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

Quite possibly true. IIRC Rimmer Bros got a huge stash of NOS SD1 panels from India a while back, so it's possible to make a rotten one nice again with factory tin.

I suspect you may be right, but then why would someone spend that kind on money on and SD1.
Then again some didn't rust. Some were just shit, had one that the spot welds of the rear panhard rod mount were never fully formed and missed by many MOT testers so concluded why that sd1 was bad handling. But then it did have over 40 previous owners...

Awesome, thank you, and to @grams, @hurricane_run, @Fox and @hugo7. Should've mentioned I'm in the city so as a petrol it would need to be something newer than 2006 for the ULEZ. Really good shout on the VED Tax, grams, I hadn't even considered that. The Saab is utterly beautiful but comes up as £565 a year!

The focus / fiesta was one I was considering but the rear windows on those always felt a bit cramped to me compared to the golf / polo - I'll see if I can have another sit in one, it might've been a wrong impression. Cheers all.

Mini is SUCH a great shout though. I had semi-written them off because my sis has one and I don't want to bite her steeze but there a tonne of nicely specced Coopers and Cooper S from 2012 and under £6k. And they're such great fun to drive, and so nice for a small car on the motorway. Appreciated.

If you can find a 1.8t (which is still a 2.0 litre turbo, because Saab) they're a much more reasonable £335. Still plenty fast.

The ULEZ isn't a hard date cutoff. Plenty of manufacturers had Euro 4 certified petrol engines a few years before then, and that's what matters.

A Civic or Golf GTi would definitely fit the city car that can also cope with the motorway requirements, but there are more exciting cars you could get.

Auto trader has a ulez filter that makes your searching easier.

A quick search throws up a 2008 Audi TT. Basically a Golf but you get to live the mid life crisis dream and it has 4 seats.

I just found a great car on Auto Trader.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202008293086744?atmobcid=soc3

There's a 2006 CLS500 with a lot of options if you fancy a future money pit.

The focus / fiesta was one I was considering but the rear windows on those always felt a bit cramped to me compared to the golf / polo

If you ever do make this choice (though it sounds like you may not), for what it's worth we have a Golf (wife's) and a Focus (mine). Can't totally compare them as they're quite different specs, but the Golf is better in all ways for pottering around in the city, easier to park, better visibility, better blind spots etc.

It's Vanden Plas EFi, the Vitesse wheels are standard.
Yes, the steering wheel would be colour matched to the dash.

My Moonraker blue Rover 2300 had a blue leather steering wheel to go with the cobalt blue velvet seats, carpet and plastics. There really was a lot of blue.

Was the wood on the dashboard plastic? The wood on the door panels was a bloody great hunk of veneered plywood, but my car didn't have wood on the dashboard.

Would you be put off buying a car with an obviously incorrect mileage on an MOT? Out by a factor of 10 thanks to an additional digit. Nothing particularly expensive.

has it been corrected? I thought the MOT garage could submit a request for correction

Missed pic last time 3 gens

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Seems you only get a short window to get it corrected, otherwise it stays.

Drove the old girl up to the paint shop today. It ran really well although I had neglected to fit the battery retaining bracket, so I lost electric a couple of times due to the earth disconnecting.
Not bad as it’s been off the road for 10 years.
Traffic was awful but I was smiling all the way.

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Awesome... Looking at that photo you're very lucky the thing didn't fall out of the engine bay! 🙃

Especially as I was on the A40 the second time it happened!

Hell yeah to the panda

And fucking hell yeah to this!

We can go racing when it’s finished, Fiat v Citroën😃

Jesus! 😂

Two Stroke Drag Strip!

That sounds like a great night out, whichever way you look at it... 👀

Heehee

Jajaja!