Had a company rental car for the day and I've decided it is the best car I've driven since, well ever – 2.4D V70 Estate (Auto) and I normally hate Autos, and don't really like Diesels…

I guess I have now become an proper old git, I can never afford to own one, but Sweet Jesus I want one now…

That is all….

Kill yourself now

Both auto and diesel are my preference these days with traffic and petrol prices as they are.

how did people ever age before the car ?

I love my diesel. I really like the way it drives! I also like auto for cruising… No point in speccing a car for twisty mountain roads when it spends its time on the motorway like mine does.

Diesels get better all the time.

Seems to have every option imaginable, I just plonked it on cruise for the motorways and relaxed, not at all hectic or tiring, then took a circuitous route for the last 20 miles using the "tiptronic"? type gear shift for some A-road fun, utterly blitzed the corners, a total dream to drive even with the turbo lag and silly gear box…

Would make a great "bike mobile" too…

Had an S-Max on Monday, total gash!

A car is just a mobile bike box

I've told the wife and kids if they ever see me driving a people carrier or a Volvo to take me out and shoot me.

Diesel yes auto yes but not a Volvo

I hate diesels also, but did look at a diesel XF today, as a replacement for my 535i…

It must be catching.

Tell me about it! I'm in the middle of trying to trade in my Megane 225 trophy for a diesel estate, preferably a passat as i can't afford a Volvo. BTW i'm only 30, what happened to me?

My friend crashed his subura wrx, around the time his first son was born. With the insurance money bought an ex company vectra diesel. 2 litre 2di (I think) 3 years old, 60k on the clock, fully spec'd for £5k. It drives really nicely, really comfortable and huge inside.

I'd love to buy my first sports car but I think when the 206 dies I will be going the vectra/mondeo route.

I'm also finding estate cars suddenly look 'mean and cool' and I want one.

I too think it is a sign of middle age.

I'd rather butcher my own children than drive anything with the words 'diesel' or 'auto' attached to it. The combination of the two forms a critical mass which makes a statement. It says "I have lost the will to live'. Why not just spend the money on an invalidity carriage and spend the change on a Stannah stairlift?

The anti-diesel thing still astounds me. I've driven around 20 odd hire cars in the last six months,plus of course mine and my wife's diesel cars. In this time, I would dread being delivered a petrol hire car. I hated them. They have to be screamed to get going, the fuel costs for my normal 350 odd mile journey would always be much higher with a petrol car, they were noisier, less powerful….just gash. And this includes some big engined vauxhall and ford cars.

The best cars I drove were the insignia with the 2.2 diesel engine and the mondeo with the diesel engine. Both pulled like trains, both economical, both quiet, both very fast.

If that makes me middle aged then hand me my pipe and slippers because it's way better driving them than petrol.

Have you got elastic waisted trousers in beige? I bet you have

The 7 (car based) ages of (Clarkson) man:
1) plastic and suckable
2) pedal car
3) old banger
4) hot hatch
5) — I don't know anything about sporty cars —
6) sensible diesel estate
7) invalid carriage

/Pulls out elastic waistband and lets it slap back against my waist.

I think my clarksn ages went this:

1. Small, cheap and fast.
2. Small, cheap and fast.
3. Big and slow, ultra reliable.
4. Small and cheap (family arrived)
5. Medium.
6. Sporty, quick and outlandish. Drank petrol.
7. Plush, expensive, German. (diesel)
8. Plush, quiet, fast (but never really floored), economical, Honda, diesel.

I'm slacking then. Mine goes:

1) loads of really really fast motor bikes
2) reluctantly pass car teat. Eventually
3) Buy silly car (Luuuuuuurverly Truimph Vitesse soft-top)
4) Buy proper car when i'd broke that one (Octavia vRS)
5) Drive sisters brand-spanking new Saab diesel and wonder how the technology of 1930s Russian Tractor collectives made it into the next century without being updated at all

Diesels are meant for agricultural equipment! Auto are driven by people who can't drive. FACT!

if I don't have a car will I never grow old ?

The anti-diesel thing still astounds me.

Me too. Petrol cars just feel gutless now. Can't be bothered revving the nuts off them to get anywhere quickly. Best car I've ever driven has been the new BMW530d. 245 bhp, 540 Nm of torque, superb handling, an auto gearbox that seems to read your mind and smoother than a very smooth thing.

Auto are driven by people who can't drive. FACT!

Nah, Auto's tend to be driven by people who can't really be bothered to with the hassle of changing gear…

Auto gearboxes are pretty good these days. The VAG DSG gearbox is somewhat of a masterpiece in my opinion, and I feel I can say this after my own experience as I've owned an VW R32 DSG for 3.5 years now. That's not to say that it's more satisfying than a really good manual box (I love those notchy BMW boxes), but I'd say switching instantly between gears with little paddles behind the steering wheel is great fun in it's own right.

The FACT is, that most Auto's are harder to drive fast than a manual is (DSG aside), so if you can keep up with a manual car round country lanes while driving a car with a sloshing Auto box then you are the better driver.

I have a touran with dsg and it is all the car I will ever need. I have had so many lovely cars over the years that I just no longer aspire to something more tasty in the way that most of society do. Dsg is superb in every way and there is just no need to fit either a manual or auto in a car IMO. Manual gearboxes may be good on a track but in the real world these days they just don't make any sense to me any more.

How any man can go from an impreza to a vectra and be happy somewhat concerns me!!

wrightyson – sometime the journey is better than arriving, having had a few fast and nice cars along the way the desire was in some respects better than owning, although still interested in cars, am more than happy with a Diesel T5, a Focus and a nice mountain bike, it's do able. Sometimes the petrol in your viens runs out, and the urge just goes.

Heh. i started driving last year, aged 39. Hopefully I'll get to the sports car stage when my eyesight and mental capacities start to fade. Should be fun. For me.

What I should add though is I am very glad I did own them it was a lot of fun 🙂 but it feels good to have got it out my system early on.

I'm middle aged and seem to be in a cycle, went from fast (WRX STi hatch), Forester XT to a T5 Diesel back to a S3 and a 911 and a Legacy GT Wagon (not all mine , well 2 are). Must be on the cycle to go to a milk float next or a Prius or something. Oh well. I'd buy a nice diseasle if we had more than 4k of motorway here but diesel is sh1te quality and cruise control is not exactly overly utilised on NZ roads !

Torque's where it's at for the motorway's – if I can't have it in V8 flavour then it'll have to be in diesel form, so that's why I'm currently driving a diesel Volvo…….bought it when I was 30, so I guess the middle age entry point is lowering

We were given a top spec touran diesel company car when we moved to Spain. I was, like, mleh.. But after driving a vauxhall hire car in the uk I can sure appreciate the quality and downright grunt of that bread van; added bonus is you can get four bikes in the back, or two with the wheels on (shuttletastic).
Our other car: Clicky

The combination of the two forms a critical mass which makes a statement. It says "I have lost the will to live'

Wanna ask me about my will to live? 🙂 Personally, I think if you measure your life by your car, then you've got big issues.

Cars are for getting around in. Bikes are for pushing yourself and finding out what you're made of.

FWIW my hire car in the US was a 3.6l V6. My diesel feels more torquey… and it still pushes my car-appreciation buttons because it (like all modern non-basic cars) is a brilliant feat of engineering.

I've driven a few diesels and hated them all.

There is something completely anodyne and souless about them.

Its the way when you put you foot down and you get a nice swell of torque, you wait for the power to arrive and it doesn't happen so you change up, get a nice swell of torque wait for the power to arrive, change up repeat…

Yes you might be making good progress but in a totally uninvolving way.

A good petrol engine, not a weedy 1.6, a V6 or a 2.0 litre turbo, punches you out of the corners and back into the seat. You hear the exhaust note change as you head towards the redline dip the clutch and flick from 2nd to 3rd. Thats driving – diesel automatics don't really cut it for me

You hear the exhaust note change as you head towards the redline dip the clutch and flick from 2nd to 3rd.

anyone who could say that should get a lifetime driving ban 🙁

Personally, I think if you measure your life by your car, then you've got big issues.

Agreed. I can never understand people who try and define people by their car. It just suggests to me that they're trying to make up for a deficit in personality by suggesting that the car can somehow define them.

a bit harsh when they're already ostracized from female company, sfb.

My friend crashed his subura wrx, around the time his first son was born.

I bet his old lady would have preferred to give birth in a hospital rather than a Scooby.

I fitted a set of roof bars to my car a couple of weeks ago. When I'd finished, I found myself stepped a few paces back from the car nodding my head approvingly. I was thinking how my German estate car is practical and comfortable and how it'll good to be able to get some loads up on the bars. It was at that moment that I realised my youth had departed me long ago.

On Saturday gone, I decided that I needed a shoe horn (for my 5.10s). So I bought one. As I dropped the shoe horn into my bag on the way out of the shop, I wondered if, in fact, my middle age had also departed.

simonfbarnes – Member

You hear the exhaust note change as you head towards the redline dip the clutch and flick from 2nd to 3rd.

anyone who could say that should get a lifetime driving ban

2nd gear redlines at about 55mph but don't let the facts stand in the way of the usual BS

Yes you might be making good progress but in a totally uninvolving way.

Rubbish. The corners are still the same corners, the car handles well, why on earth would it make a difference?

Torque curve in my CR diesel feels pretty similar to that in my mate's turbo petrol to be honest. Keeps on pulling to the limiter.

I don't think it's fair to compare a high performance large engined car to a practical everyday diesel anyway. Litre for litre, you get more torque, more fun and better fuel economy from a diesel. I don't see the problem.

I know I'm now middle aged …. beacuase I prefer the wife's auto Honda CRV (soft road thing) to my Golf GTI.

Why?

Because it's easier to get in and out of.

When i change the golf will defo get something "high"… hate sitting down "so low" now

Crikey, I didn't expect to open a debate on Rep-mobiles but still, looks like I 'll be trying lot's of rental cars potentially over the next few months so I may find a new automotive lover…

Tell me about it! I'm in the middle of trying to trade in my Megane 225 trophy for a diesel estate, preferably a passat as i can't afford a Volvo. BTW i'm only 30, what happened to me?

Don't worry, I'm 30 too! It's the new 45…

I've had and liked a Mundano (Pool car) 2.0-D (manual), but honestly the V70 I had yesterday puts that to shame, lovely to cruise on motorways in, give it the berries and it will move rather sharpish (D5 – Geartronic so ~205 bhp diesel auto estate)…

Got back in my own car this morning: a 10 year old Mk4 Petrol Golf Estate the only good things I can think of about it now are; No HP owing on it, plenty of space for Bikes and family, it’s not an MPV, no Turbo lag (cos there’s no turbo see)….

I’ve just been costing the V70 up I think I was driving a ~£35-40K version yesterday, lots of options, The missus would kill me if I bought one…. Or would she?…. No she would…

I reckon I could have a D3 with a few options under £30K but I’d still wish I’d bought the D5, and then there’s the T6… I bet that likes a drink…

People criticise Passats for being boring rep mobiles.. and I often think that when I approach mine past all the others in the car park at work. Then I get in and drive off, and it's all forgotten. They really are great cars 🙂

One with all the toys would be well less than £30k. Plus there's bluemotion versions 60+mpg…

you don't have to buy new you know; get a one year old job, the worst of the depreciation is already done and you still get 2 years warranty for a whole lot less wonga

I have a Saab 9-3 1.9TiD estate in Vector Sport anniversary trim. I bought it at 2 years old with 30k on the clock for £13k. I costed an equivalent brand new one up the other day, £27k. So I've saved over half the new vehicle price by not buying new.

The mileage I do makes petrol a non-starter, as I can get well over 500 miles to a tankful, more on a big extended motorway cruise. It takes bikes without too much trouble, and my drums fit in nicely too, with room for a couple of passengers as well.

OK it's a Vectra in slightly nicer bodywork but so what?