With the recent and ongoing problems we've been experiencing with the Ibiza and the likelyhood that Becky may fail her next MOT with her rusty rear axle, I've been thinking about what we may do in the not too distant future. In a way Becky is the easier of the two problems. We've decided we'll run her until she fails on the axle and, if nothing else too serious fails at the same time, I'll probably sorn her while I work on changing the axle for an IM Axles replacement - I like that they say their spring pans are made from thicker steel. We'll continue to run her until she's beyond economic repair. Perhaps, at our age, she'll outlive us? but if she has to go to the happy hunting grounds before we give up driving then, at this time, a Suzuki Ignis holds great appeal.
The Ibiza troubles me. It seems much more lightly built than the old Cordoba it replaced or my boy's Mk2 Fabia and with it's little turbo engine I doubt if it's a long term keeper - at next MOT it will be 7 years old - It's soon going to need discs and pads all round, the O/S/F shocker is making a small noise on speed bumps, so I suspect the worst there and I know it's going to need an O/S driveshaft soon - Exhaust back box soon too. There's a good argument to be made for changing it before all this, and maybe other stuff, falls due. Problem is what to replace it with? I've mentioned the Renault Captur, had a ride in one recently, and really liked it. However, timing chain problems seen not unknown, even at quite low mileages, on the Tce engines and it's the Tce 130 that interests me. Clutch has a concentric slave - Ugh! Dual mass flywheel. Electric motorized cable handbrake? Quite fancy the Dacia Duster but it's basically the same car underneath athough they do have a munual handbrake. Looked briefly at some other stuff but nothing that really appeals. However one car does seem to make a lot of sense. The Skoda Scala.
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The SE would do just fine for me. It's a little bigger than the Ibiza - although built on a stretched version of the existing Ibiza platform - Twinkle's is the previous platform and it's said the new platform is considerably better. I'd choose the mid powered petrol which has a 6 speed box - Twink had the 5 speed - Don't think it has a D/M flywheel and the slave is on the bellhousing. Also seems to be able to take a full size spare if you order the two position boot floor. Going to sneak into the dealer and take a closer look at one. The one downside is that it's slightly bigger than Twink - who is an estate version of the Ibiza - but not by much, about 10 cm longer and slightly wider. A new, or more likely, nearly new one, would probably see me out. Oh well, there's no urgency, might not like it when I see it close up.
