one owner fsh!

[twosmoke300]

I had a 55 plate 307 in yesterday for a clutch. Anyhoo, it had 46k on the clock but the service reminder said it was 31.5k overdue for a service.! Now given that it's on 15-18k intervals I make it that it's never been serviced. Runs like shit too!. The owner has had it from new and said -I suppose it might be due one by now!!!!

Some people!

[twosmoke300]

Not that it makes any difference but it was a 1.6 16v sport cc with leather etc so not a cheap car.

[saucedoctor]

A mate in the trade took an E46 320d that was 20-ood thousand overdue in as a part-ex. It was running OK-ish, and my mate had his guys go to town on it. A few hundred miles later it threw a conrod. He still maintains (pun) that the service killed it.

[beko1987]

This is why I'm more weary of low mileage 1 owner cars than high milers! My uncle said he had found some shit shopping trolley thing kia, 52 plate with 3k miles on. I told him to walk away, he said he thought it was a bargain. Dont think he's taken the plunge yet.

 

When I got the ZX on 65k at 15 years old, it barely moved on the test drive, infact I shat myself on the testdrive trying to pull out onto an nsl road, after 2 weeks of driving with my foot through the carpet it loosened up and actually had some speed. I then changed the treacle oil and luckily it didnt shit itself. However the XM at 110k had none of it, although I think Campbell drove it as it should rather than pottered 60 miles a month on a tuesday...

[STUNO]

I wanted a reliable cheap car to get about in and capable of some long trips too. The car is only needed for 6 months so anything with a good MOT will do! 

I saw a 1995 Corsa 1400 on ebay  with only 21000 miles so had a look in the full knowledge that it might be f*$$ed. Turned out that it had been grans car and she did 600 miles a year, then grandson took it and did 12000 miles commuting Poole to Bristol in it. He had done all the work needed and kept it serviced well, so it had new brakes with a new master cyl, and a new cambelt fitted at 20000. The body and interior were like new except for granny scrapes and a dented door, nothing even slightly serious. It has proved to be a good buy and has only suffered a broken speedo cable so far. It actually is quite capable in most situations too. But it IS a cheaply built car. Paid 500 for it and will get what I can when it is no longer needed so very fit for purpose.

ALL VAUXHALLS ARE SHIT etc..

[Lukas]

I´ve bought a 1989 Subaru Leone in 2004, it had only 23.000 miles on it. Sadly, not from one longer drive a week but from a very short drive every day. When I bought it, it drove horrible. It did judder over 3000rpm, had no power at all and started to knock when driven uphill. Later, I discovered that the old man who owned it before me had used the wrong gas-type, he filled the tank with lower quality fuel than needed.

 

I sold it in 2005 with 26.000 miles because it never ran properly. The body was like new though. Since then I am very cautious when looking at a low mileage car.

 

A friend of mine has to scrap her 1995 Toyota RAV4 now because the engine is broken. With only 93.000 miles. Why? Because the last 18 years she only drove it in the city for short distances, almost without any maintenance. When I last looked at the car, it had a bit of black oil on the oil-dipstick. Not enough, of course. Another low-miler you would not want.

 

L

[DVee8]

Talking to our next door neighbour the other day,that collected a new car last week,he told me that the almera he had for 12years had never been serviced,same oil,oil filter,air filter,plugs that it left the factory with.Also it hadn't been washed or hoovered

[Junkman]

Back in 1988 or '89 when I was still in Frankfurt, a less than a year old Trans Am GTA with 10k miles on it was towed to our garage with a rod sticking out of a hole in the block.

The car hadn't even the 500 mile run-in inspection stamped. There was still the break-in oil in the engine. Add 9,500 miles on German Autobahns and it tells you how tough those engines really are.

[Station]

My Subaru Justy - is in very good condition with 48k miles on it (in 23 years). Looking through the docs reveals it's actually 148k miles!

[Mr Livered]

I've only ever bought a brand new car once. It was a T reg Landrover Defender, in 1999.

 

Easily the least reliable car I've ever bought. Both before and after its first service at 3000 miles or whatever it was, the bloody thing broke down repeatedly.

 

This thing was of course too new for service history even to enter the equation, but it was just a lemon. Luckily I'd bought it on tick so all I had to do was drop the keys back to the dealership.

 

Following that learning experience, I'd actually prefer a car that's had the chance to prove itself by racking up some miles, even in the absence of OMGFSH.

[Micrashed]

I have to confess that my normally meticulous servicing of the Micrashed has taken a running jump this year and its had enough work to get it through the MOT. Its on its death sentence now as far as Im concerned so dont see why  I should spend any more money on it so the oil, filters and plugs can do another 5000 miles this year before (hopefully) the whole thing gets binned and turned into baked bean tins.

[boobydoo]

Doesn't surprise me at all about no service history. At the garage I work at, I would say 50% of the part exchanges we take in over 5 years old have a major fault. Engine management lights on, completely shagged pads and discs, airbag lights on etc. People seem to spend the absolute mimimum on maintaining their vehicles these days until they get a ridiculous estimate to put everything right and then try and fob it off to a dealer.

 

We now do a mimimum 2 mile test drive of every part ex before we give a price. 

[Lord Sterling]

I think its more of a case people not understanding the difference between a service and an MOT. Many people still think that an MOT basically determines that your car is still Ok and that it runs Ok, so if it passes the MOT they'll think that it wont need anything for the next year. Some people actually still think an MOT is a service or that a service is a standard part of the MOT

 

People are simply not educated enough about running cars properly these days. Many would find it a difficult concept to look after them, checking even easy thing like oil, coolant and even tyres sometimes. Many think that looking after it consists of washing it and hoovering out every now and again. Actually spending money on consumables like spark plugs, filters, belts and so on is an alien concept to them.

 

Many people these days are actually scared shit of MOTs, so much so, they'll be happy to purchase a brand new car on the never-never just to avoid taking it to a garage.

 

Laziness and pennilessness are also causes of cars not being looked after as they should.

[wuvvum]

I have to say that my experience is also that higher mileage cars tend to be a better bet secondhand.  The only low mileage (which to me is sub-50K) car I've owned that didn't give me any trouble at all was the 1980 Colt auto I had about five years ago.  One I possibly should have held onto.

 

By contrast, most of the stuff I've owned with 150K plus has been completely reliable (including the Citroën AX, which is not a car one necessarily thinks of as being capable of high mileages).  My tow car for quite a while was an E-plate Volvo 740 2 litre estate, which dragged all sorts of tat back to Norfolk from all over the country until the fuel pump finally packed up at 338,000 miles.

[retrogeezer]

it's probably because people have realised that a 'full service history' means nothing when it comes to trade in time after 3 or 4 years. It's just a quick look in the book for a value and that's pretty much your lot.

 

Why spend £300 every year on a service to get £50 more than an average one when you sell it? Look at that Lexus that was for sale on the blue forum for £600.....probably less than a service would cost on it at a dealer.

[r.welfare]

^ arf.

 

I once serviced a four year old Megane 1.6 with 60k on the clock - it had the air filter, oil filter and oil it left the factory with.

 

It belonged to a friend of a friend, and I did the work as a favour for said friend. The owner himself wasn't that bothered. His logic was: it starts and runs, why should I worry?

 

Thing was still on finance as well. It was a convertible and had cost the thick end of 15 grand, I think. A one owner car all right, but NSH rather than FSH.

 

Why you would treat a vehicle like this I don't know. Still, for all those who say the fat-arse Megane is an unreliable motor, I can say different...

[phil_lihp]

A workmate of mine used to have a 2003 Focus diesel which he bought when it was only about 4 years old.  For the next 4 years he did 30k miles a year in it, never, ever cleaned it inside or out and had the oil changed once a year if that.  The interior was absolutely foul and it became so dirty the wheels ended up the exact same uniform dark grey hue as the bodywork.

 

I did try to warn him what was going to happen on a 30k service schedule but he didn't believe me.  Sure enough, around 170k miles the turbo disintegrated in quite spectacular fashion on the motorway and cost a small fortune to repair.  After that and when the garage that repaired it suggested the thick black tar-like oil lurking in the sump was the likely cause he admitted that I had probably been right.

[Pillock]

Because I have warranty, because I have car that's more than likely to implode at some point, I have to have it serviced on schedule.

What doesn't help is the bonkers service intervals on some new cars. A 2009 Focus TDCI like mine is in the dealer every 12,500 miles. Which on my schedule, is every three months. Four services a year! The oil barely has time to go round the engine before it's whipped back out.

 

At the other end of the scale, Mrs_Pillock's Touran is about 20k overdue. I've got the stuff, but every time I have the time to service it it's wanging it down with rain. I've done the air and fuel filters but the oil will have to wait. It still runs OK, quiet and whatever. Doesn't help that VW have put it on variable service intervals, the long life jobs. Which means nobody knows when it's going to need a service till it bings the light on. Fuck that, I'll reset it to 10K intervals so at least I can plan ahead.

 

FFS. 10K oil changes. This is meant to be the modern age.

[phil_lihp]

I wonder if longer service intervals are part of the problem though?  A lot of people view cars in the same way as their fridge, it does the job it has to do, it looks tidy enough and it gets cleaned out when it starts to smell funny.  When owners can go 2 years without having to think about maintaining it, it must be all too easy and tempting to just forget about it altogether.

[Hendry]

Maybe I'm old school but my 59 plate Clio is on 2yr/18k intervals and has a mileage to next service interval countdown on the trip computer rather than just a warning when its 1K away from a service, but I get it serviced every 9K, so half that mileage, and as I do 9K in about 6/7 months the time is about a quarter of the time.

 

I don't just get it an oil and filter change either, the air, pollen filters and the spark plugs all get changed too, which is probably really over cautious but a service to me is all filters not just oil, I just think 18/20K is too long, and I work in a car related workplace, where the guys all know a good bit about cars and get their own cars serviced yearly or every 15K or whatever but they all seem taken in by this long life servicing which is just to make the car appeal to fleets. They all think I'm off my head or have too much money to waste getting servicing done that often, I just think a wee bit spent on regular servicing can save a lot in repairs to stuff caused by lack of it.

 

I always think genuine service parts are worth the extra too.

[twosmoke300]

The fords 12.5k service interval is probably why they have Such a good mechanical reputation.esp the petrol models.

[flat4alfa]

What Lord Sterling said

[Spiny Norman]

The number of people who just don't bother with car servicing nowadays is frightening, if only for the chances of finding good secondhand cars in the coming years, and this "An MOT IS a service" mentality doesn't help.

 

Had a laugh a few years ago when I was talking to a neighbour about his (then) 4 or 5 year old Fiesta which he was out washing. He told me with some pride that it had 'never been in the garage once, except for MOTs and I said, 'so, nothing apart from routine servicing then, oil changes and so on'.

"No, never needed one" he replied. That's right, this car still had the oil that went into it in the factory, some 5 years later.

[Mr Livered]

Fuck me. It's easy to forget how stupid people can be.

[PhilA]

Conversely, the Dodge I bought recently has a "in-the-book" ten thousand mile/one year maintenance interval, an on-the-dash thing that lets you know it's time to service it, which alters- shortens the service interval if you thrash the thing.

 

So far it's had three oil changes in ten thousand miles. Excessive? By some people's standards, yes.

 

Why so regularly? I keep an eye on the oil. Once it begins to turn color to more than a deep amber (from nearly clear, it has watery 5W/30 in), it gets changed.

Being as the dealership will do an oil and filter change for the same price it costs me to change the oil and filter myself ($37)- why skimp? The only damage regular oil changes have is on your wallet, technically. Ninety bucks in the first ten thousand miles of running in the engine? I'll take that. It takes sixty to fill the tank with fuel.

 

The "CHANGE THE OIL AT THREE THOUSAND" mentality here seems to kinda pay off- most cars are still running sweet as a nut with the bodywork hanging off once they hit about twenty years old here.

 

--Phil

 

Edit:  Conversely, thinking of shite, my Renault costs about $11 to do an oil and filter change. I like 20W/50. It's cheap.

[Lord Sterling]

He told me with some pride that it had 'never been in the garage once, except for MOTs and I said, 'so, nothing apart from routine servicing then, oil changes and so on'.

"No, never needed one" he replied. That's right, this car still had the oil that went into it in the factory, some 5 years later.

The amount of people who think like is also frightening. I've come across this a few times. As I said, its down to lack of knowledge/pure guesswork/things at work/down the pub etc....

 

The White Rover 820e I had a few years ago ran like a bag of shit when I first got it. The lady who owned knew nothing about cars or maintaining them, she honestly thought just giving it to a garage for them to sort was enough, sadly when I sifted through the paperwork I found invoices where she had been charged stupid amounts of money for little things that actually made very little difference, there was nothing to suggest that it had been given a service for a good few years.

 

Once back here, the 820e was given a good service, the old air filter was gunked up, the plugs were charcoal, the oil was just watery black stuff, it basically confirmed what I'd discovered. After a good service it ran a lot better (and even better when I reattached the air intake pipe)

[phil_lihp]

Come to think of it, my otherwise very tidy little Honda CG125 motorbike was dirt cheap because the engine was seized solid - the young lad who'd had it prior to the guy who sold it to me had, as it turned out, never checked the oil and it was more or less empty, hence when the guy bought it and took it for its first proper long run in years, he got a couple of miles down the road before it overheated and seized.  Considering it takes about 15 minutes and costs about £5 to do a complete oil change on it (unless you put the good stuff in, which is £12) there's really no reason for that sort of neglect.

[oman5]

The volvo 240 came to me with 198k on the clock, a mountain of paperwork and the oil was a lovely clear amber colour so it would seem remiss not to keep up the religious servicing. its now on 205k and I've changed the oil twice. 

Mrs Oman's Dacia has a service indicator on the dash, it tells you when it thinks you need one (roughly 12k miles) but it varies depending on driving style.

[Spiny Norman]

The 15/20k service intervals from some manufacturers certainly don't help, especially when people don't read the service book (or conveniently 'forget' once they have)  and see that there's a time element to that as well.

With the amount of driving I do at the moment, if I waited till I'd racked up 20k in a car it would only be getting serviced once every 4 years.

[Hendry]

Clearly the lack of servicing is why all the manufacturers have put service counters/warning lights/indicators in their cars, to remind the fuckwits who don't think their car needs one, kinda like how you would only take your car to have the abs or airbag looked at if the warning light came on.

 

Btw, what's people's thoughts on engine flushes on say a 7 year old car with 60K on it and serviced 4/5 times since new, I once asked a garage to do 1 whilst servicing my old Astra H and they said they don't recommend it as it could loosen too much shite in the engine and circulate it all and cause issues and do more harm than good.