The bestselling cars throughout Europe last month as the market continues to struggle

[Neil McCauley]

http://tgr.ph/rmOllR

Meanwhile ........ my local Audi franchised dealer quoted me "at least a year's wait" for the new very fast A3 (0 > 62 mph in < 4.7 secs). This is because Audi will only supply the UK with 50 this year. Very strange and incomprehensible marketing it seems to me. And so I'll stick with my current A3 or buy a used RS4 - neither of which helps the "struggling" industry. So stuff 'em!


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[ursus262]

What a boring list of cars! Have people no imagination or sense of adventure?

I have a Renault Wind Roadster and it's great fun to drive especially with the roof back.

[Jonboy]

I thought it might be a Dacia Logan MCV the amount i have seen while traveling around western Europe these last few months. i havn't seen a Dacia for years then all of a sudden there's loads

http://www.renault-dacia-logan.com/dacia-logan-mcv.php

[shane]

A five-year-old RS4 will set you back about 25 grand. For that, you could have one of these:

http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/front_website/octane_interact/carspecs.php/?see=595

or one of these:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C247193

or one of these:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C233098

or one of these:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C244819

In each case you would have enough change to maintain in good condition for some years, at the end of which you would have a car worth more than you paid for it and a smile on your face, and you would be percieved as a man of taste. None of these is electronically restricted to 155mph, but so what? Equally, compared to the Audi, these are simple machines (yes, even the SM) and there are people who have businesses servicing and maintaining them as much because they love them as to earn a living. Mos of them charge less per hour than Audi main dealers.

RS4. Indecently fast, unnecessarily complicated, and really rather boring.

[Reid Malenfant]

Least reliable car manufacturers (http://cars.uk.msn.com/features/photoviewer.aspx?cp-documentid=158873760) :eyebrows:

Best not buy an Audi ;) 33% failures in 12 months isn't very good at all :eek:

[StanleyB]

Having a fast car and driving fast are two different thing. Afters spending many sessions in court trying to ward off yet another set of points on my license I have stopped driving as fast as before. The cops have me on their black list... I didn't help my case by outpacing a Police Volvo 850 a few years back. The boys in blue keep bringing that up almost every time they stop me.

[shane]

Driving a slow car quickly is much more fun than driving a quick car slowly. Two of the most entertaining cars I ever owned were an 850cc minivan and a Renault 4. Not much fun on a motorway though, I'll grant you.

[shane]

Of course, 25 grand will also buy you one of these. You'll never have as much fun in anything else.

http://www.morgan3wheeler.co.uk/home.html

[Reid Malenfant]

Maybe even a Caterham 7? :)

[synsei]

Kinda like 'stealth' performance cars myself. A friend owns a Skoda Octavia VRs which has been 'chipped' and 'mildly' fettled, and its party trick is blowing rather more exotic equipment into the weeds in traffic light drags, it really is a beast. I like it for that, not that I could afford to run one. He has owned some exotic machinery in the past and got thoroughly fed up with his cars being stolen, broken into or scratched. The answer to the problem turned out to be the VRs. It is faster than most of his previous cars, as much fun to drive, and hasn't been touched at all since he bought it three years ago. Another advantage is that it will return nearly 40mpg if he's easy with his right foot, which only ever happens when his girlfriend is in the car :lol:

Another car that impressed from a few years back was a Vauxhall Omega 2.5TD.

One of my old neighbours bought one new and I bumped into him a couple of Saturdays after he picked it up and he took me for a little spin in it. I had no idea what it was at the time, other than it was an Omega, and as we popped onto the dualled A47 heading out of Kings Lynn towards Wisbech, he put his foot down. Accompanied by a throaty six cylinder roar, we took off for the horizon at a very indecent rate of knots. Needless to say I was suitably impressed and as we rolled slowly up to the kurb in front of my house upon our return, he asked me what engine I thought it had under the bonnet. I suspected it was the top of the range 3.0 V6 and said as much. He took me around to the front of the car after popping the hood and lifted the bonnet to reveal all. To my great surprise, the 2.5 litre straight six turbo diesel I found under the bonnet was supplied to Vauxhall by BMW and is probably the most refined diesel I have ever heard. Even at idle with the bonnet open there was little evidence of diesel clatter, which was a revelation to me. The clincher though was the combined MPG figure of 46mpg. Performance and economy, the holy grail of every motorist back in the '90's. :cool:

[Neil McCauley]

Least reliable car manufacturers (http://cars.uk.msn.com/features/photoviewer.aspx?cp-documentid=158873760) :eyebrows:

Best not buy an Audi ;) 33% failures in 12 months isn't very good at all :eek:

Yes, I've seen this too. Strange. My A3 1.8T Sport, 10 years old and 107k miles has only had one failure in all that period and that was the sender unit in the engine management system. Maybe they were better built back then? Mind you if I recall, the unreliability statistic was heavily skewed by their 8-series. Hmm.

PS: The point remains though that dim-wit that I am I still can't figure out why they'd restrict sales, in order to create a 12-month waiting list when there are buyers like me with cash to spend on the top of the line RS3


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