Cars which aren't as bad as they're made out to be...

[Morningside]

Older bubble shaped Nissan Micra. Great little indestructible engines.

[Crafty_]

warch said:

Crafty_ said:

Calibra had ste visibility and didn't drive as well as a cavalier gsi/turbo.

I'd always assumed it was the same car (underpinnings) with a different bodyshape. Always thought a Cavalier Turbo would make a great Q car. Think you're right about the visibility on Calibras though...

They did have the same underpinnings, I can only presume it was weight and body flex made made the difference. There was lots of glass front & back in the calibra, especially the rear window.. I guess it couldn't be as rigid as a cavalier with a big hole in the shell like that.

I had a gsi and a turbo cavalier and drove numerous other calibras/cavaliers.. calibra definitely had a different feel to it.

Oh and they had crap headlights too, god knows the cavalier ones were bad enough.

[v8will]

Seems the old Rover 800 is getting some love.

My father had a 827 SLI saloon about 10 years ago, it was an early one, about 1988. It went much better than it's 177BHP suggested and apart from a little grot on the rear arches and the noisiest tappets I've ever heard ( a trait of the Honda V6) it was a great old boat.

Oil pump failure rendered it scrap at 160K and was replaced with an Audi A2 TDI, a car that I personally underappreciated at the time.

[warch]

Crafty_ said:

warch said:

Crafty_ said:

Calibra had ste visibility and didn't drive as well as a cavalier gsi/turbo.

I'd always assumed it was the same car (underpinnings) with a different bodyshape. Always thought a Cavalier Turbo would make a great Q car. Think you're right about the visibility on Calibras though...

They did have the same underpinnings, I can only presume it was weight and body flex made made the difference. There was lots of glass front & back in the calibra, especially the rear window.. I guess it couldn't be as rigid as a cavalier with a big hole in the shell like that.

I had a gsi and a turbo cavalier and drove numerous other calibras/cavaliers.. calibra definitely had a different feel to it.

Oh and they had crap headlights too, god knows the cavalier ones were bad enough.

Oh yes the decent cavaliers were saloons weren't they? Calibra's did flex alot, you'd notice it when you jacked it up and opened a door. Still loved my turbo though, such a beautiful car.

[callyman]

I've had all 4 corners of my Calibra turbo in the air (separate times) and no problems with doors opening or closing, they both lined up the same.

[Hammer67]

Alfanatic said:

CommanderJameson said:

Hammer67 said:

Mrs J had one of these. Very pleasing steering.

Which is the one thing in a car, other than the seat, that you use all the time.

I've never driven an Almera, but on the Nissans that I have driven the steering has always been the car's strongest point. Always nice and linear, and alert around dead centre without being nervous, and with none of that springy, feedback masking self centering feel that ruins the steering in most FWD cars for me.

Good to use at any speed, and as you say, that's important because it's the driver's primary interface with the car.

This GTi was the 2nd last registered in the UK and was Mrs H67s wheels twice. Bought it at 18 months old with 17K on the clock and ran it without any issues whatsoever for 5 years to 60K. Fancied something newer and px`d it but always regretted it. 2 years later it came back into work as a px ~ Mrs had it back in a heartbeat and had another 2 years out of it to about 80K miles. Only ever needed servicing and tyres, returned 35mpg and once did 4 laps of the ring on a family holiday to a German Centre Parcs.
A car that impressed and surprised anyone who ever travelled in it. Pity Nissan don`t build stuff like this anymore.

[warch]

callyman said:

I've had all 4 corners of my Calibra turbo in the air (separate times) and no problems with doors opening or closing, they both lined up the same.

Did you suspend all four corners or do just use the front jacking point like I used too, you could open and close the doors all right but you could see the movement in the body. Never a problem in my view, just cars twenty years ago were much less stiff than today.

[Gatefold]

null said:

Dalto123 said:

I drive a K11 Micra and to an extent I agree. I drive a 998cc car and its a perky little car, but you really have to give it the beans, but when you time a gearchange right and get the right amount of throttle it can go. I do a lot of motorway miles and it can keep up quite well and do outside lane speeds very well.

That said acceleration is slow. Having 54bhp is annoying if you need to quickly accelerate because it wont. The brakes also arent great imo, especially in damp conditions, if you do an emergency stop or harsh braking you musst change down becuase they lock up easily.

The suspension is basic and very wobbly, this is a car designed for the city not for the motorway as a result its designed to be soft, wobbly and comfortable. And this is a personal thing I find the seats really, really uncomfortable and barely manage more than an hour and a half behind the wheel.

Have you encountered a worse car than a 54bhp Micra then?

in addition, your brakes are fine; its the tires that aren't great.

[callyman]

warch said:

Did you suspend all four corners or do just use the front jacking point like I used too, you could open and close the doors all right but you could see the movement in the body. Never a problem in my view, just cars twenty years ago were much less stiff than today.

I just use the front jacking points for the front and the large rear arm bush point for the rear.
It twists (when jacking) no more than any other cars imo.

[ManaghGB]

[TameRacingDriver]

Hammer67 said:

This GTi was the 2nd last registered in the UK and was Mrs H67s wheels twice. Bought it at 18 months old with 17K on the clock and ran it without any issues whatsoever for 5 years to 60K. Fancied something newer and px`d it but always regretted it. 2 years later it came back into work as a px ~ Mrs had it back in a heartbeat and had another 2 years out of it to about 80K miles. Only ever needed servicing and tyres, returned 35mpg and once did 4 laps of the ring on a family holiday to a German Centre Parcs.
A car that impressed and surprised anyone who ever travelled in it. Pity Nissan don`t build stuff like this anymore.

So true... 90s Nissans are so underrated.... as I said, I had 2 K11 Micras which proved indestructible despite being thrashed from cold most days and never ever went wrong... and now as a stop gap I've got a P11 Primera GT which has 145,000 miles on the clock and gives that same extremely durable impression, as well as the fact it drives better than most would ever expect, it is a really fun and capable car to hustle around and as you say has impressed everyone who has been in it so far, nobody more than me TBH. I had a Clio 182 years ago and it didn't drive as well as the GT and fell apart with next to no miles on it, but of course, nobody would believe you if you told them....

Another mate had an Almera GTI with uprated cams etc and it was a quick and capable car, and totally reliable with those mods. Ugly, but otherwise very good cars that I'm sure wouldn't disgrace itself against the GTI-6s of this world.

[Yachtworker]

TwoTonneKarmann said:

I haven't read all the thread..

Kia Ceed.

You are quite right sir, I have a rental Ceed SW at the mo and I think it beats all the others of its type I have had this year like the Focus, Cruze, C-Max, 3008 etc.

I filmed this Ferrari chase http://youtu.be/Ynyobp9KRrg (which I put in another thread) in a Ceed, you tell me whether the GPS was showing the right speed on the trackcam

[Robsti]

Yachtworker said:

You are quite right sir, I have a rental Ceed SW at the mo and I think it beats all the others of its type I have had this year like the Focus, Cruze, C-Max, 3008 etc.

I filmed this Ferrari chase http://youtu.be/Ynyobp9KRrg (which I put in another thread) in a Ceed, you tell me whether the GPS was showing the right speed on the trackcam

Is that the Autosrada heading towards Forte Dei Marmi?

[Morningside]

v8will said:

Seems the old Rover 800 is getting some love.

My father had a 827 SLI saloon about 10 years ago, it was an early one, about 1988. It went much better than it's 177BHP suggested and apart from a little grot on the rear arches and the noisiest tappets I've ever heard ( a trait of the Honda V6) it was a great old boat.

Oil pump failure rendered it scrap at 160K and was replaced with an Audi A2 TDI, a car that I personally underappreciated at the time.

I had two 827 SLIs (is there any other 827 model?). 1st one was brilliant and I was daft to sell it. 2nd one caused me nothing but grief! Gutless compared to the first and the in-built alarm kept going off causing the immobiliser to cut in and I could not start it.
In the end I scrapped it still with about six months MOT left as it pissed me off so much.

I thought I was going to hate them being a SD1 fan and avoided one for years but but I was quite pleased with the 1st one I had. Nice to drive and a good sized car to use.

Seemed to have all died. Just looked on eBay and there is ONE! And thats a HEARSE!

Edited by Morningside on Sunday 27th November 21:54

[Waugh-terfall]

TameRacingDriver said:

essexplumber said:

Peugeot 207 GTi, had mine for two years with no major faults.

Decent economy and performance, best seats in any car I have been in, loads of kit.

The looks are an aquired taste but all in all a very good car. Still want a BMW 330i Touring though.

Quite a good shout I reckon, I had heard that the chassis was much better than the 206 and with a remap it would be plenty pokey I should think. I had one trying to keep up when I had my MR2 Turbo and he seemed to be having no difficulty keeping up.

It's not bad, lard-arsed body smothers it.

[Vladimir]

Current Nissan Micra - had one as a loan car and had a lot more fun than expected flinging it around Cornish A roads.

The Astra gets a terrible press but the "H" 1.9CDTi 150 estate we had for four years was fairly nippy, had a good chassis and brakes and an ENORMOUS boot for it's size. It was also group 11 insurance - mega low for a fairly quick(ish) car.

Only swirl flap failure (luckily a warranty job) spoilt the experience.

[Chicharito]

TameRacingDriver said:

kedaha said:

MG ZS/ZT. Got pretty poor press, MGR imploded, and everyone suddenly thought they were the most unreliable cars in the world.

Had two ZT's now(red diesel, and a chromactive facelift petrol) and gotten so many compliments on both.

I dont ever recall reading a bad thing about those, other than from the badge snobs?

The ZS was incredibly dated towards the end, though - being based on the 1992 Honda Domani, which was arguably a better car when sold as the Civic in the UK. I particularly liked the VTEC wagons.

As for the ZT... never really saw the appeal of the 75 on which it was based - and the facelift cars were cheaply made with incredibly poor panel fit.

So, they're not particularly bad cars, but they're not as great as the blinkered fans would have us believe.

(Don't even mention the ZR - I had one as a courtesy car and thought it was the cheapest, most horrible piece of tat they could have possibly given me - I ended up re-arranging my whole day so I could just ditch it on the drive and work from home rather than have to drive it anywhere)

[Negative Creep]

Nissan Sunny, Bluebird, Almera, Micra.....you can see a theme developing here

[ewan221]

[robsco]

Yes, the Scimitars are a great car.