GagaStan

My sister and brother-in-law had a 2005 (kamm-tail) Prius, an ex-taxi as far as we knew. Grey-imported from Japan, it was still going strong at 450,000km. Comfortable, spacious, fantastically economical in hilly Wellington where most cars get shite mileage - regen braking really came into its own on the downhill.
Only gotten rid of as the battery pack, original as far as we know, went kaput and the owner of the car (BIL’s employer) didn’t want to repair. A shame, as the rest of the car was absolutely fine and wore its miles well. Toyota really know how to make a durable car, at least where the roads aren’t salted.
I loved it for being a big fat middle finger to all the hybrid-hating, “untested technology” crowd. All the way to the end it would do 70mpg on a run.

Time to bring this thread up again.
One of the Norwegian old car magazines I read has now written about this 1936 Plymouth which was in use until the end of the 1960s and is unrestored.
This is not unusual, there were still many 1930s American cars on the road here in the 1960s. And these figures that this car magazine has found prove that in 1936 324 new Plymouths were registered in Norway in 1959 there were still 275 1936 Plymouths registered. And as the magazine writes, many of these were taxis, they went through 5 years of war and very bad roads. 
Another car they wrote about was a 1928 Chevrolet that was on the road until 1961 and over the years changed bodies 4 times! Everything from 2-door to 4-door and small truck.
This time they also wrote another one like this. A 1936 Volvo it started life as a 4 door sedan was converted in the early 1950s to a van and was converted once again in the 1960s to a truck and spent its last years as a farm truck and was on the road until the late 1960s.
I really enjoy reading stuff like this and it's so different compared to how things are today.

About 12 years ago I was asked to pick-up a Rover P4 from a very large posh house in Surrey, I was welcomed by a lovely couple well into their 80’s but dressed in denim and leather with long grey hair. Turns out both had spent a lifetime in the music business, she as a backing singer, he an engineer/producer.
They we’re selling the Rover as they didn’t need two modern cars anymore !  The lady bought it in the late 50’s to commute into London, the bloke had a Riley RM that he’d owned even longer and in the garages were four pre war Riley’s including a genuine Brooklands racer. All the cars were in unrestored everyday condition and they both shed a tear as I loaded the P4. Probably gone now, but otherwise still driving around in that RM.
 

I have a fascination with cars/vehicles that are daily drivers or in regular use for a long time and I mean a really long time. Those that exceed their life expectancy by many decades and still provide reliable service after all these years.
We had a good example in the family. From the end of the 1990s until the early 2000s, my uncle had a 1962 Volvo PV 544 as his only car and daily transport. When this one was retired, it had over 700,000 km on it and over 40 years in use, but still provided reliable service right up to the end, where the last summer in use it was driven across Norway with only a faulty windscreen wiper as the only problem. This was then restored and is still alive but is now retired.
In Norway in the 1960s, there were still many American cars from the 1930s in use and the Ford model A was and is still is common here. 
And here is a short bit of the history of one of Norway's many Ford model A which was still in use in the 1960s. Photo taken in 2010.

This was in regular use from 1928 until well into the 1960s when it was parked in a barn and then taken out again 40+ years later. During its years as a normal car it has been crashed a few times experienced 5 years of war and been driven into a lake and lost a rear wheel at high speed and used for everything from wedding car to transporting livestock, and it is still here and still going.
Which is impressive.
Do any of you know of similar stories?

The Fleet this morning. Golf is sold awaiting pickup this weekend, Rio is misfiring and needs a coil, BX is leaking less LHM out but more rainwater in (must finish garage shelves so it can go back under cover) and the Jazz just soldiers on giving 47mpg and being 99% the amount of car we actually need!

I won at hire car roulette today.

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After having a cursory look around the Bluebird, ordered up some service bits.
Oil/filter, air filter/fuel filter/spark plugs and a new warm air hose, and a rocket cover gasket.
I’ll be fettling with it hopefully next weekend when it all arrives during the week, and cleaning up the engine bay. It still fires up immediately and I think once I give it a good service and replace the very leaky rocker gasket, I can enjoy the summer in it. Probably will sell it this year after I’ve had my fun. Still makes me smile every time I start it up and drive it though.
 

I love the diesel, I had 2 GLDs for work at different times, but the TU is much lighter than the XUD and handles even better.

Took the Mercedes out for a 60km drive today

I got the 205 started for the first time for a year.

Genuinely new to me, the Nissan Pintara Superhatch for the Australian market. Based on the U12 Bluebird.

New shite acquired. 2007 Kia Rio 1.6 pez automatic - was going great until it developed a misfire an hour from home. Maybe it's just trying to be a 3 cylinder 'cos it knows I love them...
Hopefully will be more reliable in service. Seems like a nice little motor, the slushbox is actually very nice and it even has a dipstick! None of this sealed for life crap. Does 2500rpm at 100km/h (60mph) so cant complain about that.
Hopefully just needs an ignition coil and isn't completely farked. We'll see.

I collected my new car. 


I love it. It's great fun. Surprisingly perky. I was worried it'd feel slow, but it doesn't at all. The pedals appear to be designed for the feet of a Barbie doll but it's otherwise comfortable. Massive boot, and 50mpg on the hundred mile trip home. 
It's only my second car ever with a tape player, so I bought an old stereo and made a couple of mix tapes for the trip down there in Junkman's Citroen CX and my trip home - well... the tape player in the CX doesn't work at all, and the one in the 106 warbles so much anyone singing sounds like they're about to burst into tears. Time to revisit the lost art of belt replacement! 

If you will believe it, contact cleaner and a toothbrush has got my Discovery 3 into a driveable state.

I can’t really believe it, and I’m now waiting for the other shoe to drop 😅

That subject can turn into a heated debate.

New shite acquired. 2007 Kia Rio 1.6 pez automatic - was going great until it developed a misfire an hour from home. Maybe it's just trying to be a 3 cylinder 'cos it knows I love them...
Hopefully will be more reliable in service. Seems like a nice little motor, the slushbox is actually very nice and it even has a dipstick! None of this sealed for life crap. Does 2500rpm at 100km/h (60mph) so cant complain about that.
Hopefully just needs an ignition coil and isn't completely farked. We'll see.

Diagnosis complete - all it needs is a coil, phew. Going to replace all four to avoid the others giving up the ghost in sequence... and give it a service too. Robert's your mother's brother and reliable motoring will be restored!

That's exactly what we say, they must top up the screenwash, kick the tyres and send it 😂

I'd agree, this is exactly it. It's off an '07 Kia Rio, which I believe at the time was one of the cheapest news card you could buy here in NZ. So no surprises that the previous owners didn't want to pay (what they'd consider to be) "over the odds" for servicing...
If an oil and filter change is  'full service' for some garages, what the hell is a standard service? Park it in the forecourt for a few hours and take the money? 🤣

Unfortunately this is caused by folk being sold "full services" for £150 which are just glamorous oil + filter changes. When phoned up to be sold the air, fuel, cabin filters for an extra £x, £y and £z each, they decline, because they think they're already getting a full service and everything else is just a sales pitch. 
If an indy tells you a full service is £300-350, it means they're doing it properly, not ripping you off. Unfortunately 80% of people don't realise this. It's not their fault at all though, just scummy sales tactics by the fast fit industry and the likes of Servicing Stop. 
If you tell someone you're doing a "full" service, that would imply 'everything' is being done. Clues in the name. 
As an example at my indy, we offer full, tailored and intermediate
Full is what happens the first time we see it and/or there's no prior history, all the normal fluids and filters get changed. Including Iridium plugs where fitted. No surcharges, no bullshit. You get a base price depending on the make/model and that's what you pay
Tailored is a full, minus what isn't due. Generally every 2 years/20k miles. So you have the base price and then the price goes down for every item that isn't due, e.g if the fuel filter doesn't need doing for another 2 years, or the plugs aren't due for 30k. Etc etc 
Intermediate gets done every 10k for the motorway milers or every year for the "2k a year" mileage customers. It's basically an oil change and health check, what others would call a full service. Yet it's our lowest service. 
If someone calls a service a full service but the wheels haven't been taken off then I sometimes cry a little inside... 
For further info, I posted a rant in the motor trade thread which sums everything up!

New shite acquired. 2007 Kia Rio 1.6 pez automatic - was going great until it developed a misfire an hour from home. Maybe it's just trying to be a 3 cylinder 'cos it knows I love them...
Hopefully will be more reliable in service. Seems like a nice little motor, the slushbox is actually very nice and it even has a dipstick! None of this sealed for life crap. Does 2500rpm at 100km/h (60mph) so cant complain about that.
Hopefully just needs an ignition coil and isn't completely farked. We'll see.

Took the R4 to work today.

Smoll car is smoll.

New shite acquired. 2007 Kia Rio 1.6 pez automatic - was going great until it developed a misfire an hour from home. Maybe it's just trying to be a 3 cylinder 'cos it knows I love them...
Hopefully will be more reliable in service. Seems like a nice little motor, the slushbox is actually very nice and it even has a dipstick! None of this sealed for life crap. Does 2500rpm at 100km/h (60mph) so cant complain about that.
Hopefully just needs an ignition coil and isn't completely farked. We'll see.

ours fell out a few weeks back , banged it on the wall to clear the shite , then put it back with an extra clip on it .., prob see the car out now ..

Why does nobody ever change these??
At least now I know why the blower fan felt a bit asthmatic…