The text conversation I had with a mate over a courtesy car

JRS

JRS

JRS

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A friend of mine had his '99 LWB XJ8 rear-ended last week. The other party admitted liability straight away, so no worries there. He finally had a courtesy car dropped off today, having been promised something of a similar class to his Jaguar.

A BMW 318d with a manual 'box turned up :rolleyes:

Here's what was said about it.

BMW318d, its a manual. Ho hum.
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I just done the hospital run, I would not own one if it was free.
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Going to empty the Granada and park the BMW up
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No wonder its got 6 gears, its got no engine.
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Sending it back, just phoned rental firm.
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So there you have it folks. The BMW 318d - not even preferable over a mostly sound but exceedingly scruffy Ford Granada 2.9i estate. BMW must be so proud to see these things leave their factory wearing the blue and white roundel....
 
What a strange post. I covered 1500 miles in a 318d and reviewed it here at the time.

The engine is not powerful but the rest of the car is fine and only a complete fool would park one up in favour of a Ford Granada.
 
Aren't most sold to company car drivers that pick from a paper list and once they have ordered it are stuck with them for years
 
I would never use a rental car as the marker to judge how good a particular model is. It will almost certainly have been abused.

That said, BMW 1 series is not comparable to a Jag XJ8.
 
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[TW]Fox;17243913 said:
The engine is not powerful but the rest of the car is fine and only a complete fool would park one up in favour of a Ford Granada.
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Well, allegedly the car isn't fine. Otherwise he wouldn't have sent it back.

If he'd gotten one with a better mechanical spec (i.e. a six cylinder motor and an auto 'box) then he might have dealt with it. But when you get into something that doesn't have the ride, interior comfort and quality, performance, refinement or ANY of the qualities of your daily driver then you tend to be a bit disappointed by it.

Hell, at least the Granada has an automatic gearbox. Something you tend to like when you're 60 years old and have a ******* great titanium plate in your spine :)
 
JRS said:
Hell, at least the Granada has an automatic gearbox. Something you tend to like when you're 60 years old and have a ******* great titanium plate in your spine :)
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Then he should have categorically stated he wanted an auto. A 318d automatic would have (no doubt) done him absolutely fine.
 
Consider himself lucky, I'm stuck with a Panda at the moment :( Without doubt one of the worst cars I've ever driven, I have no idea why they are so widley praised :confused:

It's not the fact that it is slow, that is expected. It's the fact that it feels like it will fall over around the slightest bend and how minimal the interior of the car is. Also, I didn't think speakers could get much worse than those in my 3 series... I was wrong!
 
paradigm said:
Then he should have categorically stated he wanted an auto. A 318d automatic would have (no doubt) done him absolutely fine.
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He stated that he wanted something of a comparable spec to his Jaguar, since it's not his fault that his pride and joy is out of commission right now. Now, I'd have thought that "comparable spec" would include something like an automatic gearbox myself....

Robboftw said:
Your friend is clearly a bit odd.
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Of course he's a bit odd. Everyone is a bit odd in their own way. And his way is in not liking small saloons with even smaller diesel engines.
 
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MrLOL said:
yes but he wanted identical in this particular specification, not comparable.
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He knew he wasn't going to get a LWB Jag XJ8 as a loaner, if that's what you're getting at. But hell, anything with a decent sized petrol engine and an automatic gearbox would have been better than a manual 318d for him.
 
JRS said:
Of course he's a bit odd. Everyone is a bit odd in their own way. And his way is in not liking small saloons with even smaller diesel engines.
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Well, I would say that he doesn't like it because its clearly better than his car and he won't want to give it back.
 
JRS said:
He knew he wasn't going to get a LWB Jag XJ8 as a loaner, if that's what you're getting at. But hell, anything with a decent sized petrol engine and an automatic gearbox would have been better than a manual 318d for him.
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no just pointing out that "comparable" is a bit ambiguous

hence the auto bit got overlooked.
 
What a stupid thread.

So basically then the reason why this car is unsuitable is because your friend requires an automatic. Which is entirely fair enough but is hardly the cars fault is it?

Still, does bashing BMW's make you feel better about driving a Fiat Sciento? :p
 
NVP said:
Consider himself lucky, I'm stuck with a Panda at the moment :( Without doubt one of the worst cars I've ever driven, I have no idea why they are so widley praised :confused:

It's not the fact that it is slow, that is expected. It's the fact that it feels like it will fall over around the slightest bend and how minimal the interior of the car is. Also, I didn't think speakers could get much worse than those in my 3 series... I was wrong!
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They're so widely praised because they're the same price, sometimes less, as an Aygo/C1/107/i10. Why are you trying to compare it to a 3 series?
 
[TW]Fox;17244276 said:
Still, does bashing BMW's make you feel better about driving a Fiat Sciento? :p
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Now, I sort of expected that shot from hurfdurf when he made it in another thread. But is that honestly the best you could come up with?

Mind, at least he can spell "Seicento".
 
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