Realistic Running of a Daily Shitter

[Micrashed]

So go on. Apart from Albert Ross, how many of us run something over 20 years old as a daily, and more to the point, how many of us rely on said shitter as daily transport and have no alternative car to use.

 

I spent a couple of hours at the Lakeland motor museum with Mrs Micrashed and the spawn and my love for a Mk1 Fiasco was rekindled, as was Mrs Micrasheds. Im thinking sell the Micra, luzz another grand in the pot and buy a nice Mk1, nothing flash or fancy needed, just reliable. I know from old the 1.1 was a nice if clattery, reliable old donkey and easy to work on.

 

It would however be my sole means of getting from A-B and need to clock up about 6000 miles a year.

 

So, good idea? Or pure madness and arseache lies beyond?

[idiotboy]

I'm running a 1977 Allegro 1500 as a daily driver and if that breaks down my only choice of transport is a ming bag Wilko's blue 1977 2CV or the jinxed restored 1973 Ami 8.

 

If all those pack up I've got a 1974 Velosolex and a 1953 Raleigh Popular Roadster bicycle, which is fairly new compared to my Girlfriends 1939 Hercules ladies bike. So the newest thing I own is the 1985 MZ, (but that's not been delivered yet and I can't ride it until I take the CBT) so the newest available transport of any kind is...erm 35 years old.

 

The schwalbe I've not included as it is in a dismantled state and a gift from Sam Glover....I'm hoping it actually is a schwalbe and not some piece of military hardware he's given me by mistake.

[dollywobbler]

Couldn't choose a much better motor really. These cars were all capable of daily duty when they were new. Lob in electronic ignition and a few other creature comforts (12v power outlet if there isn't one) and you're away.

 

I've long used old shitters in daily duty - though I do cheat by usually having more than one. The pressure of having to fix something to get to work the next day can take the fun out of it. A back-up is cost-effective (classic insurance often allows more than one car) and practical.

 

In 2006, my wife started using her 1-litre Mini as a daily driver. That was a 22 mile round-trip to Banbury to catch a train, or occasionally the full 70 mile round trip to Oxford. We had very little trouble with the car in that time. When we moved to Cambs, the Mini played up a bit more - points gap usually and once a rattle from the rear brakes - but it was fine. Old chod needs servicing more often, but it's generally easy to DIY.

[John F]

I ran a 1973 ex-RAF Lightweight Land Rover (2.25 petrol) as my sole vehicle for a couple of years back in the early 2000s, it was easily up to the job once I'd replaced the points & condenser with an electronic ignition kit. At a guess, annual mileage was around the 8,000 mark.

[RedSparrow]

Used a Mk1 MG Metro as a daily. Never failed me once. Good days.

[scruff]

Another LR I'm afraid; dailying my 80" at the moment, it was 60 years old at the beginning of July and is doing a 70-odd mile round trip every day. It does have a Prima TD in it so does 40mpg and I haven't had to touch the engine. I probably spend an hour or so every weekend tightening anything that's worked loose, greasing, popping a bit of oil here and there. It hasn't got a heater (or door seals) so I'm going to get some winter transport... quite fancy a Trabi but think that might be a bit too daft. My wife happily dailyed her Mini 998 up until a couple of years ago when diesel MPGz won out, I may well get that back on the road instead (with lots of waxoyl on it )

[Micrashed]

I think I have got lazy and complacent.

 

True, I lift the bonnet of the C8 and the Micra weekly to check the fluids, but that seems to be it these days. Once a year the C8 gets entrusted to the tame man in a barn to service and MOT, the Micra I do myself. When I owned old Chod, I used to do things every week to them.

 

A Mk 1 Hunting I go I think... And maybe pick up a cheapo motorbike for days when it wont "start ya bastard, start"

[triumph1300]

My 44 year old triumph has never failed me in the reliability sense. Only thing was a battery, but that was like 8 years old, so I don't count that. Ive had it since early march and have done 4 thousand miles without a hitch, good mpg and not bad return of speed, perfect round town, no road tax, and £85 fully comp insurance.

If it breaks down I have to use the bus or ride my bike..

 

All my dailys before this have been:

1984 T25 diesel,

1989 Mini 1000

1986 Ford Capri 1.6

1989 Ford Escort Mk4 Estate

 

Plus loads more, that just goes back 3 years.

[warren t claim]

Back in 1995 I used to do 40,000 miles a year in a 1982 1300 Mk1 Fester until the company I was working for told me I had to have a company car cos the little Ford wasn't the type of image they wanted to project to their customers.

[HillmanImp]

I gave up on moderns a couple of years ago when my insurance went through the roof and I bought the Autoshite bike '91 Saab 900 from M'coli. I then traded it in with Tim for his '86 Audi 100 and am currently smoking around in the '92 Audi Coupe I got a few weeks back.

 

In my opinion, if you buy anything from the mid 80's onwards its a perfectly servicable relaible car. It might not be as refined as a modern car but its not a million miles away and at least you can work on it yourself. The difference between a mid 80's car and a 60's or 70's car is IMO massive in terms of reliability and comfort.

 

Personally I would not be keen on a mk1 Fiesta as a daily driver but its down to taste and what you feel like you can put up with. Not quite refined enough to do mega miles for me these days.

[skattrd]

Not any more - I've got soft in my old age - I discovered cup holders and aircon, please forgive me.

 

A few years ago I was doing 40k a year in a mk2 VW Scirocco, I did have a backup car though, another mk2 Scirocco, both blue and pretty much the same spec. I still have one of them.

[idiotboy]

Another LR I'm afraid; dailying my 80" at the moment, it was 60 years old at the beginning of July and is doing a 70-odd mile round trip every day. It does have a Prima TD in it so does 40mpg and I haven't had to touch the engine. I probably spend an hour or so every weekend tightening anything that's worked loose, greasing, popping a bit of oil here and there. It hasn't got a heater (or door seals) so I'm going to get some winter transport... quite fancy a Trabi but think that might be a bit too daft. My wife happily dailyed her Mini 998 up until a couple of years ago when diesel MPGz won out, I may well get that back on the road instead (with lots of waxoyl on it )

 

Re your comment on running a DDR two stroke as a daily driver

 

The problems with running a two stroke are only going to get worse as they sling more ethanol in the petrol. This alcohol basically stops the oil from mixing properly, and was one of the key reasons why I had to stop using the Tourist as a daily driver,that and the hike in price of two stroke oil. Two engine seisures in 4 months with me captain pedant carefully measuring and mixing the oil was no co incidence. Also there is the cost. A Wartburg if you run at a 40:1 mix (wouldn't event attempt a 50:1 these days) needs a litre of oil for every tank of fuel, so that's an additional £7 (for a decent oil) on top of the whatever 40 litres cost, and you have to use Super unleaded to avoid the ethanol. The economy isn't great either and a Wartie can do anything from 23mpg to a max of 40mpg depending on how you drive. Trabi's are a little bit better but not much, plus is dog slow.

 

For smiles per mile the Wartie was the best daily driver I've ever owned, but also the most hassle. I did toy with the idea of replacing the 3 cyl two stroke unit with something else but then you have to find something that can mate with the gear box and if you are going to do that you might as well have a Wartie 1.3 with the VW Golf engine. Then the whole Wartburgness is lost. So I found someone who wanted it as a lightly used toy and got the LNA instead.

[garethj]

I reckon the things you need for a daily driver are:

 

Working heater with fan

Heated rear window

12V socket so your phone will be charged

Flashing indicators, trafficators are too often missed which makes things a bit savoury on roundabouts and junctions

That's it. Lots of things might make the car more comfortable or give better performance but the things above are my personal minimum.

 

A Fiesta should be perfectly able as long as it's in good nick, the biggest problem will be getting around the bodges that have been forced on it over the years.

 

I'm using a newish (1995) Peugeot 205 diesel as daily transport and it's doing fine at 400 miles a week. Everyone at work is horrified at the danger I'm in and the Russian Roulette I play with the thing breaking down. But it hasn't broken down, it hasn't gone wrong and if it does the repair bill should be peanuts.

[barrett]

If you can handle looking at AN Other forum, ex-Shiter Seth has written a nice article about this very subject HERE

[meggersdog]

Another Land Rover in the shape of a 1990 Discovery.It's my daily that includes trips to the coast, towing car trailers, recovery using a straight bar and a mobile workshop.Yes I have got Barry the Accent and a Discovery 2 but the old one is far more reliable than the Disco 2 and the Hyundai was bought to sell on (when I get bored of it).

[Mash]

I got lazy too. At one time I only had 60s cars but winter was a ballache so I went on to Japanese stuff although I also ran a fairly new Rover about 10 years ago.

 

I've never had an issue with reliablity of old cars if they are kept well maintained as I do with all my cars but I tend to find more recent stuff is a bit more durable, hence I'm on the Starlet at the moment which is currently 13 years old. I ran my other B11 Sunny as a daily no problem but it was the bodywork I was constantly chasing and that for me is the biggest bugbear with older cars. At least with the Starlet although I keep it tidy, I don't have to be quite as finicky.

[Spiny Norman]

My Saab 900 is just a few months shy of its 20th birthday and it's a very useful daily driver.

I do have another car (a 16 year old Merc) which tends to get used for longer runs as it's a bit quieter & comfier but that's just a matter of choice, the Saab would do it just as well.

I'm another one who believes that anything from the late 80s onwards is perfectly serviceable as daily transport in 2012, and you'll never catch me in the depreciation hell that comes with cars under 5 years old.

[eddyramrod]

In the second half of 2008, and still living in Lancashire, I had three cars, not counting wifey's: 1991 Chevrolet Lumina; 1987 Volvo 740 estate; 1962 Cadillac Sedan deVille. The Volvo was supposed to be my daily, and mostly was. For a week or two at a time I would use the Chevy,, which wasn't really a show car and if I hadn't needed the load-carrying and towing abilities of the Volvo, would have been my daily. The Cadillac was pressed into daily duty whenever I fancied really, usually weather-dependent, but thirst ruled it out for distance work (sometimes I was working out-of-town).

Fast-forward to now and my daily is a 1972 Ford Granada, in fact it's the only car I can legally use at the moment. As my continual advertising isn't having any effect, it looks like I'll be shipping it to UK in September, where it will share duty with the 1983 Metro van I'm also bringing. I'll have a modern until they arrive, but only as a rental and once that's gone, I'm unlikely to replace it.

They're designed for daily use, I use them as intended. And as Studebaker Hawk just said, I don't suffer the ruinous depreciation that the likes of my new-car-buying brother-in-law and stepchildren do.

[AndyW201]

All the four Mercedes 190Es I've owned to date have been dailies, and I've only been let down once, by my current one, with a flat battery. I took that as an opportunity to take it off the road and get a few small bits done. So when the temporary Astrashite gets sold, the 190 will be going back into daily service again, doing 30 miles a day. (at 22 years old.) For me, they're perfect, with modern levels of performance, one of the best handling rear drive chassis of evah, a shit-hot heater for Winter driving, and a nice combination of reliable fuel injection with a total lack of modern electronic bollockery to go wrong.

[whitevanman]

until the spring the on the road fleet consisted of

1989 P100 TD

Her indoors the ex granny_Bol 1989 Fiesta 950cc

and the back up motor is my 1974 2.0 Cortina estate...

all more than adequate...

 

however a spate of blown diesel engines and the realisation that her indoors has done 35,000+ miles in the 18 months we have owned the Fiesta and the lack of time to MOT the estate means that the current fleet is

 

1992 1.8 CVH Saphire

2001 Rover 75 Diesel for her indoors

1989 3.0 Shogun, ex Scooters as the back up

 

I expect it to all change again shortly as I need a winter hack that does good MPG and hopefully the Cortina will be MOT'd this month....

[Andrew353w]

I've used chod for my daily commute for 20+ years! It's a 70 mile round trip that can (just) be done by public transport if needs must, but the car's quicker! I only had a Daf 33 available to me when I was started the job, and as the prospect of continued unemployment didn't appeal, I drove my Daf 33 for about 18 months to & from work. It never failed me, although I made a point of keeping it serviced and did oil changes monthly and checked the belt tension regularly. I moved through a series of half-way decent Skodas (Favorits, 3 felicias and a Fun) before relaxing in comfort in my Citroen Xantia, which is THE BEST!

 

There's nothing wrong with using chod on the daily commute IF you can look after it! I love the looks (not all of them admiring!) my Ladas, Reliant Robin & Wartburg have received in the staff car park in the past and I try to park next so something particularly "blingy" when I park, just to have a laugh!

 

The way cars depreciate it's simply not worth running something decent if you can make do and keep an older car on the road.

[eddyramrod]

I should add to my previous post: I can't imagine a better daily than a 740, especially as mine was, a well-specced estate with the extra row of seats, auto box and towbar. Seriously, about the only thing I wouldn't try to do with it would be anything more off-road than a car-boot field. Completely recommended, especially if you have a fair-size commute. I was doing 27 miles each way, often longer coming home as I would take detours to get round bottlenecks. You can't beat a 740.

[barefoot]

As is said above a Trabbi is a right pain as a daily, its the fill ups, although the heater is spectacular.

Hot by the end of the road, that's fire it up, sit for about a minute adjusting the choke & then off.

The brakes seem to need constant adjustment on them as well.

I put up with the bloody thing for 6 years though.

I never managed more than 35mpg & the cost of even the cheapest, smokiest 2 stroke oil was prohibitive.

Bought for £400 in '99 sold for £380 in '05. No one would ever believe that it was only about ten years old G632VFK.

 

Since then Mrs barefoot has been doing a 55 mile daily round trip in an '87 944, which seems to cope.

I spent a long time & a couple of bitterly cold winters in a '79 T2 which has been replaced in the last two years

by another 1987 motor car - a VW Scirocco.

 

I've not driven a modern car for a long, long time.

The last was a Toyota big box with lots of seats, a handbrake on a switch and no instructions that the wife borrowed from work.

I didn't get it at all.

[vulgalour]

Until earlier this year, I was using an '85 Polo as a daily and used it to move the majority of my possessions to my new house. I have had some engine problems, but nothing serious and nothing that regular maintenance by previous owners wouldn't have prevented. Economical, nippy and adequate, but not particularly refined.

 

Now, I'm using the '80 Princess as a daily. She's a bit grumbly about starting when it's damp and has niggles from previous owners that I'm working my way through. On the whole, she's perfectly fine for what I want to do and I'm planning to use her to commute 15-20 miles 5 days a week if either of my recent job interviews resolve into a job. The car was designed to be a daily driver and, if properly maintained, will have no problem doing that.

 

The key to running an old car as a daily does seem to be maintenance. I've noticed that those people that use an older car successfully on a daily basis have a little weekly routine of checks that they do to make sure they never have a serious break down which, really, isn't that much of a hardship. Modern cars make you complacent because they're so much more reliable and durable and need next to no maintenance at all, but I don't see this as a good thing as it means you only get your car checked once a year at an MoT station, and that's usually once it's three years old so some moderns never get checked at all by their owners.

[Largactil]

I can only echo what others have already said...

 

I'd never ran a car much older than 15 years, till I bought my 22 year old Pug 205 from Will of this parish in March.

 

It was only intended as a dispoable shitter to blez around London in, but it's now my only car (my modern's up for sale).

 

I reached the decision to forsake my modern wheels, once I did the sums and looked at the mileage I was covering in each.

 

At twice the mpg, half the RFL and insurance cost, running only the 205 made lots of sense. Having successfully made x3 return trips to Scotland at 900 miles a pop, I'm willing to take a chance on its reliability.

 

Don't see why any of the above would be much different with a Mk1 Fister, if you got the right car...

[worldofceri]

Although I don't at the moment, it's never really occurred to me that an oldish car couldn't be used daily.

 

My '77 Bedford CF was my commuting tool until I crashed it, and Mrs_Ceri ran our Beetle for years with a, frankly, disgracefully lax maintenance regime. In fact, if I ever get it mot'd again she's bagsyed it to use for work again.

[cort16]

I've not done it for years but I think it's down to the old snotter your driving, your technical ability and your patience level.

[Micrashed]

The thoughts of a SWB Landy do fill me with glee, but I doubt I could justify the costs of running one - it would however be great to say to the missus that she could get rid of her tank and we could use the little Landy for towing duties - however I could see "issues" with three kids in the back of a Landy on a long trip.

 

So small and compact is the way. I mean I presently run a 13 year old Micra, so its not exactly new, but in my eyes it is modern.

 

More thought on this I think.

[retrogeezer]

Been running the bollox Bluebird for nigh on 3 years as a daily driver and has not failed me once in that time and has only needed minimal maintenance.

 

Everything works too, great heater, leccy windows and sunroof but keep fit steering.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

In my opinion, if you buy anything from the mid 80's onwards its a perfectly servicable relaible car. It might not be as refined as a modern car but its not a million miles away and at least you can work on it yourself. The difference between a mid 80's car and a 60's or 70's car is IMO massive in terms of reliability and comfort.

 

Personally I would not be keen on a mk1 Fiesta as a daily driver but its down to taste and what you feel like you can put up with. Not quite refined enough to do mega miles for me these days.

 

Nailed it. Irrespective of reliability, the suspension, seats, and brakes of your average FIAT 1100 or Ford Angular are just not suitable for day-to-day driving in modern traffic. Parking spaces are pretty tight, and you don't want to be using a heavy, unassisted steering worm. Of course, you can probably uprate/upgrade some of the above, but then it'd massively weaken the economic argument in favour of running shite. Furthermore, you'd need to change the oil every 2k, rebuild the engine after about 100k and do some minor maintenance work every other week.

 

On the other hand, an E30 will have none of those problems. In fact, my 23 year-old Granny Scorpio offers quite a few features that are expensive or unusual in brand new cars, for example: electrically adjusted rear seats, heated front screen,warning lights for coolant and wiper fluid levels, rear cigar lighter and, last but not least, a box for storing cassettes.

Amazingly, there are still quite a few new cars around which don't come with such luxuries as electric rear windows and aircon!

 

The Fiesta mk1 would be too spartan and uncomfortable for a daily driver, but I understand a lot of people here enjoy miserable motoring, so why don't you just try it out?