Touran Touran and other MPV's

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:

quote:

..or for something completely different, try a seven-seater new model discovery

Then you can have eveyone thinking you are a complete twat as you drive by.

Nigel

.............. and soaking up the world's energy resouces at a rate of knots. There is a guy who has a child at my little one's school and prior to the end of the school day sits for twenty minutes with the engine on. Does he feel he is not using petrol quick enough, or is it to tell the rest of us how Rich he is.

Grumble................

Diccus

We've got a Chrysler Grand Voyager, and it is a very good car indeed for the family.
Chrysler dealers take the p*ss on servicing charges, so we use a private bloke.
We bought it nearly new and it's got 85k on the clock now.

quote:

Originally posted by Rico:
eg - a headlight on a new car filling with water to me means build quality; to Jay it appears to mean reliability (breakdown).

nah. that is shit build quality

I tried to make a difference between perceived build quality and reliability. Audi for e.g. You sit in one and go, wicked, this is built like a tank! But in the JD Power survey things they usually have quite a few faults.

I'm with Bruce on Alfas but I've never had the balls to do it!

We rented a Zafira a couple of summers ago to go hooning (an antipodean technical term) around Scotland. I say hooning but the thing was a 1.6 and 5 up kind of struggled.

Anyway...it was built well and was alright to drive in a sedate manner.

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:

quote:

..or for something completely different, try a seven-seater new model discovery

Then you can have eveyone thinking you are a complete twat as you drive by.

Nigel

..or you can come down my neck of the woods & look a complete prat as you slip around in the mud in your two-wheel drive...

And Diccus, you'd be using diesel, not petrol. So what's so bad about being rich?

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:

quote:

..or for something completely different, try a seven-seater new model discovery

Then you can have eveyone thinking you are a complete twat as you drive by.

Nigel

..or you can come down my neck of the woods & look a complete prat as you slip around in the mud in your two-wheel drive...

And Diccus, you'd be using diesel, not petrol. So what's so bad about being rich?

Tony

There ain't a spot of Mud around here......... and i'm only jealous coz i'd love to be Rich

I'm sure you're rich in spirit Diccus!

You are very kind, but I'd like some of the Financial Richness too, but hey i've got good elf



and a limited sense of humour.

Hi,

Another vote for the jap cars, the likes of Toyota ect..

quote:

or you can come down my neck of the woods & look a complete prat as you slip around in the mud in your two-wheel drive...

Yeah of course there are NO tarmac roads in East Anglia. The six of you that live on farms can have 4x4,the rest don't need them for mud lumps and puddles in the road.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:

quote:

or you can come down my neck of the woods & look a complete prat as you slip around in the mud in your two-wheel drive...

Yeah of course there are NO tarmac roads in East Anglia. The six of you that live on farms can have 4x4,the rest don't need them for mud lumps and puddles in the road.

So pray, what's that all about then? Surely not an attempt at sarcasm?

Let's be fair here. I live up a farm track, shared by cows, muckspreaders and tractors. A fair part of my driving is on narrow or single track lanes, all year round. I park in fields and muddy gateways with my MTB, and occasionally for work too.

In the 10 years we have lived here I have actually missed having a 4WD on precisely one occasion I can recall. Let's face it, if the roads are totally flooded or under 6ft snow they will be either blocked with other cars or totally impassable to all anyway.

Most of my neighbours use Land Rover Defenders on their fields and in the road. They use them to tow and carry animals and straw. Very, very few use a 4WD as a personal car.

I genuinely wonder how many people actually NEED a 4WD even living a rural life.

Bruce

I guess that depends on your individual circumstances Bruce. I do agree the use of a 4WD is often unnecessary - when I were a lad and we really only had 2WD for road cars, we managed to get where we were going through rain, snow and ice. And I really cannot imagine why anyone would want to use a sodding great big 4WD for driving the kids to school in town.

However, although we appear to live in similar locations, my needs are different to yours and the use to which I put my 4WD (not a Disco, by the way!) makes it essential.

Of my five neighbours, three of us have 4WD vehicles ,and like many other folks around here we all use them for "Country" pursuits of one sort or another.

I do admit to getting a little cheesed-off by ill-informed people from the "Anti-four-Wheel Drive" brigade criticising me for the vehicle I drive without knowing anything about me or my circumstances.

SWMBO drives an 8yr old Scenic. Owned from new for 138k miles now. Leaks a bit of oil which will need fixed for the next Mot. Apart from a problem with the flywheel position sensors which have a tendancy to cook (now redesigned), a broken spring, gearbox mount, two sets of rear wheel cylinders ...it's been fine. Overall I'm rather impressed, especially considering the abuse it takes. So don't discount the Grand Scenic.

To add to the 4X4 debate I drive a Honda HRV. It's mostly 2wd but kicks in drive to the rear when required. Seems a reasonable compromise though I wouldn't recommend it as the seats are shite. Farmers around here all drive Defenders off road. When the roads get really bad they drive tractors.

Willy.

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:
I guess that depends on your individual circumstances Bruce. I do agree the use of a 4WD is often unnecessary - when I were a lad and we really only had 2WD for road cars, we managed to get where we were going through rain, snow and ice. And I really cannot imagine why anyone would want to use a sodding great big 4WD for driving the kids to school in town.

However, although we appear to live in similar locations, my needs are different to yours and the use to which I put my 4WD (not a Disco, by the way!) makes it essential.

Of my five neighbours, three of us have 4WD vehicles ,and like many other folks around here we all use them for "Country" pursuits of one sort or another.

I do admit to getting a little cheesed-off by ill-informed people from the "Anti-four-Wheel Drive" brigade criticising me for the vehicle I drive without knowing anything about me or my circumstances.

Tony

I bet you wish you'd never mentioned it

Regards

Diccus

quote:

Originally posted by Diccus62:

Tony

I bet you wish you'd never mentioned it

Regards

Diccus

Oh yes Diccus my friend...

Diccus,

Are you having more kids, or have you taken up driving the football team/band around? What is wrong with getting a regular car or an estate. It is hardly like you need a better view of the countryside being as tall as you are! Your head must have snow on top already in this weather.

Regards

Nic

P.S. Been a bit quiet about the football recently, not been a lot to shout about for either of us.

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Diccus,

Are you having more kids, or have you taken up driving the football team/band around? What is wrong with getting a regular car or an estate. It is hardly like you need a better view of the countryside being as tall as you are! Your head must have snow on top already in this weather.

Regards

Nic

.

Nic

3 kids + occasionally their friends. Mostly 5 seats are fine but occasionally ...........

Diccus

Well, got to test drive a Mazda5 today. It pulled very well and we liked the sliding side door. Don't think it really is a 3+2. The middle seat in the second row is tiny and there is no way our 9yo was going to get inbetween the two booster seats. The driving position was ok but very little leg room either for driving or passenger. Didn't like the look of it. My 9yo didn't like it at all.

Later tested the VW Touran with a grumpy car salesman, if he mentioned once that we couldn't go far in the 2nd hand Touran because it damages the resale putting miles on the clock , he must have said it 5 times. We all immediately preferred the quality, my wife and I the driving position and overall feel of the car. Even tho it looked smaller than the Mazda5 it seemed bigger inside and appeared a proper 3+2. Maybe i'm so used to VW's that i've become conditioned! Wife and all children want a Touran, so that's it - except whether to go for Petrol or deisel?

Regards

Diccus