***** Motors chat - round 12 *****

Toyotafanboi

Still have it, yeah, may wait until it's 30 at this stage I think before I bring it back out. Have you still yours?

James Bond Junior

Craig Slow Sophomore wrote: »

My favourite is a heated steering wheel to go with the seats of course

I have both as standard in my Jeep. Curiously it is a Gulf Cooperation Council spec eg it is standard spec for the Middle Eastern market (think beefed up AC and cooling systems.)

End of January and it is a balmy "winter's" day of 24c so I can't understand why heated seats and steering wheel come as standard on them. Then again the locals are in hats and scarves when it dips into the high teens so maybe they are used.

On the flipside, being home at Christmas to Ireland, heated seats saved our arses, we were FROZEN so it made it that bit more tolerable.

Wibbs

I got a heated seat kit and installed the pads in the seats, only need to wire them in. I'll get someone else to do that though, because if I tried...

Tazzimus

Heated seats in the mornings are fantastic, especially if you have half/full leather seats. Those be chilly.

Wibbs

Love the look of leather seats and they can last a very long time with care, but never liked them in use. Too cold in winter, too clammy in summer.

Tazzimus

Wibbs wrote: »

Love the look of leather seats and they can last a very long time with care, but never liked them in use. Too cold in winter, too clammy in summer.

Yeah they either freeze the hole off you or scald it, depending on the weather :pac:

Wibbs

Tazzimus wrote: »

Yeah they either freeze the hole off you or scald it, depending on the weather :pac:

Though being an old fart I can bring you tales of a worse seat material by far. Ford vinyl from the 1970's. In summer you could cook a decent steak on it, in winter it approached absolute zero.

Pops_20

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Still have it, yeah, may wait until it's 30 at this stage I think before I bring it back out. Have you still yours?

Sold mine just over 2 years ago now. I regret letting go of it now as I put a lot of money into it and it was a good car.

The guy I sold it to put it up on donedeal 3 months later asking 750 euro more than he paid for it

vintagevrs

Do any of you ever or regularly drive with your traction control partially or fully off? I've put mine partially off the last couple of days just to see how the car behaves on some cold wet roads. Last night we had a bit of snow and it got me thinking would insurance be invalid if you had a tip and they found out it was off? It's funny how I am super aware when it's off my current car, and my last car (early 90s) didn't even have abs and it never bothered me at all flying about in it.

blade1

Just on BBC there that m.o.t.'s have been suspended in Northern Ireland.
48 out of 55 lifts inspected seemed to have cracks appearing in them.

punisher5112

LIGHTNING wrote: »

My misses really wants a small auto-car and I there was a SMART roadster outside Lidl the other day that she thought was cool. I am tempted myself for the laugh to get one. Engines do have a tendency to expire on them though

Mx 5 or Audi TT

CIP4

tossy wrote: »

Is yours manual or dsg? I find ACC great with dsg I use it a lot. That and DLA are the two options i would say are must haves on the next car.

Mine is DSG but then I don’t really like that either :pac: The DSG and ACC are probably the main two things I don’t like about the car. I get that if I lived in Dublin sitting in traffic all day they would probably be great but I don’t deal with much traffic so would prefer the manual transmission. I would of thought with ACC you could still use it as traditional cruise control but seems not.

bazz26

New Seat Leon:

Duke O Smiley

That estate is very Kia-ish from the back

ShadowHearth

I sow it just myself, was waiting for reveal today. I love it, way better then new golf, interior and exterior wise. New Cupra will be hybrid or pure petrol. Like that too.
I wonder how it will impact current Cupra prices.

tossy

CIP4 wrote: »

Mine is DSG but then I don’t really like that either :pac: The DSG and ACC are probably the main two things I don’t like about the car. I get that if I lived in Dublin sitting in traffic all day they would probably be great but I don’t deal with much traffic so would prefer the manual transmission. I would of thought with ACC you could still use it as traditional cruise control but seems not.

I don't live in Dublin praise the lord

CIP4

OSI wrote: »

I’m genuinely lost as to what possible reason you could want for the ACC to behave like traditional cruise control

It’s just personal preference.

I just prefer with traditional cruise control your on the motorway at a set as you approach cars going slower you can chose to slowdown or generally just pass them without having to do anything or change speed.

ACC cruising along once you get close to a car it starts to slow down you can then overtake it speeds back up the speed up slow down thing just annoys me. I can’t get use to it and find I forget the car is slowing down as it’s gradual enough and then end up going for a bit at the lower speed before noticing it’s slowed me down. I am talking about slight speed drops if it slows you down 30kmh you’ll notice quickly. I just find in a weird way it actually takes more effort than normal cruise control. But again most of my motorway driving is not on busy motorways.

It’s kind of the same with DSG it is quicker, more refined than a manual but ultimately I just prefer changing gears myself. If I had a manual 2nd car I would be grand but just find with auto only I miss the manual gearbox.

ILikeBoats

CIP4 wrote: »

I just prefer with traditional cruise control your on the motorway at a set as you approach cars going slower you can chose to slowdown or generally just pass them without having to do anything or change speed.

I'm the same. I'd prefer the constant speed

bazz26

bazz26 wrote: »

New Seat Leon:..........[/IMG]

Looks dated as fook to me. Bits of 1 series at the front, some Alfa at the rear of the hatch ......... Kia Optima estate esque ......... Some almost 20 year old Seat bits at the rear profile.
Looks sort of faux SUV ish too ........ a tad tall or something.
Might look better in the flesh.

colm_mcm

See the controls for the heated windscreen/lights etc.

tossy

ILikeBoats wrote: »

I'm the same. I'd prefer the constant speed

Just go around them

cadaliac

colm_mcm wrote: »

See the controls for the heated windscreen/lights etc.

AKA 20 YO VW part.
Dash is drab, but an improvement all the same.

colm_mcm

cadaliac wrote: »

AKA 20 YO VW part.
Dash is drab, but an improvement all the same.

Light switch is gone now by the looks of it?

All those buttons over near the door remind me of the Fiat Stilo.

Hebegeebee

bazz26 wrote: »

New Seat Leon:

.......[/IMG]

Focus/1-series/Kia like from the outside. The older one looked better IMO.
What is it with manufacturers and touch panels and removing all buttons. Your eyes are meant to be primarily focussed on the road - it’s not a phone you’re operating.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

So with only a day or two of UK in the EU,

When will additional taxes be charged for importing cars ? (Other than the extortion that is the NOX tax!)

Could we see an influx of LHD cars on the road here ?

Personally for me, LHD wouldn't bother me in the slightest (of course it's a hassle for overtaking and toll booths will make hay !)

If it meant I get a decent car with decent spec I'd be happy. Since we do have pretty much in the EU to choose from. Just means a pain in the hole of a drive back and longer ferry crossing !

CIP4

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

So with only a day or two of UK in the EU,

When will additional taxes be charged for importing cars ? (Other than the extortion that is the NOX tax!)

Could we see an influx of LHD cars on the road here ?

Not directed at you KSL just on the topic in general.

I don’t really get all this panic if UK cars aren’t imported anymore fair enough used car prices will go up but I would imagine by a small amount. The way people are going on you’d swear the prices are going to double. As it stands at the minute 3 plus year old cars are fairly cheap depreciation is high on them so if you have to spend a couple of thousand more on them is it really make or break or a major concern ?

I wish I had so few worries in life as others who seem to be worrying about whether the 4 year old Passat they normally buy will cost a couple of thousand more because they won’t be able to buy an English one anymore.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

.Could we see an influx of LHD cars on the road here ? ...............

I wouldn't imagine so, the vast majority of folk have no interest in driving anything LHD, enthusuasts might consider something LHD for occasional use.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

..
.......... Just means a pain in the hole of a drive back and longer ferry crossing !

I would think insurance might be more expensive.

Tacitus Kilgore

CIP4 wrote: »

Not directed at you KSL just on the topic in general.

I don’t really get all this panic if UK cars aren’t imported anymore fair enough used car prices will go up but I would imagine by a small amount. The way people are going on you’d swear the prices are going to double. As it stands at the minute 3 plus year old cars are fairly cheap depreciation is high on them so if you have to spend a couple of thousand more on them is it really make or break or a major concern ?

I wish I had so few worries in life as others who seem to be worrying about whether the 4 year old Passat they normally buy will cost a couple of thousand more because they won’t be able to buy an English one anymore.

Ehm, do you not see the correlation between the high depreciation / low used car prices here and the availability of cheap used cars from the UK?




I wish I had so few worries in life that a slightly different type of cruise control function was enough to make me go writing paragraphs on an internet forum then snarl about people being concerned about future prices. Unfortunately for me - I do have to worry about a few grand.

Leonard Hofstadter

The UK is effectively still in the EU single market until the end of the year so nothing should change with regards to importing until then. In addition, the UK has said it will continue to follow EU rules for the car industry even when they've left (no manufacturer is going to set up a production line especially for a market the size of the UK in any event unless they're forced to, and following the EU's rules is exactly what the UK car industry wants - and needs in order to stay competitive), but if there's no deal there will be import duties which would make it more attractive, however a no deal would tank the pound so there could still be decent savings to be had.

On top of all that, the North will continue to be a de facto part of the single market no matter what happens, so it's difficult to know what will happen with imports from there, if things continued exactly as they do now (but cars from the rest of the UK were slapped with tariffs because of a no deal scenario) then there would be a lot of opportunities in bringing a car from the 'mainland' to the North and then to the Republic.

farna_boy

LIGHTNING wrote: »

My misses really wants a small auto-car and I there was a SMART roadster outside Lidl the other day that she thought was cool. I am tempted myself for the laugh to get one. Engines do have a tendency to expire on them though

Anytime I hear about SMART cars I'm reminded of the video below. Maybe you could do the same with the roadster if the engine "happens" to go..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgwzHJo3IXM