Ronalda decided that the Tourneo was too "van looking" and wanted something less
aggressive on the eye. |
| |
|
| |
Match our
lifestyle |
We are now early 60s and this car purchase will probably be the last big car we ever buy.
It was going to have to last at least
7 years, do around 200,000 miles with lots of long distance touring.
After that we will re-assess, but probably as our lifestyle
slows down, then our car requirements will be lower. |
| |
|
| |
Budget |
I became obvious that a £18k going to be exceeded unless we bought pre-registered, but we felt that £22k was going to be more
like the outcome, looking at out saving we decided that 23K would be the absolute limit. |
| |
|
|
| Where did we look ?
In late 2010 the quest was on in earnest |
| |
|
|
What was available? |
We started by finding out every vehicle that matched our requirements.
Renault Trafic
Ford Tourneo (already
on the back foot due to its poor looks)
VW Transporter
Hyundai I800 |
| |
|
| |
Renault Trafic |
This car and the dealers did not seem interested in our market. They seemed to be aiming for the low end of the market with
cheap rear seats and very much a taxi/uncouth user market.
There are so many extras to make this up to our standard.
Killer
points, poor interior finish especially lots of exposed metal. No rear AirCon |
| |
|
| |
Hyundai i800 |
Really good car, we were very tempted. It was very quiet inside at 70 mph. The seats and interior were very well finished
and comfortable. I was not sure about rear wheel drive, it seems a little old fashioned and looked crude underneath.
The emissions seemed high and I could not find out if the engine was Euro 5 compliant. Also fuel figures seemed high.
Killer points, too long at 5.125Metres, no cruise control.
|
| |
|
| |
VW Transporter Kombi |
Very likeable van with many factory built options.
It was not as quiet as we expected at 70mph on the motorway, just the same
figures as the Tourneo
But we found we needed to add lots of extras to get what we wanted.
The Shuttle was the same price,
needing quite a few extras to meet what we think we needed. |
| |
|
| |
Mercedes Viano |
What a great car!!! Really well built, felt good, lots of user friendly features.
We did not manage to get a test drive
Killer features, too low, the eye line was 4 inches below the Transporter, 5 inches below the Tourneo. Also I don't think I could
be seem in a Merc!! |
| |
|
| |
The Final Result
Caravelle |
Dig your hands deep into your pockets!!!
We decided to spend our savings and go for a Caravelle Executive 140.
It had most
of the features we felt we needed fitted as standard, several features we thought we did not need, but looking at long term reselling
we decided it was best to have them anyway.
We added Mud flaps, Electric windows, Second battery, DAB Radio Upgrade, Parking
sensors and metallic paint
Job Done
|
| |
|
|
