What made you choose your car?

[Jona]

I'm currently writing a dissertation on what kind of car people are inclined to buy and would like to know a little about what cars people buy, but mainly why they buy the car they have.

Is it due to the price, that it is desired, its practical, or that theyve always bought from that brand etc?

If you could say a little about what car you drive, how old you are and what reasons you had for buying it, that would help me a lot. Im also interested to know if you've made any modifications to it, spoilers, engine tweaks etc and again why you have done so.

Hope you can help me
Thanks in advance!

[Mark]

I have a 1.4Petrol 5-Door Fiesta 2004 model.

I was looking to buy a car in the £10,000 price bracket for my own personal use. I'd considered others such as Corsa's and Clio's up to that point too.

At the time Ford had a particularly good fianance offer which meant I would be paying about £50 less per month than the equivalent Corsa.

Then I saw a red Fieta driving near the university and thought "ooh that's nice", so that's what I bought

I'm 29 years old (26 when I bought it). I'm very proud to say I have made no modifications whatsoever

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Two for the price of one...
My girlfriend, Karen also bought a new car last year. Up to that point she'd been driving a 1.2 Clio and she loved it but it got to 5 years old and too much was going wrong with it, so she decided to change.

She was actually about half an hour away from buying a brand new style Clio, but we went around the Peugeot garage and there was an '05 206 for a very good price, so she bought that instead. However she currently hates it and wants to sell it.. trouble is she hates everything else too (except Mazda RX-8 and MX-5's but she can't afford those )

She put some alloy wheels because it didn't come with them, but apart from that it's standard.


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Karens Dad has a Lexus IS200d. It's a company car and he's director of a firm of architects so he gets what he wants, within reason. He got that one because it was the best available for driving long distances, which he does a lot of. Personally I think it's horrid, and he agrees.

[Drew]

Ok, well I got my car for free, because my Gran can no longer safely drive, so I got her car. It's a '94 1.4l 5 door Ford Fiesta SI (sports injected, apparently). I'm 20 years old and the only modification to my car is a CD player

[Kneeslider]

I bought my car with cash on Ebay. It's an early model Porsche Boxster

I had wanted one for years, and thought that it would be forever out of my price range, I then had a good trawl around the internet, to find out what typically goes wrong with them, how much it costs to fix, and then added into the equation stuff like how many MPG it does, and how much tyres are, and how much servicing is.

I seem to do about 95% of my mileage on my own in the car, so no problems with it being a two seater, my wife has a Golf, for when we need extra seats. It has two boots, so no lack of storage space for going shopping.

I have always had VWs so I guess getting the Boxster was a natural progression. I do about 12k miles a year and have absolutely no problem with buying what is seen by many as an 'older' car. I know that, as long as things are looked after properly, a solidly built German car will last almost indefinitely. My other car is 33 years old, and my motorbike is now 16 years old!!

The Boxster has no aftermarket mods. as in my experience of such items, they are not made very well, look tacky and detract from the resale value of the car.

[millencolin]

I'm a uni student so therefore i needed a cheap and reliable car...

Enter... the 1996 Mitsubishi Magna

I've put some nicer wheels on it (not bloody boy-racer chrome ugly monstrosities of wheels, but some nice simple alloy wheels) and upgraded the stereo. I love my music too much for my car to have a stock standard stereo with two rattling, terrible, downright crap 4inch speakers. Got a decent head unit, Pioneer twins in the front, clarions in the back, cost less than $400 and sounds awesome.

But all in all, its a family car that has served me well

[Camelopard]

I've never bought a brand new car as I think they devalue too quickly. I also have trouble making decisions, so some of our recent cars have been ones that have presented themselves. My mother stopped driving so when my now wife arrived in Australia we paid my mother a nominal sum for her Colt, no changes were made. Then my dad stopped driving, so we took his Pulsar and sold the Colt. Again the Pulsar is as we received it. Her latest car is a very low millage 1999 2 litre Golf Rallye previously owned by my sister. Again standard, I like to keep things in the family!

My cars have been things that I wanted and didn't think I would ever own. 2 Escort Cosworths, not sold in Australia, they were brought in as Low Volume Imports by a company in Perth. One I got for a bargain as a I made an offer I didn't think would be taken, small turbo YBP.
The other Cosworth (large turbo YBT) I thought I could make some money on, although it hasn't turned out that way! It's currently for sale after having had quite a bit of work done to it.
I also have a mkIII Capri which was also not sold here, this was a personal import that I bought and rebuilt.
I seem to like cars that are different, I've got my eyes on a Ford Sierra Ute at the moment although my ever patient wife says no! Or at least not untill I get rid of the black Cosworth.


Other cars I've owned include a 1967 ( Ithink) 307ci Monaro, various mkI Escort Twin Cams (wish I still had them1) and a couple of mkII Escort RS2000s.

Cars on my wish list are an RS200(!), RS2600 mkI replica and an RS1600 group 4 replica!!!!

Having had an interest in rallying I've always been drawn to rally sorts of cars. I seriously considered a WRX however the insurance premiums are a joke, A Celica Group A would be nice as would an EVO, but I guess I've always been a Ford man and I like the fact that there are so few Escort Cosworths about.

Any of this help your dissertation? probably not!

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Good looks and nice personality

[MrJan]

I have a 1.6 '96 Honda Civic.

What made me go for the Civic over everything else was not the reputation of Japanese cars or the high revving engine or even the space but mainly because my brother was going to Canada for a year, wants a car when he comes back and asked me if I wanted a free car for a year

Incidentally he lied, £700 insurance a total of £300 in repairs, an MOT and tax. Free cars are expensive.

[tannat]

I'm currently writing a dissertation on what kind of car people are inclined to buy and would like to know a little about what cars people buy, but mainly why they buy the car they have.

Is it due to the price, that it is desired, its practical, or that theyve always bought from that brand etc?

If you could say a little about what car you drive, how old you are and what reasons you had for buying it, that would help me a lot. Im also interested to know if you've made any modifications to it, spoilers, engine tweaks etc and again why you have done so.

Hope you can help me
Thanks in advance!

Car Ford Focus SE 4 door automatic 2007
Why this car? Low price AND fab financing

I'm 38, and if the money comes about it will become the ne plus ultra replica of a tarmac spec focus

[GridGirl]

I've had a Ford Fiesta ST for the past 15 months. First really started to like them when I went on a tour of M Sport (Ford WRC team) up in the Lake District. I purchased it and my last car, a Peugeot 206 purely on the basis that I think/thought they were pretty at the time. Right now there still isn't a car that I find prettier, so if I was going to go out and buy a small reasonably priced car tomorrow I'd go out and get another ST.

The only modifications I have are parking sensors. ST's dont actually come with parking sensors as an option. The Ford build me configurator jobbie is wrong when it lets you select them, but my dealer let me get them anyway. Wouldn't consider anyother modifications, but I would of liked the full leather heated seats if they didn't cost an extra £1k.