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car reviews by women

Club member Mandy extols the value of her Toyota Celica

This is a car review by FOXY Lady Drivers Club member, Mandy, who lives in the Highlands of Scotland. It will be featured in the Members Newsletter in October 2012.

Thank you for volunteering to tell us about your car Mandy. We can see at a glance that this is not the sort of car some might expect a motoring Gran to drive but we wholehearted support your sentiment ‘Why should the young lads have all the motoring fun?!’

Please start telling us about you, your lifestyle and what you use your car for?

I’m a 53 year old widow and I live with three crazy Jack Russells in a fairly isolated farm in the Highlands of Scotland. I make leather sheep halters and breed dogs & poultry.

Up here there is no reliable public transport anywhere near me so I rely on my car for my independence. Everywhere is so spread out; it’s c5 miles to the nearest shop and the nearest big shopping centre is at Inverness over 40 miles away.

So my car has to be reliable and able to cope with temperatures of minus 25 degrees at times.

About 6 years ago I lost every penny I had in an investment scam, so price is a key priority too.

What about your taste in cars and the make you drive now?

I used to drive BMWs, never new ones I hasten to add, but it was a marque I liked and cars I enjoyed driving. Unfortunately they can be very expensive to run so I had to look around for something cheaper, both to buy in the first place and then to run.

After an expensive learning curve involving some rust-buckets I finally settled on Toyotas. Not the run of the mill saloons or city cars you understand but the imported variety which usually come with reliability and cost advantages providing you buy well!

Please tell us about your experience buying imported cars – aren’t they expensive to insure?

Imported cars can have many problems – often their paperwork isn’t as thorough as it needs to be or they can have other legality issues. If you can overcome all this, then you can find an absolutely rust-free, low mileage, high-spec car for as little as just £1000. Yes, £1,000.

My current Toyota Celica is the third one I’ve owned so far. I loved the first one which was an import, had a disaster with the second which was a UK model and so this one is another import and I love it.

And believe it or not, it costs less than £150 fully comprehensive to insure me, as a 53 year old granny living in such a low risk rural part of the Scottish Highlands!

Steph says: This is great value insurance and we hope it remains so when the Gender Equality insurance ruling comes into effect this December.

Tell us about your car and why you love it so?

This car is a 1995 Toyota Celica GT Super-Strut. It has the 2 litre 3G-SE engine with electronic fuel injection and a 5 speed gearbox with a limited-slip-diff and beefed-up suspension. It has been modified, with a Veilside body kit and 18″ alloy wheels.

The interior has been fitted with racing seats, and a tiny steering wheel, and re-finished in pearlescent blue. The exterior is purple/ turquoise flip paint, so it changes colour as you walk around the car. It changes from gold to turquoise, to blue, then purple.

It has a big exhaust, and modified induction filter. Inside is a Pioneer sound system with a 1200 watt amplifier and sub in the boot! It has been micro-chipped to enhance its performance, and make it more fuel efficient. All this means that I have a unique car, which is super reliable, and incredibly PRETTY.

With NO RUST!!!

If you need a big boot, the back seats drop down and you can get a fridge in if need be, or three Jack Russells which I prefer! It is surprisingly light on fuel with normal driving by which I mean keeping between 2-3,000 rpm. Once you hit the race track it’s a different story, and believe me, it’s very quick!!

How would you recommend your Toyota Celica to other females?

Anyone who wants a car that’s different, good looking, cheap to buy and run, practical and reliable should look at an imported Toyota Celica. They can be found for less than £1,000. You can tell it’s an import by looking at the rear number plate. If the plate and the recess it sits in is squarish, that’s an import. If it’s the long standard UK plate then chances are it’s a UK model. But always check the paperwork thoroughly of course to be sure it’s right for that car and always check the engine and chassis numbers carefully to be sure of what you are buying.

Mine has turned out to be a cracking car, for very little cash. I thoroughly enjoy driving it and take great pride in owning what will surely be a classic in the not too distant future.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH MANDY for taking the time to tell us about your stylish Toyota Celica. That’s a seriously cool car to drive.

car reviews by women

FOXY Chris loves her Kia choice

Busy motoring mum and gran Chris White lives in Sussex and needs her car to suit a wide range of family uses.

We interviewed her recently about her much-loved Kia Carens and she is the first member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club to be featured in the new Club Corner section in the June e-newsletter.

Please tell us about you Chris, your car and what you use it for.

I live in a rural Sussex town with my husband. You need a car to live here and for a multitude of reasons. Now that we’re retired our time is our own of course, so our car is used more for pleasure; for shopping and when we want to go out at night. We have local family and grandchildren now so our car has to be very versatile too on occasion.

Have you always bought a Kia car?

This is our first Kia and we’re very happy with it. Before that I drove a Citroen C3 and my husband had a Chrysler PT Cruiser automatic. Last year we decided that we really didn’t need two cars any longer and that we should choose one that seemed best for both of us to share.

What made you choose the Kia among other similar models?

We took our time doing our homework because we knew what we wanted but we didn’t know what our model choices would be. The car had to be an automatic, it had to be a high seater too and we expect to be comfortable in it. Although there are only two of us for everyday use, we also needed it to accommodate family on occasion so we gradually refined our choice. We went to a well known local car supermarket to see a lot of our short-listed models at the same time but we eventually decided on the Kia with its 5 year warranty (rather than the normal 3 years) and found exactly what we wanted at our nearest car dealership. Which is doubly convenient of course; when you buy a car from a local rather than a distant dealership it’s nice to know you can easily pop back in if you have any queries or concerns about it during the early days of ownership.

What are the five most important features of the Carens would you say?

I’ve already mentioned that we were looking for comfort, high seats and an automatic gearbox but I’d add space and practicality to make up my tally of five key features. When we need to, we can seat seven in the Carens and yet it still feels spacious! I also like the fact that it still looks like a car rather than other ‘people carriers’ that look more like buses!

Are you sufficiently happy with your car to recommend it to others?

I can definitely recommend it and whilst we’ve only had it for about a year I’m sure we’d be happy to buy another one when the time is right.

NB: The car came from the West Sussex Motors Kia dealership at Washington in West Sussex. When we talked about car servicing, Chris explained that her husband Cliff looks after that side of things so we spoke to him about its MOT and servicing. He told us he had taken it back to the dealership for this whilst it was within the Kia 5 year warranty period but probably wouldn’t do this after its fifth birthday, for loyalty reasons to a local independent garage.

Cliff explained…

‘Once it’s outside the warranty period I plan to take it to Sussex Servicing Autos in Small Dole; they’ve serviced and MOT’d our cars in the past. It’s not just a question of cost, although that is important of course, but this is a good independent garage that has always been honest and fair with me so I have come to trust them more than others over a period of years.’
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Thank you Chris and Cliff for this foxy review. The Kia Carens is clearly an ideal car for those of us that are looking for that all-important combination of affordability, reliability, access, practicality and comfort. Of particular note is Kia’s 5 year warranty which is better than most and with two spare seats to be called upon when needed it can then become a 7-seater to suit most family occasions, particularly when grandchildren are involved.

FOXY