Because Estate Car

[schmalex]

Speed addicted said:

Welshbeef said:

Personally do I like he fact that now plenty (apparently) young kids are running Golf R's etc whereas I and all who I knew had to run clapped out she'd for years Nova 1ltr Maestros allegros all fking st cars (but as it happens very fond memories) vs the lovely machines we have today.

That bugs me, my wife's cousin is early 20s and zooming about in a new Audi A3 saloon. He knows nothing about cars and will never need to learn.

I had any amount of crap cars, these people will never know the highs and lows of owning something you have to park on hills so you can bump start it in the morning.
Or that great moment when you discover the problem you thought was expensive and possibly terminal turns out to be a loose wire and the car works again.
Or servicing something that's obviously not been done in years so you get a 30% power boost in one day because all the filters now flow.


Obviously this is outweighed by then driving things that are loads safer, likely to get them home without calamity and far nicer to live with generally.

In fact i'm mostly just jealous that they're younger than me and also don't have crap cars.

Back in 1992, my first car was a Mini. JVT 355V. It was ******* epic. After it got written off by a Transit, I found it had Spax shocks. Only one brake in 4 ever worked (it was just mystery which one would choose to work on any given day). I had to teach my sister (14) how to bump start it while I pushed it of a winter morning. I broke the steering column numerous times doing oing handbrake turns in New Forest car parks during lunch breaks at a rock College. But.... I wouldn't have changed it for the world.

Equally, my mates had Beetles / MK1 Cavaliers / Escorts (the paupers could only afford mk1; anyone with wonga was in a mk2 1.6 GL or Ghia). There was even one complete saddo who had a Capri 2.0 - what a wker

We had a blast. I remember driving 8 up in a 1.3 Beetle, overtaking a grokkle through Ten Bends with one person in the driver's seat shouting "left" or "right"; someone else doing the gears and one more sitting out of the sunroof, steering with his feet..

ETA. I've no idea what that has to do with estate cars, but it was great to reminisce!!!

Edited by schmalex on Sunday 13th August 19:47

[nellyleelephant]

Here's my old man Mundano, with a heady 220bhp, not the quickest by a long shot and 25mpg sucks, but apart from that I can't fault it (apart from the door sill trim that wants to depart the car)

[pic] [/pic]

[Skipraider]

Mike335i said:

I do prefer the looks of the estate / touring versions of many cars, including the 335i. I set out to find one, but simply couldn't find one.

There are a few available, very rare in a manual though. I searched for ages for a used e91 335i manual but gave up. I ended up going for a new f31 335i, with a manual box

[theboyfold]

I bloody love estate cars, and also agree that they are better looking than the saloon variants.

I'd go as far as saying the estate Panamera is seriously good looking

[Mike335i]

Skipraider said:

There are a few available, very rare in a manual though. I searched for ages for a used e91 335i manual but gave up. I ended up going for a new f31 335i, with a manual box

That does look ace. You must be chuffed with that one!

[ColdoRS]

My £1300 9-3 Aero has earned its money many times over - saved me a fortune in skip and van hire during our recent house renovation. It's not the cleanest or sharpest example which makes it perfect for loading to the gunnels.

Materials for my shed base;




A whole bathroom suite, including bath;


A Christmas Tree;


I could post 20 more pictures of stuff it's moved for me - another bathroom suite, 12 doors, 10's of loads of garden clearout, stud walls, plasterboard, big ladders, furniture, all sorts - soon to be a kitchen too, when we get our finger out and begin.

Totally sold on estate cars now. That said, if I had one that was a bit more precious than the Saab, I probably wouldn't use it in quite such a utilitarian manner...

[keekodog]

On the way to silverstone

[OverSteery]

rxe said:

How else do you cart a dog around?



Another 156....bought it last year for £380. Now has a remap, coil-overs, stiffened ARBs and an LSD. I'm going to put GTA brakes on it (it needs them, badly), but that will need the 17" GTA alloys, which will give the game away a bit - the current 15" noddy wheels look very benign.

there are other ways:

[Pvapour]

99 2.3 aero

Gets loaded like this at least once a week, bought for mainly for dog duties, fsh, 116k then for £900

Two years later 40k added with no servicing and runs like a dream, even the ac is icy cold

Edited by Pvapour on Monday 14th August 07:43

[keemaklan]

pidsy said:

I like the avant a lot.

Spec please.

Thanks Pidsy!

It's a 2005 Audi A4 Avant (B7 model code). It's the standard 140bhp 2.0 Tdi model.

Entirely standard, from front to rear aside from: a Cupra R front splitter at the bottom of the front bumper, and a rear valance from an Audi A4 170bhp model (so it has twin exit exhaust pipes rather than one sided pipes).

Exhaust is 4"s at the tail pipe.

Everything else is completely OEM. She's on 203,000 miles or so and running beautifully. I plan to take her abroad next year to Iran and perhaps further afield on a road trip!

[Colonial]

jeremyh1 said:

I like you guys running old vehicles because most of the people on this site are bearded Tesco shelve stackers with no money and new BMs on finance. Us guys running old tec are the kings of obsolete proper motorist
Oh and I forgot we got money in the bank because we dont have finance on cars we cant afford

Oh please. We stack shelves at Waitrose. One must have some standards.

[Mr Tidy]

Colonial said:

Oh please. We stack shelves at Waitrose. One must have some standards.

Exactly - you don't stack shelves at Asda after all! You are a partner, rather than a wage-slave (if there is actually a difference).

Anyway back on topic I let my nephew drive my E46 325ti, so then I had to find him one!

But a year later he became a parent and a 3 door didn't work any more, so we found a 325i Touring that does the job (and looks so good I've started thinking I ought to have one)! But a 330i facelift of course.

Gratuitous photo of my Compact and his Touring:-



Imola Red is rather nice IMHO!

[seiben]

Because support car

2017-08-12_09-16-02 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

[Etretat]

Booze trip in 2008

[Etretat]

Inside

[Arnold Cunningham]

I recall at school, only 1 lad had a brand new car. It was a 1990 Vauxhall Nova with a private plate - H12 NBG (his initials).
I don't have any objection to people having new cars. Or old cars. Or any damn car they want.
But there's a much bigger issue at play - and definately without wishing to bring any kind of politics in - the issue is that people these days don't understand "How" and "Why".
We're becoming (have become?) a nation of consumers - and I think this won't bode well for coming generations.

On the upside, everything is a whole lot more reliable than it used to be (My 1st Mini's engine blew up at 98K - my last saab we only got rid of due to a brake pipe corroding and generally the car rusting away @ 184K. I could have kept it going, but it was the wrong side of the cost/benefit line).
But the point is that as a consequence of this, our workforce is de-skilling and a manifestation of this is reflected in how people buy and maintain cars.

People buy new "for piece of mind". There's (arguably) a better argument to buy older - buy used with a few years & miles on it. All the inherent design flaws will have been found, publicised, and in most cases, fixed. Any car that came out of the factory as a lemon will by now have been fixed.

It's reliability engineering - buy a car old enough that all burn in failures will have been found and fixed, but not so old that things are wearing out. For arguments sake, I'd say 3 to 10 years is the sweet spot. Going really off topic, I tend to buy 10 year old cars and assume that there'll be some items that I need to refurb/repair etc and then get roundabout another 5 years of reliable motoring out of them...but I'm a real tight arse. But explaining this to "intelligent" friends - it just does not compute. They keep spending their 300+ per month for something quite mundane for "piece of mind".

Anyway - back on topic - IMVHO, there's just something a little cooler about many estates, and it's not just load carrying capacity, IMVHO. The saloon variants just don't quite cut it. Going all the way back to things like a Volvo P1800 Estate, or more modern, VW Passats, A4 Avants, A6 Avants - I think they just look "right".

Speed addicted said:

That bugs me, my wife's cousin is early 20s and zooming about in a new Audi A3 saloon. He knows nothing about cars and will never need to learn.

I had any amount of crap cars, these people will never know the highs and lows of owning something you have to park on hills so you can bump start it in the morning.
Or that great moment when you discover the problem you thought was expensive and possibly terminal turns out to be a loose wire and the car works again.
Or servicing something that's obviously not been done in years so you get a 30% power boost in one day because all the filters now flow.


Obviously this is outweighed by then driving things that are loads safer, likely to get them home without calamity and far nicer to live with generally.

In fact i'm mostly just jealous that they're younger than me and also don't have crap cars.

[Leins]

On way to LeMans Classic a few years ago in my old Alpina. Not the biggest of estates, but still took a fair amount of stuff for camping, BBQs, etc. The M3 was full of wine and beer

[Arnold Cunningham]

Lovely! I've never had a BM, but IMVHO that generation has a timeless style.

[p1stonhead]

The Crack Fox said:

Big estate fan here, ex 850R then V70 D5 and now "Big Ron";



Shed, bicycles, washing machines, double beds - all shifted with ease. I have a towbar but have never used it. I now want a trailer and a reason to use it...

Barbera Red? I had a 3 series in that colour and loved it.

[Hammerhead]

The glam side of estate-ing One wonders why you never see this on TV adverts!


We've had a few over the years. Great for swallowing all sorts with ease.