Done with old shit.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Inspired by another 'I need this shit out of my life' FS thread, by Richard K this time.

 

I'm done with old cars.

 

I'm sick of them. I'm sick of the never ending drama, problems, rust, stuff to fix. The M reg 520i I just fixed up and saved (never ever savecars) cost me hours of my life I'll never get back. I sold it for what it owed me so I haven't lost any money but there again, I almost never do. I always break even or make a profit. But this car was just a chore. Finding panels, getting them painted, putting it together just to end up with a car owing me over a grand that I don't really have much interest for.  I'm not enjoying this. Why the fuck did I do it? Will I ever learn?

 

I quite fancy a decent modern car, up to ten years old and I'm thinking a 2007/8 325i or 330i Coupe. Yes, it might go wrong. So I'll just take it somewhere and get it fixed like normal people do. Discs and pads, oil changes etc. Yes. Clutch replacement? FRO. To have a nice car owing you 3 grand or so is no biggie and there are times when you just want to have a nice, smart modern that goes well, looks nice etc.

 

 

Back to old cars and this 520i. Having fixed it, MOT'd it etc I realised I don't want to own this. Then the horrible realisation dawns that you have to sell it and there are few things I despise more than selling cars and having to deal with people, too many of whom are utter wankers. I was so lucky that just as I was selling, someone I know was buying and a deal was done very swiftly and easily. That sense of relief of a sold car fucking off up the road and out of your life is like a drug and it's certainly as nice as having a wedge of twenties.

 

So, I'm done with it.

 

I have my 7 Series that I've had for centuries (2003) and which has emotional attachment. We've had some epic trips together and it owes me nothing.

I have my 318Ti track slag that owes me about 200 quid that I can call upon whenever there's a track day I want to do. It's going nowhere.

My old 3 Series Touring is a useful old bus and is worth more than that 4-500 quid I might get for it. That is staying ad infinitum.

And next year's 'nice' car  purchase, maybe. 

 

But that's it. There may well be further shitters but bought strictly on the basis that they will be bargainoulsy cheap (sub 500 quid) and very easily disposed of via the medium of a beavertail on the way to EMR to be shredded when I think 'bollocks to this' - after they've been stripped of saleable bits in order to make a profit. But even this scenario has very little appeal. There's nothing I actually want to own, I'm happy with what I have.

[Bren]

Problem is a lot of newer stuff is shit - but you only find out when it fucks up.

 

I know exactly where you are coming from though - I have had a lucky escape with our vectra - a two hour session with somebody who knows about the 3.0CDTi cost me £45. The faults were fixed with contsct cleaner, RTV sealant, electrical tape and diaelectric grease. The guy who found the faults only lives on the Wirral - without him I'd have been fooked.

 

Now I have had a diagnosis for my illness I will do what I can - brakes servicing maybe dampers. As for body repairs you cant go wrong with rattle cans.

 

But the days of fixing a car so I can get to work next day are long gone.

[Sigmund Fraud]

We've all been there...

 

 

[taxi paul]

I can understand you feeling . I have my jap bus whichome is great for long journeys with all the kids. Sadly that is 5% of what I do . Due to its narrow wheelbase it's a pain in the arse literally over speed bumps which is 95% of my daily driving. So I bought my celica lots more comfy over bumps and a bit more of a drivers car. So now my daughter is back in work I am taking the grandkids to school and the celica is a four seater and there are five of us. So I look around and find a corolla just under £500 . 1.3 auto five doors and five seats excellent. £13.50 a month tax but insurance on it is ridiculous, circa £800 year. I can't get a classic policy cos I need business use because of my job. So at the minute I have my jap bus,my celica and my corolla and all of them are a compromise.So I am thinking about something but need 7 seats and would like a bit of auto luxo autobarge but also be able to shift when I am on my own and meeting my boy racer mid liFe crisis part. Also needs a boot when all seats are up. I know it's a volvo xc90 that I need and I am just delaying the inevitable. I like bmw x5 but repair bills may frighten me.

[kinkersaab]

would an Alpina coupe be of interest............................. it is a project though...however is always going to be worth as muhc in bits as it costs.......

[sierraman]

There is a happy medium to all this. I'm guessing you've had a bad run with something.

My advice as you know yourself is leave 'saving' shit for the masochists who enjoys stripping down gearboxes in their spare time. It's easy to get in the mindset it's your job to save them all, it isn't. I like the old Mondeos but if I was faced with mending it every weekend I'd have no qualms about fragging it. Dont get me wrong it's looked after but I'm not replacing stuff unless it needs doing.

 

If you want hassle free motoring at this level, buy a good one for a grand or so, ignore diesels and run it into the ground, then throw away and start again. It's as difficult as you want to make it.

[purplebargeken]

Also getting to that point again. Is it worth the hassle? Tax, MOT and fixing up.

 

I have my Toledo which is a keeper, tax free, soon to be mot exempt. I have the Galaxy which is a keeper and will be used for escaping at weekends when possible. The Golf.... no fucker wants it, so may as well keep as it is a nice car that I can use instead of the i10.

 

The 340 is a lovely car but I just don't need it and it was bought in error with hindsight. Hey ho. 

[garethj]

I sometimes have the same mind frame and have looked at cars up to 10 years old for £3-5 grand. Unfortunately many are no better than the £500 version so you still need to buy carefully

[xtriple]

I think we have all 'been there' with sodding mechanical heaps. I bought a Honda CBX (yes, motorcycle but the principal is the same) and restored it and it fought me every inch of the way and cost so much money, but I'd already spent shedloads so I had to carry on. I ended up hating that bike (though I'd had one back in the day and wanted to 're-live' my youth) and even when it won me £500 at a bike show for 'best bike' I felt like it was cheating. Hated it.

 

Fortunately at the same meeting a Honda dealer (also Triumph, Kawasaki, Yamaha etc) took a major shine to it and offered me a new Triumph Sprint 1050 as a  straight swop. I really had to fight to NOT snap his hand off! Obviously I did take the deal just played it cool... So I guess I came out alright but the stress and time put me off for life.

 

About 4 months later I bought a Yamaha IT 465 direct from the US to restore. You get like this, then recover and start all over again!

[HMC]

I had a similar experience this year. I can remember the moment.

6 cars crammed on the drive, I was scrambling around under the front end of mg zt, in the dark and damp, I'd cut my finger, threaded a subframe bolt and smashed my mobile phone under the car all in the space of a few minutes. I said out loud (probably shouted) FUCK THIS! I'm supposed to be enjoying this? Covered in filth I vowed to sell everything, 4 weeks later and all the chod had been sold or fragged. I disappeared from the forum for a while. I feel much better now.

[sierraman]

If you can't be doing with losing lots of money and laying on your back with gearbox oil dribbling up your sleeve, don't buy a 25 year old Jaguar.

 

It's easy at this weak point to run out £5,000 in hand and buy something superficially ok but actually shit. If you think you are depressed now you won't half be then when it collapses like the old one did.

 

Take time to consider that's my advice.

[kinkersaab]

^ exactly this...cars go wrong...all of them..its much easier to take it on the chin when its a cheaper car that a 5k one... 

[gordonbennet]

It took me bloody years to finally concede what i knew deep down in my heart in my younger kerbside cowboy days, that to be able to run older non American cars with minimal aggro they have to be Japanese.

 

Yes they still need looking after, and preventative maintenance is always a good investment, but generally proper Japanese cars weren't just designed to me made cheaply, you keep finding things that obviously were costly in design and manufacture, but when repairs or long term maintenance are required they make the job almost a pleasure.

Plus Jap car suspensions don't normally have seized solid bolts that are going to shear in place, which is the bane of every VW home mechanic.

 

Two examples here, on our two cars.

 

Landcruiser, cambelt change in one hour with basic tools, don't even have to remove the auxilliary belts.

 

Outback, the front inner drive shaft boots sit above the Cats so eventually perish and split, driveshafts are roll-pinned to the gearbox output shaft and the CV joints on splines held on by circlips, on the shaft itself so none of that stretching boots over you simply dismantle easily, clean them up regrease them and fit new boots...again the job is actually pleasurable because you're re-greasing all the joints so the shafts usually last the life of the vehicle.

 

Both those cars have drum inside disc parking brakes, which with a bit of care and lubing again will see the life of the vehicle with just new friction materials.

 

 

My Mercs could easily have reduced one to tears, and when i think back years ago to being on first name terms at the Ford parts desk, i should have kept with Japanese after owning my first Jap a square RWD Datsun Bluebird estate, which being as i was a young twat bored me, and it took me years to realise why, because the bloody thing simply refused to go wrong.

 

All my Jap cars since have been exactly the same, they just work.

[DodgeRover]

About 4 months later I bought a Yamaha IT 465 direct from the US to restore. You get like this, then recover and start all over again!

Oh we need IT stories

[SiC]

+1 on going for Jap cars for the least agro. As least that's my rule too. Shame they don't make the interiors as nice place to be as the Germans.

[sierraman]

Look at the Prius. Taxi drivers are dropping diesel like there's to tomorrow for Priuses and those Auris Hybrids, they'll do 3-400k without bother, small unstressed engine, regen brakes, brushless motor. The Primera, just went on forever.

[SiC]

Look at the Prius. Taxi drivers are dropping diesel like there's to tomorrow for Priuses and those Auris Hybrids, they'll do 3-400k without bother, small unstressed engine, regen brakes, brushless motor. The Primera, just went on forever.

Lexus CT200h is the same drivetrain but in a more normal car like and comfortable package. Shame they're a bit on the slow side.

[sierraman]

Not as slow as sat on the hard shoulder.

[Kiltox]

I've never understood being sick of old cars so buying a £5k 8 year old one instead of a £500 20 year old one - hence buying brand new myself

 

A £5k car can swallow money just as fast replacing stupid sensors etc - just look at SiC and his Audi

[Dave_Q]

I can see where you're coming from, I'm starting to get a bit sick of the constant project management to fit all the bits I need to do in the time I have. 

 

I am considering buying something a bit newer but I'm very wary of spending 10x as much as usual (ie £2000-£5000) to end up with something that needs as much doing as a £300 shitter. 

 

There has got to be some middle ground between a 1997 Toyota Avensis and a new car on finance though?

 

I think in the Rev's case it rather sounds like he knows his onions when it comes to BMWs, so the £3-5k car is less likely to cause him grief than if I were to splash out on the sort of thing I want but could get for that money, ie an ex-taxi Merc Vito or Viano.

[RichardK]

What helps me is having a new car as well. The old cars are enthusiasm, projects, and I can only handle so many projects at once - yes, I am bricking it at the amount the truck costs per month because the work I am supposed to have hasn't materialised yet, and I haven't had time to go up to Scotland and get things done up there. But by the same token, I got rid of the Sera (regrettably got rid) and RX8 (regrettably not just sorted right when I got it, but relieved to be shot of it at massive loss) and then suddenly, I fixed the lovely Twingo that had been sitting around for /two years/ with only half-arsed efforts made.

[sierraman]

It's probably in people's choices as well, a petrol Avensis won't have you down at the motor factors every weekend.

 

If you go and buy something old and obscure with problems, it then takes you months to get stuff done and source bits then you ought to know better.

[SiC]

You won't get a E90/etc 325i/330i that you'd want for £3-5k

[Tamworthbay]

My problem is that I like to mess about with sub £500 running projects or very nearly running, I have a full on project and don't need another. I want 80s or earlier (with a few exceptions), no electronics and easy to get bits. Not sure any such car even exists anymore.

[dave21478]

Timely thread.

 

Gyppos are apparently coming to the farm tomorrow for scrap metal so this morning I emptied my garage and lobbed a massive pile of spares, odds n ends, batteries, useful* bits of metal and so on into a pile in the farmyard and they can take the lot.

 

I am probably going to frag the majority of the fleet over the next few months. Still got this fucking Ranger sat up in Aberdeen to deal with too....tempted to just cartakeback the fucker tbh.

[John F]

I wouldn't fancy having to learn how new* cars work, tbh.

 

As has already been said above: they often cost more money than old ones to buy and maintain, and are likely to be harder to work on.

[sierraman]

Not really. I guarantee you'd spend much less time working on a 2005 Focus than a 1985 Escort. Easier to service, less to do, will do 150-200k no bother if you look after it.

 

The old Escort was what it was. As a hobby I'd love to have one but as first string transport. Wouldn't want one as first string transport, it would be a right pain in the arse.

[Tamworthbay]

I ran cars from 1962-1978 as dailies for nearly fifteen years until a year ago. I only had one breakdown - a holed radiator due to a stone off a highways lorry on the M6. Maintenance was probably an hour a month. The idea that cars from that era are inherently unreliable is inaccurate. The difference is that if they do go wrong they are easy to sort.

[lisbon_road]

If you're sick of them, then have a break.  Why not.  

 

I think that the key to success with older cars is to be using the right one.  Those comments above about Japanese cars ring right to me, even though I have never owned one.

 

Mind, sounds like you're keeping several so that the 'done with old shit' is perhaps a bit melodramatic?

 

Good luck with the newer one!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

would an Alpina coupe be of interest............................. it is a project though...however is always going to be worth as muhc in bits as it costs.......

 

 

If it's for next to nothing and wages can be made, maybe. Otherwise nein.