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

Am slowly learning of all the 1.4 vw engines.

Yeah replacing the rockers on a engine seems to be the norm. Wonder if it is the 10k service intervals?

Old V8 Mercedes for woofling around in, and looking extremely stylish whilst waiting for the recovery truck.

Noticed I’m missing an exhaust hanger. Didn’t have the BMW one at my local parts place so just bought a generic one and zip tied it on as a temporary measure.

This appears to be the proper hanger, but I’m struggling to find the bracket that it mounts onto/how it would even fit on.
https://www.eurocarparts.com/search/712111681?type=shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjwrKr8BRB_EiwA7eFapgM9j-jovSaU8UMgduTiR96BzL-mbOB3iSnXhHK-4tsibv-SzXFsqBoCx-IQAvD_BwE

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Think I'm settled on a Citroen Berlingo for using as a work/kit/crew vehicle but also for sticking an isofix seat in the back and carting family around. It won't be new so just trying to find a second/etc hand model but I've seen so many and am a bit thrown by the rear folding seat options. Some of them have rear seats which fold 'sort of' flat. Other models have seats which fold forward and then the base of the seat lifts off and folds again giving a properly flat surface, like so:

That would be perfect for work - is that feature from a certain year / range / model etc? Any clues so I can narrow the search?

@spotter just bought one

But also my mate bought an ex British gas VW Caddy and they're very good.

I thought about a Caddy but length is good (in theory I can get 2.8m of 'stuff' ) in the Berlingo with the front passenger seat folded down - perfect for carting big coloramas / light stands while being too afraid to commit to driving an actual van.

Kind of want one with a wheelchair ramp so I can push my camera cart into it fully assembled but then kiddo would have to be in the back on a flimsy seat on his own and he likes to sit with one of us.

The car in the pic is a Mark 2 (2008-18). I believe the Mark 1 is the same and the Mark 3 has the seats that fold flat-ish.

Sometimes being old has an upside, £230 fully comp for the 3.0i Z4 (5000 mileage limit), my daughter pays more than that per month for a slowmobile....

Great, thanks. The mark 2 bit just refers to the period of production right? So they didn't make any mark 1/3 within the same period, thus in theory any vehicle with a plate from say 2010 to 2016 should only have the 'fully flat' seats, right? And I'm looking for the little black metal horizontal handles underneath the seats if there's not a photo of it folded all the way?

I’m not sure, we run the AFH head from the earlier car with hydraulic tappets (and convert them to solid lifter)

Also edmunro did too

I'm just going on what I've read on the A2 forum. Once again am overthinking issues. Silly ideas like engine swaps when I should be thinking about just replacing cambelt and pump.

Is it your main vehicle ;)

Not as such, that would be a dirty great L200.

But you probably guessed that!

The fulvia had commuting on a classic policy. Then I did have three motorbikes and four cars insured ;) only one had business use but all had commuting...

Then I could not afford trade insurance any more.

I think that's right. I've not owned one, I just did a load of research into them earlier this year.

(before giving up because I couldn't find a good petrol/aircon/non-wheelchair one, so the Yaris Verso stays. It has a flat floor all the way to the front seats when the rear seats are folded away)

ooh..! That's kind of interesting.

That said I just looked up the measurements and boot space in the Berlingo (and presumably the 'tepee'?) is 850l to 484l in the yaris verso so I remain convinced by the French. But I do like the flat floor.

The issue will be finding a non diesel. I looked for one and euro 4 petrol were hard to find

I have a petrol Berlingo, 2005.
It's really spacious and ok to drive around town. Cheap to maintain, easy to work on.
Longer journeys I find it really uncomfortable, but I'm quite tall and have back issues. But it doesn't feel like a long distance car, it's a short range delivery think.

Suspension isn't too good - despite the load size, it's really easy to overload it and bottom out the suspension at the back, and it's not possible to upgrade that to heavier springs.

Thought it was as I have helped replace the rear suspension units for upgraded ones that don't fail for at least 5 years.

One of the car's many quirks is the back seats are set really far back, so you get limo-like leg room in the back but the seats-up boot space isn't as big as it could be.

I'm not actually recommend buying one today. They're all very old now, were built down to a very low price, and in theory you should be able to get something a lot better.

so I remain convinced by the French

The Toyota was built in France, Berlingos are built anywhere but.

Awesome

Can get 2 full sized bikes in the back of the berlingo with the seats fully folded. Ours is a 09 plate, was £3k with 40000mi or something. Was a comfy 11hr drive to Scotland recently.
Great car.

At the risk of outing myself as 'not much of a driver' (passed test 3 years ago at 31, after about 5 hours of lessons having never driven before and the urgency of a new baby spurring me on - since then done about 15000 miles a year in my wife's 2008 kia ceed, which I recently killed) what's the difference between petrol and diesel?

My understanding is:

diesel is (currently) more expensive, but can be more economical to run?
it provides or is associated with more torque for quicker bursts of power when needed
it emits less CO2 (but has other emissions associated with lung problems like asthma)
diesel cars tend to cost more to buy and more to get serviced/repaired
depending on model may be unable to go into certain ULEZs - which could be an issue for me.

it'll be largely a work expense so if there are costs, there are costs. That said if a diesel is black hole, maybe I should avoid it.

I feel (the non driver in me) that I'd rather get a new fully electric van (was looking at a Nissan e-nv200 combi) but I don't have 30 grand sitting around and don't want to get sucked into credit (even a couple of hundred quid a month) when I'm self employed / the sole earner in house and in a relatively precarious line of work which covid hasn't helped and brexit won't either.

When I do get paid, I do get paid, so I could cobble together between 5 and 10 grand in cash for a car without too much stomach churning (lower half of that figure would be nicer). I usually carry 200-300kg of kit to a job, sometimes double that. I live in Devon and usually drive to jobs in London, Milton Keynes and Southampton. The kit is typically heavy, flat and boxy but with some long things (so the 2.8m internal space the Berlingo offers sounds great).

I remember seeing this:

get turned into this:

which is frankly the dream - but I'd still need to fit a child seat in there somewhere because I'm not having two vehicles. Have contemplated ratchet strapping him to the roof but was vetoed.