The Car Thread

[Alastair]

The rear is still hideous though.

Personally, I can't wait to see one in the 'metal'. I've got a sneaking suspicion that it will actually be a great looking car once you see it up close and get a bit more familiar.

Most journos now say that the California is a great looking car after the original 'ugly' accusations.

As for the MX5 conundrum, it's probably all down to cost and maximising profits. Getting a decent amount of power out of them tends to cost an enthusiast at least 2 grand. Mazda would want to keep the bulletproof reputation so that means uprating the clutch to match the power. Does that have any effect on the rest of the drive-train, probably. Also, they sell loads to old ladies and women that just want to look good. If it got the reputation of being a bit of a handful (the privately turbo'd ones certainly seem to be) then I guess that would hurt sales in a certain area and they may not be certain of gaining them back to the more 'hardcore' market.

[Gareth C]

My other half has an MX5. Its fun to drive and feels fast-ish as you can throw it about. In reality it gets left behind in all acceleration ranges by most average cars, but it doesn't matter when you basically get to drive a go-cart about town

My search for a decent BMW Z3M has been put on hold as we are hoping to move abroad next year. I don't think I'm ever going to get to own one

[Richard.John]

I feel the hairdressers comments bandied around the press are are unfair though. The car is a hoot to drive so who cares what kind of person buys it. I've driven a Daihatsu Copen, which is quite possibly the cutest 'sports car' ever but it was fabulous, and I would love one as a weekend toy, even though I would look like a bit of prize tit at the wheel.

[Alastair]

My other half has an MX5. Its fun to drive and feels fast-ish as you can throw it about. In reality it gets left behind in all acceleration ranges by most average cars, but it doesn't matter when you basically get to drive a go-cart about town

My search for a decent BMW Z3M has been put on hold as we are hoping to move abroad next year. I don't think I'm ever going to get to own one

You've hit the nail on the head there Gareth although it does matter to me as most of my driving is thankfully not around town. Unless I'm in the exact right gear at the right revs most things will out drag it. When you do find the sweet spot it does have a decent bit of pull but it just doesn't feel as special as I think it should.

I'd love a Z3M coup? as well, they used the M3 engine didn't they? Pretty rapid car and the handling's supposed to be a lot better on the coup? than the roadster version too from anything I've read/heard.

[Gareth C]

You've hit the nail on the head there Gareth although it does matter to me as most of my driving is thankfully not around town. Unless I'm in the exact right gear at the right revs most things will out drag it. When you do find the sweet spot it does have a decent bit of pull but it just doesn't feel as special as I think it should.

I'd love a Z3M coup? as well, they used the M3 engine didn't they? Pretty rapid car and the handling's supposed to be a lot better on the coup? than the roadster version too from anything I've read/heard.

Yes, it really is an amazing car. Quite frightening at times, but still amazing!

[Richard.John]

The end for the V12? Only Merc but a rising trend surely.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/28/mercedes-will-begin-phasing-out-v12-engines/

You have to wonder if it has place in this day and age considering that BWW is reportedly planning to drop pistons in favour of forced induction in its next line of M cars, and Ferrari is apparently going to go with a V8 twin turbo (F40 style) set up for the Enzo replacement due in the next couple of years or so.

Personally I cant imagine having such a monster of an engine in a car, but they remind me of a bygone F1 era, so it will be sad to see them go. In other news, Honda is going to offer a V8 powerplant in a road car. A first for them, apparently.


Also, I ****ing dinged my car against some roadside railings today. Narrow road and the silly prick coming the other way made virtually no allowance so I moved over, but a little too much and cue nasty sound. Aargh. Luckily the damage is light and limited to scratches and a slight dent to the front bumper and front wing. Thankfully not down the side of the doors, which is a god send. I am really pissed off, but it was my fault really so doubly so.

[Richard.John]

Actually any advice on how to polish out or 'repair' the marks by hand would be great. I don't really want to make an insurance claim, as here they require a police report for such things and that is just too much of a pain the arse.

[charlesr]

No idea if they have anything like this where you are, but on my subaru forum, they organise dent days. The dent guys make a killing because there is loads of business lined up with no gaps and the forumites get a decent discount.

[charlesr]

Not hanging about

[charlesr]

Nice bit of driving.

Don't remember seeing this commercial over here....

[Spatial]

Say what you want about the credit crunch hitting the car industry, it ain't trickled down to the showrooms yet.

Went in today to see about changing my 3 year old Audi. The car (in the salesman's own words) was in "amazing condition" and because of my circumstances over the last three years the mileage on it is less than 20,000 ()

And what would they give me? Nothing except settling the final payment figure which was less than 10k and putting me back to zero. Nothing more, nothing less.

Plus Audi have seriously jiggled the spec of their cars so that although they're cheaper, you end up getting much, much less for your money.

[Richard.John]

Spatial101,

It makes you realise how crazy it is to pump money into a depreciating asset. I love my car but I know it's going to turn into a money pit. Sigh.

No idea if they have anything like this where you are, but on my subaru forum, they organise dent days. The dent guys make a killing because there is loads of business lined up with no gaps and the forumites get a decent discount.

Charles, thanks for that.

I am thinking of going to the Japanese version of Halfords as they have repair shops at their branches, it seems. One question though is what do official dealers ( I assume same in the UK, you see) make of having cosmetic work done outside of the dealer network? I ask as I don't want any trouble from Mazda regarding warranties and any possible work done.

[Yakumo]

Man, I've been a member of NTSC-UK for years and never knew we had a car thread!.

Here's my car. It's a 2006 Subaru Impreza STI Custom Estate (or wagon as they call them here in Japan). I bought it about 1 year ago for 1 million yen which was about 6000 pounds at the time. Since then it's been tuned again by Subaru to give it a lovely sound and wicked acceleration.

Click the thumbnails to see the full size images.

Front of the car. There's actually Subaru STI logos on the driver and passenger front doors near the bottom but you can't really see them on this photo.


One strange thing about the STI Custom model is that the back lights are odd. On the left hand side you have the break, reverse and indicator lights. While on the right side the white reverse light is replaced by a red fog lamp. Looked really odd when I first saw it.


Here you can see the dash all lit up red. The missus thought it was a warning feature because it wasn't white, , hahaha. Just goes to show she knows nothing about cars.


Here you can get a better look at the comfortable bucked seats through the dirty window screen.


Yakumo

[Richard.John]

That's because the thread is new (ish), Yakumo. Nice car by the way.

[Yakumo]

Nice car by the way.

Thanks mate. I had been saving for a car for over a year before I bought this. Originally I wanted an Evo 8 or 9 but couldn't afford it to be honest. Then I wanted to get the top end Toyota Rav 4 but finding one with manual transmission was impossible. As you know most Japanese can't drive manual transmission cars. Probably explains why most drive like **** . In the end I was looking at the SUDAS or is it SUGAS ? home page. They're Subaru's official ex-display and used car dealer. I had about 1.5 million yen ready to spend and was about to buy a 2004 Impreza WRX STI until I found out it must have travelled around the world when I saw how many miles it had done. Luckily I found the ex-display one I have now in Tokyo. Only 1200km on the clock and they offered to ship it to my door for only 20'000 yen and replace all the carpets with new ones. Apparently they couldn't sell it because it was manual transmission All the better for me.

Yakumo