Project Memoirs from the Hard Shoulder: DVLA LOLS

[MJK 24]

4 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

For me? 100,250

19k per annum basically under your ownership. That’s not to be sniffed at when you were starting with a 14 year old car….

[SiC]

170k miles at a (reasonable) 30mph average is 5666hrs spent in the car.

Or 7% of your life in the last 9yrs.

That's probably why you are attached to it.

[BorniteIdentity]

14 hours ago, HMC said:

Is it for sale or already sold? 

Betrothed.  There are two people interested, if the first doesn't the second will.

11 hours ago, greengartside said:

@BorniteIdentityhave you tried speaking to Jonny himself

Yes, I've spoken with him.  It's not for sale yet but he will buy it himself the second it is.  I'm not sure the vendor is quite ready to part with it, and it might be that a delay works better for him too.  

10 hours ago, SiC said:

170k miles at a (reasonable) 30mph average is 5666hrs spent in the car.

Or 7% of your life in the last 9yrs.

That's probably why you are attached to it.

It's so much more than time spent in it.  My fourth son made his first journey in it, it's been the scene of many romantic days out and domestic arguments, the transport from sporting victories and crushing defeats, it's been Mum's taxi and Dad's trusty workhorse.  It has rushed me to ill relatives, transported dearly departed and - like a faithful labrador - never really asked for anything in return other than free digs.  

There is an argument for selling the Sierra and keeping this, but this car was never really purchased with the intention of preservation.  It was bought to get me out of the shit, and that mission was complete within about 2 years.  And, in truth, I might sell both yet - and you have to start somewhere!

I know there are people who will never understand 'feelings', particularly towards a machine.  Indeed, this is a machine with very little to which you can become attached.  It's simply too good, too consistent.   But when something is omnipresent, and so utterly dependable, its absence is surely to be keenly felt?  

But, times change.  People change.  That is the only thing more certain than a Toyota? The endless march of time.

[alf892]

Moving the Toyota on!

I take it the new owner is an eccentric multi millionaire who has pledged to carry out a nut and bolt restoration and then sell it back to you in 20 years time for the price he paid you??

or is it some cunt off here who will paint it pink and drop in a golf engine?

[mat_the_cat]

On 1/19/2022 at 6:47 AM, brownnova said:

A Shadow would be tempting! I like the idea of turning up to unlikely places in a Rolls Royce. Like taking something to the tip, or Maccies drive  through, or picking the kid up from nursery. 

When I was in my teens, we'd often camp out in the local woods with a few drinks. The long, hungover walk back home never was very appealing, and one day my mate popped into a payphone, and called his dad for a lift home (parents had separated, so I think playing the guilt trip). What I didn't know is that his dad worked as a wedding driver, and his 'normal' car was not big enough for 4 lads and their tents. I had to pinch myself when a shiny Silver Shadow pulled up next to us and we climbed in, dishevelled and smelling of fire smoke!

[rob88h]

Dear Mr. Identity,

Thank you for your contributions to AutoShite. This site is many things to many people, but oh my days, THAT Sierra – what an Icon of survival and low spec pride and commitment to keeping it in this world beyond financial “sense”. Epitome. I get it.

 

 

(Also, any thread with an A-reg Mini City get’s all my likes – as your notifications status is no doubt aware. Thanks for providing the thoroughly excellent read.)

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, rob88h said:

Dear Mr. Identity,

Thank you for your contributions to AutoShite. This site is many things to many people, but oh my days, THAT Sierra – what an Icon of survival and low spec pride and commitment to keeping it in this world beyond financial “sense”. Epitome. I get it.

 

 

(Also, any thread with an A-reg Mini City get’s all my likes – as your notifications status is no doubt aware. Thanks for providing the thoroughly excellent read.)

Hey man.  Thanks for your kind words.  I absolutely love 80s cars - the associated memories of being young and not having a care in the world are my fondest.  To own the car that I slid about on the back seat in is still surreal.  The day that @Skizzer and I mopped up the Sierra was utterly brilliant.  

I don't think the Sierra is as popular on here as it once was.  It might be that the audience has changed significantly in the intervening 6 years, it might be that it's just not the "weird, new thing" any more.  But I run it for my own amusement, and will continue to do so until such time that I decide otherwise.

How's your Mini?

[rob88h]

8 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

To own the car that I slid about on the back seat in is still surreal.

A feeling I know well, well, not the sliding about because Volvo, but I have very vivid memories of feeling the deep pile velvet on the back of my legs on hot sunny summer holidays going to PYO strawberry fields with my nan. I'm custodian of that 440 now, but it stayed in the family the whole time - I'd not appreciated that against all odds your Mini had survived the big wide world and had been an amazing rediscovery! I even made my wife pause Gilmore Girls to explain the incredulous circumstance there.

 

As for my grot box, a picture says a thousand words... but not in those words are the fact the door is only attached on one hinge. I'm using it a fair bit as it is while it awaits "it's slot" for Weldathon pt.2 in the coming months. Ipswich to Felixstowe run 2023? 😉

[Floatylight]

18 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Hey man.  Thanks for your kind words.  I absolutely love 80s cars - the associated memories of being young and not having a care in the world are my fondest.  To own the car that I slid about on the back seat in is still surreal.  The day that @Skizzer and I mopped up the Sierra was utterly brilliant.  

I don't think the Sierra is as popular on here as it once was.  It might be that the audience has changed significantly in the intervening 6 years, it might be that it's just not the "weird, new thing" any more.  But I run it for my own amusement, and will continue to do so until such time that I decide otherwise.

How's your Mini?

I still like the Sierra, many memories of my Dad's Mk2 Estate 2l Ghia that he did 220k miles in, that I drove down the M69 at 120, spun and my mates and I had to frantically polish after I dragged it down a hedge.

Also the Mk11.8l estate one he had as a hire car when someone went into the back of his Granada. Which he took my mum out in, got pissed and threw up out of the passenger window on the drive home, spew sprayed all down the side.

 

Aahhh happy memories!

*also demolished a 2.0GLS Efi to build a Robin Hood when they were plentiful & worthless.

[BorniteIdentity]

7 minutes ago, rob88h said:

A feeling I know well, well, not the sliding about because Volvo, but I have very vivid memories of feeling the deep pile velvet on the back of my legs on hot sunny summer holidays going to PYO strawberry fields with my nan. I'm custodian of that 440 now, but it stayed in the family the whole time - I'd not appreciated that against all odds your Mini had survived the big wide world and had been an amazing rediscovery! I even made my wife pause Gilmore Girls to explain the incredulous circumstance there.

 

As for my grot box, a picture says a thousand words... but not in those words are the fact the door is only attached on one hinge. I'm using it a fair bit as it is while it awaits "it's slot" for Weldathon pt.2 in the coming months. Ipswich to Felixstowe run 2023? 😉

Aye - the Mini was my Nan's; rediscovered thanks to @MorrisItalSLX(I think) posting it in the tat thread.  It was impossible to tell from the advert that it was THE car, I just had a feeling about it so called him up and we both very quickly realised it was the same Mini.

Here it is outside my Grandparents' house in Felixstowe - the same road your (now) wife lived on for years.  Small world.

[MorrisItalSLX]

12 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

rediscovered thanks to @MorrisItalSLX(I think) posting it in the tat thread.

‘Twas I.

I was going through a phase of trawling eBay UK for BL tin daily, back in the good old days where Marinas and Allegros were borderline worthless.

It is nice to know that all those evenings spent looking at cars I couldn’t buy wasn’t a complete waste of time.

[rob88h]

4 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Here it is outside my Grandparents' house

I fully intend to replicate this photo for +10 Internet Stalker points next time I’m up that road in the Mini…

[BorniteIdentity]

Regular readers of the News24 thread will know that our beloved Avensis went on to a new home this weekend.  Since taking a lease on a Leaf (for work purposes) my wife has been running the Toyota and, truth be told, wanting a car to call her own.  Whilst she has her own independent means, and deserves a car she's proud of, it's very difficult to argue otherwise - so off it went to live with @Spottedlaurel.

I've been concerned for a few years about how it would all end.  Fortunately, the new owner will be taking it off to Dubrovnik on a Pan-European tour.  Whilst it wouldn't be my first choice to see it covered in stickers, I'm delighted that it'll get to see a bit of the world.  After all - our old friend Dylan hit the nail on the head.

Quote

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

And so, that was that.  Off it went, ready for an exciting new challenge and - I hope - quiet retirement in Norfolk upon its return.

 This does leave me in a rather stupid situation. Despite having no fewer than 5 vehicles outside, the next best CAR that I own is this.

 

With the Leaf out on family duties with domestic management, it fell to me to complete my daily errands in a 39 year old Ford Sierra.  And what a glorious companion it made, threading its way effortlessly through rush hour traffic between charity shops, supermarkets, recycling centres and the homes of friends.

 

As I drove home, with only my thoughts for company, I reflected on how times have changed since this car was new.  It's recent enough to be able to vividly picture it trundling home along the B1040 with just a Montego and Cavalier for company - but also, in that short space of time, so much HAS changed.  These cars were sold in a time of Fathers.  They were sold (or leant) to Fathers.  Fathers who didn't work for big companies, but who worked for firms.  Firms who weren't based on shiny Business parks but in slightly bleak municipal offices.  Firms who had two partners who you knew by name, where you went home for lunch and had a job for life.  The world in which my Father happily inhabited for the 42 years of his working life; heading home for cold meat, chips and beans on a Monday night after a day of telephone calls, appointments and reasonably shit instant coffee.

In 2022, I am the exception to the rule.  It's also the world in which I live.  Which - in a way - is why this old heap is still relevant.  Driving home tonight, I felt completely at peace with the world.  Over dinner we chuckled that, in many ways, the Sierra is mechanically better than the Avensis which it SORT of replaces.  Thanks to the endless efforts of @alf892, the clutch is fresh.  The belts are tight.  It starts on the button and, bizarrely, it always turns heads.  I'm looking forward to using it a lot more this year.

The one thing that HAS changed, is the standard of photography.  Whilst my Dad took photos of houses with a polaroid camera, I'm able to very accurately capture tonight's dramatic sky with a basic device.  And what a majestic light it was.

 

Just a shame I had to capture it in the car park of an M&S food.

You can't win them all, eh?

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

5 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

A lovely photograph. I love it when the camera makes it all the purple-ey way!

[wesacosa]

glad you are enjoying the Sierra.  I loved my 1990 CVH , and often kick myself for not getting one of these lovely early ones when they were still around and attainable

[BorniteIdentity]

Via Twitter.  Jesus.

He's not wrong either.

[adw1977]

11 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I don't think the Sierra is as popular on here as it once was. 

It's still my favourite car on here, despite some stiff competition. 

[brownnova]

11 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I don't think the Sierra is as popular on here as it once was.  It might be that the audience has changed

Still a good few of us on here who haven’t changed and still have a lot of love for this Red survivor! One of my all time fave AS cars too. 

[Spottedlaurel]

I'm very grateful the Avensis was made available to us, it's already being of use with Miss SL and her boyfriend using it to visit the grandparents today, and tomorrow it's off to Southwold. It's several years older than either of them, but they really seem to like it.

Also good to see the Sierra at the weekend!

[AnnoyingPentium]

6 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Still a good few of us on here who haven’t changed and still have a lot of love for this Red survivor! One of my all time fave AS cars too. 

Agreed. I haven't been here long but I do have a soft spot for this Sierra, the the Avensis too.

[wuvvum]

I also love the Sierra, for a plethora of reasons.  The unlikely story of its survival, the fact that it's a Norwich car, the reg being only a couple of digits different from my old Escort van, and the fact that it finally made me realise what the identical one I owned back in 2001 actually was - at the time I just thought that someone had fitted a replacement grille and not bothered to paint it.

[Wibble]

I too love the Sierra. Remember seeing my first one in 1982, a green 5 door 1.6L automatic with dangly mirrors and grey front grille. Long may yours live!

[Richard_FM]

I remember my Brother's Friend's Dad got a Sierra not long after they were launched, the dashboard looked like something out of the space shuttle compared to other cars around at the time.

[Bren]

I remember the lack of love for the sierra when it came out. The focus was the same - they both looked radical compared to their predecessors. And, at least initially, it put people off.

[Timewaster]

7 hours ago, Bren said:

I remember the lack of love for the sierra when it came out. The focus was the same - they both looked radical compared to their predecessors. And, at least initially, it put people off.

The difference was the Sierra replaced the beloved Cortina whereas the Focus replaced a wheeled turd that no one would ever miss. 

[ETCHY]

7 hours ago, Bren said:

I remember the lack of love for the sierra when it came out. The focus was the same - they both looked radical compared to their predecessors. And, at least initially, it put people off.

Yeah i remember that too. Incredible to think the impact the Sierra made. I remember all the launch brochures extolling the advances and all the car mags going wild over it.

Can that really be 40 years ago !?

[BorniteIdentity]

10 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I also love the Sierra, for a plethora of reasons.  The unlikely story of its survival, the fact that it's a Norwich car, the reg being only a couple of digits different from my old Escort van, and the fact that it finally made me realise what the identical one I owned back in 2001 actually was - at the time I just thought that someone had fitted a replacement grille and not bothered to paint it.

Wait wot!  You had a bASe? I had had no idea!  

Any grainy photos to show?!

[mk2_craig]

Can I just add my voice to those who have expressed love for this fantastic old thing, survival against the odds, backing the underdog etc. You may not always be the owner of this car, but for now you are absolutely the right one  

Have you had this parked up next to an RS Cosworth at a show yet? Representing pretty much the polar opposites of the Sierra offering. 

[High Jetter]

10 hours ago, Bren said:

I remember the lack of love for the sierra when it came out. The focus was the same - they both looked radical compared to their predecessors. And, at least initially, it put people off.

Me too. Never been a big Ford fan, but the disdain shown the 'jellymould' shape was immense. Dropping the Cortina name was another issue for many, as was the lack of a booted version to start with. Ironic that the Sapphire never really caught on when it was released. Now they're surely at least as much of a classic as anything from that period.

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Wait wot!  You had a bASe? I had had no idea!  

Any grainy photos to show?!

I did indeed - a red Y-plate 1.6 5-door identical to yours.  It was advertised in the local paper just round the corner from me - I paid £50 for it.  When yours first appeared on the scene I did briefly wonder whether it might be the same one, being a Norwich car, but I think I would have remembered if the reg on mine was that close to the one on my Escort van.

Sadly no photos - in that pre-digital (for me at least) age I wasn't quite as snap-happy as I am now, and I only had the car a few months.