Reading another post, an idea occured to me: are cars with street cred entirely subjective, or is there a general pattern, rather than hijack that thread, I'd start my own. With that in mind, what cars do you think has it and doesn't have it around the £2-3000 used mark?
My Top 3:
BMW 3-series
Audi A4
And the predictable 306.
Bottom 3:
Skoda Felicia
Kia Rio
Vauxhall Astra.
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On an image level, I'd agree with you. However, for sub 3 grand, what kind of A4/3 series are you going to get? I'd probably take my chances with the Astra.
Also, pretty varied selection there - any particular reason?
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Adam
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Adam?
Stay out of this thread, you are not qualified to enter by way of you know what!
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Oh. Here he is - I can picture you with a notepad on your desk at work, scribbled on the top "Insults For Adam" . It's been a long day. The best I can manage is,
You sir, have offended me; I challenge you to a duel!
;-)
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Adam
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Its a very very big notepad Adam.
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Yes I'm sure it is RF....I'm sure it is.
Cars with cred...lets see....there's the Laguna....oh no wait - you mean "cool" cars!
Sorry - my mistake!
Ho ho ho ;-)
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Adam
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"You sir, have offended me; I challenge you to a duel!"
Pistons at dawn?
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We're not talking which would make the most sense, on any level, I merely wondering whether there are certain cars that near-all think of as 'cool' and one's that aren't.
We may take the Astra/Escort whatever, because it's the realistic choice, but which car would we buy with our eyes/vanity alone?
I chose the sub-£3k bracket because any higher and we begin to get into properly cool (modern) cars.
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I certanly don't think that the BMW 3 Series has street cred, there is just too many of them being driven by plonkers.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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Street cred to whom?
For "chavs" it is a Corsa or a Saxo.
Me- it would have to be a DB9 at least. Unfortunately not in the £2-3K bracket.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Indeed - depends on your chosen "Gang" with whom you wish to have cred.
There are however cars that have cred across many "gangs"
Most exotic sports cars and grand tourers for example (porkies, prancing horses, astons etc)
Scoobies and Evo's
possibly Range Rovers, and Cayenne's but not X5's or 3's
and probably ( a risky one this) an Escalade. (but no bling spinning wheels that would limit you to one "gang")
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Most: Suburban, RX8, Whatever that MG was called that was exported to Japan.
Least: Newer Jags, Yaris, Zafira (and the like).
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A "cool" car for under £3k would have to be a classic (or have that potential), say a mini, 944, maybe a Capri etc.... for me a GTV6, but I'm biased!
IMO, Any modern car in this price bracket is just a functional lump of metal - some of which will function better than others, but with little real desirability
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Cred for the price:
Series I XJ
Lancia Fulvia
Alfasud
Mk I Cortina GT
Capri 3.0 (circa 1972)
Saab 900 (pre-'95)
Golf GTi Mk I
Golf GTi Mk II big bumper (circa 1990)
Mini 1000 (pristine for £3000)
Porsche 944
Clio 16v (unmolested, circa 1994)
No cred
Anything Korean
Any Nissan
Any BMW at that price
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Fulvia? Mk1 cortina GT? Golf GTI mk1? etc etc?
Methinks you are getting your classics and cars with cred mixed up!
Or are they one and the same?
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Fulvia? Mk1 cortina GT? Golf GTI mk1? etc etc? Methinks you are getting your classics and cars with cred mixed up! Or are they one and the same?
Perhaps for 3 grand, yes!
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Cred for the price: Mini 1000 (pristine for £3000)
Excellent!!! Just wish mine was worth £3000 (more like £300 LOL).
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Most: Suburban, >>
Cred not Bling!!
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you forgot a well tuned peugeot 205 gti mi 16 V
best hot hatch for not-a-lot :-)
in grey or miami blue
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I certanly don't think that the BMW 3 Series has street cred, there is just too many of them being driven by plonkers.
Seconded. Not even the plonker bit mind you, there's just too many of them around full stop for any cred to remain.
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Hey what happened to the duel ??? What no pistols at dawn??? drat thats no fun !!!!
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Most cred: Toyota saloons and hatchbacks. Cars that do what it says on the tin, without fuss or pretension.
Next most cred: Renault Twingo, Nissan Micra or Mazda MX-5. Ultimate girly cars
Least cred: anything with fins or spoilers, or with a BMW badge, or with those silly wheels which are so big that they leave room for only a tiny tyre.
Next least cred: any Porch. A car for young men in red braces or older ones with a midlife crisis and a cash surplus.
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Well considering that the word "cred" is used by the younger generation and its that generation who is most bothered by what others think of what they are drving then maybe suggestions should be limited to what would be credible to them. Lancias and Capris etc, I think, would be considered just "old" and would appeal to very few of them.
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"Well considering that the word "cred" is used by the younger generation and its that generation who is most bothered by what others think of what they are drving then maybe suggestions should be limited to what would be credible to them."
Very good point, with this in mind I'd suggest any small hatchback (engine size irrelevant) for about £500 with the balance spent on accessories from Halfords. Street cred guaranteed.
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Could I get an old (mk 1 or 2) Golf GTI for less than £3k? One of them would be seriously cool... probably not to drive, just to keep in the garage and stroke occasionally.
Or an old, old, white porsche... but I suspect they're not quite under £3k yet. (like the one I should have won in that competition on 5th Gear)
Whatever has a 306 done to get on that list? Bleugh!
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Whatever has a 306 done to get on that list? Bleugh!
Drive one and you'll see
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>> Whatever has a 306 done to get on that list? Bleugh! Drive one and you'll see
Each to their own and all that, but I have and I don't. :)
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A few things here:
The duel has been cancelled as RF failed to show.
>>Next least cred: any Porch. A car for young men in red braces or older ones with a midlife crisis and a cash surplus.<<
That's not very nice is it. After all the nice things Patently says about you.
>> Whatever has a 306 done to get on that list? Bleugh! Drive one and you'll see
Er....we're looking for good points. I can't see the attraction of a 306 both looks wise or drivability. Sorry.
>>Each to their own and all that, but I have and I don't. :)<<
Agreed.
Ohhh if only all my posts were as succinct as this.
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Adam
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>>Next least cred: any Porch. A car for young men in red braces or older ones with a midlife crisis and a cash surplus.<< That's not very nice is it. After all the nice things Patently says about you.
I really don't care. No, honestly. The 911 is for my own satisfaction. Anyone vouching a negative opinion has to do so from the middle of a cloud of dust, anyway.
In any case, NW's list suggests she is in a different gang anyhow...
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*PS - it should have read "used to have a cash surplus"...
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*PS - it should have read "used to have a cash surplus"...
Said surplus now being converted into a crest-like badge? ;-)
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Said surplus now being converted into a crest-like badge? ;-)
No - there is a seasonal reason, and I don't mean Christmas.
It's January, and time to arrange the letters X, A and T into a reason for disliking the bunch of cretins who run the country.
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Most cred: Toyota saloons and hatchbacks. Cars that do what it says on the tin, without fuss or pretension.
Surely street cred is entirely seperate to 'doing what they say on the tin' or boring reliability as it's also known. You could even argue that one suggests the absence of the other.
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I was about to say that my 2 litre Focus Ghia hatch had it when I spotted that it said "cred" and not "crud"! I'd better go out and wash it off.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Excellent point. A Volvo bus does what it says on the tin without fuss. I don't have one pinned up on my wall....well - at least not since we moved.
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Adam
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Who gives a stuff anyway? One of the benefits of codgerdom is that we can sit and titter at all this, remembering when we also thought that it mattered . . . and I used to run an Austin Healey 3000 MkII. That was cred, but if I had it now I'd sell it and buy a block of flats.
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Badger was previously registered as Stripey
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Surely street cred is entirely seperate to 'doing what they say on the tin' or boring reliability as it's also known. You could even argue that one suggests the absence of the other.
That depends what sort of cred you seek. A lot of cars look like the sort of fashion equivalent of "trying too hard" -- they look contrived. Like wearing high heels and full makeup at a sunday brunch -- a mistake which I'm sure Bazza avoids! ;-)
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I certainly agree with you there. The 'trying too much' cars certainly get no credit from me.
But equally, the Toyota type car you put forward don't get any cred because they're just instantly forgettable.
Still, no cred is better than the minus cred in my book of a boy racer whatever with it's neons and bad bodykit.
I would try to put forward Alfa's as good for cred. Not in any way ostentatious, but different from the herd, and stylish. I'd get properly lambasted for that though.
Oh, and no, certainly no high heels and make-up at Sunday lunch. Saturday nights only for me ;)
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Certainly not the 3 Series. My initial thought when I see a ropey old sub £3k L reg 3 Series is that the person wants to feel special so valued a badge over a decent car. I'm impressed when I see a recent model BMW, perhaps wrongly but thats how it is, but old ones? I just think 'You could have bought so much more if you'd have dropped the requirement for a badge'.
The E36 was a great car - 10 years ago.
I'm not sure if you could call it cred or not but I certainly get comments about my car - despite being a humble Ford Mondeo, it certainly looks like its worth more than £2-3k with the Ford Sports Appearance pack on it.
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No Michael, you're not wrong ;-)
This "Toyota with cred" thing. Can someone remind me what non-Yaris Toyotas look like? I can't remember a thing about any of them...
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Late 80's I was looking around for a reasonably sporty car that would also be suitable for everyday use. The Supra Turbo was on my list until I discovered one fatal flaw... Tony Blackburn owned one. Can you imagine owning the same car as Tony Blackburn, my cred would be crud!
I ended up with an AFN 60th anniversary 944.
Kevin...
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I'm not sure if you could call it cred or not but I certainly get comments about my car - despite being a humble Ford Mondeo, it certainly looks like its worth more than £2-3k with the Ford Sports Appearance pack on it.
Ah, you see there's the difference in the sort of "cred" that folks seek. You obviously like a "sports appearance", but to me, that sort of car induces a shudder, and reminds me of my mum's friends who used to sit on the floor of her husband's expensive car for fear that anyone would see her in it.
This one of those things where we can all look at each other, shaking our heads at each others evident weirdness, and mutter under our breaths that there's no accounting for taste!
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Hmm. Sports appearance, not necessarily.
What I'm looking for is some style, rather than none.
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German owners started the ?de-badging? of Mercedes and BMW.
Some owners took it a step further with a 190D badge on a 560SEL and 316 on an M5.
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Almost any Cavalier MK3s have cred as have litraly any Landie above the rank of Freelander.
I don't care about my BM's street cred. I like it and that's all I care.
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Oh for an edit button on the typo.
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Do you think we should suggest one?
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Badger was previously registered as Stripey
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Do you think we should suggest one?
No, been done to death already.
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When I read the first post here, I took it to mean "ordinary" cars that have a bit of credibility, rather than exotica which has finally fallen into the price bracket simply because of how old it has become. To weed out that sort of stuff, I suggest a maximum age limit of 8 years would need to apply here. In that case, an Alfa fits the criteria. The Ford Puma has come down to this sort of price by now. Oh, and the Fiat Coupe - in spite of all the possible problems, I reckon it has cred in spades. Would never buy one though!
As for the more mundane stuff, I don't know ... a quick Seat Ibiza? The coupe-shape (Fastback?) Mazda 323 would be another possibility in terms of looks - don't know how they drive though.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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The coupe-shape (Fastback?) Mazda 323 would be another possibility in terms of looks - don't know how they drive though.
Deeply horrid things to drive. Drove a few long journeys in the saloon version of that car: engine gutless below a million revs, steering super-light and devoid of feel, destablised by any hint of a cross-wind.
It felt like being in a sled on an ice-rink, and the owner agreed: car was sold ASAP.
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Did my Austin Healey 3000 MkII (at the time it was in production) have this cred, then? Would it have it now?
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Badger was previously registered as Stripey
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With cred!! most cars Italian or german
without cred!! Most Japanese cars.
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Japanese cars very popular with those that like tuning and fitting aftermarket visual and performance parts ala Fast and Furious
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Japanese are good!
Skyline, Fairlady-Z, Supra.
Need I go on?
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Adam
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Does the Supra have so much cred?
I often wonder if people associate it with the older Supra, and therefore with the 'medallion man' image, meaning it loses a lot of cred?
I don't think a catch all like 'Japanese cars have cred' can really work.
A Nissan Sunny has no cred (possibly unless it's a GTiR)
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A Nissan Sunny has no cred (possibly unless it's a GTiR)
BazzaBear,
Although not in the same league as the GTi-R, the 1992-95 Sunny 2.0i GTi is getting something of a cult following. I has a 16v 143bhp non-turbo engine that lasts forever and disc brakes all round with ABS. It easily had the edge over the Golf GTi 16v and was voted 'Hot Hatch of the Year' in 1992 and 1993.
I had one for over 4 years and 100k and wish I had never sold it.
C
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I was thinking more the frog eyed one - but agree about the box one. Mind you, for it's time it was quite a looker.
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Adam
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Oh BTW fellas (and gals) anything with a driver aged over 21 has no cred at all.
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That's a relief.
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Badger was previously registered as Stripey
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So most Toyatas and Hondas have no street cred, and, according to RF's definition, the car with the most street cred ever is a close run thing between the Saxo and the Corsa. Can that be right??
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Japanese cars dont necessarily have to be naturally exciting, people enjoy dressing them up with visual and audio gear. Try checking out the Auto Salon shows.
Ultimately its purely generational. BMWs Jags are for the middle aged.
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