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

Sounds like you know where they live, sausage time.

I really cannot be fucked. I moved it to "outside our own house" seeing as the other cars had, as I said, fucked off. But if in future I need to park back where I was, I will. And another note might be enough to push me over the edge.

Turns out late 90's turbo bricks with horrendous lag are terrible at towing 2000kg of Mills. Hill starts were almost total failure, then much shouting and trailer smashing, then terror braking, then repeat.

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F250 King Ranch.

I really miss Texas :(

I chuckled at this;

For example, a designer friend of mine recently got asked to build a cast steel door to a man's sex den, in the shape of his wife's behind.

A friend in the building trade once spec'd a kitchen worktop for a counter with a mould of the wife's behind at her request. So it's clearly a 'thing'.

He was fine with it, but said it was funny how the billy-big-balls-builders completely crumpled when interacting with her.

Second interview done.

My Audi appears to have a terminal failure in the autobox - massive oil leak, now fixed & refilled but still clunky and can't select reverse. Quotes of north of £1k to fix and seeing the car is worth £1.5k at best, looks like time to replace...

I really fancy an R53 Mini Cooper S, anything I should know? Any other ideas for budget approx £3k? Needs 4 seats, some practicality, less than 100k miles, reasonably sporty & individual.

Leon Cupr R

Hey, sunny California time! Best of luck with the rest of the interviews.
Something electric would be a good choice, Tesla model 3?

The choices are endless. My list would contain EP3 Civic Type R, Clio 182/197, Renault Sport Megane 225, Fiesta ST, Skoda Fabia VRS...

The Mini is a fun car but it has a few downsides, mainly that the back seats are all but useless unless you have kids and the boot space is dire. They were pretty badly packaged considering the car that they pay homage too. Also like the Audi, parts and servicing seem to be more expensive to the less 'exclusive' European and Japanese competition.

R53 Mini Cooper S

Got a Mini One, and I think they're great. Would recommend. Test drive one.

Worth pointing out it has 4 seats, not 5, the boot isn't huge, so while you can take 4, you can't take everyones luggage. I would disagree that the rear seats are useless, they are sloped to give more leg room and fit normal adults perfectly well IME.

With the seats down you can get a surprising amount in. The ride is relatively firm. Like many BMWs they can have issues with their electric windows. Otherwise BMW feel and quality.

Tbh if we still lived in London and I had the money I'd probably have a convertible suppedup Cooper, as its the perfect car for a couple.

My wife had a regular Cooper for 6 months last year and we got on fine with it, it's only a second car, the Isuzu Rodeo is there for haulage duties.

He owned a 126....

From experience as doing it as a child, it is fucking boring and painful. Get sun blinds for all of the windows, when stopped use them.

Make sure the aircon is working, grumpy small bundle will make things painful and really hard to concentrate. Dunqurk is the longer crossing, but cheaper, and we used to go in to belgium germany Austria to avoid the tolls if we were going to the east side of Italy.

West side was sneaking in through customs points that weren't manned 24 hours a day....

If you are heavy footed, fuel can is handy, 10l at least.

None of them have that supercharger whine though!

Looked at Cooper S’s, Cupras, 1 series BMW, Type R & S Civics among others.

Ended up with a 5 door 1.8 Civic Ex, same performance as the Type S but with more doors. Comfy and a pleasure to drive, muchly economical and has a cavernous boot and the rear seats fold completely flat (great for loading bikes). Mine was £3400 08 plate 50k miles and full Honda service history with 10 stamps.

Pretty dull but I’m mighty happy with it.

True but..
Civic Type R - Vtec + 8k redline
Clio/Megane - Light panels/not much sound deadening and french build quality make it sound faster.
Fabia VRS - Fit a blow off valve.

@el_presidente - if you go for a Cooper S, the best mod you can do to one is to get rid of the run flats they were fitted with from the factory and put some regular, good quality tyres on it.

Good old London.

Shoulda gone by bike!

Would've, but it was being rebuilt, resprayed and the saddle re- upholstered......

I was coming back from the airport, had been travelling for work all week.

Used the jag to go from Angel to wood green to Loughton and back, on a friday. The north circ and M11 is soooooo slow moving.

I learnt that people are fucking incapable of driving between the lines and speed cameras cause people to brake no matter the speed they are going at....i could rant further...

Driving with cats loose in the car, is quite worrying. Driving with two cats in your lap is very soothing.....Watching you cat go mental as someone cut you up...priceless and made me love them more.

Bought a vr4 legnum, finally understanding what fast estate cars are about.
fuel here costs about the same as in the UK but insurance is only costing me 85 quid a year.

Excuse the potato spec pics.

The thing absolutely slays the gravel roads here.

So glad you bought it. I think the size of the legnum/gallant is spot on, not too big.

Has anyone on here got a modern Polo? Interested in whether I could get an Evoq bike bag in the back, and if so what else I could get in there