Northern Auto Tech - ECU and Blue & Me Repairs

General April Offers?

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General April Offers?

creationtwentytwo said:
Yeah I kinda like them. While they look better with colours other than red, I don't think I'll bother trying to remove them.



Yeah good point. I play guitar in a band, and while it's unlikely I'll be transporting much of my rig in the back of a car the size of the 500, it'd be nice to have that tint.
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I don't think the tint is strong enough to stop prying eyes.
 
Creation, the only change I would recommend to your spec is to go for 16" alloys - it's the only extra I specified for my Twinair lounge and reckon it was well worth the £175 for the more butch (well, less girly anyway!) stance.
 
TrevC said:
Creation, the only change I would recommend to your spec is to go for 16" alloys - it's the only extra I specified for my Twinair lounge and reckon it was well worth the £175 for the more butch (well, less girly anyway!) stance.
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At the moment if you are buying a pop you can get the 16inch multispokes for €450 but any other 16inch e.g. the 5 o-spokes would cost €670. To differentiate from the 'girlie' 15 inch standard multispokes on the lounge an upgrade to 16s will cost €220 or in the UK £175 so why not go for the more rare 5 o-spokes that no one else has and it looks really good with the red. A downside of the 'butcher' 5 o-spokes is that with the chrome finish there are difficult to refurbish unlike the multispokes which are all the 'one colour' as in aluminium.
 
RobinPJ said:
I don't think the tint is strong enough to stop prying eyes.
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Is that the excuse you are going to use if you get caught? "Sorry officer I was just checking something out for a forum member."

You are correct though, from a distance quite impressive but when you get your nose to the glass you can see inside quite well. ........... :idea: Must remember that excuse just in case
 
Thanks so much for all the further comments. Just got back from the Mini dealership. Wow, I don't know how they're still selling those cars. Still a great little car but the prices are just obscene when you look at the competition. To give you an idea, the Audi A1 I was looking at was going to cost me £225 per month over 3 years, and the equivalent Mini One D, with accessories and options to rival the Audi, was £309 over 3 years, or £289 over 4 years!

So it's definitely going to be a 500, which in all honesty, I'm really happy about as it's my favourite!

Regarding wheels, I did consider the 16", as I agree they do look a little better and for the sake of £50 it seems silly not to go for them. I'm just thinking of tyre costs. Does anyone know how much difference there is between the tyres for the 15 vs the 16?

So, new deals look reasonable fortunately. Although it looks like I'll be going for the 1.2 rather than the TwinAir, as the interest rate on the 1.2 is still at 0.8% whereas the TwinAir is now at 3.4%. Here's where some maths comes in;

The TwinAir will cost me £211 per month, and the 1.2 would cost me £189 per month. Now I only do about 6000 miles a year, but 90% of that is 'start stop' city driving. Is it worth going for the TwinAir? Efficiency is literally at the top of my priorities, I don't care about performance since I'm not going to be spending much time above 40mph anyway!

It seems to me that the difference in cost between the 1.2 and the TwinAir is going to be a lot more than the money I would save on fuel over the 3 years I'll keep it.

Any ideas?

Either way, I'm very pleased they're keeping the low interest rate.
 
tyres are perhaps £10-15 more expensive each. In terms of grip though, the tyres you get on the 16" wheels are far grippier
 
Yeah I just found this:

http://www.parkers.co.uk/News/News/Can-an-eco-model-save-you-money/

Looks like the TwinAir may indeed cost me a fair bit more. Also, they quote £60 for the tax on there when it is actually £30 according to the DVLA website.

The only possible benefit would be the congestion charge exemption, but I really don't spend enough time in my car in central London for that to be worth it.

Add to that the higher servicing costs and it seems like the 1.2 is a no-brainer!

Ok, well I'm expecting a call from my salesman this afternoon, and I'll hopefully be placing an order in the next few days!
 
Personally I would go with the 15" wheels for the better ride and I suspect less chance of them getting damaged on kerbs. If you want a more aggressive look and can afford the extra cost then go for the 16s.
 
ffxmy said:
Personally I would go with the 15" wheels for the better ride and I suspect less chance of them getting damaged on kerbs. If you want a more aggressive look and can afford the extra cost then go for the 16s.
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I can't decide!

I prefer the size of the 16, but the design of the two tone! I think with the whole 'red/black' I've got going on with the tints/lounge roof, and red/black interior the two tone would look good. But then the 16s look good too!

It works out at a huge £2 per month for the difference.

Hmmmmm decisions!
 
creationtwentytwo said:
Thanks so much for all the further comments. Just got back from the Mini dealership. Wow, I don't know how they're still selling those cars. Still a great little car but the prices are just obscene when you look at the competition. To give you an idea, the Audi A1 I was looking at was going to cost me £225 per month over 3 years, and the equivalent Mini One D, with accessories and options to rival the Audi, was £309 over 3 years, or £289 over 4 years!

So it's definitely going to be a 500, which in all honesty, I'm really happy about as it's my favourite!

Regarding wheels, I did consider the 16", as I agree they do look a little better and for the sake of £50 it seems silly not to go for them. I'm just thinking of tyre costs. Does anyone know how much difference there is between the tyres for the 15 vs the 16?

So, new deals look reasonable fortunately. Although it looks like I'll be going for the 1.2 rather than the TwinAir, as the interest rate on the 1.2 is still at 0.8% whereas the TwinAir is now at 3.4%. Here's where some maths comes in;

The TwinAir will cost me £211 per month, and the 1.2 would cost me £189 per month. Now I only do about 6000 miles a year, but 90% of that is 'start stop' city driving. Is it worth going for the TwinAir? Efficiency is literally at the top of my priorities, I don't care about performance since I'm not going to be spending much time above 40mph anyway!

It seems to me that the difference in cost between the 1.2 and the TwinAir is going to be a lot more than the money I would save on fuel over the 3 years I'll keep it.

Any ideas?

Either way, I'm very pleased they're keeping the low interest rate.
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At 6000 miles per year at urban mpg figures your only going to save 72 litres of fuel per year = £98.00, plus the £20.00 road tax so about £10.00 per month in running costs excluding service and depreciation. So it looks like you ought to go for the 1.2 on a cost comparison.
 
Thanks Stu!

Yeah the 1.2 makes perfect sense I think.

I notice you're in Warwickshire! Which dealership did you go to?

I'm in Warwick, but been dealing with Sutton Park in Coventry. Any recommendations?
 
On a pure cost basis, the 1.2 would win hands down, from reading these forums, the twinair's "on paper" fuel savings haven't been realised by people in practice, and even if they had, it would take you a very long time to recoup the extra outlay, but I'd still like one over a 1.2 as the engine is really cool :) I'm in Warwickshire too btw... (Rugby)
 
ffxmy said:
Personally I would go with the 15" wheels for the better ride and I suspect less chance of them getting damaged on kerbs. If you want a more aggressive look and can afford the extra cost then go for the 16s.
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Meh to the chance of being damaged. My 500 has 24k miles on it and hasn't been kerbed yet. Just don't drive into kerbs!!!! The 15" wheels seem to kerb also as evidenced by the 15" wheels on ebay tending to be kerbed. A careless driver will kerb wither set of wheels.
 
306maxi said:
Meh to the chance of being damaged. My 500 has 24k miles on it and hasn't been kerbed yet. Just don't drive into kerbs!!!! The 15" wheels seem to kerb also as evidenced by the 15" wheels on ebay tending to be kerbed. A careless driver will kerb wither set of wheels.
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Agreed. If I'm gonna trash the wheels on kerbs (which I don't intend to do!) then that'll be the case regardless of wheel size. I can see the logic, I mean, the 16s do appear to have a more prominent outer lip, and with a lower profile tyre, they probably are at more risk.

99% of any kerbing I've done in the past 5 years has been from swerving into a kerb out of force to miss some nutjob coming the other way, rather than shoddy parking and bad road width judgement so if I'm gonna kerb them, I'm gonna kerb them!

I think I'm going to go with the 16s, it's quite incredible how much better they actually look, despite only being an inch different. I suppose on a little car, that 1 inch makes a fair bit of difference.
 
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creationtwentytwo said:
Agreed. If I'm gonna trash the wheels on kerbs (which I don't intend to do!) then that'll be the case regardless of wheel size. I can see the logic, I mean, the 16s do appear to have a more prominent outer lip, and with a lower profile tyre, they probably are at more risk.

99% of any kerbing I've done in the past 5 years has been from swerving into a kerb out of force to miss some nutjob coming the other way, rather than shoddy parking and bad road width judgement so if I'm gonna kerb them, I'm gonna kerb them!

I think I'm going to go with the 16s, it's quite incredibly how much better they actually look, despite only being an inch different. I suppose on a little car, that 1 inch makes a fair bit of difference.
Click to expand...

It does make a big difference I have to say. I've got the 16" multispokes and due to the spoke going right out to the edge of the rim they do look quite a bit bigger than the 15" wheels.
 
creationtwentytwo said:
Agreed. If I'm gonna trash the wheels on kerbs (which I don't intend to do!) then that'll be the case regardless of wheel size. I can see the logic, I mean, the 16s do appear to have a more prominent outer lip, and with a lower profile tyre, they probably are at more risk.

99% of any kerbing I've done in the past 5 years has been from swerving into a kerb out of force to miss some nutjob coming the other way, rather than shoddy parking and bad road width judgement so if I'm gonna kerb them, I'm gonna kerb them!

I think I'm going to go with the 16s, it's quite incredible how much better they actually look, despite only being an inch different. I suppose on a little car, that 1 inch makes a fair bit of difference.
Click to expand...

As any woman will tell you, an inch can make a big difference.

*FRA*
 
creationtwentytwo said:
Thanks Stu!

Yeah the 1.2 makes perfect sense I think.

I notice you're in Warwickshire! Which dealership did you go to?

I'm in Warwick, but been dealing with Sutton Park in Coventry. Any recommendations?
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I get our serviced at Grays in Warwick who are very good, but it was bought through Rockingham Cars in Corby as I got the best (scrappage) deal through them.

Motorpoint have quite a lot of delivery mileage / nearly new cars at good discounts, have you tried them?
 
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