Shitebarges of the future spotted....

[R9UKE]

Some fantastic cars in this thread, I want to own most of them

 

The Peugeot 607 isn't cheap enough yet. I'd love a 3.0 Executive (they have an electric tailgate!!!) at some point but the Renault Vel Satis (another future shite contender) is cheaper at the minute!

 

 

There's a really sexy woman with a 53 reg Signum 3.2 V6 up the street - and she makes full use of that animal engine

[andrew e]

A facelift Croma mini cab for your pleasure; worth visiting Paris for alone. Which you probally would be if you told the Mrs your intentions to cruise the Seine in a Croma. Facelift mind.

 

 

I wonder if that woman was snapping the Octavia?

[Morgan84]

The biggest problems with these future shitebarges is that they have so many 'clever' electrics,which once they throw a wobbly,its very expensive,or sometimes impractical to keep the cars alive.Renault and Peugeot are the pioneers of electrical gremlins !! The Norwich City College 'had' - not sure if its still there,a Saffrane with the female voiced computer system,which Renault had to give up on trying to cure,as the car was beyond even Renaults best technicians. The owner was given a replacement,and the Saffrane 'dumped' for students to lose the bits off

[ProgRocker]

And another (i'm really getting into this now). The Chevy Epica. Briefly sold in the UK. Briefly.

 

(At least) one of those is being used as a minicab around Norwich. Excellent taxi fodder I would say if bought collectively amongst fellow drivers for a discount.

 

My favourite shite barges of the future are the Kia Magentis & Citroen C6.

[Morgan84]

Kia Magentis and Hyundai Sonata are both equally as nice.There's something strangely nice about Korean rubberised plastic wood effect !!

[25v6turbo]

Yep i agree Safranes are dropping like flys due the the good old Renault electrics!

BUT this is making them even rarer and good examples are starting to go up a bit,interesting the voice in the saffy was a womens,as far as i know ALL Safranes are male voiced,mine is,but i,am trying to buy a french computer so it talks in French which i think is female...Vel satis is up there without doubt,Avantime is still to expensive though.

[barrett]

Can't say I was aware of those Croma things before this thread, they look rubbish!

[R9UKE]

interesting the voice in the saffy was a womens,as far as i know ALL Safranes are male voiced,mine is,but i,am trying to buy a french computer so it talks in French which i think is female...Vel satis is up there without doubt,Avantime is still to expensive though.

 

The Laguna II and Vel Satis have a very polite woman - but they also have tyre pressure sensors which means that she barely ever shuts up. "Front left tyre, pressure abnormal, slow down! Re-adjust pressure as soon as possible. Front right tyre flat, change wheel!". Then when the spare has been put on - "Warning, tyre pressure check not functioning!". There's a mute button but I can't bare to turn her off!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

 

 

Them Vel Satises look in decent nick, considering they're over 170 years old...

[R9UKE]

 

My camera fecked up! Only realised at the end of the day!

[Morgan84]

Kia Sedona or a Ssanyong Rodius

[Futuramic]

Fiat Croma. The new one. Now seemingly withdrawn from sale in the UK.

 

 

None of these suggestions from me constitute actual 'spots' though. In fact I've never seen a Croma in the wild, or even in my local Fiat dealers - they probably had more sense than to order one as a demonstrator.

 

Apparently Michael Schumacher had a Croma as his company car (well, one of them) when he was still in Ferrari's employ. Wonder if they're GR8 4 DRFTN?

 

I have had the 'pleasure' or working on one - its more of a Saab 9-3 than a Fiat. Very impressive looking underneath,and bags of room inside,but as for oil filter changing ... have a umbrella handy !

 

I have seen a Croma in the wild, just the once. I was at work and just getting out of my car. The chugging, squeaking clank of a sick diesel engine caused me to look up. I expected to see a Banana engined Transit; but no! A dark blue Croma hove into view. Or sort of jerkingly crabbed. It parked and out got an employee from another office. One who I had never met before. He was the most miserable bastard I've come across recently. He had to let someone into the building to see me. He acted as if he had paid me a million pounds whilst licking my shoes clean and refused to talk to me for the rest of the day. Others also complained about him. We were glad when he left and all hope he never returns.

 

Maybe that's why Cromas never sold. He was probably a nice man with a sunny disposition beforehand. But the Croma changed him.

 

As for future Shitebarges. Look no further than the BMW X6.

 

 

It's my lottery-win car. Just to piss everyone else off. They would see that I could afford to buy any of the cars they idolise, AMG Merc, Noble, Westfield etc. but that I didn't. Instead I bought that. Either that of a 5 series Gran Turismo.