car choice - advise needed - oddball suggestions welcomed!
Discussion
Afternoon all
im afraid its one of the 'help me with a car suggestion' posts. hopefully might be more fun than asking for your suggestion/opinions on the latest diesel hatches though
basically - we have moved house - into the sticks, and will be needing more boot space for stuff, but still want a car that goes.
Budget: £2.5-5K - but will happily take under or just over.
current fleet: fiat coupe 20vt - 120K+ miles, is becoming a concern for long drives. volvo v(something) 150K+ miles, hateful thing, failed last few MOT's needing fairly serious work. peugeot 205 gti - fully restored, flawless in every way (guess which one i own :P)
requirements: car to take strain off coupe and volvo. estate, 4wd, pokey engine.
The difficulty comes here: modern cars just leave us cold, not enjoyment out of driving them, too ££ and cant fix them unless they go to the main dealer. Older cars 90's and before at least can be serviced and worked on from home or by a garage dealer. But now - 90's cars are at best 10+ years old - anything earlier than that seems to be worse, or if in good nick - deemed collectable and £35894503480683
The idea/hope is that there is a car that was built brilliantly that is good on running costs and good to drive
Ideas that have been thrown around:
Audi s2, - quattro avant, 220hp 5 cylinder, plus we then have a 'quattro'
other audi's of this style and era
Range rover classic - although with regards running costs this is abit hefty, but a local friend specialises in them and can offer good prices on work - also LPG would be a must to lower fuel costs.
welcome all suggestions
im afraid its one of the 'help me with a car suggestion' posts. hopefully might be more fun than asking for your suggestion/opinions on the latest diesel hatches though
basically - we have moved house - into the sticks, and will be needing more boot space for stuff, but still want a car that goes.
Budget: £2.5-5K - but will happily take under or just over.
current fleet: fiat coupe 20vt - 120K+ miles, is becoming a concern for long drives. volvo v(something) 150K+ miles, hateful thing, failed last few MOT's needing fairly serious work. peugeot 205 gti - fully restored, flawless in every way (guess which one i own :P)
requirements: car to take strain off coupe and volvo. estate, 4wd, pokey engine.
The difficulty comes here: modern cars just leave us cold, not enjoyment out of driving them, too ££ and cant fix them unless they go to the main dealer. Older cars 90's and before at least can be serviced and worked on from home or by a garage dealer. But now - 90's cars are at best 10+ years old - anything earlier than that seems to be worse, or if in good nick - deemed collectable and £35894503480683
The idea/hope is that there is a car that was built brilliantly that is good on running costs and good to drive
Ideas that have been thrown around:
Audi s2, - quattro avant, 220hp 5 cylinder, plus we then have a 'quattro'
other audi's of this style and era
Range rover classic - although with regards running costs this is abit hefty, but a local friend specialises in them and can offer good prices on work - also LPG would be a must to lower fuel costs.
welcome all suggestions
johnhenry said:
and its japanese, which apparently is bad, not good 
From what I've seen/heard, that means excellent reliability, but parts can be expensive. Also the interior isn't necessarily anything to write home about but will wear well. I recently test drove a Legacy (albeit one twice your budget), loved it. I'd recommend you try one at least.johnhenry said:
jeep cherokee sounds interesting - ill do abit of research. remember one being in the family - step mum i think, didnt last too long with us!
legacy would be perfect! however, the 'character' was missing according to the mother. and its japanese, which apparently is bad, not good
I think you've got a bit of choice, although 4wd, estate and in budget leave only a few options really.legacy would be perfect! however, the 'character' was missing according to the mother. and its japanese, which apparently is bad, not good
So you need to decide if you want car based such as a Subaru, Jag X-Type or Audi A4. Or if you want to look at 4x4's.
The latter won't be as quick, nor handle as well and will use more fuel. But they can be fun in a very different way and quite addictive.
e.g.
This was my modded 200Tdi Disco. Certainly not quick, although it went ok for Landy. Tweaking the Tdi engine gives it a lovely power delivery and it was quick enough to keep up with and over take modern traffic.
It was also a hoot to throw about and you could really surprise a lot of people with it. The big wheels also made it feel like a Tonka toy and you simply couldn't help smiling when you drove it.
This is my current Jeep Cherokee. It's a 4.0 HO straight 6 with 190hp, quite a lot quicker than the Disco (clocked 8.5 sec 0-60mph in it). But it sounds lovely and the motor is a gem to drive. Not all that high revving, but very free revving within it's own operating range, very responsive.
It's a tad thirsty on fuel, although on a run will notch up 23mpg with moderate ease (which is about 5mpg more than a 3.9 EFI Range Rover would).
But no everyone likes or "gets" 4x4's. So something like a Subaru Forrester/Impreza/Legacy might well be a good bet.
Classic Range Rover's and V8 Disco's are great too... but you do get more Jeep for your money.
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