What? I will be gutted to see my car go and I am not ashamed to say so!

Fine, but you said it’s ‘as much as I can manage’

Drama queen, however will you cope with a nice new lovely motor..? Such deprivation and hardship you have to put up with…

That’s how it read anyway.

It IS depravation and hardship!

Piffle.

I get the impression people on this thread drive like d***s, good luck to you and your uneconomical cars.

4/10

Only spots for two motors at our house, one for the van other for the car! I only drive the car at the weekends and the odd rare evening, it still gives me a buzz and I’d happily jump in it and just go for a meaningless drive somewhere but FD says no!!

If thats what you are using your “fast” car for just get a bike and learn what acceleration really is 😉

Piffle.

8)

Go for a discovery 4 … with the air suspension option. One of our riding group has one, easily fits three bikes with front wheels off on an internal rack with the seats up, or as many as you need on the towbar mount. His wife drives it without complaint and it seats seven if required.

Pretty bombproof inside, and talk about off road ability !

Will keep up with my XF over most drives, and far more practical, milage low to mid 30’s overall (around 5 less than mine).

Having said that my Thule’s will easily hold three bikes, and the boot is just enormous. What is annoying is taking the rack on and off (mainly due to wind noise, MPG is negligible). Have recently put a pulley system in the garage (intended for kayaks) basically loosen off racks feet, hook four bungee cords and pull it up to rafters and tie it off.

I tend to shy away from estates due to the lack of security for work equipment but do like the Subaru allroaders (prob be my next looker).

Spent several years in NZ and Aus in a variety of utes, from Ford Couriers to Hi-lux and more recently a Maloo (which was simply insane) While the Maloo was fun to drive the rest were very “agricultural” and while a couple had seating for four, anyone put in the back hated you after half an hour. Shotgun was hard fought for around our way!

Think “family friendly truck” is a bit of a misnomer personally.

really dont understand why people drive those trucks (other than as a tax scam)
they are cramped inside compared to an estate, slow compared to an estate, uncomfortable compared to an estate, uneconomical compared to an estate, and are horrendous to drive on the road.

Go for a discovery 4 … with the air suspension option. One of our riding group has one, easily fits three bikes with front wheels off on an internal rack with the seats up,

i can get three bikes and three people with front wheels off and no hastle in a 206, that’s neither big nor clever

if STW is anything to go by, you will probably end up with an X6 i reckon 😉

Oh yeah. A discovery 4 and a 206 are exactly the same size 😕

Oh no, your just forgetting 3 people!!!

VW T5 174, remapped to 220. probably does most things your after, or a 180 BiTurbo remapped if you have the cash.

6 seats, up to 8 bikes inside, quite car-like… forget estates with bikes on the roof or inside mashing the interior.

I’d say a benchmark of 200bhp would be the minimum I’d be looking for when buying, unless it was a little lightweight buzzbox with an awesome power to weight ratio. I find it more relaxing as you’re not thrashing a small engine all the time. Mate bought a 535d Msport – now that shifts! Sounds good too, but the economy isn’t much better than a mid size petrol

One solution nobody seems to have mentioned is the Zafira VXR. loads of room, and very quick; seems to handle pretty well, better than any truck anyway.

One solution nobody seems to have mentioned is the Zafira VXR

There appears to be a reason for that… Now if you had had 350bhp of Zafira, then we’d be talking.

10X better than an L200 on the road, but gets spunked all over when the going gets tough. 😉

where’s Mr T?

I find it more relaxing as you’re not thrashing a small engine all the time

That’s what diesels are for 🙂

Ha ha zafira vxr, one of the prime candidates when dads on his own who’ll try and race anything from the lights!!

Just to add a scrap of balance to this thread….I drive an old pickup and love it. I find most cars bland, anonymous and uninspiring. My truck might be a piece of sh*t to most but to me it’s got character and I like the way it looks. It’s easy worked on, parts are pretty cheap and it’ll run on pretty much anything. I can get about 28mpg from it. I never worry about scratching it or getting it dirty inside or out. To me it’s comfy, people complaining must be soft as.

With regards to specific criticisms in this thread:
It’ll carry 4 bikes with ease, 7 at a push.Get a pad, throw them over the tail gate ffs. In and out in seconds not days. Bikes can be secured by chaining them to the bed meaning it’ll take a grinder to steal them. They are fun in the wet not lethal, rwd, power over steer.
Off road performance is far greater than most people will ever need, I’ve yet to find the limits, even in 6 inches of snow up a tractor trail over a mountain. Perhaps in comparison to a modified defender, maybe, but anything can be modified.

They are slow though, but that’s not the point.

I drive an L200. Yes its pretty slow and the back seats are cramped, but I don’t have to sit in the back, so I don’t really care. I find it more comfortable than most other things I drive. I’ve lost the back end about twice on wet roundabouts, but that was on the awful standard tyres, probably going a tad too fast. Fitted Cooper S/T’s and not had a problem since. Goes well offroad, keeps up with all the other 4×4’s fine (low range box with centre and rear diff-lock). Only bad point offroad is the mahoosive rear overhang with towbar, which causes the odd bang as it drags the towbar down a steep drop or something 😆

Main reason I bought it is to tow my boat. It’s cheap to tax and cheaper for me to insure insure than a ‘normal’ 4×4. I do about 10,000 miles a year in it, probably 50% of that is towing on longer trips. Gets about 28mpg on a long run, 21mpg towing 1500kg with the back full of camping gear, fuel and wakeboard stuff for 5 people. But I usually run it on veg oil on the longer trips, which saves a few quid. Service it myself for about £40, takes about an hour tops. Bit more if I do the gearbox, transfer case and diff oils.

I’ve got a rack bolted across the front of the bed behind the cab with a few QR fork clamp things and 20mm bolt through ones, front wheel off and clamp up the fork, chain around the frames through a tie down eye. Just as secure as being on a tow bar rack. Fits about 4 bikes on, but could probably get more on if I wanted.

I’ve lost the back end about twice on wet roundabouts

😯

I’ve never lost the back end on any car ever, no matter how hard I try and push it.

Flat bed Transits used to be good for that. 😀

3 bikes, 3 people, no hastle Ian. Add a weeks camping kit for 3 and its a bituva squeeze but has been done.