My 98 2.1TD Executive

[HimBigChief]

Coupe's of little to no use to me at all as I have a 15 month old son and 3 dogs, so really on the lookout for a fairly large estate. Whatever I get now is going to be a stopgap until I get some money through that I'm due, and then I may think about upgrading.

[FarmerPug]

a big estate, the best for big estates is mercedes and with the snow gone rear wheel drive is not an issue anymore:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

and my favourite merc estate:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-M-Mercedes-B ... 27b6e12004

mercedes benz is the only car id buy if i couldnt but peugeot or citroen, and i think the old 300d works well on vegetable oil, they are indestructable, bar the possibility of a bit of wheelarch rust which you can look out for.

[highlander]

The son will fit in a car seat on the back seats, and the dogs? Roofbox?

You wouldn't believe how easy it is to get into and out of the back seats of a Coupe (even for a fully-grown 6ft lump like me). And the amount of stuff you can load into one (as I recently demonstrated, getting myself, the Wifely Person, and her 16-year-old son/my stepson, plus a load of Christmas presents, clothing for a week, emergency supplies, blankets, a shovel, a tool kit, high-viz vest and safety boots, extra coats, etc etc etc) into the boot and onto the back seats if needed. And you can get roof bars to fit them, so you can have a roof box, and fit a tow bar and tow a trailer.

Oh well. Hope your TD is salvageable, and if not, that you can find a suitable replacement.

[FarmerPug]

a thing that puts me off a coupe is that if a rear passenger wants to get out someone in the front must get out for the seat to move forward, where a 4/5dr you just open the back door.

[highlander]

It honestly isn't as much hassle as you'd think; the front seats move forward quite far, and they even do it by themselves, when you fold the front seats forward. They then move back to the position they were in when you set them upright again.

The biggest question you need to ask yourself is: how often, really, do you ever use the back seats on a saloon? I worked out that I used them less than 10 times in a year; therefore, it's almost not worth worrying about in my case.

The only real disadvantage of the Coupe is that the middle seat on the rear bench isn't a seat anymore - there's not even a lap belt there.

But you can definitely, comfortably, seat four adults in a 406 Coupe (something other coupe cars often struggle to do).

[FarmerPug]

i frequently need to use the back seats

[highlander]

Then you need to decide if it's going to cause you any real hassle, and decide whether that will outweigh the real benefit of Coupe ownership - these great lines:



The car is a real head-turner; people have given it admiring glances and have had nothing other than compliments for it. With the 2.2 petrol (and, I'm assuming, a remapped 2.2 HDi or petrol V6, though I've never had the good fortune to drive either), the car is not only drop-dead gorgeous, but it's a whole crapload of fun

[FarmerPug]

I appreciate the beautiful lines, the coupe is drop dead goregous, (unlike a korean car which actually is so uninspiring it just got the name coupe), but even so the saloon is no pig either in the looks department.

[plod]

WOW that S&B is seriously cheap

[FarmerPug]

whats an s and b

[Doggy]

Silver & Black, (which is the poshest S O B, I think)

[FarmerPug]

i thought the v6 was the poshest?

[highlander]

The "Silver & Black Edition" Coupe was a limited-edition trim, featuring half-leather seats, and the very rare silver or black metallic paint (most silver Coupes are not actually silver, but "Satellite Grey", and most black Coupes are not actually black, but "Granite").

Part-leather seats in 406s seem to be more rare than full-leathers, for some reason...

The disadvantage to the S&B trim was that the equipment is somewhere between the normal S and the uprated SE trim levels, so for example, you don't get Sat Nav as standard.

[FarmerPug]

ultima edizione as you showed once before looked the poshest. I dont see why 1/2 leather could be judged better than leather, it just means some of the seat is easy cleaned, and some is difficult to clean.

[Gary406]

If your ever planning on getting rid of this car, can I please have first refusal?

south wales to northumbeland is sum miles