Been thinking

[road warrior]

If we remove the.. I need transportation, I want to be independent. It's needed, it's practical, etc. I am beginning to realise why we love our cars, by that I mean BMW's.
I think it's because we endow human characteristics to our cars. They break down, they have strange quirky habits or failings. , and we endure them, even embrace them. They are not comfortable or quiet or economical or subtle or unassuming. But like a child, on a GOOD day.. It's all worth it.
We Tinker, we "make it better " we spend fortunes on them. We clean it we polish it, and rewards us by developing a fault., and like a child we forgive it. Strangely it's usually men who do this, probably because women have real children to deal with, so the last thing they need is another sulky noisy ungrateful child. They tend to go for reliabilty, not something BMW is famous for really - hand on heart. But as my old dad used to say, the more complicated you make something, more likely it is to go wrong.

[buzyg]

The most reliable car I have ever owned is my Zed I know what you mean though. The most charismatic car I have owned was my Fiat Coupe 20vt. It broke down, a lot, cost me a furtune, sounded awesome, scared M3s and I loved it.

[road warrior]

YSee? But I tellya what, I'm gonna give you a sensible point for Cornwall, you need a small car there bloody tiny roads ya have.
And then you have the a30 - what a glorious road!!!

[buzyg]

YSee? But I tellya what, I'm gonna give you a sensible point for Cornwall, you need a small car there bloody tiny roads ya have.

That be why we have an Mx5. and a wee 1.6ltr Mazda2 ,which in all honesty I could drive more quickly down many of the local roads, than either the ///MR or Mx5. Not that I would of course.

The roadsters are just for fun. If you need a practical fast car by a 4x4 Coupe.

[road warrior]

YSee? But I tellya what, I'm gonna give you a sensible point for Cornwall, you need a small car there bloody tiny roads ya have.

That be why we have an Mx5. and a wee 1.6ltr Mazda2 ,which in all honesty I could drive more quickly down many of the local roads, than either the ///MR or Mx5. Not that I would of course.
"RW says... oh i would, i found myself on a very empty a5 the other day, an almost empty duel carriageway with no cameras and new ( to me) beasty.. did i give it the beans ? has the pope got a balcony ? do bears s**t in the woods ? ohhh yea..... "

The roadsters are just for fun. If you need a practical fast car by a 4x4 Coupe.

[road warrior]

my car grounded 3 times today, if i could get hold of the moron that lowered my car i would shake him warmly by throat, he blinged it up lowered it and sold it again within 2 months.. im positiive he realised what a cock he had made and dumped it pronto agggggggh !

[firebobby]

my car grounded 3 times today, if i could get hold of the moron that lowered my car i would shake him warmly by throat, he blinged it up lowered it and sold it again within 2 months.. im positiive he realised what a cock he had made and dumped it pronto agggggggh !

I would rather get hold of the morons who installed the bloody speed bumps, my car is standard with M sport suspension and it ground on plenty of the bloody things around here.

[Jl-c]

my car grounded 3 times today, if i could get hold of the moron that lowered my car i would shake him warmly by throat, he blinged it up lowered it and sold it again within 2 months.. im positiive he realised what a cock he had made and dumped it pronto agggggggh !

I would rather get hold of the morons who installed the bloody speed bumps, my car is standard with M sport suspension and it ground on plenty of the bloody things around here.

Totally agree, besides I am sure I heard that they were taking them away as they have finally worked out that the 'yoofs' accelerate between them and then brake hard and that actually makes more pollution! (tell me I wasn't dreaming please!)

[LittleZ4]

The most reliable car I have ever owned is my Zed I know what you mean though. The most charismatic car I have owned was my Fiat Coupe 20vt. It broke down, a lot, cost me a furtune, sounded awesome, scared M3s and I loved it.

Always wanted a fiat coupe 20vt. Absolutely love these things even though I've never had the pleasure of having one, let alone driving one!

We definitely bestow characteristics on our cars.....mine seems to have been called Bella (can't remember how that came about) and the Mrs gets jealous of her lol

[road warrior]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/0 ... pollution/
not a dream, not quite anyway, straw grabbing yes, futile yes.. but not a dream

[Felix79]

The most reliable car I have ever owned is my Zed I know what you mean though. The most charismatic car I have owned was my Fiat Coupe 20vt. It broke down, a lot, cost me a furtune, sounded awesome, scared M3s and I loved it.

I think the Fiat Coupe Turbos were one of the most stunning cars of the 90's. A car buddy of mine got one and took me out in it, while it looked and sounded awesome, the whole FWD thing seemed to be wrong for a lack of a better word. His was in that epic blue they did them in and it almost ruined his bank account.

I've owned 4 E30's, starting with a 318i going up to an Alpina C2 2.5, all 2 door cars. I had owned a few different cars between them, mainly 2 Calibra's and a Mk1 MX-5 V-Special imported from Japan (which got nicked). I owned a pretty rare Subaru Impreza P1 and it cost me a fortune as I blew the engine skyhigh shorty after getting it. It ended up getting a race engine put in and tuned down to just 320hp to keep it reliable. I really loved the car, but my Alpina and 325i Cab really made me feel very different.

My E85 Z4M has reminded me of why I like BMW's so much. They can ignite your heart on country roads, but can also eat up motorway miles effortlessly. In the year I had my 318i I did over 20,000 miles, which when you consider I lived at my work (I was a bar manager for a old Oxford brewery) it just showed how much I could eat up the miles. I normally only average around 3000 miles a year in my cars, as they have always been about my love of driving. My E85 is technically the "backup" car for my family, so it might get some miles clocked up. I'm embarrassed to admit I've already clocked up 500 miles in the 3 weeks I've owned my E85 and I can't remember loving a car this much since I had my first car, which was the E30 318i 2 door!

[stewey999]

Most reliable car I've owned...996 911 turbo. Only fault in 4 years was a worn gear linkage. £15 part.
Most unreliable.. Noble GTO 3R. Was definitely a car you only went for a 'quick spin' in. Plenty of garage action over 3 years. I bought that at the time as it had Ford running gear and engine. I thought that would make this more reliable than the Ferrari 355 and Sagaris I was also toying with at the time. However the best drivers car I have owned is also the Noble. Hated selling it to pay off the ex! Grrrr!

[Felix79]

Most reliable car I've owned...996 911 turbo. Only fault in 4 years was a worn gear linkage. £15 part.
Most unreliable.. Noble GTO 3R. Was definitely a car you only went for a 'quick spin' in. Plenty of garage action over 3 years. I bought that at the time as it had Ford running gear and engine. I thought that would make this more reliable than the Ferrari 355 and Sagaris I was also toying with at the time. However the best drivers car I have owned is also the Noble. Hated selling it to pay off the ex! Grrrr!

Didn't the Noble use the Volvo 5 cylinder engine with twin turbo's? I've always admired the Nobles as they are just race cars with number plates on?

My old man was trying to get me to go for a Boxster S or the Cayman, but in Oxford there just isn't anywhere I could take it to if something when wrong. Thankfully the lure of a S54 engine made him all happy when I said I would go for a Z4M

[road warrior]

You fellas have had some amazing machine's for sure.
No wonder you will never get us on buses. Cars run in our veins like 0-30 castrol or Fuchs, or Miller's, or.

[wspohn]

Clearly, older cars are superior.

I drove 1950s British sports cars for a couple of decades. With a couple of wrenches and the knock off hammer, you could fix most issues at the side of the road. I have regapped distributor points using a discarded matchbook cover found on the roadside, and a few gentle taps with a hammer would get just about any recalcitrant SU fuel pump ticking again (for awhile, anyway). I was driving a Wolseley 6/99 once and the fuel pump ceased ticking. I had to put my wife in the trunk with a wrench to tap on it when it stopped, but we made it home, where I could install new points. She has ever forgiven me when I was letting her out of the trunk and a couple were passing, and I said "Any more of that and it will be back in the boot for you!"

Anyone with a modern car better have a cell phone on them to call for help.

Attitudes have changed. I was driving another of my sports cars, this time a 1980s American car, and had a flat tire. It never even occurred to me to do anything but jack it up and put the spare on, but from the reactions of the slowly passing line of traffic, many offering their cell phones to call for help, no one even changes their own tires any more.