Omega Owners Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Please play nicely.  No one wants to listen/read a keyboard warriors rants....

Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6   Go Down

Author Topic: Cheap daily runaround car?  (Read 9327 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Migv6 le Frog Fan

  • Omega Queen
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Webs End.
  • Posts: 11732
  • Nicole's Papa
    • 3.2 Elite. Boxster. C1.
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #60 on: 14 August 2020, 19:23:01 »

If you take a look at the youtube video of Gordon Murray talking about his latast supercar, he agrees with quite a lot of what has been said here.
Touchscreens should never be allowed in a car. Wheels over 17" diameter are useless fashion accessories etc. etc.
Its  fascinating to watch.
Logged
Women are like an AR35. lovely things, but nobody really understands how they work.

Sir Tigger KC

  • Get A Life!!
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • West Dorset
  • Posts: 23418
    • 2 Fords
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #61 on: 14 August 2020, 20:30:44 »


Think I'll go back to a MK2 Lowline Zodiac , had a beautiful one around 1975/6 electric nothing wonderful 😎

My Uncle worked for Ford's and used to turn up in a different car every time and the car that stood out from them all was the MK4 Zodiac.  8)

I was probably about 8 years old and thought  Wow what a car!   :y  Looking at pictures of MK4 Zodiacs now though they look like a Cortina on steroids!  ::)  ;D
Logged
RIP Paul 'Luvvie' Lovejoy

Politically homeless ......

Nick W

  • Omega Queen
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Chatham, Kent
  • Posts: 10834
  • Rover Metro 1.8VVC
    • 3.0l Elite estate
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #62 on: 14 August 2020, 20:36:44 »


Think I'll go back to a MK2 Lowline Zodiac , had a beautiful one around 1975/6 electric nothing wonderful 😎

My Uncle worked for Ford's and used to turn up in a different car every time and the car that stood out from them all was the MK4 Zodiac.  8)

I was probably about 8 years old and thought  Wow what a car!   :y  Looking at pictures of MK4 Zodiacs now though they look like a Cortina on steroids!  ::) ;D


If only they drove that well!


Essex V6, terrible IRS, rear brakes to match and American style steering.


The good thing was I bought it with a knackered manual gearbox, found a replacement locally for £40, fitted it that afternoon, and doubled mu money about 2 months later when I couldn't stand it any longer :y
Logged

Andy B

  • Get A Life!!
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Bury Lancs
  • Posts: 39446
    • ML350 TDM SmartRoadster
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #63 on: 14 August 2020, 21:13:08 »

...
My pet hate with modern cars is requiring the driver to EVER use a touch screen while driving, especially when the software behind it takes a nap every so often.

Agreed. The touch screen radio of my Smart isn't nice to use. Fortunately my ML has a button for everything.  :y
Logged

TheBoy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Brackley, Northants
  • Posts: 105837
  • I Like Lockdown
    • Whatever Starts
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #64 on: 15 August 2020, 11:03:13 »

Electric seat adjustment has manual adjustment beat on refining position, and very few modest cars have them even as an option. Even some cars that should have full electric only have partial electric adjustment which leaves you with the worst of both :-\

I never realised how much I used the memory seats on my Omega until I bough the RClass. The seats were fully electric but no memory, which meant that it seemed to take an age to get the seat back to how you wanted it when it was moved fro whatever reason.
My ML has both electric column & seats with memory ..... but manual interior mirror!  ??? ???

no electric rear view mirror is common across the industry, its position needs to alter based on if you drive in the morning or evening so was found to never be in the right place. Hence there were complaints it was never right due to the simple fact the users spine was compressing during the day  :y (true fact this  ;D).

Of course, the smart rear view mirrors totally eliminate the need now anyway :-\
On the Omegas, I could set the mirror so it was perfectly usable early morning through to late evening - granted, it wasn't always absolutely perfect, but still gave decent view behind :).

With Mrs TB being such a shortarse, its a constant bloody thing now in the Shaguar, grrr.  And a joy when I get back in TBE. Simple things make things easier :)

I'd say, couldn't they have linked it to the clock, and done very minor adjustments throughout the day...  ...but the bloody XJ can't even set the bloody time itself ;D


Smart mirrors/virtual mirrors should have started becoming standard on more premium marques ages ago, though I guess potential issues around LCD glare/distraction.  But keeping the memory on the interior mirror until such time they are usable would have been a grand idea.
Logged
Grumpy old man

Nick W

  • Omega Queen
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Chatham, Kent
  • Posts: 10834
  • Rover Metro 1.8VVC
    • 3.0l Elite estate
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #65 on: 15 August 2020, 11:34:39 »


With Mrs TB being such a shortarse, its a constant bloody thing now in the Shaguar, grrr.  And a joy when I get back in TBE. Simple things make things easier :)




Things that work make things easier. For them to work they have to do it unobtrusively, efficiently, and where possible, intuitively. It's very easy to get simple things wrong, google Norman doors for an example.


Bad design is everywhere. So is good, but it's depressingly common to find good, clever design and engineering on the manufacture of an item, that is horrible to use. Anything with multiple functions operated by a complicated sequences of just four buttons is a good example.
Logged

TheBoy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Brackley, Northants
  • Posts: 105837
  • I Like Lockdown
    • Whatever Starts
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #66 on: 15 August 2020, 11:46:41 »


With Mrs TB being such a shortarse, its a constant bloody thing now in the Shaguar, grrr.  And a joy when I get back in TBE. Simple things make things easier :)




Things that work make things easier. For them to work they have to do it unobtrusively, efficiently, and where possible, intuitively. It's very easy to get simple things wrong, google Norman doors for an example.


Bad design is everywhere. So is good, but it's depressingly common to find good, clever design and engineering on the manufacture of an item, that is horrible to use. Anything with multiple functions operated by a complicated sequences of just four buttons is a good example.
I concur - blimey, am I agreeing with you ;D

The Omega memory system works, and is simple enough to use that even Mrs TB grasps it.  And its pretty reliable too.
Logged
Grumpy old man

Rangie

  • Omega Lord
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Lincolnshire
  • Posts: 5356
    • RRS TDV8 Subaru Forester
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #67 on: 15 August 2020, 12:14:57 »

Just cleaned the RRS after getting it back from the Indie yesterday and for the first time since I've owned it (11 months) everything is working perfectly 😀 don't expect it to last for long though now I've said that ! Just glad that I've been lucky enough to find someone who knows everything about these vehicles .
Logged
Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level & beat you with their experience.

VXL V6

  • Omega Lord
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Solihull
  • Posts: 9810
    • 530D M Sport, Elite 3.2
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #68 on: 15 August 2020, 12:37:21 »

I think the memory function for seats and mirrors on the Elite is excellent when you have multiple drivers of a car, I have position 3 set so it lowers the mirrors so I can see our stupid garden wall when I reverse the car onto that corner of the drive!
I also think the self dipping photo-chromatic mirror was a great idea and its a shame that the wing mirrors didn't do the same (a lot do now), maybe I notice this more in a slightly lowered car or maybe it's because of all these awful (in my opinion) high ride height SUV style vehicles.

Some of the more current technology is definitely useful, as cars become more ridiculous in design (Yep SUV's again) the blind spots seem to get worse so blind spot indicators displaying in the mirrors and front and rear parking cameras definitely have their place. The huge problem is that the general driving ability seems to have dramatically decreased... that's clearly a problem with uneducated / know better than everyone else Carbon lifeforms.

Logged

YZ250

  • Omega Baron
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Oxford/Bucks border
  • Posts: 4152
    • Black 3.2 Elite Estate
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #69 on: 15 August 2020, 14:21:38 »

.............

Some of the more current technology is definitely useful, as cars become more ridiculous in design (Yep SUV's again) the blind spots seem to get worse so blind spot indicators displaying in the mirrors and front and rear parking cameras definitely have their place.
.........

Saw the blind spot mirror flashing on a Volvo XC90 that was sat alongside me on the motorway. Simple but effective.
Our bmw has lane discipline, which pulls you back in line if you cross the white line without indicating (didn't think that one through did they  ::) ). The problem is that it sees repaired Tarmac shiny lines as the white line and pulls you about, so I've deactivated it. A great feature if you want to drive no-handed, in conjunction with ACC, down the motorway.  ::)
Logged
My fun car is a 2020 Bmw F32 430d M Sport with indicators.
My cruiser is an Audi A6 Avant S Line Black Edition with indicators.

Andy B

  • Get A Life!!
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Bury Lancs
  • Posts: 39446
    • ML350 TDM SmartRoadster
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #70 on: 15 August 2020, 21:32:35 »

....Our bmw has lane discipline, which pulls you back in line if you cross the white line without indicating (didn't think that one through did they  ::) ). The problem is that it sees repaired Tarmac shiny lines as the white line and pulls you about, so I've deactivated it. A great feature if you want to drive no-handed, in conjunction with ACC, down the motorway.  ::)

A bloke on the Merc forum was commenting that the lane discipline on his fairly new car reactivated each time the ignition was switched on .... same as my crash alert thing ....which is a PITA even if it doesn't actually apply the brakes
Logged

pscocoa

  • Omega Baron
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Sandhurst Berkshire
  • Posts: 3749
    • Volvo V90 D5 AWD
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #71 on: 15 August 2020, 22:18:43 »

The Volvo V90 has the same lane discipline but very rare I seem to get an issue of unwanted correction. The system does make you use your indicators properly!!
Logged
[img name=signat_img_resize]http://[/img]

pscocoa

  • Omega Baron
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Sandhurst Berkshire
  • Posts: 3749
    • Volvo V90 D5 AWD
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #72 on: 15 August 2020, 22:22:19 »

What would peoples thoughts be for a cheap runaround that can munch a few miles if necessary and is cheap to run but not a wheezy shopping car?

By cheap I mean less than £2K
By munch miles I mean around 20-25K a year?
Cheap to run would probably mean something under 2.0 Litres and possibly a diesel?

I was thinking along the lines of:-

Astra H 1.6 Petrol or 1.7CDTi (although the seats would need to more supportive than the ones in Mrs VXL V6's Design model)

I have been extremely happy with the Astra 2012 1.6 petrol Auto as a station car/runaround - saves dpf issues on the diesels with short trips

Signum 1.9

Astra G (MK4) 1.6 petrol or 1.7CDTi - I still like these and they are simple to work on and don't suffer many rust issues

318d / 320d - A bit more refinement over the Vauxhall offerings.


Obviously I haven't researched in any great detail, i'm just interested in peoples thoughts.
 

I have been extremely happy with the Astra 2012 SE 1.6 petrol Auto as a station car/runaround - saves dpf issues on the diesels with short trips
Logged
[img name=signat_img_resize]http://[/img]

Marks DTM Calib

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • West Bridgford
  • Posts: 33813
  • Git!
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #73 on: 16 August 2020, 07:42:31 »

Mr TB, do you have a shark fin, I might be able to lay my hands on a smart rear view mirror and fin with integrated camera
Logged

TheBoy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Brackley, Northants
  • Posts: 105837
  • I Like Lockdown
    • Whatever Starts
    • View Profile
Re: Cheap daily runaround car?
« Reply #74 on: 16 August 2020, 09:24:08 »

Mr TB, do you have a shark fin, I might be able to lay my hands on a smart rear view mirror and fin with integrated camera
Nope, mine is the earliest of the X351 ones, which have no external antennas at all.  Fair play to JLR for designing a car not requiring any aerials, keeping its sleek lines :y, though I suspect it is prone to issues, hence the sharkfins added a couple of years after mine.
Logged
Grumpy old man
Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.054 seconds with 22 queries.