Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

http://brickblog.tumblr.com/post/93364304269/curtpnw-natelife-gatebil-always-delivers-in

Worst attempt at driving in a straight line ever.

Oversteer on braking => poor brake and suspension setup.

Braking in a turn => poor planning.

http://s.petrolicious.com/2014/feature/07-jul/DeTomaso-Mangusta/detomaso-mangusta-16.jpg

http://s.petrolicious.com/2014/feature/07-jul/DeTomaso-Mangusta/detomaso-mangusta-20.jpg

http://s.petrolicious.com/2014/feature/07-jul/DeTomaso-Mangusta/detomaso-mangusta-15.jpg

Utter...

http://www.petrolicious.com/the-de-tomaso-mangusta-is-a-proper-supercar

the split rear engine cover is an unusual feature

Yes. Flawed, like all the best things.

the next thing to sky rocket in value no doubt

i thought it looked great unusual, does it fly open at speed or break / bend ?

i guess it must be a bitch to get the engine out or work on certain parts of it

Picked up my new A5 Sportback this morning, quite an upgrade on a Civic.

First real drive will be on Wednesday, 250 miles to get a real feel for it.

I bought a new car.

Well, when I say bought... leased. But it is new.

Having to hand the beloved Saab 93 back as it's at end of lease. I originally wanted to buy it at this point, but they're asking £12k for a car that isn't worth £7k from a company that no longer exists. Er... no.

So we sat down, figured out what we could afford, tried to scour second hand car sites for something that would do... but we just don't have the money in one hit, and cannot get a loan on low wages. But... but... car companies will put us on a finance plan. Fuckers. We're trapped again.

I've had fun though. Felicity and I have new criteria: A 3-door car, small enough to be easy in the city (parking, leaving room for cyclists, etc) and a fast on the motorway.

We tried a load of cars, VW Polo, VW Golf, Audi A1, Audi A3, Fiat 500, Alfa Romeo Mito... the winner though? Mini Cooper S.

Basically a 2l engine in this little car. 0-60 in under 7 seconds, a hell of a lot of torque available. And the budget actually made the thing feasible.

The Alfa Romeo was 2nd place, it was the best "default". You needn't add any options and you had a decent enough car. The mini was just too much fun though.

Anyhow... it looks like this:
http://www.mini.co.uk/design-your-mini/?configurationID=w4j9f5k5

Should get it in a month's time.

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@NurseHolliday is your man for all things Mini related - he loves them.

Enjoy it!

@Velocio
Did you test drive all those cars? through the dealers or the leasing agency?
Looking at leasing for my next car. We do low miles and and want to give it back when warranty ends.

A 2l engine is much more than what is needed in the city, and now who is gonna pay the petrol?

On the motorway there are speed limits, pretty low actually, and then who is gonna pay the fines?

Did you test drive all those cars?

I did. Always from main dealers, just walk-in after having researched the hell out of each model in advance (so I could not be sucked into a sales process in which I was not knowledgeable). I also always lied, and said I had another test lined up later with another manufacturer... so they were unable to close a deal on the spot.

Our requirements were:

1. City friendly for Felicity (small and nimble)
   
2. Motorway friendly (nearly all of our cars journeys are to Exeter and back)
   
3. Economic (relative to the Saab which was only getting 34mpg for Diesel - so not hard to beat)
   
4. 3-door (there's only 2 of us and we never carry passengers... seems silly getting a large and more uneconomic car when we do not have that need)
   
5. Safe and visible (always-on lights for cyclists and peds, good safety standards for us, auto-dimming mirrors, etc)
   
   

On the whole, the Audis were larger cars that gave the illusion of being small but were a weird compromise of not offering the benefits of a large car and yet failing to deliver the benefits of the smaller cars. Conclusion: They'd appeal to Audi faithfuls but you were paying for the badge.

VWs, the Scirocco was nice but way over priced. Drop that by £10k and they'd have a killer car. The Golf and Polo both felt too cheap, like you'd need to option everything to make it feel nice when doing 4+ hour motorway stretches (our majority scenario). The Golf performed better, but again you had to up the spend significantly to achieve this. It also felt like both the Golf and Polo were family oriented, we didn't care for rear-seat leg-room, and I'm tall and it made the front feel more cramped for it.

The Fiat 500 was nice, but the top speed was worring. The motorways down to Exeter are fast moving, averaging 80mph to 90mph. I don't want to be stuck in the slow lane between HGVs, and do want to have the capability to overtake in emergencies. It was just too weak an engine.

The Fiat Punto we drove in Italy and almost couldn't get out of an underground garage due to the extremely steep ramp and very low torque. We ruled that out immediately.

The Alfa Romeo Mito has the same base as the Fiat Punto or Bravo, but a much better engine. We also found that nearly everything you'd want to option was included as standard. It also felt like a big car, even though it was small. Our biggest complaints about the Mito were that the brakes didn't feel sharp enough (I emergency stop in test drives), and that cornering at speed (40mph) felt a little scary when it really shouldn't. It's a fantastic city car, but I lost a little faith it would perform well on a motorway.

The Mini was actually my last choice, I've been put off by Foxtons. But the 3-door didn't feel like a compromise on the driver, started at a price that was within budget, had all of the features we wanted once optioned, and remained within budget. It also has driving modes, so you can put it into a green/economic mode in the city and drive at lower speeds with really great economy and low emissions, and then when you're on the motorway you can put it in sport mode and it basically gives you the top end to feel safe at 80-90mph with enough spare power to still let you overtake or take evasive actions. It also felt rock solid on corners, and had nice responsive braking.

Ultimately the other cars felt like they were concessions, "my first car", cheap intros into the brands of the other manufacturers and a stepping stone onto the larger cars during the sales process. The exceptions to this, the cars that felt good for their purpose were the Fiat 500 and Alfa Mito... but then both fail to convince me they would do the London-Exeter run with confidence and safety.

The Mini was the only car out of the lot that felt like it hadn't made any major compromises, that was great in the city at low speeds and high economy, and great on the motorway at speed (and to some extent, damn the fuel efficiency).

Finally, when we did go into the Mini showroom, and it was our last choice... I knew already that the Alfa Mito was #1 and that at the end of the Mini test drive I'd know which to get. I then arranged that test drive for the last day of the month, as dealers are desperate to hit quotas, I further new the options I would consider in advance so casually configured a car that I would accept... before then asking for a deal... which by this point they were dying to give as they'd just had this walk-in customer go straight to deal talking in an hour. Then... when they offered a deal, even though I really wanted it and it was within budget... I said no and was willing to go get the Alfa instead. That took another chunk of money off the price, leaving me with a lease that was well within budget.

I'd always argue for doing a deal at the end of a month or quarter, and be willing to make the deal on the day... but most importantly, be willing to walk away altogether. Whoever is willing to say no and walk away wins, and they want the sale badly at the end of a month/quarter.

@marcom I thought you were going to calm down and stop doing the personal attacks, etc? If I start to feel that you're stalking me to troll me, I'm going to lose patience quickly. You're back, but remain on thin ice. Don't fuck it up (I watch too much Drag Race).

But to your questions, my partner works in Exeter during term-time as a lecturer and fuel costs are cheaper than rail costs. Her personal finances are none of your business.

As for motorways, it's more dangerous to drive to the letter of the law on a stretch where everyone is driving above the speed limit. We're getting a car with that in mind, it better be comfortable when the traffic is average 80-90mph.

Velocio, it was just an in-sight joke from a motorist point of view. I hope you don't get things so personal, you still are for me one of the people who I read and I often like to play with people who can give me something inspirational.

Maybe, considering all, i should just stay relatively far from you, at least until things will calm down.

No stalking, not attacking and not trolling was intended. Sometime a bit of provocation is nothing more than affection.

They're nice cars to drive.
I'm surprised you found the Golf lacking, I've never had a problem and far too regularly spend 4hrs in the car. I love 'my' little TSI, so much space, quite fast, quite economical (Nottingham to London last night was 49mpg).
I also have no decent options on it to speak of, and its 3yrs old.
(The seats are amazingly comfortable)

@Velocio, thanks for taking the time to conclusively reply. With regard to leasing, always fancied as you remove all the depreciation worries. Especially with something like an Alfa or a Saab.

I should grow the balls and do the test drive stuff. I'm a quite a regular car hirer whilst in Europe so have had quite a mix but would like to try more.

Thanks again

@velocio didn't fancy looking at a skoda fabia vrs or something like that? Had a peek at the new MK3 Octavia VRS the other day. Looks lovely and reviews are pretty good too. I'm thinking I'll keep my MK1 VRS going for as long as I can then look for a 2nd hand MK3 VRS, if I can justify it to myself...

The Golf was nice, felt like good quality and solid... but it's fairly expensive for what it is, the default options and design choices at the lower end all seemed to favour getting you to buy more.

It was a solid car, it just didn't offer bang for buck, nor feel like a perfect fit. All of the VWs felt like they were aimed at small families - the exception being the overpriced Scirocco - , and I kinda feel that our usage differs a bit.

For example, I knew I wanted leather seats, as if you drive to South Wales for mountain biking, sweat your arse off, get in the car and drive back... cloth seats stink fairly quickly. Leather is easier to keep clean and nice... less of the stink.

There were just things like that... start adding those options and you open the doors to a lot more choice in the market.

Good reporting. I've not owned a mini, but I have a pal who runs the diesel versions as company cars and they're fantastically economical.

Enjoy it.

The Skoda I did like the look of. They had some stands around the TdF stuff in London, and I eventually did go to a dealer to have a look. But I didn't test drive it. I ruled it out on a similar basis to the VWs... whilst the Skoda is much better value, it still targets families so heavily that it comes through in the design choices.

We even considered things like the Mazda MX-5 for the 3-door small car thing... but then that misses the target too. We want to be able to transport bikes, better economy, etc.

The Mini was just the right sweet spot for us, even though it was actually the very last car we considered.

Bicycles are great around town.

Trains are a good option for transporting people and their bikes to Exeter economically.

Bicycles are great around town.

Which is why majority of car use is motorways.

The train is nowhere as cheap as the car... Felicity tends to get very short notice on meetings requiring her attendance, so train fares (even with railcard) tend to cost a lot more than a car journey does.