jon.k

That's the nail on the head for me. Yesterday I had to drive somewhere and wasn't enjoying it particularly until I saw a rusty ex BT grey smiley transit and than some kind of specialist 02 plate MAN truck that looked like new. The rest of the motors on the road not so much. And as has been said above, the average "motoring enthusiast" and motoring publication seems mainly to talk about the value/investment potential of everything. A bit depressing.

Beetle - Renault 4?

Peugeot 205s are brilliant to drive, really spacious for their size practical, reliable, look good, economical... If you like the old car feel you could get a basic 4 speed one. Honestly they're great. Keeping to Peugeots, a 106 could be a good shout? I've also had a Smart Car which is certainly small and quirky - a bit new for you though maybe, and pretty weird to drive.

I saw a Toyota Corolla fielder taxi earlier, which was a new one on me. Also in Birmingham I saw loads of large hybrid Honda (I think - now doubting my memory) taxis that looked like jap imports. Maybe a Fit/jazz shuttle, which having googled, it seems may have been imported officially? There’s a whatcar test at least.

One funeral director I used to know had a Volvo 740 (20 years old ish at the time) with tinted windows for body collection, another bought a C class estate before he realised that it wasn't long enough for tall people and swapped it for a Galaxy. Another had a Mondeo estate which was all blacked out, and the firm local to me use a silver Vito van. I think they like to go incognito apart from at the funeral. I agree that the pickup is pushing it a bit though.

Ooh I was looking at the advert for this the other day. What's it like to drive? I've only ever been in 240 (well I did go in one of these when I was a kid but I think it was the first car I'd been in with leather, and that's all I can remember about it)!

That sounds so much smoother than I would have expected for a diesel of that time. Nice work!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-63296814 A reasonably old lorry and a very old driver.

I saw an amazing Carina going down the M4 with bikes on the roof on the weekend, but an avensis might be more the trick these days?

A friend of mine is having excellent service from a late 90s Almera. Apparently it has a distributor because that's the only thing that's caused problems (can that be true?). Civic or Jazz? I'm now on my second mid 90s tdi vw as only car, and they have been great apart from for rust. I don't have 100% faith in them because of their age though - I'm not sure if that's fair or not.

I learned to drive in one of those, what a fun little car. Is it really fun over a back road or have I got severely rose-tinted specs?

There’s a good “big car” video on this on YouTube.

I know someone who runs his business with a Fordson Dexta, a Fordson Major, a SIII Landrover and runs around in a 1991 polo! (He does also have a newer tipper van). He's been using them for years and years. A few tippers ago he said he used a "Tudor" van which was some kind of rebadged Dacia. I'd not heard of them before but it sounds like peak autoshite.

Woah.