HMC- Mr Chowdhury’s Mercedes

[holbeck]

 

 

[bezzabsa]

sod the warty - for now...

whats the story with the bikes?????

[DSdriver]

Panel gaps DS owners dream about. Class.

[Timewaster]

sod the warty - for now...

whats the story with the bikes?????

Those are East Germany's 3 top models. Leave the poor girls alone.

[Skizzer]

Outstanding purchase!

 

I do think these are ruggedly handsome beasts. Like the Skoda Estelle, the styling was very dated by the time this one was new when the Wall came down but that’s not to say it wasn’t fine when new.

 

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it. I trust its arrival on a trailer is just for convenience and doesn’t betoken some ailment beneath that elegant green surface?

 

Oh, and MOAR PICS. Pls.

[hairnet]

so when are you taking two of its strokes away

 

take this the golf will be less reliable anyway

[HMC]

Alright folks, got a bit of a shiters' dilemma here got 2 purchase options.

 

I can only buy one

 

Skoda favorit- I like them, it's cheaper, it fits as a comrade to the Wartburg. (Good or bad depending on viewpoint)

 

V8 LDV high top -love it, essentially pointless but I like the idea of rescuing it, bit more expensive, but nearly extinct.

 

Unsure - please discuss

[SiC]

LDV.

 

You'll never get another chance to. The Skoda you will.

[DodgeRover]

Buy the LDV for peanuts once engine and box removed then refit with a 3.9 and transit mt75 manual box built with the extra overdrive 5th gear from the diesel Scorpio.

[eddyramrod]

No contest, LDV every time.

[Ghosty]

Van, a Favorit is boring by comparison.

[Saabnut]

Easy.

 

Get both.

 

However, get the van first, a Skoda will be along in a few minutes.....

[Zelandeth]

Got to be the LDV.  Virtually extinct, a blank canvas if you do want to do something interesting with it...

 

Seriously, if I'd somewhere to put the thing I'd have bought it by now!

 

*Silently hoping to have more space and money next time it turns up so I can buy it then...*

[dollywobbler]

I say rein in the excitement a little. That LDV will make the RX8 seem economical, and probably needs a shit ton of work. What's the Favorit like? I'd love one so I think you should buy that.

[500tops]

LDV

[D Spares & Tyres]

If I were driving vans for a living and my employer gave me an LDV to drive, then I would take that as a personal insult and leave the company immediately.

 

But as a toy then a V8 auto version sounds like a great idea. Buy it ☺

[Datsuncog]

The LDV Convoy is easily the worst handling bag of shite I've ever had the misfortune of piloting. I had to drive a hi-top minibus version for work; it was only about two years old and it felt like the steering wheel was connected to the rack with a thin perished rubber band, resulting in massive understeer and much frantic twirling at every bend just to get it round, and then the same again to get it back in a straight line again. No such bother with the Transit smiley or Bedford Midi in the fleet. With a bloody V8 fitted, I imagine it'd be verging on lethal. If the steering doesn't kill you, the fuel costs will likely see you having to sell your socks on a street corner to avoid utter destitution...

 

 

 

...get it bought, obviously.

[dollywobbler]

it felt like the steering wheel was connected to the rack with a thin perished rubber band,

Well there's your problem! An LDV 400/Convoy has nowt to do with these new-fangled steering racks.

[Datsuncog]

Well there's your problem! An LDV 400/Convoy has nowt to do with these new-fangled steering racks.

 

Semaphore signals, is that how it works? Or a telegram to the front wheels?

 

Thankfully I left the job before anyone ended up in a ditch, and have never gone near one again. Needed to be thrashed to within an inch of its life before shifting up, too. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

An LDV V8 has to be the thinking* man's alternative to an MG RV8 :

 

 

The two cars also share far more parts than the MGOC lot would want to admit...

[Royale80]

Got to be the LDV. 

 

Had a brand new J reg one as a minibus in work. Diesel-slow as hell and the gearchange was awfull. Lots of the women staff couldn't drive it due to the gearbox. It was 2 weeks old when Tim the Geology teacher got it jammed in a multi storey in Penarth. The old CF fitted-but this one was a lot higher-roof was as flat as a pancake-how we all laughed!!

 

A V8 auto would be fantastic-No gear changing problems and a lot faster than the non-turbo diesel.

 

I wouldn't give the Skoda a second thought.

 

Steve

[MorrisItalSLX]

*chant*

 

LDV! LDV! LDV!

[scruff]

You cannot compare the V8 to the diesel. They are ace - from memory the last production vehicle to use the carbed engine too, though later ones were injected. 

[billyboy406v6]

Both !                                           That is all.........

[Six-cylinder]

I agree BOTH is the only way to go!

[HMC]

Thanks to all for your input. In the end the lure of a beaten, ex met police surveillance Van was hard to resist. I did a bit of head scratching, shuffled the fleet a bit and decided to go with the shite, which is a new mantra I have just invented to justify slightly unhinged actions.

 

A reminder from Hertz spotted thread. He must also take a bow as the facilitator of THIS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bren]

The last LDV I drove was so glacially slow I was beginning to wonder if I would get home before I reached retirement age.

[tooSavvy]

You could do a 'road/driver review' for general publication*

 

*... NO - do it for yourself - that will satisfy the Worldwide demand (of 1)

 

Brave pills not required...

 

 

TS

[Hertz]

Nice one! You are mental HMC but glad it's saved from the metal skip. Winner!

[Zelandeth]

I don't know if I'm just mad, but I can't help but see a huge amount of potential in that vehicle.

 

Tidy it up...people will think they're hallucinating seeing a tidy LDV!

 

I really bloody want that van, irrespective of how terrible it probably is!  (Un) luckily I've nowhere to put it.