Mr Practical caravan, sir.

[Lol1]

How about doing a test of used cars every now and then?

Say comparing the old Suzuki GV with the new one?

Or perhaps a Vauxhall Omega versus Skoda Superb?

There's a large section of caravaner's out there that like/prefer to go down the pre-owned route when choosing their next tug. Many on the forum have asked similar questions, indeed you could enlist members to aid with the research.

So how about it?

 

[BrianStAlbans]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

lol, i totally agree with you. every month when the mag falls throught the door i start to read it and it really bugs me that all they test drive is really expensive cars well over

 

[Lol1]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

We have a proper tow car Brian. That is, in so much that we will be towing the car, not the other way round.

Don't fancy trying to pull anything with a Pug 106 1.1ltr. Every time I see it, I wonder where the guy is with the remote controls. I use to have a toy truck that was bigger than it. Having said that, boy is it cheap to run!

Hows the 4x4 these days, are you treating it to the odd blade of grass every now and then?

 

[BrianStAlbans]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

No offroading Lol, can't do that in a 4x4 ,they're for the school run you should know that ;O). It did come in handy last week in the snow though . Without it I would have had to stay at home and make snowmen with Bina and the kids.

See pics..

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/newforums/fm_messages.asp?FO=205&FM=311764

 

[Lol1]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

I did see the photo's Brian. They look wonderfull, but I have issues with fat snowmen..........

 

[BrianStAlbans]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

It's ok Lol , the snowman has lost a bit of weight since that photo was taken.

 

[Lol1]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

Really? Or is he just buying scarfs a size bigger?

 

[BrianStAlbans]

I can here the moans from PC HQ already.......

"Ok who's taking the Omega then....hello,hello...."

(sound of screeching tyres from various new freebie "press cars)

Your right Lol leave the old cars to the readers,

Brian (",)

ps ,what are you towing with these days ? :O)

He had a short life and his family will miss him dearly. Actually I haven't seen them lately, must be on holiday.

 

[BigRoy]

Lol, the same question was asked in the mag some time ago and from memory I think the answer went something like they couldn't compare used cars like for like because they couldn't guarantee how they had been used/abused and serviced/not serviced in the past

So there's another mag to dig out to try to find the article

 

[Lol1]

Hi Roy, good points, but they could also leveled at new cars, be they press allocated or not. I'm not after a concise argument over the individual merits of each model, but I think a general run down on their capabilities would be useful. Obviously, an un-cared for example won't show a car in its best light, but a foot note to say that that particular model suffered from weak braking or fragile clutches would be invaluable. In fact, when you come to think of it, these older motors have been tested over years, so the info should be out there somewhere. If you can run an article on used caravans (and they do) you should be able to do the same with cars. It might need a little more investigative journalism, but I'm sure the staff are up to the job, aren't you?

Good luck with finding the old mag article, Roy. I have mine filed in the recycle bin, every six months.

 

[BigRoy]

Agreed Lol, but I bet if you put the question to the mag they'd point you in the direction of the back issues department @

 

[Lol1]

My god, Roy. Your almost as cynical as I am )

What are you like using the tool of "sarcasm"?

 

[emmerson2]

Practical classics pick cars from adverts to do brief test on.

 

[Lee.C]

Jo-anne

Why is it stupid to test drive cars that are expensive. At the end of the day PC caters for the top end of the market and the bottom end as well . Now i do not earn a fortunne but i would be bored stiiff to just hear about the middle end of the maket all of the time. I suppose its a bit of escapism hearing about the expensive cars that are tested and there will be people who read the mag with various incomes and whilst I could not afford to buy acar worth

 

[STEVE_5041381]

Think J0-anne has a point the article that least interests me are the expensive test car section in the mag, which I would never own or would want to own - and more to the point have rarely seen towing caravans. Lets have more bread and butter cars the type of cars "normal family caravanners" use please. Of course they should not stop featuring these cars from time to time but lets have a balanced cross section of towing cars at all prices and weights please.

 

[Oldfogey]

The CCC magazine regulalrly reports on secondhand cars. More in the nature of a generic assessment than a road test of a particular vehicle.

Even so, they are still only a few years old. My Rangie was built in 1989 and has 170,000 on the clock; interesting to see a report on what cars are like that have survived to that kind of age!

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

lee.c, what i was trying to say was that it would be a nice change to see a varied selection of used towcars or affordable new cars to read about. like mpv's eg, alhambra, galaxy, sharan, espace. then estates eg. mondeo, omega, laguna. then affordable 4 x 4 (not brand new) shoguns, jeeps, troopers.

im not saying dont put them in at all because even i do read them but not really expensive cars every month it gets to boring.

i get my new kia sedona on 1st march but i still like to read about used affordable towcars.

jo-anne

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

Think J0-anne has a point the article that least interests me are the expensive test car section in the mag, which I would never own or would want to own - and more to the point have rarely seen towing caravans. Lets have more bread and butter cars the type of cars "normal family caravanners" use please. Of course they should not stop featuring these cars from time to time but lets have a balanced cross section of towing cars at all prices and weights please.

thanks steve, and here here.

 

[Lee.C]

Hi Jo-Anne

Sorry if I annoyed you. Please belive me it was not my intention and I give in and take your point. Once I owned a Ford Scorpio and it would have been nice to read some reports on it as a used towing vehicle. Anyway I do hope you like your Kia and would like to hear what you think of it as a towcar when the time comes

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

Hi Jo-Anne

Sorry if I annoyed you. Please belive me it was not my intention and I give in and take your point. Once I owned a Ford Scorpio and it would have been nice to read some reports on it as a used towing vehicle. Anyway I do hope you like your Kia and would like to hear what you think of it as a towcar when the time comes

lee, talking of scorpio's we had a scorpio estate for a week in between buying our 1st van an avondale dart 556/6 putting on the back of our new 307 sw and it sinking heavy nose weight and not good max tow ball weight on 307 sw. so we bought the scorpio for a week then px it in for a vauxhall monterey because we just panicked. i must say when the dart was put on the back on the scorpio the back end didnt even move. its got that self levelling suspension on it.

no offence taken mate. ill let you know how the new kia sedona goes.

jo-anne

 

[Steve L]

I quite agree with you all. I posted a simlar request last year but of coarse trying to get PC team to step back 10 or even 20 years to drive a car of that eara is impossible as they are used to the refines of the new car smell.

I have ownes three Renault 25's and one had covered more than 300k miles on it's original 2Ltr petrol engine without the head coming off.

I now tow with a 9 year old 2 Ltr Laguna estate with 130k on the clock, and often power past much newer vehicles all steamed out on the hard shoulder as I plod along at 60mph with my 20 foot twin axle van on the back.

So "COME ON" practical caravan. Let's get practical and test some of the everyday cars that Mr or Mrs average tow with that are not company supplied cars.

The only foyble of my Laguna is that the exhaust straightens out about 20mm when hot through towing and rattles on the car body at 4'000rpm. The simple answer, turn the radio up a bit or keep engine revs below 4'000 rpm. Far cheaper than a new exhaust and I can have another short break for the cost of an exhaust that behaves 80% of the time.

See folks my Renault love affair is not without tribulations, but I still love the economy and value for money they have given me.

steve.

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

lol put this message up and where did it get us nowhere.

 

[clivea]

Hi, but with deprecation don't the expensive cars offer lots of potentail as future used cars for towing?