So what does the panel think then?

Yeah, but I was thinking of the top gear arctic drive special with the silly balloon tyre when I posted that.

So either find one with it done, or find one that hasn't and get the price knocked right down. I know of an independant garage that could do that no problems.

I knew they definitely was in the XM, wasn't too sure about the other 2.

Bit a large, old diesel is never gonna give amazing economy. Probably still halfing the fuel costs compared to the Celsior?

Don't seem that pricey. Ebay reveals a few going for £1800 BIN, so I bet you could get for for a lot less than that.

Exactly!

It is the best option though. The kind of houses I could afford close to work are in the kind of places you wouldn't want to live.

I think it is a non intercooled VAG 5 pot.

960TDs got an intercooler. Prone to head cracking if not serviced on exactley by the book, but capable of huge power like the mechanical injection mercs with big turbos and tweaks to the pump head.

I'd be taking the motorbike option then. Nowhere near as nice as sitting in a nice warm car, but at least it'd be a lot faster.

There is no such thing as rush hour any more. I was commuting 100 miles to a site during the summer (could've had a hotel, but my own bed, mileage and paid driving time is better), and was leaving the house around half 5 IIRC. Any later than that and the M1 was already getting as busy as it normally is during the middle of the day. For proper traffic, you need to be on the M1 anywhere between half 6 and 8:45.

sort the suspension and keep it, he won't though as we all know elder and he seems to get bored quickly with cars and find any fault to get an excuse to change it. personally for £800 quid i'd keep it till it stopped passing MOT's

Carl is not as bad as me for changing cars. My missus pointed out I've had 7 cars since we got married... in december last year!!

Mike P

The 406 is widely loved by the taxi community, at least in part due to the fact that they rarely break down in serious ways.

OTOH, if you want to run chip fat, then you probably want to get the old-skool 1.9TD (XU9DT) engine, 'cos the newer common rail HDI pumps are quite a bit more fussy, and a *lot* more expensive to fix. The problem with that is that the 406 is a heavy car and with the 1.9TD, is really quite slow. There is scope for tuning, but not as readily as for the HDi.

I'm not really sure why chip fat is important, given that it'll be costing you half what the lexus does, even running on pump diesel.

If I were you, I'd look at a 2.2HDi - very nice engine; uber torquey, and quite tuneable.

I'm not sure what you mean by toys exactly, or what the 406 offered, but the 406 is pretty well screwed together - I didn't notice it being significantly worse than the B5 passat I had; there were no squeaks or rattles of note at 120k, and it was both rather more comfy and vastly nicer to drive than the passat.

2.2 HDi remaps to 180bhp IIRC as well.

JackH will be along in a minute to say his 406s were shitboxes hehe, but my experience of them has been like yours, very well made and no major faults to speak of. Even the Coupe's built by the Italians seem ok heh!

I'd like a 406 Coupe 2.2 HDi if I was commuting or doing big miles.

Bah, rubbish. They are much better built than the general recycled wisdom suggests. They're pretty tough things really. Rusty reluctor rings on the abs and leaky air-con are about the worst problems to be expected. 30 minutes with a wire brush will sort the first, and using the windows sorts the second... :-)

I'd have another - the only thing I've had since mine which has had a better combination of reliability, comfort* and handling is the primera, but you can't get that with a decent diesel engine.

*ride comfort - the 405 had rather better seats

Screw the panel.

A) Keep the celsior and run it on gas. B) Get whatever you want.

If you want to run on oil though.

XM Turbodiesel. I had an XM, it was reliable and it was the unreliable series 1. Only people who haven't had one don't understand. W124 turbodiesel Some sort of smaller Toyota diesel.

Basically, get whatever you want and then tell us all about it. Some will like it, some won't. Tough.

Bike ? Yep - great idea. You can't beat being knocked off by a myopic bitch pulling out in front of you when all you wanted to do is get to work. Then there's the weather......

It might be just him! ;) I often do 260 miles a day in my 306, spending about 5 hours in the car in total and have never had any problems. Also, I'm 6'2 and legroom isn't an issue either, though with my upright seating position, if I haven't cut my hair for a while and it's spiky it does tend to rub on the roof lining a bit!

The only downside of my car is that bloody fuel pump. I wish I'd known before I bought it, then I'd have hunted around for one with a Bosch, but I'd still have bought a 306.

Peugeot 605 2.5 Turbo Diesel?

Jaysus. And the Supra was a heavy old tank even then...

I much preferred the Carlton GSi. Same power, same weight, same fuel consumption *but* you also had room for 5 big adults inside and three bodies in the boot.

There's always that possibility. There's always one, and usually, it's me.

However... I'm fine in Fords, Vauxhalls, Alfas, Renaults, Citroens, Volvos, Skodas, Kias, Nissans, Landrovers and a whole heap of others.

And without fail in half a dozen different Puggots I've had backache.

Maybe I'm just weird*

Because if I'm going to run on dirty oil, not loverly petrol, I want it to cost me a quarter, not half.

I've just gotten used to electric windows, sunroofs, sometimes seats, sometimes steering adjustment, heated seating, mirror adjust and defrosting, air con. I'm not fussed about things like "driver aids", the most I've ever had is TRC and ABS. I don't miss things like stability control because I've never had them.

On a really good day, 45mins to 1 hour. On a normal day, about 1.5hours. On a bad day 2hours. Worst day was leaving at 5.30pm, not getting home until 8.45pm. No motorway closures, no fatalities, just some multiple pileups closing the odd lanes.

One lane on the A57(M), 3 car crash but no closure M602, 5 car smash on the other direction on the M62 causing a minor bump in lane 3 to close from slow motion rubberneckers no braking in time.

I see at least one multiple each day.

Lucida Emina/Estima

Somehow I can't help fancying a mid engined 4x4 turbodiesel on veg oil.