Other than your Skoda... lol

I have to say, im pleasently suprised with my current works-hackaround..

A mondeo, Ghia-X TDCI.

Its suprised me alot, as ive driven a bunch of audis.. A4 and A6 and vectras etc.. this is better than all of them.

The ride quality is outstanding, it handles quite well, its well specced with heated AND cooled leather eleccy seats.. a ace sound system, cruise control, and all the usual auto lights and wipers.. it even has little lights under the door mirror that light up the area where the doors open when its dark

The engine is pretty nice too, revvy for a diesel, and doesnt sound like a diesel when its warmed up.. shame it doesnt suit my driving style, as its not very torquey, so you really dont get anything out of it being below 2k rpm so i keep stalling it.

Main worry of this is, this is the 2nd one ive driven, the first one was also a 04 reg, with 40k on the clock, and it felt soggy and there was a nasty knocking noise when moving off, apparently subframe mounts have always been a weakness on the mondeos. compared to the audis ive driven (espec the a6.. which had 150k on the clock and was still as tight and rattle free as the day it was made)

Soo.. which cars have you driven and thought "hey, this is actually quite good"

Fabia 1.2HTP Mercedes SL55 AMG

Mazda 6 felt very nice, was a petrol one. Handling was very nice, gearbox nice too.

I was given a K reg saloon 2.0 Primera as a courtesy car once. Had done 130k miles, but had a lovely spec. The build quality really impressed me, the whole car felt solid. The engine was very strong, although juicy. Overall, a pretty nice machine, possibly the best car in its class for its time.

I drove a 320D a few weeks ago, and it was lovely to drive, and the interior was smashing. Just a shame about the badge really.

Ghia-X TDCI? Hmmmm - I know someone with one of those Agree with all your comments and the stalling is a common complaint which is why I've invested in a tuning box

I thought the subframe mounts were just a trait of the last shape one (pre 2000 cars?) as mine is an '02 with 35k miles on it and is just as sharp as the brand new ones Also a Haynes available so I can DIY it if I need to

Chris

My Astra convertible {the one I traded in for my 2nd Octy vRS LOL}

MGZS - was really loving the car until it got wrote off on the M1

never really had any problems with them the MG obviously kept us safe at the right time.

It may be easier to list the cars I hate ;-)

VW polo had a F reg one and would never buy anoth direct badged VW again, it cost me soo much time and money.

The current Primera 2.2 dCi is very impressive: handles well, good feedback, and an excellent engine. It's nearly as good as the VAG diesels.

107.... great little car... not driven the Aygo yet though....

also Yaris 1.0

The current Primera 2.2 dCi is very impressive: handles well, good feedback, and an excellent engine. It's nearly as good as the VAG diesels.

:confused: You sure it was a Primera? The one I drove had truly shocking handling and very underpowered considering it was the 130bhp model! Only redeeming feature was the number of gadgets on it

Chris

I usually expect too much from cars, but two stick in my mind as being a surprise. Don't laugh, but I once had a Toyota Corolla as a loan car whist my citroen was in the dealers having yet more warranty work, and it was a really nice place to be sat. It was a really dull drive, but really nice and relaxing. Not something you felt you wanted to thrash the **** off.

The other one, and it hurts me to say it, because the blue oval does nothing for me, but a ford focus tdci (115 bhp). I suspect it had been tinkered with, but it revved well, pulled well and actually handled ok. V comfy too. Very surprised :eek:

I once bought a Ford (urgh) Granada 2.9 V6 24 Valve Cosworth on impulse. That did alot of things that really big cars shouldn't do. That car never failed to amaze me. Sometimes it scared me too, the rear lsd obviously requires a talent I don't posess.

It didn't surprise me though when I woke up one day, and it had gone......

The only good thing is the local police couldn't catch the thieving *******, so the chopper had to follow it, thereby a "worldest wildest police" style video featuring my pride and joy is knocking around somewhere.

I digress............

Fabia I had as a rent a car. Was not expecting it to be as good as it was, heated seats and all.

Ford fiesta. not quick but seemed to be fairly solid inside. It only had 1000 miles on it but for a small car was surprising okay.

Mitsubishi Evo 8. Ridiculously quick..but not a cheap inside as expected , quite liveable. Ride was very firm though but it is a compromise for the awesome handling.

Rover 200Vi with the 1.8vvc engine that the Lotus Elise used to use.

- Nice noise and a great momentum of power right to the red line with the trick cams

I think when it works my Golf GTI drives very well for such an old car. Handling is excellent even as standard. When modded it must be quite something.

Performance could be better, but it'll still surprise a lot of modern 2.0 litre cars.

Also a Focus 1.8 Zetec handles better than i thought and the engine is nicely revvy and makes a decent noise.

My mate had a Rover 25 GTI same as the 200vi mentioned by Fabpreza and although it was gutless at low revs it was fun when you revved the nuts off it. I'd be quite happy to own an MG ZR 160...

well, my most surprising drive was not in a car but a van... A 5 cylinder turbo diesel VW Sprinter I think it was. Drove way faster than I imagined possible and sounded great with that off-beat warble from the engine.

A Dodge Intrepid i hired in the U.S. Apart from the constantly overheating brakes it was a top good car to drive a few thousand miles, smooth, relatively fast and comfortable, though Dollar Car Rental were not too pleased when i returned it with a broken headlight (still with bits of the stone that broke it inside), and a knackered rear bumper where i reversed it into a wall.

As a courtesy car way back in '98 I had skoda Felicia 1.3i. Cracking little car! Also went extremely well around Croft Circuit IIRC :eek: :drive:

That'll teach 'em for taking too long to fix my car