It's not just me.

Instead of clogging up posts with off topic discussions, have them here. Keep it clean folks!
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Blaketon
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It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

I heard that insurance claims have gone up as a result of car park dings. I had felt that modern cars keep getting bigger and apparently car park spaces are now too small, so cars get scraped more often.

A year or two back a Hillman Super Minx went past the shop and shortly after, he had a modern Fiesta typically in his boot :roll: :evil: . The Super Minx was supposed to be a Cortina sized car, so two models up in size from the Fiesta, yet the Fiesta dwaffed the Super Minx. VW did the same with the Golf; the Mk3 was bigger than the Mk2 (Great car the Mk 2 GTI) and the new Polo of the day was built on the floorpan of the Mk 2 Golf. As the Polo got bigger, the Lupo came along as the new small car. I can't see the logic of having to bring out new small cars, because the small car you used to make is no longer small. The Mondeo now seems to be a great big lump, akin to a Granada (How long before you will need an HGV licence to drive a Mondeo?). I suppose it's marketing....which I reckon works best when you mix that which smells, with stupidity!!
irmscher
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by irmscher »

The Mondeo floorpan was used on the jaguar
Blaketon
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

Yes I had heard that some Jaguars had Transit van engines. I know Ford owned Jaguar for a while and that the Granada was dropped, as the big Ford was then a "Jaguar". I think it's owned by Tata steel now, so does that mean Ford are out of the picture?

I am told the Ford Ka is now a rebodied Fiat 500. How long before the Ka is the size of a Focus and has to be replaced by a small car?
SteveClem
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by SteveClem »

A marketing chap at Vauxhall once tried to explain this to me. He said that they aimed for brand and model loyalty. So,for example,they targeted young families for the Astra. Typically a family would keep the car for several years and when it came to change time their kids had grown quite a bit. Longer legs,needed more luggage space etc. Vauxhall would hope that they upsized to a Cavalier but their research showed that this wasn't happening. A more expensive car and often viewed as a
Repmobile.
Consequently they stretched each new Astra model a bit so that 'the car grew with the family ' as he put it.
There must be some kind of sense in this argument as all manufacturers seems to have done the same.
Blaketon
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

BMC never found it necessary to make the Minor bigger and the basic car was simply evolved from MM to 1098 (Pity it never got the 1275). However it does tend to confirm my view that beyond being a means of transport, cars are a status symbol and that if Reliant Robins could be reintroduced and marketed properly, to give the right "Image",people would be buying those, instead of the Handbags on wheels, that are now so much in fashion (How about a Robin SUV?). Vanity is the most popular hobby and it manifests itself in many ways. The marketing people latch on to this and it seems to me that most of it works when something which smells is mixed with stupidity.

I've only ever had one new car and that was 30 years ago. It was a Mini and I bought it as I needed a runabout (I had my MG Midget even then but as they were no longer in production, with no sign of any direct replacement, I decided to use it sparingly). I had owned two Minis before I had the new one and if they had still made the estate model, I would have been prepared to pay a bit more for one of those. I was never keen on the Metro and although the rust prevention of the Mini was no better, it was a simpler car, with fewer rust traps than the Metro. I sometimes wished I had "Discovered" Minor motoring then but you live and learn. The point is I bought a car that suited me and I didn't care what other people thought about it.
greendefender123
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by greendefender123 »

Iv just bought an astra. Its massive. 12 inches longer then a fiesta aswell. Iv always had smaller cars. Used to love nipping through tight spaces in my beetle. Hopefully the morris will be the same. Its fun nipping around in my old fiesta and my partners ka. Mothers newer shape fiesta feels like a rocket ship. God knows what this astras gonna be like.
SteveClem
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by SteveClem »

Just got a little Pug 107 for oldest son. Expected to hate it but it's incredibly impressive. Nippy, £20tax, sips petrol and cheap insurance. Apparently the Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo are the same car. All made in the Czech Republic.
A bit like a modern 'old school ' car.
Trickydicky
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Trickydicky »

irmscher wrote:The Mondeo floorpan was used on the jaguar
Tell me about it, my employer has stipulated that as mobile engineers we need a particular boot size for our jobs. I now have a Mondeo hatchback and it's HUGE. Due to its size and the fact you can't see over the end of the bonnet or boot it was a must to have parking sensors, it's a real pain navigating some city centre car parks.
I have only had the car since July, pranged it already and due to the gauge of the metal they use these days it needed a new back door......
Richard

Opinions are like people,everyone can be different.
Blaketon
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

On the radio, last Sunday morning, they were reviewing the Sunday Papers and the Sun had an item on obesity but cars, not people. They were apparently drawing attention to all the stuff they now cram into cars and mentioned that the current "Mini" is more of a "Maxi" and that it's 80% heavier than the original Issigonis Mini. Frankly, aside from the fact that there are some vague styling connections, I don't regard the current Mini as a genuine replacement for the old one and somehow it always reminds me of the oversized Dougal in an episode of the Goodies.
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les
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by les »

Would you believe I've just returned from a Mini showroom and said the very same thing to the guy I was speaking to, " mini don't you mean maxi!" I also discovered that unless you want grey as a colour anything else is another £475.

Blaketon
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

Sobering thought that the Mini didn't cost much more than that in 1959. My father heard that lots of firms are offering a "Base" colour now (Often white) and charging more for other colours. I've never put colour top of my list and once, when I wanted a runabout, I found a Mini 1000, with one owner and 25000 miles, for £1550. I didn't care that it was "Applejack" or "Slime green" as I called it ;I still used to polish it. It was a good little car, which made way for my one and only new car, another Mini. Again whilst I fancied red, they has a white one in stock and a price rise was due, so I took the white one.
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JOWETTJAVELIN
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by JOWETTJAVELIN »

BMC tried (and failed) to relegate both the Minor and Mini to the dustbin. They had become long-in-the-tooth outdated relics. But the great conservative (or eccentric) British public still demanded inferior transportation when better was available.
Blaketon
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

"Better" can be limited to certain aspects; for example a Mini handles better than a Minor but a Minor is more durable. It's ironic that the cars, that were (In some ways) considered better, aren't anywhere near so popular as classic cars, as the Minor and the Mini. So far as I am concerned, the Minor is a straightforward car to own, is (In my case in slightly modified form) sufficiently competent a car to cope with modern roads and whilst some of the useless tools, who don't know an open ended spanner, from a ring spanner, might prefer their electric this, electric that SUV, for me the Traveller is best.

There is a general assumption that anything new must be better but the example of the ADO16 and the Allegro show this isn't always the case. It would have been interesting to have seen how the 9X would have shaped up; I suspect it would have been better than the Mini Metro.
irmscher
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by irmscher »

They called the TR7 but it was way ahead of its time in styling and with regular services they had a good engine .The minor was built to a price and a job intended and it did so very well also built in England and by English workmen
Blaketon
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Re: It's not just me.

Post by Blaketon »

I think the TR7 initially suffered from being slower than the TR6, poor quality control (Until they moved production to Solihull?) and lack of a soft top option. I know that pre production, there was talk of a V8 engine but this took some time to arrive. I know some had Dolomite Sprint Engines but I don't think these were production models (Though this would have made sense, if only as an option). It was a model that got better with time (SD1 gearbox) and I wouldn't say no to a TR8 drophead, if I didn't already have a full garage and a V8 in it!!
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