Half-price heroes - All Comments

re: ‘Bye bye Bimmer

A R Chen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:13:57 GMT

You are absolutely right! I was sad to see my '91 518i go when I sold it on to a friend in 2001. The chipped 1.8 liter 4-cylinder engine was so smooth, everyone who rode in my 518i thought it had 6 cylinders. Tickover was incredibly vibration free.

My '96 Mercedes C180 is also a delight more than a decade on. The car feels much better screwed together than the models that have followed. The gearbox is a little clunky unlike the magical gearbox of my 518i, but the car still feels not unlike the car that rolled off the showroom floor 12 years earlier.

I only wish I had room for more of these cars. At the moment, 3 cars is all we can handle.

re: The thinking man's 911

John Glynn — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:40:13 GMT

Rock on James! I've got an '83 944 2.5 Lux, an '86 944 Turbo and a '76 911 Carrera 3.0. The Lux is well built but not quick enough, the Turbo is a nice drive and a little bit slicker, but my stripped-out 911 rules. The flat six wonder horse is a proper pony for those who like to ride hard!

re: ‘Bye bye Bimmer

James Ruppert — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:49:25 GMT

Actually the mpg was not half bad, I managed over 30 mpg fairly consistently....J Worth Buying...

re: ‘Bye bye Bimmer

TheStig — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:01:14 GMT

Hi James! Sad to see your BMW go. I am seriously considering getting one of these actually. It is not long before people of Britain won't be able to afford the straight-six, rear-wheel drive fun. Do you have any idea of how much mpg you have been able to squeeze out of your 525i?

re: The thinking man's 911

TegTypeR — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:38:12 GMT

The best car in the range has to be the S2. Effectively the same as the later 968, has the cleanest look of any 944 and is an absolute bargain! I've had two 944's and they comprehensively thump modern machinery for build quality, reliablility and overall feel good.

re: My prediction for 2008: supercars will get much cheaper

Peter Cavellini — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:50:55 GMT

My prediction.... in 5 years time they'll be as rare as rocking horse poo!.What will take their place?....saloon cars - big power outputs are all well and good but you can't use it all on the road!. A power limit of say 350 BHP in something that weighs say 1600kg is fast enough for the road. Sure you can do track days but thats risky too because if your skill levels are good enough you'll right your pride and joy off!. Take my advice and stick to the stats i mentioned above.

re: The thinking man's 911

A R Chen — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:05:52 GMT

Ditto!

I bought a one-year old 944 Turbo in '87 and used it almost like a daily driver. I did about 30k miles completely trouble free and the build was rock solid.

I thought the dash design was butt-ugly, but Porsche fixed that problem on the facelifted models that followed.

For me, that old 944 Turbo was the ticket for a weekend blast into the mountains and canyons, never putting a foot wrong.

Ahhh, memories! :-)

re: Dealers play recession roulette

kerrecoe — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:20:26 GMT

We just got offered £1500 below the trade price for our 56 Punto Sporting, as recommended by What Car's Valuation service, as a trade in for a new 500 Lounge. Needless to say we didn't accept the dealers offer. and he missed out on a sale.

re: The thinking man's MPV

Paddler Ed — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:39:54 GMT

He could have got a later V70 and still avoided giving Brown anymore money by getting a manual 2.4, rather than the auto. It saves £200 per year by having a manual box... And I want to find one to replace my 192,000 mile V70 (which is only a little bit older than this one) that I've got at the moment!!!

re: The thinking man's MPV

Cheerio — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:50:49 GMT

Spot on James. V70's are so logical, Spock would drive one. The harder you use them, the better they seem. I don't mean door-handling round corners of course, but filling them up, going places, and emptying them out again. If its a 170 BHP version (the 140 BHP one can be remapped to 170) I think this is probably the optimum model, the turbo models are a bit wayward with too much power through the front wheels for steering and going. The diesels are of course, well, diesels.

Downsides? When you have to change the inevitable blown headlamp bulbs (on all the time, they don't last long) you will rediscover words you had long forgotten and leave much knuckle skin behind. Live long and prosper.

re: The thinking man's MPV

James Ruppert — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:13:16 GMT

It's Mrs R's car not mine and she'd kill me if I sold it now. Anyway my other cars balance out the Volvo's utter Volvoness....which actually I don't mind and the yummy mummies on the school run all liked it this morning on its debut run...

re: The thinking man's MPV

theoriginalshoe — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:08:01 GMT

James, I used to think a lot of you.

By buying that, you have tarnished the good reputation of the Autocar staffers, perhaps irreversibly.

Please sell it now. No, on second thoughts just scrap it and save the rest of us ever inadvertently laying eyes on it (and inevitably immediately losing the contents of our stomachs).

re: The thinking man's MPV

James Ruppert — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:05:17 GMT

Yes, love the old 850, great shape that, lots of T5s around and a new shape T5 was local to me but double the price of this one retail..

re: The thinking man's MPV

NiallOswald — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:50:49 GMT

Put a non age-related plate on it and I don't think it would stand out as a particularly old car at all. I happened to see an old 850 (towing a glider!) overtaking a new V70, both in identical 'coffee' metallic recently. Very distinctive 'DNA' there, and the old car stood up surprisingly well against the new model.

re: The thinking man's MPV

James Ruppert — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:42:35 GMT

Oh yes it's a 2000 I made very certain of that....seems like a nice old bus at the moment....J