More Tea Vicar

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Our daily driver is a 1999 Vauxhall Zafira.

When bought in 2002 at 3 years old after one owner and 22,000 miles it was the newest car I had ever owned and at the time I thought I paid a lot of money for it, although it was from the local Vauxhall dealer, one of the first ones produced, and affordable ones were thin on the ground then.

I paid just over half the new price for it, so reasoned that if it lasted another four years or more I would be no worse off than if it had bought it new and sold it after 3 years.

After 15 years of trouble-free ownership, it is still here and going strong.

Admittedly I don't do much mileage in it as I have always worked fairly locally and had a variety of small second cars as runabouts.

It has still done less than 70,000 miles.

It is still used and abused as a general hack, people-carrier, and very often a van.

I give it a routine service once a year and, apart from tyres, exhausts, discs and pads, the only thing it has had is two new front metal brake pipes, which were advisories at the last MoT.  My total parts spend on it over all those years is still probably less than £500.

It is starting to get a bit tired now but is still perfectly seviceable so, since it is now worth peanuts if I sold it, I intend to run it until it dies.

In all honesty if it needed £500 spent on it to keep it going I think I would probably do it, even though that is probably about what it is worth.

What else could I get with a known history like this one for £500?

Too many people are reluctant to spend some money on a car they already have to keep it going because "that's more than it is worth". Even if it only keeps it going for another 12 months, it is far cheaper than the depreciation they will suffer if they buy a new(er) one.

Zafiria's seem to be so boring and unworthy that they barely get a mention, even on here, but ours does everthing we need it to and has been a faithful family servant for 15 years so don't try to convince me that all Vauxhalls are sh*t.

I am not an old giffer by any means and have been and still am in a position to buy new, but never have. I just have no desire to own a new car simply to watch it depreciate, and the money I haven't spent allows me to enjoy silly vehicles like an Austin Maxi and a Renault 6 which I can get pleasure* from tinkering with, safe in the knowledge that I have the Zafira on the drive as and when it is needed for all the mundane chores and no hassle.

 

 

I ran a 2004 Shakira 1.8i in 2014 for seven months. Dull, not great to drive etc but very well built and sensibly designed to be easy to work on. Also very practical and useful.

[sierraman]

My dad had one. I always used to borrow his cars from time to time, not this one it was a real fanny repellant. And that’s from a man who had a Sierra at the time.

 

I’m sure you’ve had some good service from it but I wasn’t a fan at all.