This Ed1 has low mileage/FSH including regular charger servicing, and was fitted with ABS as standard. Drives/runs like a new car, and has not cost me a penny in repairs. Seriously alarmed. Difficult to argue the crash test figures, but any crash pictures I've seen of mk2's they seem to survive pretty well.
i thought the more crumpled they got the safer it was? as the car takes the impact and not you? otherwise we would all be driving solid steel framed tanks wouldn't we??
Not when they crumpled you into the boot I've watched a few crash tests for old golfs and they're pretty scary.
Maybe don't get a job as a crash tester... Modern cars have crumple zones which take the impact - but the impact energy is then directed around a very strong "cage" rather than into the driver/passengers. The ultimate example is in F1 cars which deflect many tonnes of pressure away from the driver, but they are a bit too pricey for "normal" vehicles. Have a head on crash in a mk1/2 Golf and you're brown bread. Mk3 is a lot safer but still not nearly as good as a more modern car.
The old Mercs do pretty damn well in safety tests - front and rear ends do crumple very effectively, main cabin is strong as an ox. and lastly... This W201 fell 15 metres from a motorway bridge, the driver survived. I can't imagine he's healthy or mobile though.
No but I do make sure cars I buy have decent brakes/ABS, at least four airbags and decentish crash protection. Having said that, the Jimny is hardly a tank, although it does have ABS. I have driven a few Bay window and splitty Dub campers - yes they look cool but they are otherwise dreadful. NO brakes, so little power that it's dangerous and generally a deathtrap. You have to be very dedictated to trying to look "cool" to want and run an old Dub camper. And no real surfers have them anyway - that's the funny thing about their "image!"
sadly im not joking at all. i know how i like to drive and on the balance of probability im likely to "get it wrong" at one stage. if/when i do, i what to stand a good chance, ive seen how bad it can be if you dont get lucky. i store those thoughts in the boring part of my brain that cares about MPG, innit
What exactly was wrong with what I said? Sportline said that anyone with a job can get a new car. You responded by saying it was one of the most naive posts you had ever read on the forum. I pointed out that it was true - as I said, even someone making chips at McDonalds can afford 30 a week and have a new car if they want. I'm not defending buying new cars - I drive an '89 16v, a 91 Caddy pickup, and a 2004 Skoda Octavia which was given to me free and will be getting shifted on soon because it's boring as hell.. I doubt I'll ever buy a new car, because I simply don't like the styling, the lack of character. As for your car being the best car ever built... a 1.8 automatic "taxi spec" W201? Hardly the best car ever built.... I've had a W201 and a W124, and while they are fine from A to B, they aren't exactly interesting unless you get one of the fast models - which yours isn't. And I've seen plenty of rusty 201s and 124s around....
If I were truly content with my 'taxi-spec' W201, I wouldn't even be on here. Please re-read my post. I said, "one of the best-built cars ever made". Not "the best car ever built". It was a comment on the quality of 1980s Mercedes, which in my opinion, remain peerless. There are faster, more exciting cars, and there are more involving cars to drive, but equally the W201 & W124s have a genuine integrity that to me is completely absent from new cars. They aren't indestructible, and they aren't immune to corrosion, but f**k me they're better made than ANYTHING that's come along since. You can take that to the bank. I responded bluntly because you called me a prick, basically. And as for nobody else mentioning the economy - this thread is entitled 'New Cars And Depreciation'...
