I drove a normal car yesterday

[Bonefishblues]

On cow and horse emissions...

https://ideas.ted.com/methane-isnt-just ... house-gas/

[Cyril Haearn]

Sebastian Kurz might top that, looks like he might have to retire from Kanzler in Austria aged 32

[pwa]

Anyone got any ideas on the best "normal" cars out there? I'm talking good second hand and not very small (we already have one of those). Maybe a very efficient petrol engine. Don't care about it being a tad slow. I was looking at a Focus with a sub 1 litre engine.

[Lance Dopestrong]

Anyone got any ideas on the best "normal" cars out there? I'm talking good second hand and not very small (we already have one of those). Maybe a very efficient petrol engine. Don't care about it being a tad slow. I was looking at a Focus with a sub 1 litre engine.

That's a very open question. I hardly drive at all and do quite happily in my Smart fortwo, but if you drive loads or have 7 kids then it wouldn't be for you.

I've driven the Focus 125 1.0 a couple of years ago, and while it wasn't a fire breather it kept up with traffic without any drama. However, for me its and additional 3 seats and 750kg of useless metal I simply don't need.

[Bonefishblues]

Anyone got any ideas on the best "normal" cars out there? I'm talking good second hand and not very small (we already have one of those). Maybe a very efficient petrol engine. Don't care about it being a tad slow. I was looking at a Focus with a sub 1 litre engine.

What sort of budget, age etc (in fact, much the same questions as we ask new cyclists who ask for bike recommendations! )

[thirdcrank]

As my contribution to continuing the slide to this being Yet Another Car Forum I'll suggest that in this context, normal = old technology. That eliminates almost everything oriental with longer warranties and alternative power sources. If you just want minimun frills trundling I'd suggest a Skoda of a size to suit you. My instinct it that Fabias are only bought by BOFs (like me.) You are unlikely to get one that has been hammered, especially if you go for the basic colours, rather than something in a lurid go-faster paint scheme. We have a basic Fabia whose only glitzy extras are a reversing camera and a full-size spare wheel. Oh, and manufacturer's rubber mats. It's neither fast nor zippy by modern standards, but modern performance standards are OTT. I get the impression that any decent secondhand Octavias are snapped up by taxi drivers - at least round here. Only a three year warranty.

[rmurphy195]

Yesterday, I was driving Daughter1's car. It's a Ford B Max with a manual gearbox.
Good car, drove nicely, and was comfortable. No complaints whatsoever ............................. except ....................

Having owned and driven a Toyota Hybrid for the past couple of years, it's surprising to me that all cars don't have a modern automatic system like ours. Driving a manual car seems very old-fashioned, having to depress a clutch and move a gearstick to the correct gear. This day and age, it should all be automatically operated.

Driving our Hybrid, all you have is a Go pedal and a brake. Simple and easy, and I would never go back to a clutch and gear stick.

Why haven't gearboxes evolved? They are no different now to when they were first invented. Synchro, yes, even on 1st gear these days, but still basically the same.

Costs - especially when it goes wrong.!

And mpg - last time I lookde, the manual v auto equivalent of the cars I was looking at had approx. 10% increase in claimed fuel consumption for the auto verions

[pwa]

Anyone got any ideas on the best "normal" cars out there? I'm talking good second hand and not very small (we already have one of those). Maybe a very efficient petrol engine. Don't care about it being a tad slow. I was looking at a Focus with a sub 1 litre engine.

What sort of budget, age etc (in fact, much the same questions as we ask new cyclists who ask for bike recommendations! )

£10k or less would be best as we are helping our kids to buy homes and want to keep other spending down. I'm very much out of love with VW engines at the moment due to a string of expensive problems with a couple of diesel engines. And I think the mpg advantage of diesel is not as great as it once was. A cleaner, efficient petrol engine looks more appealing. We have a very small car already, so this would be the larger car for when we take four people over a distance or pick up long DIY materials etc.

If I can build up some faith in the reliability of our Golf again I may not need another car but it has let us down a few times.

[Bonefishblues]

Anyone got any ideas on the best "normal" cars out there? I'm talking good second hand and not very small (we already have one of those). Maybe a very efficient petrol engine. Don't care about it being a tad slow. I was looking at a Focus with a sub 1 litre engine.

What sort of budget, age etc (in fact, much the same questions as we ask new cyclists who ask for bike recommendations! )

£10k or less would be best as we are helping our kids to buy homes and want to keep other spending down. I'm very much out of love with VW engines at the moment due to a string of expensive problems with a couple of diesel engines. And I think the mpg advantage of diesel is not as great as it once was. A cleaner, efficient petrol engine looks more appealing. We have a very small car already, so this would be the larger car for when we take four people over a distance or pick up long DIY materials etc.

If I can build up some faith in the reliability of our Golf again I may not need another car but it has let us down a few times.

I'm a fan of Toyota hybrids, as Mick knows

How about their Golf-sized Auris, haggling on these to get a good, low mileage example for around your top budget?
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search ... egories=on

Or its bigger brother that I used to run is slipping towards your budget based on the same search parameters:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search ... egories=on

Because Toyota they really will not let you down, and they are lovely to drive, and very very economical - more so than the equivalent diesels in the real world as opposed to the test lab.

[pwa]

What sort of budget, age etc (in fact, much the same questions as we ask new cyclists who ask for bike recommendations! )

£10k or less would be best as we are helping our kids to buy homes and want to keep other spending down. I'm very much out of love with VW engines at the moment due to a string of expensive problems with a couple of diesel engines. And I think the mpg advantage of diesel is not as great as it once was. A cleaner, efficient petrol engine looks more appealing. We have a very small car already, so this would be the larger car for when we take four people over a distance or pick up long DIY materials etc.

If I can build up some faith in the reliability of our Golf again I may not need another car but it has let us down a few times.

I'm a fan of Toyota hybrids, as Mick knows

How about their Golf-sized Auris, haggling on these to get a good, low mileage example for around your top budget?
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search ... egories=on

Or its bigger brother that I used to run is slipping towards your budget based on the same search parameters:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search ... egories=on

Because Toyota they really will not let you down, and they are lovely to drive, and very very economical - more so than the equivalent diesels in the real world as opposed to the test lab.

Thanks for that. I will do some research into those. I do like the Toyota brand.

[Mick F]

I was driving the "normal car" B Max again today. Misty and murky up in North Cornwall today, but fine and bright "down" here.

Very nice car to drive, but typical with a Ford, the light switch is a separate knob away from the steering well over to the right.
All the cars I've owned in the last few decades, have had the lights controlled at the touch of a finger without moving a hand very far from the steering wheel onto a stalk off the column. I've driven - but not owned - a few Fords over the years, and they've all been like that with the light switch away over on the right.

As for the clutch and changing the gears manually, the idea is old hat.
This is the yet another car - like our Fiat500 we had a couple of years ago - that tells you to change gear!
There's a little arrow that comes up on the dash to let you know that you should change up or down. If it knows that, it should do it for you.

[pwa]

My Golf has the light switch on the dash to the right and it isn't a problem. I've never thought of it as an issue.

It also has the arrow thing to indicate when it thinks i should change gear, and I ignore it because half of the time it is wrong. Like when I select third because I see a 30 sign ahead and want to slow down and stay slowed. I also do the same sort of thing in slow moving traffic so that every time I lift my foot off the gas I get an immediate braking effect even before my foot reaches the brake pedal. The arrow thing on the dash doesn't understand that sort of thing.

[thirdcrank]

The best I've ever had was my Renault Fourgon van which had a very short stalk to switch the lights on and off. It could easily be removed and replaced - just pull it out - so, in those far-off days without steering locks and immobilisers I used to remove it so anybody nicking it would be unable to turn on the lights. No alarms in those days and the horn was on another stalk which could be jammed in the ON position so turning on the ignition sounded the horn.

I never had it nicked but that was because nobody was ever going to nick a Fourgon.

[Mick F]

My Golf has the light switch on the dash to the right and it isn't a problem. I've never thought of it as an issue.

It also has the arrow thing to indicate when it thinks i should change gear, and I ignore it because half of the time it is wrong. Like when I select third because I see a 30 sign ahead and want to slow down and stay slowed. I also do the same sort of thing in slow moving traffic so that every time I lift my foot off the gas I get an immediate braking effect even before my foot reaches the brake pedal. The arrow thing on the dash doesn't understand that sort of thing.

Never driven a VW.

Oh yes I have!
We rented a Beetle in circa 1975 from Hertz in Edinburgh.



As for gears, I always state the mantra about speed limits.
3rd in a 30, and 4th in a 40.

Can't do that with an automatic, and obviously can't do that with a Hybrid or EV.

[RickH]

As for gears, I always state the mantra about speed limits.
3rd in a 30, and 4th in a 40.

Can't do that with an automatic, and obviously can't do that with a Hybrid or EV.

Particularly not a full EV as they generally only have one gear (& not usually direct drive but a single - reduction, I think - gear).

So it would be 1st in a 10, 1st in a 20, 1st in a 30...