The old car thread

[Drago]

See, I like the Panda. Spacious, cheap, miserly with fuel, minimally polluting - the 500 is a Panda made worse, yet people pay a premium for it. What's that all about?

 

[KneesUp]

2008 Honda Civic 1.8 - about the smallest car we can get away with as a family of 3 who like camping - especially as one of us likes to take bikes on holiday. It has enough room that we can - just about - go camping without the trailer or anything on the roof, which is good because I don't have roof bars. Otherwise it pulls the trailer with no bother, although it has so little torque at cruising speed that you sometimes have to drop a gear to go up hill even though it's only a 5 x 3 trailer.

It's our second one because someone wrote off the first one. The first one was a nicer colour, and had a new battery, a less than 12 months old a/c radiator and new tyres - and most galling of all, a totally brimmed tank of petrol minus about 2 miles worth. This one has xenon lights, headlight washers, heated seats, leather, a rudimentary but functional iPod interface (remember ipod, kids?) and a 10 year old DVD based SatNav over the first one, but I've had to shell out for an a/c radiator for this one too because it was unbearable last summer. I don't think the new one runs quite as sweetly as the old one - it's not rough, but it's not quite as sewing-machine smooth as the other one.

It's on (I think) 130k-ish and everything works - even the SatNav DVD is only 2 years out of date. There is a bit of a rattle coming from one of the bushes when you go over pot holes, but nothing the MOT threw up. And one of the headlight washers is a bit on the wonk because I hit a pigeon with it at c.70mph. Oh, and there is a ding in the rear bumper from when I reversed into a 2ft concrete cube, which the parking sensors missed because I had three bikes on the back. It adds character. The car will go on for as long as I want it to I reckon, and being petrol there is not ticking time-bomb bill for a dual mass flywheel or injectors to worry about.

When I'm driving it will do an indicated 50mpg on a run with good petrol. That goes down to about 25mpg around town with cheap petrol and lots of traffic.

 

[Jody]

This is my old (ish) smoker. Skoda VRS bought nearly 4 years ago with 95k on the clock and two owners. Current mileage just shy of 125k. LPG converted so its cheap as chips to run with some performance to boot but can get the equivalent (cost pence per mile) of a diesel. The only outlay has been a new clutch and DMF plus service parts. It’s had the cat removed as it was rattling and replaced with a 3” stainless downpipe and the wheels powder coated. Apart from that its relatively standard. The main thing I like about this car is its cleaner than running on petrol without the particulates that a diesel produces.

I normally buy cars at approximately 8-10 years old when someone else has taken the depreciation, looked after it and sold when they are still reliable.

I’ll be keeping it for a while if it stays reliable as it ticks so many boxes.

 

[KneesUp]

View attachment 476799 This is my old (ish) smoker. Skoda VRS bought nearly 4 years ago with 95k on the clock and two owners. Current mileage just shy of 125k. LPG converted so its cheap as chips to run with some performance to boot but can get the equivalent (cost pence per mile) of a diesel. The only outlay has been a new clutch and DMF plus service parts. It’s had the cat removed as it was rattling and replaced with a 3” stainless downpipe and the wheels powder coated. Apart from that its relatively standard. The main thing I like about this car is its cleaner than running on petrol without the particulates that a diesel produces.

I normally buy cars at approximately 8-10 years old when someone else has taken the depreciation, looked after it and sold when they are still reliable.

I’ll be keeping it for a while if it stays reliable as it ticks so many boxes.

How do you go on getting an MOT with a cat deletion?

Also, thanks for the extra emissions :-/

 

[Jody]

How do you go on getting an MOT with a cat deletion?

Also, thanks for the extra emissions :-/

If anything you should be thanking drivers of LPG for lowering emissions and massively reducing particulates.

Catalytic converters do nothing for gas emissions only petrol and as the law stands the car has to be tested on the fuel presented on. When tested it comes back as a pass showing virtually no emissions.

• One diesel vehicle emits 120 times the amount of fine particles as the equivalent LPG vehicle.
• It takes 20 LPG vehicles to emit the same amount of NOx as one diesel vehicle.

https://www.drivelpg.co.uk/about-autogas/environmental-benefits/

 

[KneesUp]

If anything you should be thanking drivers of LPG for lowering emissions and massively reducing particulates.

Catalytic converters do nothing for gas emissions only petrol and as the law stands the car has to be tested on the fuel presented on. When tested it comes back as a pass showing virtually no emissions.

• One diesel vehicle emits 120 times the amount of fine particles as the equivalent LPG vehicle.
• It takes 20 LPG vehicles to emit the same amount of NOx as one diesel vehicle.

https://www.drivelpg.co.uk/about-autogas/environmental-benefits/

I thought catalytic converters do the same job on LPG as they do on petrol?

"The cat. will also perform this function [reducing emissions of hydrocarbons] when LPG is used as a fuel so its function is similar [to use in petrol engines]. In normal operation it cannot be harmed by LPG use, and in fact has to deal with none of the exhaust products that erode it, (i.e. acids) resulting from combustion."
http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/catalytic.html

Also, I thought it was inadvisable to start a car on LPG? I've not looked in to it for a while because last time I did it seemed like most modern cars couldn't be converted easily / reliably.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Mr Bumble who as you all will all of course know if a Funbuggies Freestyle, he's the most ecological of all your cars as he was build from recycled parts, the frame was new, well at some point it was, but 2nd, 3rd or possibly 4th hand before I bought it, the front suspension/steering came off a tin worm riddled 1985 Mini, the engine & rear subframe came from insurance written off 2001 MGF. Does less than 1.5K miles each year & is due for his big outing tomorrow as we go 4 days camping in mid Wales each year.

 

[Jody]

Also, I thought it was inadvisable to start a car on LPG? I've not looked in to it for a while because last time I did it seemed like most modern cars couldn't be converted easily / reliably.

It runs for approximately 2 minutes on petrol then switches itself over.

 

[KneesUp]

It runs for approximately 2 minutes on petrol then switches itself over.

So how does that work for the MOT? I guess you take it in hot?

 

[Jody]

So how does that work for the MOT? I guess you take it in hot?

Start it cold. By the time its on the ramp its already running LPG, hence being presented running LPG. Any car would need to be at full operating temperature to test the emissions anyway.

 

[Reynard]

A 52 plate Skoda Fabia 1.4 estate, 52,000 miles on the clock.

Not quite as fun to drive as my T-plate Skoda Felicia 1.6 hatch that went to the great scrapheap in the sky after failing its MOT (wasn't worth throwing the money at it after 10 years of trouble-free ownership), but it does exactly what I need it to do. It's no-frills, comfy for long distances, is like the tardis inside and can take either of my bikes on the back seat if I remove the front wheel.

Am looking to upgrade at some point in the near future however, as a result of the assorted ULEZ expansions.

 

[Drago]

Welcome, old car aficionados.

 

[KneesUp]

What's the cut-off for "old"? My first car was 20 when I bought it, and it was utterly knackered. A 20 year old car now is S-reg, and whilst they are fairly uncommon, there are some perfectly useable S plate cars out there, with a nice stereo, comfy seats, a decent turn of speed, ABS, airbags and possibly a/c. What more do you need really?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

What's the cut-off for "old"?

One you actually own & not lease

 

[Drago]

Let's be generous...for the purposes of this thread we shall say 10 years of age. Most people have chucked their money up the wall on 3 or 4 different PCP deals in that time, more fool them.

You must own the car.

And, ideally, you must do at least some of your own maintenance or repairs.