When Top Gear (BBC) did a survey to find Britain’s highest-mileage car (about 12 or so years ago), they couldn’t find one with 500,000 miles on the clock. However, someone did have a Volvo with a genuine 420,000-ish miles on it.

I used to run a 1989 Fiat Uno (1100 cc, 60 hp [when new], 730 kg dry weight). It would easily do 40 mpg on 95 RON petrol, it would tow a trailer with a motorbike on it, and its load space was hugely versatile (not only did the back seats fold down to make a larger load bay, but you could make even more space by taking them out altogether, a process that required only the undoing of three bolts). Its load space was quite conveniently accessible too.

Anyhow, when we finally gave up on it (due to a rusting body panel caused by living in Scotland for 3 years without washing the salt off the car), it actually went to the scrapyard under its own power. At that time, it had 193,000 miles on the clock. It was the easiest car in the world to maintain. All it needed was, every 6,000 miles, an oil change and a new air filter, plugs and leads; and, every 12,000 miles, a new distributor cap and rotor arm. That engine even survived a timing belt failure (Fiat cunningly designed the pistons to have little cut-outs in the top so they wouldn’t impact the valves). Oh yeah, and my partner and I actually did that timing belt change, re-setting the timing by ear. She changed the radiator and alternator herself when those failed, too (it started out as her car, you see).

Anyhow, I am currently enamoured of Japanese cars, particularly Lexus. Each year, Top Gear team up with JD Powers for a survey of car-customer satisfaction. For about the last five years (IIRC), the top three have always been Japanese (Honda and Lexus) and the bottom three have always been French (Renault and Peugeot).

Recently I test-drove the new Lexus GS450h. It has a big battery to drive its electric motor; and, for those rare occasions (*ahem*) when you need a little bit more, it also has a 3.5 L V6 petrol engine. Not only does it come with more toys than you can shake a stick at, but its performance figures are quite pleasing, too. 0-60 is 5.2 s; combined fuel consumption is about 30 mpg (which is what I currently get from my IS200), which ain’t bad for a car weighing about 1.9 tonnes. Top speed is far faster than you can go in Britain anyway.

Its chassis is very nicely balanced, and it doesn’t feel big or heavy when you chuck it through a few bends, either (which is something I was afraid of).

Plus, because it is a hybrid, you won’t have to pay the London congestion charge if you wish to drive it about our nation’s captial.

Yeah? Well, I guess you shouldn’t tailgate, then, should you? Are you saying you would be happy to live with that driver’s death on your conscience?

BTW, 1500 lb is around 681 kg, which applies only to the smallest of European cars. Most European cars (if you don’t count MPVs and SUVs) are about 1000 - 1200 kg.

Scott, I’d like to clarify that I don’t actually think you are “disjointed … pathological madman”. I think your argument SOUNDED pathological, but I can and should separate a perhaps tongue-in-cheek comment from the otherwise moral person making it. I’m sure you’re a decent person. I’ve made a lot of bad argumentative decisions, and I’ll make more, no doubt. Still, the “dripping under the door” comment utterly mortified me. I’ve seen many accidents (two locally in the past year) where an idiot in a pickup who doesn’t know how to drive defensively kills a housewife or grandfather in a Toyota and walks away with a sprained ankle and a ruined conscience. The idea that someone would use an event like that to promote buying a big truck REALLY grates on me.

If I let that disgust over the content of your post translate into attacks on you as a person, I’m sorry. Phil has a right to expect more restraint on these forums.

Obviously, you didn’t use the term “wimpy dude.” I happily concede the point. However, you DID use the phrases “your 1500 lb Euro Toy car” and “my 5500lbs of rolling thunder”; I will equally happily allow the reader to decide whether my (admitted) paraphrase was an accurate representation of your tone and purpose. That’s what paraphrasing is for.

To your second point, that I am a reader fed the “internet … into thier (sic) ivory tower where everything is kept in a constant state of labratory (sic) sterility”, well, I frankly only wish that were true, since I live in New Orleans, which has probably never in history been subjected to the particular insult of clinical sterility. In any event, the ivory tower criticism is a non-sequitur. Lots of folks in the south need, and use, lots of giant pickups, and I’d never think to tell them not to. Nor would I tell YOU not to, whether it’s because you haul around giant trailers or because you drive on muddy roads or … whatever. People can buy trucks for any reason at all.

But I will certainly call someone out if their best argument for driving a Suburban (which, in fairness, you were presenting as a hypothetical) is that WHEN they fatally rear-end the driver of a sensible sedan, the sedan’s driver and wife and kids will be “mush dripping out the crack under the crumpled door” while the Suburban driver chuckles all the way home. Frankly, that comes across as the smug, disjointed speculation of a pathological madman. It made me sick to my stomach. Again, this was the meat of your argument, and it is a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE argument. I asked you to clarify in the vague hope that you were making a poor-taste joke. Your reply suggests that you were quite earnest.

Pulling a 6500 lbs trailer is a good reason to buy a truck. Being able to rear-end people with impunity is a BAD reason to buy a truck. Maybe the WORST reason. You presented it as a positive. That is my one and only point of contention with you.

As far as I can see, I paraphrased you very accurately, though if my putting the words “wimpy dude” in your mouth caused you pain, I humbly apologize.

That still doesn’t change the fact that you can’t pull a 6500lb trailer with a little econobox. When they start building a fuel efficient hybrid vehicle which can pull my tailer I will quite happily trade my current truck in on it. Like, maybe the 2008 Chevy Silverado Hybrid which is going to be hitting the dealership floors soon. Wait, thats still a huge full sized hunk of rolling death on wheels so I guess i’m still the devil incarnate… Wait, the devil doesn’t exist so I guess i’m ok:)