for normal driving French cars are great.

When they work 🙂

TBH there's been a huge amount of rubbish posted on this thread.

You can make FWD cars that handle (see the 205 GTI, Ford Puma & Ka MK1 etc.). Equally, there are some odd handling traits to FWD – it's very easy to go from power understeer to lift off oversteer in a moment, and the corrective action is to get back on the throttle – completely counter intuitive.

Same goes for RWD. Nowadays, there is little need to be terrified of flying off the road backwards into a ditch, particularly with traction control and ESP so prevalent. Snow is the downfall of any car with wide summer tyres, more than RWD specifically – Volvo made RWD cars long after everyone else had switched to FWD, and they're a) Swedish and b) Safety obsessed.

I really struggle to understand the mentality that "It's just for A to B". In an ordinary car, you can go from A to B. In a good car, you can go from A to B and really enjoy the experience.

In an ordinary car, you can go from A to B. In a good car, you can go from A to B and really enjoy the experience.

It depends on what makes you enjoy it tho.

My Passat doesn't handle well when pushed, but I love driving it from A to B when A and B are separated by 120 miles of motorway and I get a comfy ride and lots of toys. If I still lived in rural Herefordshire I'd probably not have got it – too big for the small roads and too mushy.

See what I mean? No amount of precise handling and great road holding is going to make any difference on the motorway is it?

for normal driving French cars are great.

When they work

Fair enough, but there are French cars other than Renault. They never work unless they're a Clio.

Enjoy the experience? In the UK, with our traffic and shite roads.

Yeah good one..

I've got very different priorities to those I had when I was in my twenties. I like a car to have in priority order,

The ability to always start and not break down
Comfortable seats
Room
A good fire/ac
A good stereo
A comfortable ride
A light clutch for the inevitable jams

Increasingly comments like how it handles on the edge and people banging on about driving experience make me wonder if those making them have the sense nature gave a chicken.

I've had some fast cars but then I grew up.

Enjoy the experience? In the UK, with our traffic and shite roads.

Yeah good one..

M4 -> A34 -> M3

The second half of that is lovely.. cresting those long hills with lovely countryside and trees as far as you can see.. in the autumn it's just lovely.

If you do want it windy there are also some fabulous roads about.

You have no idea! 🙂

No amount of precise handling and great road holding is going to make any difference on the motorway is it?

Nope, but it makes a difference at either end. Even if the whole thing's dual carriageway, you can always enjoy the roundabouts 😆

But seriously, beyond the corning ability, body control and throttle response do show up on the motorway.

I used to do a lot of motorway miles when I had the 406. It did motorway miles very well. But it really felt like every A and B road journey was a missed opportunity, and it did my head in.

Mol – the A34 does have fun bits but the M3 and M4?!

My old man has just bought my Mum an 04 Focus Estate 1.8TDCI (99Bhp) with 80'000 miles on her for about 2500. It's immaculate with full service history. She does 6k a year and uses it to carry grand kids and dogs etc. It's economical, handles superbly and is cheap to service and fix. What more do you want. 😉 If it was my money I'd get a Mundano estate. I do like Beemer Estates but where I work in the winter I'd need a shovel and a set of snow chains cos they are dire in the snow.

But it really felt like every A and B road journey was a missed opportunity, and it did my head in.

I know what you mean. I actually love to drive fast. But I don't, because it's not really safe. So I take the other road, so to speak – I chill out, relax, enjoy a comfy quiet car and save my race head for the MTB 🙂

Increasingly comments like how it handles on the edge and people banging on about driving experience make me wonder if those making them have the sense nature gave a chicken.

You don't need to be anywhere near the limits of grip to be able to tell the difference between good and average handling. Richard Parry-Jones, who knew a hell of a lot about vehicle dynamics, used to reckon you could tell if a car was any cop in 50 metres of low speed driving.

Tron – its an excuse to try and justify a dull car. Appear to know everything about them then pull the old driving fast isn't safe card when it suits.

Tron – its an excuse to try and justify a dull car.

Total b*llocks.

Why can't you comprehend that people have different criteria to you? I'm quite amazed.

What floats your boat doesn't float mine. Why is this difficult to understand?

I know full well that BMWs handle well – I could easily afford one. So why didn't I buy one?

apologies oh hairychested one one it was targetted at Surf-Mat, although for someone with an apparent brilliance for all things suggested a focused RWD car opted for a desiel?! now that is a cruel twist

make it so…

Mol – easily afford one? Another reference to your fabulous career success…

I do not profess to know much about cars but I know all about BMW drivers.

Mol – easily afford one? Another reference to your fabulous career success…

Is it f*ck. Stop being such a nobber. Are you trying to get me to not like you and stop sticking up for you on the forum?

Answer the other points. Is it WRONG for someone to want a nice soft comfy car for mainly motorway driving?

Diesel is cheaper than petrol to buy as fuel here in Ireland, the car needs less of it anyway, if anybody tails me I can give their lungs some fresh black smoke easily, no faults clearly 🙂
Besides, if you ever heard my vastly upgraded car stereo you'd appreciate an old-school oil burner with a pseudo-turbo.

shock horror everyone has different opinions!

Obviously the surf dude couldnt afford a pwoper RWD car!

to the OP I suggest posting this on pistonheads or some other car specific forum where you might get a measured response, or check out the vehicles at a busy sunday morning trail centre!

JonEdwards – Member
320d tourer here. Like it. Not as economical as my old Passat, surprisingly little difference in internal space – with the seats up the Beemer has much better rear legroom than the VW, but a smaller boot, seats down, its a little narrower between the arches, but not a lot. Length is give or take the same.

I can only imagine that there is a huge difference between saloons and estates then, as having had both a Passat and 3 series the difference in size was massive – the Passat dwarfing the Beemer.

As for RWD – mine would rather face sideways than forward in the wet – although it does weigh approx 1.5t at the front and 0.5t at the rear with leaf springs to boot 😉

The cars I see most often stranded in the snow are RWD – although mine wouldn't be one of them (it has 4wd too).

I've found in my experience FWD are safer to drive than RWD and the 'driving experience' of a RWD is only a deciding factor if you actually are the Stig, or Surf-Mat.

OP – You never mentioned a budget mate?

Cheap – Vectra estate CDTI 150Bhp or 3.0V6 diesel with the 185 Bhp as it will swallow everything and more…

Middle of the road – Passat or Superb 140Bhp or 170Bhp TDI variants

High end – Audi 3.0 Diesel (240 bhp one) or a BMW 3.0D

Mol – you have been rather two faced a number of times recently… I like you but you still love a snidey dig quite often. There are some very clueless people trying to contribute here. The person above isn't one of them.

Two faced?

You mean with talking about cars, or saying one thing to someone and another to someone else?

With the latter, I try very hard not to do this. Of course, I get annoyed sometimes, and then I try and calm myself down and be reasonable. I dunno what you're getting at specifically tho.

But I do disagree with you saying I show off about wealth. I've mentioned my job on here, you know what cars I drive and how old they are.. none of it is special in any way. Showing off would be the very last thing I'd ever want to do.

I sometimes make ridiculous snobby or derogatory statements – I hope people know those are in jest.

Surf-Mat – Member
Mol – you have been rather two faced a number of times recently… I like you but you still love a snidey dig quite often. There are some very clueless people trying to contribute here. The person above isn't one of them.

But the person above lists all FWD cars, except one.

Ahh, I see.

Surf-Mat, I hate to say it, as believe me I really hated the negative vibes going your way at first, but you really do come across as a complete cock on this thread, & yes I have a clue about how to drive…

Best of luck with defending your forum persona, I'm sure you are decent enough in the real world.

Theartistformerlyknown – the new Audi 3.0 diesels are all quattro as far as i can recall 😕

My view is very simple, anything about 200 to 250 bhp is perfectly managable on a front wheel car if its set up is done properly, ie Lsd, decent breaks, shocks/springs but anything above this kind of power will benefit from rear or all wheel drive. So for an ordinary family car its whatever floats your boat 🙂

And with IAM and Police training, I suspect I may have more of a clue than you.

WHAT COLOR IS THE BOAT SHED AT HURRFORD??? 😡 😡

the OP I suggest posting this on pistonheads or some other car specific forum where you might get a measured response

heh – http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/08/video-what-happens-in-an-internet-car-forum/

I've been offered a Prius at a pretty keen price, what are they like?

Whats the battery life like (as in longevity before they need changing?) and service inspections- whats the cost like on those?

I don't have a problem with Prius's just think its too much of an early-adopters product at the moment.

Plus on a person level I hate a car projecting an image of me. I just prefer a car to be a solid, dependable thing not 'oh hes one of those' 🙄

8yr powertrain warranty: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/toyota/prius-2003/?section=good

I've been offered a Prius at a pretty keen price, what are they like?

😆

cars are dull, might as well get a comfy one in a nice colour I reckon

They're a perfectly fine midsize city car. Opposite lock RWD turbo rally gods won't care for them, of course, but for the 90% of people that buy appliances for cars (inc me), they wouldn't really notice the difference.

They have a surprising amount of hatchback space. IIRC (from when I was looking at Priuses) you could fold the seats flat and lie down in the back. High boot lip, though, I think – presumably because batteries under there but maybe just design.

I wasn't worried about batteries – there's an awful lot of fanny that's talked about them on forums – Toyota did a retrospective warranty extension on them and there are very few reports of failure. Prius is on its third generation, been built for thirteen years, all made in Toyota City, Japan – there's a lot to like about them.

Prius doesn't come in estate format so has no place in this thread 😉

I was going to suggest going with whatever tickles your fancy AND getting a matching tattoo, but the thread seems to have livened itself up a bit. 😆

I don't care what the OP posted, what he really wants is an L200.

End!

I have to admit that I saw a Superb estate last night for the first time and was very impressed with it. The boot looked huge and there was more space in the back seats than my car has in the front! (well, almost)

If it were not for the fact it was a brand new car and I have a slight problem with buying new, I'd be tempted.

However, for another suggestion, what about an Omega estate? They come in a number of engine specs to suit budget and power requirements (2.5 diesel, 2.5 v6 petrol, 3.0 V6 petrol and the gei little 2.2 engine sizes), are huge inside and can be picked up for a song. I had an ex-police MV6 saloon and it is still the most comfortable car I have ever owned. Mind you, it only did 27 mpg, so maybe a candidate for LPG conversion there. Oh, and they are RWD too, so great fun in the wet.

konabunny – Member

heh – http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/08/video-what-happens-in-an-internet-car-forum/

excellent and entirely the point! We all need a surf-Mat for this very reason 🙂

Whats the battery life like (as in longevity before they need changing?) and service inspections- whats the cost like on those?

It's designed to last the lifetime of the car. There are individual cell failures for dodgy contacts and stuff, but hardly any whole battery replacements I think. There are far more used battery packs available from crashed ones than are needed for replacements I think…

I don't have a problem with Prius's just think its too much of an early-adopters product at the moment.

Almost 2m cars sold worldwide mate.. not that early! Plenty of cars around with 200k or even 300k on the clock too.

However I think MrNutt was trolling there 🙂

Mol – the A34 does have fun bits but the M3 and M4?!

The M3 from the A303 down to Farnborough is a beautiful road, from the scenery perspective.

At least I often enjoy it on a nice day, but then I'm probably wrong 🙂

Loved the video.

I've been in the back of the new Superb (taxi's) plenty of timse and the OP's kids will have a hard time kicking his seat 🙂 They seem very well put together and a 170bhp will be close in performance to his vRS. Very comfortable ride too, much smoother than an equivalent Audi (A6). He'll very much struggle to find a nearly new one though. A bit like Mazda 6's (when I was looking recently) they are almost all bought as company cars and hence not released until 3 years old.

I've just ordered a Golf Estate to replace my Pissan Gashqai. The lease rates were better than the Octavia Estate (better residuals maybe?). Not the prettiest car, but bigger than the Qashqai and hopefully better put together. A claimed 78.5mpg was pretty attractive too 🙂

I like Golf Estates. You go for the bluemotion one?