Yes another What car post!!!

get the jap import supercharger at 150bhp :)

oh she didn't car bout speed and engines and all that though huh.

Er, yes, it is.

:)

But still absolute pants !

But still absolute pants, especially when compared with the nice new HDi/TDCi lump found in lil Fords/Pugs/Citroens these days.

...and it's a Vauxhall, and it looks like some sort of 80s jelly-mould, without the corners taken off.

I bet it beats the shit out of a rover 600.

Douglas

Heh, well I wouldn't buy one, for sure, but if you are after a small economical car which can (just about) manage on the motorway, and don't care about enjoyable handling, they do make sense.

Well, they are much grippier than they used to be. They just settle into 'safe' understeer when pushed, so they aren't fun like fords or pugs, but then neither are the vast majority of small fwd hatches.

Very true, but I'd be suprised if you can pick one of those up for under £5k yet.

I can't believe I've somehow got myself into the postion of defending the vauxhall corsa. I'd never buy one, 'cos they are horrible dull little boxes, but they are well suited to the joyless A-B trundling that so many people seem to want to do.

You like to think Vauxhall couldn't be so shit as to make it handle worse than a 600 (being that its small, and 'sporty' and the 600 is a great barge of a thing). But alas you'd be wrong. My mate had a 1.2 16v SXi one on a

51 plate (hes got rid of it now as he /hated/ it). My 405 pissed all over it in anything twisty. In contrast having been in my brothers Ti a fair few times, I don't think the 405 would be able to get away from it (in twisty things, obviously not in the straight line stakes....)

(c: At least you've got a reasoned argument.

I'm not a fan of Corsas on the whole, the only one I have ever driven in anger was a mate's N reg 1.2LS and it was utter utter utter shit. However I can almost guarantee that Nom has never driven a Corsa to the point where he has found the edge of its handling capabilities and thus qualified him to say that Corsa's handling is absolute pants.

Douglas

or any car for that matter :P :P

Why thankyou :) Same mate has an 03 Astra SRi 2.2 now. Its even worse :) He had a 2000 old shape Corsa SXi before that as well....

You'd think he'd learn!

Yep, quite probably.

Piss off :)

I've never driven one *at* *all* !

Er, since when do you need to be qualified ?

I keep bang upto date with the motoring world, and no end of journalist types continually tell me that the Corsa is shit. Seeing as they're paid to know this stuff, I'm inclined to believe them !

HA !

Have some !

:)

Seconded.

...but there are lots of other cars just as well suited, that aren't horrible and dull (they're still nasty little boxes though :)

As an aside, I'm having trouble working out why you're lumping the "executive motorway barge" in the same band as a teeny little shopping trolley ?

I'd better take that back actually, cos at the moment it's looking likely that an Astra Coupe Turbo will be replacing the TI shortly :)

Passat W8 is looking very attractive though - at current depreciation rates, it should be very affordable in a year or two. 4000cc W8 + 280bhp + 4wd = Nice

Any idea why Audi don't use the W8 in the A6?

Peter

Heh. Yeah, yeah.

...which are therefore suitable for horrible, dull little people :-)

A huge market, I'd say. In fact Vauxhall must have the worlds best engineering department, to be able to build a car so perfectly to spec. Hats off to Vauxhall! :P

By headbutting the keyboard, Nom managed to type:

Oh ah? Fits the bill, I suppose. What sort of money are they down to now?

Indeed, although 1800kg is less nice. Still, 0-60 in 6.5 isn't too shoddy. Actually, the way they are depreciating, in about 8 months, you'll be able to get one inside your £10k budget.

Nope.

It's a one-off for the Passat isn't it ? I don't think it's found in anything else, except in W12-guise for the Phaeton.

Well under 10K, if you look hard enough. All the reviews I've read, say it's actually very good. The Coupes have the wider track etc. anyway - my mate's

1.8 drives very nicely. The Turbos improve things still further with a proper ESP setup - it'll apply the brakes to individual wheels, to help you round corners etc. 190-ish bhp, and max-torque from 1900rpm is also nice :) 17s come as standard, and there's a nice leather&alcantara setup on most of the Turbos. No obvious downers that I can find, other than the Vauxhall badge.

Yep. 155mph top-speed too (a good indicator of motorway-speed performance in my experience) and VW build-quality/reliability. What's more, it's a proper longitudinal engine mounting, and it uses Audi's 4x4 system, not VW's inferior 4motion (even though the Passat W8 *is* badged 4motion !!) - I suspect because 4motion can't cope with 280bhp :) It's randomly got vented rear-discs too :) Running-costs put me a off a bit - it has the potential to generate some MONSTEROUS bills if it goes wrong !

Octavia RS is the other thing on the list - nothing much to say about that though. Styling has grown on me :) Don't think I would ever dare buy one, but older TTs seem silly-cheap these days - take a look on AutoTrader (lots of LHDs though).

And in W12-guise for the A8.

Peter