Love is... a car that just works!

[GreenArrow]

..Have you ever formed a strong bond for an ordinary car purely out if its ability to just "get the job done"? I bought my Mazda 6 a year and a half ago as a cheap family runabout. Its not fast, its not particularly sporting, but it just works. Its done over 100,000 miles, the interior and gear shift still feel new and the MOT emissions readout shows hardly anything.....its got a fairly simple n/a engine and I love how nimble it feels due to that light petrol engine and with no turbo diesel turbo lag, driving in urban conditions is a doddle....it cost me £1600 so owes me nothing really and I have no worries about pesky DMFs, DPFs, injectors, cambelts or high pressure oil pumps and the like. sometimes, the feel good factor comes from cars that just get on with the job without any fuss.....in fact its a shame that the race for diesel engine cars has killed off old school 2 litre petrol cars like this which just fit into family life so well. Anyone else got a strong bond for an ordinary car like this?

[GreenArrow]

So glad my thread touched a chord. Seems to be a theme developing too, that old petrol engine Mazdas, n/a Subarus and Hondas are very dependable, as is the old Mk4 PD TDI Golf....you still say plenty of those going strong at + 11 years old.

Makes you think actually. In terms of real world performance, handling and economy (not the official euro economy), bread and butter cars haven't actually improved all that much in the past decade and I'd say that some things like ride quality on ever bigger wheels and complexity, has gone backwards.

I checked the oil on my Mazda again today. In 3200 miles since the last service it has used a negligible amount. Not had for an over 100,000 mile old petrol car. So why chuck away a perfectly serviceable and reliable motor?

So thumbs up to all of us running older cars on a shoestring. Much better for the environment than forking out for the latest so called wonder eco TDI/hybrid!!!