@renton – looking at your Mazda I’m wondering why your’re changing it as it looks mint, no longer practical with the kids ? When my 3 kids were young we had big 7 seat 4×4’s but as soon as they were old enough to drive we switched to estates, my point is that you pay a big premium for the family style cars like an smax. I assume you’ve driven a few but I rented one for a trip with the bike up to the peaks and to do some minor furniture shifting and I wasn’t overly impressed, not as big on inside as I’d hoped and a but sluggish all round.

BTW the dealer won’t think 3 weeks is a long time on his forecourt and with the weather improving he’ll be hoping of loots of people visiting.

Changing cars via trade in vs dealer forecourt is an expensive business, but then I’m the sort that keeps cars 10 years

Renton – Economy is pretty good for a near 2 ton estate car driven by a 240bhp petrol engine mated to an automatic gearbox. In fact I’m amazed what we’re getting out of it considering that neither my wife nor I drive with economy in mind. We do a fair bit of mixed driving and we’re averaging a fairly steady 31-32 mpg, which isn’t too far off Ford’s claimed 34.9 mpg. I also know someone who has the same engine, in 203 bhp guise, in a Galaxy and he’s getting about 29mpg. He does live in the centre of Aberdeen though so probably does more town driving than me and the missus.

jambalaya..

The car is pretty much mint condition apart from a few stone chips on the front and a couple of marks on the alloys.

We have a springer and two lads aged 8 and 6 and really are running out of room. with the dog in the boot we can barely get two bags in also plus the paraphernalia that accompany children and dogs and it gets full pretty quick.

We have similar space issues as you have (2yo, 4yo and a large dog) and I was considering trading up from the zafira to a vw t5. Was going to be huge money tho so we now use a cargo net in the boot so we can pile bags up on one half and the dog has the other and for longer trips we have a roof box. A custom fitted dog cage would be better but more costly, but still vastly cheaper than changing cars.
I can’t see an smax solving your problem.

Renton your Mazda look great. I’d seriously be considering whether I could get along day to day with a roof box. Even if you need a bigger car for occasional trips £5K would buy a lot of hires of an Smax.

I also think your mazda looks liek a sweet-ass ride.

The front seats on the SMC S-Max aren’t as taught as they should be for seats that have only been sat in for 5k, compare withthe rears. The discs look too worn too though the pic is at the wrong angle to see properly.

I agree that an ex-hire vehicle needs to be recent. I aim at 12-15 months as they buy for the Summer and keep them till the end of the following Summer.

I’ve never been the best at negotiating, but I did go on a work course recently. Key points seemed to be:

Be well prepared. In your case this would be knowing book prices, trim levels, similar local cars.
Trade, for example, if you… Then I…. This allows you to agree a lower price by stealth then bump it up with stuff.
Set your range. Your initial offer if they won’t open should be lower than the lowest you think is achievable.
If you start trading, do it from your end, rather than theirs.
Move in small steps rather than big jumps.
Don’t believe anything the salesman will tell you, trust your research.
Remember it’s a game, and you can always walk away.

Remember your initial reaction when he offered you 8k for your Mazda. If you don’t get that from the salesman with your first offer, it’s too high.

Mmmmm, SMC Slough……..Sister lives in Windsor, she got her Smax from Newbury…….. She was able to deal a lot better there than for one in Slough.

also how can they say my car is only worth 8k when it looks like this …..

Completely irrelevant. They just don’t want your car at that price, if they take PX they either have to sell it (In which case they want to buy it cheap to make on it) or send it to another dealer (In which case they want to buy it cheap to make on it) or sen it to auction (In which case they want to buy it cheap to make on it).

Sell private, the only down side is you end up without a car till you get a new one. Or take the PX offer and avoid the hassle.

I’d keep the Mazda.. Buy a roof box (for the luggage not the dog) for trips away. Looks lovely.

not reading the whole thread BUT you with your history of car issues from what ive seen on here want to buy a car with no service history.

dont do it.

Dont price on milage or age , price on condition and service history is part of that condition – no service history its not worth the top dollar price he is asking for it.

cars dont like sitting around for long periods – and the fact that has dont 5300 in 6 years would scare me alot – it certainly doesnt add to its value in anyway over an average milaged one.