Why do other drivers feel inferior to a BMW driver?

I suspect that's the right answer. Using hire cars relatively often I see the bad side of "prestige" marques quite often. The droid behind the countr hands over keys and says "we've upgraded your car" and my heart sinks. I think the low point was the BMW 520d, which was approximately as s**te as the Daewoo Matiz. Neither car had enough power to join the motorway safely and neither of them could maintain 130km/h when crossing the Apenines. My big, lardy, Ford does the journey without even droppin out of overdrive the 520 had to ascend hills in second gear. When I went to visit a neighbour I had to change down to first to climb the road leading to his house.

The Audi A4 estate thing I was given was better as far as power to weight goes, but as an estate goes it was a stupid, badly designed farce. I also object to cars where the designer thinks "ooh black is so kewl let's make it all black inside".

I agree with him, and putting a small engine into the 5-series is real insanity.

ISTR one of the 'proper' Mini engineers commenting when he saw the "new" Mini "If we'd wanted to make it that big, the job would have been easy."

I wonder how much the directory service paid BMW for one particular model, all I ever see is, 118, 118, 118, 118.

See, there you go. Used to be the ultimate driving machine, now merely requires a user.

Come back when you can handle a car without ABS, SRS, GPS, TCS, EBA, LSD, SMG, and DVD. Then a driver might take you seriously as more than a user. Definition of a user, someone who owes money to and needs to keep sweet with a dealer.

That's not the fault of the designer

That's the fault of the f****it ticking the trim boxes.

It's not the person ticking trim boxes that makes every single switch, control and indicator light be black by default. Same school of design as Braun. "Let's make a little black box", OK is that a razor, clock, recorder, camera? "Who cares? Black is good."

Personally, I prefer it that way.

It's much better than the current thinking that coating everything in

1980s boom-box silver is 'cool'. Especially when combined with blue tinted and bevelled perspex, which just makes the interior look like the cheap hi-fi shelf in Currys.

Yes, Toyota, I'm particularly thinking of you....

And it'd rust, leak and rattle, but still be cool.

Which A3 do you have?

One of my current temptations is the 3 door 2.0TDI-170 Sport with flappy paddles.

That's another option for me - well, kind of, I could have a 120d ES with SMG (the BMW flappy paddle thing).

But they look so stupid, it doesn't matter how well they drive.

I've never understood complaining about black and/or dark interiors. 'Gloomy' is the usual word used. I like dark, understated interiors too. Can't be doing with the silver, or wood panels, come to that.

Someone I worked with had a Supra. It was known o everyone else as "the Black Hole of Calcutta" because it was decorated inside only in soot-black. No other colour visible anywhere from the passenger seat. Even the windows were dark tints.

None, any more. I had a 1999 TDI 110. Currently I've got a Fabia vRS, which is nice. Not as plush, but for the money it's a good car. Economical, fast enough, handles OK (bearing in mind it's a VAG FWD Diesel hatch!). The A3 was nice. I know that 'it's just a Golf 4 you pay too much for', but I really liked it, and beyond servicing & a cambelt change it probably only cost a few hundred quid in repairs for 50k miles- and did 48-50 mpg pretty much all the time.

If I had the money or a company car allowance, I'd be there- well there or Golf V. I want a DSG or auto car really- my left leg starts aching in heavy traffic, and the Fabia's clutch is by no means heavy. Problem is, I need diesel for the economy, and I need a smallish car as my drive is short. That limits the choice, and really I just want to stay with VAG, because I'm a fanboi.

I'm not keen on the styling, or the attitude of some people to a BMW on the road, but I wouldn't say they looked stupid. Just a bit over-styled.

EEEW!

I must admit I don't like dark/black interiors, and gloomy is a term I've used to describe them. They do appear to have been fashionable for quite a while now, but lighter and brighter colours seem more appealing, to me at any rate.

I wonder what difference the various interior treatments have on drivers' general feelings and moods etc., and hence their attitude and behaviour at the wheel.

Best wishes all, Dave.

The first car that made me conscious of this effect was a Ford Capri, which, with the somewhat restricted headroom in the back, made it feel quite claustrophobic.

Best wishes all, Dave.

I'm not a fan of silver tat, which unfortunately the Passat has (mind you, it's a fake turned aluminium stuff, not spray on boom-box silver) - I definitely prefer the darker colours.

However, the easiest way for a manufacturer to give the interior a lift, when they've fitted a black dash, seats and carpets, is to use a light grey headlining - which is something VAG appear to do these days.

I may be the only person posting to AAB who ever owned both a Chevette and a Vega GT (or my wife did -- I had Alfa Duettos and a Fiat 124 Spider). And you know what? They weren't that bad, compared to cars of the time. Especially my bro-in-law's Pinto.

-- Larry

Chris Bartram (Chris Bartram ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Compare apples with apples. There's no way a 2.0 petrol auto A3 would average 50mpg. Not a chance.

pltrgyst (pltrgyst ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

You know what? Your (Chevy) Chevette was completely different to ours (Vauxhall).

Ours was a piece of crap. Oh, wait, maybe yours wasn't that different after all.