Btuckey Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 My wife's car needs replacing and I am considering a 4x4. Can anybody suggest some options that will not cost a fortune to get serviced in the Quillan area? (Our next door neighbour has a four wheel drive Magane but this is awful in the back!) Is there a Land Rover dealer near Quillan?Many thanks.Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssc Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 I bought a Hyundai Sante Fe auto 9 months ago. Good comfy car and no problems so far. Took me up an ice covered hill that I could barely stand up on. They also sell a slightly smaller Tuscon model.Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 [quote user="Btuckey"]My wife's car needs replacing and I am considering a 4x4. Can anybody suggest some options that will not cost a fortune to get serviced in the Quillan area? (Our next door neighbour has a four wheel drive Magane but this is awful in the back!) Is there a Land Rover dealer near Quillan?Many thanks.Brian [/quote]There is a Landrover dealer in Perpignan, there used to be one in Carcassonne but he has now closed (well taken over by BMW instead). If you buy a Landrover that is outside it's 3 year warranty there is a guy going out of Limous on the right that will service it.To be honest I bought a top of the range Disco with me from the UK because 'I really needed a 4X4' well thats what I told the wife to justify it. I have been half way up a mountain track in winter, gone snow walking and returned to find a Citrion Diane parked next to me. So if a 10p car can get to the same place as 50k Disco whats the point? I now have a 307SW and a set of tyre chains. It gets serviced at the dealer in Quillan who is a really nice and helpful chap, it does over 55 to the gallon, cheap to insure and goes all the places my Disco went round here. So to be honest it's very difficult to justify to anyone other than yourself having a 4X4 round here unless you are a farmer or hunter or tow a very big caravan (twin axle). Mind you if you really fancy one just for the sake of it it's your money go ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Btuckey Posted March 28, 2006 Author Share Posted March 28, 2006 Tony, many thanks for your response. Thank you as well Quillan, your comments were certainly food for thought. The reason that I thought my wife ‘needed’ a 4x4 was down to an incident the Christmas before last. We had shopped in the Champion mid-afternoon on a Saturday and there was a brief rain shower whilst we were there. Climbing out of Quillan on the Puivert road I was constantly being ‘flashed’ by cars coming down the hill. When I got to the top I realised why. The road just past the picnic site was awash with cars up to the Belcaire turning. The rain had turned the road surface into a sheet of ice. None of the petit ‘atchbacks could get a grip. I still had my company Jaguar X Type at the time and the 4x4 transmission carried me through the melee. From your experience it sounds like my wife would be as well off with another Belingo which she loves. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Living up on the plateau is not much fun in winter considering Quillan is 362M above sea level it's well above the snow line. Having said that I got stuck in my Disco up there last year in the snow.I did a thing on 4X4's in this part of the forum a month back as I have a lot of experience with them, probably more than anyone on the forum as I used to race them all over the world. Contrary to rumers you will be required to carry two sets of chains for a 4X4 and you are not excempt from using them either. A 4X4 in the conditions you discribed gives you all but a small edge over other cars on a road that is covered by ice. It does not matter how many wheels drive at the end of the day it's down to friction. I own a Bowler and even that could not cope with those conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jc Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Old front wheel drive Citroens can get anywhere-one of the reasons for the failure of the AFRICAR project-while prototypes(4wd) were being tested in Africa they got fed up with 2cv's overtaking them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Btuckey Posted March 30, 2006 Author Share Posted March 30, 2006 I love the world's first 'sucessful' production front wheel drive car; the Citroën Traction Avant Berline. A bit rare now though....Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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