Family-friendly motors from 1993
Yes, it’s a quarter of a century since we first saw this lot. Which would you pick for a daily driver?
When Practical Classics launched in 1980, cars that were 25 years old would have been built in 1955. Undoubtedly ripe fodder for a classic car magazine; indeed, our first issue featured Sixties cars of little more than ten years old and even one or two models still in production in 1980 – step forward the MGB.
Things have changed, of course. Cars last longer and often age more slowly in stylistic terms, so they take longer to acquire classic status. In the eyes of those who were adults when these five were launched in 1993 that status may not yet have arrived for the Mondeo, the Xantia, the Laguna, the 600 and the 900.
But what about younger readers? If you remember the excitement of the first Mondeo landing on your drive when everyone else still had Cortinas and Sierras, you might be 30-odd now and looking at them rather fondly. It’s not just a matter of age, either – the 600 and the 900 are both relics of defunct companies; great names consigned to history. The Xantia is a proper hydropneumatic Citroën but more sophisticated than ever, while the Laguna came with surprising amounts of luxury kit and equally surprising street cred from the European Touring Car Championship.
And now? They’re well into the ‘haven’t seen one lately’ phase, the last stop before full classic status. Prices remain on a par with a bag of chips, but chips won’t get you to work in air-conditioned comfort, will they?