Cars you didn't know existed...

[Mercury00]

Frimley111R said:

Vocht said:

I didn't know the Honda Civic Saloon was available in the UK. It's only ever so slightly different to the hatch but actually looks a lot better in person. It seems less awkward and gets rid of those horrrible large fake black plastic/honeycomb vents on the rear of the hatchback. Apparently identical to the hatchback but has a larger boot (obviously, 41 litres more than the hatch) and more space for rear occupants. The ride is much softer which suits the nature of the car better too... A great car for some!

MUCH nicer.

Agreed, that's lovely.

[tomic]

Mercury00 said:

Frimley111R said:

Vocht said:

I didn't know the Honda Civic Saloon was available in the UK. It's only ever so slightly different to the hatch but actually looks a lot better in person. It seems less awkward and gets rid of those horrrible large fake black plastic/honeycomb vents on the rear of the hatchback. Apparently identical to the hatchback but has a larger boot (obviously, 41 litres more than the hatch) and more space for rear occupants. The ride is much softer which suits the nature of the car better too... A great car for some!

MUCH nicer.

Agreed, that's lovely.

I saw a few of these in Turkey last year where they're made. They really do look the business. Surprised they haven't caught on over here.

[Down and out]

tomic said:

Mercury00 said:

Frimley111R said:

Vocht said:

I didn't know the Honda Civic Saloon was available in the UK. It's only ever so slightly different to the hatch but actually looks a lot better in person. It seems less awkward and gets rid of those horrrible large fake black plastic/honeycomb vents on the rear of the hatchback. Apparently identical to the hatchback but has a larger boot (obviously, 41 litres more than the hatch) and more space for rear occupants. The ride is much softer which suits the nature of the car better too... A great car for some!

MUCH nicer.

Agreed, that's lovely.

I saw a few of these in Turkey last year where they're made. They really do look the business. Surprised they haven't caught on over here.

10x better, the hatch really is pig ugly with that awful light cluster bar thing.

[98elise]

aka_kerrly said:

Mark-C said:

aka_kerrly said:

Fast Bug said:

Worthy of this thread?


Precursor to the Evoque

Another close but not quite from Rover. That is some comically large arch gap giving quite the faux by four off road appearance.

That's just how commodity cars were back then before everything came with big alloys and rubber band tyres as a status symbol

I'm old enough to have owned/driven plenty of cars that came on 13 inch wheels with 175/60 tyres and when fitting 15s with 195/45 tyres was considered a hardcore upgrade

A Lamborghini Countach of that era would have been on 15 inch wheels even though it was shod with 345's (which was the only car to wear them).

[LanceRS]

My Sierra Cosworth is on it’s original 15” wheels. It’s a bit difficult to get tyres for now..

[dundarach]

Down and out said:

tomic said:

Mercury00 said:

Frimley111R said:

Vocht said:

I didn't know the Honda Civic Saloon was available in the UK. It's only ever so slightly different to the hatch but actually looks a lot better in person. It seems less awkward and gets rid of those horrrible large fake black plastic/honeycomb vents on the rear of the hatchback. Apparently identical to the hatchback but has a larger boot (obviously, 41 litres more than the hatch) and more space for rear occupants. The ride is much softer which suits the nature of the car better too... A great car for some!

MUCH nicer.

Agreed, that's lovely.

I saw a few of these in Turkey last year where they're made. They really do look the business. Surprised they haven't caught on over here.

10x better, the hatch really is pig ugly with that awful light cluster bar thing.

Probably perfectly useable, but 'lovely' 'nicer' 'the busines' jusus no wonder car designers are fking giving up....

Nowhere, ever, at any time, anywhere, is that car nice looking......

[LuS1fer]

dundarach said:

Probably perfectly useable, but 'lovely' 'nicer' 'the busines' jusus no wonder car designers are fking giving up....

Nowhere, ever, at any time, anywhere, is that car nice looking......

Honda's are odd, for me. No matter how ugly, I can't help liking them.

[Blown2CV]

AnneTeak said:

Citroen ZX Volcane?



Hard to find sources to back up the claim, but it's believed to be the first diesel 'hot' hatch!

Also available at the time in 1.9 petrol and later a 2.0 version.

Try finding one now (how many left reckons 11 petrols and 34 diesels, down from 3k and 5k in 2001)!

Edited by AnneTeak on Friday 17th May 10:10

my Dad ran a Citroen dealer back then. How i remember it was not the first diesel hot hatch (has there ever been one?) but more the first car where people saw that any diesel could be vaguely desirable and fairly quick yet economical, and not just slow and crap. I think this was probably a more significant development and a far broader more pervasive shift than it would have been to just narrow it to small hatches.

[Mr Tidy]

LanceRS said:

My Sierra Cosworth is on it’s original 15” wheels. It’s a bit difficult to get tyres for now..

It could be worse - I saw this Tickford Capri on 13" pepperpots last Sunday. Now he will struggle to find tyres!

[StescoG66]

Matt Cup said:

Mark-C said:

So this talk of the Citroen ZX led me (via Wiki) to the discovery it was licensed to China which gave us the DongFeng-Citroen Fukang Pickup ... which is absolutely something I didn't know existed!

“What pick-up? “ “It’s a Fukang Pickup!”

The doors look like they come from a Fiat Uno to me.

[RizzoTheRat]

Blown2CV said:

AnneTeak said:

Citroen ZX Volcane?



Hard to find sources to back up the claim, but it's believed to be the first diesel 'hot' hatch!

Also available at the time in 1.9 petrol and later a 2.0 version.

Try finding one now (how many left reckons 11 petrols and 34 diesels, down from 3k and 5k in 2001)!

Edited by AnneTeak on Friday 17th May 10:10

my Dad ran a Citroen dealer back then. How i remember it was not the first diesel hot hatch (has there ever been one?) but more the first car where people saw that any diesel could be vaguely desirable and fairly quick yet economical, and not just slow and crap. I think this was probably a more significant development and a far broader more pervasive shift than it would have been to just narrow it to small hatches.

90 bhp, while the petrol Volcane had 120 I think, so not really hot hatch but as 2CV says, a lot quicker than most other diesels of the era. 306 dTurbo had the same engine but came a bit later I think.
I had 198k miles on my Volcane when the rear radius arm bearings failed and it just wasn't economical to repair. A fair few of those miles were using veg oil at half the price of diesel, the XUD9 engine with the Bosch fuel pump was supposedly one of the best engine for running on veg oil.
Replaced it with a 2 litre 306 dTurbo but it wasn't as good.

[aka_kerrly]

LanceRS said:

My Sierra Cosworth is on it’s original 15” wheels. It’s a bit difficult to get tyres for now..

205/50/15 Yokohama AD08R for huge amounts of grip and a spare set of wheels with Uniroyal Rainsport= sorted.

[Shakermaker]

Butter Face said:

13's were for the hardcore, 12's were for the wannabe badboys!

I bought a set of 13" slot-mag style alloys for my Rascal last year, to upgrade from the 12" steels. Haven't fitted them yet though but they look the business

[havoc]

Butter Face said:

aka_kerrly said:

Mark-C said:

aka_kerrly said:

Fast Bug said:

Worthy of this thread?


Precursor to the Evoque

Another close but not quite from Rover. That is some comically large arch gap giving quite the faux by four off road appearance.

That's just how commodity cars were back then before everything came with big alloys and rubber band tyres as a status symbol

I'm old enough to have owned/driven plenty of cars that came on 13 inch wheels with 175/60 tyres and when fitting 15s with 195/45 tyres was considered a hardcore upgrade

Up until 6 years ago my daily driver had 15" wheels. Lovely car too...shouldn't have sold it.

[ajprice]

1978 USA market VW Dasher. A 3 door, a bit Passat, a bit Scirocco, a bit Audi 80. https://jalopnik.com/at-3-800-could-this-classic-1...

[cmvtec]

ajprice said:

1978 USA market VW Dasher. A 3 door, a bit Passat, a bit Scirocco, a bit Audi 80. https://jalopnik.com/at-3-800-could-this-classic-1...

That has a certain appeal...

The same sort of appeal a 2 doorJetta or Vento has.

[Doofus]

ajprice said:

1978 USA market VW Dasher. A 3 door, a bit Passat, a bit Scirocco, a bit Audi 80. https://jalopnik.com/at-3-800-could-this-classic-1...

That's just a nastily modified Passat B1, which was a European model, also sold in the UK

[GTI16V]

Honda Accord Sir-T

[MadmanO/T People]

Doofus said:

ajprice said:

1978 USA market VW Dasher. A 3 door, a bit Passat, a bit Scirocco, a bit Audi 80. https://jalopnik.com/at-3-800-could-this-classic-1...

That's just a nastily modified Passat B1, which was a European model, also sold in the UK

Exactly. The US market VW Dasher was just a federal-bumpered B1 Passat. The one in the photos has some non-original modifications.

FYI, the B2 Passat/Santana was called the VW Quantum in America. It wasn't until the B3 came along when the Passat name was finally used in the USA.

[P5BNij]

Maserati QP1 (a 1965 to 1969 Series 2) converted into a fire tender…