When the diff in my Mk3 Golf GTI (I loved it) exploded, a mate lent me an
E30 318i Touring which I hated. Despite the fact it was even less powerful than the Golf, it was far too easy to get the back out (I don’t like RWD anyway). Even then it seemed old fashioned in a bad way and the ergonomics compared badly with the Golf. It also drank petrol and oil far too quickly. Worst of all the seat gave me terrible back ache after about an hour driving it. I felt bad as it was lent to me as a favour while the Golf was fixed, but I wish I hadn’t bothered.
When the Golf was written off in 2005 the insurance provided a new
Meriva with delivery miles. That was really hard to see out of the back and side and made worse by having so called privacy glass so it almost could have been a van. The CD player was really annoying as it had the speed sensitive volume that was stupidly clumsy in execution and also turned the volume down to just above a whisper upon re start. Also had a strange thing happen, went into Halfords having parked just outside and locked it, came out very soon afterwards to find the passenger door open!
The only car I’ve not really liked that I actually owned was the
XM V6. I agreed to buy it having watched Ronin while also drinking far too much. At the time I owned a much loved C4 VTS which was genuinely quirky both inside and out and expected the XM to be as well. OK I loved how the XM looked, but I didn’t get on with how it drove, it felt a bit floppy and not really as comfortable as I thought it should be. I did get an XM club expert (he was an architect natually) to drive it at some Citroen show to check the suspension was doing all the electronic stuff it should. He drove it at about 90mph down a narrow bumpy country lane and reckoned it was fine. It didn’t help that it was auto and the PRV V6 as it always seemed to be in the wrong gear and the engine didn’t have enough poke to cover that up. The parking brake was some kind of French joke and it cost me more than I paid for it to get it through the first MOT and nearly as much the next year. It probably was less quirky as it was a Series 2 car so had the airbag steering wheel rather than the single spoke design. I also ran it out of petrol while the gauge was still just about showing fuel and as it coasted to a stop, the low fuel light came on...
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Anyway I swopped it with an AS member for a Renault Modus for Mrs Concern, that promptly broke its timing belt! (We had it fixed and still have it and really like it even though it’s hideous). In a double whammy of bad luck, the XM gearbox exploded at the same time so neither of us did well out of the deal!
Bonus pic of Moodus!
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