The original carphone?

[Maria]

Remember when carphones were large and unwieldy?

[Jonathan]

Is it on a contract or pay as yu-go? :laugh:

[e692wtt]

Goes to show...


Yugo nowhere in a Yugo.

45 or 55 per minute? A [eh]? Never mind... Yugo 55a GLS - model designation... It wasn't even much better than a Fiat (Fix It Again Tomorrow) 127... Apologies to Fiat fans everywhere!

Errm...

The other other Rich.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[D87 SMW]

Jeremy Clarkson named the Nissan Sunny the Worst Car In The World...EVER. I think he's off his trolley! The Yugo HAS to be The Worst Car In The World...EVER!
(Unless unone can find anything worse)


F170 GGT

[Austin-Rover]

Maybe not the worst car ever, but the new Nissan Micra has to be the ugliest! There should be a law to prevent cars like that.

- And yes, i do speak Micra - FUGLY

[F690OTF(RIP)]

It won the Top Gear award for the stupidest looking Renault, or some such wording. It's too big to be a Micra, anyway. Even the Japanese are forgetting how to build small cars these days.

[e692wtt]

Have a look at SniffPetrol.com 's archive of made-up adverts. There is one for the new Micra (as per the advertisement hoarding posters) that combines words like NIPPY and SUBTLE to come up with words, errm, worse than FUGLY... I'm sure you can guess!

Kinda sums up the Micra, and its designers, if you ask me.

The other other Rich.

[Wonko_The_Sane]

I'll never forget being a passenger in one of those :censored: things...A 45A I think..alloy wheels..on a turd!

It was SO embarrasing...all 3 of us kept our heads covered. The driver was PROUD of that car!:eek:

Luckily, he killed it by hitting another vehicle. His fix was to chain the mangled front to a tree, and pull the damage out by attaching a Volvo 340 to it and driving in the opposite direction...it actually ripped the car apart!:laugh:

Nasty, nasty things..

e692wtt-Everyone knows the only fans FIAT have are the ones strapped to the radiators..:laugh:

Agreed on the new Micra BTW..the missus and I see them about..and it's always "Yuk...overtake it...please? I don't want to be seen near one..":laugh:

[F690OTF(RIP)]

Like me walking past a new "Mini" (a travesty of the name); giving it as wide a berth as possible, crossing the road if necessary.

[Austin-Rover]

Perhaps BMW should have experimented with the name MAXI - because that car is in no way mini in size, its huge - especially when parked next to the original.

[John S]

I think the whole point of owning a mini in the first place was to offer cheap, value for money motoring - can't say that now looking at its price tag :rolleyes:

[e692wtt]

Wonko_The_Sane,

Re your comments about FIAT fans being strapped to the radiator - I was unaware of this but find it hilarious. Thanks for a good laugh! It's a shame the Yugo 45/55 weren't in any way even as good as the Fiat 127 they were based on - I know someone who was very proud of their Yugo 55A GLS once. Something I cannot comprehend 15 years on, even...


Richard,

I doubt BMW would even consider the name MAXI, but your comments are well founded. BMW tried to bleed Rover dry, and probably expected that the sale of the remnants of Rover for £10 would be the end of Rover. BMW tried to deny Rover Group's past (eg showing surprise that 'our cars' were still being produced when BMW took Rover Group over, and ceasing production of 'our cars' asap) and they must be exceedingly pi**ed off that the Rover 25, 45 and 75 and associated MGs are selling extremely well and that MG Rover (or insert appropriate name) are going from strength to strength. As for Chairman Heap's comments in the latest Monstro regarding the MG Vans (based on the 25, at least), surely this shows how canny MG Rover's marketing staff are, and *why* the company is doing so well? Good luck to them! Can I make jokes about the Phoenix rising from the ashes here, assuming that it was the Phoenix Consortium that stumped up the nominal tenner???

The other other Rich.
:laugh:

[F690OTF(RIP)]

Not Maxi, it has too many connections to the glorious British motor industry with which this "Mini" shares absolutely nothing. My brother refers to it as a Midi, whilst other friends have been known to refer to it as a Medium.
The fundamental problem is that it (however you wish to refer to it) was built to imitate the Mini and be a cult car. The designers seem to miss the obvious point that no car which is now a 'cult' car (Mini, Beetle, etc.) was built to be one! The Mini was an absolutely groundbreaking piece of engineering, which is partly why it was so successful. I haven't had a detailed look at the technical details of the new 'thing', which is perhaps slightly unfair of me. But it's obvious from the start that it's not designed with the same things in mind; the fact that the base engine size is 1.6 litres, nearly twice that of the Mini! Words cannot describe how ridiculous a notion it is that this car should share a name with such a great emblem of British engineering.

[e692wtt]

Yep, cynical marketing, that's the reason for 'Mini II'. BMW Designer Cars for people with small genitalia (allegedly). As I said before, MG Rover's marketing machine is truly 'on a roll'. MG Vans? Can't fault the novelty of such a concept.

In the '60s (so I believe...) one could but a Mini Van with a rudimentary rear seat, to save the Purchase Tax charged on a Passenger Vehicle with rear side windows. Not with a Mini Cooper engine though. Purchase Tax is long gone nowadays, for better or for worse.

I was in Ireland recently and saw several vehicles that looked like normal cars but their rear passenger doors, while they could be opened, had no glass but were solid steel from the 'window frame' to the sill. Never seen these in England. Hmm...

One vehicle that springs to mind as possibly having been designed as a cult vehicle is the Peugeot 205 GTI, as Peugeot were well known for the ability to design a 'good chassis' for driving - they know their stuff! The 205GTI became the 'new' Golf GTI - this car was a groundbreaker in 1976, but was, in concept, based on the Mini Cooper S with a powerful engine in a light, well sorted chassis. Mind you, the 205 GTI's great handling comes with the cost of 'lift off oversteer' which is something the Mini never had.

No modern car comes anywhere the 205GTI - and the lower range models were very satisfying to drive. My dad had a 205 GR 1.4 and a mate had a 205 XLD 1.8 which would leave just about every other car standing when driven properly - its handling on 145-section tyres was, errm, rather good.

The other other Rich.


:eek:

[topgear]

:D Hail Jeremy Clarkson - he rules the world! :rolleyes:

[Wonko_The_Sane]

I always wanted a 205 1.6 auto...I see them at Disabled motorists clubs..but never for sale! People reckon they're none too bad..:)

I've driven an Esco*t RS2000 Auto demonstrator that was on loan to my local club...had to follow someone else to take it for repair. I'd only passed my test a month before...cult name..but on a mark 5 Esco*t, it was about as nice and inspirational as any ford..:)

I preferred getting back into my Renault 5 after..:rolleyes:

[D87 SMW]

The red Maestro in your Avatar, what model is it? :confused: The Clubman model has a silver grille, doesn't it?

[F690OTF(RIP)]

All the Clubmans I've ever seen have body coloured grilles. Our white one has a white grille.

[D87 SMW]

The Clubman I see regularly is red with a silver grille. Not sure if this is original though.??

[MaestroMatt]

Silver (as in chromium) grilles were reserved for the Vanden Plas models, which also had chrome mirror trim, door handles and - I think - exhaust pipe trim. If they didn't have the last, they should have had as it looks great!

[Austin-Rover]

I am getting a bit confused here. Didnt Clubmas come with either a body coloured grille or a silver grille. My Clubman has a silver grille, so maybe later models did not have a body coloured grille, but early models did?

[E_T_V]

Well our ex plod clubman has a colour coded grill (white) and that is a 92 vintage.

Think most later ones had a coloured grill - dunno about the earlier ones though. They are easy to break so I expect many got swapped with older scrap yard silver ones.

[D87 SMW]

Here is an image of a late model Maestro Clubman, with the silver grille. Richard Gelder, if your grille has an austin badge on it, it isn't the original grille. BUT, I think the white ones had the body colour grille, and not the silver ones like the red Clubmans.



http://www.maestro.org.uk/images/ma_clubdt01.jpg

[topgear]

Originally posted by F170 GGT
The red Maestro in your Avatar, what model is it? :confused: The Clubman model has a silver grille, doesn't it?

Hi F170 GGT, sorry to have confused you all! ;) The red maestro in my avatar is a 1987 1.3 City X, but i thought the grill would look better body coloured, so i resprayed it! :-) Must look convincing!

As far as i know all City and city x had a grey grille, and only VDP's have the proper silver/chrome effect, whi9ch ones have the proper coloured ones, im not too sure.. but i like to think mines the only city x! :D

[D87 SMW]

I think all Clubmans up to L reg had the body colour grille. L and M (as shown in the photo) have the silver grille. I had to fit a silver grille to my Special, as it was broken , but I decided to spray it red as original.

[matthewsemple]

My mum had a Yugo 45A for ten years before she bought a Rover 100. It was actually really good and it was completely rust free when she sold it for £300 (bought new for £3000). So it depreciated £270 a year during the time she owned it - not bad.

I drove it for about 3 years before I could afford the insurance on my Maestro whilst I was a student. However I must say my MG Maestro turbo is about four times quicker to 60mph!

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by F170 GGT
I think all Clubmans up to L reg had the body colour grille. L and M (as shown in the photo) have the silver grille. I had to fit a silver grille to my Special, as it was broken , but I decided to spray it red as original.

The Specials all had colour coded grilles except the Pulsar Silver cars which had the normal silver grille as it was close enough anyway. The 1989 Today's Cars brochure makes several mentions of this!

Did you know that the MG1600 is the only MG to have a silver non-colour coded grille and teh MG badge holder is merely clipped over a standard Austin grille?