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

plenty of those about

1 under £10k on Autotrader.

Ah, two little ones... Gotcha. Although, kids do grow fast, my 3 year old is almost the height of his 8 year old sister. It's nuts! It's why I have to stick with 5 door hatchbacks.

My son would love me to get a Mini, he's obsessed, he pats the taillights whenever he sees one parked. He does like my pug 308 GTI though, cause I can make the dash lights go red and the car gets noisy.

On the subject of Mini, has anyone seen the new SUV Cuntryman? I had to double-take when I saw one IRL 😆

Is that the new Countryman EV?

The boxster was a 'cheaper' 911, there are/were a great number around that when the became cheap, as the parts were still expensive, many ended up in poor condition. Some still wanted lots of money.

Yeah it's a bit weird isn't it?!

Saw it when I was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago

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Yeah you need to educate your children in to a 505 GTi ;) Also children small hands handy to get in to hard to reach areas.

Do you have the English flag rear lights out there?

I love R53s and R56s so much.

Having spent a lot of time at Santa Pod with Minis, they actually have a lot more low rev drive than it feels like. If you're slipping tyres you're losing time, it's better to rev to just 2.5k, side step the clutch, and let the supercharger sort out the nonsense.

Looks a bit like a Vauxhall or the new Pugs.

I don't hate it, but I can't quite get my head around the idea that MINI is just a car brand and they can go around and make any old thing.

Yeah kiddos... I always used to have the bigger car which we could use to lug stuff around (E46 touring and Forrester 2.5 XT which I had mapped being a couple of favs) with the missus having a little runabout. Ever since she's been happy to drive a bigger car (ahem, SUV) I've had a bit more licence. A classic Mini was my first car and I always fancied the first gen newer ones so went for the R53. After 6 months had a few bills (expected that from research and the fact that it's 20 years old) I can't fault it. The family can fit in it for short trips, go kart handling, addictive supercharger whine, great enthusiast community etc it always felt nippy due to small size and how low it is, and after a few tweaks it really shifts pretty well. Would recommend. 308 GTI was not on my radar, checked it out looks great. Always loved the old 205/309 GTI's, at the time I was a VW guy and had a few mk2 Golf GTI's.

all minis are horrific (union jack 🤮) but that countryman especially so

On the bright side, they won't be ten years old with 100k miles on them either though.

Yeah having not driven a SC car before it's great how the power is so linear - noted, I may be tempted to have another go sometime.

6 years old with 100k miles, so I'd argue worse

Does anyone think warranties are worth anything?

but I can't quite get my head around the idea that MINI is just a car brand and they can go around and make any old thing.

☝

The 3 month one that came with my C Max was well worth the £0 when the alternator decided to die within the second month

Moody Jazz in the rain shot to further tempt you

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hummina hummina

is it the oil burner or the 2l TSi?

i can't decide whether to replace our Superb with another Superb or look at an Octavia VRS.

most of the time, we don't need the huge amount of space in a Superb estate, but it is comfortable, and on the couple of occasions a year when we do need to lug around 4 adults, it's still comfortable.

so if you go for the Octavia, i'll be interested in your views on how it is, space and comfort wise.

2l TFSI. Space should be on a par with the c max, albeit lower. I will let you know. Boot space is actually bigger on paper. Seats "look" nicer also.

Was the car bought from a dealer? If so consumer rights cover you

Our current Skoda has the 2l petrol lump in 220PS guise which is (to me) a really great engine with nicely progressive power delivery.

Not when the fault is not there when it is bought.

This one is 217 so hoping more spritely than the 2l NA in the c max