Which is very bad for the environment as nothing was recycled.

Cars today are crap! My car was written off and my hire car was a brand new (only 150 miles) Mazda 323 AKA Ford Focus. Pure shit as a driving machine.

I find the same thing with cameras. I have a large variety of them, you see. A modern full frame DSLR with a nice lens is great for actually taking photos, and a modern phone with a good camera on it gives you the ultimate in portability while retaining most of the function; but compare it to an older Polaroid camera, or another film camera (especially if you develop your own film), or even an older and nastier digital camera - and you'll find the 'weaker' stuff creates more of an experience. For special occasions, hell yes you'll want the older stuff, but for everyday use? It's a question of how lazy you are.

And I think vim's point is that virtually every manufacturer has a standard platform on which most of their cars are based - VW mostly base theirs on Golfs, Nissan mostly base theirs on Micras (why?), and so on. But true, transmissions are pretty much the same throughout time - any car of the same age will likely have the same old transmission, and if anything, in the last decade or so we have a bit more diversity with things like DSG, dual clutch, etc.

Personally I drive a Hyundai i30, auto diesel. Love it. Everyone who gets in it loves it and most who see it love it. It's a great all-rounder for a great price. It's still worth as much as when I bought it 18 months ago due to it being a small-ish diesel car, I have no intention to sell it anyway, and I'm not up to my ears in debt on it. It's great!

If I was going to get a weekend car...assuming I can't afford another car of the same value? Probably a Nissan/Datsun 280Z. I just love old coupes.

OK when I say crap I should expand on this more.

I am not talking about build quality or reliability or even how many miles per gallon you do. I am talking about gearbox's with the kind of precision a Terminator would admire, a clutch that gives real feeling, an accelerator that does not feel like a piece of string attached to a little spring, a set of brakes that are truly progressive. Oh and weight, the battle of the bulge in new cars is how hideously and grossly overweight they are. Each generation just becomes bigger and heavier and bloated (just like Windows!) and as anyone who has studied physics will appreciate when it comes to handling, changing the direction of momentum is harder regardless of how much bigger and more powerful the engine is.

Also I am not saying 70s cars are better than cars sold in 2000, I am more on about the cars being sold today which have been bloated up and dumbed down (sharpness in handling) to a point where I would rather ride a mountain bike to the shops than a new Ford Fiesta from 2011

My car that was written off was from 2000, but it had exactly the same awesome steering/brakes/clutch/gearbox feel of the spiritual predecessor from 1988 that I owned in the early 1990s (that actually costs 200-300% more to buy). The new model from 2007 looks like a Toyota shopping trolley and handles so benign there is a danger of falling asleep at the wheel

Extremes!



http://www.go4retro.com/2010/09/19/eccc-show-2010/

toyota aurion, honda accord euro, subaru liberty are the 2nd best cars on the australian market, they are actually the best right now if new..... commodore and falcon are actually the best, my reasoning:

toyota, honda, and subaru are smooth and tight, fuel effient and very good build quality but..... japanese parts are expensive, and when something really goes wrong outside of warranty you better have deep pockets!!! dont get me wrong great cars but do you want to breakdown in a little country town down south on a sunday afternoon???

falcon and commodore, smooth, but not as smooth as the japanese cars, build quality much improved in the last decade, parts galore, cheaper insurance and better suited to aussie climate. not to forget collectable!

cruze is a ripper! out sells commodore and a real treat to drive.

hyundai, kia, daewoo, cherry, great wall, proton, geelee..... sorry guys i dont care how good they supposedly are, theres just no way im driving them! they look rubbish and especially hyundai and kia are way over priced! i mean hey why why, would i consider buying an i45 or optima when i can have a brand new honda accord euro for less??? mannnnnn! the accord euro is an amazingly awesome ride for $29999!!! kia optima $30999??? nah i dont think so! i45 $32990??? you have to be kidding!!!
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Honda's are built quite nicely I agree. Not so happy about the woolly steering and spongy brakes

(this may have changed since the 2002 Accord I drove)

the 2012 accord euro drives very nicely, steering is vastly improved.
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Maybe I'm biased, cause I'm german, but nobody can tell me a Chevy/Daewoo/or what those korean cars are called in australia/ Cruze is a slick and nice car. I know, they improved a lot over the past years and maybe they are as good as a Seat, Peugeot or Skoda here in europe, but that's it.

the cruze is a nice car, i particularly like the sri turbo, but i cant understand why they havent made an all wheel drive rally version! man that would be awesome! compete against wrx!
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I don't understand, why they don't release a WTCC replica. If I remember correctly, the Cruze won the last two world championship titles and are already way in front this year.
Here are some pics.
btw: Yes, Opel is german, but it's almost dead. About 15 years ago, they hired a spanish manager, who pressurised the component suppliers a lot, leading to an immense loss of quality. Opel's image is still suffering from this period, though their cars aren't that bad anymore. There are rumours, GM will close the Opel factory in Bochum soon.

Did anyone drive any of them marketing inspired 4x4 cars in the 80s/90s?

For example Peugeot 405 4x4, Vauxhall Cavalier 4x4 or the BMW 325x (x=4x4 lol)

They were more of a basic 4x4 to cash in on the buzz of safety via the Audi Quattro line's technology, but far less sophisticated.

We get one day of snow a year if we are lucky where I live so it's not really a requirement where I live. I walk to the shops to get my tobacco on that one day a year

Hmmm a British muscle car with coke bottle styling and dodgy live rear axle enthusiastic cornering?

I give you the V6 3.0L Ford Cortina Mk3 2 door







The hunt is on for a 'cheap' one

Looks nice.

I guess the Knudsen Taunus by Ford Cologne is the german counterpart of it(some pics here), but the best motor was a 2.3l V6 with 107 hp, so it's no real rival. It's hard to find one in decent condition, so the prices are quite high.

Coupe/fastback body

I would stick a V8 in one, possibly Buick/Rover V8. They should take the V6 3L Turbo from the Tickford edition of Ford Capri but that would cost more and I'd rather have the V8 rumble

Rare here too, most have 4 doors which are not my thing, others way OTT bad taste mods IMO.