What do you drive?

[Xela]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Pretty damn similar to the Alfa above isn't it?

Who am I to judge though, I'm seriously considering picking up one of these, in this colour. I just saw one of them that's sold, I'm keeping an eye out for another 

 

Nice! 

I do like the look and sound of them, but far too fragile for me. If I'm going for a high performance car, its going to be something JDM. The classic NSX being my realistic grail car. An early model (1990-93) in formula red with a black roof. The build quality was superb. The staff who built them had to have at least 10 years experience at Honda and were handpicked to work on the project. 

[A'Villan]

Any comments based on experience of the Honda Accord Euro?

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

16 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

'hearing aid beige' has to be the most descriptive thing I've heard in my life lol

I used to drive a 'hearing aid beige' Rover Metro.  It was the Vanden Plas however and it was I think the 1.2 and was very fast indeed.

Had wood in it and all manner of technologic marvels at the time.

I was given it after the 1st car they gave me (Work),  only lasted 1 day.

That was a Rover Maestro,  again a Vanden Plas but with the talking dashboard and electric dashboard.

In 24 hours (Redditch to Sutton and back again),  The metal sunroof completely detached on the Aston Express way and left the car on the way home.  Hole in the roof and in the mirror a lorry immediately ran over it.

Bin Liner on the roof next day,  made it to Redditch,  30 meters from work.  Drive shaft fell off onto the road.  

   

[Genie]

My first car was an Austin Metro, I drove to Luton airport in it and when I came to drive it back it first refused to start. Then when I got it started the brakes had given up. My dad told me to get the train home and contacted a local scrap metal company to take it away.

My second car was pretty good even by today’s standards.

It was a 1994 Renault Clio special edition called Champs-Elysees. It was 1.4L petrol and had remote central locking (where you had to practically have your key in the lock to get the angle to the sensor by the rear view mirror), CD player, alloy wheels, electric windows and electric sunroof. Pretty impressive. It never let me down either. I had it a couple of years, then my now wife had it, I had it back then sold it to a bloke a work. 

[BOF]

Those last 2 posts. Ah the British car industry Thank McGrath for oddballs like TVR, Lotus and Caterham.

[Seat68]

I bought a new car yesterday. Its a car that I have wanted for the past few years. Reluctant to mention it as people may harsh my buzz and say you will have a lifetime of hardship. Don’t harsh my buzz. Mercedes GLA Sport. 

[Risso]

53 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

I used to drive a 'hearing aid beige' Rover Metro.  It was the Vanden Plas however and it was I think the 1.2 and was very fast indeed.

Had wood in it and all manner of technologic marvels at the time.

I was given it after the 1st car they gave me (Work),  only lasted 1 day.

That was a Rover Maestro,  again a Vanden Plas but with the talking dashboard and electric dashboard.

In 24 hours (Redditch to Sutton and back again),  The metal sunroof completely detached on the Aston Express way and left the car on the way home.  Hole in the roof and in the mirror a lorry immediately ran over it.

Bin Liner on the roof next day,  made it to Redditch,  30 meters from work.  Drive shaft fell off onto the road.  

   

There's a reason they used to called hammers "Longbridge spanners"!

[BOF]

12 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

I bought a new car yesterday. Its a car that I have wanted for the past few years. Reluctant to mention it as people may harsh my buzz and say you will have a lifetime of hardship. Don’t harsh my buzz. Mercedes GLA Sport. 

Pics or it didn't happen. 

[Seat68]

15 minutes ago, BOF said:

Pics or it didn't happen. 

When I pick it up I will slip into a bikini and recline on the bonnet for you all. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Seat68

[BOF]

7 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

When I pick it up I will slip into a bikini and recline on the bonnet for you all. 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

16 hours ago, Xela said:

Cappuccino she calls it.

Catsickono

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

1 hour ago, BOF said:

Those last 2 posts. Ah the British car industry Thank McGrath for oddballs like TVR, Lotus and Caterham.

I used to drive cars around the country for 5 or 6 years in the 90's.

Rovers were odd,  I had a 416 GTI and it was awesome.  Everything worked.

Get in another one same age and it was all over the place really odd.

It's like they used the motto "Every car is different"  from Rolls Royce and ran with it.  

[BOF]

1 minute ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

I used to drive cars around the country for 5 or 6 years in the 90's.

Rovers were odd,  I had a 416 GTI and it was awesome.  Everything worked.

Get in another one same age and it was all over the place really odd.

It's like they used the motto "Every car is different"  from Rolls Royce and ran with it.  

Yeah there was no quality control. It was a total lottery. I remember the episode of Top Gear where the challenge was to see if Britain ever produced a good car, and the conclusion was "yes they did, it's that one there" pointing to a singular Austin Princess  

[Guest av1]

I've been working with a lad today that has talked about absolutely nothing but cars. I think I now know the BHP of ever variant of every engine on the road. 

I'm not a petrol head myself so found most it very boring but as he seemed keen on the subject I told him that I was looking for a new car and asked his thoughts on my 2 car shortlist, the Skoda Octavia saloon and the Seat Leon estate. The very first thing he said was avoid a automatic gearbox because both use a DSG gearbox and they are rubbish. 

I was actually considering an auto, so I was wondering if he was talking rubbish or if these things have a bad reputation? 

[Genie]

I’d only heard good things about DSG gearboxes personally.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

2 hours ago, Seat68 said:

When I get picked up I will slip into a bikini and recline wearing a bonnet for you all.

RTFY

[Davkaus]

I do prefer a manual, but modern DSGs are pretty good tbh. Some of the early ones were a bit rubbish, and a lot of people didn't get them serviced properly (every 40k in pretty much every model AFAIK) and ended up with very expensive bills. If you're buying used, have a good look at the service history. I'd always want my car to have been serviced to schedule anyway, but it's particularly noteworthy for a DSG car IMO.

In terms of what they're like to drive, there's no point taking our word or his word for it though, take a test drive and see what you think, and make sure you give one a good run out both in some town driving and stretch its legs on a dual carriageway before you commit. 

[villa4europe]

I'm very much in the "once you've done it you'll never go back" club

Would lazily guess that it's the same as most things cars you get what you pay for, a diahatsu basic model DSG gearbox won't be the same thing as what ze Germans are offering (I'm guessing the seat Leon will use the same one out of the VW golf) 

[Phil Silvers]

45 minutes ago, av1 said:

I've been working with a lad today that has talked about absolutely nothing but cars. I think I now know the BHP of ever variant of every engine on the road. 

I'm not a petrol head myself so found most it very boring but as he seemed keen on the subject I told him that I was looking for a new car and asked his thoughts on my 2 car shortlist, the Skoda Octavia saloon and the Seat Leon estate. The very first thing he said was avoid a automatic gearbox because both use a DSG gearbox and they are rubbish. 

I was actually considering an auto, so I was wondering if he was talking rubbish or if these things have a bad reputation? 

Changed cars in 2018 and shortlist was golf, Leon, octavia and wanted dsg, there was honestly hardly anything in them, ended up with a golf gtd manual in the end lol, just came down to best deal at the time as they were not making that mk7.5 gtd anymore. 

Anyway, its been for service twice so far and both times I had a loan car both were octavia estate dsg, one was a 1.5 150 petrol (brilliant engine), the other 2.0 150 diesel,  like both.

VW dsg box is well sorted, very good, however, it depends on type drive you do most, dsg has 7 gears, whilst city driving it will constanty try to find an optimal gear and may seem jittery but in my opinion its smooth enough to fade in to the background, some hate it for that though. Motorway driving is brilliant.

Test drive the cars you mentioned and if you are mostly a city driver I'd try the impressive new Toyota Corolla (hybrid) cvt auto too, which is supposedly very smooth,  but for motorway driving some dislike the way that CVTs cause revs to rise and fall in an unnatural manner in the way that their engines stay noisy during acceleration.

 

[Stevo985]

On 03/03/2021 at 12:06, BOF said:

Coming up on 6 years later and I'm still driving her!

Absolutely love the Brera. Was strongly considering one myself once upon a time.

Lovely looking car