Which Car to get advice

Oh, agreed, yes.

But the Passat is very good at getting me to and from work - performance without having to think about it, IYSWIM.

Averaged 58mph door-to-door in it this morning. Not bad when you take into account the 30, 40 and 50 limits en route :-)

Yes.

I'm not sure of the relevance of the statement nor of the accuracy either. Did you miss the word "Vectra" and see "Alfa Romeo." Did you not read "high gear slogger" and think that I supposed the 1.8T needs caning?

You tell me, Mr. Cinquecento-Sporting-Has-Lots-Of-Room-In-It-And-Is-Quick.

You seem to think the average hot hatch could catch me out in it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You'll note that not only do I have a couple of cars, but also a couple of bikes. Even the s*it one will outrun most cars away from the lights.

Given the choice of CityRover or bike, I know which one I'd take. Every time.

That's a bit of a wriggle, eh?

So why don't you commute to work on a bike, then?

You obviously know f*ck all about the running costs of a big bike, or you wouldn't ask that question.

Trafalgar square car park (congestion charge receipt) 16:05. London Gateway

Volvo Rocks.

Lol - 30 mpg and 300 quid tyres every 2000 miles...

Not far off.

They're £170 a pair.

Oil and filter every 4k miles (not expensive, say 30 quid), air filter every 8k miles (25 quid), chain and sprockets every 10-15k miles (100 quid), valve clearances every 16k miles.... the list goes on.

When I was commuting around 50 miles / day, I took the bike every time (had something a little more sensible on consumables at the time), but at 100 miles / day there's no way I'd use a big sports or sports-touring bike.

I did Ystrad Mynach to Manchester at an average of 78mph just after Christmas. This included a couple of stops at the services.

It's easy to get high averages on dual carriageway / motorways, but I'm really struggling to beat the 60mph average on my commute.

One day, I may get a totally clear run and do it. But I've been trying for over a year now and still haven't managed it :-(

getting 40 mpg out of mine at the mo, and only just had a set of tyres just after I bought it.

Just seen my first one today. Was sitting in a restaurant wondering what the little red car with the preposterously long name badge on the back was. It was out of focal range. When I left for the carpark it was still there. The lettering probably accounts for 1/2 the value and weight of the damn thing !!

I never did manage to do Llangurig to Aberystwyth in 25 minutes. I got surprisingly close to it in a 1300cc Maestro, so it would be pretty easy in the Civic, but I expect that road now has more reduced limits and speed cameras than you can shake an RPG launcher at.

A bike-owning mate used to have a fast two stroke. He reckoned it did

His driving license had seen a bit of ink, mind.

Well that journey is 220 miles, across peak time, average 65 mph ish, and about 24mpg. Car will do better MPG but not with my right foot. And no, it wasn't a steady 85mph.

That can't be right. Once or twice maybe, but sometimes you just know what is going on ;-) The A4 guy was funny - we were neck and neck, and he looked over in like surprise.

But this wasn't from 0mph. I put it down to that 2nd gear acceleration was basically the same in both cars, even if one did have 35bhp more.

Probably a great engine for low down power, but not exactly blazing performance.

Correct. So for the cheap price you get lots. That is value.