Cars I don't "get". Add yours!

[Cavcraft]

Back to the H8TRD 4 PRIOUS'S. What's to say that not everyone bought one because they're a lentil knitting tree hugger? I expect a few went to people who wanted to save money on running costs and I bet a few companies got them for low tax rates etc.

[Guest]

They were on the company car list for my dad, he pondered one for the tax/MPG, but went down to the Toyota dealers to have a look at one and felt the interior was too low-rent so he went with an Avensis instead.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I LOVE GLOBAL WARMING

 

[HillmanImp]

THE POWER IS YOURS!

 

 

As for cars i don't get, its any MPV with blacked out rear windows. If your kids are that ugly lock them in the cellar. It also looks crap as you cant tint the front windows for good reason.

 

Its also crap for dogging as nobody can see your fat fishwife in the back getting venerial disease from a builder. Fine in the summer of course, as you can wind down the windows but not in the winter.

[Pete-M]

They were on the company car list for my dad, he pondered one for the tax/MPG, but went down to the Toyota dealers to have a look at one and felt the interior was too low-rent so he went with an Avensis instead.

 

He's not that daft then.

 

I really don't understand why anyone would pay chunks out of their own wages for a company car. I could have one in my current job - and did when I started working for 'em - but common sense prevailed and I returned it as soon as I discovered that was an option. If I have to do a long journey for the company I use their vehicles, but I use my own cars for the commute to and from work. An XJR is a much nicer way of commuting than some little Jap faux-econobox.

 

Funnily enough, if the choice was "Drive a Pious" or "Pay a bit more and drive a real car instead" I'd go for the car, but as I have the option of "Don't pay for a car you don't want or need" that's the one I opted for.

[HillmanImp]

I really don't understand why anyone would pay chunks out of their own wages for a company car. I could have one in my current job - and did when I started working for 'em - but common sense prevailed and I returned it. If I have to do a long journey for the company I use their vehicles, but I use my own cars for the commute to and from work.

 

We get a 'car allowance' at my place which bumps up your salary to pay for it. I don't, as I am not important enough to get a company car. If you just pay for it yourself, I really don't get it either. You might get a good deal but you are forking out a fortune for someone elses car.

 

Prior to the rules changing the tax office used to tax you on the list price of the car when new. I used to work at the tax office and one chap had (IIRC) a Lotus Europa as his company car with an original list price of something like 2k (i could be well out I dont know how much they cost new but it was low). It was a right good dodge. He paid £12k for it but only got taxed on £2k.

 

Unfortunately they changed the rules.

[Pete-M]

We get a 'car allowance' at my place which bumps up your salary to pay for it. I don't, as I am not important enough to get a company car. If you just pay for it yourself, I really don't get it either. You might get a good deal but you are forking out a fortune for someone elses car

 

That's how it tends to be in most sane places.

 

I only do a 12 mile a day commute, and not paying for the company car to go home in saves me quite a lot more than the £5ish a day fuel the Jag uses. Even after adding insurance, road tax and all the other gubbins I'm still better off running the Jag or Jeep than I would be if I took the 'perk' Skoda Superb from work.

[HillmanImp]

The other thing is that you are normally limited to the cars you can have as the employer inevitably gets a fleet deal with a garage. So you are paying a pretty penny for a car you would not have bought in the 1st place if you were mental enough to spent 25K on a new car.

 

If I ever get the car allowance thing I am going to see if i can convince the chairman to let me get a Z3M. Probably cant as its too old or some shit. TBH they might be shit (i have never driven one) but I love the shape of them. I think they look a bit like a Allegro estate shapewise- really, they do remind me of them.

[Guest]

My dad has to go all over the joint for meetings, he just wants something which can go to the other side of the country and back without any grief. His level of interest in cars revolves pretty much around whether the boot is big enough for trips to the garden centre, how long he can drive around with the fuel light on and whether it can pick up Radio 4.

 

I'm pretty sure you can get a car allowance in lieu of company car there, but I doubt he'd be able to get something which would be both capable of the task and leave him with more money each month, seeing as he wouldn't get fleet manager discounts (or free insurance). For people who aren't really bothered about what they drive and do a fair old mileage, a decently-funded company car scheme can be a pretty cheap way of getting around.

[Mr Lobster]

^ I had a company car in my last job, I'd much rather have used my own but as I was doing 800 miles a week to work and back that wasn't really an option.

 

If you are doing a relatively tiny mileage then then company cars aren't worth what they cost you in tax, its only when you start doing a few miles that they become more attractive.

[HillmanImp]

His level of interest in cars revolves pretty much around whether the boot is big enough for trips to the garden centre, how long he can drive around with the fuel light on and whether it can pick up Radio 4.

 

My dad is the same. He came to visit this week and i showed him the DAF as he had never seen it before. He was confused as to why i would buy such a thing. He thinks my hobby is bizzare, as i am sure your own dad does. A car is just a tool that does a job to him. Although i did get him drunk and he did day the bast car he ever owned was his Herald despite it being the most unreliable piece of junk he ever owned. He said he replaced most of the bits including rebuilding the engine himself. I suspect there is an underlying shiter in there. A bit like when Darth Vader throws the Emperor out of the Death Star. There is good, he just drives an 08 plate Lancer whilst he is on the dark side.

[alf892]

I used to take the company car and pay the tax........loads if you also get 'free' fuel but the commute was 240 miles daily so it was sort of worth it.

 

Have since changed jobs and now only 40 miles each way so I take the cash allownance. I invested this in an oldish 530d auto. My drive to work is now a pleasure........sitting in an armchair at just over 40mpg. Sure I could get a little eurobox but I figure the change in comfort is not woth saving 10/15 quid a week.

 

What makes me really laugh is the mugs at work who actually contribute cash to upgrade their company motor

 

Pete M is right!

[Alpineandy]

I know that many on here like them, but I'm not a fan.

The bigger engined Capris have always been unimpressive on most fronts (performance/handling/comfort etc) but I can appreciate that they're some peoples idea of a sporting car.

But I really don't get the 1300 or 1600cc version of the capri.

Why buy a less practicle escort/cortina?

[Tayne]

From the Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), 19th Feb 2011:

 

SAD news from Sydney this week as a V8 Range Rover squashed a Prius on the Princes Highway.

No one was injured but the fact the Range Rover cruised the highway for 82km at 110km/h and averaged a stunning 5.3 litres/100km -- including slowing for traffic congestion -- shows new engine technology is catching hybrids napping.

 

Sure, the new 4.4-litre turbodiesel Range Rover Vogue didn't get that fuel-sipping figure all the time but for a 2.5-tonne SUV once labelled as an environmentally insensitive, fuel-guzzling monster, it's very impressive.

 

See http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/can-a- ... 6008334538

 

 

And for those of you who can't do the maths, that's 50.95miles at 68.3mph to give 53.3mpg!

[Richard]

I know that many on here like them, but I'm not a fan.

The bigger engined Capris have always been unimpressive on most fronts (performance/handling/comfort etc) but I can appreciate that they're some peoples idea of a sporting car.

But I really don't get the 1300 or 1600cc version of the capri.

Why buy a less practicle escort/cortina?

 

I take the opposite view, to me it's not a proper Capri if it's got a V6. The whole point of the Capri is show without go.

[RoadworkUK]

....to me it's not a proper Capri if it's got a V6. The whole point of the Capri is show without go.

 

I'd want a 1.7 with the V4, just to be as perverse as humany possible.

[Negative Creep]

....to me it's not a proper Capri if it's got a V6. The whole point of the Capri is show without go.

 

I'd want a 1.7 with the V4, just to be as perverse as humany possible.

 

 

 

2.3 diesel to become Autoshite royalty

[scaryoldcortina]

I fitted a 1.8TD to a capri lazer once, does that count?

 

Led to lots of "your pinto is fucked" comments based on the noise and smoke, but I never got my tank dipped

[Station]

Led to lots of "your pinto sounds and appears to be completely normal" comments based on the noise and smoke,

 

I fixed it for you!

[Pete-M]

Arrgh. You perverts!

 

Capris should be at the very least V6 powered, and none of that fancy continental 2.3 nonsense. 2.6 or above.

 

A Capri Perana is on my 'must own before I kill someone' list.

[fiatdaft]

never got on with capri's,sitting on the floor staring in the dark dingy holes where the instruments hide , a range of underpowered wheezy engines including the v6's last one i had for sale broke its throttle cable on the test drive. bastard thing

[Guest]

never got on with capri's,sitting on the floor staring in the dark dingy holes where the instruments hide , a range of underpowered wheezy engines including the v6's last one i had for sale broke its throttle cable on the test drive. bastard thing

 

Yeah, and I dusted a 'completely sorted' 280 one night with my shagged Piazza. Mainly to shut up the local Fordbore who thought he had the best car in the universe.

For the record, I don't mind Capris. Why billions of them get saved in preference to other coupes I'll never know. Oh wait, old Ford syndrome. Like VW syndrome. Carry on.

[eddyramrod]

Hmm, might have to weigh in here. I've owned two Capris in my long shite-career, both 1.6. The first was a 1983 Pinto-powered Cabaret 2:

...which was a nightmare in every way. It was only 13 years old, which is quite recent for me, and gave me nothing but trouble. First it wouldn't go (well, ran rough and had zero power); then it wouldn't stop; then it wouldn't turn corners. I forget now what the solutions were, but it paid the ultimate price. I traded it for a 1978 Volvo 244 Automatic, which was a dream.

Fast forward to 2009 and my move to Cyprus:

...and look, here I am doing Capri again. This time it's a 1971 1600 GT Kent, so 38 years old when I first meet it. It storms the hills up to my village! It's also a hoot on the bends, which can seem like the opening of The Italian Job, so you can imagine the grin on my chops. On these roads, I think a V6 would actually be too much!

 

As for not getting it, it's a coupe. People have been buying them since Gottlieb Daimler was a lad. Mustang? Alfa GTV? DB5? The Capri was just a coupe for the man in the street, as was the Mustang before it. In both cases, Ford had the brilliant idea of making the same body available with almost any spec you want, from the basic model (3.3 IL6 in the Mustang, 1.3 Kent in the Capri) up to the mouth- and eye-watering stormers (427 SOHC/ RS3100). Both, deservedly, sold in vast numbers, mostly a step or two above basic.

[fiatdaft]

i know,but the competition was better !

[Pete-M]

i know,but the competition was better !

 

Depends what you want doesn't it?

 

I love the look of a well sorted 3.0 Mk1, and I adore the Mk3 3.0S far more than I like the 2.8i. I also love the sheer amusement that can be had from hustling one about. They're not the most grippy of things, but I prefer the handling of the big V6 jobs even though the Mk3 2.0S was probably the best handling of all in reality. Powersliding a V6 one is a lot more fun than going a little bit more quickly around bends in something with more grip. Yes, it's hooligan behaviour. No, the Capri hasn't got any advanced suspension design, but they do work. You just have to adapt to 'em.

 

A lot of the alternatives were better handling, Alfa GTV6 will run rings around a Capri if it's actually behaving. BMW 3.0 CS is a more accomplished machine if you want something that can actually behave occasionally. 635 CSi was twice the price. Mantas and Asconas are probably the closest rival, and to me they look too much like Cavaliers to play the game properly. I don't like the Manta rear suspension either.

 

I adored the 3.0S Mk3 I had. Stupidly good fun in the wee small hours out in the sticks being sideways, sounded fantastic with the tubular manifolds, and was a pretty comfy old thing on the motorway being sensible. Could have done with a five speed box, but it was great.

 

One of the cars I really must own is a sorted Mk1.5 3.0

[Guest]

Most of the Capri's appeal was in its dramatic shape and overall presence. I can't think of anything which came close on that point, for the money. The 4-cylinder ones aren't a bad drive in the same way that Cortinas aren't a bad drive, yet the simplicity and familiarity of the mechanicals meant that some fairly ordinary people could have a mad-looking car for once (hence the success). It wasn't a particularly advanced car towards the end and I don't think anyone was under that impression either.

[Negative Creep]

I do really want a Capri as I loved them when I was a kid. I know they won't be that good to drive and slower than a modern hot hatch but I bet it would be fun. Shame they're so expensive now

[fordperv]

never got on with capri's,sitting on the floor staring in the dark dingy holes where the instruments hide , a range of underpowered wheezy engines including the v6's last one i had for sale broke its throttle cable on the test drive. bastard thing

 

Yeah, and I dusted a 'completely sorted' 280 one night with my shagged Piazza. Mainly to shut up the local Fordbore who thought he had the best car in the universe.

For the record, I don't mind Capris. Why billions of them get saved in preference to other coupes I'll never know. Oh wait, old Ford syndrome. Like VW syndrome. Carry on.

 

Well unfortunately for you haters the capri is an icon, this is why they get saved, im guaranteed almost every day to get someone approach me in mine telling me their capri love story.

[fordperv]

never got on with capri's,sitting on the floor staring in the dark dingy holes where the instruments hide , a range of underpowered wheezy engines including the v6's last one i had for sale broke its throttle cable on the test drive. bastard thing

 

Yeah, and I dusted a 'completely sorted' 280 one night with my shagged Piazza. Mainly to shut up the local Fordbore who thought he had the best car in the universe.

For the record, I don't mind Capris. Why billions of them get saved in preference to other coupes I'll never know. Oh wait, old Ford syndrome. Like VW syndrome. Carry on.

 

Well unfortunately for you haters the capri is an icon, this is why they get saved, im guaranteed almost every day to get someone approach me in mine telling me their capri love story.

[Station]

I fell out of love with Capri's when a medallion man type bloke nearly ran me and my brother over in Rock Ferry and then got out and gave us an earful with plenty of swear words used. They were my favourite car when I was a nipper, and it destroyed it for me. I think they're under-rated, compared with all the other Fords of that era.