Other cars Thinking of getting a 1500 mi 2.2 i-CTDi Type S

[ukpm]

Firstly Hello From a Focus ST Owner! First time posting in here.

I'm thinking of the above car to replace my 2007 Focus ST 2. The economy isn't great on the Focus and it rattles really badly so I need to change to protect my sanity!

I was wondering about a couple of things on the Civic such as the colour. It's listed as Bronze, but the dealer says it's really black. Is this true, as I've not seen the car in the metal yet?

The other thing (going from the Honda website) is it seems to have Remote Keyless Entry - is this something new to the spec, or will a 2006 car have this feature?

They're looking for £15495 for it with 1500 mi (it was a demo car) as far as I can tell it's standard spec, which is quite good on the Civic compared to German cars. Do you think that's a decent price for a nearly new car, or is it over the odds? I was thinking that 15k would be nicer

Does anyone know if there's a way to order a totally new car for this money, as I'd ideally fiddle with the spec a bit?

(Sorry for all the questions in one go!)

[spsducati]

Welcome.

Even going to a type r would give you better fuel ecomomy than an ST!!

Bronze is a nice colour and is a very deep brown/gold and does give the impression of being black.

The type S non GT is a bit sparse on specification. The Honda website will tell you the list price £16930. Autotrader have got them from £14495 but with more mileage. Check the link below - I'd bargain for £500 off and then fit a superchips with the saving.

http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/www...arch_full.y=13

[Dawson]

Originally Posted by ukpm

Firstly Hello From a Focus ST Owner! First time posting in here.

Hello from an ex-Focus ST owner.

I'm thinking of the above car to replace my 2007 Focus ST 2. The economy isn't great on the Focus and it rattles really badly so I need to change to protect my sanity!

I did the exact same, and am loving the Civic for what it is.

The other thing (going from the Honda website) is it seems to have Remote Keyless Entry - is this something new to the spec, or will a 2006 car have this feature?

My 2007 56 plate car which arrived at the dealer direct from Honda at the beginning of January doesn't have this, it's an extra as far as I'm aware.

They're looking for £15495 for it with 1500 mi (it was a demo car) as far as I can tell it's standard spec, which is quite good on the Civic compared to German cars. Do you think that's a decent price for a nearly new car, or is it over the odds? I was thinking that 15k would be nicer

I paid list price for mine (about £16,800), but got £16,000 for my Focus.

Hope that helps.

[ukpm]

So you think moving to the Civic might be a good idea?

A mate of mine has one, and I've driven it many times - so I know the car fairly well. One concern is missing the brutal acceleration of the ST after 4000 rpm - I hope I'm making the right choice. The economy on the ST is daft though, and the rattles are getting worse on a daily basis!

Looking at the Honda website is seems the list for a Type S 2.2 is £16,555 therefore I'm not sure that £15,495 for a 2006 car with 1500 mi is a great price. It really needs to be at least £500 less. I want the detachable towbar, maybe I should negotiate to get that thrown in

Just out of curiosity (and in case I'm not following the Honda site correctly) what are the differences between the Type S and Type S GT? The spec seems very similar - what am I missing for £1000 ?

[Type S Bournemouth]

glass roof, dual zone climate control, cruise control, fog lights, auto lights,auto wipers, power mirrors come with the GT pack

So quite alot.

Personally I think its worth the extra money to get the GT Sspec

[ukpm]

I assume by power mirrors you mean power folding mirrors, and that all Civic's have electrically adjustable mirror glass? lol

Out of that list I'd only really be bothered about the Fog Lights. Is there much difference in the dual zone climate vs. the normal climate? Btw, I think it's great that the Civic's all have climate control - the knobs and levers system in most cars is just rubbish these days!

[apemonkeyman]

Originally Posted by ukpm

The other thing (going from the Honda website) is it seems to have Remote Keyless Entry - is this something new to the spec, or will a 2006 car have this feature?

This is remote central locking is it not? It means you don't have to stick the key in the lock...

Originally Posted by ukpm

They're looking for £15495 for it with 1500 mi (it was a demo car) as far as I can tell it's standard spec, which is quite good on the Civic compared to German cars. Do you think that's a decent price for a nearly new car, or is it over the odds? I was thinking that 15k would be nicer

Go £1000 under & see what they say. If they won't shift the £500 off then walk away. You can always walk back again a day or so later if you really don't mind.

Originally Posted by ukpm

Does anyone know if there's a way to order a totally new car for this money, as I'd ideally fiddle with the spec a bit?

Shop around online - plenty of examples in this forum like Drivethedeal, Broadspeed, Autobuytel etc. Get their best prices & take them to a local dealer. Sometimes they match them, sometimes they don't.

Many of the online sites back the sales enquiries out to subscribing dealers so you can still end up working with a dealer directly even if they are at some distance from you - get your servicing/warranty work done at your local.

They all get their cars from the same place (Swindon) so should all be offering same sort of lead times, just varying profit margins.

[mes]

That seems to be a bit too much doesnt it. I think you should just try shopping around. I found mine a 2.2 EX with 9.7K miles for £14.9K which i thought was quite a good price. But it really helps to look around with dealers.

[Type S Bournemouth]

Originally Posted by ukpm

I assume by power mirrors you mean power folding mirrors, and that all Civic's have electrically adjustable mirror glass? lol

Out of that list I'd only really be bothered about the Fog Lights. Is there much difference in the dual zone climate vs. the normal climate? Btw, I think it's great that the Civic's all have climate control - the knobs and levers system in most cars is just rubbish these days!

Dual zone climate is great. It means the driver and the front passenger can have there sides at different temps and it works reallly well

[ukpm]

I'm a little torn at the moment as I've seen a dealer that has two new Type S GT's in stock, one red and one NHB. He want's £17,500 for them, they're both the same price despite the fact one is metallic.
Going from the other prices I should at least insist on about £500 off that sticker price - is this reasonable? The other issue is I want the detachable towbar (which I think is about £500 or just a bit less) he might be prepared to do that to close the deal at the sticker price.

I'm trying to sell my 5000mi 2007 Focus ST2 - what are the hopes of doing a trade-in straight swap? Most main dealers are selling ST's like mine for about £18,500 or more in some cases. There are some exceptions to this such as Archer's of Ashby, who seem to be cheating Ford a bit on the Privilege discount scheme. They are presently the only major fly in my otherwise perfect Type S GT ointment

[Dawson]

Our 2 local dealers in Aberdeen (2 Arnold Clark Branches, and Lawrence of Kemnay) are putting out ST-2's for £17,495 on the road.

[ukpm]

I sort of realise that. I'm in Northern Ireland though, and there are no such deals to be had over here. As most people are essentially lazy they don't even look outside the country. This means that ST's are a good bit more expensive over here.
I think my idea of straight swap is still a bit of a dream though!

[Dawson]

I was around £800 to switch from:
March 2006/06 Focus ST-2, Electric Orange, 8,000 miles
to
2007/56 Brand New Civic Type S i-CDTI, Nighthawk Black.

If yours is a 2007 like you say, changing to an ex demo car, you really shouldn't have a problem.

[ukpm]

One dealer (local) just offered me £15,000 for my car, which is a bit insulting to be honest. It's worth about £16,250 in a trade in. The dealer I bought my car from has an ST2 for sale with 7000mi and a much lower spec than mine for £18,250 so I'll be damned if I'm going to let a trader get £3,250 out of me for doing vitually nothing!

[czechplastik]

Originally Posted by ukpm

One dealer (local) just offered me £15,000 for my car, which is a bit insulting to be honest. It's worth about £16,250 in a trade in. The dealer I bought my car from has an ST2 for sale with 7000mi and a much lower spec than mine for £18,250 so I'll be damned if I'm going to let a trader get £3,250 out of me for doing vitually nothing!

Which dealer did you try?


p.s I'm just down the road from you!

[madasadad]

Try Saltmarine Honda, very easy to talk to.

[Spud]

I initially went to JC Campbell in Rostrevor to see about importing a civic into the free state - they were very helpful and no pressure at all.

[ukpm]

It was actually S J Davidson in Dungannon - not a Honda dealer but they had 2 new ones and 2 used. They also seem to have access to a ready supply of new cars from somewhere. Their trade-in price was woeful though. They didn't seem to realise that the only difference between an ST2 and ST3 is heated leather seats and a 6-disc cd player. The leather is all black and not as nice or as supportive as the colour-keyed Recaros, and the 6-disc Sony unit doesn't playback MP3 CD's like the single Sony unit!

Anyway, it looks like a private sale is the only way for me realise any decent value out of my car, otherwise I'm not going to be able to change at the moment. Not economically at least.

czechplastik: Where abouts are you? Going by your post count you've obviously been a pretty active member on civinfo.com!

[Dawson]

Originally Posted by ukpm

It was actually S J Davidson in Dungannon - not a Honda dealer but they had 2 new ones and 2 used. They also seem to have access to a ready supply of new cars from some. Their trade-in price was woeful though. They didn't seem to realise that the only difference between an ST2 and ST3 is heated leather seats and a 6-disc cd player. The leather is all black and not as nice or as supportive as the colour-keyed Recaros, and the 6-disc Sony unit doesn't playback MP3 CD's like the single Sony unit!

Anyway, it looks like a private sale is the only way for me realise any decent value out of my car, otherwise I'm not going to be able to change at the moment. Not economically at least.

Erm, the ST-2 costs £1000 less than the ST-3, so trade in prices will always be different. £500 difference to be expected at least.

Anyway, the leather seats are nicer than the ST-1/2 seats, and that's coming from an ST-2 owner. 6 CD changer will appeal more to most people than an MP3 cd player anyway, especially when the focus has a stereo input in the glove box for iPods and the like.

Try some other dealers, but don't expect miracles on the trade in price.

Edit: Nice rear sculpted Recaro seats in the ST-3 too, as well as the fully adjustable passanger seat, with position memory when tilting.

[ukpm]

Yeah I (of coruse) appriciate that it costs more to buy new, but so did my car. It has KeyFree (£350) Autolights/wipers/rear view & footwell lighting (£250) Bluetooth, GSM Tel. Prep. & Voice Control (£300) Solar Reflect Windscreen (£100) - all of that adds up to £1000 which is the price difference between the ST2 and ST3. In a trade dealers don't seem prepared to give me a sinlge penny back for any of that stuff! It's all more useful that leather seats and a 6-disc IMO.

The ST3 is bad value becuase it inlcudes none of that stuff I've got for the extra £1000, and the extras you do get are in leui of the original Sony MP3 unit and already great colour keyed Recaro seats!