Retirement car

[rockershovel]

If the OP is still thinking of an estate then they're going to be very disappointed with the boot on the Model 3. Even Citroen at its wackiest were conscious of the practicalities of car design. I suppose Elon could tell me to wait for the Model Y but by then the competition would have overtaken them.

Citroen were always very practical cars, however bonkers their control layouts could be. There’s a moral in that, I dare say?

[rockershovel]

When I was looking for a company car 4 years ago, I was looking for an estate to carry my layout around. I checked all the reviews, and they all all seemed to include comments like:

"very good, but not quite got the handling of the Mondeo",

"lots of room, but not quite as much as the Mondeo",

"plenty of legroom, but not as much as the Mondeo".

So, I have just completed 130k miles of trouble free motoring at 60+mpg with a Mondeo estate.

 

I also checked out the electric and hybrid cars 4 years ago, and they were just not practical for me back then, little boot space and not able to cope with my 80 mile daily commute.

 

This year, the situation has changed, especially with respect to company car tax. I have now completed 1400 miles of pure electric driving in a Hyundai Ionic Electric, with all the modern toys and comforts. Actual range I am achieving during December is over 130 miles on a full charge. Motorway service station charge points will charge up to 80% capacity in about 30 minutes, so I will just need to pre-plan lunch and tea stops on longer trips. Oh, and "Freshwater" fits in the back with the back seats down.

 

Apparently, because electric cars have so few moving parts, servicing is cheap, and they are expected to last a long time (just replacing the battery pack now and then).

 

Meanwhile, I am looking at a reduction in my income tax of a couple of hundred pounds per month, with a slight increase in my electricity bill equating to about 2.5p per mile (compared to 12p per mile for the diesel Mondeo).

I’ve driven Mondeos as hire cars and liked them.

[Vistisen]

I am giving Electric serious consideration, my main journey is to Southampton and back, a distance of 130 miles round trip and we have electric charging points at the office for 8 cars so I could charge at work for free mainly. The only thing that puts me off is the initial high purchase price and the technology is advancing quickly as well so expect range to go up and costs to go down over the next few years.

You are so right that the market could go one of two ways. You could hedge your bets by taking a three year lease, at the end you could keep the car if you like it and prices have not dropped. If on the other hand the market has exploded with loads of exciting new models that make a tesla look like a dinosaur. The lease something better and probably cheaper.

[jjb1970]

Citroen were always very practical cars, however bonkers their control layouts could be. There’s a moral in that, I dare say?

Modern Citroën cars have been thoroughly de-bonkersified, they are now Peugeot models in a different suit (not that there is anything wrong with platform sharing). The DS line has rediscovered some of the old Citroën design flair, I had a DS5 and loved it.

[doilum]

I’ve driven Mondeos as hire cars and liked them.

Depends on how long you intend keeping them. Over the last 20 years little brother has averaged 1000 miles / week and has had a wide variety of estate cars all of which I have ridden in on a weekly basis. The mondeo and mazda 6 started out fine but by 125K were distinctly second hand and by 150K he was desperate to replace.

Our best Astra came at 3 years old and with its first MOT

[doilum]

And 180K miles. It looked and drove like a new car. Initially, bar the driver's door, the doors were very stiff to open and it was evident that it had never carried a passenger. A less honest dealer might have tried to pass it off as a 36K car. Most of the Vauxhalls have worn their old age better than the Fords.

[New Haven Neil]

Most of my colleagues thought I was being wilfully contrarian when I told them that I thought the KIA Stinger was a much nicer car than the Audi A6 and that if given the choice I'd take the Stinger.

 

Typical badge snobbery.  Like the folk that still sneer at Skoda - superb cars now.  Two friends have bought new Hyundais after sampling mine.  The i30N is a real GTi scarer.

[jjb1970]

Typical badge snobbery.  Like the folk that still sneer at Skoda - superb cars now.  Two friends have bought new Hyundais after sampling mine.  The i30N is a real GTi scarer.

 

Indeed, but very lucrative for certain car makers and it has the effect of helping companies like Audi, MB, BMW etc offer very attractive leasing and PCP schemes as there is generally a pretty healthy demand for their cars. In many ways I still think the Audi A6 I have is a very fine car, certainly as a very refined and relaxing long distance cruiser it is superb but quality has been disappointing to say the least and it isn't in the same class as the Stinger in terms of handling, fun factor and panache. I really loved the Stinger I had as a replacement car for a while it really is a fabulous car.

['CHARD]

Indeed, but very lucrative for certain car makers and it has the effect of helping companies like Audi, MB, BMW etc offer very attractive leasing and PCP schemes as there is generally a pretty healthy demand for their cars. In many ways I still think the Audi A6 I have is a very fine car, certainly as a very refined and relaxing long distance cruiser it is superb but quality has been disappointing to say the least and it isn't in the same class as the Stinger in terms of handling, fun factor and panache. I really loved the Stinger I had as a replacement car for a while it really is a fabulous car.

 

I've had the convenience of using the other half's company mules for weekend chores over the past many years.  Each has gone back religiously before the first MOT fell due.

 

The current Jag is a flimsy proposition, as described up-thread, but it drives well.

The 2.0l BMW 5-series was seriously dull stodge, but unbreakable. And I tried.

Audi A4 kept developing faults and spending weeks off the road.

 

My company car days are behind me, but the 02-plate high end Passat was by far the best car I've had as a daily drive (was stolen in the end).  The earlier Mondeos were unbreakable but equally unremarkable, the most fun cars are ones I inherited coming into new roles - an L-reg Rover 620 was wonderful (possibly the Honda influence), and the 09-plate Alfa147 Ducati Corse was a peerless and feisty joy to drive in the year I had the pleasure.  And I thraped that car!!!

[MJI]

And 180K miles. It looked and drove like a new car. Initially, bar the driver's door, the doors were very stiff to open and it was evident that it had never carried a passenger. A less honest dealer might have tried to pass it off as a 36K car. Most of the Vauxhalls have worn their old age better than the Fords.

 

170,000 and bores were like new, a GM V6, only issue was huge dent in side caused by a disintegrating BMW

[MJI]

I've had the convenience of using the other half's company mules for weekend chores over the past many years.  Each has gone back religiously before the first MOT fell due.

 

 and the 09-plate Alfa147 Ducati Corse was a peerless and feisty joy to drive in the year I had the pleasure.  And I thraped that car!!!

 

Why is Ducati mentiond in the middle of a car name?

 

Was it a Desmodronic V twin?

['CHARD]

Why is Ducati mentiond in the middle of a car name?

 

Was it a Desmodronic V twin?

 

No idea, I would have expected it to be badged as an Abarth, but it wasn't.

[APOLLO]

 

Brit15

[Tony_S]

Why is Ducati mentiond in the middle of a car name?

 

Was it a Desmodronic V twin?

A Limited Edition.

['CHARD]

 

Brit15

 

Better that than a new Ford publc*

 

 

* made from old Corsairs

Edited December 31, 2018 by 'CHARD

[alfsboy]

The only sensible car on the planet is  a Golf .All the rest are cheap copies.

[APOLLO]

A lady walks into a Volkswagen dealership. She browses around, spots the Top-of-the-line VW Golf and walks over to inspect it. As she bends over to feel the fine leather upholstery, she inadvertently breaks Wind. Very embarrassed, she looks around nervously to see if anyone has noticed her little accident and prays that a sales person doesn't pop up right now. As she turns around, her worst nightmare materializes in the form of a salesman standing right behind her. Cool as a cucumber and displaying complete professionalism, the salesman greets the lady With, "Good day, Madame. How may we help you today?" Very uncomfortably, but hoping that the salesman may just not have been there at the time of her accident, she asks, "Sir, what is the price of this lovely vehicle?" He answers, "Madam, if you farted just touching it, you are going to yourself when I tell you the price." 

 

Brit15

 

[jjb1970]

One of the more under rated cars I was familiar with was the gen 1 Nissan X Trail. Don't know about the current model but the first one was very car like on the road and a lot more capable off road than generally recognised. My employer had a group of them for engineers to go out to attend distribution assets in the field and they were very highly rated. Reliable, stood up to the abuse and the consensus of the guys who took them off road was that if the X Trail couldn't make it then there wasn't much chance anything else would. I drove them a bit on business as they had enough to use as pool cars when needed and thought they were very car like, comfortable and practical on road. They did however use more fuel than a regular estate car. The only thing I wasn't that struck on was the centre instrument cluster.

[jjb1970]

Here is quite an interesting website:

 

http://www.auto-decibel-db.com/

[NittenDormer]

Forget functionality. Nothing says retirement like a Nissan Micra.

[bbishop]

Guys & gals,

 

Something that you have all missed. The requirement to transport a model railway.

 

For which purpose the Skoda Yeti is superb. But for some reason it's been withdrawn. What alternatives?

 

Bill

[30801]

Guys & gals,

 

Something that you have all missed. The requirement to transport a model railway.

 

For which purpose the Skoda Yeti is superb. But for some reason it's been withdrawn. What alternatives?

 

Bill

Mercedes Sprinter.

 

More spare time = bigger railway.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Guys & gals,

 

Something that you have all missed. The requirement to transport a model railway.

 

For which purpose the Skoda Yeti is superb. But for some reason it's been withdrawn. What alternatives?

 

Bill

 

The new series 3 Citroen Berlingo, been completely de-vanified now.

 

Mike.

[Fenman]

... The DS line has rediscovered some of the old Citroën design flair, I had a DS5 and loved it.

 

Fascinating how tastes differ! When it was first launched I thought the DS brand was a great way for Citroen to p!** all over its design heritage - as the manufacturers of what most creative gurus think was one of the finest car designs of the 20th century. I still think DS models look either bog-standard or, where they differ (eg, the rubber bubbles on some of the body panelling*), wilfully ugly.

 

I write this as a lifelong Citroen fanboy - my last car from them was a glorious C5, a big-engined job with the oleopneumatic suspension (I would have got a C6, but they had just discontinued them). At the time I was spending half my life cruising up and down motorways and dual carriageways for work, and I don't think there was a machine more suited to that role - it was like wafting along on a high-speed luxury barge. The smaller-engined C5s with the steel suspension were not the same at all - and Citroen then went all-steel for the DS range, apparently to save costs.

 

They've said a replacement for the now-discontinued C5 will, eventually, reappear and, promisingly, they have stated that the Citroen brand means, above all, greater comfort. But I also recognise I'm an old fart, so if any magazine describes something as a "driver's car", I know it will have a painfully hard ride and will take far too much effort from me to drive the damn thing.

 

Equally, I changed lifestyles a couple of years back and the vast majority of my driving time is now spent on windy, bumpy, single-track Norfolk back roads, with a bit of green laning thrown in. The C5 was simply too huge to find easy parking spaces in tiny Norfolk villages and market towns, and it felt frankly insulting to be making such a civilised machine drive in such ugly conditions (and too low slung for me to relax). So I switched completely, to a Skoda Yeti. For 3 years now it's been pretty much the ideal piece of kit for my needs - for these terrible tiny roads, for parking where there is little space, and for transporting muddy dogs.

 

I suppose I think there is no "ideal" car - just cars which are more or less likely to give you what you need for any particular part of your life.

 

Paul

 

* Edit: me dumb - that's on Citroens!

Edited January 1, 2019 by Fenman

[doilum]

Guys & gals,Something that you have all missed. The requirement to transport a model railway.For which purpose the Skoda Yeti is superb. But for some reason it's been withdrawn. What alternatives?Bill

Houghton street was built to fit the astra estate. Two five foot boards with integral 18" backscenes all the other stuff its round. We even managed a small overnight case for the trip down to Telford, though this meant the passenger footwell wass full of stock. Wife less than impressed with the idea that clean underwear could be loose packed around the locos and insisted on a case.