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

Shits getting real.

convert this into a camper?

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1261680

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Stay Puft?

No.

Michelin.

£6k to spend on a city car
Any advice?

If its just you get something fun, but which is easy to park. I was too young to drive it, but my mum found her mk1 MX5 good in the city, so I'd look at the mk2.5 1.8 Sport if you can find one with no rust. No idea on the more modern MX5.

MINI Cooper is a good shout. 4 up with luggage is tight, but as a single/couple car it's brilliant. Only had a base One R56 which was great and is still being used by my folks. Solid, good quality interior happily drove down to France in it. All MINIs have good handling and are fun.

Golf GTI also fits the bill, although it's actually quite a big hatchback - which has it's pros / cons. I've got a Mk6 1.4tsi which I like but idk how economical it is sometimes - although it's usually got a shit load of stuff in it.

Overall I think a MINI is your best bet. The depreciation is good. BMW made. They're popular enough to be able to sell. And TBH it's the only small car that I can think of that's properly solid. Eg or a convertible.

Fwiw a sooped up R56 convertible would be in my lotto win collection.

Saxo VTS if you can still find one.

Edit was going to say you won't be able to get a clio 182 for £2k but ebay says you can.

Found a couple of stripped out 172s locally but I would like a heater and less warning lights on the dash!

Throwback Thursday. Rover SD1 EFi, the plush Vanden Plas V8 model. For a 1985 Rover it looks in amazing condition, I stared in disbelief....and in black it looks great.

If only Ferrari had this 4syte.

That's lovely.
I'm not a fan of the aftermarket steering wheel, which belongs on an Austin Healey, not an 80's Rover, nor the BMW headlamps, although they probably work a lot better than the originals. The series 1 clear indicators are OK, but the yellowed huge round repeaters are bloody horrible.

Seriously, are they really that good or is this simply herd mentality? They're particularly expensive and there's a wealth of of other options out there.

Also, where that? Looks nice.

Top sleuthing. Impressed that you could spot a mismatched steering wheel from those photos.

there's a wealth of of other options out there.

But there sort of aren't are there?

All the other options are either work vans with no cachet or geeky MPVs. Pretty much the only other premium options are those Mercs that everyone says rust as soon as they smell rain or those pimp JDM ones you have to import - are they Nissan? Yes, Nissan Elgrand.

They're particularly expensive and there's a wealth of of other options out there.

They can charge what they like as everything else is half-baked in comparison - or a completely different class of vehicle.

Rinky Dink.

excellent. Many moons ago I used to get a lift to work with a mate of a mate in a battered up one of these. Loved the interior. And the sound of the v8

@Howard Fair enough. Not well versed in the van/camper world. I always thought They simply sat in the 'slightly too small/Overpriced' bracket range.
Would it be worth simply converting something else slightly cheaper for the cost of one of those?

The secret and contradiction of the Cali is that really it's a plush people carrier and plush van that can be used as a camper - and it sits on a drive like a big car and doesn't look shit or out of place or get you dirty looks from your neighbours. You can drive it to the shops or to the beach or to the alps and it's stress free. It doesn't care. It feels like a big car when you drive it. Nothing like a van. I think the small size is why it sells tbh.

Plenty of people convert other things. Lots of Mazda Bongos around converted to campers. If you've got the money though it's easy to see why people go for the California.

£2k (max, pref under £1k) banger for commuting at NSL on non-bike days? Needs to be cheap to run/repair and happy sitting unused. Would like boy-racer potential to embarrass mrs hammer/mini hammer!
Thinking golf GTI ~2002...

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15468361/

Branksome chine, Bournemouth. There were another 4 in the upper car park, plus some plush special edition jobby on a German plate out of shot. I was annoyed I couldn't get them all in a clean photo as it was particularly absurd. Good wind today, I guess it gets the moneyed middle-age weekday wind/kite surfers out. I can't comment if they're any good, but definitely seem to be the board wagon of choice.

£3k is a bit too nice for my purposes I think. Depends what I can get for my E61 though.

The Rover 3500 vanden plas efi, both absolute shite and brilliant car. The vitesse was less shite due to the aweful vanden plas 'extra plush plastic wood that cracked due to heat in the car. Have even owned a real twin plenum.... That is a whole other anecdote.

That car looks in better condition than any car I had, and I haven't had one since early 2000s.

Has the real inky dink reappeared again, rebuilt?

Still upset that the kid in front is not the driver.

No.

Didn't the vp come with a biege/blue/black leather steering wheel option?

No comment on the vitesse wheels.

That car looks in better condition than any car I had, and I haven't had one since early 2000s.

I suspect it contains very little of the metal that it left the factory with.