Clean Air Zone = ZTT going! What next?
 

Hi all...
Sad times... thanks to the Birmingham Clean Air Zone coming into force in June next year, our ZTT's days are numbered. We've owned the car for 10 years and it has been fantastic, with regular maintenance and few big bills it has been cheap to own and a great do-it-all car for the family. I'm loathed to get rid of it because it has years of good service left in it I'm sure. It has only recently had clutch and flywheel, brakes and tyres!

We need something to replace it, and I'm struggling to pick something as I know very little about any other marque. Whatever we buy will be with us for a long time as we don't tend to change cars very often. It must be an estate, it must be petrol, the budget can't be too extravagant (possibly £5k), it must be reliable and not hugely expensive to repair if it does need work.

I know nobody has a crystal ball to see if a car will be a good buy or not but does anyone have any personal experience they can share on long term ownership of anything that's a suitable replacement?

Hope you can all give me some food for thought!

Cheers
Jim

I have never been able to own the cars I have adored since schooldays, never had a garage big enough, and drive long enough.

When I can no longer obtain/own a decent CDTi, I will not bother, just use SWMBOs motor. Rover, although a joy as always, is just the best of the rest.

Good luck in choosing, but to me all other motors are just transport.

Would never live in a town or city, my food for thought would be...
Move.

I feel for you - I am lucky to have no big cities near me, and have no intention of visiting any. Still, they don't want city centres to die!

Not sure your £5k budget will suffice. The price of second-hand let alone new cars scares the pants off me! Sorry I cannot really offer any bright ideas.

Just keep the car and if you really need to visit these car hating places , just use park and ride or public transport. Reliable and cheap to repair doesn’t exist on modern green’ cars !

:wot:

This makes sense Jim. Keep your ZT-T for the Birmingham suburbs and for touring the UK. Use public transport if you need to go into Birmingham city centre. :D

Simon

Skoda octiva? I’ve driven loads of hire cars and those seem reasonable amongst the bland. BMW tourers are nice to drive, but obviously expensive. Would a n/a 1.8 75 or ZT pass the emission regs? :shrug:

Hi Jim. Sorry to hear this. If you decide to sell, let me know. I did drop you a PM also.

I can highly recommend the Octavia, lots of car for your money and the boot is huge - bigger than an A6 infact! If petrol, the 1.4 is a good option or depending if you want sporty the 2.0 is great in vRS guise. Although probably out of budget. For your budget I’d recommend a 1.6 after 2015, any diesel before this will be Euro 5 and not meet your needs for ULEZ.

To complicate things, avoiding the city centre is not possible, as it's where I work. I cannot take public transport as an alternative because as a train driver, I AM the public transport! I regularly drive to and from work well outside of any convenient timetable for train or bus. There's always a push bike I guess :)

The budget may be unrealistic, I accept that. It will increase a bit if needed. I have briefly been looking at something only a couple of years old in Octavia/Superb format, but the prices scare me! When I am balancing this purchase against saving for an early retirement I think I will find it hard to write a cheque for north of £20k for something I fancy rather than something that will do. We bought the ZTT after selling a 620ti, and it had high mileage of 107k (now 200k) but was cheap at £3100 (though 10 years ago, as I mentioned).

What would they charge you if you use your car?

Hi maybe a petrol estate with lpg conversion ?.
Lpg conversion isn't really expensive .you could be all in with buying a V6 new cam belt lpg conversion for about £3000 including buying the car