What makes a great car?

Motoring with Lovert Mafukure
A lot of people especially first time buyers sometimes have a bit of a hard time trying to choose their first car. Sometimes they go about asking people that have had cars how well they have served them. A wrong choice can lead to one just flushing their money down the toilet either because they buy a bad car or just an impractical car.

There are a lot of things to look at when buying car. I know of a couple of people who have bought cars and 90% of the time the cars are parked due to a number of reasons which include fuel and parts which boils down to the cost of running and maintaining a car.

One of the major things to look at when buying a car perhaps is the engine capacity. No-one really wants to be a regular visitor at the filling station because it leaves major holes in the pockets. Diesel cars are fuel efficient, they use less fuel than their petrol counterparts. Diesel engines are however, more expensive to maintain. Newer common rail diesel engines are worse of a nightmare when they decide to give up the ghost. At the end of the day, a good small petrol engine will do the trick especially for a run around town car. You cannot however, ignore the economy that comes with small diesel cars such as the Corsa 1.7 or the Np200 1.5dci. its amazing you will never want to hear of petrol.

Nice Cars on the other hand usually come at a price. One can either buy a Toyota Vitz or a Toyota Harrier. The one that buys a Vitz will get 20km to a litre of petrol while the one that settles for the Harrier will get 8km to a litre of petrol. Yes, balling entails balling to the filling station too. It’s wise to always look at fuel consumption before buying a car. Cars are nice to have, they bring about a certain convenience that you can’t do without. From a personal point they are a must have for everyone, others see it as a luxury but the convenience of having one surpasses all dreams of showing off.

Some cars especially imports have poor backup spares and support. When buying a car, you need to make sure that you buy a popular car. Being unique is nice but if you buy a Lincoln do not expect to walk into a spares shop and buy spares for it. You would be better off buying a Toyota Corolla if you intend on keeping the car for the long run unless you have money to import parts from the United States. Most of the Japanese car parts are expensive to buy from Japan, way more expensive than buying a used car. That’s the problem with most ex-Japanese cars. No back up spares apart from the used parts that are slowly finding their way to our shores.

Posh cars like the Mercedes brand entice a lot of people to become politicians — just so they can drive these luxurious marquees. A lot of us don’t have to wait to be voted into office to drive them though because they are cheap used luxurious car coming from overseas. That’s a good thing isn’t it? Yes, it is . . . until the time comes for a service. I always advise a lot of people to get a quotation to service a Mercedes Benz before they decide to buy one.

Simply because you can buy a Mazda323 with Merc service money ha!ha! True as it may be, others think they will just take the car to the uncle mechanic in the next hood. Ahem! It’s not as simple as that. Some of these cars have expensive service kits and only specially trained personnel is allowed to service these special brands. That’s why we have a common trend where one buys an expensive car today and two years down the line one sells that same car for cheap — because they have run it down and cannot afford to maintain it.

Background information and research on different model cars is important when buying. You obviously want to buy a reliable car. Reliability comes in all forms especially where used cars are concerned. Without a good history of the car you will need a good eye or pay for a pre-purchase inspection. Its history will determine how dependable it is. On the other hand a lot of people like fast cars . . . for whatever reason. Sometimes you don’t necessarily need a fast car, it just has to be fast enough and if there’s a need to fly, it’s always advisable to buy a private jet.

After all is said and done, what really makes a great car for me is affordability when buying, safety when in a crush, economical to run daily, fast enough and reliable. Needless to say, on your next buy consider what makes a great car and you will enjoy it for a lifetime.

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