My Slightly More Recent Cars

I changed employer in January 2000, and with that came a better salary and a couple of company cars.

Some guy had left the company about 2 months before I started.  He had just ordered a new car before he left, and it was sitting in the pool when I joined.  Needless to say, I got it by default.  A Honda Civic wouldn't have been my 1st choice...  but this was the VTI, which was a lovely engine with Variable Valve technomagic.  The 'S' in VTiS was because it was a special edition...  special 'Pirate Black' paint and bodykit.

It drove well, didn't set the world alight, but I reckon it was around 8.5secs to 60mph.  However, there was 3yrs on this lease...  and I didn't choose the car.  I wanted out of this lease.

Recommend? Not a bad car...  but fairly dull looks.  Nice engine.

2000/X-reg. Now free from the shackles of my company car, I took delivery of my Celica in 2000.  Having lost a few quid on previous cars, and being Scottish, I was keen to get a good deal.  So, I bought from a car supermarket.  The Celica was imported from Belgium.  I wanted either Blue or Black...  and they had a black one unreserved on their books.  "I'll have that one please".  I had somehow managed to persuade the wife that we could fit a child seat in no problem.

I didn't want the Premium Pack, as it was basically just leather seats.  However, on reading Toyota's spec, it was just the front seats which were leather.  The rears were just 'leather look'.  Hardly going to pay £1K for that...  especially as the standard seats were actually damn good.  I didn't want the Dynamic pack either...  It cost about £1.5K as an option...  and gave you different alloys (that I wasn't too sure about), a rear spoiler and some really poor sideskirts that just were not noticeable.  Instead, I took my car to Toyota after picking it up and got them to put the spoiler on by itself, and also I wanted alloy pedals.  Job Done.

At the time I bought the car, only the standard 140 model was available.  About 6mths later the 190 was released which dropped the 0-60 time down from 8.5 to 7.5 seconds.  I often thought that my car could have done with a little more poke...  but handling wise it was great...  in the dry.  In the wet, you had to be a bit careful for 'out-of-the-blue' understeer.  That was with Yoko's on.

The driving position was fantastic...  one of the best driving positions I've had in a car (I'm 6'3").  The car was low, and you sat low in it.  Cabin plastics were a bit cheap, but the double DIN Sony head unit brightened things up a bit.  It really should have been a multi disk thing though with it being double DIN.

I only had the Celica 6-9mths...  as it became clear to the wife that I had told a few porkies about the car seat.  As the little nipper was putting the weight on, it was actually quite tricky for someone of my height to bend down holding him and squeezing him in to position in the back.  It was a car that I felt I hadn't quite finished with when I got rid of it...  perhaps another 6mths would have done, so I missed that black celica.

Recommend? Definitely...  as mentioned, the driving position I thought was fantastic and it was great in the dry.  They were still fairly rare while I had it so attracted lots of looks.  Get a 190 though.

In order to get out of the Company Car scheme, I managed to persuade my employer to swap my Civic for a 1997 BMW that only had 3 months left on its lease.  This would mean that when the lease was up, I would be free to opt out of the scheme for extra cash in the pay packet.

The BMW was awful.  The previous guy had racked up about 80Kmiles in just under 3yrs, and the gearbox was shot.  Selection of the 1st and 2nd cogs were tempremental at best...  but downright dangerous at worst.  I remember pulling on to a roundabout in 1st, choosing 2nd but there was nothing there...  I was coasting with traffic heading at me fast.  Happened a few times.

It went in to BMW a couple of times before it was fixed.  The car smelled of damp, was uncomfortable and for an SE spec...  had very little in the way of toys.  I was a long 3 months.

The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I had ordered my replacement...  and I had a date for it.

Recommend? I just couldn't....  maybe it was a good car when new, but 80K in, it was a wreck.

2001/Y-Reg.  The game was up...  the Celica obviously wasn't a family orientated car and Mrs G knew it.  So, July 2001 I traded it in for a new Freelander.  I bought the one I saw in the showroom...  a metalic grey 1.8s with alloys and Hill Descent Control (surely this wouldn't go down snowy hills sideways).

We had been looking at a Merc A-Class...  but they were robbing b45t4rds at the showroom.  Bearing in mind Celica's brand new were £19K at the time, and mine was 9mths old, they wanted to give me £10K...  duh, let me think about that.  Land Rover were right round the corner, and I had expected a worse trade in from them.  But, £15.5K to my surprise.  Exactly the same as what I paid for it 9mths earlier from the supermarket.  That'll do nicely (expecially for an import).

The Freelander was a great work-horse.  Not a single issue over the year and a half I had it.  The full time 4x4 and traction control also meant that it gave you a jump at the lights...  until other cars got rolling.  We only took the hardtop off once or twice, but was good fun with it off.  The main issue was the same as the Frontera...  you can't take the hardtop with you...  and I didn't have a soft-top.

The only problem is that...  with a 4x4, I feel you really need another car at your disposal that you can get your kicks from.  The Freelander was light years better than the Frontera I had before... in all departments.  But is wasn't quite as sharp on road as the RAV4.  Still..  I think I would buy another as a family work-horse.

Recommend? Yes...  I'm thinking about getting another as a tool for the family/dog, shopping and skip runs...  and they are sooo cheap now on 2nd hand market.  The 1.8 K-Series is apparantly more prone to HGF in the Land Rover for some reason, so maybe a TD4 would be a good compromise if buying one with mileage.

2000/W-reg.  The wife had still been using the old Rover 216, and it was now starting to have problems starting on damp days (which is quite often in Scotland).  So, it was traded in for a 'Broom Yellow' 1.2 16v Punto...  feel the power.

OK...  so it was a little puny...  and it had the 'girly button'.  But, in fact it was a good 2nd car...  and it looked pretty smart in sporting guise.  You sat a bit too high in it for my liking, which never gave me confidence when cornering quickly but 10secs 0-60 from a 1.2 was respectable enough, especially as the wife would be driving it mainly.

She fell pregnant while we had the Punto, so it wasn't getting used for a while.  1 of my colleagues needed to hire a car while he waited on his new one to be delivered, so we gave him the Punto on loan.  He was pleasantly surprised with it too.

Recommend? It's actually not too bad.  A few interior trim bits fell off, and the bonnet/doors were light, but for what it was....  yes.

2002/02-reg.  I saw one of these on the road not long after they were released.  I never was really taken with the Rover 75...  but it's funny how a spoiler and a set of 18" alloys can change a car.  At launch, the ZT came with a 2.5 KV6 engine only, but with 2 outputs...  190 & 160.  Out of curiousity more than anything I went for a test-drive in a 190 a few moths later.

I....    Wanted....   One....

I couldn't strike up a deal with the 190 I drove, but on the way home I happened to notice that a Renault garage had a Solar Red 160 on the forecourt.  It was 3mths old with 3K on the clock.  I took it for a test, and to be honest, there wasn't a great deal of difference between the 160 & 190 (just a touch).  This car was £2K less than the one from the main dealer.  Deal done.

I kept that car for about 2.5years and covered 45Kmiles.  The interior was the best out of the whole MG range.  I had leather/Alcantara seats and the materials used throughout were of good quality.  The handling betrayed the size of the car, you really could chuck it in to a corner.  This car was a geniune alternative to the BMW 3 series as far as I was concerned, and you got more for your money.

Recommend?  Too right...  the KV6 is really smooth and punches well at over 3500 revs.  Fuel isn't all that bad either.  Later in the model life, the 160 came with either the KV6 or a 1.8Turbo...  and for some reason they brought out a 1.8NA 120 derivative (obviously when they were stuggling for cash).  Personally, I'd take either KV6...  smoother and nicer sound.