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In Praise Of Low Cost Motoring
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In Praise Of Low Cost Motoring
Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
August 13, 2013
Don’t get me wrong. It is absolutely fine to own and run big expensive cars, or wholly inappropriate cars or cars that take you back to your youth, but for most drivers these days there’s a problem and its name is money.
Successive governments short of innovative economic ideas have consistently used motorists as a tree of plenty whilst fuel companies, insurers and councils have to take their portion of blame. The end result is that drivers find themselves buying the cars they need and not the cars they want.
The other issue that afflicts all those who love cars and motoring is our roads. They are overcrowded, arguably over-regulated and about as comfortable to drive on as an Himalayan yak track. In short, all the fun and pleasure has been removed, leaving only transport. Sure, you can buy a fast car and push it to the max but you’ll only be baulked up the road or nicked at the next flyover.
DriveWrite believes that car manufacturers have realised this. It simply can’t be a coincidence that cars are increasingly becoming seen as lifestyle accessories rather driving machines. You can customise a DS3 or an Adam to your hearts content and equip it with all manner of technology and thus cars become no different to your smartphone or tablet. A portable toy.
On the plus side, many of these cars are excellent value. Given the quality and reliability on offer it is probably fair to say that cars have never been better value. This is especially true of those vehicles that bust through the £10k barrier to offer decent cars for no money.
Leading the field of course is Dacia. The Sandero, for now, is the cheapest motor on offer in the UK. There is absolutely nothing special about it at all but, conversely, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it either. For budget buyers this car is a steal. Coming up on the rails is the Go (pictured). This is attached to the venerable and resurrected Datsun name and it really is a nice looking vehicle. Like the Dacia it will feature plenty of hard plastics and little in the way of cutting edge technology but, in the end, does it matter any more?
With another revived name, MG, offering the sporty and fun MG3 that comes fully loaded and customisable for just under ten grand, the cash strapped motorist has in fact never had it so good. So don’t despair when the trade shows start next month and the seductive new models are revealed to the world. You can’t afford them. All you can afford is one of the budget models or possible a decent used vehicle and there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to go fast to have a good time. Find an open twisting road and just enjoy the pleasure of driving whatever you’re sitting in. Budget cars can be fun too.
