new car!

Congrats! You must be so chuffed.

Eh? So Fiats actually *appreciate*?!

This car is - right now - worth at least a thousand pounds more than what I paid for it.

Combination of the gigantic discount I got (never buy brand new without at least a 30% discount), and a high demand for diesel pandas - you hardly see them second-hand. But yes - I would have paid some seven hundred quid more for a year-old car off the same dealer's forecourt.

Those low emissions and fuel economy sound good. But I think they get cancelled out by the other 73 cars you've bought in the last fortnight. What are you doing with them all?

Only one other car! :)

The Jag (shared purchase between me, Rich and Tullis) is destined purely for a charity rally, and I've stopped driving it now the Fiat has been delivered. The petrol costs were killing me anyway. All the other cars round here belong to other people.

Well, when you say "destined purely for the rally" that might be stretching it a little bit.

It's still quite possibly the most economical car I own at the moment.

Oo I need a new car. Badly. Where'd you get it from?

From http://www.desiragroup.com/

There are slightly better deals out there on the internet, but Desira were very helpful, did me some good deals on some roof bars, so I didn't bother shaving off those last couple of hundred quid by going Internet.

Of course, the deal I got might not be available now. That's always the way with car dealers - although right now they are getting desperate, so massive discounts are available, especially if you push a bit for them. I enjoy bargaining, and I know enough about sales techniques to be able to spar quite nicely with salesmen. The chap who sold me mine wasn't all about The Sale though, he seemed to be a genuinely nice, cards-on-the-table kinda guy.

If you want a little car that's cheap to run, kind(ish) to the planet and fun to drive, I really don't think you can find a better car than a Panda diesel.

Nice one!
Same make/model I've been looking at for a while now.
They do say that new car deals are really good at the moment, seeing as "no one" is buying at the moment. But that'll be temporary. End of year is always a good time to buy too, they're looking at their yearly sales targets and discounts.

gota love a fiat!

Ooh, you guys are doing dumball! Fantastic.

did you get gap insurance too just to be on the safe side?

gap insurance?

something to do with insuring the car for the invoice price and not the market price, so in the event of a crash you get what you paid for it. I guess from what you're telling me it might not be appropriate. I got warned about this the other day after I passed my test and a friend told me a horror story about her buying a brand new car and someone crashing into it a week later and her losing a couple of grand of something ridiculous because it wasn't brand new anymore.

Ah - yes, I did that. They tried to sell me special insurance for just that one thing at the dealer's, but I wasn't having any of it. I just insured it for replacement (market) value, not purchase value.