[Sage]

Originally Posted by tsa

Man, you worked on Oldsmobiles far more than was good for you .

Actually, just the one. I'm much more of a Ford/Mercury/Lincoln guy, but my dear departed Oldsmobile was too good a deal to pass up at the time.

Originally Posted by tsa

We don't see Oldmobiles so often here in Europe because they are so extremely expensive to run.

I'm sure, since as far as I know General Motors never marketed Oldsmobiles on the European continent and Oldsmobile-specific parts would be rather hard to come by there.

Originally Posted by tsa

But my neighbour had a car like the one you show in the top picture, in the 1980s. That thing was so big it didn't even fit on his parking space in front of his house properly. And it used so much gas that he had to stop for fuel halfway on a 100 mile (actually 130 km) long trip. But that was probably because he had it converted to run on LPG. It was a cool car though.

It sounds like the LPG conversion might not have been such a good idea in the long run. Those cars originally came with a 25-gallon gas tank and got 8 to 12+ miles per gallon with the larger (7.5 litre/460 cubic inch) engine, so the minimum range on a full tank of gas would have been around 200 miles.

Originally Posted by tsa

The blue car looks a bit boring. Aren't there better looking practical cars on the market there?

I'm very much a "pretty is as pretty does" kind of guy, so looks are way down on my priority list. Mercury Sable wagons like the one pictured can handle a fair amount of cargo, they're relatively easy to work on, and parts for them are both cheap and plentiful.

Originally Posted by tsa

Something like this, for instance:

A 2009 Renault Laguna Wagon.

Not bad looking, but with such a short rear overhang I'm forced to wonder how much cargo it can swallow.

[tsa]

It was just meant as an example of more interesting design.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by tsa

It was just meant as an example of more interesting design.

Ah. Gotcha.
Well, looks-wise the previous-generation Sable wagon is more appealing,

but they're getting older every day and they have a reputation for being somewhat less reliable than the subsequent version I posted earlier.

Confining my critiques to wagons you might be more familiar with, the Peugeot 504


And what was sold in the US as a Renault/Eagle "Medallion" (I'm not sure what it's model nomenclature was over there)

were serious wagons that could swallow an amazing amount of stuff.

Mercedes-Benz wagons are okay, if a bit sterile in personality and appearance.

Audi wagons have teeny-tiny cargo holds and should be classified as hatchbacks, not as wagons... plus Audi's "styling" (or more accurately "complete LACK of styling", but I guess "generic" is still a style) is a massive yawn for me.

Volvo wagons are excellent wagons, particularly the 240 series and to a slightly lesser extent the 740 series. Unabashed cubism isn't a bad ethic to follow in wagon design because it allows for the most voluminous interior spaces. Also, I've always harbored a secret desire to own a Volvo wagon with flames painted on the side so that I'm not mistaken for a member of the Yuppie hoard.

[tsa]

The Volvo 740 is a brilliant car. Very beautiful and very practical, and very durable too! A colleague of mine has one. And here in Europe Volvos are not for yuppies but for settled fiftysomethings .

[Jelena]

We used to have a Volvo v70. It looked pretty much like this.


It was the most comfortable car I've had.
Today we have a Ford Mondeo (and my yellow Seat of course). It's OK, but not like a Volvo.

[tsa]

My car history is already quite large. I started with an old Ford Fiesta 1.1 Sport. Sorry about the size of the image but this was the best I could find.

Mine had a black stripe and grey interior. It was also silver grey. The thing drove like a skelter; it was great fun. After the fiesta I got a Nissan Micra:

It drove like, well, it was probably the worst driving car on the road back then. It was horrible. It always seemed to want to go somewhere else than I pointed it to. But it was very reliable and I drove it for 11 years. After that I got my Clio, which I drove for almost 8 years:

I had a lot of fun with that car. It drove very well, it was luxurious, and a lot better looking than the Micra. As you know, when it was almost 8 years old, I traded it in for the Peugeot I have now:

[Erwin_Br]

My car history:

I started with a Renault 19 sport. It looked exactly like the picture below, but was black instead of white. This car is the reason why I hate French cars. It would refuse to go in second gear many times, and I had a shitload of problems with it. (like the gas hanging because some nut got loose and slid via the gas cable into something)



Then I got an awesome Volvo V80. I loved the (Dutch) design, and the luxerious features that it sported. When I got this car, it was already on its way to becoming a wanted classic. I still regret having to part with it:



Then I got a Ford Probe. Very comfortable car, and quite rare in Europe. At least in The Netherlands. Even though it's an American model, these babies were built in Germany. Many parts are also from Mazda, thus maintenance wasn't very expensive. I have sold the car to my brother, who later sold it to my sister, so it's still in the family.



When I started a new job, I got a company leased car. It's a Volkswagen Polo. It's not that bad, but I wish it had better seats.

[tsa]

Wow, I was madly in love with the Volvo 480 when it came out! I was something like 16 at the time and getting my father to buy one was out of the question because of its price. But we had a 440!

[Erwin_Br]

Yeah, I would like to drive a 480 again. Or a new C30, which is based on the 480.

[tsa]

I thought about buying that one, 'cause I find it very cool. But when I stood next to it in the shop I thought: nah, it's not the car for me.

[tabacco]

Currently driving a 2007 Nissan Sentra:



Before that I had a chain of two Fords, an '89 Taurus and a '01. Neither were bad cars per se, but they were pretty big 3.0L V6 engines and I wanted better mileage. The Sentra's a much smaller engine, but it's also a lighter car and as an added bonus has a continuously variable transmission, which is fun

Also, a surprising amount of cargo space in the Sentra.

[tsa]

Cool, a CVT! The first cars to have that were the Dutch DAFs:


The CVT was invented by Mr. Van Doorne. The Dafs had rubber bands instead of the metal bands that are used now. Inside the CVT:

[tabacco]

Actually there are sketches of a CVT by Da Vinci



But yeah, it's awesome.

[Fantasysci5]

I started off liking to skim through some of the posts from this thread, since it showed people's new cars and stuff, but now it went back to guys obsessing about random cars and stuff that goes right over my head...Not that that's a bad thing, you've just lost me.

[tsa]

What car would you like to drive if you had the money Fantasie?

[Fantasysci5]

Oh gosh, I don't know. I'm not really into cars, wish I had one, though. I don't really like the new cars that you can't even hear the engine. I'm dying to get my hands on my mom's old mini-van, but she's going to run it till it dies. I don't know types of cars very well, I'm afraid...

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

Oh gosh, I don't know. I'm not really into cars, wish I had one, though. I don't really like the new cars that you can't even hear the engine. I'm dying to get my hands on my mom's old mini-van, but she's going to run it till it dies. I don't know types of cars very well, I'm afraid...

If you really want a minivan, a good used one should be quite affordable. Minivans aren't "glamour" vehicles, and their resale values are usually very low- bad news if you bought one new, but great news if you're looking for one second-hand.

On two different occasions I've rented Dodge Neons while on vacation:

I've found them to be quite charming cars. I can sit up straight in them, they have a surprisingly large trunk, and even the basic "rent-a-car" versions have more than enough power to keep up with freeway traffic in high-altitude mountainous terrain (4400+ feet above sea level in the Reno area). Plus the 2005 Neon tops Edmund's list of "Worst Resale Value", so it should be easy to find one at an affordable price.

[Erwin_Br]

During my vacation in California, a few years ago, I rented an Impala. Very comfortable car, but also quite stiff in the corners. It performed great in the mountains. (I've been to Reno as well - drove around Lake Tahoe )

[tsa]

When we were in Canada ten years ago we rented a Dodge Ram Van/Chrysler Voyager. It had sliding doors, and every time we got out of the car on a parking lot we would sing the first notes of the A-Team music (Taa ta ta taaaa!). Most of the time people would stare at us like we were crazy .

[Denaron]

Ohhh, my neighbor sold just yesterday his red beautiful mustang, same model as this 66's:



I asked how he could sell that masterpiece, and he said he couldn't keep the maintenance anymore. I wish I had money to buy it, was very cheap, just R$ 85.000 about US $48.000