Which is your favorite car?

[scooters]

Best cars I have ever owned for reliability and practicality. ..
BX tdz estate
Volvo 940 Sport Estate

[citsncycles]

I'll have to break it down as one vehicle just doesn't do it all.

Best car - My GS Club Estate - most comfortable car I've ever driven, performs much better than a 1222cc car has any right to, sounds fantastic and will carry all sorts in the back! I must get it back on the road some day.

Best utility vehicle - My Series 1 Land Rover. Yes it's battered, yes it's got later engine, gearbox and axles (still at least 35 years old though), but will haul almost anything on a trailer so long as you don't want to go over 45mph, and of course it gives you a feeling of power holding up all that traffic. It only just beats the H vans I've had because of it's off roading ability though.

Most bonkers - My Dyane Nomad. Someone must have had a long night in the pub to decide that building a 4 berth camper van on a Dyane chassis was a good idea! The fact that they only built 2 before switching to the marginally more practical Acadiane base says something. On the other hand it's taken me all over the UK, France, Italy, Belgium & Holland, and will carry 9 bicycles (5 inside if you plan it properly). The body roll has to be seen to be believed, and it's REALLY slow in a head wind, but it's great watching the reactions of other motorists. You think an XM gets people coming up to talk, try pulling up anywhere in France with the Nomad. I most enjoy leaving it on the side of the road opposite a cafe so that I can have lunch or whatever while watching the pedestrians pass it then go back for another look, as if it took a while for the brain to register what they've seen. Another one waiting to go back on the road.

[Peter.N.]

If we are going back the early days my first car was a '39 Ford Prefect - rubbish - but it was a car. The Hillman Minx I replaced it with although it still had a side valve engine was much more refined. Then I moved on to Vauxhalls, the first was a 'E' model Velox followed by several others but the one I liked best was the PA Cresta, nice to drive and a real head turner. I then had an assortment of Morris Oxfords, a Humber Hawk and a couple of Super Snipes - very luxurious but very thirsty. I did a number of diesel conversions between the '60s and 80s but then I drove a diesel CX Safari - fantastic, run hydropnumatic Citroens ever since.

Peter

[White Exec]

Until our BX19RD (which we loved) and the current 2.5, the favourite was surely our last Rover - a P6B 3500S, V8 manual. Up 'til then a 1935 Rover 10, a 1947 Rover 16, a 1960 P5 3-litre, a 1959 Mini (eventually with 1275 TC), two more P6s ('66 2000, '72 2000TC), and a racing green Dolomite 1850. Along the way were less memorable jobbies like a 1956 Series 1 Hillman Minx (two-tone pale yellow and grey, with red interior), and a 1970 Mini 1000, which caught fire when a boot-carried petrol can knocked the cover off the battery, and sat itself on the battery terminals, thus putting an embarrassing end to a never-less-than 44mpg.

The Citroen bug bit just as Rover were planning their final demise, and is still very much alive, as you can tell. Addiction was egged on by driving a friend's CX Familiale.

Oh yes, there was the pale blue Dyane 6, driven brand new from the window display of Citroen Manchester's showroom, on hire for a 1969-ish holiday job, selling encyclopaedias in Cheshire for a certain Robert Maxwell (and look what happened to him...). It carried a car-full of us around for five weeks or so, at amazing speeds: flat-out and stop in all gears. My best memory of it, though, was driving around on Ainsdale beach (near Blackpool) with a lovely three-year-old standing on the back seat and cheering to the rooftops from the open roof. The little girl's fabulously rich Cheshire parents never took her anywhere, and we decided to rectify that. Unforgettable.

[CitroJim]

All-time favourites for me have been a Turbo Metro, Pug 405 and a Pug 205 GTi.

The 205 GTi has to be my most favourite and the car I most regret ever parting with.

[Eddie nuff]

Of the many, many cars I've had four stand out. Unfortunately the P6b 3500 I had for such a short time has just left a feeling that I missed out - and I'd love another! The Ford Cortina Mk2 1600GT was my first car ( fancy having one of them as a first car nowadays) and helped me get my boy-racer days out of the way. The BL Wolseley 2200 was a wolf in sheeps clothing. Think posh Princess with draylon and wood and a gorgeous straight six and you've got the idea.

Talking of straight six leads me to my favourite set-up of drive-train. A 3.0 6 pot fitted to a 4 speed overdrive with rear wheel drive as in the Volvo 164 I had on a H plate, circa 1970. They're like hens teeth now - but I keep looking!

[russ92xmsed]

Those were rare beasts the Wolseley 2200... 6 months in production I believe, then they were radically re-marketed as Princess.

[White Exec]

And I often wondered about the Austin 3-litre, much used as officer/vip transport by the military. Hydrolastic seemed to work fairly well on larger cars. A 3-litre six-pot 4sp OD was what I had on my P5, but all 1.5 tonnes of her though!