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Automatic for the people....


Father Ted

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Still not managed to sell the bike at this rate Im going to get the repairs done myself and then try selling it for full whack rather than the mahooosivly cheap price I want now (£800 for a 12 moth old Yamaha with kinked bars and feck all else wrong).Anyway, put in a ludricrously cheap offer on a X plate Chrysler Neon automatic (tried driving the zafira this weekend and its not happening with mt left arm at all).Would people like to discus their thoughts on the Neon, Im well aware the bloke down the pub thinks that they are shit, but just wondered what everybody else thought.

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I currently have one thats crapping itself all over the garage floor, An x plater will be the newer shape (Mines the old one).The early ones are very prone to headgasket failure, hence whats happened to mine. Interior plastics are a tad 'low rent' but for the time that it would drive about without dribblin the contents of its radiator and sump onto the road it went pretty well. Mine is only a 3 speed auto, and the other thing is they have the most stupidly small fuel tank, so you are forever in the filling station..

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I'm thinking a Carina E auto would be a good bet for something reliable at the fag end of the market, the manuals are dead economical but not sure how the auto rates.There seem to be a fair few ZX D autos out there, nothing coming up suitable/close to you?

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I tell you what, I had a good drive of a Carina E 2.0 CDX Auto and it was lovely, quite rapid too! I would happily bosh one in the fleet (when they're nearly extinct).

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£450 - seems good value to me for something with FSH.

 

Or...

 

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for about £550

 

both are a bit of a ball ache to get to, but the Nissan though further away would present me with less of a problem to get to.

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The Almera is in Manc - a train and tram ride away from me. The mitsy is in Thornton, three long bus rides or two bus rides and a tram ride, the a bit of a hike away from me.Where do the Almeras go grotty then?

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Back of the sills/rear door shuts, just like the P10 Primera, IIRC.One of my mate's dad's had one of the first Almera 1.6 autos off the line in '95 (something like a double-digit chassis number) and that ran like a champ for 10 years until his grandad died and they inherited his 3-series Touring. Funnily enough, he traded a Bluebird SGX auto in on it that they'd had from new, six years earlier, and the autobox had died.

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I very nearly bought a Mitsubishi Carisma, a bit of research told me that they were one of the most reliable cars of their generation.

 

I ended up buying a cheapy 1994 Honda Accord Aerodeck auto, these were built in the goddam USA but much nicer looking than the UK market Accord of the same age and it drove me 3000 miles across Europe this Christmas without any problems and was really comfortable too and they're very good on go-go juice, a winner in my book and even though mine is a 100k miler (thats horiffically high mileage for the average Jerseyman) and a little bruised and scratched I'd be loathed to part with it-it just does everything so well.

 

Toyota Carina? was very nearly tempted but had a conversation with me old mate who was a grease monkey for Toyota and they weren't the best Toyota made along with the Avensis...both made in the UK too.

 

Looked into buying a cheapo Primera P10 but apparantly they snap driveshafts fairly regularly-a fault shared with the later P11.

 

How about a Mazda Xedos 6 or the daddy-Xedos 9? not heard many bad things about them although I've not really looked to be fair. Mazda 626? Just make sure that at the very least the driver's electric window works coz they're over 200 quid a pop just for the regulator.

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Don't forget the Mitsubishi Carisma is built in Holland in the former Daf/Volvo factory, not in Japan. I'd rather have an Almera TBH, or a Volvo S40 (same platform as the Carisma and built in the same place).How about a Rover 600 or Mondeo MK1/2? - the manual versions of each have good reputations, no idea what the autoboxes are like reliabilty wise.P.S. The Carina E/ Avensis may not be the best Toyota ever, but they'll probably be still more reliable than something built in most parts of Europe.

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If you want DERV-levels of economy though, the Carina E is king. If you can find a 1992 car on a J or early K-plate, it will deffo have been built in Japan too; but I'd look for a car with lots of bills and a small number of owners and not care too much about the point of manufacture in this case!Rovva 620/623 slushamatic will drink the juice if my wife's Acccord (which is the next gen of Accord on from the 600-shared platform) is anything to go by - mid-20s not uncommon for a mix of 50% urban and 50% A/B road. But she is a bit "on/off" with the throttle, and kicks it down quite a bit up hills :roll:

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You could always buy my E30 325i Touring Auto?

 

Black, leather, AC (not working, naturally), reasonable history, BBS alloys, power steering, MOT until July, tax til end of May. Suffering from a leaky PAS rack at the moment, so it's yours for £695.

 

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In Liverpool, so not too far from Father Ted Towers.

 

I'm using it every day, and it's a lovely old thing, but I'm off to Czech in May so its a case of "everything must go".

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