The What Car? Used Car of the Year 2007 spot is for Mazda 6 toppling down 48 model contenders from 3000 vehicles. The selection was made by the judges from used vehicles built starting year 2000 and onwards.
What Car? Used Car Editor Matt Sanger said: 'The 2003 Mazda 6 2.0 TS is a clear winner, securing more than half the votes from the judging panel. It’s a great combination of value, reliability and desirability, alongside its fine handling and driving abilities. It proves the Japanese produce quality cars that are built to last.'
The best Luxury and Executive car of the year post is scooped by Ford’s (builds Volvo aftermarket parts) British-built Jaguar XJ6 3.0. It carries a price tag of more or less £16,000.
According to Judges, ‘The XJ is a great car when it’s new, and at used prices it’s a steal. It’s fast, frugal, comfy and very well built – a testament to the British Jaguar workforce. They should be very proud.’
Here are the other category winners:
Superminis Honda Jazz 1.4 SE
Small Family Cars Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec Climate 5dr
Family Cars Mazda 6 2.0 TS
Estates Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCI (130) Zetec
4x4s Nissan X-Trail 2.2 dCi SE
Sports Cars Volkswagen Golf GTi
Luxury and Executive Jaguar XJ6 3.0 SE
MPVs Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 Life AC
Overall Winner Mazda 6 2.0 TS
Every year, there are at least 7.5 million sales for used cars in the United Kingdom. The figure is three times larger than the sales for brand new cars making the UK one of the strongest auto markets in Europe and globally. An average used car is 39 months old and had covered more than 50,000 to be bought for only £6,000.
The board of judges is made of respectable icons in their own leagues of the motor industry, leading UK car dealerships, British Car Auctions, USA Car Auctions, Warranty Direct and Vehicle Experts from What Car?
The cars were judged according to a set of criteria which includes running costs, reliability, drivability, quality, longevity and desirabilit
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Used Japanese Cars - main article
For those who don’t know, the term white elephant refers to anything that has only imaginary or perhaps aesthetic value for the owner, but has no practical or functional value. When applied to any Japanese used car for sale, it seems to merit quite some thought.
To answer the question, one possible answer a collector of used Japanese cars might give is: no, my used Japanese cars still have practical and/or functional value. How so? Well, perhaps this car collector is still able to get some mileage out of his Japanese used cars. Perhaps on weekends, he brings one of his Japanese used cars out of his garage and takes his family out for a trip to church, or on a picnic to a nearby park, or even a bit further away to a beach for an afternoon of water-based activities. For such a person, his used Japanese cars would not be white elephants in the strictest sense of the use of the term because the vehicles can still be used though perhaps not as regularly as newer cars.
Another answer a collector of used Japanese cars would give would be the opposite: yes, my used Japanese cars are actually white elephants, in the sense that I do not derive any practical or functional value out of them. Many used cars are gas guzzlers, because their engines are not as efficient at burning fuel as when the cars were new. Others have deficiencies in car design that make them too bulky and too large for fuel efficiency.
If you spend an inordinate amount of money upgrading, renovating and taking care of your used Japanese cars, perhaps you need to examine your reasons for owning such vehicles in the first place. If you just like to look at them once in awhile (when you have leisure time on your hands), then leave them locked away for months on end, then perhaps you may need to ask yourself whether that is enough reason to hold on to your collection.
Some people go to great lengths to preserve the quality of their cars (regardless of what country made them) because they want to be able to use them for a long time. Then they sell their cars because they need to upgrade their mode of transportation to more efficient and less troublesome cars of newer make. In that sense, cars would not be white elephants because they do serve practical and functional purposes for the owners while they can still run. But what happens when your used Japanese cars completely die on you, meaning their engines go kaput with no hope of being fixed anymore? That is a fate that all vehicles (and their owners) have to face eventually.
In that case, the only real value your used Japanese cars would have would be if they were sold for scrap, or as spare parts for other used Japanese cars. If you seem to have become emotionally attached to your car, it may take time though before you can let go but all of us have to let go of our material possessions at some point. Some just do a better job earlier than others.
To answer the question, one possible answer a collector of used Japanese cars might give is: no, my used Japanese cars still have practical and/or functional value. How so? Well, perhaps this car collector is still able to get some mileage out of his Japanese used cars. Perhaps on weekends, he brings one of his Japanese used cars out of his garage and takes his family out for a trip to church, or on a picnic to a nearby park, or even a bit further away to a beach for an afternoon of water-based activities. For such a person, his used Japanese cars would not be white elephants in the strictest sense of the use of the term because the vehicles can still be used though perhaps not as regularly as newer cars.
Another answer a collector of used Japanese cars would give would be the opposite: yes, my used Japanese cars are actually white elephants, in the sense that I do not derive any practical or functional value out of them. Many used cars are gas guzzlers, because their engines are not as efficient at burning fuel as when the cars were new. Others have deficiencies in car design that make them too bulky and too large for fuel efficiency.
If you spend an inordinate amount of money upgrading, renovating and taking care of your used Japanese cars, perhaps you need to examine your reasons for owning such vehicles in the first place. If you just like to look at them once in awhile (when you have leisure time on your hands), then leave them locked away for months on end, then perhaps you may need to ask yourself whether that is enough reason to hold on to your collection.
Some people go to great lengths to preserve the quality of their cars (regardless of what country made them) because they want to be able to use them for a long time. Then they sell their cars because they need to upgrade their mode of transportation to more efficient and less troublesome cars of newer make. In that sense, cars would not be white elephants because they do serve practical and functional purposes for the owners while they can still run. But what happens when your used Japanese cars completely die on you, meaning their engines go kaput with no hope of being fixed anymore? That is a fate that all vehicles (and their owners) have to face eventually.
In that case, the only real value your used Japanese cars would have would be if they were sold for scrap, or as spare parts for other used Japanese cars. If you seem to have become emotionally attached to your car, it may take time though before you can let go but all of us have to let go of our material possessions at some point. Some just do a better job earlier than others.
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