What's your minimum car spec?

Reasonable comfort
Good handling feel
Capable engine (not having to shift down two gears just to speed it up without a struggle)
NOT DIESEL
Good stereo
Xenons or better
Spacious boot (hah, jokes. 3 bags max is fine :p)
Air-conditioning for about six days a year (I don't miss it much right now to be honest)

My car basically. I hate all of these stupid gadgets, electronic adjustment on seats, memory functions on the adjustments, steering..:rolleyes::rolleyes: etc.. Just tell me when I need fuel, air in the tyres, washer fluid, oil and coolant. Remove everything extra that serves little to no purpose.
 
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Judging by how much i enjoy my mx5 the bar is quite low, that has no pas, manual everything and doesn't even have a stereo or speakers.

So lets say a working heater and RWD as a minimum.

Preferred -
>200hp and probably more than 4 cylinders unless its turbo'ed
good seats
decent suspension
a coupe or saloon
Something i don't have to fret over if i damage it
 
One of my must have car spec's is

A digital Speedo read out..


After having a digital Speedo read out on my motorbikes for last 15+ years and also in my RX8 for last 5 years and now my Focus ST
I hate looking at the normal crappy needle dials type speedo's......
 
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I must have an incredibly low standards compared to the rest of you lot :(

Essentials:
A radio of some type, ideally with the ability to listen to something other than what's being broadcast (CD, USB etc) but that's no big deal.
Heater

Nice to have:
Air con
Stereo with USB for music
not too slow

Anything else is on the 'nice to have' would be cool but not something i'd really worry about. My little Yaris has no air con and a tape player but meh it doesn't bother me. It does however had electric windows :eek: not that i'd be fussed in the slightest if they were wind up.
 
chaparral said:
And how many late 80's & early 90's cars came with Bluetooth, A Good audio system ,Dual zone CC , PDC + reversing camera ...:p
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Like I said it depends on price, I'm perfectly happy with something like a saxo vts or 106 rallye or gti as they are cheap to run and fun. If I have to spend more, then I'd want all those extra's, but they aren't a ''minimum'' more a ''minimum for the price''.


As for bluetooth, any car with a normal single or double DIN HU can be cheaply upgraded with BT. Dual zone CC + pdc + etc is just a must for cars that cost more than 300-400 euros/month to drive for example.

Hell, even for 400 euros or so you get a much better audio system than the stock rubbish, cheap amp+sub are 100-150, cable kit is 40 ish, good budget HU with BT about 200 ish, 100 ish for better door speakers, and you have a system vastly superior to what manufacturers put in.

It's actually disgusting what rubbish sound systems even ''higher end'' cars like Audi put in their cars, let alone mainstream brands (my current temp. company car Renault Megane, omg what rubbish they have put in it, and my experience with VAG isn't better. You can't replace the HU with something else as then the sat nav stops working, and also there's some kind of module that picks up if you a get line output converter on the speaker outputs. Everything to force you to take the Bose upgrade (which may be nice for the avg user, but for someone used to better, it's quite meh, plus terribly overpriced).

I wanted to upgrade the audio even on this temp car, but unfortunately it's not so easy and I refuse to invest silly amounts in a temp. car (few tenners would be okay if it was just a matter of a cable kit and temp. moving my sub + amp over).
 
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I require very little considering I don't do very much driving, only 8k ish a year and my commute is short.

Therefore:

200hp+
Pretty
Sounds nice

(typical Alfa owner? :p:()
 
Minimum spec:

External:
NO CAT D
No more than 1 panel re-sprayed - ALL Panels must align perfectly
Visual parking sensors (minimum rear prefer all round)
Oil-burner with minimum 130BHP
No more than 70K miles absolute MAX
DRL's - Not cruddy yellow ones (but not chavvy either)

Internal:
Remote central locking
Auto-windscreen wipers (sold my volvo cus it didn't have this lol!)
AC
DAB Radio (at least 8 speakers)
Cruise Control
ALL electric windows
Auto-lights
Power Steering, ABS, Traction Control (standard stuff these days)
Good leg room in the back
Comfortable seats

Oh and most importantly no more than 1 person I know can have the same car as me :)

Don't ask for much do I? - no wonder it usually takes me about a month to find a new car lol
 
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snowdog said:
Must:
Bluetooth
Good audio system (stock audio, even the''upgrade'' with factory subwoofer, is quite rubbish), first thing I do when I get my new company car is 1000+ euro's of audio in it.
Not too slow

Audio system + being able to drive nippy makes up 90% of the driving experience for me.
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Pretty much sums up my needs. Also add petrol only to that list, just cause. :p
 
I'm suprised how many people see AC as essential. It's a nice luxury but it doesn't really get that hot in the UK so it wouldn't have me walking away from a car. I'd much rather have a heated seat.
 
p1RATE said:
I'm suprised how many people see AC as essential. It's a nice luxury but it doesn't really get that hot in the UK so it wouldn't have me walking away from a car. I'd much rather have a heated seat.
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A/C is something that once you have had it, there is no going back.

For me:
- A/C (See what I did there)
- Reasonable power, so basically not the weediest engine in the range
- At least mid range trim level
- DAB radio
- Leccy windows and power steering (added these together as all cars come with them now!)
- A sense of good value for money
- Comfy seats (goes hand in hand with the trim level)
 
The minimum features on a car which i would buy are fairly simple as a basic formula, although in practice i would always buy cars with other features such as navigation on top of this;

  • Big (or at least "feels" big, a 3-series for example feels too small to me).
  • Automatic (absolute deal breaker)
  • AC (No idea what p1RATE can be talking about, the gas leaked out on my Range Rover and i was desperate to get it fixed immediately).
  • Electric conveniences, any cars like this come with electric everything anyway generally, but i would be very put off without at least auto lights/wipers/windows/electric, heated seats etc
  • Cruise control (absolute deal breaker)
 
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p1RATE said:
Judging by how much i enjoy my mx5 the bar is quite low, that has no pas, manual everything and doesn't even have a stereo or speakers.

So lets say a working heater and RWD as a minimum.

Preferred -
>200hp and probably more than 4 cylinders unless its turbo'ed
good seats
decent suspension
a coupe or saloon
Something i don't have to fret over if i damage it
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That's very true for me as well.

As a minimum all I need is reliability and safe to drive.

But what I get in the mx5 keeps me happy enough.

Might move on to something more exotic if I earn more but that would be a luxury.
 
Ricochet J said:
Vanilla cruise control, or the fancy radar stuff?
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I've got a car with (early) radar cruise, and cars with various levels of regular cruise. I'd honestly class radar cruise (or anything above basic set/resume) as a bonus rather than crucial personally, for me it's main function is just to stop my legs getting tired which normal cruise works fine for as you can speed up and slow down on the cruise stalk/buttons anyway...
 
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