Pick A Car For Life

[GLPoomobile 958]

I'm sure we've all had this conversation at some point

 

"What's your favourite car?"

"If you won the lottery, what car would you buy?"

blah blah blah

 

Ask a lot blokes and it'll often result in them regressing to their schooldays and the posters they had on the bedroom walls. Probably a Ferrari or Lambo. Amongst the 205 community you'll usually get a more unconventional answer, likely to be some sort of classic or rally legend.

 

Personally, I hate such straight forward questions, becuase I just can't answer them. What's my all time favourite car? Dunno, too much choice! What would I buy if I won the lottery? Err, how much time do you have?

 

But that got me thinking today. Imagine you were granted the wish to have 1 car. You can pick anything, and it'll be yours. But just 1 car for the rest of your life. Sure, you can drive others, but you can only own one car for the rest of your life. Now what's it going to be? Bit of a bugger, isn't it?

 

You see now I've just bastardised the fun fantasy car question, and made it all grown up and sensible, cos now you've got to think practically. Do you really want a 205 GTI as your one car for life?

 

For me it's got to be fast, fun, full of character, and something that I can connect with. But at the same time it's got be comfortable, refined, practical, reliable and safe.

 

I want it to be simple enough that I could conduct basic routine maintenance myself, but reliable enough (for life) that it doesn;t spend more time off the road than on, or makes me second guess it every time I start a journey.

 

It shouldn't need a 2nd mortage to pay for tax and insurance, servicing and repairs. And shouldn't need it's own refinery to fuel it.

 

Most of all, it needs to last the rest of my life (I could just choose a Supercar and then crash it at high speed. LIve fast, die young ). MOst cars should be capable of this, providing you can get replacement parts through it's life.

 

Well I've waffled enough so I'll hand the batton to you guys for discussion. I've not said what my choice would be as I literally have no idea Maybe this topic will die on it's arse before it gets started!

Edited July 13, 2011 by GLPoomobile

[timb1046 1]

I think I'd go for a landrover 110. big enough to carry any spawn, dogs, all the camping gear. It's got the added advantage of being able to tow. It might not be 'nimble' or 'fun' on the road, but you can take it off road and have plenty of fun. The other advantage is the ease of changing parts/servicing.

 

I don't think I'd WANT a fast, nimble 'fun' car as living with it day to day would just be hell. I'd want comfort.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

Pending a test drive, an M5 Estate please. If I'm getting the car for 'free' I'll take the hit on the fuel and maintenance; let's face it, anything could be a risk long-term with respect to reliability, so it'd be pointless going for a diesel Skoda estate....!

[feb 47]

Do you have to buy the car or is it given to you for free?

If you are given a budget of x and you spend x/2 can you keep the remaining x/2 for maintenance/spare parts/modifications?

 

Depending on the the above I would probably choose one of the below with a LPG conversion.

 

Forester Sti

M3 station (if I am not mistaken I read somewhere they will introduce one?)

RS4

Edited July 14, 2011 by feb

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

T16 evo2

Edited July 14, 2011 by Paul_13

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

I think you're missing the point, there's no lottery win here. I just assumed from GL's post that the car you get given to you (a "wish") at no expense, but from that point onwards you've got to own it, run it, fuel it out of your own pocket, and it's got to be a car you can live with for the rest of your life.

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Don't know what your on about mate, I'd run it regardless whether I won the lottery or not

[ORB 227 1 Cars]

Audi RS6 Avant - Sprint Blue.

[feb 47]

I think you're missing the point, there's no lottery win here. I just assumed from GL's post that the car you get given to you (a "wish") at no expense, but from that point onwards you've got to own it, run it, fuel it out of your own pocket, and it's got to be a car you can live with for the rest of your life.

 

I might have jumped to a conclusion too fast then and a few things need to be clarified.

What if your circumstances changed, you bought a lemon, you didn't do the maths right, would you be able to sell the car and if so would you be able to buy another car or do you have to walk for the rest of your life?

 

I thought choosing a woman was bad enough but this seems worse if there are no alternatives

Edited July 14, 2011 by feb

[PVFCpug 6]

Probably would go for something far more practical I'm afraid. Landrover is an excellent choice as it has so much adaptability and can be many things, and for that reason I would go as well for the old school v8 1 tonne as they used to be known as in the army. As long as it was brand new when given to me !

 

 

Edited July 14, 2011 by PVFCpug

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

One of the V10 M5's please.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

One of the V10 M5's please.

 

Hands off Fenton, I've bagged that already and the GLPooFairy has limited stocks

 

 

You'll have to have the saloon

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Aha, but you didn't specify the V10 one! I can make do with the saloon I suppose.....

 

Was sat outside the pub a few weeks ago and one came past on full chat, sounded great, at first I thought it was a 5 cyl Audi coming, then saw the BMW come past.

[Cameron 16]

Another vote for M5 estate.

[Moby 0]

I'd say RS 6 estate , practical , fast as ....... And most importantly vosprung durch technic.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

Good luck broadsiding that

 

...just joking, a nice choice and one that was on my shortlist!

[Richie 32]

I'll take the Porsche Panamera Turbo S please, whats not to like. Ticks my boxes.

 

Edited July 14, 2011 by Richie

[Fox 3]

What an awkward question, although, I'm bored so I'm going to attempt to answer it!

 

Take the "you can drive other cars" out of the brief, and it’s even harder. (If this was the case, I'd simply swap my cars into someone else’s name and carry on as normal!)

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think the M5 and RS6 are indeed a cracking car, but would you drive it for the rest of your life? Even with the best maintenance and preventative work you can do, it’s going to die, and the way I read the question its tough luck, you’re walking!

 

Think of it this way, I've estimated I've got a good 60 years left here on earth, that’s 60 years at 10k miles a year (at least) on my choice of car, it’s also 60 years of daily abuse, salt, snow and other idiots on the road crashing into it.

 

The choice needs to be simple, with 600,000 miles on the clock when I snuff it it’s going to need lots of maintenance, with a few engine and transmission rebuilds I'd imagine.

 

Thinking about this it really needs to be simplicity its self, we also don’t know what the situation with fuel will be in years to come, so I may need to convert it to run on fresh air or batteries to actually be able to use it.

 

My choice?

 

 

Now, before you all laugh and think what an idiot, think about it!

 

Cheap - I'd get one as my free one, then I'd buy a few more and store them somewhere - I'm thinking along the lines of accident damage in 30 years time here, can you still get obscure panels for MK1 transits?

Simple to maintain - I'd stockpile (IN the spare vans!) parts, windscreens, mirrors, gaskets, service parts, wheels etc etc

Comfortable - it’s no roller, but comfortable enough for 600k miles

Customisable - It has space for batteries, wings or even a helicopter engine!

Big - Let’s be honest, if you can’t get all your crap in a transit, you have too much stuff.

 

And the best bit? If it ever came to it and I ended up homeless without a penny to my name, I could park it up somewhere and live in it.

 

Job Done.

Edited July 14, 2011 by Fox

[Anthony 1,000]

Having spent the past hour at work doing nothing productive and pondering this, I've come to the conclusion that I'd be happy with a 205 GTi.

 

"Crazy!" I hear you all shout, but in a similar vein to Fox's post above, it does make sense from a long term point of view...

 

• It's just as happy doing the day to day commute as it is having fun hacking round a racetrack or tackling an Alpine mountain pass
  
• It's practical enough to seat four adults, or with the seats folded down to fit a washing machine in the back with ease
  
• It's comfortable and can be used in all weather, all year round
  
• It's cheap to run and to repair
  
• It's easy enough to maintain and repair yourself with basic tools and facilities
  
• It's basic enough that it can be adapted to whatever the future brings - in a day you can convert it to a diesel that'll run on veg oil as fuel for example.
  
• It's useable when you're old and infirm - light steering (with PAS), brakes, clutch etc and easy to get in and out of
  
• It's a car that I've already lived with for over 8 years and am still just as happy with it today as I was back when I first drove one.

 

I am of course basing this on a few assumptions, namely that I'd get given an as-new one which I could then suitably protect long-term against rust etc, that spare part availability is good for another 50 years (which of course it won't be, so you'd have to hoard a few spare cars and a mountain of parts in a barn somewhere), and that such cars won't be outlawed in 10 years time by the environmental nazis because it isn't Euro XV compliant (which sadly, I also suspect won't be the case)

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

The "rest of life" bit I didn't let worry me too much because, on the face of it, no car you're going to pick up today is going to have any safeguarded, gauranteed long term support over any other, although obviously you can safely deduce that high-end cars are going to be more expensive/rarer than others. You could take something worth £10k now working on the basis that it will be reliable, but the truth of the matter is your Ford Fiesta *could* just as easily explode an engine as anything else if you get a bad one. So I'd rather have my moneys' worth on the freebie, take the risk of it being a lemon, and foot the fuel bills while I can afford to - like Anthony says, we could all be outlawed from driving anything that spits out hydrocarbons in the next 20 years anyway

Edited July 14, 2011 by brumster

[toodumbtosmile 1]

Can i backdate it to when i was born? I'll have a 1963 Corvette 'Split Window' Fuelie thanks.

[lewis205cti 12]

Good question.

I was tempted with many new metal options like a RS6 or a 406 V6 coupe. The land rover and transit are good options too.

But if it came down to it I’d pick a classic VW Split Screen Camper.

 

They have survived the last 50+ years and have a massive following so parts will be easy to get.

Retro cool

Simple to maintain

Plenty of space for storage.

Can tow with it. (Not too much weight)

If the worst happens you still have somewhere to live. Home is where you park it.

[damien 22 1 Cars]

mazda 6 mps estate

 

its a estate (which for some reasion i think are cool)

its jap so generally reliable

fast but not OTT

[Baz 421]

Some similar but sensible options here, and some wierd ones!

 

If you want something that does everything, take your kids & granny out shopping one day, a trackday the next whilst not being ridiculous to run, then something akin to an M3 Touring would be a good idea.

 

I have these convo's now and again with a bunch of mates, it always amounts to similar answers! I would've gone with the RS6 Avant option, apart from the fact that you can't fit a towbar to any of the RS range if you care about warranty/aftercare. Hence the (boring/common) M5 Touring choice, or maybe even a Range Rover of some fast but frugal(ish) description. If they'd made an E39 M5 Touring, i'd have already made my choice because i'd own one!

 

With the kind of lifestyle i lead, either'd do pretty much everything fairly well and then some at a push; bimble about, tow, euro/scottish trips, hoon, trackdays/motorsport, day to day/load-lugging, marshalling on motorsport events, on/off road, the perfect all-rounder really!

 

I was tempted with many new metal options.... like a 406 V6 coupe.

 

WHHHHAAAAT?? Do the NHS a favour & stick your head in a lawnmower.

Edited July 14, 2011 by Baz

[cRaig 265 1 Cars]

I agree with all the cool/fast estate enthuiasm, it seems like a sensible compromise to live with a long time. Im tempted to say Audi RS2 Avant.