Car character?

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murray55, Feb 24, 2:04am
Agree you with on that one .lovely car to own and drive .a little bias though since I own onehahaha
gammelvind, Feb 24, 2:07am
These days after many cars I just want a car that has comfy seats, good sounds and bloody well starts everytime.
Buuuut in saying all that, I still have a soft spot for the old roundies and finnys Mercedes-Benz from the 50's and 60's, lovely old buses.
javlin, Feb 24, 2:08am
I have always driven cars with "character". First car was a Morris 8 followed by a home built special (not built by me), a Reliant Regal, then two Jowett Javelins, a DX Vauxhall, a Triumph 2000, a Morris Minor and finally a BMW. Latest project is a vintage Dodge.

Cars without character may be easy to drive but they are soul less IMO.
neville48, Feb 24, 2:08am
How wrong you are. I have not seen a magazine dedicated to washing machines or "microwave monthly" butt check out the amounts of magazines dedicated to the thing that just carries people from A to B. Where have you been cupcake !
rpvr, Feb 24, 3:05am
Not saying you are wrong, just commenting on the foibles of human behaviour, which amuses me. Similarly, the fact that a car worth a few thousand dollars gets it's paint damaged and requires respraying to a flawless finish, yet the same person often will not hesitate to attack his $800,000 house with a pail of acrylic paint and a six-inch brush. No rhyme or reason to human behaviour.
neville48, Feb 24, 3:12am
Or drive 10 kms to get petrol for 3 cents a litre cheaper haha.think you have to be slightely "touched" to be a car guy or gal.
sleuth, Feb 24, 4:12am
DL, we find common ground!
Growing up my familly had 7 models of Hillmans, and a Triumph 2.5PI. Personally have had 3 Hillmans and still own a Triumph Spitfire.
Agree with your comments on the Avenger, a great little car with all the potential to knock Ford off its pedestal. Its a shame Rootes never supported the Avenger as fully in racing like Ford did the Escort.
fiatracer, Feb 24, 4:35pm
Post 1 could me ME talking! Yep - have chased exactly that all my life - 12 Fiats including x1/9s and 128s mainly, triumph, a Holden, Valiants, an Alfa, Renault,2 Golfs, 9 citroens, a Merc, several BMWs and many more, but rarely Japanese except 2 MX5s. I *think* I have a good affordable balance right now - a mid 90s Jag XJ [nice, attractive, quick enough, great to travel in, and cheap] an MGB and an old Beetle [sold last night]. BUT. if pushed to choose one make that above all others captures that essence - it'd have to be BMW. Have had E21, two E32s [still have one as a paddock basher], E36 328 M Sport, E34 540i, E38 740i.
fiatracer, Feb 24, 4:36pm
doesn't mean I don't have my eye on more eclectic trademe listing though. :-)
fiatracer, Feb 24, 4:39pm
Intriguing. and how many times have I watched youtube clips of Rotary-powered MGs. smallblock chev powered E36 BMWs. and so on.
skiff1, Feb 24, 10:03pm
I used to console my self that even though my cars were unreliable pieces of crap (1980 UC Sunbird, 1970 HB Viva, 1980 Hilux) they all had character. Then I started getting brand new cars. I now realise I would happily drive a giant block of white polystyrene with a picture of Al Gore on it, if I was guaranteed to get there every time, and not have to pour money into the pockets of wreckers, mechanics and panel eaters every time I start the engine.
Character in cars is how people with obsolete junk console themselves that they have an obsolete piece of trash.
sgrants, Feb 25, 2:19am
True!
If you need character in a vehicle you should seriously join a racing club and enjoy your "character" on a track or closed road! my 83 sub $1000 "$h1t b0x" still keeps up with the flow (actually more as most of you plebs can't seem to get over 85 kph on the open road these days) for less than $60 a week for my 450km trip to work and back !
fiatracer, Feb 25, 1:41pm
! WTF. nobody said anything about driving fast or stupidly on the road. If you don't get the concept of this thread by now, you perhaps never will.

An early alfasud at legal speeds has waaay more character than a starlet.
socram, Feb 25, 1:50pm
You you are no longer a car person then!Real car people need zero justification for the cars they own or desire.A 1930's supercharged Bentley, 1960'sFerrari 250SWB, 1950's RM Riley are all obsolete but they are not exactly junk and I'd happily shift our moderns out to make room for them in my garage.
There are plenty of people driving around in new cars that are junk before they are obsolete.

As the original posters says, there are no right or wrong answers but if you can't recognise character in a car, then that is your loss.
sr2, Feb 25, 1:55pm
If that's how you feel about your car one could wonder what you are doing on a motoring message board.
Some of us are simply passionate about cars; practicality has very little to do with it.
tigra, Feb 25, 6:12pm
[quot; practicality has very little to do with it.[/quote]

LOL!
skiff1, Feb 25, 9:29pm
So are you saying that to be a "real car person" you have to be illogical and irrational!
So every guy who buys a ute instead of a convertable isnot a "real car person"! I have owned machines that were neat to look at, or were technologically ahead of their time, but frankly my 2010 ranger kicks the ass of my suzuki jeep in every respect. My new farm bikes are all better than the ones I had ten years ago, and the second I can replace my crappy romanian tractor (with all its "character"), for something that starts in the morning, I will.
skiff1, Feb 25, 9:30pm
I'll remember that next time you give advice on the quality of any particular automobile.
itsbutters, Feb 26, 1:05am
"Character" is exactly what I love about my AE86. No power steering (or power anything for that matter), just a great handling, responsive fun car to drive that feels unrefined and raw. It's been incredibly reliable too. There's a good reason they're well loved by all who drive them, despite being "just an old Corolla" on paper.

I actually have no idea what I'll replace it with, but I want to keep driving something that invokes that kind of feeling. I'll probably end up with a Starlet or similar. Some good food for thought in this thread :)
marcos1, Feb 26, 1:13am
Lol.failed windup
rpvr, Feb 26, 1:15pm
The reason I'm on the motoring message board is because I like to do my own repairs when I can to save money, and for the satisfaction of doing it. Repair my own washing machine and microwave too if it's within my capabilities.
socram, Feb 26, 2:37pm
If you like!My choice of modern daily car gets slagged off on here all the time, with people quoting tales of woe and what cr*p they are.So yes, I am happy to be classed as irrational and illogical in the minds of others, but as I have had 100% reliability AND character, defying all logic and all posters to the contrary, I am happy enough.

But a real car person has a wider involvement in matters of motoring than just their daily driver,which is what makes them a car person as opposed to a wheeled whiteware user.
skiff1, Feb 26, 2:49pm
so now we are changing the rules. To be a "real car person" you have to have enough money to own an unreliable junker, as well as your daily driver.
rob_man, Feb 26, 3:04pm
I always felt that I could put together a better package by taking the best components from different manufacturers and combining them in a creation of my own. Back in the heady days of unregulated engine swapping and hotrod building I put a 327 Chev into a MkI Jaguar with a 5spd Toyota box and had shitloads of reliable fun scaring the pants off Triumph 2.5PI drivers and the like. The Hillman Hunter SW with a Mitsubishi Sirius motor and box was another winner although the Anglia van with the 1600GT Capri Xflow isn't really an engine swap but still qualifies as personalised I guess and was plenty quick.
akaniva, Feb 27, 2:38am
My favourite is a Datsun 1600. They have character and are fun to drive as well as being reliable and dead simple to work on etc. Oh, and they are going up in value at a rate of knots so depreciation does not apply.