Help me...

VW Beetle cabrio - if I wanted to cut the roof off a Skoda...

As for the 1 series - surely, better a rich mans vectra than a poor mans beemer?

Ohhh, I don't know. You'd get a good W124 for less.

Service costs are only marginally more than a 540i though tyres are a bit steep at £380/£420 f/r per axle.

Not a B10 but

is in budget and black... :)

Bills need not be too fierce if you make absolutely sure nothing important is broken...

Cooling, compression and cogs are the main worries beyond fastidious servicing.

[...]

Not sure, big bluff lump of iron and no manual option in the UK.

At least. H1 seems to be on an "of course we could build another" basis rather than having a list price.

[...]

Silly name for a shop in Selkirk!

A

mate used to work for a Fiat dealer in the heyday of the X1/9 - once took a customer out who was complaining about his car and spun it. Twice.

I want one.

Or this:

A

I'm considering the 1 series to be a car rather than a brand.

In fact, much the same as I am the Saab. I don't want a 'rich man's' or 'poor man's' anything, I want a car I like. I don't like 9-3s, I don't like Vectras, I certainly don't want a Post-GM Saab 9-3 and especially not one that looks like a 1988 Vauxhall Cavalier.

I'd rather have the Cadillac Bacon Lettuce Sandwich.

Richard

2 door, though. Siani would complain. What's the Touring model of that called again?

Richard

Less is the thing. If I get a W124 which isn't a cabriolet, I get the nicest 300TE I can get for the lowest price; probably around 1991ish for under £2K. I wouldn't spend £6K on it in a million years. However, it would potentially need rear suspension (few hundred, IIRC), could suffer a blown head gasket or similar malady without a warranty, and let me down. The reliability of a new car is reassuring.

Hell, I have a 1999 Subaru Outback after all. It's not been stellar.

Looks alright, but 3-series... 540i Touring would be more my thing, I think.

*nods* Cogs are the ones that scare me. Autoboxes can go with little warning, and I'd want an auto. I do like the idea of the 928 a lot, though...

You don't need a manual with a decent engine :D

Yeah. So, 300C and a 645Ci. Or a Bentley. Or something else.

The H1 makes less sense to me than a 116i ;)

Richard

Must have been going some to spin it! I spun mine once (well, 180d it twice in rapid succession), but in ice. Incredible car; I swear it tied itself to my synapses and drove through some sort of neural net.

Richard

Ahhh like a Hyundai?

No, a Stellar would have been another Hyundai. A car first, a badge second?

Isn't it the car the MR2 was designed to? Never managed to be as amazing to drive though.

X1/9 always felt like it had twice the power it really did.

Which reminds me - how did you get so many? If it's the obvious average of a car a month, that's not exactly building experience of ownership over a couple of years, is it?

Fortunately my preferred cars are lovely, cheap and reliable - and I believe Mr Payne may have one for sale :-)

cheers, clive

Right on.

K3wl. Wish everyone did. Unless it's a large 4X4, obviously.

C2 2.7 Touring.

:)

This is a *little* over budget, but local

I'd buy it from you in a few years. >8)

A

[...Richard6K...]

You want the 300TE-24 or the 320, not so much for the 4-valve motor but the 5-speed smart gearbox.

'bout £4-500 tops...

...for the lot.

A well looked after W124 will be as reliable as most new cars.

[...]

You'd get a late E34 with the adaptive box (which is *ace*) for less but not likely an E39.

The 4.0 M60 is a real rev monster compared to the 4.4 M62. :)

[...928...]

I'd imagine the placement of the box would make changes less grief, but I could be very wrong.

[...]

There are some amazing permutations on the IS shell - the US got the 3l with a manual, no-one else did - but the one off IS430 and the JDM Altezza RS200 are the only really interesting ones...

Doubt you'd get an Altezza RS200 anywhere near budget and an IS430 is hand knit only.

Yeah, like a house or two.

I believe that may be almost the *entire* point of the H1. :)

A

The 9-3 SS is actually a nice car. And I don't like what GM have done to Saab. They took the vectra floor pan/platform, fixed it and gave back. Then GM launched the "New" vectra just before the 9-3 SS and Convert.

I don't like the new V6 engine either, but at least it is a new US GM engine and not the Cav/Vectra Euro V6

Erm, at a guess, Alpina C2 Touring?

That's me told then! However, I suggest you try one of the new ones. You WILL be pleasantly surprised. Saab have definitely made the chassis their own, adding a quantity of rear-steer amongst other things. If your mind is on the old hatchback 9-3 then I'd totally agree with you, a horrible vehicle. Saab had already designed the replacement for the original

900 when at the last moment GM bought them, they had less than a year to redesign to fit cav/vectra underpinnings.

If you can't be persuaded/ prised from you teutonic boredom, the second link still stands as BSR offer the same untraceable power hikes for VAG (along with Volvo)

Go on, open your mind :-)

You want to buy? (c:

Douglas