Best Car Ever? Discuss

[Inspector Morose]

I present to you:

 

 

It doesn't just do everything, it does everything in style.

You're so close but wrong.

 

[sierraman]

Ford Focus Mk1 1.6. Simple to mend, does a bit to the gallon, fairly comfortable, ok on the motorway, cheap to run and insure, handles well. Does everything you'd expect.

[Sudsprint]

Saab 99 Turbo 

[Sloth in a bowl]

1001 Police forces can't be wrong with the ultimate space /  cost / performance compromise*

 

 

*yes they can, but it is still my favourite compromise car

[flat4alfa]

I present to you:

 

 

It doesn't just do everything, it does everything in style.

 

But what about the sister models that get slated so much.  What your take on those?  Snog, marry or avoid?

 

 

And of course that SAAB posted above by FPB7

[Bren]

Xantia 1.9 td XUD?

 

45 mpg, can cruise at 90 all day, good ride and brakes, estate is very useful.

[Pillock]

Hond Civic , obviously the Type-S.

SniffPetrol reference?

[tul66]

Alfasud (in the 15 minutes before it started to rust) or the Peugeot 504.

15 minutes? You must've had a Ziebarted one!  When I had a 1500 Ti you could sit & watch it rust  

[flat4alfa]

When I had a 8 year old Alfasud, after a sill end and flitch repair job it never saw a torch again for 5 years as my daily.

 

It was a 1982 QO.  It had been squirted with TuffKote Dinol by Alfa GB

[ProgRocker]

Fiat Panda?

[dieselnutjob]

The best car I ever had was a 1996 Passat TDI Estate.  It ticked all of your criteria, especially with a chip and a bigger exhaust.

 

 

It was also really boring.

 

Your criteria reduces the "best car" to being the "best appliance". A car should have a bit of character as well.

 

The car I actually bonded with was my 305 estate although it was a bit slow.  I am also loving the XJ X350 diesel at the moment.

[doobietoo]

Ford Granada 2.8 Ghia from circa 1984.

You are close... It is a Granada but a 2.0 DOHC Scorpio from circa 1991....

[Bren]

You are close... It is a Granada but a 2.0 DOHC Scorpio from circa 1991....

Granada - yes. I4 DOHC engine? No. Bloody awful thing. Harsher than dragging your bollocks over silicon carbide paper.

[Justin Case]

The best car ever (that I have driven) is the MG L type Magna, in spite of, or likely because of, having precisely none of those attributes

[Lacquer Peel]

Granada - yes. I4 DOHC engine? No. Bloody awful thing. Harsher than dragging your bollocks over silicon carbide paper.

 

They were fitted with the Indenor diesel too, dreamy.

[Cleon-Fonte]

If I have to get clever about the thought process, I'd say the W168 Mercedes A-class LWB - immense inside with a footprint like a properly small car (under 4m - SWB is 3.6 IIRC), also comfortable. Not very well made in some areas (suspension components in particularly), harder to self-maintain, not "fun" to drive particularly (not awful, but neutral). If a communist government decreed all citizens could have one car, to suit all their needs, an A-class can be a van, a five-seater family car, a car with a big boot for luggage... it should be the Trabant for the 21st Century.

 

The problem with the A-class is that while the concept behind it was ultimately sound, the execution was pisspoor. However, the original Renault Scenic managed to incorporate most of the W168 plus points you mention, but combined them with traditional French suspension and seats; an airy, glassy interior; decent in extremis handling and bulletproof mechanical units (particularly the pre-commonrail diesels). Admittedly they don't quite share the same tiny footprint but the Scenic's not exactly big.

 

 

You can even have an offroad version if you happen to be a rural/closet OLLI type.

 

[Supernaut]

The best car is whatever you have right now.

 

Why? Because it's the car that is easiest for you to just go out and drive, right now.

[rml2345]

 

Done. Next question?

[Bear]

The best car is whatever you have right now.

 

Why? Because it's the car that is easiest for you to just go out and drive, right now.

 

 

Same argument applies for cameras.

[Bear]

The problem with the A-class is that while the concept behind it was ultimately sound, the execution was pisspoor. However, the original Renault Scenic managed to incorporate most of the W168 plus points you mention, but combined them with traditional French suspension and seats; an airy, glassy interior; decent in extremis handling and bulletproof mechanical units (particularly the pre-commonrail diesels). Admittedly they don't quite share the same tiny footprint but the Scenic's not exactly big.

 

renault-megane-scenic-1.jpg

 

You can even have an offroad version if you happen to be a rural/closet OLLI type.

 

RENAULTScenicRX4-2005_1.jpg

 

If I had trusted them not to die instantly, I'd have had an RX4 in the Borders.

[155V6]

MK 3 Cortina GT 2 door,with a Volvo T5 engine.

[Ghosty]

Don't you get the idea yet?

 

[eddyramrod]

On the strength of me owning the blue 740 you see below, my mate Dave (who now has the ex-TaxiPaul Rover 75) bought first the grey 940, then the white 740.  When we left for Cyprus I gave him the blue one too.

I'd have it back if it still existed, that's how much I liked it.