Really common cars you don't see anymore, like this.

[D-Dubya]

I can't remember the last time I saw a Datsun/Nissan Stanza on a UK road.

[Negative Creep]

Everything before the mk.1 Focus. Early Meganes, Vectras, Mondeos and Lagunas are vanishing pretty quickly, although whether that is a bad thing is purely subjective.

[chaseracer]

The Foke-Arse was a bit of a game-changer, safe to say...

[forddeliveryboy]

All that'll be left in a couple of years is stuff which is ECU'd to the eyeballs. Great until an earth point corrodes or you drive through a ford. Are dual-mass clutches being phased out or are they still being slotted into new cars?

 

A bit like the twilight hours of the carburettor when it grew hideously complicated in an attempt to lower emissions, the motor car as a whole is showing signs of becoming so unnecessarily complex that it's in its final few years as we know it. Electric cars will be nothing other than one great mass of wires, motors, batteries and computers (with wheel bearings one of the few remaining parts from 'dirty' cars). Hybrids will have their own, strange band of masochists and those of us who spurn leccy motors will be taxed out of existance by HMG.

 

Imo the mid eighties to the late nineties will be looked on as the golden years of the car with real engines. I'm glad to have lived through it - and am stuck in it in some respects, all my transport is from this period.

[phil_lihp]

Are dual-mass clutches being phased out...?

 

I sincerely hope so.

[londonm]

I agree with Forddeliveryboy, those who continue to use older cars will be taxed for it. Labour were going to double road tax on older vehicles just before they got voted out last time, the recession looming meant they lost their nerve.

[Mr Livered]

A tax on older vehicles could tempt the bastards to roll out some of the same justificatory arguments that they used for the scrappage scheme, like the idea that it supports the car industry.

 

Even if I wasn't interested in cars and I just drove around in something modern and dull, I can't imagine myself being delighted about a government scheme to make my car uneconomical to run and thereby force me to spend thousands on a new on. So it seems a bit strange as a vote winner.

 

Anyway, what the fuck is an old car? "Old" is really subjective. Out of our four cars, by far the newest is the sensible, ever-so new Mazda that Mrs L goes to work in. Just today I noticed that as an 03 it's one of the oldest cars in the village.

[mercrocker]

I reckon the scrappage system was kick started by greedy dealers.   What car industry have we that would  have benefitted so much?    Its gonna take some real determination to keep new chod running beyond the five or six years  its programmed to last...Keep that Minx handy!

[Mr Livered]

Yeah there was definitely a great deal of lobbying from the car industry.

 

A bit like in France, where they've just introduced that requirement to carry a breathalyser (or actually two) all the time. It was all the idea of the (French, of course) breathalyser company. All they had to do was get someone from a road safety charity to say they thought portable breathalysers were a good idea and they were on the way. All very cynical

[Ghosty]

I talk about 405s and then I saw two today, a low-spec white one (no dent in boot), and I forgot there's a red P reg GTX that lives round the corner from me.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

A french guy told me last week that that breathalyser bollocks had all been canned in France before it had actually been enforced. Now you don't have to carry one of those things.

[chris1991]

Vauxhall Cavalier of any Mark

 

Vauxhall Calibra

 

Nissan Sunny

 

Metro/100

[londonm]

A tax on older vehicles could tempt the bastards to roll out some of the same justificatory arguments that they used for the scrappage scheme, like the idea that it supports the car industry.

Even if I wasn't interested in cars and I just drove around in something modern and dull, I can't imagine myself being delighted about a government scheme to make my car uneconomical to run and thereby force me to spend thousands on a new on. So it seems a bit strange as a vote winner.

Anyway, what the fuck is an old car? "Old" is really subjective. Out of our four cars, by far the newest is the sensible, ever-so new Mazda that Mrs L goes to work in. Just today I noticed that as an 03 it's one of the oldest cars in the village.

It's got nothing to do with wanting your vote, the political class has signed the UK in to a carbon reduction programme with the EU. This country gets fined unless older polluting cars are taken off to get scrapped. It also provides old has-beens like Blair, Kinnock, etc with a few extra years on the gravy train and a pension you and I can only dream of.

[phil_lihp]

A french guy told me last week that that breathalyser bollocks had all been canned in France before it had actually been enforced. Now you don't have to carry one of those things.

 

Kind of...

 

http://www.greenflag.com/news/press/Car-breathalyser-fine-enforcement-delayed-in-France-until-further-notice-2013-1-21-2013-2-20.html

[Tetleysmooth]

 

 

 

Both were my cars at one time.

[mnde]

Here's my Mk1 Megane daily:



I still see plenty of R and S reg Scenics around. But other once common cars I hardly see any more:

Nissan Almera (remember the advert being on all the time when it was new...)

Old shape Peugeot 106 - I passed my test in one

Any non-sporty Saxo

Any Saabs

Fiat Cinquecento

Fiat Coupe

Ford Puma/Cougar

Ford Maverick/Nissan Terano

Vauxhall Frontera

Early Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra

Early Espace - the 90s school run bread and butter

Old shape Range Rovers

Bedford Rascal

Citroen C15s are thinning out...

 

Or is it that all the once common cars are hidden by the hordes of Audis, VWs, Mercedes, Binis, Land/Range Rovers etc.?