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

It’s the bastardising deep farm tracks that sites I’m having to visit tend to have that is the 4x4. Mostly ground clearance, X5 is a shite awd system but works for what I need.

Shoguns are looking good, quite keen on a 2.0d for motorway miles. The 4.4 Range Rover is still giving me nightmares and 3.2 ain’t going to be too much better.

Or get a pickup for work and a car/van for life.

A6 Allroad?

Or a Yeti.

Dacia Duster would be a sensible option if you're after something sensible on fuel.

Has anyone driven the 1.4 TSi engined Passat?

I have the 1.8 TSi in my Beetle with 150bhp output. It's pretty sensible for power for me and my driving and it will hang with most things in the far lane on the motorway. I would imagine that the larger Passat with the smaller engine would not be the punchiest of vehicles.

Snap. Hmm. Maybe European touring in a 996 with two bikes could be done.

What's the simplest way to sit in/test drive a couple of cars?

Based in Catford. Would like to try fabia/Octavia estates. No idea where to start on this. Skoda dealer? Giant car supermarket? Find one on the street and ask an owner?

@amey has a hideous Skoda estate and lives in Catford.

i do! about to sell, SORNd on drive atm.

24 hours into my holiday and I've already seen some pretty cool stuff. Hoping to get to a custom show towards the end

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Not really into new cars but the Fairlady gets better looking the more you look at it and the Skyline is just immense. Nissan happy for me to sit in both, push all the buttons and make driving noises.

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Jis screwdrivers if you are there.

Car Spotta .com

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Alan Partridge's?

The owner's mate did it, according to the S*n

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something quite touching about wearing a Stone Island puffa whilst rattle canning "wanker" on your mate's gold wrapped supercar.

No. But I've drive a diesel mk6 Passat a bit, and we have a mk6 Golf with a 1.4TSI. Both DSG.

I think the 1.4TSI is really useful. Based on you car history Idk if it'll be sexy enough, but it's happy pulled a absolutely packed car up and down France with kids and holiday kit. And also a similar journey with a small PA system and tonnes of booze. If you put your foot down or put it in sport it goes fast enough.

Imo the Passat drives incredibly similarly to the Golf. Shockingly so for such a large car.

The one downside of the 1.4TSI is that irl it's not that economical. That could be how we drive and all the random shit we've always got in the boot.

Basically it would absolutely be suitable for what you need. But Idk if it's what you'll want.

Interesting, i've been looking at the mk7 golf with 1.4TSI, although the MK7 has BMT and the one i drove was doing 47mpg around town

Time to shit or get off the pot, just spoke to the car dealer about the STi. It's getting very real.

Will probably sell the XV tonight.

Time to shit or get off the pot

Noted and saved for later

If you want to feel better about your check engine light, I now have 2 issues on the new car (including the earlier check engine light).

The new one is traction control turns itself off.

I've read some codes and I think the former is a MAF sensor and the latter is a wheel speed sensor. I think the MAF error is related to the fact that when I was adjusting the headlight beam (both headlights were pointing at the floor for some reason), I noticed that the cone filter was not actually attached to the intake pipe and was sitting on the under tray. So after reattaching it the error came on so the ECU probably got confused by the sudden decrease in air flow than it had been seeing.

The lambda sensor was replaced without fuss and for less than the local garage quoted. Now also going to get them to look at the talkative shocks.

The new one is traction control turns itself off.

That'll spice things up a bit!

I actually went out at 5am yesterday morning in the terrible weather and had a "play" on pretty much every roundabout on the A10 between Enfield and Royston before most of the country got out of bed and it's very predictable and you do have to properly stab the throttle even in the wet.

It's surprisingly easy to keep the back out with 450bhp though 😂