Ridiculous trim designations

[twosmoke300]

The golf umwelt was an economy / green model wasn’t it ? Didn’t it have some primitive start / stop tech and a mega high 4th gear that was called E rather than 4 

[Tartan58]

Get your stupid face off that (Vauxhall Cavalier) Expression is another memorable one.


Sent from my SM-S901B using Tapatalk

[Supernaut]

42 minutes ago, EspenO said:

No. I did have a 320d a few years ago though. It wasn’t a M Sport, but it did have the sport seats. I suppose that would have made a few of you confuse it with an Isdera Imperator. It wasn’t, honest.

It was also a duff one, as in six years it didn’t explode even once.

Fucking hell.

Did you spend your sense of humour budget on your M Sport pack?

[EspenO]

Just now, Supernaut said:

Fucking hell.

Did you spend your sense of humour budget on your M Sport pack?

 Some of it, but they took my perverse sense of inverted snobbery in p/x.

[sierraman]

33 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

The golf umwelt was an economy / green model wasn’t it ? Didn’t it have some primitive start / stop tech and a mega high 4th gear that was called E rather than 4 

Ecomatic. That had a stop start system, ultra economy diesel. 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, twosmoke300 said:

In my mind an M Bmw should be a performance model at the top of its particular range with a powerful petrol engine . Not some dreary 4 pot diesel with a timing chain made by Elizabeth Duke and some badges on . 

I think the phrase is called brand accessibility. Someone at work announced they’d just got a BMW M3, turns out it’s actually the 320d with some M Sport badges on. I’m just glad Ford never went down the road of sticking a Cosworth badge on a Fiesta 1.1 so that nobody would feel left out. 😂

[twosmoke300]

They do ST line which is even more tragic . A knock off wanna be of a wanna be RS 😂

[EyesWeldedShut]

4 hours ago, Yoss said:

The FWD 1300 came along in 1965, the 1300 TC two years later but essentially the same car. The 1500 FWD used the Dolomite body shell (with a massive transmission cover panel where the RWD gearbox would go) but had a lower spec interior. At that point the Dolomite badged car was only available as an 1850 with twin headlights and plusher interior. At the same time the Toledo came along which used the short boot of the 1300 with the long nose of the Dolomite/1500 but with single headlights. In theory it sat beneath the 1500 and was intended as a replacement for the Herald but really there was little between the two.

The FWD 1500 was replaced by the 1500TC which was rear wheel drive but looked identical. They were never available at the same time. The Front wheel drive was ditched because it was too complicated and expensive to produce. I mean it was too complicated in itself not that it was too complicated having front and rear drive cars in the same bodyshell but that is true as well.

And they wonder why British Leyland went bust. Actually, no, nobody wonders that at all. There were so many reasons but this isn't the thread for that.

My Dad probably thought he was getting a 1500 when he got his Toledo - I know he thought the boot and engine both too small (then he jumped ship for a Horizon in 1983 and, when that rusted out in 1986 - Skoda from then on.

[Soundwave]

The Mistubishi Carisma had an "Elegance" trim level. A double fail, as it was neither charismatic nor elegant.

 

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

[grogee]

4 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

The golf umwelt was an economy / green model wasn’t it ? Didn’t it have some primitive start / stop tech and a mega high 4th gear that was called E rather than 4 

Yes, and no. UK got a rather boring 1.6td with not very much t and no power steering. I used to drive one regularly and it was boring AF but good on fuel. 

Deutsch may have been offered this as well but there was a bonkers auto clutch start stop weird version for the full Umwelt. The start stop and/or the clutch was operated by a microswitch on the gearknob. I met a guy who worked on it for VW, a nice chap called Henry Goerlitz. 

[grogee]

Without wishing to get too Pistonheads about MSport/ST Line etc: twas ever thus. 

The MG beards got so cross when BLARG revealed warm versions of their front wheel drive hatchbacks, but it was one of the marketing department's better ideas: leverage a brand asset that is dormant or low-volume unobtainable. "That's not a proper MG" they cried into their pints of warm Old Peculiar, forgetting the MG versions of the ADO16 that had proved such a strategy could be successful. 

M Sport is far too profitable to worry about brand dilution and that's why Merc and Audi do it too. 

Whether anyone would actually want such a creation is a different matter entirely. To paraphrase a fellow shiter: "people like Adele and Love Island so who cares what they think".

(Apologies for not crediting the shiter, you know who you are). 

[Mr Pastry]

How about a 1980 Cortina or Escort Huntsman?  They were a sort of maroon colour with gold stripes.  

 

[Metal Guru]

4 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

They do ST line which is even more tragic . A knock off wanna be of a wanna be RS 😂

The ST is a wanna be RS. ( albeit still a performance car).

The ST line is a wanna be ST all show and no go.

Interestingly Honda did a Sport line version of the Civic type R, but reversed the trend , toning down the body work but keeping most of  the high performance mechanicals.

 

[somewhatfoolish]

45 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

How about a 1980 Cortina or Escort Huntsman?  They were a sort of maroon colour with gold stripes.  

 

The small demographic who aspire to ride a horse while pissed and wearing a red jacket in order to pursue and kill a small furry animal, that's a tough sell.

[EspenO]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Without wishing to get too Pistonheads about MSport/ST Line etc: 

Bit late for all of that mate, now we’ve got people being snotty about the ST badge THEN  getting snotty about Ford devaluing it with a ST Line 😂 

[EspenO]

On a more positive note, have we had the Sierra/Escort/Capri Laser yet?

Nothing was more futuristic than a laser in the eighties.

[New POD]

6 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

I’d say the Mazda is better engineered car . Certainly as far as reliability is concerned 😂

But more likely to dissolve in a pile of rust. 

What we need is reliable, and rust free. 

[danthecapriman]

Years ago a mate had an F reg Ford Fiesta Festival. Looked well in bright red and with a name like that fun things were expected…

It turned out to be anything but fun and festive as it was a very basic 1.1 if memory serves! 
I myself was sitting pretty on a B reg 1.3 Ghia at the time and the little red Festival just didn’t compare!😆

[adw1977]

32 minutes ago, EspenO said:

On a more positive note, have we had the Sierra/Escort/Capri Laser yet?

Nothing was more futuristic than a laser in the eighties.

The only Mark 3 Escort with a body colour grille IIRC.

[MantaGTE85]

In 1998, Purger came up with a special edition 406 LX 'S'. Other than colourful velour, what else did that get that the regular LX didn't have?

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Mr Pastry said:

How about a 1980 Cortina or Escort Huntsman?  They were a sort of maroon colour with gold stripes.  

 

 

I've seen a few Escort Huntsmen over the years but still never seen a Cortina. I doubt I ever will now. 

A friend of mine in Routemaster circles had an Escort. He drove it down to Southampton once in about 1987 (I say about, it was August 1987 and I remember that for reasons too dull to go into here) to come and see the Routemasters we had here at the time. He'd parked in town and offered me a lift home but only made it two thirds of the way when it boiled over. I rather selfishly left him there and walked the rest of the way home. 

I don't remember how he got it back to London but I know it survived because  January 14th 1989 was the last day of Routemaster operation in Southampton and Trevor brought his bus down to follow the last bus. It all finished at Portswood garage about 8pm but instead of walking the half hour home we decided to go back on RM 2116 to Tilbury docks where they kept it. 

We arrived in Tilbury about 2.30 on the Sunday morning where Trevors trusty* Huntsman was waiting. He dropped us off at Palmers Green so we could catch the N29 in to town to get the first train out of Waterloo. But on that journey we were convinced that Routemaster ownership was possible and not just a fantasy that other people did. The wheels were set in motion and about six weeks later I was the proud joint owner of RM 2037. And I think that Escort Huntsman played a small part. I don't think it lasted much longer though. 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

How about a 1980 Cortina or Escort Huntsman?  They were a sort of maroon colour with gold stripes.  

 

Have never seen a Tina one, never knew.

[Yoss]

Just now, High Jetter said:

Have never seen a Tina one, never knew.

Oh, I knew because I acquired a brochure for them from Bristol Street Motors in Shirley (oddly I now deliver to the flats that have been built where Bristol Street Motors once stood) when I was a kid (seem to remember they were T or V regs, so I'd have been about 12). But I've still never seen one.

[Spiny Norman]

Was the Cortina Huntsman the only car ever named after an Aussie arachnid, or did we get the Fiesta Funnel Web here too?

[warren t claim]

Remember when Talbot raided their back catalogue of names to sell the Solara Minx and Rapier?

[Rod/b]

11 hours ago, sierraman said:

I think the phrase is called brand accessibility. Someone at work announced they’d just got a BMW M3, turns out it’s actually the 320d with some M Sport badges on. I’m just glad Ford never went down the road of sticking a Cosworth badge on a Fiesta 1.1 so that nobody would feel left out. 😂

That being said - do you remember the Fiesta XRV?

[EyesWeldedShut]

18 minutes ago, Rod/b said:

That being said - do you remember the Fiesta XRV?

Funnily enough .... yes  Back when they were new I was working as a copper in London - I pulled a bloke in a 'dodgy' looking XR2 on Victoria Embankment as
it just didn't look right. Check on the car came back as 'van with windows' - eh? I'd never heard of/seen an XRV I was all thinking 'got a right cut and shut here'.
He gets out armed with all the paperwork, letters from his local police etc etc. He's taken an XRV and mated it with the windows, rear seats and badging off a pukka XR2, he's then found out that he's getting pulled over a lot as it's just not quite 'right'. 

He was OK about getting tugged (he'd probably had a lot of practice by then) but I bet he sold the car/van on pretty sharpish.

[twosmoke300]

7 hours ago, New POD said:

But more likely to dissolve in a pile of rust. 

What we need is reliable, and rust free. 

Then sir needs a Renault Laguna 3 dci 😂

[MrGTI6]

14 hours ago, sierraman said:

I think the phrase is called brand accessibility. Someone at work announced they’d just got a BMW M3, turns out it’s actually the 320d with some M Sport badges on. 😂

That reminds me, a colleague used to refer to his car as "the AMG". The vehicle in question was a Mercedes A180d AMG Line powered by a 1.5-litre diesel engine also found in cars such as the Renault Kangoo and Dacia Duster. 

He had lots of issues with that car. The only reliable bit was the Renault engine!