Replacing my GT86 with one of these ...

[Gibbon]

[QUOTE=sasguru;1924516]Ooo 'ark at him!
Yes to the latter, but circumstances changed - and I found myself quite often using a child seat in the front of the GT, which I don't like for my pizza delivery contracts QUOTE]

FTFY

[Mich the Tester]

That is probably an appreciating asset and thus a very wise buy.

The guys near our house who maintain the Tester household's beloved Daimler have one for sale. Very reasonably priced; for now! I think these are going to be more valuable in the future.

LANCIA APPIA 1963 39152KM - Classic Job.

This one's more to my taste though;

LANCIA FLAVIA 1968 36439 KM - Classic Job.

He has some nice cars on sale but the really exotic ones aren't on his website so as to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention.

[sasguru]

[QUOTE=Gibbon;1924554]

Ooo 'ark at him!
Yes to the latter, but circumstances changed - and I found myself quite often using a child seat in the front of the GT, which I don't like for my pizza delivery contracts QUOTE]

FTFY

Your attempts at piss-taking would be more credible if you could master the quote function.

HTH, BIDI

[ZARDOZ]

Mercedes and Volvo make the only acceptable estate cars.

Effectively all Volvos are Fords in a dress

[sasguru]

Getting back on track, I've driven the Focus ST estate and the VRS saloon (VRS estate tomorrow). The Focus is a cracking car, puts a smile on your face straight away, much better dynamics than the VRS as you'd expect from a Ford (only BMW of the major marques beats Ford for the drive, IMHO).
Quality and interior on the Ford not that great though - although I'll probably only keep it for a couple of years so not an issue.
VRS is a tame puppy with a bit of bite at speed but overly reliant on software even though it has the excellent VW GTI engine in petrol guise.
Hmmm decisions ....

[sasguru]

Effectively all Volvos were Fords in a dress

FTFY. Volvo owned by the Chinese now who are giving them their heads, much like Tata is with JLR. New models are not Fordish in any way.

[Mich the Tester]

Getting back on track, I've driven the Focus ST estate and the VRS saloon (VRS estate tomorrow). The Focus is a cracking car, puts a smile on your face straight away, much better dynamics than the VRS as you'd expect from a Ford (only BMW of the major marques beats Ford for the drive, IMHO).
Quality and interior on the Ford not that great though - although I'll probably only keep it for a couple of years so not an issue.
VRS is a tame puppy with a bit of bite at speed but overly reliant on software even though it has the excellent VW GTI engine in petrol guise.
Hmmm decisions ....

Can't help with modern cars I'm afraid; I've gone right off them. It's not that I don't like modernity, in fact I earn my living from modernity, but I prefer understated elegance in a car and I find that most of the current offerings look like Darth Vader on steroids. In that respect, at least the Skodas are little more modest in appearance but could well be fitted with good quality equipment and of course you should be able to expect good build quality.

Hopefully Lancia will get over their current desperate fit of rebadging hideous Chryslers and start building some really elegant cars again.

[vwdan]

Getting back on track, I've driven the Focus ST estate and the VRS saloon (VRS estate tomorrow). The Focus is a cracking car, puts a smile on your face straight away, much better dynamics than the VRS as you'd expect from a Ford (only BMW of the major marques beats Ford for the drive, IMHO).
Quality and interior on the Ford not that great though - although I'll probably only keep it for a couple of years so not an issue.
VRS is a tame puppy with a bit of bite at speed but overly reliant on software even though it has the excellent VW GTI engine in petrol guise.
Hmmm decisions ....

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this post - for the best tradeoff of fun and reasonable practicality you'll probably want the ST. They're still hooligan cars at heart and can be a huge amount of fun. There's no doubting the VRS is a nice bit of kit, but putting it into the "fun" category is a bit of a stretch.

I moved from a stock BMW 1 Series to a specced up A3 S-Line 170 with a DSG gearbox. The Audi was quicker and the DSG was lovely, but the BMW was just an incredibly fun car to drive around corners in.

Must admit, though, since moving to bikes to I've found it harder and harder to get excited about any cars.

[sasguru]

Can't help with modern cars I'm afraid; I've gone right off them. It's not that I don't like modernity, in fact I earn my living from modernity, but I prefer understated elegance in a car and I find that most of the current offerings look like Darth Vader on steroids. In that respect, at least the Skodas are little more modest in appearance but could well be fitted with good quality equipment and of course you should be able to expect good build quality.

Hopefully Lancia will get over their current desperate fit of rebadging hideous Chryslers and start building some really elegant cars again.

Looks and badge and even top speed matter less to me than driving fun and enjoyment - there are two brands which are great at that at the moment: BMW and Ford.

[ZARDOZ]

You could lease a Golf R for 239 a month plus Vodka and Tonic (10k miles pa)
Chris Evans reviews Golf R: VW has just set the new benchmark | Mail Online