De Selby

I'm dailying 23 and 20 year old cars, mainly short journeys though. I do have something a bit more recent, not that it's any cheaper to run.

There's a close correlation between sleeveless t-shirts and Australian football players, not sure if that helps

Saw this handsome devil in the recently surface dressed streets of South Bristol. Can't be many left with this trim now? Keen eyed will spot the rare "external fag end storage" option

Mouldering in a business park.

There's a strong correlation between 'giffer' and 'kept in garage'. Giffers are probably more likely to own a house with a garage in the first place (let's face it, who can afford such a thing these days) plus are more likely to actually keep the car in it rather than filling it with cardboard boxes, bikes, etc etc. So really you are looking at cars that appeal to a certain demographic.

A cheap but sound Spitfire mk2.

More South Bristol relics. This one seems to get daily use

Nice old barge in the posh end of Bristol. Plus a spectacular range of giffer trinkets

There's one up the road from me, or was a few weeks ago. Very forgettable-looking in the flesh.

The Cruv, a typically dorky 1990s-style Honda effort.

This would be my choice if there was one going. There was a nicely patinated 406 coupé a few doors up from me until a couple of years ago; sadly it ended up getting abandoned and towed through a series of unfortunate events.

Real nostalgia. I like the sound of the letter writers' "A35 painted entirely in gold Hammerite"

Needed a bit of restoration and was pre 2020 I guess? Prices seem to have gone a bit nuts again since. I do really like them and that Devon Caravelle oozes pure nostalgia for me (even if I couldn't really afford one myself) but in all honesty I don't think a Type 2 is a very practical vehicle to run these days - that must surely limit prices.

Bristol's soon to be discontinued Mayor Rees drives a soon to be discontinued Ford Galaxy, apparently.

I always had similar feelings towards T2s - we had a Devon conversion back in the 80s when they were still fairly undesirable. Not long after he bought it, Dad's car cracked its engine block so the VW became the daily driver for a few years. This one has an identical interior, a real symphony of cream and beige with those original fabrics. The Westfalias always seemed a bit more solid but the Devon seating layout was very practical, if completely unsafe by modern standards.

You forgot that lingering smell that means you just know that 'fishing' has meant 'pulling bream out of the local canal'

See also "these will only appreciate in value". Usually a sign of the seller having a bad case of sunk cost fallacy

I seriously doubt there's ever any "plan" beyond whatever keeps a) the donors and b) the small percentage of the population who regularly vote happy. At present the comfortably-off pensioners who can be relied on to vote in every election seem to be quite happy with their PHEVs etc so no doubt we'll go down this route for a few years. People who run shite out of necessity tend not to vote, and people who run shite for pleasure barely come onto policymakers' radar.

It's probably worth checking back in case much of this 'reputation' originates with one or two noisy people on owner's forums...this sort of stuff can get repeated ad nauseam and magnified. I think there are certainly one or two known weak points with the 2.5 but forewarned is forearmed and all that.

Mid 2000s, pre the 2008 crash, were the golden age for sure. Low scrap values and lots of cheap* credit so everyone was ditching their old cars.

Either that or the guy had some kind of hoarding issue; the condition of the garage and the "seven empty fuel containers" makes me wonder.

In my own news, the modern diesel shitbox is currently awaiting the attentions of the dealership (in Clevedon, coincidentally enough) so I am embarking on an exciting* phase of dailying 23 year old and 20 year old cars.

Is that Clevedon? I was there earlier on today.

These are much better looking cars than I remember