After catching a bit of deals on wheels that featured the rover p6 3500s they mentioned that the car was available with air con. I could do with a comfortable cruising car with aircon/climate control. With expected low mileage a tax exempt classic is the cheapest option for having another car. I had previously thought something modern that would do 45+ mpg might work out cheaper but depreciation would probably wipe out any savings along with higher parts prices. 2k cars that were that economical would probably lose the money in parts costs.
I would be looking for something that would do around 30 ish mpg like my vitesse but preferably with a bigger fuel tank and definitely not a soft top.I really fancy an interceptor but at 12 mpg it is far too costly! Comfort is the main concern along with something that has good parts availability. Budget probably less than 5k and preferably closer to £3k.
Are there any cars other than the Rover that fit the description? Or is it possible to retro fit aircon say to a Triumph GT6 which is another motor I could see myself in? I can see the retrofit aircon option could be fraught with problems but a model of car that had aircon some thought must have been put into where everthing would fit.
teabelly
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Later Toyota Crowns; certainly comfortable but they won't do 30 mpg; watch out for rust. Parts from or through Toyota Enthusiasts Club or even Toyota dealers; last more expensive.
Tomo as was!
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Sorry, the crown is one real ugly car! Couldn't be seen in that :-)
teabelly
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Jag XJS - try the 3.6 for economy
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I have run a several 1950/60's American cars fitted with air-conditioning before UK ever heard the term used. You can buy a Nippon Denso neat retro-fit kit for most as a new fit or a replacement for the clanky old Bendix compressors of the day.
Try any classic American spares site for details or PM me and I'll see what I can dredge up from myy records when I'm back in my office: I'm travelling right now.
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As a caveat to the 3500S, the Deals on Wheels piece fails to mention that the air-con was a NADA option only for export. There are a number of re-importers but A1 NADA cars are very, very rare indeed. NADA parts like air-con are also getting more difficult to obtain. The air-con units are freon-based not R132a and so are difficult to recharge.
As for mpg, depends how you drive it, with a 5-speed LT77 gearbox conversion a 3500S can return about 22-24mpg. Also uprating the carbs can add another 1-3mpg.
As Growler says, get a retro-fit item.
As for a 30mpg car, a Rover 2000SC will happily do 30mpg.
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Aah, didn't know that. I mentioned it my Dad whose father used to have a 3500s and they only managed 25 mpg at best. Perhaps converting it to use fuel injection rather than carbs might get above the magic 30 mpg.
I emailed vehvac to ask them about retro fit aircon, no answer from them yet. Another alternative was to retrofit aircon to my lancia and chip it as one of the performance chips actually improves fuel economy as the original lancia mapping isn't fab. It should give a 20% improvement which would make it do at least 25 maybe even 30 so that could be one answer.
My other alternative was an ultra fuel efficient low tax bracket supermini. The daihatsu charade seems like an obvious contender with up to 70 mpg and all without one of those evil diesel engines ;-) I'd trade off some comfort in ride for reliability and frugalness. I really need a car for very short pootling journeys and long motorway journeys and there doesn't seem to be an obvious choice to do this. A larger diesel car (could only consider the alfa romeo diesel as being the least dieselly engine out there) is a bit of a space waster as there is likely only to be me in it most of the time. A marea weekend jtd was another cheaper possibility and the extra carrying space if I wanted to carry flat packs and step ladders would be very useful but not used very often!
The daihatsu finance scheme of £1600 deposit and £99 a month for 3 years looks quite attractive too. I don't know what servicing and maintenance costs would be like though.
I think I need a car that can change from a frugal 2 seater into a long distance cruiser via sports car bruiser!
teabelly
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