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

We have gone plug in hybrid, and despite what the naysayers say, love it - have a BMW 225xe. Big enough but not huge, can do local ish trips fully electric (when not practical to cycle) so we are limiting our contributions to London's air but the petrol engine is smallish and fuel economy ok (not as good as some for long drives though). Second hand value now can't be far off your budget I'd guess, based on what we paid nearly 4 years ago for a 1yr old one?

Seen locally

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Two year wait for a new 76 series out here, beautiful things, very old examples still get good money.

On my way to Winterberg for a weekend in the bikepark.

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I'd imagine this was good money. Not sure what it was doing as no camping setup, maybe they're the hotel kind.

BMW 225xe

These seem surprisingly cheap 2nd hand.

Nothing to see here

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Makes me sad about possible resale value on ours! To be fair it wasn't ridiculous when we bought it (c. 1yr old back then).

Feels like you get quite good spec for the money and it was a nice balance between being fun enough to drive but also practical / not an environmental bin fire

I recognise Beaulieu.

Monorail is a bit of a give away. Crazy place, lots of fun

PMC Wagner spec.

The cavalry roll like this;

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Reminds me of this

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Never a truer word.... Most NGOs have stopped using the pickup variant as they are such a theft risk.

I wouldn't be holding your breath for hydrogen for the private car ... far too many massive hurdles.

As hugo7 (sort of) says buy the newest, most economical, lowest tax petrol-engined (or petrol hybrid) car that meets your needs in your budget. That way you are future proofed against ULEZ type tightening and you get the lowest reasonable running costs.

Thanks for the input, you glorious people!

Personally, I’d nearly always go for a Golf (having owned a few whilst living in the Middle East), but she seems to want something a little higher off the ground.

Fuck knows why - the XC60 is a faux-by-four and hasn’t seen any mud-plugging other than a rather challenging rugby pitch last February…

Buy her a booster seat

I did offer this as a suggestion…

Berlingo?

She’s already owned a series of French built cars and as a result of this, has a bit of an allergy towards them

Some faves from today's meet

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That is lovely, do I recall correctly that you're doing a conversion with it?

That is the plan. But as this car has been meticulously maintained I’ll enjoy the straight six for a bit. And save up… Even though all parts are available to me at cost it’s still a lot of cash

still a lot of cash

I'm sure, i've considered pouring some cash into my 900 with a pipe dream of converting it one day but suspect the asteroid will have hit before then. Has your company ever done an old Saab? Seems like the perfect platform!

I saw a car driving down the road today that I really thought I would never see in the wild.

A lamborghini espada.

rolling through bury st edmunds with many other old cars.

But the espada was just epic

.

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