Bob's new wagon

Not necessarily. The subset of drivers who are convinced that they own the road might well have stopped in the middle lane if they had to. Or just felt like it.

VB

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I had a new VW Passat (2007 vintage) that decided to blow up it’s engine (2.0d at 11,000 miles, the engine was shipped back to Germany) at 80mph on the M6toll once. The same car later went mad on the cruise control and decided I needed to be doing 140mph+, another time the engine management failed (twice), the drivers window fell out at speed, the rear windscreen fell off, the drivers seat broke twice, it leaked fuel, the brake pipes carrying the brake fluid leaked, the heated seats failed, the electronic handbreak failed (four/five times), the front discs warped, it needed a new steering rack, CD/radio failed and the injectors failed leaving me stranded. All in 3 years, I missed off the small items like the bulbs failing every month, door handle freezing shut or the central locking failing. Great German quality VW, just superb.

I’m just wondering if my 12 year old Mazda will last long enough for electric cars to be a sensible buy for me. At the moment they’d be a brave (stupid?) buy, but Hyundai have one that’s almost big enough at well under £30k, although the range is still a bit iffy.

I reckon it’s you Bob. You’re just a bad influence on cars…

…they do have feelings you know. :stuck_out_tongue:

I had a VW Golf GTi Turbo (Mk4) that was just as bad, mind I did thrash it.

To be fair, the BMW 320d hasn’t been too bad, it’s just too noisy at speed and the seats aren’t great (either too hard (MSport) or not supportive). The BMW handling in the ice and wet isn’t great either, the Mercs are much better in bad conditions. With the BMW estate the rear pillars just stick out too much into the space, so it’s a pain sometimes with bigger items like speakers! :grin:

You’d be better off with this:

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I don’t think he would wear it. There is not enough marble and chrome, although it may have a sufficient number of tweeters, woofers and shakti stones…

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Nice one Bob :+1: The C class would be my choice for a company car in that catagory.

The drive home was a lot less stressful in it, all good.

compared to the BM you had the c class is a big step up for me - still loving my Audi A8 overall but its not a patch on the old Mondeo I got with 70k bought at a local household goods auction without even opening the doors or bonnet (it might not have had an engine in it) - bought it for £6k (3 years old) and did 150k in 4 years on it and still got £1600 when I sold it on ebay as a 250 thousand mile car - never had any issues just consumables - that’s a hard act to follw

Which engine? Assume an auto box?

Auto 2.2d, our wonderful fleet dept hate hybrids. I am not sure the new 9 speed auto is as smooth as the old 7 speed was, especially at low speeds.

It is not a car for driving hard like the BMW was, which I think is a good thing, interestingly the handling is better on the Merc. I have been going slower in the Merc. It’s a much more wafty drive and so much quieter and with a much better stereo.

If you want to be a stressed turbo nutter bastard, get a BMW, if you want to arrive in comfort and relaxed get a Merc, if you want a shit drive with rock hard suspension get an Audi A4/5.

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That’s good then :smiley:

9 gears, jesus. Is that a Dual clutch system?

(I fillled up this morning. Got 633 miles out of 52litres. 2.2 diesel auto)

I only cut you up once going to the SW bake-off. Did you get a ticket from the camera on the bridge?

No, I must have dodged it. Everyone thinks I’m a copper in my white estate.

I was doing 75 and you passed me at some speed.

I was obvs responding to some emergency.

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I don’t think it is dual clutch.

My 58k miles, 2014 Passat is starting to fall apart. Passenger Window switch is broken, dashboard rattles like Bez on a Friday night and the whole thing is feeling older than it’s years.

The Ford Mondeo i had before it (agricultural engine aside) was a better drive, had more space and was built better. I still like the way the Passat pulls on the motorway, and is a much smoother ride on long journeys though.