Cars and that

Got a Mugen CTR that I've supercharged, will be going road illegal and fully track slag this year I expect

In the garage I have an old R33 GTR that I'm slowly working on over the next few years, and then got a Megane that lives in my driveway as a spare car, Mrs SM has a company car

 

A supercharged Mugen.... That sounds f**king awesome. Is the Megane standard? I may go for the R26 F1 as my next car in a couple of years.

Any pics of the GTR?

 

It's in a carcoon at the moment at my parents house, in the summer I'll be bringing it out to start grinding the body work down and get it prepped for paint, then work on internals, it's really a shell in good knick and an old engine with a lot of miles on it right now.

Megane's standard, that was Mrs SM's car she used for work, but I keep it for when the Civic's out of action and I need to get to work.

The Civic's pretty good at the second, I don't do many miles so don't feel the pinch of a thirsty car that wants premium unleaded. I've had that since last summer and it's spent about half it's life in my friends performance garage being worked on, just getting it track ready now. It was originally imported from the JDM so came with some nice extras never put into factory here, plus it means it's in much better condition as most CTRs here have their **** ragged off them.

 

First thing to work out is exactly what you want to do with it and what's most important to you. Once you've narrowed that down you could do worse than pick up a recent copy of Consumer Reports and investigate the latest vehicle ratings. Traditionally, Toyota and Honda always score well in terms of reliability and trade-in values, so those two tend to be where I start.

For me, the most important thing is that the car starts and isn't likely to end up in the shop. I tend to buy along those lines because a car is just an A to B tool for me, rather than a fun toy, but everyone's priorities are different. My advice would be to make up a list of what you want most and then cross reference with something like CR to find a good fit.

It might be worth considering a hybrid if you drive that much; 20,000 miles at UK prices is a lot of fuel you'll save. Could be worth sitting down to see if the maths works out.

 

A hybrid at that price and it's is going to be close to new battery time though. New yes on that mileage it's probably a worthwhile saving if you don't want a 3 pot diesel. I'd avoid long in the tooth hybrids as early tech was not good.

 

Can't speak for all models, but for the Prius there isn't a prescribed point at which you hit "new battery time". Can they fail? Absolutely, but in most cases they should last the lifetime of the car. There was a Consumer Reports study a while back which compared a ten year old model with 200,000 miles to data taken from an equivalent car a decade prior; the fuel efficiency was less than .5 mpg different.

I know plenty of people who are driving a 10 year old Prius over here and it's still on the first battery. I also have contacts at a Toyota dealer's service operation and they very rarely replace a battery; usually when they do, it's usually within the US warranty (i.e. had a fault and was replaced early). It's worth noting this might be a skewed perspective since many people wouldn't replace a battery if it will cost most than the car is worth.

Obviously there is a degree of risk with an older model, but it's by no means certain. It certainly wouldn't put me off puchasing a used one if the finances made sense.

Should the worst happen, there are operations over here which can replace the battery for far less than the dealer charges (factors of 5 or 6 times less in some cases). Not sure if there are equivalent options in the UK or not, but it's worth a look. I should also add that I don't know if the build quality is the same in the US and the UK, but I'm assuming so since US Prius are all imported (i.e. come from a Japanese plant) and I'm guessing the UK ones are too.

 

I used to have an Alfa - a 147 2.0 Twinspark. When it worked well it was a joy to drive.

 

Fair dos. I have heard horror stories though, certainly enough to put me off.

 

I've got a 159 and it can be a joy, especially now it's had a remap. However it's had some daft small things go wrong which makes me think the car was built on a Friday afternoon! I like having something a bit different though.

 

Are hybrids really more economical? I drive a Mondeo diesel and it does 650 miles per £80 tankful, easily. It's done 170 odd thousand miles and will probably do 170,000 more.

It's not fast, but it's fast enough. It's not huge, but it's big enough for a family of 4 and all our trappings.

I honestly can't think why anyone would want to drive any other car.

 

Typically they won't get better mpg than a good diesel or downsized engine. If they have regenerative braking and drive correctly you can get good results around town, but then the weight of the batteries comes into play.

There's lots of stuff you can do with hybrids, and having a small battery power pack to allow for extra power and then downsizing the engine is a good move. Also interestly to engineering nerds like me, carbon emissions wise range extenders and hybrids are much better than plug in electirc cars, as the average emissions of the grid are too high the moment. When you consider the fact all the renewable/nuclear supply is fixed and we make up all the extra demand with coal rather than the gas then the electricity generated to power the BMW i3 or renault zoe ends up well over 100g/km. Somehow BMW claim 13g/km on the range externder i3, but I'm not sure how that works out.

 

Modern diesels are superb, I get 65 to the gallon on a motorway trip in my e-class; can't see what an hybrid can offer over that. Biggest problem with hybrids is they are usually fugly.

 

I get about 9 mpg, yolo

 

Ibiza, Type R-s, Leon, Astra 3 door ones.

Audi A3 or 3 Series.

 

:]]

I get around 26 mpg if i'm lucky.

 

If you cycle across town you have infinite miles per gallon.

 

You need food for energy and food is brought to shops by trucks.

 

Not if you cycle to your local farm and steal the crops.

 

See man driving a German Whip

 

Fallen short of the next 170k miles. Now looking for another car.

Was thinking about a Merc, E280 diesel. The ones I'm looking at have all done 120k miles plus, but I'm expecting that with a Diesel Merc you can look for another 100 on top of that.

 

Surely you should get a Mugen Honda?

 

Just put the wife's 13yr old, 200,000km Twingo through the T*V (German M.O.T). Apart from a pair of €15 rear brake pipes it pi55ed it and should still be good for the next inspection in 2yrs time.

Hate Renaults though, just one electrical problem after another which would cost a fortune if you actually believed the dashboard warning lights.

 

I'm on my 3rd Merc diesel in a row, there's nothing better for munching miles (except maybe Pacman)

 

Can't believe people are suggesting buying an Astra. I've never purchased a Vauxhall for one reason.

 

I had the exact same car. Moved on at 66k though and it was like new. Great engine, pretty sprightly for a big car, great economy and superb relaxing long distance cruiser. Must get auto though.

 

Considering either an Audi A5 Coupe or a BMW 3 Series Coupe for my next one. None of this practicality lark for me.

 

Bit dull though.

 

I start work net year and have my parents old polo. 100,000 miles and still going, but I'm tempted to get myself something nice soon. I can get the ford discount scheme, which at the moment is £1700 off a new fiesta (zetec or above). A significant chunk off but its still thousands a year in depreciation.

 

What'd you go for in a similar sort of price range? I love Range Rover Evoque's as well, but they're probably a bit too pricey for me at the moment.

 

I'll take the polo

 

The lady's range rover?

 

You can have it by the summer when I get fed up with no air con.

 

Just open the windows for the two days warm enough to make you want air con.

My first car was a polo - brilliant car.

 

Polo ftw. Current Meistermobile

Unless you are comfortable driving 5cm behind the person infront avoid the Audi unles it's Almen Abdi's Audi purchased from Aldi.

 

It is quite good, its the 2001 model, and only other than a clutch pedal linkage, handrake cable and exhaust hasnt had any problems. Doing a lot better than the fiestas/clios from that era seem to.