Cars that were unexpectedly better than you thought

[JJ0063]

Just browsing for a potential daily in the future, got me looking at cars in general and thinking of some stuff I’ve owned that I assumed would be shit but I actually ended up liking.

Not looking for replies of how you disagree, just in personal experiences.

 

I’ll start:

Astra J

Before my shite days, wanted a modern daily and picked up a 2 year old Astra J SRI CDTI because it was modern looking and cheap at a local car superstore. Didn’t particularly care for it as a car but it fitted my requirements.

Really liked it, it was great on diesel, interior felt so modern and new, I thought it looked great too. 
 

[wesacosa]

I hired a last shape Dacia Sandero in Ireland.  I wasn't happy as I had booked a Corolla or "equivalent" but after driving it a few days I ended up really liking it.  Felt like a late 90s car, in a good way.  simple, not bloated.  It was much better than the Corsa we hired on our previous trip

[Bren]

My insignia.

Plenty of kit and considering the high mileage wear on the interior is minimal.

The engine is gruff but it has a turn of speed and I am enjoying 50 odd mpg and £ 35 a year road tax.

[tooSavvy]

My 'Korean Washing Machine' is performing admirably...

I liked the idea of a Getz... Bought one... Liking the *experience 🥰

*some people's expectations, Vs mine, may vary 🤣🤣

[Captain Mainwaring]

I used to absolutely love my sister's Seicento Sporting. No doubting it was a bit gutless (although, in fairness, I'm a six and a half footer weighing nearly 19st) but it had that lovely, tight 'wheel at each corner' handling and it was bloody addictive. I ran out of reasons to borrow it eventually...

 

[Split_Pin]

6 years ago now I had an Insignia courtesy car for 2 weeks. It was a CDTi 160bhp 6 speed SRi model and I was really impressed. Quick, comfortable and the interior was a very nice place to be. I much prefer a Saab or 75 now though, but that was before I owned anything like that.

[Rocket88]

Ditto on Voxhalls are shit…. Not in my recent experience.

[PrinceRupert]

I had a Fiat Tipo hire car a few years ago,  and it was surprisingly competent,  spongy dashboard aside.  They are dirt cheap for a relatively new car as well.

[Steviemillar]

Newest generation Corsa

We had a pretty well spec ‘d turbo petrol one as a rental when in Germany last September and it was a cracking car.
 

Initially I was annoyed that the Fiesta we’d booked was no longer available but was pleasantly surprised at how capable the Corsa was during our fortnight hire period 

[artdjones]

When I decided to move to Ireland I realised I would have to leave my Dolomite behind, as an 1850 engine would be too expensive to insure and run. So I looked around Cardiff for a cheaper to run car, and settled on a Citroen Visa Super E. Which was very different to anything I'd had before, and was ridiculed by my friends. It was identical to the one above, except rhd, with the same blue, blue interior.

I expected to not like it, but I still have nostalgia for it now. Cheap to run, reasonably reliable and very comfortable. We've only had three non-French main cars since, two disastrous Passats and a Rover 620 SDi, which was very good.

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

Citroen Visa 17 RD. They might be flimsy but you can drive them like you've nicked them and they do not complain.

Fiat Panda 45. As basic as a cardboard box, but has one of those little Italian engines that likes to rev and rev. Another great B-road car that is fun to drive.

Peugeot 309 GL. The most car you will ever need. Revy 1.6 petrol that will get points on your licence, even on the motorway. Loads of space for putting young children in and for going to the tip with all their shite when they've grown up.

 

[Zelandeth]

This is probably the one which sticks in my mind the most.

£250 "an car" I needed at a moment's notice when a dozy diesel tank driver wrote off my Skoda Estelle by failing to give way at a crossroads.  

I kind of resented it because of why I needed it, it was rusty and more modern than I'd generally have liked.  "Boring" as well as they were still everywhere back in 2006.

There wasn't any one thing that car did exceptionally, but equally there wasn't a single thing it didn't do competently.

It was comfy, had a decent factory stereo, had a cracking heater, rode nicely, was quiet (inside at least!), and aside from an engine mount and a set of HT leads bought the day I got it, never asked for a thing.  Parts, even from the main dealer were absurdly cheap too.

It was also one of those cars which somehow just exuded an aura of complete and utter dependability.  I never once questioned the fact that when I went out to it, no matter what the weather, whether it would start first touch and would complete my journey whether it be 10 miles or 400 without the slightest complaint.

Really didn't appreciate it at the time, but it was a cracking little car.

 

Other one was more recent, the Caddy SDI bought off here when I just needed something I could rely on following the battle with Schroedinger's Engine in another car.

I only ever saw this when I bought it as a stopgap until I could find something more interesting.

Three years later I eventually moved it on simply because the very cramped rear seats weren't suitable for carrying adults for longer distances as I occasionally needed to.  Without doubt this has to have been the most overwhelmingly useful cars I've owned, and had an astonishing ability to just cover miles in a totally stress-free manner.  It's not something when you look at it you'd think would be an epic motorway mile muncher, but somehow it was.

Some folks were really disparaging about the SDI engine, and I'll freely admit this wasn't a sports car.  You know what though?  It wasn't a sports car!  Not the fastest thing away from the lights, no.  However it would happily cruise all day well above the legal limit once wound up, and while it only had 64bhp, the way it delivered it always felt willing.  Not like a couple of other normally aspirated diesels which it always felt like you had to wring the neck of to get anywhere.

[Shite Ron]

I had one of the first mk1 Mondeo’s, it was a 1.8 LX petrol and was the best front wheel drive car I have ever driven. I really don’t like front wheel drive but the Mondeo handled very nicely, was good on fuel and quick, I have had better spec. newer models but none were as comfortable or as good as the mk1, a GLX , Si or Ghia would have been quite pleasant but even my poverty version was good.

The TVR Chimera was also better than expected, I am not really a fan of 2 seater convertibles and everyone likes to call them unreliable but mine was faultless and very good on fuel on a run, less so on short journeys but a really great car.

The other surprise was the Panda. I have never been keen on small cars but it is great as a runabout and for parking in town also surprisingly capable of longer motorway journeys. Not the most exciting car in the world but if you need a small car these seem head and shoulders above other modern small cars.

The biggest surprise was my Mercedes E320 CDi estate, lovely to drive, plenty of room, a great engine with enough power, it is a great all rounder. If I had to have just one modern car this is the one to have, however if I had to have just one car only then it would still be a mk5 Cortina estate.

[bunglebus]

I was running a 2.0 air cooled VW van and got a job further away, meaning my commute would get a bit expensive on fuel. Criteria for a daily were cheap on fuel, bodywork irrelevant. So I bought a Renault 5 Campus with pretty decent bodywork and a fucked engine for £80

Bodged the cylinder head repair (involving Dremelling the combustion chambers back to approximately the right shape as it had ingested something) and ran it around for a year not caring what happened to it

But...it grew on me. It was fun! So I cut the springs, tweaked the torsion bars, stuck a set of R19 16v alloys on it with 175/50/15 tyres and turned it into a go cart. I miss this car.

Oh and I bought a low mileage engine for £5 more than I paid for the car. I covered over 100,000 miles in this one

[Noel Tidybeard]

poxhall mokkka X

totally competant at being an car for work- heated steering wheel was nice on the elites

[Peter C]

My £5k 13 year old Juke.

100% reliable, 45MPG, comfortable, perfect daily.

[twosmoke300]

The Laguna 3 I got from @Pat Earrings . Tried to replace it with a newer and better Astra estate but just prefer driving the Renault 😂

[EyesWeldedShut]

Mitsubishi Spacewagon I bought out of Exeter Auctions for £400 around 2007 as a 'swap' for a Volvo 440 which was unexpectedly worse than I had expected.
Spacewagon was ideal for six of us, bit heavy on the juice but would happily hold 70 mph on the motorway.  Not a bad drive either. It did start to boil a battery when the alternator regulator went on the fritz in a standstill jam on the M3 but, other than that*, needed nothing until the second MoT when we could not get it past emissions.
Went back to the auctions and sold for £400.

Only Mitsubishi I have ever owned as it happens.

*[edit] I lie, the exhaust it came with had the back box held onto the pipe with fibreglass matting sprayed silver. It melted apart outside my house. A lesson learned.

[lesapandre]

+1 for the Visa. Cracking little cars 

I'll add the C15 van - they really grow on you. 50mpg and superb supple ride. 

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, Peter C said:

My £5k 13 year old Juke.

100% reliable, 45MPG, comfortable, perfect daily.

Looks like it causes cattle stampedes.

[EyesWeldedShut]

51 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

+1 for the Visa. Cracking little cars 

I'll add the C15 van - they really grow on you. 50mpg and superb supple ride. 

I had the joy* of a C15 on a J plate from new that blew two engines, second at 64,000 miles. 
It was still on the original Michelin tyres and it was a good driver. Unsurprising though as it replaced a Bedford Rascal that was really shite.

[17-Coffees]

As others have said, Vauxhalls. 

Everyone seems to slate them but all my experiences with them have been good. 10 years ago my dad had a Vectra B, I had the pleasure of driving it to the NEC and back and it was nice as an car. Likewise when he latter got a late model Vectra C is did the job fine. And then there was the Astra G I had a few years back...

Base spec, rough, very leggy and worn but kept on going, helped it was the 1.7 diesel! 

 

Although not a Vauxhall, it is related to one, but back in 2018 myself and Supernaut was in the US we had a rental Chevy Malibu which again was better than you'd expect! 

[lesapandre]

33 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I had the joy* of a C15 on a J plate from new that blew two engines, second at 64,000 miles. 
It was still on the original Michelin tyres and it was a good driver. Unsurprising though as it replaced a Bedford Rascal that was really shite.

Sounds unlucky. They are mostly hardly little things. Quite sought after in France now - anything any good north of €3000.

[EyesWeldedShut]

12 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Sounds unlucky. They are mostly hardly little things. Quite sought after in France now - anything any good north of €3000.

First time around it dieseled the sump oil and started doing a great deal of speed down the A1 as I was trying to stall it out.  Scary. Citroen fitted a new engine (never did tell me what had went wrong).
Second time around it spat out all the engine oil - left a big slick up the M4. Citroen were 'meh' about it even though it was 100% dealer maintained and less than three years old. I switched to a secondhand BX as I needed something that moved whilst we were haggling over getting the C15 fixed.
Ended up sticking with the BX.

[skoda_fan]

Twenty year old Peugeot Partner bought off a mate who wanted rid. Hadn't been looking for one. Thought it would be useful to have around but expected to hate driving it, being the non-turbo diesel.  It was indeed very useful and extremely practical with all the space and cubbies inside. Not only that, but surprisingly fun to drive and nipped along ok. Sold it in one of my fleet culls to a bloke who scrapped it as soon as the MOT was up.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Citroen C4 - I bought a poverty spec 1.6 HDi 90BHP on a 13 plate for sprog #1 and was booting it home thinking 'whoo -  this must be the 110BHP engine'. Went well, stopped well.
Nope - HDi 90, 5 speed gearbox, 100,000 miles and it was very nice - not everybody's cup of tea (i.e boring?). 
Simple(ish) technology too - he likes it and it's just sailed through its MoT for him.

[yes oui si]

8 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

Just browsing for a potential daily in the future, got me looking at cars in general and thinking of some stuff I’ve owned that I assumed would be shit but I actually ended up liking.

Not looking for replies of how you disagree, just in personal experiences.

 

I’ll start:

Astra J

Before my shite days, wanted a modern daily and picked up a 2 year old Astra J SRI CDTI because it was modern looking and cheap at a local car superstore. Didn’t particularly care for it as a car but it fitted my requirements.

Really liked it, it was great on diesel, interior felt so modern and new, I thought it looked great too. 
 

Likewise Mrs_oui_si's 2.0 Diesel Sri estate thing is astoundingly competent. It just keeps going and going. It's now relegated to occasional use due to the work van but it's still a great thing. 

The £80 mk4 fiesta I had off here was a cracker, especially in the snow. 1.25 and wonderfully chuckable. 

MG ZT-T was better than I gave it credit for at the time. I'd have a grandad-spec 75 at the drop of a hat. 

And my Montego, possibly the worst example of the breed, with newspaper and expanding foam sills. One day I'll have a good one. Hopefully. 

[Mrcento]

7 hours ago, Captain Mainwaring said:

I used to absolutely love my sister's Seicento Sporting. No doubting it was a bit gutless (although, in fairness, I'm a six and a half footer weighing nearly 19st) but it had that lovely, tight 'wheel at each corner' handling and it was bloody addictive. I ran out of reasons to borrow it eventually...

 

And for me, the Cinquecento is even better. Same basic car of course, but the Seicento (if it has power steering) if just that tiny bit number and a little more grown up... The Cinquecento with the unassisted steering just feels far rawer, and the cutaway dash etc just all adds to the experience.

Pound for pound btw, i think Cinquecentos (especially if you throw some wider tyres on them) have the best steering weight/feel of any small car. And i include the original mini in that. Albeit i do think the mini is a better handler/more agile.

Fantastic little cars, ridiculously practical too. Especially the Cinq because there's less dash to can carry unfeasibly long items.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

My partner's sister drove a Seicento Sporting as her only car for well over a decade.  It failed an MOT on rust, got the local garage to weld it (remember that?!) and then it failed on more rust again the next year.  It's still sat on the drive at her parent's house, resplendant in bright yellow and on SORN.  It has two different sets of wheels on it too, hilariously.  The rears from a Cinquecento and the fronts are original to the car.

I secretly quite like it but given the NCAP score on that particular model I wouldn't drive it anywhere, even it was roadworthy.  Plus I'm 6'2" and 21 Stone.

[Captain Mainwaring]

I've always liked the Centos really, pity that they're probably £silly now that they've all but disappeared, and yes, probably wholly unsuitable for a lanky, heavy so-and-so like me.

That being said, my FIL recently bought an Austin Mini and, with a bit of careful leg placement, I can fit into that quite comfortably. I concur with Mrcentos comments about the Sei being a superior steer to a Mini, although its probably not a fair comparison being that it's from 1981 and a codgermatic.