What 20 year old car would you choose as your daily drive?
Discussion
Gunk said:
Is not that the 20 year German stuff is the coolest, the most reliable would probably be a mid 1990's Nissan Primera, I can't see many powerfully built PHers rocking around in one of them.
Agree, for many other 2ltr Td's as well.Costs per mile should remove 20 year old BMW's...........but that is not a criteria of this thread.
Gary C said:
Celiac gt4 st205
Cheap for what you get and the legendary reliability of the 3sgte engine and a tough as nails transmission.
Great drive too.
I had an st185 along side a brand new sti and the toyota was always a great drive in comparison.
Wish I'd not sold it.
I saw a lovely 185 the other day and realised it's been years since i saw one. not many for sale either!Cheap for what you get and the legendary reliability of the 3sgte engine and a tough as nails transmission.
Great drive too.
I had an st185 along side a brand new sti and the toyota was always a great drive in comparison.
Wish I'd not sold it.
white_goodman said:
. . . having run a 205 GTi as my daily at 12 years old . . .
That is very cool. I used to have to catch the school bus at that age. :-p I'll go Mk3 Golf VR6 - I ran a 93L GTI 8v and then a 94M VR6 as dailies back in 2007 and I expect they'd still be alright.
Shame its not a year later though as then we'd be in Mk4 territory!
My 20 year old daily is currently a BMW e39 with a 2.5 straight 6 petrol & manual gearbox. It's been staggeringly good for the 18 months that I've had it.
It's great at 99% of things that I do, it could be a bit faster, a LSD would be nice, slightly more bolstered seats & slightly firmer suspension would make it ideal but that's the biggest issue with E39s, the M5s are ten times the price so it's highly likely that this will be my only venture into E39 ownership.
My preferred 20 year old daily if money was no object would likely be 993 Porsche 911 but in the real world a Monaro coupe is looking like a good option!!
It's great at 99% of things that I do, it could be a bit faster, a LSD would be nice, slightly more bolstered seats & slightly firmer suspension would make it ideal but that's the biggest issue with E39s, the M5s are ten times the price so it's highly likely that this will be my only venture into E39 ownership.
My preferred 20 year old daily if money was no object would likely be 993 Porsche 911 but in the real world a Monaro coupe is looking like a good option!!
PomBstard said:
I reckon a 20 year old 306 GTi6 would be OK if it had a reasonable life to date. Pugs from that era are pretty tough.
Once a few things are sorted, i'd agree.Mine is only on 80k miles, but needed a new clutch as the pedal was HEAVY, and the throttle cable needed replacing and routing like the phase3 cars which makes it nice and light, and the gear linkages needed looking at.
It's going in for new timing belt/tensioner/water pump/etc soon and then need to decide what to do with it.
It's not my daily driver, but could be!
Gunk said:
MorganP104 said:
Agent XXX said:
Oh god. YET another thread that decends into "I've got a BMW"
It may well look that way, but there's a reason for that. The only stuff reliable enough to use as a daily driver at 20 years old is going to be German.But we can discount Mercedes from that, as late '90s cars suffered very badly with rust. Which leaves us with 20 year old Audis (they really weren't very exciting back then), or 20 year old BMWs.
Edited by Gunk on Tuesday 30th May 11:39
Stickyfinger said:
Costs per mile should remove 20 year old BMW's...........but that is not a criteria of this thread.
Not at all! I ran a 1998 BMW 328i Coupe for nine months and 14K miles before needing the economy of a diesel and opting for a 1999 VW Golf TDI. The BMW was the most dependable and reliable car I have ever owned – the only part to fail in my ownership was a sensor for the traction control.Taking into account all running costs: insurance, MOT, tax, fuel, repairs and servicing my BMW cost me 26 pence per mile in 14K miles over nine months. My Golf TDI has cost me 19 pence per mile thus far in 7K miles over six months. The BMW wasn’t expensive to run at all and I’m now questioning why I sold it.
It averaged 26MPG over my entire ownership and managed 38MPG when I drove to Austria. This was with a heavy-footed 20 YO at the wheel – I’m sure others could manage better than this.
So, for the purpose of this thread: I would choose a 1997 BMW 328i Coupe, preferably a sport in Techno Violet.
A VW Golf VR6 would come a close second. I owned one as a stop gap before getting my BMW, and have had a hankering for one ever since, although it seemed flakier than its replacement. The noise is sublime.
Bradley1500 said:
Not at all! I ran a 1998 BMW 328i Coupe for nine months and 14K miles before needing the economy of a diesel and opting for a 1999 VW Golf TDI. The BMW was the most dependable and reliable car I have ever owned – the only part to fail in my ownership was a sensor for the traction control.
Taking into account all running costs: insurance, MOT, tax, fuel, repairs and servicing my BMW cost me 26 pence per mile in 14K miles over nine months. My Golf TDI has cost me 19 pence per mile thus far in 7K miles over six months. The BMW wasn’t expensive to run at all and I’m now questioning why I sold it.
It averaged 26MPG over my entire ownership and managed 38MPG when I drove to Austria. This was with a heavy-footed 20 YO at the wheel – I’m sure others could manage better than this.
So, for the purpose of this thread: I would choose a 1997 BMW 328i Coupe, preferably a sport in Techno Violet.
A VW Golf VR6 would come a close second. I owned one as a stop gap before getting my BMW, and have had a hankering for one ever since, although it seemed flakier than its replacement. The noise is sublime.
Interesting figures....Taking into account all running costs: insurance, MOT, tax, fuel, repairs and servicing my BMW cost me 26 pence per mile in 14K miles over nine months. My Golf TDI has cost me 19 pence per mile thus far in 7K miles over six months. The BMW wasn’t expensive to run at all and I’m now questioning why I sold it.
It averaged 26MPG over my entire ownership and managed 38MPG when I drove to Austria. This was with a heavy-footed 20 YO at the wheel – I’m sure others could manage better than this.
So, for the purpose of this thread: I would choose a 1997 BMW 328i Coupe, preferably a sport in Techno Violet.
A VW Golf VR6 would come a close second. I owned one as a stop gap before getting my BMW, and have had a hankering for one ever since, although it seemed flakier than its replacement. The noise is sublime.
Despite the need to "get a very good one" as a starting point.
Thank you for the detail
Agent XXX said:
Oh god. YET another thread that decends into "I've got a BMW"
Not sure specifically who that was aimed at but actually I don't own a BMW. I just think for what I need from my daily drive and relatively affordable running costs, an E39 would be a great choice. What alternatives would you suggest? I think also that there are more Audis/BMWs/Mercedes around from this era than say Ford/Vauxhall/Rover because they were more expensive cars new, so worth repairing. Most 1997 Fords/Vauxhalls/Rovers would have been virtually worthless at say 10 years old, so any major repair would have meant that they got scrapped. Those that still survive and have been kept in good condition have likely appreciated, as you can see from the silly prices that some people are asking for any old Ford in particular.Just to redress the balance, I am surprised that no-one has mentioned one of these. Not quite as refined or comfortable as an E39 but I could put up with one of these as my daily I think. Good luck finding a decent one at this age though!
white_goodman said:
Just to redress the balance, I am surprised that no-one has mentioned one of these. Not quite as refined or comfortable as an E39 but I could put up with one of these as my daily I think. Good luck finding a decent one at this age though!
in 2001 my commute went from 3 miles to 40 miles.I chopped in a 2.0 Mondeo for a '99 impreza turbo. Perfect for a 6'3 bloke to do nearly 2 hours a day in.
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