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

I like the idea of an "in-between" car as well but I'm not sure whether we'll ever get to the next part of what we're in between.

Early days but I've really enjoyed our £800 car so far - a couple of niggles aside, it's an upgrade from the 190E which was pumping exhaust fumes through the blower.

no mention of an MX-5?

TBH I didn't want to be rude, but I also would have thought at Joe's stage of life he should be either getting a classic convertible... or a neutral coloured Civic (automatic natch).

MGB maybe?

Convertibles in Australia with Joe's age related hair-situation are I suspect a no-go.

That rings true actually, they cover the E39 M5 in the latest Evo and the say they couldn't fit a rack in there with the V8 so they used a recirculating ball system

But point taken.

Anyway I'll stop as re-reading my posts I sound like a mean dick.

Such an under-rated car

God - I can't wait for the kids to fuck off so I can replace the family wagon with another MX-5.
Mind you - then it'll be a choice between dog and wife so...might have to rethink that plan.

Thankfully I've managed to find myself in a situation with a wife, kid, and MX-5 as my only car.

Went xmas tree shopping last week, and without thinking took my wife's Corsa. In hindsight I could've fitted a bigger tree in the MX-5 with the roof down.

MX-5 in 'more practical than 5-door hatchback' shocker.

Heh - nice one. 3 large teenagers blew the mx-5 a while back. Still - one's gone now. Reckon when the 2nd goes a mini convertible might fill the gap. Going to have to get rid of the diesel when the ulez extends anyway.

This. I long for the days when I could buy something at sub £1k and use it with no pressure or worries. It's something that I always too for granted. Anything at that kind of price range in Canada is a deathtrap/absolutely rotten or (usually) both.

I did look but there aren't any cheap ones about... 😒

That's a shame, had a look and they do seem to be a hell of a lot more expensive over there. All of the ones I looked at before getting mine were £1-2k, with the exception of an incredibly well looked after MK1 which was still only £2.5k!

Hope you get yourself something nice, life's too short for boring cars!

My old boss had a Crewman.

It was a piece of shit. One of the worst made cars I've ever driven, ergonomics were terrible too. V8 was fun though.

It's crazy what's out there, I could buy a 2004 Corolla for $2500 or a 2007 E90 for $4990...

this wouldn't be the worst thing in the world - barring any potential reliability issues

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2006-bmw-3-series-320i-e90-auto/SSE-AD-6277806/?Cr=57

or this, too much choice:
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2009-subaru-impreza-r-g3-auto-awd-my09/SSE-AD-6325070/?Cr=100

What could possibly go wrong?
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2003-audi-a6-auto-quattro/SSE-AD-5613142/?Cr=170

This was the E90 I was looking at...

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2007-BMW-3-Series-320i-E90-Auto/SSE-AD-6425676

A mate has offered me his Subaru as a loaner, pretty sure it's a WRX from memory... Might take him up on that if I don't buy the Mazda6 or the 2013 Mazda3 BM hatch I just found for ~$12k...

Annoying thing is I'm about to go in for an endoscopy and I won't be able to drive for another 24hrs!!! Maybe the mother-in-law can take me to have a look tomorrow...

Looks OK from here - for any car with that mileage you'd want to be wary of suspension components and worn bushings. Listen for clunking sounds or excessive play in the steering. Should be tight and direct.

Engine wise, cooling system - all plastic on these so water pumps/radiator end tanks etc all prone to cracking.

The auto should be smooth, no shunting. And check all electrical things.

Worth a punt at that price.... buy for 4k?

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a30085091/these-guys-just-drove-an-e63-amg-across-america-in-a-record-27-hours-25-minutes/

Legacy went into the garage, loaned a na bug eyed hatchback Impreza with 150k on the clock, surprised by how well it has held up and strangely want one (with turbo obv.) for tinkering and general amusement

Enjoyed reading that thanks alot, much appreciated.

That's $4k I could really use for the car I wanna buy tho'... Courtesy car went back this afternoon, I am now carless! Worst day for it too, buying a car on a Saturday is a mug's game...

i don't think you should buy a shitter. they aren't that cheap compared to your overall budget.

I dropped the C55 off for a service and MOT (as I've mentioned recently), the wheel refurb chap dropped off the winter wheels to the garage (DDR in Ashtead, Surrey), and they buzzed them on.

A £50 donation to the Christmas drinks fund and they stored the summer wheels in their parts loft, which neatly resolves the "where the fuck am I going to put these" conundrum. I'll swing by when it's properly Spring and get them swapped back.

The winter tyres are now Pirelli Sottozero, replacing the Michelin Alpins, and they drive much more like normal tyres - the sense of squish is gone. Hopefully they're just as efficient at cutting through slushy frozen surfaces to find the grip underneath.

Changing the front discs and pads to OEM Mercedes has made a huge difference - the old discs were hunting when you braked hard, with the front being pulled left and right ever so slightly. It failed the MOT and so they had to be replaced - it was an advisory last year. I'd just driven around this problem, if you had a hand on the wheel it was fine. What I didn't realise was how much better everything felt with the tugging gone - the car now pulls up in a dead straight line and a major source of noise from one of the primary control interfaces has gone.

I'm a really big fan of this car, does everything I ask of it well, and then when I occasionally ask it be a drag car it does that too.

So of course something had to immediately go wrong to annoy me - and sure enough the backlight for one section of the headlight switch had failed.

The arc of symbols above the rotary control are meant to illuminate, but when they don't and you are driving at night it becomes rather interesting working out which detente is what function.

Who'd like to guess how much a new headlight switch unit is from Mercedes Benz?