Manufacturers Websites. No match for a brochure.

[Timewaster]

I have found myself in a work position where I can order myself a shiney new company car from a fairly short list of Fords and Vauxhalls.

 

Obviously I went for mingebag solution of the cheapest company car tax option with the highest mpg.

 

So now I wait an eiternity for a Focus Edge Tdci Estate with the 88g/kg motor to be delivered.

Ford claim 83mpg but if it does 60 I will be amazed.

 

While I wait I have an 09 Mondeo Edge pool car with cruise control and I quite like the cruise control, so I wondered if the Focus will have it.

 

I challenge anyone to try and use the hopeless Ford website to get any information on the standard equipment of my chosen car.

 

I did find the answer on the third attempt but how much easier was it with the 1983 Ford Cars brochure to flick through and see if the Sierra GL had electric mirrors or if you need to go for the Ghia?

 

Progress! Tut.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

My encyclopaedic knowledge of 1970's shite was mostly derived from car brochures,from the age of 9 or 10 I used to hassle every car dealer I could find for brochures. The local Triumph dealer even put any new ones aside for me ,when the TR7 came out he phoned my grandad to tell him to send me in to pick one up.

I can't see many 10 year olds downloading and printing shit off websites, how will they impress women when they get older?

[oldford]

But it's a bit messy cutting the pictures out of brochures to configure your ideal car and the size of the colour samples is never enough to paint it in any one colour.

[Pillock]

You won't get 83mpg. I'm rocking the 109hp version which promises 72 or something and has delivered average 52mpg over 40k of 85% motorway miles.

[Timewaster]

Like I said, I'd be amazed if it does 60mpg.

 

Downhill

 

Coasting.

 

But it was still the cheapest thing to run on the list.

We pay for our own fuel and claim a mileage allowance, so anything above 45mpg results in a tiny profit.

 

I'm amazed at the choices some people make. Any options have to be paid for by the user, radio upgrades, pearlescent paint alloys, that sort of crap... And then you give the car back after 5 years complete with your options.

 

And people do it!

[brickwall]

That sounds much more realistic.

[twosmoke300]

I would probably pay for a radio upgrade if I was driving a car for 5 years. Paint and wheels can fro tho

[brickwall]

I think it comes with sweet bugger all. The equipment list in this cars selling points is just the stuff that a car pretty much has to legally have.

 

Comes with airbags as standard!

 

Amazing tip computer!!!!OMG!!!  (odometer)

 

Bare bones stuff to keep the tax man away

[DVee8]

I carn't get away with electronic brochures, i like to sit and hold a paper copy either on the bog,in the bath or in bed.I also like to go back to it when i want to

I have a small collection of brochures that i like to go back to.

[mercrocker]

And you can't get brochure fragrance off the downloads....My 1970 GM range brochures still smell of the peculiar North American ink/paper mix that they came with.   As for the gentle aroma of 1930s Morris catalogues....my ambition is to have the whole house smell like that.    Also, all the stuff I downloaded from the Bristol cars website when the Fighter came out has started to fade...bah DPI bollox you will never beat offset litho!

[Vince70]

I wish car brochures and magazines were still printed only because I would still have a trade as a lithographic printer..

 

Only 10 Years ago every industrial estate around the country had at least 2 or 3 small printing company's running B1/2 on short run magazine work.

 

Last time I ran a press was 3 years ago now and if any magazine printing is done it normally comes from China or Eastern Europe.

[mercrocker]

Its a sad loss, Vince - half a millennium of tradition.

[Ghosty]

Ford website says the lowest spec you can get cruise control on a Focus is Zetec - as a £250 cost option. It's standard on Titanium up.

[Hendry]

They must still do proper brochures, the local Renner dealer had a stand full of different ones last time I was in

[carlo]

You're right about the uselessness of most car manufacturers' websites.  I was recently looking at new small automatics; most of these 'car configurators' don't seem to work and they only seem to think you'd be interested in what frigging bluetooth/ipod/USB fancy shite comes stuck to the dash.  Want to know how much torque it produces or whether cruise control is an option?  Well fuck off, you're not welcome then.

[mercrocker]

Trouble is too many car buyers think that torque is exactly what Bluetooth is for....

[Pillock]

I was caught out like that... I was offered 12p per mile, buy my own fuel and claim back. I too worked out that 45mpg was the sweet spot so anything over was MEGAPROFIT. Which actually it was at 2500 miles a month.

 

The bastards then gave me a fuel card. Given that over 90% of my miles are company miles, I could be driving something much more fun. It doesn't make any difference whether I get 60mpg or 6mpg really.