Ideas for motorway-mile-munching fun?

[smallspeed]

Funny I just PM'd Graham suggesting either an e39 m5 or an alpina b10s, and that got me wondering if you ever went to see that b3 bi-turbo

Another thought I had - you'd be amazed how much 7-series you can get for 10 grand...

[Ian Comerford]

E class Merceds estates get my vote, I've had three over the last 15 years and the latest one does 50mpg at 85 mph. Smooth, refined, comfortable, economical and reliable.

Ian

[Tony]

Some interesting ideas here, an Alpina might get my vote but the last one I had took forever to sell.

Tony

[nj1052]

Just back from our second 2000 mile round trip to the South of France this year in an Audi SQ5. Managed to survive Calais and get circa 35 MPG cruising at 85 MPH. Very comfortable and loads, I mean LOADS of power when needed. A great car.

[svens]

Any Alpina B3 will solve your problem.
I have a 3.3 2002 Touring. It's utterly stable up until 240km/h. After that you have both hands on the wheel.

And yes - they are hard to sell, so choose yours with care...

[gridgway]

I think I might be going in a different direction having given myself a stern talking to. I've always been a sports-car person - I used my 996GT3RS as my daily commute car and loved it. So I am moving towards buying a smaller more cost-sensible sports car to run alongside the Touareg. Dunno what. Tempted to look at the GT86/BRZ or even a sporty Golf. They will all happily take me up and down the M1.

Splashing a load of cash on a Cayenne, is probably not the way to go. I have plenty of other petrol-head things to spend any excess funds on!

Graham

[Gary71]

I'd happily drive a Mk7 Gti every day, perfect on a motorway, and fun on the twisty bits. I've had three!

[Nige]

Isn't the Golf R supposed to the best thing ever at the moment?

[Gary71]

Probably, but if you are mile munching it's going to waste most of the time! But then that could be said for anything other than a boggo diesel

[Nige]

Yup and about every suggestion on this thread.

[hot66]

I love the new MX5 .. think its a great looking car and not daft money either

[gridgway]

Yes it's true that mile munching is boring, but I was getting confused into thinking I should have a boring car. Not that the suggestions of the M5 and the other stuff is boring. I just think if I go back to my roots and get a smaller modern sporty car, that's fun but cheap to do the miles in I'll be better off.

Yes the new MX5 does look good, but I will be better off in a coupe or similar.

Graham

[Burma-Shave]

I am unqualified as my commute is 9.6 miles.

But surely for pure mile munching, priorities are: interior, ride, mpg, depreciation, sportiness, and erm, off road ability..in that order? Why would you put up with 35mpg in a soft roader when you could get real world 55 in a 520d?

And why would you want to stare at a subaru interior for hours a week rather than be in an s class or panamera (pannie diesel does 45 real world mpg).

I guess this is where what you need and want diverge slightly. GT86 sounds perfect LOL.

[smallspeed]

golf r seems to be the car of choice in our carpark at work right now, however I drove one a couple of weeks back and thought it was dull as f***.. its fast, but it felt really fake to me - forced popping and banging exhaust, monumental grip but detached steering - it just didn't do it for me. My car pops and bangs from time to time, but no one programmed the ECU to do it on purpose..

I've driven an audi s3 a few times aswell, and its similar (as you'd expect) but a lot less of the fireworks and bulls**t they seem to have added to the golf - much more subdued and grown-up, and I think you can get much better deals on them too right now if you're looking at going the finance route

bmw m135i's are cheap right now.. £300 a month, and £2k customer deposit (plus a dealer contribution) I think, HOWEVER a guy i know screwed Northampton bmw down to £279 a month and made them pay all of the deposit during the summer when he got one for his wife! I think the golf R (and to a lesser extent the audi s3) killed the m135i sales off a bit really, hence they've been trying hard to shift them. Again not THE most exciting car to drive ever, but a hooligan hatch, and its rear wheel drive so a bit more involving and nicer to drive, if a tad under-steery at the limit (although "the limit" should be WAY out of reach on public roads)

if you want a cheap(er) and cheerful option, the new fiesta st should come with pace-notes as standard I reckon! I drove a new monotune one last month (stage 2 remap I think) and was laughing for hours afterwards! its also got a pretty impressive standard specification for what it is! dab, electric everything, Bluetooth, etc. I think it would be hard work for motorway miles though..

MX5, GT86 - same again.. I think you'd get bored after a short while driving any distance along the motorway in one!

The new focus rs is supposed to be a cracker, although I'm not sure I could get over "the image" - I'm not being a snob, literally every single one I've seen around s.leic (8 or 10 different cars) has been driven by a complete bell-end trying to race everyone and prove how fast his ford is! I'm not adverse to sticking my foot down, so I should be more amused than disappointed I guess.. ..my story / right-footed-response might change when people start remapping the tits off them Again probably hardwork on the motorway

E39 M5 (manual) / Alpina B5 V8S (auto) still get my vote - fast, quiet, comfortable, reliable, look great, they're going up in value (m5 more-so than the alpina), and surprisingly effective over a and b roads (especially the m5)

[hot66]

just for info ... 520d auto .. real world is more like 46mpg ( car computer) for ours based on averaging 2500 miles month of country road driving with no motorway work to speak of

Although, to put that in context , my CSL averageed around 16-18 mpg on same route