VW Beetles (old air cooled)

onomatopoeia99

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

However, better than the Hillman Imp ...

Absolutely not! I have an Imp, for a 50 year old car on skinny tyres it has fabulous handing, light, responsive steering (provided you don't do what some idiots used to suggest and put a couple of bags of cement in the front), slick gearchange and engine that revs and revs - they were safe to 8000rpm out of the factory with no internal work, although detuned because they accelerated faster than the more expensive models the Rootes group were selling at the time.

The Beetle was slow, noisy, heavy and with bad handling. It certainly has an appeal, but not in the actual driving of it.

iolanthe07

I owned both a Mini and an Imp and I think the Mini was far superior, mainly because the engine was mounted where it should be, over the driving wheels in the front! The Imp's engine was also over the driving wheels, but placing it in the back made handling problematic, to say the least. In the wet it was truly horrible. Anyway, the facts speak for themselves - the pre BMW Mini outlasted the Imp by very many years.

Gloomendoom

iolanthe07 wrote: »

I owned both a Mini and an Imp and I think the Mini was far superior, mainly because the engine was mounted where it should be, over the driving wheels in the front! The Imp's engine was also over the driving wheels, but placing it in the back made handling problematic, to say the least. In the wet it was truly horrible. Anyway, the facts speak for themselves - the pre BMW Mini outlasted the Imp by very many years.

My grandad started driving in 1910. By the time he got to the Imp, I don't think handling was that high on his priorities. Ease of getting in and out plus adequate room for luggage definitely were. Neither a strong point in the original (or current) Mini.



A bonus of the rear engine layout shared by the Beetle and Imp is good traction in snow.

Jackmydad

I remember thinking of getting a Beetle because of the reliability. Had a drive in a friend's and decided not to bother. Not horrible or anything just felt very average at everything.
The air cooled camper vans are notoriously thirsty.

Minis are better than Imps!

Savvy_Sue

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Ta. My grandparents had an Imp and never seemed to have a problem with it. It was a huge improvement over the Minis that they had owned up until then.

Really? The Beatle owner had an Imp either before or after the Imp and it broke down All The Time. The Mini in the family, well that was a former commercial minivan that had obviously been driven to death, and I don't think it was particularly reliable, but I'm sure it was better than the Imp!

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Absolutely not! I have an Imp, for a 50 year old car on skinny tyres it has fabulous handing, light, responsive steering (provided you don't do what some idiots used to suggest and put a couple of bags of cement in the front), slick gearchange and engine that revs and revs - they were safe to 8000rpm out of the factory with no internal work, although detuned because they accelerated faster than the more expensive models the Rootes group were selling at the time.

The Beetle was slow, noisy, heavy and with bad handling. It certainly has an appeal, but not in the actual driving of it.

I am not sure I ever drove the Imp, but I know its owner hated it ...

You never see a Ford Anglia on the road these days, do you? I have fond memories of ours ... and I learned a very important lesson, following my boyfriend of the time across the Pennines. He was driving a mini, and I learned that an Anglia can't take corners at the same speed as a mini. :rotfl:

Jackmydad

I've never driven an Imp.
I think Imps were "Marmite"
I still think Mini's are better!
Can't remember the last Anglebox I saw on the road.
There was a 100E for sale at a local garage a year or so back.
I think they wanted £6k for it. More than it was worth I thought.
I had a Mk1 Cortina I really liked.
I don't know exactly why I liked it now. Seemed like a sort of good example of what a medium sized saloon should be at the time.

Joe_Horner

Jackmydad wrote: »

Minis are better than Imps!

And VHS is better than Betamax.

facade

Joe_Horner wrote: »

And VHS is better than Betamax.

In this context, I think so, as although technically superior Betamax lost the popularity battle, I reckon the same with the Imp.


I liked the Imp I had, I did think it was "better" than the Mini, yet I enjoyed and bonded with the minis more.

Jackmydad

Joe_Horner wrote: »

And VHS is better than Betamax.

And Video 2000 was better than either. (I had a machine and it was great!)

Joe_Horner

Jackmydad wrote: »

And Video 2000 was better than either. (I had a machine and it was great!)

Ahh, but no-one had mentioned the revolutionary Daf with it's Variomatic CVT