What do friends family think of your shite?

[sierraman]

What do your friends family colleagues etc think of your habits of driving bangernomics? I find a lot find it odd that I like buying a cheap car as opposed to a Kia something or other on a 15 year hire purchase deal.

[John F]

Some of them think it suits me, some of them don't understand why I don't buy a nice* new car.

 

Then I win the inevitable argument with the latter group about cost, residual value & reliability of old cars vs new cars.

 

Who then immediately forget it all again & go back to their original point of view.

 

Because they are idiots.

[Skizzer]

As I've probably said before, my wife says she'd rather I was messing around with 30-year-old cars than 30-year-old women.  

 

Most other people seem to think (probably rightly) that I suffer from an unfortunate addiction.

 

Mind you, I also run the CFUC Germanic Shit modern work car, so have a foot in both camps.

[Junkman]

In a family consisting of individuals challenging the eccentricity standards set by British intellectuals, someone tinkering with old cars

and filling his dungeon with miniature chod is hardly a standout.

Most of my friends drive beaten up old shite and collect models as well, so they consider me being rather average.

Together, we think we are completely normal, and people not doing it are crazy.

Which I believe is true. So I avoid contact with those.

[sierraman]

It's them that's mad not me!

[fordperv]

My mum and dad love my cars, mrs fordperv loves them she calls my mk1 sierra the other woman/ the mistress, when she drove past with a girl from work, i was working on my car and she said oh he's with the other woman, the girl who she was with said what! your relaxed knowing he has a woman on the side, turn the car round I'll go sort her out, then pissed herself laughing when mrs fp told her to relax and explained, her mum doesn't really understand but says messing with cars keeps me out of mischief and her dad likes them, everyone else sees them as part of my personality

[derskine]

Very few people understand it.

[PiperCub]

With me it's a mix of WTF?, polite resignation and admiration.

 

WTF: Given what you earn, why don't you buy a nice new car instead of messing about with that old junk? FFS, What's wrong with you?

 

Resignation: Oh well, it's just his way, each to their own I suppose, I wouldn't bother myself but hey, if he's happy.

 

Admiration: I wish I had the balls/practical ability/knowledge to buy & run old (& interesting/enjoyable) cars for peanuts like you do, I have paid a fortune for mine and then there's the garage bills.

 

In answer to the inital question/statement: because it's cheaper, more fun and I like doing it so mind your own business and get back to vegetating in front of some mind-rotting soap opera or reality TV or reading OK/Hello/whatever magazines.

 

The second: Fair comment, my philosophy too

 

The last: You can do it too if you are willing to learn practical skills, go against the grain, get dirty and spin the spanners, Bangernomics really isn't rocket science. For the want of a better expression, grab your balls and dive in, it won't kill you (well, probably not anyway). You never know, you might enjoy it.

[sierraman]

I'd like to think a lot of it is how you were brought up. I've always been a one if these that hates wasting stuff, especially that paper stuff you get at the end of each month from work that you spend on your family, go out for a drink with and indulge in stuff like spanners. The other 90% or so I tend to squander on the rent and gas etc

[RoadworkUK]

I'm my own man. I enjoy driving around in cars which "normal" people would have cast off years ago. I enjoy collecting models of cars which weren't particularly popular when they were new. I have brochures for cars which have become virtually extinct due to decay or indifference. I don't see why enjoying a 1980's car should be any different to enjoying a 1980's record.

 

Does everything have to be brand new?

 

Imagine only ever listening to songs released within the last three years. Your brain would turn to mush.

 

There's a whole world out there.

 

Everyone I know either tolerates my opinions or has given up on me as a lost cause.

[Mr Livered]

The prevalent feeling amongst my family and friends could be summed up thus:

 

We understand you wanting to have a cheap car to save money, Mr Livered, but you have more than one cheap car so why not sell all your cars and use the money to buy one nice reliable modern one?

[oman5]

Mrs Oman totally gets it. She does spotting for me too, taking pics of interesting old chod she sees.

My older sis is more than happy to borrow my volvo estate when she needs something shifting. People in work just think it's part of my weirdness, I guess!

[danthecapriman]

I don't think anyone really 'gets' my old bangers/classics whatever you want to call them. I think it's been something I've always done and always will do so its tolerated!

 

I don't really care what anyone else thinks anyway, I like messing around with old cars and like driving them and that's all that matters.

[AldridgePrior]

I`m rather unpredictable when it comes to my automotive choice of chariot. No one can second guess me. I went from a 1.0l 3 door Micra with a door caved in to an immaculate  show stopper of a Ford Mustang. I then went from that to a £500 52 plate automatic 1600 astra with a hand painted arch, one wheel trim missing and  an EML on.

  I sold the Astra and bought a 5.7l V8 Dodge Ram Rumble Bee show truck and sold that and went to a 1.1 Clio on steel wheels and a bashed bonnet and front grill which I repaired with contrasting insulating tape.

 

Life isn`t about what you have , it`s about who you are.

[The Moog]

Normally with a mix of confusion and slight envy.

 

They always mutter that I seem to be spending ages on them, but they don't realise all the preventative stuff I do plus I enjoy it.

 

Went to mates wedding in south of France and took 250k 405 running on veg. My other mates loved it and were surprised how nice it drove to their new cars.

[Mr Livered]

Went to mates wedding in south of France and took 250k 405 running on veg. My other mates loved it and were surprised how nice it drove to their new cars.

Did you get veg oil in France, or take a load with you?

[The Moog]

Took about 60l with me but then filled up at a supermarket. They only had 1l bottles but were only a euro each so bought 30l of it and filled up there and then.

[Uncle Jimmy]

I wouldn't choose friends who didn't have my philosophy on recycling, fixing and saving junk. My family are mostly the same, no one really buys into the whole 'gotta have it' consumer lie.

[CortinaDave]

Most of my family dont get it, the OH thinks its quirky and likes that it makes me happy.

 

As usual any time I have a car problem they jump on my head with the "why dont you just buy a nice new focus" etc - last time I got this lecture was after a tyre blowout on the A90 - When I pointed out this was not the fault of my 20 year old car, but the 6 month old tyre all I got was...

 

"But it wouldn't have blown out on a new car"

[Largactil]

My old man collected the LNA from the garage on my behalf, after its MOT last month.

 

I'd enthused that I enjoyed the old skool driving experience it offered; his take was that it brought back bad memories of all the shit late 70's / early 80's cars he'd owned back in the day, and how rubbish they were to drive.

 

(Not sure he can comprehend why I'm flogging my '59' plate John Cooper Works Bini, to run the LNA as my sole vehicle...)

 

 

[trigger]

Everyone just thinks I'm mad, which isn't far from the truth to be honest. Every week at work someone asks me what shit I've bought this week and my dad says i'm sick in the head! 

 

The more reactions i get the more shite i buy though!

[fairkens]

Similar to above, family don't understand why I wouldn't have a 'nice' car when I can afford one. I do have a modern mainly for the missus but use the extra for stuff that is actually interesting

 

Work mates think I'm mental.

 

when I park the Astra of doom in my allocated spot at work, I'll quite often get someone coming to tell me that someone has parked in my space, the look on their face when I tell them it's mine is hilarious!!

 

Mates are in to cars so sort of get it but not really

[rml2345]

I suppose they think it's normal but I've never asked. FATHA_RML has always run mid life executive shite but tends towards bangernomics unless it's something he really really likes.

I'm rubbish at bangernomics and usually form a hopeless attachment to whatever chod I've bought which causes me to throw money and time/effort at things that are virtually worthless.

I reckon most normal* people would think I'm daft but I don't know any of those.

[Lukas]

 

I'm rubbish at bangernomics and usually form a hopeless attachment to whatever chod I've bought which causes me to throw money and time/effort at things that are virtually worthless.

 

Same here. My parents learned to accept that I always had at least one old car beside my daily and Mrs. Lukas only knows me like that. But I always tend to have a slightly modern car as my "main car" to keep the Mrs. happy and me too.

[Six-cylinder]

Some of my cars provoke more response than other but my Citroen Visa always has friends up in arms about how awful it is! So I drive it everywhere!

 

[mercrocker]

My friends are of the same thinking as me, many of them have far more vehicles in far worse condition than mine are.   I don't know anybody with a new car apart from those with whom I have to work.   As for family, we have kids that drive modern snot, fill their houses with laminate floors and not much else and listen to godawful shit on little telly things with buttons.   I find them all strange despite siring one of them myself.  Daddy Mercrocker is still a shiter, gets all his chod from my bro-in-law at the Nissan dealership, giffer part-exs usually and runs them till they commit hari-kiri.   He had one new car in his life - a Plymouth Reliant which I consider an excellent high-water mark in his driving career.....I have seen the word "eccentric" on a form about me at work which I take to be "not like them" and a huge compliment but otherwise I don't really give an arse about other's opinions.

[Micrashed]

Some of them think it suits me, some of them don't understand why I don't buy a nice* new car.

 

 

Same here. I get a bit pissed off by one mate who keeps harping on about buying a new this or a new that, but he is as shallow as a puddle and measures success in life by having the latest gizmo or car or mobile iPhone.

[Cavcraft]

 

The more reactions i get the more shite i buy though!

 

Amen to that one. When people at work used to comment how old/shit my car was I'd buy something older and worse.

[castros_bro]

My mum somehow finished up as a WRAF assistant mechanic working on de Havilland Mosquitos at the end of WW2 so gently boiling JA Prestwick carb bits in soapy water in the kitchen with the Sunday lunch was almost mandatory.

[DodgyBastard]

The minute I drive into work with a car my colleagues say is nice I know I'm doing something wrong, there was a brief moment I could have had a Porshe 924, everyone said it was smart/cool etc so it had to go. It was shit, unreliable and slow but all they saw was the Porshe badge...

 

Mainly I drive shit cars because I'm poor, so even if I sold them all and bought one "good" one I'd still end up with something shit...

 

My parents don't understand and normally think my cars are heaps of shit, there have been a couple of occasions that they've thought cars I had were nice but they were the blandest most modern looking ones and had panels that were all the same colour.

 

Mrs FOAD loves shite cars and encourages me with my shite addiction, she drives a Volvo 360 too.