Fun to drive cars other than BMW

Forget the Acura. Here's the perfect car for you, if you cab find one for a reasonable price:

They were made from recycled Russian waste, and the waiting list to get one then was about 20 years. I hear they were fun to drive and they only had one dial. So there's not much electronics to worry about.

I was at an audio convention a year or so ago, discussing the old Lada I once owned with a fellow from East Germany, and it turned out that he was a Trabant racer and there is a large Trabant racing contingent in Germany still.

He said the Trabant was the most reliable car in the world, because it has nothing to fail. No valves, no radiator, no fuel tank. It's all perfectly reliable.

His assistant broke in, saying "Well... sometimes they catch fire." And he admitted that yes, you have to carry a fire extinguisher around, but other than that it's a very reliable car.

--scott

That said, the Trabi _is_ kind of fun to drive. I would not want one for my daily 150-mile commute, though.

>

If it doesn't pull 6 feet to the left when you brake hard, it will at least be an improvement on the old model ;-)

To the original question though, I have an Audi A4 for the weekend (2007 quattro, auto transmission) and I have to say it is a lot of fun for a sedan. Can't say that you'd have any less repairs on it than a BMW though...

They are not cheap to get nowadays. Collectors pay top money for them. I remember when the wall came down, you'd see these gits in their trabis on the autobahn, There were even a few cases where a trabi would make a U-turn, after having missed the exit, and got trashed head on. Not only were they driving 2 cycle engines on the autobahn, they also had this East-European driving style which started to get a living model of Darwin's theory. Of course they quickly got banned from driving on public roads, but boy, in the first few months when they were out-and-about, it was rather scary on the autobahn.

In the UK it was usually similar when a new bit of motorway opened - the local yokels would venture out on them in their old bangers and their driving varied from inconsiderate (outside lane hog ; middle lane owners club etc.) to the dangerous (carving off to exits; *pulling out without looking*, stopping on slip roads, pulling off hard shoulder at 1mph etc.) to fatal lunacy (e.g. pushing cars on the carriageway, turning back or reversing up slips).

Perhaps the worst case was the when the M25 opened between the M1 and the M4 & M40. Suddenly you had people who had hardly ever driven on a motorway and probably never should mixing with a huge population of hardened speedsters (90+ in those pre scamera days). There were two appalling cases where people pushed fuelless cars either around another on fire on the hard shoulder (artic => 2 RIP, 2SI) or out of a coned area on the outside lane (several vehicles => 1 RIP, 2SI), not to mention animals and insecure loads making it across the central reservation!

I guess the West Germans came of better in the head ons - S-Class or

7-Series v. small plastic car with tiny lightweight two stroke engine - typically while the Trabant will be a total write off the other car will still be drivable...

Er? When do these constant breakdowns happen. All my BMW have been very reliable. However, can I suggest that you troll the other maker's newsgroups before suggesting that BMW break down. The fact is that the other makes - GM and all variants in UK & Euroland inc USA coupled with FORD and Chrysler have far more constant problems that BMW or Mercedes (Oops!)

Hugh

I'm sure they thought the Fiesta, Escort, Scorpio, and Sierra were good cars too. The British are a bit...'special'...

I've seriously considered replacing my '92 535 with an early 2000's A4Q. Not so much because I don't like the BMW, it's just that I want something newer. Unfortunately, the A4's need new control arms on a regular basis, which are not cheap. Though, the quality feel inside is spectacular, better than equal aged BMW's. The thing is that the A4 will cost me more money, insurance and deprecation, and probably won't be more reliable in next couple of years anyway. I've had no expensive problems at all, although the injectors need replacing very soon and new tires will be needed after next summer. Not to mention, I have a '90 E34 as a parts car...

Ulf

Crikey. Name one half decent US car of this type made today - let alone years ago. There isn't one.

Until the mid 80's UK Fords were typically cramped and undergeared, even the early 80's fwd Escort was a bit of a let down with its 'bunny hop' suspension, however things changed with the introduction of the hatchback Granada in ~1985. Spacious, with reasonable engines gearboxes and handling they were the first mass market car to have ABS on all models. Ford would be overtaken by GM in most model areas within five years, but for a brief period in the mid 80's probably had the best mass market cars on the market. Then there was the BL rubbish.

BMW 3, 6 and 7 series were vastly superior to their Ford and GM cousins, with only the rather long in the tooth E28 5 series letting the marque down.

The only problems I've had with mine, in 6 years, are sensors. A cam-position sensor (fixed under warrentee), and now a flakey ABS sensor and an oil-level sensor that sometimes reports low when it's really not. Odd, since there's not much to go wrong with these kinds of sensors...

Supposedly the auto transmission fail frequently.

I don't think you will find it as much fun on winding roads, but you can always try and and see if you like it.

I have now owned a 2003 325i (manual transmission) for over 100K miles. Many things have gone wrong with it (fuel sending units, power window motor, several bulb failures, ignition rods, air conditioner front unit, control arm bushing). By contrast, my previous car, a 1998 Honda Civic (also a manual transmission) had ZERO problems -- I had never taken it in for anything other than scheduled maintenance over the ~125K miles that I owned it.

I could never put up with so many problems if I didn't absolutely enjoy driving the car. I have not tried the TSX, but I have also tried the RSX which, although quite sporty, didn't feel quite as right as the BMW. I can't think of another car (in this price range) that I would want to be driving.

I wish they were more reliable and always evaluate other options as they come available, but I don't seem to like any. I recently tried the IS250 and didn't like that either...but if you're looking for an auto you might like that one.

Anoop

It's not as much fun as a 3-series, but it's not bad. It handles pretty well considering it has front wheel drive. It's ALSO full of automatic stuff that is going to break, though.

To be honest, I was surprised that the Mazda Speed 6 was kind of fun to drive, although again it still handles like a front wheel drive vehicle.

--scott

Glad to see you're agreeing with me. You do know Ford is an American co., don't you..? With that said, I'm trying to come up with a half decent British car, but I can't because I can not even come up with a British car company...

Ulf

Last Top Gear episode was fun (as always) to watch. Compared to those cars maybe Fords were a leap forward, but that's not exactly saying much...

Ulf

True. No major UK owned company. Sold off after they made unsustainable losses. Doesn't appear to have harmed the UK economy - quite the reverse. Perhaps you should ponder on that.

Actually, the most fun I ever had driving a car was with a Morgan. The MGB was plenty of fun too.

Not sedans, and a whole lot less reliable than the worst car BMW ever made... probably less reliable than the worst car Ford ever made too... but fun...

--scott

Hey, this may be really random, but go to :

The only thing I'm pondering is why you're taking all this so personal. It's not a surprise German car companies are successful while British aren't.

Ulf