Best Courtesy Shite You've Driven

[xkjagnz]

I never had any courtesy shite since I honestly don't know what one has to do in order to get one.

But my parents told me when they had their Seville STS in for a service, they got a Trans Am, screaming chicken and all the trimmings.

Already being well in their Seventies at the time, they didn't really know what to do with such a thing, so they took it on an impromptu

road trip to an ice cream parlour on Lake Garda they had last visited on their honeymoon in 1961.

 

 

They said the ice cream was still the same, so if any of you want to follow suit, it's the

 

Gelateria Flora

Viale Rovereto, 54

38066 Riva del Garda

 

 

 

The ice cream was still the same.........from 1961 --quiet place is it?

[Wilko220]

There's a garage near me which (I believe) still has a fleet of Rover Metros which it lends out as courtesy cars.

[Pillock]

From the same garage in 2001/2002 ish

 

A MK2 Cav with a screwdriver to start it ("try not to get stopped by the police, they'll never believe you")

 

G-reg Nissan Sunny with the passenger door so caved in it wouldn't open

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Asimo]

Never had anything posh or exotic but the most memorably shite have been: 

 

Noo Beetle covered in Volkswagen's amusing* hippy love stickers. A 1.6 as well, so too slow to escape embarassment.

 

Terminally rusty Subaru pickup (Flintstones edition)

 

Tuned Mini pickup on wide alloys with not-wide-enough tyres. The NS front tyre came of the rim when I was trying to get max-G on a roundabout. Exciting!

 

Early Range Rover fitted ruined with a 6 cylinder Ford York Diesel. Very, very nose heavy and very, very undergeared. 

 

[eifion]

Having taken the 205 van to work again today I have to admit that I'm getting dangerously attached to it. It's just lovely to drive and seems to sip petrol.

[Stanky]

Many years ago my parents had a Citroen BX which went absolutely fine (and was a very nice car to be driven in) provided it was dry. Once it rained, all manner of electrical maladies made themselves known.

 

Anyway, it used to go to a citroen specialist in Eye in Suffolk to be fettled, I think he was called John Fraser but its going back a long way. Anyway, the courtesy car was a CX Familiale, which was vast, brown, supremely comfortable and had a strip speedo and (I think) a column change.

[barefoot]

Jaguar XJ8

Porsche 944S2

Loads of MX5's

 

And some proper shite too

Including some Citroens, a C3, a C4 and a fucking Traffic.

Peugeot 306 & 307

A six speed Fiat Stylo...

 

The list goes on.

[panhard65]

I usually lend out my saxo as a loan car but today it was out when a French couple broke down in their Peugeot 203. As he knows what he was doing I have lent him the 204. Pobably the oldest loan car you could get.

Maybe he will like the 204  so much he will want to swap

[barefoot]

Oh, forgot.

 

A 1957 T2 Barndoor pickup.

It was truly dire.

[Lord Sterling]

Rover 25 (wish I'd convinced Ma to buy it) and a seriously battered KA. Not a straight panel on it, pulled to the left. How it had an MOT on it I don't know. Also, from another garage had the use of a Rover 45 Diesel (wish I'd bought it) and a Peugeot 106 (WTAF )

[loserone]

[bub2006]

Erm, loser1 where is that picture from??

[AnthonyG]

Best loan car I had was an N plate Rover 214 SEi, the run out R8 with a half leather interior, from a local body shop in mid Wales, about 2008.

 

Going back a bit to the mid 1990s, I was surprised by how good a Mk4 Escort 1.6 was when the Aberystwyth Renault dealer gave me one for a couple of days when my 25 was being fixed. I expected to hate it, ended up wanting to buy it. A G plate GL or Ghia from memory.

[loserone]

Erm, loser1 where is that picture from??

My phone, where I took it (on my drive) an hour ago or so!

[bub2006]

It's my old one. It's not a 1.8 any more last I knew. I sold it to chompy snake who bought a silver spares car and shoved in the 2.0 engine but kept manual box. There will be pics on here when I had it. Exclusive trim level 1.8 when I bought it, ropey as hell.

[Roverageous]

When my Rover 75 diesel auto was having a gearbox recon, they gave me a... Rover 75 diesel auto. Although it had 345k on it - drove better than my 75k one.

[De Selby]

My dad tried to avoid spending money in garages where possible so only had one courtesy car in his lifetime. It was an orange Talbot Horizon on NI plates. He wasn't impressed as I recall

[Hendry]

I bet most of the general public would be appalled by the shite we would relish having as a courtesy car and would be kicking up fuck or on the phone to head office or customer relations lol 

[carlo]

I usually lend out my saxo as a loan car but today it was out when a French couple broke down in their Peugeot 203. As he knows what he was doing I have lent him the 204. Pobably the oldest loan car you could get.

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Maybe he will like the 204  so much he will want to swap

PEUGEOT204 031.JPG

 

I want to hear more about this story and the conclusion of the broken down French Peugeot 203.

 

And I'm not surprised the OP enjoyed his 205 loan van, they were streets ahead of most other stuff at the time, and consequently even more enjoyable today.

[eifion]

And I'm not surprised the OP enjoyed his 205 loan van, they were streets ahead of most other stuff at the time, and consequently even more enjoyable today.

 

I'm still enjoying it, as my XM is taking longer to fix than first thought. I'll be having a word with the garage next week about the possibility of buying it from them.

[alcyonecorporation]

Driving the insurance company's Chevrolet Matiz on the limiter in second down the M56 was fun. 

[loserone]

disCourtesy Picasso has now been valeted internally, and the MPGometer is at least 1MPG higher than when I got it.

[PhilA]

I recall way back when the old man brought our B reg mk2 Fiesta to the local Rover place to get something or other big that couldn't be easily done on the driveway.. we got a brand new 5 door Rover Metro as a loaner.

 

One point nothing engine, five gears, old man moaned about the driving position, gearbox, brakes, steering, mother complained the doors were too small.

 

This is the garage that convinced my parents my first car should be a Fiat Cinquecento rather than the beige diesel Maestro that I wanted.

 

They're still in business selling Seats.

[Matt]

A local independent has an old New Beetle that he says hates men so I've never driven it.

[Hendry]

4year old 53 plate Clio Renaultsport 172 Cup. 

 

The way they drive is just so much fun it puts a huge smile on your face, addictive!

 

Worst would be a Chevrolet Spark 1.0 from Enterprise paid for by Renault UK when my Clio was laid up in the dealers awaiting a VOR part, that being a wiper linkage on back order from France!

 

VW Up! would be next on that list, closely followed by Honda Jazz CVT Auto, followed by 2x Corsa Ds, followed by 4x Corsa Es, followed by Insignia CDTi SRi. Infact I think the Clio is the only decent courtesy car ive ever had!

[panhard65]

I want to hear more about this story and the conclusion of the broken down French Peugeot 203.

 

And I'm not surprised the OP enjoyed his 205 loan van, they were streets ahead of most other stuff at the time, and consequently even more enjoyable today.

The 203 didnt make it back on it's own in the end. The water pump pulley had broken up and the main shaft was worn away. I managed to get the pulley back on but it wouldn't stay in place even with welding the bugger on. They got about 30 miles further down the road then called it a day. The car is now back home in France and I have been invited to meet up again at the Le Mans classic next year.

[I_am_Diesel]

I've only ever had two courtesy cars and I had those last year when my Focus engine went tits up.

 

One was a 10 plate Hyundai i10 diesel with a slush box and the other was a brand new pez Peugeot.

 

So the best courtesy shite I've ever driven was the Hyundai, and that was awful.

[ProgRocker]

Back in 2003 when my T reg SEAT Ibiza was due it's first MOT & service under my ownership I opted for a courtesy car. This was the only time I've had one as subsequently I feel uneasy driving another car with Third Party Only cover. I was given an R reg Kia Mentor saloon and I rather quite liked it. The garage owner only put in enough petrol for me to get home and back so I couldn't take it for a lengthy test drive.

As the indicator stalk is on the right hand side on these older Korean cars, I kept flicking the wipers on instead of indicating.    Drivers were probably cursing me for my last minute indicating in that car.

 

A couple of years earlier I had a mark 1 Corsa 1.2 16v as a hire car for a few days while my poverty spec Fiat Tempra was broken (Fiat breaking down? Never!). I thought that it was an incredibly quick car. Mind you, anything felt quick when you were used to a Tempra 1.4 that fired on just 3 cylinders.

[Honey Badger]

When I got screwed over by one of the work 1.7d life Vectras (someone had put petrol in it, wouldn't start when it was warm) I got towed to a Vauxhall dealer somewhere near Nantwich, they didnt have a car to give me so I got a similar car from the local enterprise hire, 2.2 Vectra Sri.

 

The 2nd part of my customer visit was achieved a lot faster than the first part.

[Cleon-Fonte]

My only courtesy car dalliance thus far was disappointing. My Sirion needed recall work doing, and with the local Daihatsu franchise now mostly involved with selling Subarus I was promised a Subaru courtesy car. Sadly my expectations of doing Colin McCrae impressions in a WRX or being mistaken for a landed old money type in a Forester or Legacy were ruined when I was shown this:

 

 

It's a Subaru Justy, essentially a second generation Daihatsu Sirion with some Subaru badges stuck on. A very decent car in its own way but hardly Subaru's most exciting output, lacking as it did a meaty turbocharged boxer engine or even four-wheel drive.

 

Still, better than nothing. Most garages leave me to walk home.