New Member - hello!

[phil_lihp]

Just thought I'd say hello, thought it was about time I contributed something instead of lurking in the background. My shite credentials are pretty poor - I only own one car and it's a nearly new Kia C'eed, excellent though it is, it's a few years and miles from shite status yet! My last claim to shitedom was a 1998 Kangoo van about 8 months ago, bought to move house and as it turned out, full of holes so that went back where it came from...ebay.

 

I do have fond memories of the world's most unreliable, worn out Citroen AX which was my first car, bought with 100k miles and eventually sold with over 120k. Over 3 years, it worked its way through a lengthy list of breakdowns and problems including an impressively sudden HG failure preceded by a loud backfire brought on by my naive belief that a bottle of reddex poured down the cylinder bores would remove some of the internal crud caused by years of neglect. Say what you will, it certainly worked, it ran much better when it came back from the garage.

 

Anyway, I don't see much interesting shite day to day but here's one sorry example from my archives:

 

 

This is an uber-rare (as far as I know) Rover SD1 2400 diesel which, when I took these, was the sole remnant from an abandoned scrapyard in the process of being developed. It's long gone now but when I found it a few years ago, I posted on an SD1 forum to see if anyone wanted bits from it, as the wheels looked good and some external trim was still OK. I thought there might be half a chance of rescuing it from the developers before it was taken away. There was some interest in the bits but not enough to warrant the hassle. I was told that the diesel was rare, but for good reason - not many people in the UK wanted one then and even fewer want one now. Perhaps that has changed, but I don't recall ever seeing one before.

[dollywobbler]

Howdy.

 

Rover SD1 diesel is certainly top-trump-shite. There are a few still out there. I've had a Range Rover with the (largely) same engine. It's not as bad as people say but it's about as tolerant of neglect as a K-Series. Really, Rover were just trying to get their customers used to carrying out servicing when they should and checking the coolant level every five minutes...

[Mr H Sceptre]

Hello & welcome sir!

[wackywacerwill]

Good evening to you.

[Split_Pin]

Welcome to the world of shite.

 

Good spot on the Rover, I didn't know about these.

 

Don't worry, I don't have shite cars either but as you clearly like them, you'll enjoy everyone's blogs about keeping the faith with otherwise unloved motors. There's even an episode or 2 of 'proper' Top Gear from 1985 shown at the interval.

 

Enjoy!

[phil_lihp]

Cheers, yes seen one or two of those before. I've had a habit of scanning the ebay ads for decaying automotive dross for some time now, it's nice to see I'm not the only one afflicted. As yet the Kangoo is the only one I've actually bought and that at least was roadworthy and served a practical purpose, I have neither the room nor the funds for a project...

[Cavcraft]

Good evening and welcome chief.

[vulgalour]

Ah, BL's tradition of creating undesirable diseasels. I recently learned they released 50 diesel Princesses (the wedge type) aimed at the Taxi market to compete with the popular models of the day. Suffice to say it failed, and small surprise given how glacial their acceleration is with a petrol lump in!

 

Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your stay

[DSdriver]

A first post with a bit of content is a rare thing nowadays but yours has been very readable. I wish you a warm welcome. I am sure that after a few weeks letting Autoshite rule your life you will be selling your daily driver and replacing it with something interesting and old. I find my DS Safari* a very practical daily driver and I have not yet needed to use the bus stop that is right outside our front gate, mainly because we have two other cars.

*Other less ludicrously expensive to buy and maintain but interesting and enjoyable old Citroens are available.

[Ross_K]

Hello sir, and welcome

[phil_lihp]

Thanks guys, seems like a friendly forum! The Kia's a keeper I'm afraid, I need a modern, presentable and above all, reliable car for my work as I'm self-employed but for all that it's a superb car for the money, it isn't terribly exciting and I'd like to think it might be getting a stablemate in the (admittedly distant) future when funds allow, I have my CBT now as well so it might end up being a little 125cc motorbike. Maybe. Perhaps.

[fotorabia]

Wecome aboard mate..long may u sink to the shite levels we all currently wallow in here.I may add...having once been a crusty squatter traveller..that crew were diesel afficiendos..and some of our crew showed up in Berlin 1995 with a Uk SD1 diesel..we all marvelled at it cos no one knew the Rover Grope and reduced themselves to our level..