Family Vehicle?

[Janne]

If you ever pass Cayman I will take you out in an Italian V12 with 515 ps or an US V8 with close to 700ps and let you decide if you still prefer small engines.....

Before you flame me for my garage queens, the reason is that I need to compensate, big time...

 

[Mr Wolf]

If you ever pass Cayman I will take you out in an Italian V12 with 515 ps or an US V8 with close to 700ps and let you decide if you still prefer small engines.....

Before you flame me for my garage queens, the reason is that I need to compensate, big time...

Okay...come to some b roads and see if you can escape my little car with little engine lol

 

[santaman2000]

Wasn't one of the most famous shelby models designed by a brit from a UK brand or was that Hollywood guff? I seem to remember it from "gone in 60 seconds" with Nicholas cage.

Yes. AC Cobra.
AC = Auto Carriers Ltd , a Britsh company.

Was/is made both in UK and US.

Would an Italian car with 515 ps count as a muscle car?

The 402 cu inch V8 as fitted to the Bristol ( unmodified) had maximum 280 ps. Some say maybe 300 ps.

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr...s-better/RK=2/RS=5op4QKCFAMB56b9ctjTiOopMbkE-

 

[santaman2000]

Okay...come to some b roads and see if you can escape my little car with little engine lol

Yeah. There's a vast difference between the open road

and a semi suburban B road

Both can be fun drives.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Damn..id say thread drift but somebody would start talking about drifting cars

 

[Janne]

That link you provide, Santaman, is a bit of a bulls extrement.
AC built very similar cars to the Cobra before they were approached by Mr Shelby.
AC Ace and Aceca. The Cobra is a more 'fleshed out' version.
All lovely cars!

I knew Mr Crook quite well. He owned Bristol Cars Ltd. He told me the Bristol 2 liter, as incredible as it was, was just simply a too old design ( in fact, basically a pre war BMW design) and nobody in Europe wanted to sell an engine to those small manufacturers.
They approached RR, Jaguar, MB, BMW.
So they had to go to US.
According to mr Crook, both Ford and GM were happy to sell, but when Bristol tested a few various engines they selected a Chrysler 360 cu/inch engine as the best one. They did some redesigns of it, changes which Chrysler adopted.

 

[Janne]

Okay...come to some b roads and see if you can escape my little car with little engine lol

There you will win. 100%.
(It is a Grand Tourer, but while those cars were at a low point worth vise, they did race them on tracks.)
But on a motorway......
Vanishing point ahead of you....

 

[Paul_B]

Just seen a nice crew cab van.

What's your views on a Mitsubishi asx or mirage? What about a.Mokka?

What are kia sportage like?

Vauxhall antarra?

Seen these that might be possibles but know very little. Although I know someone got the mokka and loves it. Easy drive too.

 

[Janne]

Japanese designed and made are super. we see lots of really old ones here. 9 indicated good longevity)
Kia Sportage - looks fine as new, but look not so good after a couple of years.
The climate here is awful for cars.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Japanese designed and made are super. we see lots of really old ones here. 9 indicated good longevity)
Kia Sportage - looks fine as new, but look not so good after a couple of years.
The climate here is awful for cars.

Up until 10ish years ago,honda cars have been great,newer ones have poorer qc and longevity.

 

[Janne]

Are those made in Japan?

VW made in Mexico are pure rubbish. MB made in US are below the German made in quality.

Maybe those Hondas are made in some other country?
I remember Hondas from the early 1970's. Joke.

 

[Paul_B]

Mitsubishi outlander for not much more than £5k. Any good? Think 2012 year.

 

[Janne]

Yes. But considering age, check it over carefully.
Which engine/ submodel?

 

[Chalkflint]

Paul

It has already been mentioned but a VW T5 or equiv works very well as both family and utility/holiday vehicle.
I own a T5 Kombi with twin sliding doors and partly converted to a camper van.
It is my everyday vehicle and in everyday use has 5 seats. (2 front seats, 1 single middle seat and a double rear seat). This still leaves probably ¼ of a van behind the seats to load stuff up. The rear seats can slide forward and backwards on rails or be removed.
If camping I remove the single seat and the double seat folds down to make a bed (sleeps 2). I have a couple of cupboards one beside the seats and one above it connected to the roof. I did not go for the built in cooker etc as I like cooking outside and prefer the extra storage. The cupboards are great for storing family stuff and all rear seats also have built in storage cupboards underneath, and when leaving the vehicle items can be put out of sight. Even with the cupboards fitted they really do not hinder the use of the van for the vast majority of tasks I use it for, and when getting in and out of the van you don’t tend to use that area anyway.
If I need to haul stuff I remove the single seat and slide the double forward so it still useable (the van can still carry 4 people in comfort) and I then have 2/3 of a van I can load up. The double seat will also unclip so I can have full van capacity if necessary. (I have never needed to do this).
The guy I bought the van off had a mountain biking company so carried his bikes in the back. He did have a different rear bench seat for three people which could fold down and forward so it gave you almost full van capacity when needed.

Only this weekend whilst camping someone was asking my advice about my van as they had a caravan and a family and fancied making the change and saw my set up and thought it might be a more practical solution especially with my pop up roof (sleeps 2) and the drive away awning. I even have a sunshade I use for days out at beach etc.
I love my van it is a fantastic family vehicle with a large female ownership. People think it’s too large but it fits in a standard parking bay at my local supermarket. If it’s a bit tight I just get out of the side doors (which makes it even easier than getting out of a normal car). Height is about 1.9m so OK for most car park height barriers. I have a pop roof which makes it 2.1m but I can honestly say in the 5 years I have had the van it has only been an issue a couple of times.
As a family vehicle it does everything and more that a large MPV can do. As a base vehicle for family activity days etc I don’t think there is anything better.

Chalkflint

 

[Paul_B]

I'm getting my cars mixed up. Not outlander, that was £14k and 2015. Nice looking car though.

Mirage?

A nice Mokka but seeing one this morning they're small. Perhaps small with a towbar and carrier with the roof free for a box might give the right amount of luggage space? Or down size our camping kit. Less is more right?

Looking up cars it seems to me that since our last car purchase there's been big market changes. Using autotrader motor.co.uk and similar we put our usual car buying search choices in. With the addition of now including suv and 4x4 into the type and choosing petrol over diesel.

It seems that £5k or so gets you meriva, clio and small cars. Previously it got you older zafira (then the popular family car) good sized MPVs, focus / Astra estates and Mondeos in all shapes.

Overall this decrease in what size of car you get could be reasonable but even increasing it budget ends up with a higher proportion of smaller cars than in the past it seems.

And then don't get me onto the engine size. If they can now get a big car with a 1.0 or 0.9 litre engine to provide the performance that a 1.7tdi or 2.0tdi used to give then what's changed in technology to achieve that? Is it engine tech or mapping changes due to priority changes in the public / regulatory system?

Now 2 litre diesels are bested by 1.5 litre diesels. If sales staff at dealerships are to be believed. Vans used to have 2.3 litre plus engines to pull them, now transit van sizes with 1.5 litre engines and they feel nippier than ever.

So perhaps time to change our views. Instead of cash, part ex and possibly very small bank loan to pay for a 5k car that's at least Astra estate volume and 5 years old we should consider a newer car that's smaller, more expensive and put it totally on car loan.

A smaller, very efficient and low cost car for most of our use? Perhaps petrol / plug in hybrid? Seen one for about £9000 I think.

Mind you we had been cutting back on car use since getting this car until this year when I kind of stopped cycle commuting 4 days down to 2 or less if I'm feeling worn out with work. If I go back to 4 or 5 days cycle commuting, my partner works from home unless meetings are happening in person (online meetings are becoming common I believe). So I don't see advantage in a small car better suited to that. At most a hybrid. Do plug in hybrids charge by plug and / or during use such as fun braking or from the internal combustion engine? We're not living somewhere with the legal ability to charge from plugging in at home but at my partner's work that's possible. Large employers are pushing the electric car / plug in hybrid. In fact plugging your car into the charging spaces all day gets a good parking space right near where you work and for free.

 

[Paul_B]

VW? All I need is a defender recommendation now.

Seriously, a vw van is a nice size but have you seen the premium? I think you will find that very few VW vans can be bought for the price of a vivaro or transit. If you add in converted van prices. Saw one for £62,000 the other day that tbh looked no better than a transit conversion I saw for half the price.

We can rule out VW on price and exploitation reasons alone. But add in the fact other vans make more sense for various reasons now. Not least reliability in some cases. I don't think they warrant their premium unless the historical cachet is worth double the cost at times.

 

[Janne]

I second a Defender then!

 

[Paul_B]

I second a Defender then!

I didn't first it but you can first it and I'd second it but not for me for anyone but me! Just about the most impractical vehicle for my needs I can think of.

BTW can you block comments that mention defenders and VW vans on here? Kind of blocking the content not the author.

Other sites convert rude words into asterisks. Can I have it set up to do that for defenders or VW vans in any car thread I start? It always ends up with that van make or the defender taking over threads I've started on cars.

It's quite possibly part of why I keep starting new threads asking what I should get. All the threads end up going to rise two vehicle types before I get an answer that helps me to a decision (although that's notoriously difficult for me to make so perhaps not a fault of defender thread invasion).

 

[Mr Wolf]

Are those made in Japan?

VW made in Mexico are pure rubbish. MB made in US are below the German made in quality.

Maybe those Hondas are made in some other country?
I remember Hondas from the early 1970's. Joke.

Not sure tbh

Just seen a nice crew cab van.

What's your views on a Mitsubishi asx or mirage? What about a.Mokka?

What are kia sportage like?

Vauxhall antarra?

Seen these that might be possibles but know very little. Although I know someone got the mokka and loves it. Easy drive too.

Decent specced antaras are v nice....my dad had the chevy version (captiva) and regrets getting rid

 

[Janne]

Whatever you do, do not fall into the Infinity/Lexus/Acura myth........