What car (kind of!)
Discussion
A sort of what car thread but I'm looking at opinion on reliability before I go for it and that way I can work out what to spend.
We have a new TT due for delivery in March 2011 so that's our main car. I currently run a Berlingo van as a hack but it's awful to drive and horrible for the few times a week I use it commute to work. I mountain bike alot and have the van kitted out with Saris Bones so the van will secure the forks of two bikes in the back for trail centre trips. The van suits perfectly as It's cheap to run and carries the bikes easily.
I'm looking at possibly changing the van for another car (or van) and my requirements are, cheap to run, able to carry bikes securely (this means either inside or on roof rails not on a rack the bike's too expensive to drop!), reliable, comfortable and preferably auto.
I'm open to anything but at the moment worry that an auto box on what will probably be an older car will be unreliable, is this correct? I've never ran an auto before! Reliability is the biggest issue as I'm fed up with fixing the van!
We have a new TT due for delivery in March 2011 so that's our main car. I currently run a Berlingo van as a hack but it's awful to drive and horrible for the few times a week I use it commute to work. I mountain bike alot and have the van kitted out with Saris Bones so the van will secure the forks of two bikes in the back for trail centre trips. The van suits perfectly as It's cheap to run and carries the bikes easily.
I'm looking at possibly changing the van for another car (or van) and my requirements are, cheap to run, able to carry bikes securely (this means either inside or on roof rails not on a rack the bike's too expensive to drop!), reliable, comfortable and preferably auto.
I'm open to anything but at the moment worry that an auto box on what will probably be an older car will be unreliable, is this correct? I've never ran an auto before! Reliability is the biggest issue as I'm fed up with fixing the van!
No mention of a budget so I'll assume £5k, I'd say a Volvo V70 D5 would suit your needs perfectly: you can get 4 bikes on the roof, they're very well built and reliable and fairly good value. If you were willing to take a punt I'd sayget an S210 Mercedes E320 CDi touring. It's even bigger than the Volvo, but they rust badly and aren't as well put together as you might expect, but prices relect this and they're and absolute bargain now.
I would not touch an automatic E39 BMW 530d if I were you though, they have a 'sealed for life' gearbox which has a habit of failing around 100k miles and is around £3k to replace and the cooling system is crap.
I would not touch an automatic E39 BMW 530d if I were you though, they have a 'sealed for life' gearbox which has a habit of failing around 100k miles and is around £3k to replace and the cooling system is crap.
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff