Is being functional the only thing you care about in a car?

[TJC1]

Styling / performance is a bonus. Id much rather it sailed through MOT and is good on fuel /practical.

 

---------- Post added 27-07-2015 at 12:31 ----------

 

functionality, anything else tends to make buying a car more expensive then it need be!

 

In a nutshell, its just an expensive luxury.

[Timeh]

Simple poll.

 

Do you care ONLY about functionality in a car, or do you care about other things as well.

 

I've included an "other" answer in case you can't say Yes/No (although you'll need to explain).

 

As a few examples, caring about looks, performance, style, these are all things that aren't functional. Most other stuff, like number of seats, reliability, boot size, these are functional things.

 

Ride, comfort, power, looks, functionality in that order.

[Mr Bloke]

This poll is a bit of a dog's dinner!

 

The thread title asks:

 

"Is being functional the only thing you care about in a car?"

 

and the question asked by the poll is:

 

"Do you care about more than the pure functionality of a car?"

 

These two questions are contradictions, so the poll is at best misleading and at worst a complete waste of time.

 

I'm sure Mr Cyclone would agree with me, had this been someone elses thread!

[TJC1]

Practical. I like practical..

[mogwai84]

Lots of things:

 

- safety

- styling

- depreciation

- reliability

 

etc etc etc

[TJC1]

This poll is a bit of a dog's dinner!

 

The thread title asks:

 

"Is being functional the only thing you care about in a car?"

 

and the question asked by the poll is:

 

"Do you care about more than the pure functionality of a car?"

 

These two questions are contradictions, so the poll is at best misleading and at worst a complete waste of time.

 

I'm sure Mr Cyclone would agree with me, had this been someone elses thread!

 

The poll could be 'is practicality the most important consideration when buying a car'.

[L00b]

To be fair, the title seems to ask the opposite question to the poll.

True.

 

The actual poll is "Do you care about more than the pure functionality of a car?". My answer was yes.

 

Looks or age don't matter that much to me (...to an extent), but performance, driveability and reliability always do, and provenance/pedigree (I'd never buy any car new, but also never buy any car with more than 1 owner from new). And one 'active' family car (other than the MX-5) has to be a ragtop (not sure whether that counts more as functionality as style/looks - I daresay it's both). Image as well, to another extent, I'm not above acknowledging that.

 

From experience, I tend to favour 'last-of-breed' as well (amongst last few made/most recent before a major facelift/platform change), as cars answering that definition have had all design faults and kinks ironed out and recalls done. I guess you can see from that how (relatively) little looks/age matter to me.

 

Disclaimer/coming clean: family wagon (my daily) is a Merc C class (07, 60kmiles), Mrs wagon is a Cooper S ragtop (08, 49kmiles), plus the 'family member' (MX-5, owned 15 years, 98R 84kmiles). Next upgrade will probably be a newer C class, next year or year after.

Edited July 27, 2015 by L00b

[TJC1]

This order:

1. Reliability

2. Mileage

3. Costs

4. In car features

5 styling / design

 

---------- Post added 27-07-2015 at 12:45 ----------

 

True.

 

The actual poll is "Do you care about more than the pure functionality of a car?". My answer was yes.

 

Looks or age don't matter that much to me (...to an extent), but performance, driveability and reliability always do. And one 'active' family car (other than the MX-5) has to be a ragtop (not sure whether that counts more as functionality as style/looks - I daresay it's both). Image as well, to another extent, I'm not above acknowledging that.

 

Disclaimer/coming clean: family wagon (my daily) is a Merc C class (07, 60kmiles), Mrs wagon is a Cooper S ragtop (08, 49kmiles), plus the 'family member' (MX-5, owned 15 years, 98R 84kmiles). Next upgrade will probably be a newer C class, next year or year after. All cars bought 2nd hand, in the vast majority outright (MX-5 was HP, but we were young and daft, and it was our only car then, so we lived-a-little).

 

The new mercs are good on practicality. The newer eco c class get 60 miles to the gallon.

[Cyclone]

I don't understand how performance is not regarded as functional.

 

Surely it's a measurable attribute, and has the purpose of getting you somewhere quicker, so therefore must be functional.

 

And style is about how something looks anyway, so basically what you're asking is do you care about how your car looks...

 

Given that any modern car can easily do the maximum speed allowed in the UK on the public road, a fast car won't get you anywhere any quicker than a slow car.

It is measurable I agree, lots of things are, but it's not part of the core function of a car, which is presumably to provide transports.

 

PS - I do care about more than just transport.

 

---------- Post added 27-07-2015 at 12:53 ----------

 

This poll is a bit of a dog's dinner!

 

The thread title asks:

 

"Is being functional the only thing you care about in a car?"

 

and the question asked by the poll is:

 

"Do you care about more than the pure functionality of a car?"

 

These two questions are contradictions, so the poll is at best misleading and at worst a complete waste of time.

 

I'm sure Mr Cyclone would agree with me, had this been someone elses thread!

 

Yep, I actually reported my first post immediately and asked for the title to be changed. I can't change it, the edit function doesn't allow it.

 

And when you're creating the poll you can no longer see the title unfortunately, hence how I ended up reversing them :-(

[L00b]

The new mercs are good on practicality. The newer eco c class get 60 miles to the gallon.

I went for Merc more for reliability/repute of their diesel powerplants and build quality, than image (...but I have considered an E 320 since, and haven't ruled it out as a next upgrade), after a couple a lemons (V50 2.0d, and a 'disposable' Impreza estate).

 

In keeping with my earlier edits ("last in breed"), ours is a late/last-made W203 (07), not a W204 (57 on-), and I went for the best-in-class (according to professional and user reviews) 220 CDI auto. It was cheaper still because of the intervening facelift to the W204.

 

Real-life high-40s to low-50s in daily use (town, A roads, M1), high 50s on extended motorway drives laden like a donkey. The boot is surprisingly cavernous considering the size, with luggage and 'stuff' 3 of us and the dog there's always room to bring back booze and more when we go to France (600 miles door to door, 12 to 13 hours with breaks and Chunnel).

 

Bought at 30k nearly 3 years ago, just passed 60k last week or the week before that. In that time, 2 changes of tyres (1 soon after purchase, the other about 6 months ago) and services-according-to-when-the-computer-says (2 or 3 IIRC) and that's it. Sailed through every MOT, no advisory whatsoever. Pity they don't do an AWD like Scoobys and Audi Quattros (and I don't mean the new 'countrified' C class, but a standard saloon version).

Edited July 27, 2015 by L00b