Meh, I don't know. Mine's a stick. My dad's car has the same engine that had. I now why it blew a rod though. Valve seat on #4 dropped.
At 17 in the UK you will struggle to get cheap insurance at all. You should aim for something with a 1.2 litre or below engine as insurance will be even more ridiculous on anything larger. Look for something cheap to run and easy to maintain. Ford fiestas seem like a good choice, I learnt to drive in one that has 120000 miles on the clock and still runs well. Sadly I can't say the same for my Clio with just 65000. An older Nissan Micra is something else to look at if you don't mind the looks as they are cheap and reliable.
88hp Eighty Eight Horsepower Eighty Eight I find anything under 100 to be a joke. That thing's slow with one person, it'd be funny seeing it try to move around at a respectable rate with 4 people in it.
Look at the curb weight though. 25lbs/1hp for the 89 Escort vs 20lbs/1hp for the 2006 Focus. My Grand Marq is 18lbs/1hp. My truck is 18.7lbs/1hp.
It's almost like weight matters more than power. Horsepower isn't everything, even in terms of acceleration. If it was, the 640hp Viper would slay a 545hp GT-R off the line. But hey, guess what? It doesn't, low amounts of horsepower are perfectly respectable.
Well my little focus managed to carry 8 almost grown-ups and it did pretty well(myself, on the passanger seat 2 persons, on the rear bench 4 and in the trunk 1)...speedwise it can keep up in the city (highway only 100 kmh but I wouldn't go faster with 8 people anyways)...oh yeah did I mentioned that it only has the 1.4l engine with 75 hp? On the wheelspin comments earlier..I can't immagine there is a car where you can't spin the tires...so wheelspin in first doesn't mean fast. Ps...please don't tell that to the Polizei D:
I meant on like level, dry pavement. Just getting on the gas in a straight line it can spin both front wheels. I'm sure 90% of cars can spin their tires given enough of a chance. It just surprised me. Didn't expect it with 450lbs of cargo and people in it.
I know weight matters. It's a light car, and it's got enough power. Just enough. Loaded up with 4 people, which is at least 600 pounds of meat sitting inside the car, it'd definitely struggle. Those little cars with little engines don't like pulling much weight.
You forget that the vast majority of cars on our roads are diesel, so yes, they do like pulling weight very much.
When did I ever say anything about the cars on your roads? I meant small gas engines, diesels are a different story.
The Escort is a common car on English roads, you were saying for some reason that under 100hp is laughable, I said that horsepower isn't everything and mentioned that most of our cars are diesel which more than makes up for their horsepower figures. They're in the conversation because I was using them as an example. Also, SixSixSevenSeven talking about cars that aren't obese American lumps, which also strongly implied that he was talking about our cars.
but... but my 25 foot long super extendo double ultra crew cab f850 with more emissions than a coal power plant...
I was just talking about the American spec escort. I know how engines work, and what torque and horsepower mean, you don't have to lecture me on that. I also know that a light car doesn't need a much power as a large car, but I still just have a hard time taking a 2 digit horsepower rating seriously. I don't know the torque ratings for that engine, but I'd imagine they aren't all that impressive. Alright I looked it up. 108 ft-lbs. Not that bad. At least it's 3 digits. I just prefer big cars with big engines. Whatever. I guess some people care about fuel efficiency and stuff like that. To each his own.
