QOTW: Which car do you drive?

[cheesemp]

Hyundai i20 1.4 auto 60 plate - Was the best fiesta sized auto available at the time. Not exciting but the CVT gearbox gives great off the line acceleration allowing me to annoy boy racers in their Corsa's! So far been super cheap to run - Only had to replace a bulb so far. MOT is due in the next couple of weeks so we'll see how well that statement holds. Hopefully will be replacing it soon as the seats aren't quite comfortable enough for the motorway commute I now have. Will replace with either a new model i20 (as I cannot complain apart from seats) or a Nissan Leaf if I can get a comparable deal...

My Wife's 10 plate Astra was another matter (absolute money pit) and has now been replaced with a 12 plate Qashqai+2 2.0 petrol CVT 4wd which has needed £500 worth of tyres since we bought it 8 months ago... Never had a big 4x4 before so that was a bit of a shock...

[Bagnaj97]

2007 Skoda Roomster 1.9TDi. In terms of tech the cd player plays em pee threes.

It's also blue, vaguely box shaped and bigger on the inside than the outside so who knows what other tech is in there...

[Smudger]

I drive a 2000 Peugeot 406 HDI 110 Executive. Tech? None to speak of. Cruise, leccy seats, auto-dimming mirror, JBL sound system with tape player (!) (never used). Doesn't even play MP3s, but it keeps going through the MOT without any work needing doing so I can't see any reason to ditch it. It does 10 miles a day to the station and back so I'm not exactly racking up the miles on it. And it's moulded to me, so it feels weird getting in any other car.

[Dashers]

I'm not so sure about latest tech in cars. It's often poorly implemented and a pain to upgrade. I do fancy a new TT with its digital dash, but I've got that nagging feeling it's going to be useless in 5 years with no way of swapping it out for something more modern.

My latest-tech car is a Renault Zoe. All electric, electric motoring is pretty awesome, Renault ownership is pretty dire.

But when I want a bit more speed and range, I use this:

[theleader]

A milk float!

[nitro912gr]

Well... I have a small hyundai atos prime (2001), not very tech savvy car but I have basic comforts like A/C, electric windows (only front seats) and my aftermarket radio/cd/mp3 have an AUX input to listen to spotify with my mobile.

I want to change it asap because of safety concerns (did have 3/5 stars with airbags, mine doesn't have airbags at all), but at the moment I have to focus my money on other things so I will probably have it for another year or so.

Very reliable car however, and we got it second hand, while both me and my sister learned to drive with it, so it have a rough time those years in the family.
Also it is cheap to use and so small that I love it in the city. I can park in small spaces and pass through places in traffic that anything bigger just can't.

[Ttaskmaster]

When I'm not hooning around on an FJ1200:

Work - Vauxhall AstraVan... Horrible. Just horrible.

Home - I nick the '96 C250D Merc off the Mrs... It's like driving a tank that was converted to a boat. Pretty comfy, but getting old and expensive things going wrong with it. It's also a saloon, so not very nice to park.

Saving up for a Golf, though... probably a Mk4, but we'll see.
Was in line for a Mk2 Supra and then a Mk 3, but running costs and scarcity of parts killed that 80s dream of mine!

[jm101]

2016 Ford Explorer XLT - Great stability, better than expected fuel economy and OH SO QUIET. Visibility is good, the seats comfortable with great support and there is lots of room. Even with the standard 6 cylinder it has more than enough power. My mileage around town is 20mpg while on the highway it averages in the very high 20's.

[scaryjim]

When I owned my own car, it was a 1996 Rover 414i; I ran it for the first year after I passed my test, it cost the earth to keep on the road, the most advanced technology in it was the tape player, it hated going up hills, and I loved every minute of owning it.

Since it seized up and got scrapped, I've driven whatever the hire place lets me have. I think the most fun bit of tech I've used in a car recently was in a Nissan Juke I hired a few months ago; 360^o parking cameras

[aeonf242]

Hyundai i30 Style Nav 1.6 diesel

[malcmacq]

Hand-me-down '03 BMW 325i

[crossy]

Seriously though, a Chevrolet Volt.

Mini review: don't make me drive another diesel don't make me I WON'T DO IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Electric acceleration is the only way to drive. Anything else in a town/city is torture.

Volt's a nice looking car - thanks. Although as a fellow Chevy owner I can't agree with the diesel hate, (then again, I'm not stuck in urban). I drive a second hand Chevvy Cruze VCDi - and that 2ltr with 163bhp, so it's not exactly a tractor. Great for those motorway/A-road overtaking manoeuvres.

Mini review: car is decently quick although not the most fuel efficient. Backing sensors are a must because there's zero view for backing up otherwise. I got the LT version which means that I missed out on the Bluetooth setup and USB connection, but at least did get an aux socket. Radio is reasonably good (and plays MP3s) but has a tendency to break up badly with BBC stations. Steering wheel controls are excellent and seats are comfy, heating/air-con is slow to warm up in cold weather, but quite efficient in hot weather. I've treated my car to a HIMbox HBM-801plus Bluetooth adaptor so I can play podcasts on way too and from work. The HBM-801+ works very well indeed, although I had to replace the bundled power socket adaptor due to intermittent interference issues.

Only bought this because I didn't fancy another Ford Focus and my preferred replacement, 2nd hand Skoda Octavia vRS TDi, wasn't available at the time. It was strange enough (/distinctive?) to pique my curiosity.

2007 Skoda Roomster 1.9TDi. In terms of tech the cd player plays em pee threes.

It's also blue, vaguely box shaped and bigger on the inside than the outside so who knows what other tech is in there...

Missus has a Roomie too - and she's pretty impressed with the people carrying abilities. And it's the three cylinder diesel engine, so it's got a distinctive engine note - great for early warning of when she's home. She's now hankering after a Yeti as a replacement when the Roomie's garage bills get too large.

[directhex]

Volt's a nice looking car - thanks. Although as a fellow Chevy owner I can't agree with the diesel hate, (then again, I'm not stuck in urban). I drive a second hand Chevvy Cruze VCDi - and that 2ltr with 163bhp, so it's not exactly a tractor. Great for those motorway/A-road overtaking manoeuvres.

I drove 3 miles in a rental 2.0 Passat TDI, before putting down £1000 on a Tesla Model 3.

All diesels are tractors. The clue is in them running on tractor fuel. Hence the diesel land speed record is held by a tractor company.

[crossy]

I drove 3 miles in a rental 2.0 Passat TDI, before putting down £1000 on a Tesla Model 3.

Bully for you, I'd have loved to be able to splurge £25k+ on a car, but unfortunately a quarter of that was all I could afford. Cue the tiny violins...

All diesels are tractors. The clue is in them running on tractor fuel. Hence the diesel land speed record is held by a tractor company.

Then again - you can get electric tractors

Image from http://electrictractor.com
so does that make your (beloved?) Tesla a tractor too? PS. Don't forget diesel engines for planes ... sorry flying tractors?

Joking aside, it's the cliché about horses for courses. You drive shortish distances in an urban environment, so electric makes total sense. I drive longer distances extra urban so electric would make zero sense for me. That said, the old Cruze is all about practicality - I'd much prefer an Audi R8, BMW M5 or Golf GTi ... maybe if that lottery win comes around. sigh!

[deejayburnout]

Wife drives a 2 litre turbo diesel Mitsubishi Grandis which is for school runs and general taxi service. Beast of a motor, loads of torque, pulls and pulls and pulls



I just got a Peuegot 207 for work. 1.4 and pulls like a duck.

[jimborae]

Wife drives a Kia Sportage, I have an E91 335i in rare manual box form. Would like to change it for an Audi S4 or S6 Avant as the build quality of the Beemer is not what it should be. I.e. too many rattles which is not helped by the aftermarket suspension.

In terms of tech the Kia has more than mine but it is a lot newer, mine is basically limited to bluetooth, sat nav, auto dipping lights, rain sensing wipers, basic internet connectivity and apps et. However i like less tech in vehicle as there's less to go wrong and it's easier to hack. i.e. I now get free twice yearly satnav updates instead of having to pay the BMW stealer £250, I retro fitted the upgraded bluetooth module to give me streaming functionality from my phone and BMW apps and internet etc. The next project when I have time is to try and replace the hard drive with an SSD, which tried before but it didn't take due to cloning the QNX OS drive failing.