What Do We All Drive/car Stuff

I've got a red car.

 

My car list is funny and a bit eclectic.

Austin Maestro was my first car. Cheap. Reliable aside from a terrible automatic choke which needed unscrewing every time starting from warm.

Then I wanted a more fun car, so bought a 1976 Triumph TR7... I still maintain it was brilliant with RWD and a low centre of gravity. Sometimes it turned off all lights and functions whilst driving and almost nothing worked quite right.

Then I got a job that I needed a grown up car for so had a ford escort estate. Still not sure why I got an estate but I slept in it a few times.

Then I had a JDM Honda Prelude 2.2 VTEC which was much faster than was safe. Got so hot rain evaporated on the bonnet as it fell. Sold that to a magazine writer for hot cars or whatever it was called who was planning to paint it matt black.

Then came the sensible stuff. Peugeot 206, did 2.5x the fuel economy of the Honda. Then a family car, a Citroen Picasso. Which was pretty **** to drive but offered a great amount of room to stick dogs and kids and associated buggies and luggage and moving house bits.

Now drive a Peugeot 3008 which isnt as big as the Citroen but has a full length glass roof so we can put bread on top and watch the seagulls come and eat it. Which is fantastic fun.

I also have a 1974 vw camper van which fulfills my desire not to just have a boring car. Top speed of 65mph downhill. Just had a respray so looking forward to summer.

 

Haha, no need, I have a Lexus RX and I live in Nottingham.

PS. In my defence, it is a hybrid.

 

Programme on electric cars on now on ITV

 

Battery longevity is only an issue if you can't handle any segregation.

Even the nessan leafs which had issues and supposably a big problem are 90% fine after10 years

 

Yep totally against the banning of mixing between battery types.

 

Haha I can't edit it now.


If you are a two car household I think now is a great time to buy a little Renault Zoe or nissan leaf.

Understably people buying new electric cars want a long range, but I think over time as EVs become more avaible on the used market lots of people who previously were happy with a cheap to run old runabout will realise that 50mile EV range is actually enough for them around town if they get an EV for a few grand. EVs will last long time and refurbed batteries will get cheaper, I reckon £3-4k is probably the bottom end of how far they will depreciate, and you can get a leaf for that now.

The UK is quite unique in having cars avaible for £1k just because it's reached 6 digit mileage. Once with EVs the service costs go down it's cheaper to keep it running and there's no gamble on the MOT every year, other than the usual service items

 

******* hell that is a big boot.

 

Or a very small dog

 

Current driving list, Subaru Forester XT, Honda Jazz, Honda TRX 420 Fourtrax Rancher AT and an old Ford tractor as you can probably tell I dont live in a town

 

Morris 1800. I remember buying it for a nifty. Got near on a year out of this bad boy driving it like an absolute d I c k. The gearbox was dying on me, first gear went having to pull away in second was hilarious as it was about as heavy as a tank. When it wouldn't go into second I had to scrap it nearly getting all my money back. A real fanny magnet



On to this head turner. Could open this with any Ford key and started with my brothers cortina mk3 key. Loved it, so much plastic and vinyl. Used to get 3rd degree burns from the seat during the summer. Sent an XR3 into the barriers on the way to work, picking up the worst case of whiplash known to man. You people must remember these babies without headrests. RIP you orange *******.

 

This isn't very helpful: is it bright red or dark red?

 

Is it true that red ones go faster?

 

The first years of insurance are a killer. I would seriously look at a 'banger' (sub £750) from here and plan to use it for three years to get a decent NCB. A big car is far more useful than a teeny tiny one.

 

My first car was a classic Mini Cooper any head on at more than walking pace and I would have lost my legs. To this day still felt like the fastest car I've ever driven and it maxed out at 83mph.

 

The phrase 'banger' is used ironically. Log on/register to see the range that comes through online. I've had six cars from there, none of them 'lemons' and I have driven of them into 5 into the ground (no. 6 was a C4 Grand Picasso, £2500 + premium and was written off by being shunted on the M4/M25 sliproad - after 3 years of ownership I got £2650 from the insurers for it).

 

In answer to the actual post, I have Toyota MR2 roadster. Decided well over a year ago I was bored of it, it was old enough I wouldn't be ruining it, and so wanted to turbo it and go from 138hp to 200-250hp. Which is plenty for a mid engined little 1 tonne car.

Listened to some people who clearly have too much time on their hands and better equiped larger garages who said you can DIY it better than any of the off the shelf kits (which are a bit crap tbh).

Now 14 months later, I've moved abroad and have a nearly finished car stuck in England I paid lots to get mapped on a dyno, that I can't sell until I've proven it's reliable. So I'll drive it across Europe once it's done a few tests (still not even driven it) and drive on the wrong side of the road a 6 months.


Should be fun.

 

I like to refer to the Honda Jazz as the Honda Jizz whenever I see one on the road.

 

Getting stuck behind a Honda Jazz is always exclusively bad news if you’re in a hurry

 

Don't sell it unless you have to. The price of good MR2s are on the increase all marks. Non rusty in original condition are rising fastest but carefully and respectfully modified ones are not far behind.

 

That or a Nissan Joke

 

I think that Seat is better than Skoda. The materials used are better than Skoda, and as you say Audi,VW, Skoda and Seat all share the core technologies built on the same platform. Audi A3, VW Golf, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon are all versions of the same platform. They are about 80% the same. There are quality differences.

Seat does a lot of design work for the VW Group, whereas Skoda tends to be more core production centre, due to the superior logistics for the core European market and lower wage costs in Slovakia and Czech Republic.

 

I mentioned at the start of this thread, as I barely use my car anymore I was looking at getting rid of my diesel BMW and getting a useable classic.

I got rid of my sensible car and bought a Jeep Wrangler this weekend, it’s the YJ model which is the first one, the one with the square headlights. It’s slow, noisy and uncomfortable but I love it. The main issue is avoiding one that hasn’t rusted to bits underneath and I eventually found one that was immaculate in that respect.

I spent the whole of today with my dad fiddling around with 5 or 6 niggly little things that needed doing to it and it was just a joy, it was like going back in time to when I was a teenager. Just being able to take everything apart with either a spanner or a screwdriver was just so much fun, an overwhelming hit of nostalgia and probably the happiest I’ve felt since Covid hit in terms of actually doing something genuinely enjoyable.

As I said in the first paragraph, it’s slow noisy and uncomfortable, yet driving it is like an experience. Obviously you just get in a modern car and drive it, but with this you actually have to concentrate and think about what you’re doing.

 

What a whopper 1966 Triumph 2000 estate! Sold at an auction recently

 

As a teens first car the Honda Jizz is perfect. Reliable, cheap, (in comparison), to insure, easy to service and drives well. On the rare occasion when I've had to use it it's been quite fun to drive. It's on to it's 2nd teen now, and by the end of next year teen 3 will be in it. Yes, it's battered outside but the oily bits are spot on.

 

Bought a car on the weekend, got a very good deal but it has mold on the roof inside the car. Any tips for getting rid? Or anyone know anywhere that'll sort it for me?

 

Hondas as are great cars, I actually worked for them years ago (about 15 years ago) and they had back then something called the Honda institute, it had everything they made there and they talked you through every car, all it’s features and why certain bits worked they way the worked. They explained the Jazz had a rear seat that could fold up, so older folks could fit plants upright when they went to the garden centre, or so you could get a bike in it.

They had an employee lease schemer where you could lease cars for next to nothing, a Jazz was £99 a month which covered insurance the lot, so I did actually drive a Jazz as a youngster simply because of that.

 

Pop to the local fire station. They love nothing better than chopping the roof off of a car.

 

I have opted out of the car scheme at work as I didn’t want to pay company car tax anymore. Would highly recommend a 330d which is cheap to run, and excellent to drive. Get it serviced on time, and had no costs beyond tyres and servicing. Also drove a 2017 5 series which is brilliant if you do a lot of motorway driving.

 

Depends what you want it for. If you want to go out pulling birds and getting stopped by the old bill get yourself a BMW. I've just bought myself a new car and was looking at all sorts. One of the nicer cars I looked at (excellent reviews) was a Mazda CX5. Quite big but still goes at a decent pace. Don't get an Audi

 

One thing is that a BMW will have better residuals. The 1 series I just sold was only a 2012, so nothing special or expensive when I bought it, but I had it for 3 years and I was surprised at how little it depreciated upon selling it.