What do you drive?

[Davkaus]

I'm at the point of thinking of selling my main car, and just hiring a car when I occasionally need more than one seat (e.g., vet runs). If I didn't drive for fun in the Caterham, I think I wouldn't want a car at all anymore, I've done less than a thousand miles in my primary car. It's just the doubt about if we'll ever go back to working in offices full time. 

[TheAuthority]

On 07/12/2020 at 12:54, Xela said:

What is the fascination with pick up trucks in the States. I think the top 3 selling vehicles last year were pick-ups. Maybe one for @TheAuthority and @Dom_Wren?! 

 

Sorry I missed this - I've been busy with work for a few days.

Interestingly Alex a friend of mine just commented the other day that trucks are the new middle aged crisis vehicle for American men (instead of the red sports car or motorbike.)
About 10/15 years ago there was a documentary called "who killed the electric car?" It explained how General Motors and other US manufacturers when threatened by the idea of moving away from fossil fuels decided to aggressively design and market their SUV's as "weapons" and accentuate the power of them. Essentially they were playing on the fears of people - your vehicle needs to be a KILLER. It's bigger, tougher and more powerful than Bob and Sharon's SUV down the street.

The same marketing applies to trucks. On TV, low gravelly voiced men tell you how tough the Ford 150 is. They have huge intimidating grills on the front, big wheels and are raised higher than most other vehicles in the road. They are powered by HEMIS and 6.5 liter engines with 10,000 pounds of TOWING POWER. It's all pretty amusing.

More seriously, there is a "can do" spirit in the US and "hardware stores" are far more stocked than B&Q or whatever the UK equivalent is now. Perhaps it's regulation or just availability of space that allows American men (or women) to build an extension onto their house if they want to. Another simple practical thing is that roads are just far bigger here. The UK's infrastructure was built for horse and cart. The reasons for having a huge gas guzzlin' truck over here spans from the practical, to the available, to making your masculinity known the the world. There are always really good finance deals on them and nowadays they are even family friendly with comfy seats and lots of cup holders for you and the kids.

We just moved to Colorado they are also really practical considering the extreme weather and terrains you can encounter. So I'm not ruling out getting one in the future........

Anyway that's my take. Are they available over in the UK? Are they desirable for the cache? 

Edited December 9, 2020 by TheAuthority

[Xela]

20 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I'm at the point of thinking of selling my main car, and just hiring a car when I occasionally need more than one seat (e.g., vet runs). If I didn't drive for fun in the Caterham, I think I wouldn't want a car at all anymore, I've done less than a thousand miles in my primary car. It's just the doubt about if we'll ever go back to working in offices full time. 

Is it just the Caterham you own? Or two cars, as you mention a primary car?

Its quite expensive to hire a car, even for a few days. Might be worth just getting a beater car... pick up something decent for a couple of grand. Probably work out cheaper than hires and taxis. 

[choffer]

15 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Anyway that's my take. Are they available over in the UK? Are they desirable for the cache? 

Not with our petrol prices. 

[Xela]

15 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Anyway that's my take. Are they available over in the UK? Are they desirable for the cache? 

Very interesting mate, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

I do like the big V8 trucks... if I lived in the states and in a fairly rural area, i'd either have a 'muscle' car like a Charger or Challenger or a RAM pickup. I saw an Youtube video of the latest top of the range RAM full size pickup - about 700bhp! 

Like you said, these trucks just wouldn't fit on the UK roads or in car parks. Its bad enough with how narrow the spaces are for regular cars, let alone a F150 or something like that!

I guess the UK equivalent of the US man with a pick-up is the 'white van man' over here. Panel vans are everywhere. Transits, Transporters, et al. If you own a small business over here then you probably have a van, in the States, I guess you would have a pick-up.

The pick-ups are definitely more popular over here in the last 10 years but i'd wager 90% of them have never had their tailgate open. Its just for show. Plus they aren't the full size trucks like the USA, just barely mid sized ones like the Nissan Navarro, Toyota H-Lux and the most popular, the Ford Ranger. VW and Mercedes have got involved recently, jumping on the popularity bandwagon. 

 

[Davkaus]

11 minutes ago, Xela said:

Is it just the Caterham you own? Or two cars, as you mention a primary car?

Its quite expensive to hire a car, even for a few days. Might be worth just getting a beater car... pick up something decent for a couple of grand. Probably work out cheaper than hires and taxis. 

My sensible car is an Mx5.  

It doesn't sound very practical, but I can fit a cat carrier on the passenger seat, so it does the job. But that's twice a year.

I'm also weighing up how comfortable I'd be driving to Birmingham or Manchester for football or gigs, and leaving the Caterham parked in public.

[villakram]

15 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Sorry I missed this - I've been busy with work for a few days.

Interestingly Alex a friend of mine just commented the other day that trucks are the new middle aged crisis vehicle for American men (instead of the red sports car or motorbike.)
About 10/15 years ago there was a documentary called "who killed the electric car?" It explained how General Motors and other US manufacturers when threatened by the idea of moving away from fossil fuels decided to aggressively design and market their SUV's as "weapons" and accentuate the power of them. Essentially they were playing on the fears of people - your vehicle needs to be a KILLER. It's bigger, tougher and more powerful than Bob and Sharon's SUV down the street.

The same marketing applies to trucks. On TV, low gravelly voiced men tell you how tough the Ford 150 is. They have huge intimidating grills on the front, big wheels and are raised higher than most other vehicles in the road. They are powered by HEMIS and 6.5 liter engines with 10,000 pounds of TOWING POWER. It's all pretty amusing.

More seriously, there is a "can do" spirit in the US and "hardware stores" are far more stocked than B&Q or whatever the UK equivalent is now. Perhaps it's regulation or just availability of space that allows American men (or women) to build an extension onto their house if they want to. Another simple practical thing is that roads are just far bigger here. The UK's infrastructure was built for horse and cart. The reasons for having a huge gas guzzlin' truck over here spans from the practical, to the available, to making your masculinity known the the world. There are always really good finance deals on them and nowadays they are even family friendly with comfy seats and lots of cup holders for you and the kids.

We just moved to Colorado they are also really practical considering the extreme weather and terrains you can encounter. So I'm not ruling out getting one in the future........

Anyway that's my take. Are they available over in the UK? Are they desirable for the cache? 

SUVs and Trucks also have huge cutouts in the various regulations when compared with cars. Climate-"Saint" Obama deserves particular credit for the SUV plague.

The Ford Ranger is interesting as Ford have had to bring it back. They killed it years ago as it was too cheap/useful (unprofitable) and was tunneling into their F150 sales. They've had to be beaten into bringing it back by non-stop survey feedback and waiting for the old leadership to do one.

[TheAuthority]

8 hours ago, villakram said:

SUVs and Trucks also have huge cutouts in the various regulations when compared with cars. Climate-"Saint" Obama deserves particular credit for the SUV plague.

The Ford Ranger is interesting as Ford have had to bring it back. They killed it years ago as it was too cheap/useful (unprofitable) and was tunneling into their F150 sales. They've had to be beaten into bringing it back by non-stop survey feedback and waiting for the old leadership to do one.

They're bringing back the Bronco too next year! 

One of the originals:-)

[Tegis]

There is a strange "want it" factor to them. But unless you live in the outback where tarmac is nowhere to be seen, a normal big estate would be better in every way right..........right?

[villakram]

A cutting edge F150 promo piece from the freep, contains some jewels, such as...

"People are willing to pay more for the new style. You have a bottle opener on the tailgate with every 2021 F-150. Stuff like that makes it sellable and fun. It's not just transportation. It's cool."

"People trade in their Mercedes and Lexus to buy an F-150 around here"

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2020/12/09/2021-ford-f-150-arrives-dealerships/6496598002/

 

[mottaloo]

I admit I'm not an expert on engine sizes etc...i drive a Hyundai ix35 1.7 diesel which is SUV shaped but 2 wheel drive and it suits me fine. 

However, i am thinking about changing and saw a ford eco boost sport 1.0 litre car, which looks the same size as mine but....I'm thinking how can a 1 ltr engine pull such a size car ? Is EcoBoost a gimmick ? The one I'm looking at is ST line 125....but the engine size is bugging me. 

Then i noticed a lot of SUV shaped/sized cars have similar sized engines, probably no bigger than 1.4. I dont mind going for petrol as my mileage won't be more than 9k a year.

Do such smaller sized engines work ? I don't want to burble along in a beast of a car but don't want one that sounds like a hair dryer 

Thoughts and opinions welcome please my VT family 

[darrenm]

16 minutes ago, mottaloo said:

I admit I'm not an expert on engine sizes etc...i drive a Hyundai ix35 1.7 diesel which is SUV shaped but 2 wheel drive and it suits me fine. 

However, i am thinking about changing and saw a ford eco boost sport 1.0 litre car, which looks the same size as mine but....I'm thinking how can a 1 ltr engine pull such a size car ? Is EcoBoost a gimmick ? The one I'm looking at is ST line 125....but the engine size is bugging me. 

Then i noticed a lot of SUV shaped/sized cars have similar sized engines, probably no bigger than 1.4. I dont mind going for petrol as my mileage won't be more than 9k a year.

Do such smaller sized engines work ? I don't want to burble along in a beast of a car but don't want one that sounds like a hair dryer 

Thoughts and opinions welcome please my VT family 

There's no replacement for displacement. But blown engines are definitely a good alternative.

With ever tightening emissions regulations, large engines are being regulated out of the market. So the manufacturers have to go with as clever (air) charging as possible.

If you've ever played Gran Turismo and whacked the biggest turbo you can find on a car you'll know that as soon as you start off it takes forever to spin up the large turbo until it can then produce the cyclic boost effect. You can't get away from that. But you can tune around it with clever bits of engine management.

TL;DR they're fine. You ideally want the lb ft torque figure to be as high/close to the PS figure as possible otherwise you'll have to rag the nuts off it to get anywhere.

[darrenm]

Not sure if I ever posted me doing a little tour of my almost 20 year old Lupo GTI in 4k  

 

[Genie]

I test drove an Eco Sport last year for the wife and it looks nice, but is very cheap/tinny and basic inside.

I have a second gen Kuga and it’s lovely. Feels quite premium (Titanium X model) and well put together. 16 months in and not a moments trouble either.

[mottaloo]

Thanks @Genie i guess the level of trim does come in to it. I got heated seats, front and rear; satnav and rear camera...basically more toys than a premium brand would offer for the price. I will check out the titanium kuga.

@darrenm....thank you for your reply. I'm embarrassed to admit that i really only understood your second paragraph 

I will look up the TL/DR/PS factors,  thanks !

[Genie]

I’ve known some people say those 1l Ford engines are brilliant ans others say they are awful. It’ll depend how you drive them, you’ll need to rev them more than you might normally.

 

[darrenm]

2 minutes ago, mottaloo said:

Thanks @Genie i guess the level of trim does come in to it. I got heated seats, front and rear; satnav and rear camera...basically more toys than a premium brand would offer for the price. I will check out the titanium kuga.

@darrenm....thank you for your reply. I'm embarrassed to admit that i really only understood your second paragraph 

I will look up the TL/DR/PS factors,  thanks !

TL;DR is too long;didn't read  so just the summary

PS is metric BHP - those pesky Germans making an old imperial measurement metric. It's the peak power an engine can produce. It's torque * RPM so an engine which can develop a lot of torque but can't rev very high (diesel) may not have as much power as an engine with less torque but much higher RPM. If you have a high torque figure it's that shove feeling you get in turbo cars when the turbo starts spinning. A high PS figure but low torque is like a racing car where you have to have it revving high all the time to get your power out.

If you have a reasonably balanced good torque and PS figure, it'll be much more driveable. You really want your power linear increasing with RPM on a graph like this
    /
  /
/

And you want your torque figure to stay as flat as possible like this

----------

The modern smaller engines are like this. You tend to find that if they're going for big power from small engines e.g. the VW/Audi/Skoda/SEAT 1.4TSI 150 PS ACT engine, they'll be using a larger turbo and it'll feel a bit dead until around 2000 RPM when it'll suddenly come to life. Ford's ecoboost looks like a more realistic 125 PS with a flatter torque curve so it will have a smoother power delivery.

[mottaloo]

"Too long, didn't read".....

Now i DO feel like a proper muppet ! 

Thanks again for explaining the torque stuff; I'll deffo check that stuff out.

[blandy]

7 hours ago, Tegis said:

There is a strange "want it" factor to them. But unless you live in the outback where tarmac is nowhere to be seen, a normal big estate would be better in every way right..........right?

Even for the outback, they're kind of not ideal - I mean they're expensive and fitted out all nice which you wouldn't want getting wrecked with sand and dust and mud. They're kind of upmarket takes on what you actually need, which is one of those bulletproof Toyota Utes - Here was mine (hired).  But they're pretty ordinary on tarmac - slow, noisy etc.

)

[Xela]

2 hours ago, mottaloo said:

I admit I'm not an expert on engine sizes etc...i drive a Hyundai ix35 1.7 diesel which is SUV shaped but 2 wheel drive and it suits me fine. 

However, i am thinking about changing and saw a ford eco boost sport 1.0 litre car, which looks the same size as mine but....I'm thinking how can a 1 ltr engine pull such a size car ? Is EcoBoost a gimmick ? The one I'm looking at is ST line 125....but the engine size is bugging me. 

Then i noticed a lot of SUV shaped/sized cars have similar sized engines, probably no bigger than 1.4. I dont mind going for petrol as my mileage won't be more than 9k a year.

Do such smaller sized engines work ? I don't want to burble along in a beast of a car but don't want one that sounds like a hair dryer 

Thoughts and opinions welcome please my VT family 

The hire car (Corsa) I had was a 1.2 litre, 3 cylinder with a small turbo on. It was fine. Got up to 60 no worries. I'd have no issues with it as a main car. It might not burble like my beast but its fine for 95% of driving needs. New engines are a lot more efficient than older ones. This 1.2 was 99bhp. That's more than enough to bimble around and do the odd motorway drive in