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I sold my 3.0l flat 6 subaru with AWD a couple weeks ago, brilliant engine and with 55/45 rear biased permanent AWD the traction it had was awesome. Pretty quick too at around 7 seconds 0-60, in the dry, or the wet.
Unfortunately, sub-25mpg just wasn't doable for the 15k miles a year I'm now looking at doing, so I'm picking up my new car on Thursday - a Skoda Superb 2.0tdi 150, top of the range model, slower (but not that much, more torque - 250lbft vs 220lbft) but double the mpg and loads more comfort with all the toys: electronic suspension, adaptive cruise control, lane assist, uprated stereo etc. Just the job for wafting up the motorway for a few days away in the mountains. Going from a 2006 car to a 2017 will be nice too, maybe in a few years I'll look at the 272ps version (basically a golf R in a massive and comfortable estate body) which will do 0-60 in 5ish seconds...
‘Tis a sad time, the days of more-than-four-cylinder engines are definitely limited. I decided <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">to scratch an itch before it became an impossibility: a proper(ish) big-capacity V8. Well aware it’s rather polluting and (relatively) terrible on fuel, but for a last hurrah I may as well do it properly. Better buying an existing/used vehicle than introducing a new car to the road. 4K miles annually but I do more than that by pedal-power.</span>
2012 MINI swapped to a 2005 400bhp “Vauxhall”.
Most new cars do little for me.
That’s nearly £4k in fuel – when a relatively normal car (not a crrappy eco box) could halve that!
Yes that's not too bad for 12 month's commuting, is it? I guess the small premium over something dull is worth it for making those miles more enjoyable.
As I said, its going into semi retirement for a year or so until it's replaced by a van. I'll still have something fun, if a little characterless, to enjoy on non-bike/surf days.
I've still go something 'fun' for the summer days when I'm not on a pedal powered bike...
A 140bhp 1000cc Motorbike. Which ironically, gets better mpg than my old Subaru, at 35mpg average and 45mpg sat on the motorway!
Riding that for an hour or 2 gives me enough thrills to last a while! No car this side of £50k, even £100k will beat the acceleration from a big litre motorbike.