Shirley Knott

They're pretty reasonable TBF man....

Yeah, this one's actually surprisingly good from a corrosion standpoint, a bit of hidden gem really.... I'd actually set out to buy a C1/107/Aygo, but within our price range they were all invariably rotten or formally written off (Both in some instances). RE plugs, unsure at this stage... I'll confirm shortly though as they're on the 'to do' list along with timing belt and a few other bits.

The oil, oil filter and air filter changed on the Clio yesterday. After not servicing much else aside from a 2.4 V70 and the 1.9 SDi Golf for many years now, I must admit to being slightly taken aback by the size if the oil filters for these. They're TINY! I also noticed the ID sticker was about to peel off the engine block, do I rescued it. I believe this would make it a 'D7F726'....

Right- Some developments here. Our trusty Golf SDI shat its power steering rack last week. By this stage it was looking pretty rusty, timing belt was overdue and it had done 195K. A tough choice, but off it went for scrap. Goodnight sweet prince.... I'm actually still pretty sad about this, but honestly, it was time. Meanwhile, I've bought a 112k Octavia SDi estate locally. Frankly it's pretty much immaculate, not a spot of rust on the sills or anywhere, undertrays still fitted etc. This will be taken over by my younger brother. I'm actually really jealous this one isn't for me.... For us, I've picked up this late registered manual 1.2 Mk2 Clio on 61k..... The MOT history on it is pretty pleasing. It's our first French car (Not counting the C1 as technically they're an Aygo). Honestly seems OK so far.

I'd agree with this. Painful, but it doesn't take an awful lot of man maths to see that whilst unpleasant, fixing the car you have is the the lesser of the evils in this instance.

Thanks man- Exactly what I needed to know. In light of that it's probably pretty pointless looking at the older cars (for me at least), there's literally only a few hundred quid difference these days between them it seems.

Just reading through this again a couple of years on- Kudos to @sierraman, it's brilliant. Nowadays, Mk3 Focus seem to be almost banger money too, to the extent that I'm genuinely looking at one as a serious option. It looks like from a diesel perspective the 'desirable' 1.8 TDCI didn't make it into this marque, and the choice is either 1.6 or 2.0? How does the Mk3 (2010 onwards) compare vs the Mk2 in terms of engine options? Also, how likely are the electronic steering modules lasting without causing trouble or requiring rack replacement?

It's a tricky one isn't it... Its easy to be critical of them but the small issues you've mentioned are well known (and easy/cheap to fix). The Mk5s I see for sale locally are riddled with problems, and my MOT tester will moan for as long as you're prepared to listen about the number of Mk5s he's having to weld up for the second, third and fourth time. He recons the later they are, the worse they get. Meanwhile, the youngest Mk4's are now pretty much 20 years old and yet there seem to be vast numbers of them still on the road, many more than equivalent aged fiestas/corsas I suspect - But I'm pulling figures out of my arse admittedly. Personal experience, mines now done 190k and is on original injectors/fuel pump as far as I know, and my younger brother has a Mk1 octavia (Same car essentialy) that he's owned from a year old, it's now on 220k and still on its original turbo/injectors/pump and the original exhaust was only replaced last year... Both 20 years old, neither have ever been welded, both daily drivers still covering circa 500 miles a week with no real drama.... If that's not a measure of a durable car, I don't know what is.

^Probably my favourite AS quote of the year so far! That's my experience too FWIW.

I drive (amongs other things) a Mk4 SDi Golf with 190k and 68ps.... Drops mic.

IIRC they're on the list of cars VW say aren't fit to run on E10, meaning you have yo buy premium fuel whilst still making tortoise like progress. Definitely one to swerve.

This morning the trusty V70 of magnificence hit a major milestone. It's now 100,000 miles young. My love for afair with it continues to blossom. Its basically like a van, for example last weekend it helped me to move 32 foot step ladders... And yet this evening after a wash and wax, its a presentable family car... Not bad for a 22 year old nag- FAR from perfect but still very presentable. Gone are the days when stuff like this could be had for £350. I can't help but feel that the halcyon days of shiting are now well behind us.

Honestly, I'd mess it up, and I'd rather not jeopardise the potential to keep the car on the road for as long as feasible. Agreed. I think this is the logical way forward really!

This is the truth. I'll hold on to it until its either prized from my cold dead hands, or its actually made of more MOT patches than car.

That's it, exactly right, and still never been welded. It's done getting on for 190k and achieved 50-60 mpg throughout and is still manages to cover 500 miles a week. As far as I'm aware it's on the original injectors and fuel pump. No DMF/DPF/turbo issues as it doesn't have any of these things. I'll be very sad to see it go when the time comes 😔 I started a thread about a week ago in the 'Ask a shiter' section to try to find a spiritual successor, and the conclusion was pretty much that nobody makes a car like this these days (Least of all Volkswagen) Sad times... I'll probably give it a viking funeral in It's last year by running it on veg and playing Pink Floyd's 'Time' on repeat on the CD deck.

Probably not. It's not too bad underneath, but bodywork wise.... Bear in mind all of these areas have been rubbed back, 'converted' with hydrate 80 then painted with zinc primer and top coat every year for the last 5 years... It used to take a long time for the grot to come back, these days the rusts coming through again a couple of months after treatment. Northern England puts one hand on each ear of cars, and then repeatedly fucks them in the face with a shaft made from pure corrosion. Pretty soon this one's going to need big ugly plates welding all over it, and that's always the beginning of the end IME. That being said, there's probably a couple of years of life left.

Time for a quick update here- More for my own records than anything else. At present the 'fleet' is still down to just two cars, the funny thing is they're both pretty much 20 years old and used as daily drivers, so things can be (And often are) challenging. Volvo V70 - Nothing to report other, than the time around a month back when the spring seat separated itself from the body of the strut and rocketed its way into the front tyre locking the drivers side up. To add to the fun, I was mid way through driving the boy to school. This was the first time in my life I've ever had to be recovered, and after a few days at a local garage the Ovlov now boasts new front shocks (Both sides) GOLF SDi- Various work done on this one since the last update... From memory, a new rear flexi, brake line, rear discs and pads and a couple of new tyres. Given its capable of the best MPGs, its the vehicle of choice and is currently covering around 500 miles a week. Unfortunately the rust is now starting to take hold and I honestly recon I'll be lucky to get another couple of years out of it. The love is still strong for it in spite of this, today it was lovingly provided with an oil and filter change, 187,548 hard northern miles deep at this stage.

Any mention of 'sunroof ' in the context of 700/900 series cars still sends a shiver down my spine after the bother I had sourcing and replacing the entire moonroof on my old 940. I think they were a kind of willy waiving option to tick at one point, a must have to show the other reps how well you were doing? Completely agree- They're not even that great when they're operating as they should, but when they're problematic they're the work of the devil.

MK4 Golf spares are fairly affordable TBH, here you go.... Rear discs and pads £32 (Comline) fitted lots of these and they're decent, handbrake cables £18 (Febi)- Both of these from Carpartsinmotion. The rear brake line in question joins at the trailing arm and is available as a single/solid piece (Pagid) from ECP for £20. Total - £70 Also I appreciate I have the option to work on my cars myself, I almost always do and in future I'll look to continue. TBH the main focus of the grump was that they were asked to replace handbrake cables alone, and IMO, despite having agreed this was no issue, they'd clearly decided to set about fitting discs and pads before asking (Almost certainly damaging the rear line whilst in the process), giving them no option but to call me with a cock and bull story about it being necessary to fit discs and pads before they could "Let the car go'", and claiming the brake line miraculously exploded as they pulled it onto the ramp - Essentially at this point effectively having me 'over a barrell' and the car held captive. Hope that make sense?

Massive fucking grump here Stuck the wife's ropey MK4 Golf on for handbrake cables at our local tyre spot today as one snapped last week and I can't face spending the weekend underneath it (I was feeling lazy). Call comes in within half an hour to say they wouldn't do it without also replacing discs and pads as it wouldn't be 'safe to drive' without. Sigh ... The discs ARE on their last legs, but still have some life left in them. I begrudgingly said get a price and call me back.... Another call within 15 minutes to say a rear brake line had miraculously burst as they pulled it into the workshop??? The bill for all this? £369. From what I can see the discs/pads/cables and line come in at £70 for me to buy as a punter, so they must be charging me circa £100 an hour 😑 I'm basically in a situation whereby the cars undrivable due to the incredibly suspicious exploding rear line, so there's little choice other than to pay. FML. Back to fixing my own stuff from here on in I think.

CV boots I've never had a problem with (I usually use brute force and one of the stretch boots and a cone). Even supposedly complicated jobs like timing belts etc- Fine.... This one was a bit weird in that on paper it should be a walk in the park comparatively, and yet descended into four hours of misery. It's certainly put me in a position of re- evaluating things. I hit the big 'four zero' in July, and as part of coming to terms with the fact the end is now probably closer than the begining I'm going to look to give myself an easier life where possible from here on in 😆

100% this. Life's too short eh? The gift I'm going to give future me is the act of farming stuff like this out in future 😬

I'm still disappointed by the poor performance of Dynax UB, I honestly used to consider it the holy grail of rust prevention, that being said everything I put it on ended up being sold in less than a year so I couldn't attest to a long term positive experience either TBH. These days I'm using Comma 'wax seal', it's much cheaper, but needs re-application as it's softer stuff, time will tell...

Aye, definitely one of those "What the fuck am I doing with my life?" moments. I think the real secret it picking and choosing which jobs you farm out more carefully in advance, that and having access to an angle grinder.

Thanks for the suggestions @busmansholiday and @Tickman. You're not wrong, an angle grinder WOULD have been a Godsend - Hopefully Santa will sort me out! @RayMK, it's exactly that sense of pride and fear of embarrassment that kept me going if I'm honest! Also, given I never pay for 'easy' stuff like servicing, I'd imagine a telephone call to a garage I've no established relationship with to tell them I've got a 20 year old rusty shed with a half finished job I've attempted, botched and aborted half way through would likely result in a "F.R.O we're far too busy" response.