Are today's cars short of soul?

[Sam]

As I have said a couple of times, I blow hot and cold with my car and the main reason for this seems to be that I might be looking for something that doesn't exist - or does it? I cannot remember the last time I climbed into a car and wished I owned it, actually that's not true, about 6 years ago a friend bought an Audi S6, 4.2 V8. It was astonishing. It looked gorgeous, it was crazy fast, it sounded stunning and I could have got the family in it. My Superb was the poor mans way of getting somewhere near that but I had to get a diesel as I couldn't run a 4.2 V8, or insure it for that matter and I certainly couldn't afford a new enough one to protect myself from expensive ownership. After 6 months he sold it as he found it soulless and he got an XKR instead. It had no room, it felt dated but it had character. Another friend has an MG ZT with the Mustang engine in it. He has had it tuned and supercharged so it gives 600 bhp and it's amazing, however, it eats tyres, the clutch weighs a ton and he dare not park it anywhere. I am even finding myself looking at PT Cruisers and Dodge Calibers or thinking about buying an older cheaper car that has some soul whilst I have a slightly healthier bank balance to try and maintain it with. I'm not sure of the ages of us Superb owners (I am 43), but when I had cars with character and soul, I also had reliability issues, leaking windscreens, rust and the annual 'will it get thru the MOT' concerns, which I don't want these days. I seem to have traded all that 'fun' for sensible stuff. This is definitely the start of a mid life crisis by the looks of it. Does anyone out there know of a car that has character and all the good points of a modern day car? My wife has a new mini which she loves, but if you think the Superb boot is awkward!!! Just intersted in your thoughts.

[storm monkey]

I have a Corrado as a toy car, and that (I think) has character.......It also has ABS, loads of electrics, is well bolted together, with a sizable boot. At standard output, for the VR6 (mine) its 190bhp, and sees 60 in just under 7 seconds, and can be driven at 33 mpg, if you resist the go pedal! Good examples come up for about £2000 for a 1.8 16V, up to £9000 for a mint 'Storm'.

Not everyones cup of tea, but I love it.

Phil

[FreudianSlip]

I hear what you're saying about cars being soul-less (or "having character" as my old dad used to say).

The only ever owned 2 cars that made me feel happy to be in them, no matter what, and they were a 1994 L reg M3 coupe, and a 1996 N reg M3 Evo Saloon. Both cars were devastatingly fast 5.6 & 5.4 seconds to 60 respectively, both returned good MPG, both were very well build, handled supremely and commanded more than a little respect in the traffic light line up.

The interiors were high quality, functional, accurate and somehow just seemed to fit right.

The evo saloon was the wolf in sheep's clothing with its 321bhp, limited slip diff and 4 doors. It caught out more than a few souped up corsa sxi's :-) However, I do have to admit, maybe it was because I was a few years younger than I am now, but those sort of cars subconsciously egg you on and you find yourself entering traffic light drag races even when you really don't want to .. its a principle thing.

Nowadays, I like my superb - i don't get into anywhere near as many sprints from the line, but sometimes the M3 man comes a visiting ... ]:-)

[Chris_Focus]

After sitting in and driving a...........Panda 100HP that has character by the bucket load:thumbup: ..well I think so anyway!

[muckyduck]

Most modern cars are pretty soulless. They are compromised by safety testing, weight issues, reliability, etc and come out fairly uniform. For fun my old mini van, Hillman Minx and an Armstrong Siddely Sapphire were miles ahead but they were either unreliable, thirst or both.

I have real issues with cars in the 20-35k bracket because, apart from being more powerful, you get very little more in the way of interior class than motors at 12-16 grand. And by class or character I don't mean a bit of polished wood in the cab, I mean things like cocktail cabinets and tables and stuff.

I'm not sure you can engineer in character without it seeming mannered or contrived. It's just something a car has or hasn't got and isn't even anything to do with price imo.

[Tiptronic]

The problem is that with so many manufacturers being part of the big groups, there must be huge pressure to keep costs down. We see it with VAG, with most of the brands within the group sharing floorpans and parts bins. Do the designers/engineers not get the chance to put soul into their cars, because they have to worry about making them fit a particular shared component?

I read in Auto Express that Ford have recently taken out a