I HATE cars!!! (sometimes)

[swee'pea99]

"...but it is now over 6 years old." Gracious. Those Japanese certainly know how to build a car, eh?

 

[machew]

The most fun I had with a car, was my only company car. 15k mile service every 6-8 months. Every time 4 new tires, 4 new brake pad, new clutch every 4 services and a new gear box after 2 years (blew a hole in the side of the gear box and all the oil came out, hit the hot exhaust pipe and there was a nice smoke screen)

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Volvo V50 new headlight ,, £500 with inbuilt self leveling motor ,, Broke into the the old one , re set the leveler and re sealed it , (well the garage did) works as good as new ,, £500 yea right Mr Volvo/Ford robbin gets

 

[DiddlyDodds]

The most fun I had with a car, was my only company car. 15k mile service every 6-8 months. Every time 4 new tires, 4 new brake pad, new clutch every 4 services and a new gear box after 2 years (blew a hole in the side of the gear box and all the oil came out, hit the hot exhaust pipe and there was a nice smoke screen)

Holy Guacamole , what the hell do you drive , a Dradgster .... Tyres 15,000 miles and a new clutch in 60,000 miles ,
My current car 120,000 on original clutch, and the last one (Ford Focus) 170,000 miles when i sold it and still had the original clutch.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

this car has only been with me 5 months! before that i had an 2001 plate escort, 4 new tyres on that, £250 welding on the sills for MOT, new rear brake pipes, new clutch and new discs and pads all round (after having the brake the wheels off it due to almost welding to the hubs through corrosion!) the car owed me about £700 and i was planning on keeping it until it died, it died in June this year at a ripe old age of 62000 miles after losing all compression on the engine. went for scrap for £150 in the end as i didn't have time/money to fix it up and couldn't be bothered with the hassle of breaking it myself.

totting up the money ive spent on cars (excluding petrol and buying the damned things) over the last few years I'm looking at Orca Di2 money!!!

 

[machew]

Holy Guacamole , what the hell do you drive , a Dradgster .... Tyres 15,000 miles and a new clutch in 60,000 miles ,
My current car 120,000 on original clutch, and the last one (Ford Focus) 170,000 miles when i sold it and still had the original clutch.

I think that it was the No 11 completions that we used to have when we were bored, and the 2 mile racetrack that we had around the industrial estate that did the tyres and clutch. But the most fun we had with the company cars, there were 11 identical Black V40 all registered at the same time , was swapping over the rear number plate. It was only when a colleague was stopped for "Driving like a tit", and the Traffic Office on his walk around the vehicle, he could see that something was wrong, but it took 5 mins and writing both number plates down that he realised that he front and back number plates were different by 1 number.

 

[Black Sheep]

Buy an older, simple car, learn to service it yourself and if an expensive bill looms, sell it to the scrap man for most of what you paid in the first place.

If you keep it running long enough, it may even appreciate in value if the classic brigade take an interest. People collect Ford Sierras nowadays for heavens sake. A few years ago, you couldn't give one away

The trouble with a 'simpler older car' is many of the cheaper older cars have various electronic gubbins on there, you may not need a computer that plugs into the car in order to cancel the fault light on the dashboard (I'm lead to believe that this is to become an MOT fail if the light is still on even if the fault is rectified) but an understanding of electronics is required.

the simpler cars that didn't have these electronic relays and modules (which can fail and wear out) are already counted as classics despite having been cheap cheerful motors in their day such as the Morris Minor or even Morris Marinas and Austin Allegros.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Try BMW:
Clutch (supposed to last the life of the car), wrecked at 49,000 miles = £570.

We had a XKR for a few years
Partway through owning it, the gearbox stopped changing up properly (a Mercedes-Benz sourced box apparantly?? - but with Jaguars own 'J-Gate' shifter)
It needed a new switch, & that came to something like £400+VAT at the main-dealer we bought it from

Other than that, despite it being a supercharged V8, that went from pussycat to evil-beast (if you were so inclined) in very short order, it was very reliable

 

[colly]

The van I had before the one I have now was an older Ford Transit. It was a little on the ''scuffed'' side but had a full MOT and ran really well. I paid £900 for it and ran it for 18 months. Apart from an MOT test and a new tyre it cost me nothing apart from fuel and insurance. It was still working well but needed some work done on the suspension so sold finally for £100.
I would prefer to drive a new vehicle and did do until the economy became so uncertain but looked after well, old older vehicle does just the same job.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

If you're paying £140 for 6 months ticket, you have the wrong car to begin with.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

its an older (1999) Honda civic coupe so lovely to drive, just no longer practical (i have a 2 year old and one on the way!) although there isn't really anything else needed on it after this as its an auto and no rust bubbles anywhere on it!

I would love to get a newer (post 2001) diesel with low emissions i just cant afford it (its been one thing after another this last year and a big move with a pay cut to put me where i want to be!)

 

[Black Sheep]

if you look around carefully at the engine options there are petrol models that do a similar mpg to the small diesels,

I have a 1.2 diesel Ibiza Estate, my brother has a 1.4 petrol Ibiza hatch and we both get similar millage, although on very long journeys I fare a bit better, but on shorter journeys he does better as a diesel takes longer to warm up.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Holy Guacamole , what the hell do you drive , a Dradgster .... Tyres 15,000 miles and a new clutch in 60,000 miles

Our last car, a totally horrible 'blue-van' (Ford C-Max) had 3 sets of front tyres in about 27,000!!
Oh, & 2 windscreens - the fitter reckoned that they're renown in the trade for it, as it's large & essentially a stressed item

On the flip-side, my present Octavia estate had its front tyres replaced a month or so ago at almost 32,000 miles
Due to it being the 1.6Tdi (& subsequent emmisions grouping), it's only £30 annual VED
MPG is cracking, especially on SWMBO's business trips to Cardiff (when she doesn't rush too much)
Insurance was £297 F/C (4 drivers; SWMBO - with business cover for her, the in-laws - in case they need it for bulky items, & myself)

My current car 120,000 on original clutch, and the last one (Ford Focus) 170,000 miles when i sold it and still had the original clutch.

A collegue of mine drives a (black & white) taxi, as a side-line.
His last one was an Astra; the early-mid 90's model
He sold it on to a Mini-Cab driver, with 370,000 miles on the original engine (Isuzu diesel 1.7TD) & 'box!!
Think it had a couple of clutches, & the usual 'wear & tear' items, but jsut routine servicing

 

[fossyant]

ABS ring on near side has indeed cracked, got under the car this morning as it wasn't raining for a change. Local National Tyres getting a price/options as its usually a CV joint to replace. Also got 20% off voucher. Whilst its in I think I will take advantage of half price MOT.

 

[Drago]

£297 to insure a Skoda? Paid significantly less than that to insure our Disco fully comp, and one of us is partially sighted!