Looking at a different car

It's still mine, all mine........ and it's lifespan depends on the results of it's MOT in a couple of months time.

Heh. I hope you're not aiming that one at me...... I drive what I drive out of choice, not because it's all I can afford. There's several of us on here like that.

I've driven probably more cars than you've ever seen, and the CLK, while looking quite nice, isn't very well built at all. I could have easily bought my brothers ex company CLK 230K last year but didn't, because it was a truly unimpressive car. The CLK 270 is a much nicer drive.

I drive my old, cheap, 260E Mercedes because it has build quality that 95% of the cars on the road can only dream about, handles well, is cheap to run, bombproof, classy and comfy.

and doesn't handle that well.

Ditto.

I quite like the looks of the CLK, they look rather nice in black.

C70 is a nice car to drive as long as it's not the T5 one. The 2.5 LPT one is a very nice, quick cruiser.

Pah. Audis are just jumped up VWs.

I want a Mk1 Granada 3.0 next, so I can't comment.

Also one of the best built cars of all time. The 107 series was utterly indestructible.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net, Sleeker GT Phwoar decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

He has to contend with BogTrotter tax.

The Oirish get it up the arse on car tax.

'...and no-one wanted to buy it.'

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, JackH decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

If I *really* wanted to sell it, it'd be gone.

Thank you. Someone else who appreciates what changes a fashionable car into a true classical car

agreed i like them, i love the fact it's 20 feet long and still 2 door :)

10k sod that then go way OTT on the looks and get a supra i would :)

this one looks like my mates dad's, looks proper sweet in the bright summer days :)

almost out blings my MR2 turbo :)

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net, Sleeker GT Phwoar decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

SL500 doesn't exactly hang about.

But that applies to all large coupes, including mine !

Clearly that's a lie :)

That's not really a plus-point though. I'm struggling to think of any "classics" that I'd care to own...

Heh - an Audi TT is a "Cool" car :)

No, Audi TT is a fashionable car. Being Cool and being Fashionable are two totally different entities entirely.

Most cool cars are cool, purely because they aren't fashionable.

One time in the carpark at work, one of the secretaries had he very posey, totally stunning, very loaded sisters visiting her.

In a car park stuffed with Beemers, Mercs, Nu-Beetles, Audi S and A3's and an S6, Porsches and a Ferrari, sat my little battered Beige Skoda Estelle.

We were outside having a smoke at lunch and talking cars. As usual the sales drones took the piss out of what I said (not thinking I know a thing about cars because of my choice of transport (i.e. not a beemer)), she turned to me and said "so which do you drive", "that" I said pointing at the mongrel, "Wow, that is so cool, and old Skoda" she said. And spent the next 10 mins talking to me, and ignoring the others, they were gutted. Apparentley, they had all been trying to chat her up for most of the morning and showing off their motors, and getting nowhere.

Cool is a state of being, not a fashion statement.

I used to have one, beige it was too... and I can assure you, it was not cool. It was cheap transport, albeit one that wasn't particularly reliable, and nothing more.

And an Estelle never will become 'cool' in the same way as an old Mini, a Morris Minor, a Beetle, a Fiat 500, or a 2CV, all of which started out in life as 'cheap transport', because whilst it is a step away from the norm in as much as it has the engine in the wrong end, it has no style, no grace, no pace... all of the others have charm of one description or another, in this respect; the Estelle is a not particularly remarkable product of the 80s, that ended up echoing the Morris Ital from the front, post facelift...

Merely being a relative rarity, does not make something 'cool' - being viewed as 'cool' by some pretentious bint does not make it 'cool', either, but it's always helpful if she sees it that way, if you were hoping to slip her a length.

Your misguided philosophy in this respect, is the same as the one that has spawned a 1000 'enthusiast' clubs and forums, on the net... ;-)

Then it wasn't looked after, a year of maintaining (ie checking oil,=20 water tyres, and some neglect replacement, it never broke down once)

You are ofcourse correct, it was a crap product of the 80's, being that=20 it was concieved in the facelifted in the 80's, originally launched in=20 the early 70's, based on the mechanics of a car launched in the 1960's=20 with a body restyle, powered by an evolution of an engine concieved in=20 the 1950's and was still in production, and use in Skodas, Seats, and=20 VWs until 2 years ago, when the new VW comissioned, Skoda designed and=20 built engine replaced it.

Actually, with the exception of the Mini, even the most Basic Estelle=20 could run rings arround all the cars you mentioned except in=20 acceleration. And the parts were and still are available to change that.

To look at the Skoda Estelle as having no grace is just wrong, unless=20 you have never looked at the actual quality of the alloy work, and=20 casting of the cars. They were properly engineered under extreme=20 conditions of the political environment.

No but being the choice of car in a Vodafone advert, and a prodigy=20 video, and the rise of Czech production companies and their choice of=20 fun "peoples car". Also as most "Cool" people today don't know what one=20 looks like, and only know Skoda jokes from memory, when they see one,=20 especially a Rapid, or an S110R, they ask questions like, is it a=20 Porsche (the S110r), or I love your VW (the rapid).

There is only one official skoda owners club. It has a strong following=20 for the old and new cars, and has no affiliation with Skoda UK (Skoda GB=20 as it used to be before the VW intervention was happy to hear our=20 concerns as much as praises), as they didn't like us writing bad things=20 about their cars when it was true (old and new).

The club has members who have never owned the old ones, and it has=20 members who have tried all, and are quite happy to potter into work at=20

80 in their Rapid, and have no need for the 130MPH potential of an=20 Octavia or Fabia vRS. Some guys use their old models for National level=20 motorsport (Rally, Rallycross, grasstrack, classic trials), and have=20 quite easily tuned the engines for over 100BHP (in a 750kg car once=20 stripped), and in most cases kept them road legal, for just a few=20 hundred instead of a few thousand pounds. Most of them are totally=20 gutted about the new found "Coolness" of old rear engined Skodas,=20 because it means, instead of buying cars for pennies, or even being=20 given them, because the main dealer would no longer support them, a good=20 solid Rapid will fetch close to =A31k, a Rapid Cabrio will fetch upwards=20 of =A32500 in mint, and =A32k+ in solid but rough condition, and an MOTless= =20 rusted out but running S110R will get =A38-900. The rarer S100/110/1000=20 series saloons have gone from being scrappers only to being silly money.

--=20 "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf" The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.

Yes it was - it had full history with it, and started to show its true colours within a week of me buying it.

The two year old Estelle that my father had in 1982, which was fully main dealer serviced the whole time he had it, still fell to pieces at around 60k miles.

On mine, the throttle cable snapped (helps if it's made from something more substantial than cotton...), it did its head gasket and consequently warped the head to the point, and did all manner of other s**te every time we ventured a bit further than normal to the extent I offloaded it and bought a much older 1.3 Maestro of all things, that was far more reliable, roomy and economical...

...and they really are *s**te*!

IIRC, the Estelle first appeared on these shores in 1979... the same year as the Mk1 Astra, which funnily enough, unless you have a 1.8 GTE, no-one appears to be in a hurry to save from a deserved death... and which was a vastly superior machine - cost more, until you factored in the depreciation.

That's the thing with some pikeys... the year of registration matters more to them above all, than what they've actually got to drive for the next few years, or how much wedge they're actually likely to get back on it, when the time comes to get the latest pikey express, comes along.

Hence why abortions like the Kia Rio now sell in their droves, even though they're another heap that depreciates that much faster, and as my neighbour found out recently in the case of their T plate Shuma when the gearbox went FUBAR, horrendously dear to maintain when it comes to major components such as that.

...by Renault.

Just because it was used for so long, doesn't make it overly *good*.

It's a design prone to slaughtering the head when the head gasket invariably goes, for one thing.

A clue: Skodas tended, at least in the era of the Estelle, to be that much cheaper to buy than most other vehicles available, and offered, at least on paper, cheap motoring for the masses... at least they did up until you factored in the huge depreciation factor.

The Rapid granted, is desireable even to me - especially if I could find a Fiat Twin Cam to lob in at the same time... but you were discussing a saloon in one of the worst colours that did, as 'cool'... :-P

*shakes head*

It's not all about acceleration...

It's about how it feels when you're driving it, how it handles, what it looks like... a beige Estelle is neither stylish, definitely doesn't handle, is unremarkable in terms of performance, and is plain 80s tat, and is certainly not exciting to drive.

The others all tend to have a redeeming feature or two, to justify being referred to as 'cool', or a 'classic'... the Estelle at least in saloon form, is bereft of any style or charm.

Yes, you will say this, given you are an 'enthusiast', albeit a mis-guided one.

They're s**te - based upon mid 20th century Renault designs. The one saving grace of the Estelle, is they did do a good line in rustproofing compared to the others I listed, at least in terms of the shell - the panels seemed to rot quite freely

You forget I've had one... others in my family have had them too, and whilst not the most unreliable cars we've ever had, they're not 'cool', they're no 'classic', and they're not particularly remarkable in any sense other than how amazing it is, that so many dense pikeys went out and bought something so inferior for its time, purely because it meant they got to have a nice new registration attached to the front of it.

They do that if the dealer skimps on greasing at the servicing.