A Change For The Worse?
The story
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Granada, 2018
WRROOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooommmmm, krrrrrrtttsch
“Damn, thats my neighbour again!”, said Sergio, a young man trying his luck as a mechanic in Spain.
When the door bell rang, an old, friendly man in his mid-80s stood in the door.
“My young fellow, here are the groceries, too bad your car is broken and you cant afford to fix it. But I guess mine is failing, too. It cant get foward.”
“Well, Ignacio, since you are torturing your clutch more and more, this was about to happen. It’s finally burned out, I guess.”
Ignacio Fernando Gutierrez Castillo de Rueda del Coche, so was his full name, looked sadly to the floor. “And I also hit the fence… again… I kept the car in perfect condition for almost 30 years now, and now I ruin it.”
Sergio shrugged. “Oh, I will repaint it for you, since you are like a second grandfather to my family. And I will repair your clutch, don’t worry.”
“What’s the use”, he said with a shaking voice, “This car is too large and too fast, and my pedal control is too bad for both the engine power and the clutch.”
“Yes… but it has been your partner for 30 years, Ignacio. Are you sure about that?”
“Unfortunately yes. I can no longer stand hurting my closest friend besides your family, and I am a danger to the public with this fast car.”
“So, dont worry, my old friend, we will find you something.” After storing the groceries, both headed to the 1989 Primus Astrona 200 GLS that just mowed down the fence… again.
In short: An old man is no longer capable of using his rather fast stickshift sedan, and needs something easy to handle. He is not the most rich person, since he has only a rather small pension.
PRIORITIES
Three Stars
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Drivability (Ignacio is an old man with slow reactions, and turning the head in all directions is painful. He is well aware of his shortcomings and strongly prefers a car that turns him in a less dangerous threat to others in traffic
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Comfort (His back hurts, his legs hurt, its easier to tell which does not hurt: Actually nothing isnt worn out, and he wants a car that is at least as comfortable as his 1989 Primus Astrona.
Two Stars
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Safety If he crashes, which he is increasingly afraid of, he wants to be excellently protected.
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Design Even if he did not seem like car guy at all, Sergio wonders how and why Ignacio ended up buying one of the sharpest sport sedans available in 1989. Maybe because he acutally wants something sharp?
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Price and Service Cost Since Ignacio fears a final crash that will cause him to finally give up driving, it should not eat up all his savings. Thus, he is neiter rich nor is his pension a lot. He was a plumber all his life, he had a solid, but modest income.
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Reliability Ignacio has his young friend Sergio, who can fix the one or other thing. But being an old and increasingly weak man, being stranded in the middle of nowhere fears him.
One Star
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Sportiness When flooring his potent Primus, the old man cried tears of joy at times. His requirements changed towards comfort a lot, but he would start to miss his old car if his new one would be too bland when driving.
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Fuel Consumption Since Ignacio does not drive much as a pensioner, he does not care if his car needs 6 or 7 liter for 100 km. But a borracho would make him turn away from it.
HARD AND SOFT RULES
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Ignacio is open to most body styles. A small sedan would work, as an old guy in Spain he is used to small sedans. Hatchbacks are fine or maybe even a small city SUV is something he would not hesitate buying as well if it’s a good car. Soft rule: Length not above 4.2 meter. He will look at cars that equal the Astrona in size, but he is convinced that a smaller one is easier to handle for him.
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Ignacio wants to avoid having to use a third pedal. Soft rule: Automatic transmission, but it will be hard convincing him to use a manual again.
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He prefers to buy a car with at least four seats, because you never know if you might need them. A Smart car is maybe too much downsizing for him. That said, a three-door is no disadvantage, since he would use the back seats only at very rare occassions. Hard rule: Minimum two seats. Soft rule: Four seats, because you never know if you need them.
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Please avoid too much power. If he mixes up the pedals by accident and causes a mayhem, it was the wrong car. It does not need to be painfully slow, but there is absolutely no need to be faster than his old Primus that makes 100 kph in 8 seconds. Soft rule: No more than 165 horsepower.
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Hard rule: Minimum 30 comfort
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Hard rule: Minimum 60 drivability
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Hard rule: Max. price is 20.000, soft rule: He will be pleased if it is below 18.500.
Model and Family name: QFC24 - [Forum username]
Trim and Variant name: Unrestricted
Model/Family year: 2012-2018, Ignacio accepts driving a rather “proven” model, but if it becomes too old, he might just keep his 1989 Primus.
Trim/Variant year: 2018 for trim, 2012-2018 for the variant
Must be road legal. Meaning lights, wipers, catalytic converters, just use common sense.
95 RON (91 AKI) fuel, since those small budget cars would scare away their customers with requiring expensive fuel.
Tire width must end in 5; hard longlife tires, must be radial. I won´t bin medium compound but it has a disadvantage in service cost.
Techpool Just use the default one.
No interiors required, but if you provide one, it will increase the depth of the review.
A presentation/advert here is mandatory.
INSPIRATIONS:
**PLEASE NOTE: MORE RULES CAN NOT BE DONE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I WONT
Changelog
2023-04-25: First ruleset
2023-04-26: Clarified default techpool, desired seat count and some general hints about body styles, approx. power and a preferance of automatic transmissions. Three real-life inspirations Ignacio would definitely consider (Suziki Ignis, Seat Ibiza, Ford Fiesta Sedan) were added as well.
2023-04-29: Rules fixed, submissions open
Submission time frame closes at May 6th, 5 PM GMT+1
