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

My brother has an Auris estate (which makes me cry inside every time I see it), and it feels surprisingly cramped inside.
Deffo reliable but the more I read, the more it seems MPVs are the avenue to go down (for pure child shuttling duties anyway).

I think a b max has a tiny boot compared to the cmax or fabia estate

A cmax is a really good size

The mazda 2/3 boxy thing. What about a nissan Cube.

No idea...no kids so no idea.

From car appreciation to car meh.

Although I'd actually recommend a Berlingo/partner thing, so incredibly practical and reliable.

Nissan cubes are rad, but probably not the answer, lol.

Yeah, I was a bit confused by the photos at first, where it looked like the c-max was a genuine 7 seater, rather than having daft fold up seats in the back.
I think the c-max is the one, but this is just a very vague starting point for my sister to find something practical that will suit her. I’ll see if she can test drive a c-max and go from there I reckon. It may be that she’s not into the idea of an MPV at all, or wants something bigger/smaller etc. But the c-max seems to tick the boxes so far at least.

Will the 11 year old be in the front? Otherwise you'll need a very large car to fit them across the rear seat.

Practical, probably ULEZ compliant, hits the price point.

Yeah most likely in the front. So baby seat and child seat in the rear, followed by two child seats in the rear eventually.

2,500 mile round trip to Tuscany and the Cupra didn't miss a beat, not that I expected it to. Great car and averaged a surprisingly frugal 36mpg for the whole trip. Nice to have the opportunity to drive it on relatively empty, flowing roads around the Tuscan countryside. One thing it is not though is an autobahn cruiser; anything above 120mph and the engine just feels a bit too high strung and whilst the car is very composed at high speed, wind/road noise makes it uncomfortable to hold those speeds for any length of time. Highlight of the autobahn experience was being overtaken by a Maserati MC12 going roughly 17 times the speed of sound.

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A BiL has a B* Max and it looks really good for what it is. Their other car is an OG Yeti and he's the sort of person who puts loads of quality research into these things.

Also surprised how hight the seats are. Sort of puts a pin in the claim of SUV drivers that they need the height to spare bending down to fit kids in.

*actually I can't remember if it was B or C now.

Toyota auris / corolla hybrid estate?

Not sure about 3 kids, although as one of them is older it might not be an issue. The boot is decent, but shallow cause of the batteries.

Thought that the cube would be good, big doors designed for an aging population so easy to get in and out of with children.

But as I said no kids so WTF do I know. Can give info on feline furbabies

Thanks - I'll check them out. Consensus on the mobile places I've spoken to today is that the whole panel needs doing :(

*actually I can't remember if it was B or C now.

They are that memorable

Came across this on a report of the NY auto show.

Powering the BX 4TC is a longitudinally mounted turbocharged 2.1-liter, inline-4 engine derived from the one in the European Chrysler 180 hatchback. In road car spec it puts out 200 horsepower and is paired with a five-speed manual transmission; the 4TC could reach 60 mph in 7 seconds and hit a top speed of 140 mph. The 4TC also packs a four-wheel-drive system and ventilated disc brakes, and it retains the height-adjustable suspension of the regular BX models.

Made 200 for group B rallying. Utter shite in reality apparently.

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Oh crikey, they almost made it look the same from both sides!

Where to start: Firstly the motor is a simca motor. Background Chrysler Europe was created by US chrysler buying Simca in France, Rootes in the UK and Berios in Spain. Then sold to PSA in the late 70s early 80s.

There is a discussion about how many were built, 5 or 6 prototypes. Less than 20 real rally cars were built. Homologation wise around 100 were built and not even 100 were sold. The ones not sold were stripped for parts and later Citroen bought back the road cars and stripped them. The4x4 system wasn't great as no central diff so lots of issues. Best bit was a carbon fibre front to rear prop shaft in that sort of 4x4 set up. That was 1980's carbon fibre!

One (at least) of the ex rally cars suspension ended up as an citroen ZX ice racing car in scandawegia. Not sure about the engine and gearbox set up as the XU Mi16 was probably easier to source and mod. Over the 2-2.2 liter simca engine.

Now when the BX had the gti 1.9 1.6v engine in the 4x4 (better 4x4 set up) that was 160bhp out of the box, while the 2.0 had less power but ran unleaded.

CSB am 5 minutes cycle from where the BX 4TC was built in Trappes. Not a nice area.

I remember reading on here about 996 air con hoses leaking and then being predictably expensive to replace (@Dammit probably).

I'm facing that at the minute - the garage has told me they're both (pressure and return) leaking and they're about £500 to replace, then more to fit, to service the Aircon and refill etc. In my head, a leaking pipe can be patched, but not sure if trying to find it and then fix will be one of those things that ends up being more expensive.

I've not seen them yet, and don't know how they found out they're leaking - I don't believe they've been jacked on, as that would have shown up in previous services.

Are there any reasonable alternatives to replacing the hoses?

They’re long and annoyingly expensive- they run front to back, as you can imagine.

I’m not aware of any spares from non Porsche sources, but worth posting on 911UK asking.

TBH £500 sounds cheap.

TBH £500 sounds cheap.

The hoses themselves are £440 for the pair on design911, and I've seen them cheaper on eurospares, but can't use their website at work to confirm. Didn't include fitting - I imagine that's a couple of hours work and probably some other bits required as well. Perhaps that's a reasonable cost, just quite a lot came up in this service (rotors, coolant and oil leaks plus it needs new tyres and a bit of paint) and I'm prepared to hack the AC for a while .

I'll have a look - I've seen lots of posts of people saying they 'fixed' the hoses, but I can't without the source of the leak. I need someone else to find and do that kind of bodge for me, which might escalate in cost...

Just a thought but if you have an air con guy, there system may be able to pressurise the cooling system to locate a leak. I have no idea if they can normally do this - as I said, just a thought.

I would say to check what car seats fit in. Some of the small people movers will take 3 car seats in the back row, some won't.

We have a very boring Touran for this reason. Although it has a 1.4 petrol TSI engine, which is excellent and great for town miles.