One For Classic Car Fans.....

[Richard A Thackeray]

I used to service a 1993 Escort van for a neighbour. Not a bad piece of styling but the early 1990s MKV Escort diesel must surely have been one of the worst cars of modern times.
They also had a cheap plasticky interior with unsupportive seats and were appallingly noisy once you went about about 30MPH.
Oddly enough I did drive one of the later sporty versions of that Escort with the 16v engine and it was unrecognisable. They had somehow managed to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. It was much faster as you would expect but they had tightened up the handling and fitted a faster steering rack. It drove really well and was a perfectly competent car. Whatever they had done to it should have been done to the base models too.

Where I used to work, in Leeds (photographic company '86 - 97'), we got a few new 'G plated' Escort Combis(?.... estate car, but blanked off sides & no rear seats)
They were diesels, I collected one of them from the sign-writers, with (from memory) about 20 miles on it
It felt good. but the seats were appalling
To get my position, the lumbar support was going to snap my spine, allowing for the spine gave me shoulder support that made me understand the phrase ' To Bend Over Backwards'
Not long after, I got a lift from a collegue who had a mk3 hatch on bigger wheels/low-profile tyres
My god, it was rough - it made a Series Land Rover on seized leaf-springs look like air-ride!!!

Between them, quite probably the worst seats & the worst ride of any car I've driven/been in................. until I had the grave misfortune to briefly drive a B*W X5 on big wheels

That 1.7 TD Isuzu engine was a great powerplant. I've just always had mixed feelings about Opels, they are generally well built and very reliable and easy to maintain and drive well on main roads but their suspension struggles on the minor rural roads around here they pitch and bounce all over the place. You can see why a Golf costs more as they clearly put a lot more R&D into their suspension.

A friend had a mk3 Astra as a 'black & white' taxi
Apparantly, Wakefield Council states (or did) that 'B&Ws' have to be less than 5 years old (??)
Brian sold it, at that age, with over350,000miles showing (on original engine/'box) to a mini-cabber, who put another 100,000 on it!!
Yes, it was the Isuzu 1.7TD

 

[Gunk]

Spotted a Peugeot 305 while out on the bike today. Probably the best diesel car of all time.
View attachment 567008

A real forgotten hero is the Citroen ZX, our company used to give out the Turbo Diesel version as company cars and they would do inter-galactic mileages without any fuss.

back in 1993 I had the 16V 150bhp version and Mrs Gunk had the Volcane. great cars 👍

 

[Cavalol]

The Astra Mk3 was (is) a fantastic car, petrol or diesel. Even the misery spec 1.4SPi 3 door was a hundred times better than an Escort and far far better than the Golf Mk3, imho.

 

[Gunk]

and far far better than the Golf Mk3, imho.

The Mk3 Golf wasn't the best, but I had a VR6 and they really were something special back in the day.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Apologies for quality, the shiney paper was throwing the auto-focus off

Is this the love-child of a DB5, & (the bloated greenhouse of) a series 3 E-Type?
'Viz'
Edition 302

On the cover, Mrs Brady Old Lady , states that she can see the Crematorium from there!

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Castleford
This afternoon

I just caught a glimpse of this, on a side-street, off Lock Lane, so doubled back to look

I may be wrong, but I think that's a G-Wagon body?
(the fuel-cap position tells me so)

 

[Oldhippy]

Rare as a monkey driving a bus they are!

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Rare as a monkey driving a bus they are!

There's another one around here, but it's one of the 'pimp-mobile' AMG things

I'd love one, but an early 5-door, on steels (and as a diesel/manual)

 

[Gunk]

Looks like it’s having a proper restoration

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Looks like it’s having a proper restoration

Hopefully the rest will be treated as well as that shell!

 

[Gunk]

It’ll look good when finished, super rare. I’ve never seen one on the road either here or in Europe.

 

[simongt]

Used to fancy a G-Wagen when they were first launched, but was wary of the steel body as opposed to the Landy's alu one. Hmm.
But never went there anyway - !

 

[MichaelW2]

I see this Triumph quite regularly as it seems to be in regular use. Not immaculate by any means but I prefer to see things being used and an estate is quite rare.
View attachment 568328

Did they but that on retirement to "see them out"?

 

[tyred]

Did they but that on retirement to "see them out"?

No I can tell by the registration that the car has been imported at some point after 1987.

 

[BrumJim]

The Astra Mk3 was (is) a fantastic car, petrol or diesel. Even the misery spec 1.4SPi 3 door was a hundred times better than an Escort and far far better than the Golf Mk3, imho.

My second car was an Astra Mk 3. Was a good car, even though I had the single-point fuel injection version of the 1.4 - a fiddle to get a few more production units out of the carborettor engine. I remember Escorts of the same age and price had a bad reputation so I avoided them. Never liked Golfs - always thought of them as over-priced for what they are, particularly second-hand.