The original Focus for me.
My thinking exactly.
Affordable, reliable, reasonable maintenance costs and.... handles as well as any car costing less than £30,000.
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I vote for the VW Beetle,I hired one from Bourne End Motors in 1954 and was so impressed I then owned three in a row,as mentioned above remember the date,they had independant suspension all round,a very efficient heater with outlets for rear passengers,and windscreen washers,they were way ahead in there time,the engine was oversquare and at 3600revs the piston speed was under 2500Ft./Min a yardstick said by Dr.Porche to give long live to engines.
ndbw
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beetle? Worlds best ordinary car of all time?
cobblers.
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beetle? Worlds best ordinary car of all time? cobblers.
not disrespecting your opinion but care to elaborate on the cobblers, i understand most arguments against them they are ugly some people think they are beautiful, i dont, and compared to modern cars are horrible to drive useless heaters but remember the beetle is a very old design older than the mini and most if not all the others mentioned here. it was way ahead of it's time and love them or hate them 20 million people bought them and unlike the corolla beetles all looked the same how many variations on the corolla to make 25 million sales. the concept of the beetle is in my opinion what makes it one of the best cars ever made. although i would still prefer a mustang...cheers...keo.
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I suppose that you have to define ordinary, really. If part of the original question is to be answered, ie ease of maintainance, then anything with electronics has to be eliminated, because most local/back street garages are unlikely to have diagnostic kit to suit everything.
I personally don't think there is a best ordinary car of all time. We can't tell, anyway, we haven't had all time yet.
If I had to nominate or be shot, I suppose it would be the Morris 1000. It was excellent at nothing, terrible at nothing, indeed I found it to be mediocre at everything. It was simple and easy to maintain and reliable.
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Is it that Bourne end motors in Bucks ndbw?
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Hi frazerjp
Yes indeed it was Bourne end Bucks,at the time I was living at Sidcup and driving a 1930 Lea Francis,they were most kind put the L/F in a lock up for me while I had the VW for the weekend,I could not afford a new VW so bought a 1947 model imported by a serviceman.big mistake but with spares from Monaco Motors of Kensington who had loads of spares I learnt a lot very quickly,next came a 1956 Standard Model ie crash gear box and cable brakes.purchased from Bernie Eccleston when he had a used car lot at Bexleyheath.I then purchased a 1955 Deluxe Model Syncro Box and Hydraulic brakes from VW at St Johns Wood,there was in my opinion little to touch them,if there is anyone out there who read Motorsport when J.Bodey was the editor they will recall how enthusiastic he was about them.
ndbw
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Love them or hate them, the Beetle was a product of original thinking. One could say the Beetle did for Germany what the Land Rover did for the UK.
The Beetle remained popular when other models were coming and going, as did the Mini, the 2CV etc. So yes it's easy to knock them when you're driving a 1975 vintage - the non enthusiasts would compare them with the likes of the MK2 Escort. If that's you then the car would not have been your cup of tea.
There was a Reliant 'Robin' with 4 wheels. It was called the Reliant Kitten. It looked very much like the Robin but IIRC never sold as well and there are very few about.
H
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Its still a trading cars in this present day you know? mainly more modern cars thou! :-)
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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The original Focus for me.
Perahps the best of its current breed, but evolutionary rather than revolutionary, as demonstrated by its six-year shelf-life. In twenty year's time, will it really stand out over its contemporaries?
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In its time the VW Golf Mark 1? Previous 5 door hatches had been aesthetically challenged, then along came the neat, crisp Golf and its copycat rival the Talbot Horizon. Worlds apart in quality though!!!!
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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morris minor in all it different forms,traveller,saloon,convertible,pick up and van .had them all exept the convertible ,always reliable with little or no problems as long as you remembered to grease the front swivels or a front wheel sometimes fell off but for its size quite surprising what it could do
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I'm almost certain the Minor DID come in a convertable version.
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Sorry defender, misread your post.
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Defender,
We had the convertible. My dad ran it as a short journey car when he had to drive to the station for his daily commute to the smoke from Andover. Reg 165 EAA IIRC. It was to be a temporary car whilst our main car (Citroen DS 2300 estate) was in for bodywork repairs. In those days you could wait months for the parts to come in - and we did, 4 months to be precise! Problem is he couldn't use the Renault 5 as my mother wanted that for her transport.
He bought it for £90 privately and sold it to a garage for a wopping £115!
That Citroen must surely be a contender for the best ordinary car. IT had so many innovations that worked appaulingly but were perfected for later citroens!
H
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i think the thing with citroens, well old ones is it wasn't one model in particular but was spread across a few years and several models and many new citroens are still at the cutting edge of new technology , in my opinion ...cheers...keo.
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.......Reg 165 EAA IIRC.......
I remeber now, it was 175 EAA!
H
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The original Focus for me.
And for me too.
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L\'escargot.
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