The new old shit.

[chaseracer]

What have almost vanished are MK1 Primeras and Almeras, MK1 Mondeos, Sierras...

 

Is there still a short oval at Cowdenbeath...?

 

[Richard]

Yes there is, and another one at Lochgelly. Sierras have been the base for Saloon Stock cars for about 20 years now, as well as being popular in various lightweight Banger formulae.

[gordonbennet]

Sod me there we are sobbing over the loss of those lovely 1007's shite heaps, and bugger me there's one in a layby on the way home this afternoon, in gold of all bleedin colours.

 

Broke down or doggin?   

[Mr Lobster]

Tiidas never got officially sold in the uk by Nissan . Arnold Clark imported shit loads of them in from Ireland a few years ago. Ive no idea what parts availability will be like.

 

Certainly when I worked for AC, parts availability for Tiidas was not good at all.  The worst was one that needed a front screen, was off the road waiting for three weeks and when it did arrive the screen cost over a grand.

[twosmoke300]

Citroen c3 pluriel. Used to maintain one for a friend and it was like a swamp inside and had been from New. Despite many dealer visits.

[Partridge]

Citroen c3 pluriel. Used to maintain one for a friend and it was like a swamp inside and had been from New. Despite many dealer visits.

Yeah, you're meant to put the roof on.

[scruff]

This thread looks like the stock list on Auction4cars.com - loads of Renault/Citroen/Pug mingers go through there as Motorpoint trade ins.

[Vince70]

I don't think these can be classed as shite but you rarely see them on the road anymore but saying that you never really saw the Signum or Fusion on the road when new..

It's just that everything French has been used up and I couldn't come up with anything else..

[Partridge]

Did they ever actually decide what the Signum was?

[Hendry]

Citroen c3 pluriel. Used to maintain one for a friend and it was like a swamp inside and had been from New. Despite many dealer visits.

They are all like that, I remember when I first started working at Citroen my supervisor introduced them as the Citroen Watering Can, and every time you got an early one in as a trade in and had to valet it you knew the seats would be stained to buggery, I seem to remember all the later ones got leather, we used to joke it was cos Citroen couldn't fix the leaks so decided this was the only way to avoid stained fabric.

 

I also remember a brand new 58 plate getting sold and it was back so many times that in the end Arnold Clark and Citroen had to give a full refund to the punter

[jmsguzzi]

Did they ever actually decide what the Signum was?

 

Aye, propa shit.

[stuboy]

Did they ever actually decide what the Signum was?

a mistake

[Asimo]

Did they ever actually decide what the Signum was?

A down-market Vel Satis.

[Partridge]

You don't get this kind of buying advice on Parkers.

[Lord Sterling]

Another one that has disappeared over night is the mk2 Megane.image.jpg

But I guess it's not surprising really as it a contender for the OMGFRENCHELECTRICS..

 

The sad thing was the Laguna 2 we bought was to replace a Laguna MK1 Rti 16v which was the most reliable car going and still looked as good as new when it was replaced with the MKII.

 

The ironic thing is I saw the old girl on a dealer forecourt only a couple of years back for £500 still looking good..

How did Renault get it so horribly wrong..

 

Also another contender for a disappearing shod box is the 307 again due to duff electrics.

image.jpg

 

I must admit, I do see a lot of the Meganes/307s over here in Birmingham. Despite thier reputation they do still seem to be rather popular. Of course, most of the people who drive them are the kind that wouldn't like to afford a brand-new car but nevertheless want something fairly modern/bland-looking to fit in with those around them.

 

Popularity

The popularity of new/old shite depends on where you are. For example; You may see huge amount of Peugeot 508s up in Glasgow but not see one down in Southport. This are many reasons for this, usually if certain dealers are popular in a certain towns/cities and if insurances for example are cheaper for a certain make of car in a cerain area. All the new/old shite will be passing down through different types of owners, staring most probably with a caring owner where money isn't such an object, eventually passing down through less and less caring hands until the car is not worth spending money on as its value will have reached rock-bottom.

 

Build Quality

Build quality has always been the same with car manufacturers. Early cars do start with better toys/nicer plastics, but down the line, the cost-cutters will always stick thier noses in, thats what they are employed to do. So the bulk load of cars will end up with cheaper plastics, cheaper cloth/faux leather seats, less foam, all the little finishing touches deleted etc.....

 

People

For years, there has been this myth that cars only last for 10 years, hence why even second-hand car buyers will turn their noses up at anything older than 2004. It's part of the same pack of myths that float around like 'all German cars are the best' 'All old British cars are unreliable and should be avoided like the plague' people are simply not educated properly when it comes to cars, they will not be left alone to make thier own decisions. Someone will say 'Dont buy a Rover, I heard they are shit' then that basically plants an idea into the potential buyers head, who'll never buy a Rover, never have the experience and see for themselves and repeat the same myth to the next car buyer.

[Partridge]

Build Quality

Build quality has always been the same with car manufacturers. Early cars do start with better toys/nicer plastics, but down the line, the cost-cutters will always stick thier noses in, thats what they are employed to do. So the bulk load of cars will end up with cheaper plastics, cheaper cloth/faux leather seats, less foam, all the little finishing touches deleted etc.....

 

The Rover 75 is a case point...

[chaseracer]

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/facts-and-figures/history/history-project-drive/

 

The longest suicide note in automotive industry history...

 

[chaseracer]

I noticed this with the K11 Micra too.

 

Domestic Management had an early production (late '92) 1.0LX which was tight as a drum and ran like a sewing machine until it was traded in 2004 for a nearly-new K12. Whereas, the monster-in-law's friend had a CVT-box 02-plate SLX which was a nasty, plasticky, decontented POS which had even lost the remote boot release.

[Lord Sterling]

The Rovers 'Project Drive' is the most obvious and most well-documented point, but it should be remembered that most other major car manufacturers do the same. It's all about building a car down to cost, sometimes even doing this before the first model has rolled off the producton line.

 

I noticed this with the K11 Micra too.

 

Domestic Management had an early production (late '92) 1.0LX which was tight as a drum and ran like a sewing machine until it was traded in 2004 for a nearly-new K12. Whereas, the monster-in-law's friend had a CVT-box 02-plate SLX which was a nasty, plasticky, decontented POS which had even lost the remote boot release.

 

I also noticed this. Motherly_Sterling_One has the 98+ facelift K11 Micra, it is a low-spec car so the obvious stuff isn't (wasn't) there. But when traipsing about scrap yards, I did notice a the very early bubble-shaped Micra has better finishing touches, minor little details that others wouldn't notice like rubber covers on the B-pillar door catches.

 

But of course, your average Joe wouldn't know/care. As long as it has the latest plate on it, is frugal, has a bias towards a sporty hatch style, thats all they'll worry about.

 

Further to my previous build-quality comment, I should have said; dont be fooled into thinking that this costing-down malarky only affects interior trim, it affects the whole car, interior, exterior and drive train componants. Peugeot I know are well known for doing this. I remember having to order brake pads and finding that if a model was built earlier or later, the brake set-up was completely different due to using different automotive componants during its run.

 

Someone earlier in the thread commented that it was 'hard to believe that a VW part could fail' Sorry, this is wrong, it's not hard to believe. It might be so if your like the masses of other people who think the sun shines out of the VAG groups build quality department but the truth of it is, they build fairly average cars to fairly average standard which drops as production goes on, they too do cost componants down which affects build-quality and they do too get it wrong, but they don't care, thier marketing has worked and the masses will always still flock to buy thier overpriced stock.

 

When I worked at my mates garage, we had a shed load of VWs/BMWs and late Vauxhalls coming in for a plethora of componant failures.

[face]

A mate of mine had a fairly new Golf TDi and it's alright - reasonably quick and comfortable, but not my cup of tea.

 

He had a couple of problems with it and was put out because "I thought VWs never went wrong"

[gordonbennet]

On other forums, mainly modern tat, VW's reputation for reliability is taking a battering, but worse is the apparent contempt they, and some other makers, treat their customers with.

 

Short warranties too, especially when compared to the Koreans and Toyota, even Vauxhall with their lifetime for original owner are making headway, but it'll be interesting to see how the few new car buyers that really keep their Vauxhalls for many years fare with claims.

 

Some interesting threads come up though, like people wanting to spend many £housands on a 3 year old VW, yet wouldn't consider a Ceed of the same year and cheaper, that the maker had enough faith in for it still to have another 4 years warranty left.

 

Nowt stranger than folk.

 

 

Couple of things that get to me, why would any bugger willingly buy into the electric parking brake barrel of monkeys, or risk one of the new fancy but crap the second they go wrong automated manual or DSG type gearboxes, especially out of warranty with their own money?...big extended barge pole jobs, wouldn't have one as a gift, let along buy a bloody heap saddled with both.

[Junkman]

On other forums, mainly modern tat, VW's reputation for reliability is taking a battering

 

Was about time after producing unreliable shit for 75 years.

[Lukas]

I live in a country that´s almost completely sold on VAG-products. In some parts of Austria, more then 50 (!) % of the cars on the road are VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda. Austria is the best selling market for Seat except of Spain.

 

I don´t know why, but young people only want a VAG-car after they passed their license, older people only drive VAG-cars because otherwise the VAG-driving neighbour would laugh at him and so on. Peer-pressure at its best. The Image of VAG-products in the head of the average Austrian is so bright and desirable, it´s almost unreal. People buy Audis to "shine in its image", I was told. "If I buy an Audi, I will be seen as cool as my car.", a bloke told me.

 

I´m thinking about emigrating...

 

Lukas

[Junkman]

Because they can put a pineapple on the roofrack, drive it to Reifnitz, and listen to DJ Ötzi.

It's pathetic.

[Junkman]

Anyway, the car MG Rover should have built, had it ever seriously considered to survive, just turned 25:

 

[Partridge]

Maybe we should start putting mouldy loafs of bread on our roofracks and listen to Chas and Dave?

[Partridge]

Anyway, the car MG Rover should have built, had it ever seriously considered to survive, just turned 25:

 

And called it, I dunno...the MGF?

[Junkman]

MGX-5.

[Lacquer Peel]

The MGF did really well for the Rover Group and MGR.

 

VAG worship is strong in the UK as well, I know many people who'd only consider VAG SHIT. My Skoda has had more problems due to shit quality, under-specced parts than any of the PSA cars I've owned.

[Junkman]

The MGF did really well for the Rover Group and MGR.

 

MGF production total: 77,269

MGTF production total: 117,149

 

MX5 production reached 900,000 three years ago, newer figures I can't find, but this should be sufficient to show what did well and what not.