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

Bike in the back? Disregard A4/3 series, and maybe the octavia (boot is bigger than a4 despite them being on similar platforms).
V70 2.4 na probably, millions of them around, absolutely love fuel but rarely anything goes wrong with them. If mpg is your concern get a 2002-2004 euro 3 not a euro 4 D5, pretty much impossible to get less than 40mpg, usually around 50. Newer ones (euro 4 and 5) get closer to 30 mpg, so you might as well get a petrol and save the potential cost that diesels can give you, injectors, turbo, dpf etc.

Newer octavia's are good, not massive but generally decent, watch it hasn't been a mini cab its previous life, once you've seen one that has been you'll know for the things to look for.

Newer gen mondeo's are great, can rust, but out of that lot I would hazard a guess to be the lowest cost to run. again mini cab check it though.

Ford S-Max are huge if you can deal with the people carrier image

Thanks for the suggestions all. Mondeo's already my front runner on the basis of age/tax/insurance anyway so those are looking good. There's no petrol Avensii, Scenic Grandes or Superbs in budget nearby but they'll go on the list in case I can't find something this week.

V70 is the most appealing in a sort of dad wagon cool way, but I definitely want petrol and 25mpg would bankrupt me...

FYI largely, but I think the bikes on the roof really hammer fuel economy. I’d have expected 26-28, maybe a little more without the bikes and rack.

Argh, my eyes!

That’s mean. Love it.

this little thing couldn't be running any better at the moment

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Saw another not quite as small but interesting Fiat today too

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I saw a Delorean today. First one in years.

Great Scott!

How bad is a Land Rover series III 88" as a weekend escape wagon for a family of four?
We are half heartedly looking for a summer house, but suddenly our neighbour has offered us his very tidy 1982 landy for what seems a very good price (in Copenhagen money).
Would need a roof rack/tent and some sort of kitchen cabinet built in. And we'd possibly want to put in a front facing rear seat instead of one of the benches.
We don't own a car and don't need one for daily transport. Strictly weekends and holidays.

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Buckets of character! I get along great with mine, kids love it, many a happy camping trip.

I’ll probably draw scorn for this, but all my mates who have old landies always look fairly ashen after any amount of driving in theirs. I don’t know how well the novelty survives when you’re regularly on the motorway with them.

Cool tho.

My mate had one as his first car and into his early 30's. He went everywhere in it. I've done some long trips in it but I was in my early twenties, not sure how I'd fair now. He kept it until it caught fire on an Irish motorway. He was distraught. Then even more distraught when he got the €1000 bill from the fire service.

Speaking of 'brovers, sold mine on the weekend. After 5 years of ownership, I took a £500 hit on the resale.

Solid.

Not massively different to the MPG in the Dad Max, seeing as it only really gets used for childcare drop offs and grocery shopping. I have a feeling my next car should really be a hybrid. But, I'd need someone to explain financing/leasing to me as I really don't get it. I have only ever owned 2 cars and just bought them outright (£2k and then £4k respectively). I'm guessing a decent hybrid won't be as cheap.

My MPG plunged as soon as I got into London - that's a mix of two hours of (largely) A303 and M3 at, erm, a "spirited 70", then crawling through London for an hour.

I think with the bikes inside the car I'd have got a lot better on the open road, but you're always fucked as soon as you get into town, which would be where a hybrid would shine as it could use battery power for that bit of course.

I spoke to Porsche about taking a Taycan out for an extended test drive and they responded with "30 minutes max", which just doesn't work for me.

The Octavia's usable load space with the seats down will compete with the Volvo and Mondeo.

fuck. that's well decent. nice one dude.

you going carless for a while or something in the pipeline?

90 minutes for the 5 mile round trip to the childminder. Whilst very comfortable for me, gave me time to poke around in the MPG readings, which scared me.

yeah cheers boss.

I need to make a dent in my environmental karmic debt so probably going down the EV leasing route.

ah the old EKD. fair enough dude. guess we are all trying to sort that in our own ways.

50 mph in seventh gear with no roof-rack= very good MPG.

Somewhat faster than that with a roof-rack and two bikes on said appurtenance= not so good.

My average is showing as 16mpg. 20-30 mph along the A23 when there is no traffic is usually about 35mpg. But the percentage of time that is possible vs the time sat going nowhere/crawling forward a space or two is pretty low. I also have a roof box and bike rack perma-attached to the roof bars due to no logical storage space for them yet. But then the speeds I am doing are not likely to mean those will have much of an impact.

I would love a cargo bike and to be taking her to the childminder that way, but ms_com also wants to be involved in drop offs (she does not cycle, at all) and soon the same journey will be taking ms_com to the train station to go to the office (not comfortable bussing it yet).

Ah quite the history. I can see why someone went through the trouble of trying to recreate that paint. A very special car!