The best car in the world game

[vulgalour]

Panhard's suggestion is lovely, but you can get exactly* the same feeling of smug superiority while broken down at the side of the road in a Rover 800, and since the 800 isn't without its own foibles that rules both of them out.

 

I had a bit of a think an I reckon I have found the best car in the world now.  It's not French, it's a good size being neither too large nor too small, is simple enough to be reliable and complicated enough to be refined.  Parts availability is good and they come in a range of different prices to suit all budgets.  You can fit furniture in them.  There's a sporting version.  They had a long production run.  They're economical on fuel if you need that sort of thing.  They are owned and revered by members of all social standing.  They even come with automatic gearboxes and diesel engines should you require such things.

 

The humble, the magnificent, the opulent, the spartan and the sporty Maestro.  It's all the car you'll ever need.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Nissan Primera wins for 2 obvious reasons 1. It's a Nissan and 2. It's not a Lancia.

FIFY

[warren t claim]

 

Obviously! And it could be yours for not many £££'s.

[Sudsprint]

^^^^ Mk1 Mondeo? ..a car that had grey duct tape as a factory option….

 

Of course the best car in the world has to be

[DVee8]

I like this game.

I haven't owned or driven enough to decide so i feel i need to go and buy or borrow more shite,for this scientific experiment.

[maximalist]

A view from the worlds best car Renault 4 fourgonette to the secondbest car in the world. Economical, loads a lot of stuff, easy to work on. And a smooth ride.

[cros]

Rover P4 has a dreadfully awkward parking brake mechanism and the chassis rots.

 

I propose the VW Beetle for the fact it remobilised an entire Country after being devastated, and with the fact that Hitler had a hand in it, we all know that I have won the internet.

With the average age of P4 occupants being over 80 the Rover Motor Co. went to some trouble with the handbrake location to ensure that the driver didn't have to  fumble between the passenger's legs to find it.

[scruff]

Struggling to disagree with the P4 nomination. 

Maestros are OK but ungainly, a Prima turbo example must be on the ultimate chod list with 50mpg and 100mph (not at the same time). However I am always reminded of this quote from Austin Rover designer Roy Axe... 

 

 

 

 

on the second day at the new job I was exposed to the Maestro. I thought this design to be something of a disaster (another understatement). The proportions were bad and the detail awful and clumsy. The concave sides made the design look weak and the whole thing looked totally dated. It was explained to me that the design was done before the Metro and that this was why the design looked old. This was only part of the problem. The interior was very poor with a facia/instrument panel that, out of the car, had the structural integrity of something from a fishmongers slab! I was told that there was nothing I could do as the design was headed for production later in the year. I did try to improve the form of the front wing which looked as if it was falling off the car but within the constraints of the tooling and surrounding metal it proved impossible and I had to accept that this vehicle was going to hit the market like that.

It is hard to know what to say in circumstances like
this but my first remarks were that the design should
be scrapped and the whole thing done again.
 

 

My nomination is this. Practical, old, stylish, simple, tough. Diesel, natch.

 

[Justin Case]

The W116 rots for fun. A Volvo 740 makes them look like a packet of rustflakes!

Possibly, but can you take over a whole African country ina Volvo 740?

[eddyramrod]

No, but you can drive over it.  740, preferably an automatic GLE estate, gets my vote. 

[cms206]

Every time I've looked at this thread it's been right after someone has mentioned a Volvo 740. I have two, both GLE auto estates. Which African country is mine?

[mercrocker]

Possibly, but can you take over a whole African country ina Volvo 740

Under which considerations we have a clear winner......

 

[cms206]

There is only one clear winner, and frankly I'm stunned no-one has posted it yet.

[vulgalour]

The SM unfortunately is both French** and Italian*** and on those grounds is OUT.

 

 

**Brutally overcomplicated

***Prone to bouts of mechanical and electrical hysteria

[eddyramrod]

Every time I've looked at this thread it's been right after someone has mentioned a Volvo 740. I have two, both GLE auto estates. Which African country is mine?

All of them.

[oman5]

Well, I remember reading in JALOPY magazine that the best car in the world is this...

 

[Cavcraft]

Game over

 

[rml2345]

Every time I've looked at this thread it's been right after someone has mentioned a Volvo 740. I have two, both GLE auto estates. Which African country is mine?

I too thought the best car in the world was the Volvo 740. Belgian B230E manual estate for me and I'll drive the fuck out of Africa. It is truly the best estate car in the world by a long long way.

However.

I have driven a Rover P6 and it turns out the P6 is the best car in the world. Fabulously comfortable, excellently engineered, quality made and not a Corsa.

What do I win?

[vulgalour]

Junkman's undying devotion for proclaiming his one true love the best in the world.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Almost any Peugeot from 60s/70s. Probably 504 estate. Can cope with just about anything. apart from from salt. Millions of the buggers going around africa and the middle east still and there roads are only marginally worse that ours.

 

Second choice would be a Subaru pick up truck or maybe a Mercedes W123

[cms206]

[fordperv]

Your all wrong the best car in the world is a land rover 110 v8 with the reg of D701 SWL

[TRW]

Personally it would me a MDI Maestro for me, but then I would pick that.

 

For the rest of you -

 

 

 

[D Spares & Tyres]

am loving the pink proton by the way! I passed my test in an identical one in 1996. I tried to t cut if but really cocked it up, it was never the same again. smeared it all over on a hot day then wondered why it wouldn`t buff off...........

[Junkman]

I too thought the best car in the world was the Volvo 740. Belgian B230E manual estate for me and I'll drive the fuck out of Africa. It is truly the best estate car in the world by a long long way.

However.

I have driven a Rover P6 and it turns out the P6 is the best car in the world. Fabulously comfortable, excellently engineered, quality made and not a Corsa.

What do I win?

 

Your assessment is spot on without the trace of a doubt and I had a similar experiece when stepping up from a 1978 Caprice Classic,

which has firmly establised itself as the second best car in the world. However, even the very best car in the world can be outbested

by buying an example that's haunted and has a Mango cloth interior.

 

Most other cars mentioned in this thread so far are dreary also rans, way down the scale, because the third best car in the world is

indeed the Renault 16.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Not sure about the maestro, had a couple of them over the year but they were unmemorable, but the Volcanes were brilliant. I would still have mine but I rolled it on the Scottish borders a few years ago. Ancient back tyres and wet roads....still got the scars....

Mate of mine has 2 of them both diesels, he`s tuned one up to over 200bhp. I`m not a bullshit merchant either, he`s spent thousands on it

[Junkman]

A car prone to rolling that needs thousands spent to develop adequate power can't possibly be the best in the world.

Neither can any car that uses tar as a propellant, because it doesn't even feel like a car, let alone smell like one.

[D Spares & Tyres]

tar, there`s an idea......about the only thing I haven`t put through a diesel.....bet it would work with a dash of petrol....

Volcane not best in world but brilliant motors. handles like a slightly stretched 205 gti. standard ones are great but my mates is pointless, he`s made it all electronic this and that which defeats the point of a simple old diesel

[burraston2006]

The best car in the world is what I happen to drive at the moment MB E320 estate. Huge load area, goes like greased weasel shit,fabulously low OMGMPG and huge repair bills. The perfect shiters car!

 

[RoadworkUK]

Some of you have been close with the Pug 205, but the correct answer is actually the 306. Handles and feels much like a 205 but bigger, more comfortable and made near Coventry.

 

And the 1360 TU shrugs off maintenance with disdain.

 

Plus it's the spiritual successor to the Talbot Horizon. Case Closed.