OK, anyone that can help on this topic

Choice #1: Landie
109" Series III, 2 door with window hardtop. Built 1977 (free of taxes)
Accesories: roofrack, freewheel hubs, bullbar...
Advertised price: 9500 euros

Choice #2: Dacia Logan
Megane with more space in the back with cheap badging (like skoda octavia vs vw passat)
Included accesories: airbags, alloy wheels...
8600 euros will give you a new one

Small decision list i made up
Resale value
Landie: if in good condition, same or better price as the advertised one.
Dacia: dunno what the value drop will be, but probably quite high.

Optional stuff that can be added to raise value
Landie: my modification ideas are: spare on the bonnet, roofrack lights, mudflaps, sump guard, stronger suspension, elsbett engine (both diesel and PPO capabe).
Dacia: dunno? spoilers perhaps

Maitenance and stuff
Landie: it's a 1977 car... but a diesel. Chassis will rot, but not the bodywork
Dacia: Renault wasn't that happy with the dutch importer that started to sell these... Majority of mechanical parts same as Clio / Megane. Bodywork said to be prone to rust.

ADAC had a Dacia rolling over... probably asked to do that by a certain german car manufacturer, as later was proven that the tires were so bad that they would never have been allowed to do that test...

Get the Landie, good solid vehicle that hardly ever goes wrong and is superbly strong in a crash (just check the chassis for rust).
The Dacia is a Romanian piece of sh*t and will have the resale value of a mouldy potato. I saw one here the other week that was only 2 months old and already the exhaust was rusting!

Quote:

The same garage that had the 9500 euro 109 had a 2500 euro LPG oldskool Rangerover too... I counted at least 5 different paint colors on the various body parts.

OK now what's your definition of 'decent'.

@heretic: i don't fit comfortably in anything earlier than late model Golf IV, and i definetly want a diesel as these are easier to drive in traffic jams.

Only hurdels before driving the landie are
1: Get my parents to the point where they allow the thing to be parked in sight.
2: My girlfriend absolutely hates them (she's more into BMWs but the only thing she has driven so far is a completely beaten up Nissan).

Why these two cars. (I could have added a Toyota Landcruiser...)
Because that Dacia looks like a reasonable choice over a Lada 110/111/112 which is about in the same price range.

About the Landrover: it has character, it looks cool, it's more economical than a Patrol or Landcruiser, it runs on almost anything that resembles oil (you can even put your old engine oil in the tank if you want). Most importantly, it's capabilities match with my driving attitude.

Landrover:

• Oldskool diesel so can do PPO whitout blowing up the fancy electrics.
• Parts not hard to get, and no 10 models in 5 years like Japanese manufacturers tend to do.
• If chassis is well treated it won't rust, as the body is aluminium.
• If it isn't ex army it has been well cared for, as it's expensive to get a new one.
• If older than 25 year, no taxes.
• Same ride height as our T4 van, which makes driving more enjoyable and safe.
• Isn't blown halfway off the road when you have heavy lorries on the other lane.
• Repairing easier than with an unibody, as the major body parts can be taken off exposing the whole innards.
• Damage to the frame will only result in having the frame replaced instead of a total writeoff like an unibody.
• Compared to the alternatives it's quite economical. Patrol and Landcruiser have a V6 diesel, Merc G is too rare so it's expensive.

Dacia:

• Cheapest you can get new.
• Dealer support (basically a cheapened Megane)
• Not a deathtrap like a Landwind, Panda and it's SEAT clone and the small Peugeots.
• As it's new, no chance that it had an accident which you can't say for the average cheap Golf or Peugeot.

With the horrible attitude people have in Holland when driving, you are better off with a large car. For highway driving I prefer our VW van over the Toyota Yaris we have, just because of te way people react on it. With the van people accept that you don't take off like a fighter jet at the traffic lights, and they give you room to get from intersections to the highway. With the small Toyota you usually have impatient drivers glued to your rear bumper when you adhere to the speed limit, and the bigger cars just tend to ignore you when trying to get on the highway.

The thing was running on 3 out of 4 cylinders at best. Probably blown gasket or dead spark plug / ignition. Anyway it was sent to the scrapyard a few months afterwards.
it still durprises me that the engine didn't stop at traffic lights.

About the ford fusion... it's ugly and expensive. Only good thing on it are the door locks.

Ex lease or from private owner.

Ex lease stuff tends to suffer from the 'not my car' syndrome

Get the Landie...  

There cool... I want a landie for my first car.. I will proberly get a Ex-MOD one, but a soft top, 90 or 110 as they are cheaper..

http://www.witham-sv.com/



Craig

I would go with the Landrover. But if you do top of your list of improvements should be a roll bar as they may be built like a brick shithouse but if it gets flipped over, as can easily happen you will more than know about it.

The think I like best about them as you can almost disassemble them completely with nothing more than a pair of half inch spanners.

Out of all that list all I would do is:

Galvanised Chassis, if current one needed changing.
Spare on bonnet, if one not present.
Roll bar.
And possibly the winch if I ever thought I'd need it.

The rest is a complete waste of time, effort and money. Especially the bumpers as they don't have rear bumpers and the stock front ones are more that strong enough and capable of writing off anything short of a juggernaut in a collision.