Have you driven one, Stu?
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Don't be crazy Stu! In terms of driving dynamics I'd say a Focus is well above average!
I too would think something along the 1.4 lines....when selling my Vectra I was turned away by one dealer who said no-one wanted a gas guzzling car....trouble is, it was a 1.8!
How things change.
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an early Ford Sierra 1.3l comes to mind (underpowered).
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an early Ford Sierra 1.3l comes to mind (underpowered).
It can't be that, then, by definition.
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I usually define that by the dullest possible car.
That's inaccurate.
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Hard to say. If you look at 0-60, 0-400m, max speed, performance, price, combined fuel economy, emissions, length, width, height, weight, price etc, you will get a different result every time. If you combine them, you need some kind of weighting for each.
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I'd say that Focus is probably the average car for the UK.
Think about it, average doesn't mean bad, it just means that the Focus is the most popular car within the most popular vehicle category.
Go on, someone provide some figures to prove me wrong and show that the Focus class is not the most popular category in the UK :-)
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I agree, Focus was my first thought.
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If one adds the dimensions of time and production output to the equation, A VW Beetle built around 1962 must be the average representative of total automobiledom!
Edited by Sofa Spud on 25/03/2009 at 12:12
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Focus
And what a great car it is
MVP
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In terms of mathematical averages (size, engine, sales), it's probably by definition the Focus. Just think though how much better this average car is than previous averages, specifically the Ford Escorts that used to dominate UK sales.
If though, we're talking metaphorically about an "average" product in a derogatory "car as a white good" sort of way, it would have to be something monumentally dull like a Kia Magentis.
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Average: length, weight, average engine, average power, etc. Not a Tata Nano or a "Smart". Probably not a Punto, or a BMW 3-series. Not an Isuzu Trooper or a Bentley 8. What's average?
Quite a hard question!
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Once upon a time Mr Average was alleged to travel on the Clapham Omnibus. Then there was Mondeo Man.
Dunno what would be the modern equivalent. I seem to see a lot of BMW 3 series and Audi A4s but that is mostly on the motorway network. Maybe they are a sort of default fleet choice now a bit like Cortinas used to be ? To describe them as average is probably unfair. Commonplace they most certainly are though.
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The problem is in deciding whether "average" is mean, median or mode.
Statisticians and Government spin doctors use whichever of these best serves their agenda.
Mean would be the nearest to the figures for size, weight, engine size of all cars, each added up and divided by the number of cars.
Median would be that of which half were bigger/smaller, half more common/rarer etc.
Mode would be that car with most examples on the road.
There will almost certainly be three different answers for the above :-)
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Top Gear magazine used to have a "Data Dad" feature in their new car listings at the back, which readers could task with finding out exact information like this. I haven't bought the mag for years, but I wonder if it still exists? Could be a route to an answer!
Cheers
DP
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??.. but I wonder if it still exists?>>
No, sadly.
But it did come up with some quite remarkable statistics, some of them even quite bizarre.
Edited by Stuartli on 25/03/2009 at 16:23
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BMW 316i, debadged, no extras. First owner from new is the company user chooser who thinks BMW ownership = corporate ladder. Auctioned off at end of lease, bought by someone who could have bought a a newer better than average Focus but never will. Run for the next five years on the cheap, not many motorway miles but thousands of traffic light drags - few won. Ebayed to a burberry clad chav who could have bought a newer better than average Focus but won't. He crashes it having cancelled the insurance the day after taxing it and it gets recycled, shipped to Germany and becomes part of the floorpan of a new BMW 118i, 95% of which are debadged.....
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>>And what a great car it is >>
Just as with the Mondeo and the Fiesta, Peugeot 405 and 406, Mini, plus many other popular cars.
Many UK drivers haven't a clue just how good cars from the past 15 years or so onwards have become in the ride and handling stakes.
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Danger of serious topic / thread drift here but.......
Just picked up my wife's 5 year old Ka from the garage where it was being fed, fettled, watered and MOTd.
I don't seem to drive it much at the moment and may not have done for a month or two. Every time I do though I think how much fun it is for such a basic car. Corners like a bluebottle, nippy round town and surprisingly comfortable for such a wee car. It cost us £5k new exactly five years ago and has been great. Never any bother. Not a great deal to go wrong maybe. They are supposed to be rusty but ours isn't. Of course it has been superceded in design, safety and economy terms by many things but it is actually a more than OK town/city fling about. Costs buttons to maintain/insure etc.
To try to save some face by loosely dragging all this back to topic, it is almost certainly below average in any way you care to measure these things but I don't seem to mind that really.
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Mk2 Cavalier 1.8 petrol. Nuff said.
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I had an SRi one of them PU. Liked it at the time. When I think back though it was a heavy brute with no power steering. Went well though. Pre-cat of course when engines wuz engines.....Recaro seats and a rubber spoiler on the tailgate. Big alloys ( well not by todays standards ) with centre caps which fell off most weeks......
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Sorry meant MK3 ! I was specifically thinking of the PAS thing - part of what made it a good average car. I have to confess maintaining a steady 120 mph in a MK 2 1.8i on the M6 in the 80s before speed became a crime against society.
Edited by Pugugly on 25/03/2009 at 16:40
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Aye, I might be wrong, probably am, but I think those of us who exceed a certain age maybe had the best of the motoring. .......
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You're right - managed a bit of "drive" in the Golf - feeling post Tescoish the other day, felt guilty all afternoon as if I'd personally clubbed a seal to death or something :-(
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Me too. C698NDP. A four door 1.8 saloon in black. Went like stink. Wheelspun and torque steered for England. Utterly reliable apart from a fuel pump relay burning out.
Had terminal rot around the rear suspension turrets in the boot when I sold it on 12 yrs ago. Very, very doubtful the next owner got it through another MOT.
Weighed about the same as a current basic Clio. There's food for thought.
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Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 base spec.
Boring clone box bought by boring identikit reps.
The perfect average car for the average "family man" (read 35-year-old accountant).
Can't believe people are putting the Fords forward. GMs are far more mediocre. Even their cheap skatecars (Daewoos) are inherently more brown trousers than Hyundais and Kias (cheap cars being by definition less average, due to the owner *actually making a conscious decision* to buy a cheap car rather than the default (lazy) option of another standard Eurobox)
Edited by jase1 on 26/03/2009 at 23:49
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TDCi "Zetec" spec Focus in gunmetal grey.
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Dullest possible car, a 51 reg Astra 1.6 8v LS in Silver.
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Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 base spec.
I would think that above average size and power.
Boring (snip) mediocre (snip) cheap
Those don't enter into it. I asked about "average".
Since this all seems terribly difficult to understand, let me re-couch the question:
What is the average power for cars, where "average" is the arithmetic mean?
What is the average weight for cars, where "average" is the arithmetic mean?
What is the average length for cars, where "average" is the arithmetic mean?
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