What do you think of these...?

It'll be a 2.0 FSIT on a B5.5 shape.

been burned once before.

one" on your forehead.

Richard

(no thought ever)

Needs RWD

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

If only the boot aperture was a bit bigger...

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

(no thought ever)

Could be prettier, must borrow a 130i sometime. Hartge H1 looks a hoot...

A

Vamp, 4 months away and will be inshowrooms way before, if not already.

Oh yeah, and shorter than your ban ;)

->What do you think to the following cars?

->

To do what with ?

Ronny

I have an 04 Accord 2.0 Sport. It does everything that it should do very well, if a little bit boring. The boot is crap, and it's a saloon. The diesel is apparently fantastic, if a little bit more expensive. The Sport has a good spec; dual-zone climate control, cruise, half-leather. Avoid the pov-spec SE.

Oh, and the best standard ICE I've ever heard. :)

Nice car by all accounts, looks specc'd - Ugly arse though

Sexy looking hatch, but you KNOW it's gonna shit on you

Cupra/Cupra R good stuff,

Cupra R again, lot of car for the money, still a bit ugly even in R form.

Don't know much, looks quite "funky though"

Too expensive...?

yeah umm, average saloon, but it's a toyota!

Type R, nutter quick, but for looks... "you can't polish a turd(with a bodykit and wheels)"

Nice/interesting look (has a nice lovely cabin too), cheap, fast, and can fit 4 adults. I WANT ONE!

No idea

I change my mind on that depending on what picture I look at

Boring shape, good value second hand. W8 all the way :D

Nice looking (ish), essentially cheap for what you get - V6 is shit though.

Looks nice as an estate...errr

An improvement over the ugly original

Sport hatch ones are very sexy for a hatchback - the turbo looksd pretty quick too

yeah errr

Now, I never liked the 3 series compact, but I recently saw the 2 together and the 1'er makes the compact look positvely gorgeous. Oh, and it's not fast (mostly) and massively over priced.

Andy

This top portion of cars I like a lot.

This car I think is awesome! It might not be a BMW M3 or anything, but I still have wet dreams about it, especially if its in Arctic Blue and is the Exec spec with Ivory leather interior. I think the whole of this car looks amazing, and I intent to get one in about 2 years when I can get it cheap used.

I am going to get a car in the next few months, and I know I probably shouldn't but, the Alfa 147 is very addictive. I get hot under the collar when I see one, especially in Blue or Black. I know all the reports that they are expensive to insure, they always break down, and its difficult to get parts for, but.... just look at it! It's an Alfa! And its a 147! I would really love to know the opinion of is it Steve who is into his Alfas? What has been your experience as far as breakdowns and problems go with the Alfas you have owned?

I love this car. I think it is one of the best supermini hatches around. I think if the Alfa is the extravagant choice, this is the sensible one. A former Alfa designer had worked on this car, as well as the new Leon, Altea and Toledo.

I think this is completely hot to def! It has cameras built in it for petes sake, the back of it looks awesome as does the front especially the grill. And when the Cupra comes out it will rock even more! I'd chose the New Leon over the Golf any day. Even the basic models look good never mind waiting for the Cupra.

Again I like this car a lot. Apparently shares the same platform as the New Focus. I think it is a lot better though. It looks beefy mean and masculine. Looks good in Black or Winning Blue. On the downside I heard that the interior isn't too great and you don't get much as standard for your money, though it is cheap for its class.

I still like this a lot. It is starting to look dated, this is one of the few cars though where the 5 door hatch version I believe looks better than the 3 door. Also has good spec as standard. Air Con and computer on all models.

I think this is a quality car. I prefer the Accord, but if the Accord didn't exist I would go for this, if I was in the market for a saloon in this price bracket and class.

I know a lot of people don't like it but I think it's the best one ever, well the 3 door is, the 5 door I can't stand. Roomy as well for a small hatch.

Best coupe (of sorts!) on the road today. Is it a coupe? I think it isn't 100% coupe. I think Mazda is one of the best car manufacturers around at the moment. The Mazda 3, 6, and the RX-8 all blow me away especially this one. And despite not having the power of some coupes higher up the ranks and some supercars, when they tested it on Top Gear it went around their tracks extremely quickly! I know it only has a small engine, but it was right up there with BMWs and everything, and it looks incredible to drive!

I like the Colt a lot. The 3 and 5 door versions are both good. The 3 door looks like a cross between a Peugeot 206 and the rear of an Alfa

147. The 5 door is a bit strange. It's MPVish in looks, bigger than most superminis, but too small to be in the same bracket as a Golf etc. Still a nice modern car that feels spacious. I have a feeling these may prove more popular with female drivers, but I still like it nonetheless.

This middle section I am undecided on

As Andy mentioned about this car he has a different opinion each time he sees it, I also can't make up my mind. With the Civic, Honda seem to go in a completely different direction each time they update it. This time they have gone less MPVish and for more of a sporty look. I think I will still prefer the current version to this one. One thing about Honda though, they always have dodgy colours! The hybrid Insight thing they brought out, a lot came in a disgusting limey colour. Some of the new Civic prototypes I saw in a sickly orangey brown colour. It must be a Japanese thing. Isn't this car built in the UK though, for the European market? Some one should have a word with the Honda top brass.

I think boring from the front, looks okay from the side and back. A good car to buy a few years old. Its boring though, but I like it well sort of!

I think it looks good, but there is just something missing. Perhaps it really is a poor mans Ferrari? I can't decide on this car quite what I think. What is it trying to be?

I didn't like the first Laguna, but I like this a lot, and I also think the Estate looks great. Ronny - When you mention the electrical nightmare what do you mean?

This bottom list of cars I don't like.

I think the first Focus is a lot better than this. I'd never personally buy a Focus, but the first one was a quality car and spot on. This new Focus, I just think it looks like a Vauxhall Astra from four generations back (20 years)!

I agree the sporty one looks hot, is it the czr are something? What label do they give it? On the whole though I just plain don't like it. It is a boring plain dull car.

At first I liked both the 5 door and coupe versions of these, but since I have recently looked at pictures of them again, and seen some on the streets, I think that already they have that "yesterdays look" about them. You do get a lot of equipment, but I don't know, they're French cars and I think they are just lifeless and lacking in style.

Don't like it at all. I don't see the point to it.

Will BMW also do a 2 series? Or have they done that already? Mini, 1 series, 3 series, 5, 6, 7, 8, hang on, is there a 4 series? BMW just plain confuse me.

I don't understand the way they number their cars. It is probably out of complete ignorance and never having read up on BMWs much before. I have only just figured out that for example the 520 means it is a 5 series with a 2.0 litre engine. Even that throws me sometimes. I am sure I have seen BMWs and the last 2 digits that I thought referred to engine size, I have discovered that the engine size was completely different. Think I need a BMW expert in here to explain it to me.

I have got to admit though since I started posting in this group, I have been tempted to just shelve out on a used 5 or 8 series, 7+ year old one, that has done 100k+. It's not a sensible choice for my situation, but I do like the idea of a BMW, and it is a car that you can do stuff to like the paint job and a number of mods. Some regular cars they just, well you just, would look a complete t**t if it was modded and given the paint job. There are only a few regular cars that look good modded IMO.

At the moment I keep looking at 2 or 3 year old Ibizas. I then look at

147s. Then I look at Civics. Then at Mazda 3s, Then I look at the Accord. Then I look at 100k+ BMWs. What choice will I eventually make? Who knows. I don't even know myself yet. Dam.

Thanks for all your input by the way. It has been helpful.

John

[snip]

Hehehehehehe.

Yawn. Sensible.

Not as a first car.

Hmmmmm.

Yawn. Trying too hard.

Awful rear light treatment.

Cars you're given, not that you buy.

Car you buy in your dotage.

Car that needs a new engine every 60,000 miles.

Yeuck.

Dunno.

Irrelevance on wheels.

Superb.

French.

Top banana.

Nearly top banana.

Manages to look different but feel the same. Will probably depreciate like a stone. A car to convert clueless people to diesels.

Undecided until the drive.

It's RWD. That's the point. But people will buy it because of the badge, regardless.

The general theory with the latest crop is that odd numbers are for saloons, even numbers for coupes. Obviously the 1 series is a hatchback, not a saloon, but the rest (3/5/7) are. Only coupe to be released so far in the current crop is the 6 series (based on 5).

That's the theory, but they made the badges imply that the engine is smaller. Like the 323i/523i (2.5 litre), 316i (1.8 litre) etc. Maybe it's so a 316i compares more favourably to a 1.6 Mondeo or something.

[...]

It's smaller than a 3er. :)

They might.

Nope.

...Rolls Royce.

Not yet.

'snot complicated.

Odd series numbers, 1-3-5-7 are (roughly) saloons and evens, (2)-(4)-6-8, coupés...

...or something.

The last two numbers get bigger as the spec improves and /roughly/ map to engine size. There are anomalies like *23i being a detuned 2.5l and

*35d being a 3.0 with sequential turbos but in general the bigger the number the better.

is where I learned most.

8ers are not really a budget option, 5ers or 7ers can be very inexpensive though.

Why not? A 100k+ Beemer or Merc is not expensive to run though it can be wise to have a contingency fund in case it does something expensive or too many consumables give up at the same time - if your budget is £7k buy a £5.5k car and bank £1.5 and you are covered.

Subtle is good.

You'll either choose a BMW or make a mistake.

:)

A

Well Renaults are renowned for electrical problems, especially the older Laguna's, my bro in law had a S reg and it was nice and comfy but always in the garage, little niggly problems that would not go away :(

If I had to choose one of those cars it would be the Toyota Avensis, it is just so well put together, when you look at it, all the lines look perfect, it's got to be the most quality built car on the road today.

The New Accord does look very nice as well.

Needs to be, to get over the drooooooooone of the engine.

;-)

It's the Volvo 340 of it's Generation, a BMW for people who can't afford or handle a proper full size one.

How long before we see tartan blankets and tissue boxes on the parcel shelves of 1 series Boomers, now that Volvo are a bit too young and trendy.

Heh - Volvo C70 GT has that covered. Dynaudio 10 speaker system, switch in the console so the rear passengers can turn off the subs....

i drove an avensis at work, was a 1.8 auto and i expected it to be so sluggish like most auto boxes but it just upped and went! scared the crap outta me as my brain was screaming 'DON'T PANIC IT'S A 1.8 AUTO IT AINT FAST!' but my eyes was seeing a lot of car park ground being covered quite rapidly! :)