Originally Posted by bdcardinal
Originally Posted by Vikas
I am absolutely shocked at realizing that half of the terms used by OP went over my head even though I did get the gist of it. So much difference between the English language that is spoken by British versus by American
Two countries separated by a common language.
I watch a lot of American car programs and also spend a fair amount of time reading this board and have noticed that Americans don't seem to use 'common sayings' like we do in the UK. Stuff like 'doesn't cut the mustard' or 'different kettle of fish'.
Originally Posted by vavavroom
Originally Posted by Bailes1992
Our Duster had a 1.5 litre, 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine with a 6 speed manual gearbox and 4WD. We owned ours for 2 years and it was fully dependable, albeit we only did 14,000miles in that time. It was brilliant on rubbish runs to the tip, was great when we moved house, it was great in the snow, was comfortable on long journeys and did 50+ MPG.
For garbage runs to the tip, I'd rather not share the cabin with the refuse. Are pickup trucks still a rarity in the UK?
I don't know how you do refuse collections in the US, the US is a big place and I imagine it's different everywhere.
Where I live in the UK we get boxes and bags for recycling. These are for plastics, aluminium, cardboard, glass, paper and food waste which get collected weekly. Then every fortnight they will pick up a maximum of two large black bags from us with non-recyclables. As we have a baby we also get purple plastic bags which they pick up with our black bags for nappies or diapers as they're called in the US.
Therefore, we don't have anything smelly or dirty to go to the rubbish tip, usually large cardboard boxes or polystyrene packaging when we buy ourselves furniture or a TV or something.
You can get pick-up trucks in the UK. They're smaller trucks compared to the stuff you get in the US but we get vehicles like the Ford Ranger available with a 3.2 i5 or 2.2 i4 diesel engine, or the Volkswagen Amorak available with a 3.0 V6 or 2.0 i4 diesel engine. Petrol/gas pick-ups are certainly not available. There was a period when a lot of people who could pick a company vehicle were picking pick-ups, as they're classed as commercial vehicles the company car tax was much less.
Originally Posted by hpb
I was waiting for the cries of "You can't have something that small as a family car!" from our US brethren. Perfect. It's all the vehicle you need. We had 3 young kids (all in car seats, 2 still in prams) and the family car was a 2004 Ford Focus sedan...did the job easily.
Originally Posted by fdcg27
We were getting there at one time, but something went awry and we now have mainly largish CUVs as family transport.
I loved the smaller cars that we had and if you like this Dacia you would have loved one of our eighties Civic Wagons.
Alas, the middle classes here have decided that more car than you need is somehow better.
My Parents only ever had a Ford Escort van and a Ford Orion Ghia Si from when I was born in 1992 till 1999 when my Father was promoted and his company van got replaced with a Ford Focus Saloon/Sedan company car. In 2002 both cars got replaced, my Father had a Ford Mondeo ST24 (or Contour SVT in the US) as a company car and my Mother got a Ford Focus LX 1.6i hatch. Even with myself and my Sister the cars were always plenty big enough and we never struggled.
There's loads of people in the UK with 2 or more kids with just Ford Fiesta's or Vauxhall Corsa's. We just seem to manage and get on with it.
We also have an influx of 'fake 4x4's' as I call them. Everyone seems to be driving around in Nissan Jukes, Quashqai's (Rogue Sport), Ford Kuga's, Vauxhall Mokka's, Kia Sportage's etc and 99% of them are 2WD. What's the point? Most of them are no bigger than their equivalent car, don't ride as nice because they're jacked up, don't get the same performance because they're not as aerodynamic and use a fair bit more fuel too. There's no advantage to them, without 4WD/AWD they'll be stumped by much more than wet grass.
Anyway, I thought I'd add some pictures of the old Duster for those interested...
Originally Posted by Vikas
I am absolutely shocked at realizing that half of the terms used by OP went over my head even though I did get the gist of it. So much difference between the English language that is spoken by British versus by American
Two countries separated by a common language.
I watch a lot of American car programs and also spend a fair amount of time reading this board and have noticed that Americans don't seem to use 'common sayings' like we do in the UK. Stuff like 'doesn't cut the mustard' or 'different kettle of fish'.
Originally Posted by vavavroom
Originally Posted by Bailes1992
Our Duster had a 1.5 litre, 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine with a 6 speed manual gearbox and 4WD. We owned ours for 2 years and it was fully dependable, albeit we only did 14,000miles in that time. It was brilliant on rubbish runs to the tip, was great when we moved house, it was great in the snow, was comfortable on long journeys and did 50+ MPG.
For garbage runs to the tip, I'd rather not share the cabin with the refuse. Are pickup trucks still a rarity in the UK?
I don't know how you do refuse collections in the US, the US is a big place and I imagine it's different everywhere.
Where I live in the UK we get boxes and bags for recycling. These are for plastics, aluminium, cardboard, glass, paper and food waste which get collected weekly. Then every fortnight they will pick up a maximum of two large black bags from us with non-recyclables. As we have a baby we also get purple plastic bags which they pick up with our black bags for nappies or diapers as they're called in the US.
Therefore, we don't have anything smelly or dirty to go to the rubbish tip, usually large cardboard boxes or polystyrene packaging when we buy ourselves furniture or a TV or something.
You can get pick-up trucks in the UK. They're smaller trucks compared to the stuff you get in the US but we get vehicles like the Ford Ranger available with a 3.2 i5 or 2.2 i4 diesel engine, or the Volkswagen Amorak available with a 3.0 V6 or 2.0 i4 diesel engine. Petrol/gas pick-ups are certainly not available. There was a period when a lot of people who could pick a company vehicle were picking pick-ups, as they're classed as commercial vehicles the company car tax was much less.
Originally Posted by hpb
I was waiting for the cries of "You can't have something that small as a family car!" from our US brethren. Perfect. It's all the vehicle you need. We had 3 young kids (all in car seats, 2 still in prams) and the family car was a 2004 Ford Focus sedan...did the job easily.
Originally Posted by fdcg27
We were getting there at one time, but something went awry and we now have mainly largish CUVs as family transport.
I loved the smaller cars that we had and if you like this Dacia you would have loved one of our eighties Civic Wagons.
Alas, the middle classes here have decided that more car than you need is somehow better.
My Parents only ever had a Ford Escort van and a Ford Orion Ghia Si from when I was born in 1992 till 1999 when my Father was promoted and his company van got replaced with a Ford Focus Saloon/Sedan company car. In 2002 both cars got replaced, my Father had a Ford Mondeo ST24 (or Contour SVT in the US) as a company car and my Mother got a Ford Focus LX 1.6i hatch. Even with myself and my Sister the cars were always plenty big enough and we never struggled.
There's loads of people in the UK with 2 or more kids with just Ford Fiesta's or Vauxhall Corsa's. We just seem to manage and get on with it.
We also have an influx of 'fake 4x4's' as I call them. Everyone seems to be driving around in Nissan Jukes, Quashqai's (Rogue Sport), Ford Kuga's, Vauxhall Mokka's, Kia Sportage's etc and 99% of them are 2WD. What's the point? Most of them are no bigger than their equivalent car, don't ride as nice because they're jacked up, don't get the same performance because they're not as aerodynamic and use a fair bit more fuel too. There's no advantage to them, without 4WD/AWD they'll be stumped by much more than wet grass.
Anyway, I thought I'd add some pictures of the old Duster for those interested...
![[Linked Image]](https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/usergals/2019/03/full-73794-30876-dacia_sandero.jpg "[Linked Image]")
The Focus has a couple more years left and then I may have to settle for a sedan... Or try my luck with a Volkswagen wagon.
