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.

11 minutes ago, grogee said:

MASSIVE GENERALISATION ALERT

What is the correlation between sleeveless t-shirt wearer/vest wearer and racist? 

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.

30 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

A good time to see old stuff is weekdays after 9.30 and before 3 when they come out for trips to the post office, doctors, garden centres etc. Surprising what's out there still running. Often kept in a garage which helps survival. Saw an early Nissan Bluebird estate this week. 

Seen two this week. Both very faded red. The lady we bought our house off has one too,again red, which fits the above, giffer, kept in a garage, criteria. 

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 

14 hours ago, Soundwave said:

This is not the greatest car in the world, no. This is just a Tribute...

 

As far as I can tell, there are no Mazda Tributes currently on eBay or Autotrader.

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.

10 hours ago, Ghosty said:

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"

2 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

Surprised the Kombi sold by Bonham's went for so little.  Is the market saturated, do we think?  I like the things, but have always thought of them as being too expensive to bother thinking about.  Perhaps prices have declined.  

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.

19 hours ago, w00dy said:

So why have I bought it? This is me as a small child in the mid-90s with my families beloved 1982 Devon Moonraker (I never knew NASA was quite so into brown patterned fabric). I have many happy memories of driving down to Spain with the aircooled engine thrumming away.

Often on these trips I'd see Westfalias and other Euro-spec vans and thought they seemed impossibly cool next to our rather mode dowdy van (although the neon swoosh definitely helped in my mind, lost in a later repaint sadly) 

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.

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

‘Ideal fishing car’ - base spec horrible Astra Estate diesel, flat blue paint, shit aftermarket trims, excessive numbers of air fresheners to hide the Golden Virginia, brown cloud stain on headlining, some seat covers to hide all the piss stains, radio permanently tuned to AM and mud absolutely fucking everywhere. Throw in some miscellaneous starting fault that no cunt can cure. 

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

46 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

"I know what it's worth".

 

Yes, so do I, and that's why it's not sold at your ridiculously inflated price 

See also "these will only appreciate in value".

Usually a sign of the seller having a bad  case of sunk cost fallacy 

1 hour ago, egg said:

I'm sure someone will bet the right way on this question, but I have no idea. I like to think I keep vaguely up to date on social/political/economic trends, but I can't imagine what personal transport looks like in 17 years time in the UK. I'm not sure there is a plan really, beyond phase out the ICE and all will be good.

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.

19 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I always thought the 2.5 5-pot TDI was a pretty decent engine.  Or did it all go to pot with common rail?  Certainly the LT35s I had with that engine were pretty trouble free, and it seems to have been OK in Audis (and Volvos) too - certainly better than the V6 TDI that replaced it.

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. 

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

I’m guessing it would be something like he’d bought the car then was ill and couldn’t drive for a period, laid it up but then never got round to driving again. There was definitely intent at some point to come back to it with him taking such care to store the trim. Could have very easily gone the other way if the garage had leaked, they’d be bringing it out on a shovel.

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.

3 hours ago, SiC said:

I did a little bit on the MG yesterday but it's bloody cold. Should be out there right now but sub zero temperatures makes it a bit off putting. By the time the heater has taken the chill off in these temperatures, I'll be going back in again.

We did watch the sunset this early evening. I will be very glad when the sunsets later in the evening in the next 2 months.

Is that Clevedon? I was there earlier on today.

These are much better looking cars than I remember 

43 minutes ago, garethj said:

 

 

Look at this brilliant dashboard