HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sat 14 Jan 2012 18:44
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - meldrew

I read this section avidly and then wonder if I still have the courage to get in a car and drive it on the roads! A couple of interesting comments today:

1. Cars getting bigger with every release in this case BMW 3 series. I agree entirely with the man who said if he wanted a 5 series he would have bought one. Anyone remember the size of the original Fiesta or Corsa compared with today's models? Why does anyone need enormous cars just to go to Tesco nowadays? I brought up a family with an original Mini, and as for the car my daughter drives........

2. Life of a car now eight years. Its the expensive "economy" of DPFs, turbos (now coming to a 1200cc petrol engine at your local dealership) and all the other electronic gizmos with a short MTBF. No wonder it is "cheaper" to buy new. The paradox of all this though is that used cars are still overpriced if this really is a car's economic life. Sad really as the rusty bodywork problems are long gone.

P S Anyone know of a list of cars with chain cams!

(EOR - End of Rant)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 14 Jan 2012 18:48
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - Bobbin Threadbare

I agree about the size of cars. When I was very small (mid 80s) my parents had a Mini Cooper (orangey-red with a thin blue stripe around it). They had two children and a dog, shopping to do, travelling to work and driving to Cornwall for holidays etc. We all fitted in, and my dad was not a short man!!

....says the woman who drives a b***** big Mazda, and has no children/pets/regular passengers. Ah well!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 14 Jan 2012 19:57
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - barney100

Merc 320 has a chain for a start, I have an eleven year old car ehich is in pretty good nick.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 14 Jan 2012 20:11
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - SteveLee

Merc 320 has a chain for a start, I have an eleven year old car ehich is in pretty good nick.

You own an early 2000s Merc that hasn't fallen apart with rust? What's the secret?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 14 Jan 2012 20:10
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - SteveLee

Lots of reasons, people are getting bigger, crumple zones, knee protection padding, ankle protection through reinforced foot-wells, pedestrian protection, airbags everywhere, then you get the (last) government insisting all children should have a child seat fixed by a three point belt - you are quickly into requiring proper 5,6 or 7 seaters when a normal "family car" would have done in the past. Then of course after forcing you into a larger car they tax you to death for the privilege - kurchingggg...

On top of that they "forget" to fix the roads to you need a biggish car to tackle the potholes without your fillings falling out. Tall cars are great for seeing over the road furniture they insist on fitting approaching roundabouts too, slowing traffic and forcing us to guzzle heavily taxed fuel by stopping unnecessarily. It's no wonder the sale of SUVs continues to increase.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 00:14
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - Avant

I was discussing the size of cars with a colleague this week. It may be that the average medium car is designed for a couple with the average 2.4 children - who grow, so if the manufacturer wants a repeat sale the car needs to grow too. And then they introduce a smaller car at the bottom of the range......and again.

Look at Ford:

1960s Anglia, Cortina, Corsair, Zephyr

1970s Fiesta, Escort, bigger Cortina, Granada - similar in 1980s with Sierra

1990s Ka, Fiesta, Escort / Focus, Mondeo - even bigger Mondeo in 2000s. Granada redundant.

Whatever you think of it, it seems to work. The only one out of that lot that didn't sell well was the Corsair, which didn't do much that a Mark 2 Cortina couldn't.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 00:23
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - jamie745

If that is why they're doing it then its an obviously flawed system. For instance the average 2.4 children is an outdated figure, census figures show its more like 1.8 now and has been going down for the last 20 years. That could explain why theres more pensioners in the UK than teenagers, the baby-boomers are drawing their pensions now just as the birth rate reaches its lowest level for a long time.

The other reason why its a fallacy can be found by standing on any motorway bridge for about 10 minutes on any given day and counting what percentage of cars have more than 2 people in it (including the driver). Not many.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 09:00
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - NARU
The other reason why its a fallacy can be found by standing on any motorway bridge for about 10 minutes on any given day and counting what percentage of cars have more than 2 people in it (including the driver). Not many.

Or that the car is used to carry the family around locally, but also used for business trips on the motorway! Most of us have to buy the one car for multi-purposes!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 16:34
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - Trilogy

Avant, '

'1990s Ka, Fiesta, Escort / Focus, Mondeo - even bigger Mondeo in 2000s. Granada redundant.'

I'd like to see them named as they should be for 2012:- Fiesta, Focus, Cortina, Granada. Then we can get rid of the made up names of Ka and Mondeo. If ford are going to make a Granda sized car it might as well be a Granada. I'd like to se the name Ghia return and it's time for vinyl roofs to make a come back too!!! Well, on Fords. :)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 20:34
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - RT

I'd like to se the name Ghia return and it's time for vinyl roofs to make a come back too!!! Well, on Fords. :)

Yes the VW-based Karmann Ghia was a good looking car - Ford turned it into XXL meaning a bit more expensive than XL.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 21:22
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - Trilogy

I'd like to se the name Ghia return and it's time for vinyl roofs to make a come back too!!! Well, on Fords. :)

Yes the VW-based Karmann Ghia was a good looking car - Ford turned it into XXL meaning a bit more expensive than XL.

GXL. :)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 21:47
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - Avant

There's another trend there, isn't there, with Fords - GXL used to be top of the range, then it was Ghia, and now Tritanium.

I suspect the average punter can't tell their....let's avoid the swear filter....first part of Titanium from the second.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 15 Jan 2012 21:49
HJ - Daily Telegraph 14 Jan - jamie745

Its not as bad as dealers who advertise it as 'top of the range' with 'all the extras.'

No. Its not. Its a mid range model with cloth seats and blank bits on the dash where a button should be.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link