Car Thread II

[Preezy]

Cars are like mountain bikes, you need at least 24 gears to be considered cool.

[Jenuall]

Cars are like mountain bikes, you need at least 24 gears to be considered cool.

Nah, just take some asthma medicine and you can beat all those 24 speed losers on your fixed gear bike!

I do actually need to look at getting a better car for clocking up the miles on the motorway myself, work might be moving so I'll be doing ~60 miles a day on the M5 to/from Bristol soon. Currently using a trusty old* VW Polo as my commute is only about 8 miles of A road and inner city travel - not sure it's going to handle the new journey quite so well!


*18 years old now!

[Robbo-92]

My first car was a 2000 X plate VW Polo 1.4, wasn't a bad car but then a few little things started to go wrong and considering it had done what I wanted it to (got me a couple of years no claims bonus while not being terribly expensive to run outside of insurance) I just decided to go for something newer rather then keep it for another year or two.

I guess a 5 gear car could be geared to sit at lower revs on the motorway but then 5th may not be as useful on other roads but then I'd presume it also depends on what range the engine develops most torque and power in to how useful a 5th gear tuned for motorway driving would be off of the motorway, would be pretty useless if you were well off the peak power/torque at anything below mid 60's. Obviously if you don't mind changing gears all the time this becomes less of an issue.

[Jenuall]

To be fair I've been pretty pleased with the Polo, it was bought as a cheap second car 2 years ago when I couldn't get by just cycling everywhere any more -
too many things to carry etc. I only paid £250 for it and haven't had to spend all that much on it for MOTs etc. in that time.

It's only a 1.0 though so with the best will in the world it's not going to be the best tool for motorway driving!

Anyone had any experience with scrappage schemes lately? I always got the impression that any discount they give you is just going to erode into whatever "deal" they might have been prepared to do for you in the first place.

[Robbo-92]

No, not bought a new car so I'm not sure how it all works out in the end. Always thought the headline figure (of save £2000 for example) wasn't as good as it sounded though but I don't know, it might actually be a good deal.

[Death's Head]

What's the benefit of a 6th gear supposed to be? Never had more than 5 on any car I've had and they've all been fine on the motorway.

Surely it is the gear ratios that matter, not how many of them you have?

My first car had 4 gears. I must have had some mad driving skills to use it on motorways.

[False]

Obviously the ratios are the important part, but for the ease of it 6-speed is probably better. Most 6th gears are a form of overdrive as far as the ratio is concerned anyway (on your average mainstream car that is) so its just nice to have. Given the cars she is considering I should expect it will operate pretty much this way. If we test a 5-speed and its wonderful then great.

She currently has a 5-speed and it makes a massive racket on the motorway. The Juke was referred to us as sounding and being gooseberry fool on a motorway run due to this.

She doesnt like Fords either and given how much she hates the Beetle she is reluctant to get something like a Polo. Inchcape are doing so obscene scrappage offers though so that might sway her.

[Victor Mildew]

But surely we're just in a Spinal Tap "these go to 11" situation? There's no reason why the 5th Gear in Car B can't be just as efficient for motorway driving as the 6th Gear in Car B - if what you care about is MPG then look at MPG, not numbers of gears surely?

As said above, it's a low rev gear to sit the car in at a certain speed and upward for fuel economy.

[Jenuall]

But surely we're just in a Spinal Tap "these go to 11" situation? There's no reason why the 5th Gear in Car B can't be just as efficient for motorway driving as the 6th Gear in Car B - if what you care about is MPG then look at MPG, not numbers of gears surely?

As said above, it's a low rev gear to sit the car in at a certain speed and upward for fuel economy.

Yes but there's nothing stopping a cars 5th gear from being that same "low rev gear" - hence why the 5th gear was introduced in the first place.

[False]

Sure, but as newer cars get more efficient then the ratios are closer and closer together to keep in in the power. More gears needed for the same range of speeds.

[Jenuall]

Oh absolutely, more gears allows the engine to run at greater efficiency whilst sat at a greater number of speeds. But more gears doesn't necessarily mean it will be any more efficient at 70MPH - cars have been achieving greater than 70MPG on the motorway for a long time without the need for extra gears.

[Victor Mildew]

Just have one gear m8

[SEP]

Just have one gear m8

That's called a CVT m8

[Robbo-92]

Just have one gear m8

That's called a CVT m8

Nah, electric cars.

[Curls]

I like having a 6th gear. It makes me feel dead cool.

[BOR]

I know some Mercedes cars have 9G-Tronic (9 gears) automatic and I want to try it out to see what it’s like.

[RichardUK]

I wonder if anyone can help, I have been using my iPod touch via the usb in my car for a while now but over the last two days when I say “usb” it says “no usb device connected” it’s not the cable because it charges the iPod, Bluetooth also has stopped connecting, it’s a Ford Focus Titanium X with the Sony stereo

[False]

Alright then.

So I like the look of the current Peugeot range, I think they are v. handsome, and we had a 308 courtesy car a few months back which she liked so she went down to check them out. Got a phonecall to tell me she had fallen in love with a 108 and she wanted me to come and see. It was a brand new totally top spec but was pre-reg so was reduced to £9k. Full leather, nice sparkly paint and fancy interior etc. She took it on a drive and liked it but I ruined it and told her it was too small. She started looking at 208's instead as I advised and she likes those but they arent very exciting.

Today we went down to Toyota because she likes the CH-R. Its a very cool looking thing and its very high spec inside, but I feel its extremely expensive overall. £27k for a nice one. She obviously loves it.

VW, strawberry float all. Ford, strawberry float all. Mercedes, rude twats, not getting a penny from me. I saw the Hyundai dealer as we walked past and noticed the new KONA in the window. Looked pretty fancy to me so went to have a look.

It looked really nice to me, engine is adequate and it seems like it would age ok and be a usable everyday car. Then I saw the price, £16k brand new. Nearly fell over. Asked the guy if you could spec them out and sure enough they had one with every option, full leather, heated cooled seats and wheel etc, sensor suite. £21k. They are doing £1.75k scrappage and mega cheap financing too. I really like them. You can see where they cut corners to get the price there, thinner plastics and cheaper bits about but honestly sit in one and its a totally pleasant thing. Good size for her and she liked it too.

Right now we are leaning that way. She has decided she doesnt want to go and see any Alfa's anymore so looks like they are out of the window.

[False]

The one in the showroom was the same as the one in this video. I liked the colour too

[Lagamorph]

I had no idea you were colourblind.