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Luddites unite!

Surely no matter what side of the fence you're on, no one would want to go back to the cars of the 70's/80's etc.

Ford Cortina's or the modern equivalent in the latest Mondeo?

Even putting aside the catalogue of faults that plagued my S203 , I just didn't like the claustrophobic interior , huge thick A pillars that hampered visibility such that on the approach to a junction you could lose a car behind them as it tracked with the blind spot , heavy , rubbery controls , ponderous handling ; going back to my 190E was literally a breath of fresh air ( apart from the lack of Diesel fumes which were a theme of the C270 ) with its light , airy interior , excellent outward visibility , responsive nimble handling , the W201 was everything the 203 wasn't .

70's or 80's ? I'd much rather have another W114 or W123 than anything made today , or a W108 or W116 ; in fact I'd happily go back further and have another Ponton or Fintail than anything new - if mine hadn't needed so much work to get it roadworthy again , which realistically at nearly 60 I was never going to do , I'd never have parted with it , but I'd have another in a heartbeat , and I'd happily use it as a daily driver , as I did with my last one for 15 years .

I don't believe in collecting classic cars to be garage queens ; I've had cars of all ages , and age is no barrier to daily use , as long as the car is maintained in good order .
 
This is what I don't understand. It's like you'd rather live without the features, than risk the cost of them going wrong. It's not like classic (or is it vintage? :dk: ) cars don't have any costs to keep them on the road.



I'd say that's pretty bombproof.

Besides, not all failures disable the car. If you've a car without air con, it's horrible in any kind of warm weather. So buy one with air con. What if the air con breaks? You've just got a car without air con until you can be bothered to have it fixed.

I suppose it comes back to what you're used to : most of my life cars just didn't have electric windows , air con etc , although at one time or another I've had cars with all these things .

Electric windows are a great convenience , but I can manage just fine without them - while I wouldn't seek out a car with manual windows , I'm happy to have either . Of all the cars I've had , several have suffered electric window failures , and these weren't old cars - the drivers electric window regulator on my first W124 stripped its teeth at just over three years old and under 50,000 miles , and another twice in the following 150K I covered with that car . There have been problems with wiring failing where it flexes with the door hinges , switch failures ... but I've never , ever had a manual winder fail .

AC - my W116 , one of my W124's , two W126's , the S203 and the R129 all had it , some worked , some didn't . I never spent anything fixing it when broken - I can open my sunroof ( especially the Ponton with the full length Webasto roof ) put the windows down , or with the SL put the roof down ( which I do most of the time anyway ) - I can live quite happily without AC .

I know a lot of people are glued to their mobile phones ; I carry mine when at work , and I'm using it to type this on my lunch break just now . But when I'm not at work , or driving somewhere , it can be turned off or left at home - I'm not tied to it , and I sometimes LIKE not being contactable .

Everyone is different , thankfully , and we're all allowed to like/dislike different things .
 
The point I was making can be applied to any marque. C Class's, 3 Series, etc old V's new.



Love them or hate them Ford are great value for money with many goodies as standard.

Fords are absolutely decent cars and do the job they're meant to do .
 
Fords are absolutely decent cars and do the job they're meant to do .

I totally agree. They also make great vans. I made the mistake of ordering a W447 Vito because I needed an auto. Big mistake. Not a patch on the Transit Custom. :wallbash:

Cue the Deluded Vito lovers! :D
 
I saw a brand new Transit Custom on the way to work this morning, thought of you. It looked very modern, but very narrow. Is the custom a small one or something?
 
The custom is the smaller version of the big Tranist. But still fits the magical 8 X 4 sheet between wheel arches which is all most builders care about. (Vito also does the same)
 
I totally agree. They also make great vans. I made the mistake of ordering a W447 Vito because I needed an auto. Big mistake. Not a patch on the Transit Custom. :wallbash:

Cue the Deluded Vito lovers! :D

Sidetracking onto vans , I drove them all in my yoof , and used to rack up 60-100K annually as a delivery driver ( hence my sore back now , due to lifting things I never ought to have ) .

I very much liked the 208D Mercedes vans , have driven every incarnation of Transit from Mk1 , Fiats , Peugeots , Renault Traffic and Masters , lots of Vauxhalls in the Fire Brigade , but , IMHO , the best vans of them all are the VW LT range - I worked for Audi for a while , doing roadshows all round the country , and was provided with an LT45 panel van which had a lovely straight six petrol engine , couldn't pass a petrol station without stopping , but it just burbled along and it was fabulous .

I wasn't a fan of Sprinters though .
 
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Yeah. I know many locally that love their VW vans. I'm sure they're fab. But not value for money. (IMO of course)
 
My daughter has one ( which is a bit of a toy as she only uses it to control her TV , nothing else ) and my sister has just ordered one , which I can't see her doing any more with .

I still have my Philips Pronto Pro remote control , which used to operate my AV system , until I tired of it and went back to my Quad Hi-FI system , these days it controls the TV , Freeview , Freesat , Blu-Ray , Laserdisc , YouView and other connected boxes . While I look after Crestron and AMX systems at work , I don't need one in the house .
So it was YOU who bought the laserdisc !!!
 
So it was YOU who bought the laserdisc !!!

I still have several hundred - no small collection when they used to cost £30 , £40 , £50 a pop , back in the days before DVD , and when it was the medium of choice - unless you could afford a 35mm film projector in your house :eek:
 
I know the OP doesn't but it's easy enough to whack in a double din head unit with sat nav, Bluetooth, digital radio etc into an old car like a W202 if you want the gadgets. Strong mechanicals and most of the modern car gadgets then.

I love old Merc engineering but also gadgets so that's a nice compromise. Happy days :thumb:

My ancient 190 has leccy Windows/drivers seat/sunroof/pass mirror, a/c. Must have been space age back then.
 
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Love all the tech, the joy of sitting in new motor with the owners manual figuring out how all the toys work, setting stuff just the way you want it, love it.
 
A lot of the tech can just get in the way. But that seems to be on cheaper cars. It can be clunky and ponderous. I drive a new S-Max, new C-Max, Renault Kadjar, Skoda Yeti, some horrible Peugeot thing, and on all of them the keyless thing can be an annoying pain in the **** that just makes loads of demanding bloody beeping noises. Same goes for a lot of the rest of it.
The Fords and the Skoda can handle quite well even pushed hard for what they are.

I'm all for tech if it's an actual bonus. I also drive a 2 year old BMW 7 series and that's a lot better, although stuff breaks and is debilitating from time to time. And a year old Jaguar XJL, where the tech can be a little annoying and slow, but not all of it. I got stuck in that thing recently, software glitch on the door locks apparently.
Tomorrow I'll start driving a brand new Volvo X90 and I'm quite keen to see what the tech is like on that.

Our W221 was lovely in all respects including tech, which was smooth and helpful I thought.
 
A lot of the tech can just get in the way. But that seems to be on cheaper cars. It can be clunky and ponderous. I drive a new S-Max, new C-Max, Renault Kadjar, Skoda Yeti, some horrible Peugeot thing, and on all of them the keyless thing can be an annoying pain in the **** that just makes loads of demanding bloody beeping noises. Same goes for a lot of the rest of it.
The Fords and the Skoda can handle quite well even pushed hard for what they are.

I'm all for tech if it's an actual bonus. I also drive a 2 year old BMW 7 series and that's a lot better, although stuff breaks and is debilitating from time to time. And a year old Jaguar XJL, where the tech can be a little annoying and slow, but not all of it. I got stuck in that thing recently, software glitch on the door locks apparently.
Tomorrow I'll start driving a brand new Volvo X90 and I'm quite keen to see what the tech is like on that.

Our W221 was lovely in all respects including tech, which was smooth and helpful I thought.

It can vary by manufacturer. Much to my surprise the cheapo Astra I hired a couple of weeks ago had a lane departure warning system. So I turned it on. Instead of the subtle steering wheel vibration I get in the 212 the Astra's steering just went totally numb for a brief period as I crossed the line. Horrible and unnerving. Cheap and nasty Switched it off.

On the other had the Bluetooth integration with my Android phone was right up there - once I'd paired my phone I could control Spotify from the dash controls. Intuitive and seamless like the best tech should be.

And I really liked the blown triple petrol engine. Smooth, quiet, tuneful when extended. Interesting but of modern tech.

Going back to the reliability question my 211 was crammed with toys and was known to throw the odd wobbly now and again but nothing electronic ever actually failed.

My 212 had even more kit and does had the very occasional strop. Blind Spot Assist Assist and Distronic decided not to work for 10 minutes on the way down to the holiday villa but then just turned themselves back on with no intervention from me.

Having said that there's the recent rather large bill for fixing my seat cooling fan. Getting to it involved dismantling the entire seat. I haven't mentioned that to Pontoneer so please don't tell him abut that....
 
Yes, the cruise control on my Mrs' insignia is impossible to fathom. Never actually managed it. You turn the feature on, but it's not really on, it's just enabled, then you can turn it on, I think? :dk:

In mercs the cruise control is massively intuitive, and massively feature filled when you get more familiar.
 
To be honest I guess I was a little spoilt with gadgets in cars. I bought a Clio 172 when I was 21 and for a car it's size and of that era it was rather well spec'd. Auto lights, Xenons, climate control auto wipers etc. Certainly a lot of niceties which weren't in other cars in that sector in 2003.

Even though my CLS63 is a 2007 car so a different era to today's cars, there was tech in there that had clearly never been used or at least settings that weren't ever adjusted.

For me now, there's plenty of features I can take or leave but in a luxury car like my CLS and even my E Class there's features I like having but features that actually make driving easier.

Features for the sake of features are to me, a little pointless and many drivers stop thinking as they then rely on them. Other gadgets are genuinely helpful, electric memory seats for example or cruise control.

I will stand by the fact that touch screen tech in cars is a sh!te idea though. You need something tactile to enable you to put minimal concentration into adjusting settings whilst on the move. Not trying to place your finger in a precise place on a 9" screen whilst controlling a tonne and a bit of metal! :doh:
 

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