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

What would you buy?
Need something for the weekly commute. It's a long motorway drive with some heavy traffic city driving.
Reliability is a priority, nothing too thirsty and ideally fun to drive too as I may occasionally avoid the motorway and take the a / b roads.
May occasionally have to ferry the family round but got another plan for that.
Budget is around 7k
I guess the obvious answer is a Golf GTI. I could get a Mk6 for that money. Or a VRS estate? I've always preferred Japanese stuff.

Keep walking past this and my heart does that flippy thing.

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2 questions;

1) best value HPI checker?

2) my girlfriend is after a very small and reliable car. think hyundai i10 or VW up. She wants to spend max £4k (rather £3500). suggestions?

Anyone been watching this? I recommend if you have some spare time. Quite enjoyable watching, very skilled guy.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnidW9Wb_DjxbuAPl_Yo_Ac6B6LceyHia

Looking at a Berlingo tomorrow. 40,000mi, 2009 1.6tdi
Anyone got much experience with them? An old colleague swears by them as the best cheap bike hauler/car camping/occasional van you can get.

@mdcc_tester ?

Camberwell grove? See this every day of late. Looks spotless.

Thank you! Have spoken to BMR performance about getting it down to them for a look, just waiting for some other things to resolve themselves first.

Gorgeous...

I put the weathershields on the Suby today, happy to report a 20bhp increase in engine performance... Which is nice...

I like them (now on my fifth one) but I wouldn't know anything about pricing/issues to check on a second hand one. My two 1.6HDi ones both went 90000 miles without any issues, but they had the robot gearbox. The old stick shifts had weak clutch lifter thrust bearings, but they both went over 100,000 before they failed. The ventilation heaters failed roughly every 60,000 miles on the M49/M59 models, but a 2009 should be a B9 unless it was NOS when registered and I never experienced that failure on a B9.

Is that the one he is putting the Ferrari engine in?

2) Honda Jazz

“She’s built like a steakhouse, but she handles like a bistro”

Everything checked out fine, condition was better than expected all round bar a few parking scratches. Idles silently and generally gonna do the job.

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That interior tho.
Liz pointed out it makes you feel like you’re piloting a giant mecha with that upholstery..

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Congrats. If you are going to do lots of miles, they seem to like a dash of two stoke oil ;) seems to make then do even more MPG.

Wish I still had my c5.

2 stroke? Ha! What like one of those one-shots you get for mixing up 5l of fuel? Ace.

Thought you might have two stoke around, low sulphur modern diesel is not as lubricating as diesel used to be. Then I used a homeopathic amounts 1-2%. Still returned 60+ mpg from London to Paris and back. The engine was at full revs mosts of the time as the car has such low body roll in corners and wanted to get to house quick.

What killed the C5 was being hit on the wheel and bending both the front chasis rails, front suspension and breaking the gearbox.

quote made me lol. congrats on the purchase!

A friend used to have a facelifted mk1 berlingo which he used as a very basic "adventure mobile". He used to sting up a hammock corner to corner inside and sleep on that and rave about how comfortable it was.

Nicely bought, good colour too. My FIL needed a new motor so I was drafted in to help and he ended up with a very similar Partner. I had always respected them, but seeing all the storage cubbies and the space relative to the length really mad me want one.

They make great bike luggers and offer great value compared to most vans which have had a hard working life. Lots of them, seem to lack cruise control which would be a deal breaker for me.

Can you remove the rear seats to make it into a comfortable van? I've been wondering about a smallish van type thing for driving to the Alps (as I don't fancy flying anywhere at the moment), but if I can't get an XL 29er in the back there's no point- may as well stick with the C Class.

@dammit - yes, the bench seat appears to pop out with a couple of bolts but bikes fit perfectly well diagonally with the rear seat folded.
I tested it with a 27.5+ ogre.
A mate of mine is a full on festival/solstice crusty and basically lives in his berlingo over the summer.
@woodster - the berlingo isn’t quite as well equipped as the partner when it comes to obscure cubby storage but there’s more than enough.

Now looking at boot liners and awnings lol.

Now looking at boot liners and awnings lol.

High top conversion?

yeah this is sweet as. see a brown one quite regularly when I go home to visit it the family. so not seen it for a couple of months. it is rare to see one in this great a condition.

I have fond memories of mine from bitd

I tested it with a 27.5+ ogre.

Reckon you could get two in? And, related question, would for e.g. tinting the rear windows prevent people from being able to see a couple of expensive bikes in the back, or would they be obvious through the windscreen?

I had super black tints in my last A6. You can’t see into the back seats. I think it was limousine tint - previous owner had fitted it.
Word of warning, at night be very careful when cars are approaching from behind - side mirrors are vital! A mistake you make once and hopefully without too big an incident.

@dammit - over the weekend I’ll do a test load with a couple of bikes(although I don’t have anything bigger than 56ctc), and some dry bags of kit and take a bunch of pics for reference if it’d be of use?

We were planning on getting the rear tinted quite dark, lucky for me 99% of my driving is trucks and pickups with no rear view anyway so will hopefully avoid what happened to @TGR