Dream Practical Car - For Fun

[Generali]

If you could be given any car but had to keep it, pay to run it and use it as your main/only car for a few years what would you choose?

[digitaria]

Audi RS6 Avant. Practicality and fun. 4WD for when it's wet / icy. Load carrying capability. Great performance, obviously. One car to do it all.

If I'm doing a lot of miles, it'll be thirsty as hell, and insurance won't be a picnic either, but since you're paying for the car, I'll take the hit.

[redsturgeon]

Top of the range Tesla...practically free to run.

John

[wheypat]

Tesla S P100D. Cheap to run, not too bad to insure. Just the 90K to buy that puts me off

[88V8]

Two-door Range Rover Classic.
V8 of course.

V8

[DrFfybes]

A Tesla Van.

Actually, I wonder why this isn't happening?

A 150 mile range would be fine for most urban delivery drivers no fuel costs, cheap VED, congestion charge benefits, and instant full power from the lights.

They'd even be silent, so they wouldn't need to pull up around the corner to don their slippers before dropping the "sorry we missed you" card through the door.

P

[redsturgeon]

https://www.nissan.co.uk/vehicles/new-v ... nv200.html

Not a Tesla but an electric van.

John

[Slarti]

A Tesla Van.

Actually, I wonder why this isn't happening?

A 150 mile range would be fine for most urban delivery drivers no fuel costs, cheap VED, congestion charge benefits, and instant full power from the lights.

They'd even be silent, so they wouldn't need to pull up around the corner to don their slippers before dropping the "sorry we missed you" card through the door.

P

When you get one of these creep up on you it is a bit unnerving https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7071/6901207386_1ddbc233d2.jpg

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

When you get one of these creep up on you it is a bit unnerving https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7071/6901207386_1ddbc233d2.jpg

Probably not as alarming as the sewage-powered buses that they're running in Bath these days. Apparently the Number Two bus (ho ho) can go 200 miles on a tank of processed slurry. That'll make sure that the damn cyclists keep away from the exhaust pipe.....

BJ

[bungeejumper]

I'm struck by the contradiction in this thread title. If I wanted a practical car, it probably wouldn't be set up for fun. And if I wanted a fun car, it most certainly wouldn't be practical.

Agree that a large German estate car with, say, 225 plus BHP would seem to tick most boxes in both camps. But then, if it hasn't got a six foot three load space with a 400 kg payload then I wouldn't call it practical anyway, so that narrows the choice down a bit.

I can see the appeal of Rangies, especially for mud-plugging, but don't they go wrong a lot and cost an absolute fortune to repair? Still, the OP's question did specify that ownership would only be "for a few years", so as long as it was new I expect you could get three years out of it before your wallet imploded. For simple fun I'd probably go for the big Tesla, and would remember never to venture out into the wide open spaces where the charging points are spaced at 70 mile intervals.

BJ

[Howard]

I have leased it for Mrs Howard. A BMW 330E.

Amazing acceleration, almost silent take-off at the cost of nominal 56 mpg (this includes cost of electricity) from a beautiful 8 speed auto petrol.

Subsidised by a Government grant, so relatively modest cost per month.

I went for the softer suspension, so it is very comfortable.

Fully charged it will go around 15 miles on battery alone before the petrol engine takes over.

It is so silent I have to be careful of pedestrians in our local supermarket car park!

[bungeejumper]

It is so silent I have to be careful of pedestrians in our local supermarket car park!

I'm glad somebody is. My neighbour (70-ish) got flattened by one in the car park a few weeks ago. Ambulance, hip injury, severe facial bruising, police considering a prosecution, m'learned friends rubbing their hands as they calculate the compensation claim. All of it avoidable.

BJ

[DrFfybes]

I'm struck by the contradiction in this thread title. If I wanted a practical car, it probably wouldn't be set up for fun. And if I wanted a fun car, it most certainly wouldn't be practical.

Agree that a large German estate car with, say, 225 plus BHP would seem to tick most boxes in both camps. But then, if it hasn't got a six foot three load space with a 400 kg payload then I wouldn't call it practical anyway, so that narrows the choice down a bit.

BJ

Has anything these days got a payload over 170cm? - even the V70 wouldn't get a 1800 mm sheet of plasterboard flat in the back without sitting the end on the raised built-in dog guard. Easier carrying it on the roof of the Maser - you can strap it to the roof as both cars have frameless doors (as does the Z4, but it is too short to use for a large board).

Paul

[bungeejumper]

Has anything these days got a payload over 170cm? - even the V70 wouldn't get a 1800 mm sheet of plasterboard flat in the back without sitting the end on the raised built-in dog guard.

Ooh, I should think so. The Passat estate (old B6 version) would take a six foot three (1905mm) door on the flat, although you'd have been best advised to slide the passenger seat forward for the last few inches. The current Auris Touring (the descendant of your trusty Corolla estate, but nowadays with lowered suspension and much improved handling - ye gods, they're finally getting it right....) is eight inches shorter in length than the Passat, but it took a 78 inch by 30 inch door only the other week.

And on the flat too, although possibly not in the way you meant. I had to wind the passenger seat back right down and chock it up by six inches or so above the loadspace platform. No, I wouldn't have enjoyed being rear-ended with the door extending forward into the passenger seat's head space like that, but since there wasn't a passenger anyway (and since I'd anchored it down firmly to the loadspace anchors), I figured it was okay for the short run back from B&Q.

The Mondeo estate and Mazda 6 estate are supposed to be vast at the back, I believe? I'd thought about the Mazda, but I gather that the ride is super-firm, which isn't my style.

BJ

[DrFfybes]

Ooh, I should think so. The Passat estate (old B6 version) would take a six foot three (1905mm) door on the flat, although you'd have been best advised to slide the passenger seat forward for the last few inches. The current Auris Touring (the descendant of your trusty Corolla estate, but nowadays with lowered suspension and much improved handling - ye gods, they're finally getting it right....) is eight inches shorter in length than the Passat, but it took a 78 inch by 30 inch door only the other week.

And on the flat too, although possibly not in the way you meant. I had to wind the passenger seat back right down and chock it up by six inches or so above the loadspace platform. No, I wouldn't have enjoyed being rear-ended with the door extending forward into the passenger seat's head space like that, but since there wasn't a passenger anyway (and since I'd anchored it down firmly to the loadspace anchors), I figured it was okay for the short run back from B&Q.

The Mondeo estate and Mazda 6 estate are supposed to be vast at the back, I believe? I'd thought about the Mazda, but I gather that the ride is super-firm, which isn't my style.

BJ

That is interesting - over the summer we popped into a few car shops and folded the rear seats flat and measured the load length, and pretty much everything (including the Avensis) was under 180cm. Generally the rear seat squabs fold up forwards before the seat backs drop down, and this shortens the load length (though the upright squabs act as a bit of bulkhead against stuff coming into the front seats).

Might be tine for another look around.

Paul

[bungeejumper]

That is interesting - over the summer we popped into a few car shops and folded the rear seats flat and measured the load length, and pretty much everything (including the Avensis) was under 180cm. Generally the rear seat squabs fold up forwards before the seat backs drop down, and this shortens the load length (though the upright squabs act as a bit of bulkhead against stuff coming into the front seats).

I find that getting the best out of an estate's load space can often involve a bit of inventive seat-shifting - just sliding the passenger seat forward can often get you another few inches, although it might be 6-12 inches above load platform level, rather than 'on the flat' in the traditional sense.

Oddly, the Auris's seats ( since the 2013 revise) don't have the squab folding up, which gives you more length to play with but that doesn't seem to impact on the volume of stuff you can get in because they've dropped the level of the load platform itself by quite a lot. (Also in 2013.)

Have to admit that I didn't expect to find myself persuaded by the Auris Touring - I was looking for a two litre Octavia - but the boot space is vast, and there are three levels of compartments underneath the load space that you don't even see. (Some of them where the spare wheel used to be before they took it away.... ) We can get just as many kitchen sinks in for our camping trips as when we had the big VW. Not quite as much fun to drive as the Golf, but definitely better than the disappointing early models now that they've lowered the car by two inches and sharpened up the steering a bit.

BJ

[dionaeamuscipula]

The Mondeo estate and Mazda 6 estate are supposed to be vast at the back, I believe? I'd thought about the Mazda, but I gather that the ride is super-firm, which isn't my style.

BJ

The Mondeo is I think bigger than the Mazda. The space in the back of my 07 S-Max is the same size as the back of my 14 Mondeo, but is flatter.

Although I don't have the dimensions to hand.

DM

[DrFfybes]

The Mondeo estate and Mazda 6 estate are supposed to be vast at the back, I believe? I'd thought about the Mazda, but I gather that the ride is super-firm, which isn't my style.

BJ

The Mondeo is I think bigger than the Mazda. The space in the back of my 07 S-Max is the same size as the back of my 14 Mondeo, but is flatter.

Although I don't have the dimensions to hand.

DM

I may be wrong, but there seems to be a little bit of Thread Drift here

P

[dionaeamuscipula]

I may be wrong, but there seems to be a little bit of Thread Drift here

P

No because actually my dream practical fun car *is* the 2007 Ford S-max. Given that practical has to include having seven seats.

[DrFfybes]

I may be wrong, but there seems to be a little bit of Thread Drift here

P

No because actually my dream practical fun car *is* the 2007 Ford S-max. Given that practical has to include having seven seats.

A Ford S-max is your *dream* car?

You can have 7 seats in a Range Rover/Land Rover Disco Sport (new model), XC90, Audi Q7, BMW X5, Merc GL (nice AMG version out there), Tesla (at a push), and a whole raft of stretch limo's that could be fun. You could spec or order a lot of those as LWB if you wanted.

P