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Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.


philibusmo

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16 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

1998 Renault Megane Classic 1.6 RT | Currently SORN. | Alan Gold | Flickr

One of these was parked in my road the other day; not seen it before so don't think it belongs to a neighbour.  It's gone now.  Was badged as a Megane Classic, which is presumably French for Orion.

Saloon versions of popular hatchbacks were still being sold into the late 90s-early 00s for the three people a year who were still buying them. Small saloons are quite popular in Ireland and the EU, the UK is unusual as we prefer hatchbacks apparently. See also the contemporary Focus

006_20_years_of_Ford_Focus.thumb.jpg.7bf1b2c24b1edeb4d962cf4b655ed814.jpg

and Astra

30582715785_832a8de609_b.thumb.jpg.de936beb901481bd445932187eec9d1c.jpg

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7 hours ago, warch said:

Saloon versions of popular hatchbacks were still being sold into the late 90s-early 00s for the three people a year who were still buying them. Small saloons are quite popular in Ireland and the EU, the UK is unusual as we prefer hatchbacks apparently. See also the contemporary Focus

006_20_years_of_Ford_Focus.thumb.jpg.7bf1b2c24b1edeb4d962cf4b655ed814.jpg

and Astra

30582715785_832a8de609_b.thumb.jpg.de936beb901481bd445932187eec9d1c.jpg

The Fabia was always my favourite one. Don't get many supermini based saloons for sale over here at all.

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8 hours ago, warch said:

Saloon versions of popular hatchbacks were still being sold into the late 90s-early 00s for the three people a year who were still buying them. Small saloons are quite popular in Ireland and the EU, the UK is unusual as we prefer hatchbacks apparently. See also the contemporary Focus

006_20_years_of_Ford_Focus.thumb.jpg.7bf1b2c24b1edeb4d962cf4b655ed814.jpg

and Astra

30582715785_832a8de609_b.thumb.jpg.de936beb901481bd445932187eec9d1c.jpg

The Focus saloon looks terrible but the Astra isn't too bad... Suppose it's like the Orion and the Belmont.

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11 hours ago, warch said:

Saloon versions of popular hatchbacks were still being sold into the late 90s-early 00s for the three people a year who were still buying them. Small saloons are quite popular in Ireland and the EU, the UK is unusual as we prefer hatchbacks apparently. See also the contemporary Focus

006_20_years_of_Ford_Focus.thumb.jpg.7bf1b2c24b1edeb4d962cf4b655ed814.jpg

and Astra

30582715785_832a8de609_b.thumb.jpg.de936beb901481bd445932187eec9d1c.jpg

I used to have a mark one Focus saloon.  It wasn't a great example of the breed, looked odd and didn't handle as well as the hatchback by virtue of being longer.  It was identical to the hatch in all other ways, however, although did get a lot of comments as people thought it was weird.  Incidentally we received mark two saloons as well as mark ones.  The mark two is a better looking car, almost a miniature Mondeo:

Used Ford Focus Saloon (2005 - 2009) Review | Parkers

And on the subject of funny Focuses, what about the American mark two?  For some reason they didn't get the normal mark two Focus in the States; Ford instead decided to facelift the mark one, which was sold there in pretty much identical form to the European car, circa 2005 using all sorts of weird local bits and mark two engines.  The result wasn't great:

File:2005-Ford-Focus-ZX3-S.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

You can see the vague attempt at mark two styling, but it's patently still the older car.  They also sold that version as a sedan, which was better looking.  If anything it was prettier than our mark one Focus saloon:

Used 2005 Ford Focus for Sale (with Photos) - CarGurus

In 2007 the Americans finally got a mark two, but again it wasn't the European mark two.  That time they got a completely different, locally styled car which came only in sedan and coupe body styles:

Ford Focus (second generation, North America) - Wikipedia

2007 Ford Focus coupé - USA version #252713 - Best quality free high  resolution car images - mad4wheels

I suspect it was designed to look better as a small saloon than the European variant.  Anyway things went back to normal for the mark three, which was the same on both sides of the Atlantic other than a sedan variant continuing in the States.

 

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On 23/09/2022 at 21:08, bunglebus said:

there seem to be two different shapes of rear door

The left side rear door looks better, the right side looks to be shaped around the existing fuel filler position.

I think I prefer the door buttons on the right side to the flap handles on the left doors.

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