Fastpedaller
Senior Member
I don't think that's true at all - Check with a Haynes manual will show they are different gearboxes
And now Skoda are at it.
- Thread starter Drago
- Start date
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I don't think that's true at all - Check with a Haynes manual will show they are different gearboxes
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
No I don't. I was running one in the 80's. Though I was well aware of the issues from probably mid 70's onwards (I wasn't really interested before that)
Fastpedaller
Senior Member
No need - the battery catches fire long before 10k miles
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Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Like my Astra Haynes manual that had a picture of an Allegro engine bay at a crucial point of the cylinder head removal procedure?
I would agree.
My 1990s Peugeot 205 has 250,000 miles on the original engine and gearbox and doesn't even burn oil. I only took it off the road last year due to a rusty and cracked strut mounting and I wasn't in a place to work on it as I was recovering from injury.
I had a MkI Golf with excess of 300,000 without any real drama.
Fastpedaller
Senior Member
Any deal has to be evaluated on its merits - it's not always possible to generalise. When we were looking for a used car in 2009 we found a pre-registered car (effectively new, only 3 miles driven) that was only a few hundred pounds dearer than a 3 year old model of the same car - we got 3.5k off the new price! I doubt that deal would be available now. I don't know of any manufacturers offering discounts anymore, and if you use finance (rather than buy outright) the price is lower. Some folk were going into finance deals and clearing the debt after 1 month's payment ie. They got for example 2k off for taking finance, paid interest of £50 the first month and cleared the debt, thus 'gaining' nearly 2k. Some dealers/manufacturers have stopped this by applying large early payment penalty clauses.
Jameshow
Veteran
Best of a bad bunch, I was disappointed they didn't get a Granada!
The Toyota town aces that followed were truly horrible!
lazybloke
Considering a new username
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
No need to rely on anecdotes. Legislative pressure - Euro 1 regulations and catalytic converter requirements for petrol cars forced car engines to modernise massively in the early 90s with huge benefits for performance, economy and smooth running. Higher exhaust temps demanded stainless steel instead of the cheese used previously.
Old engine designs were deprecated because they couldn't meet the new reuqirements, so a range of new modern engines suddenly appeared. Engine oil lasted longer thanks to fuel mixes being weaker; engine wear decreased.
Suddenly, car engines were rough rattling beasts that were burning oil and worn out at 100,000 miles; they were smooth running machines that needed hardly any maintenance and had double the life.
There were other mandated improvements too - see the Motor Vehicle type approval requirements for each year.
At the same time, market forces drove other improvements; wheel arch liners to protect vulnerable pannels from corrosion, and ultimately galvanised bodyshells. Other functionality was appearing fast - LED info displays on dashboards in the 80s; electric windows becoming commonplace, power steering becoming far more standard, etc etc.
There's simply no comparison between a typical early 80s car and a 1993 car in the UK; a quantum leap forward in only 13 years.
Your descriptive time line brings back memories not all good lol . Late 80s and 90s was spent many a time in the garage with my Dad and fixing my car and sometimes my sisters.
We chat frequently at work, about our apprenticeships. It wasn’t only the career but also how we had to be able to fix our cars enroute to work etc. kept tool kits in the boot of the car .
Current apprentices , they have no clue. Dont even know how a car engine functions. The cars they drive are decent quality, don’t break down etc ! The only brands trying to keep up the tradition are Land Rover
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Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
T'was a common custom among the working classes in the seventies that Saturday would be set aside to repair the car ready for the weeks commuting ahead. It was always done by Saturday night.
This standard working class routine had all but disappeared by the eighties as cars had improved.
By the nineties it was but a distant memory. Other than filling them with fuel, cars were by then going 9 or 10k between services with zero owner attention in between times, something that would have been unthinkable twenty years prior.
This standard working class routine had all but disappeared by the eighties as cars had improved.
By the nineties it was but a distant memory. Other than filling them with fuel, cars were by then going 9 or 10k between services with zero owner attention in between times, something that would have been unthinkable twenty years prior.
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
Rust is a problem again on modern cars. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Efforts to save weight lead to thinner steel and complex stampings/assemblies that trap moisture.
2. The design life of new cars is a lot less than the average life of a car on UK roads, in some cases only half. Japanese cars, in particular, are designed for a market where most cars are scrapped or exported at around 7 years old due to the strict "shaken" inspection rules.
3. Galvanising was common in the 2000s and 2010s - I think all VW Group cars had it - but it has almost zero sales benefit in these days of PCP (new car buyers don't care, as they'll get another car after 3 years). It costs the manufacturer more, so why bother?
1. Efforts to save weight lead to thinner steel and complex stampings/assemblies that trap moisture.
2. The design life of new cars is a lot less than the average life of a car on UK roads, in some cases only half. Japanese cars, in particular, are designed for a market where most cars are scrapped or exported at around 7 years old due to the strict "shaken" inspection rules.
3. Galvanising was common in the 2000s and 2010s - I think all VW Group cars had it - but it has almost zero sales benefit in these days of PCP (new car buyers don't care, as they'll get another car after 3 years). It costs the manufacturer more, so why bother?
I do see rust on modern cars but seems to be mostly at the budget end . Rear Panels and wheel arches rusting , thought these were a thing of the past .
lazybloke
Considering a new username
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
Yes, rust hasn't been eliminated entirely, ,but (largely) gone are the days of MOT failures from rust. I had to replace both the sills on my 1980 car in 1989/90. My other cars of that era were similarly bad at that age.
Most cars got scrapped at that point in time.
Modern cars typically are still in excellent condition well beyond that age, without needing any welding, but cosmetic rust issues do arise from time to time.
The comment about design life being shorter now - I can see a conflict for manufacturers, because short longevity will correlate with (or cause) poor reliability. If a car becomes a lemon, it might harm the manufacturers reputation.
Toyota traditionally top reliability scores and presumably value that reputation and work hard to maintain it.
Most cars got scrapped at that point in time.
Modern cars typically are still in excellent condition well beyond that age, without needing any welding, but cosmetic rust issues do arise from time to time.
The comment about design life being shorter now - I can see a conflict for manufacturers, because short longevity will correlate with (or cause) poor reliability. If a car becomes a lemon, it might harm the manufacturers reputation.
Toyota traditionally top reliability scores and presumably value that reputation and work hard to maintain it.
Squirrel Chaser
Well-Known Member
They do loads of warranty work without logging it just to keep cars running.
