The new news 24 thread

[Pillock]

Yeah. Listen to the man with a cortina, civic and acclaim

 

Srsly though, do you want one (or maybe two) nice working cars or four projects? Do you get more enjoyment from spannering or driving?

[trigger]

Yeah. Listen to the man with a cortina, civic and acclaim

 

 In my defence though, I can afford them, just! and the Civic will be going in the summer and the Acclaim will be gone once someone offers me £600 for it.

[Pillock]

I know, I jest

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'd bum off a princess if the circumstances were right.

[carlo]

If you love BXs I would probably focus on that.  I'm never at ease having more than one old car as I'm always worrying about keeping them maintained.  Having a proper piece of autoshite that you can use as a daily driver seems the ideal compromise to me.  Use it, and slowly make it better as it's gently appreciating rather than sitting on the road deteriorating.

[Volksy]

I think the forum speaks wisely, I have enough trouble pulling my finger out of my arse to sort the Audi out. It only needs a rear shocker and a bit of tinkering to get it through the test, but it's been sat there for nearly a year now waiting. With being stood it now needs a battery, and a rear tyre. So the costs of resurrecting it are increasing.

I should take the 205 off the road and use the Audi for the Winter, given it's LPG, not a convertible and is far more practical.

I still see stuff I'd love to own, but I have to be realistic, I have only two parking spaces, and need at least one vehicle on the road. I think you need to look practically at what you actually need, and can cope with. I appreciate that you saved the Renault 6 more probably out of duty than actually wanting one. But if you get rid, you'll probably never get the chance to own another. BUT, is it going to be a money pit? Can you afford the repairs it realistically is going to need?

Sometimes you have to let your head rule, rather than the heart.

[vulgalour]

A little clarity is required on the fleet, there are many points well made above.

 

Beige Princess - This is a keeper.  Believe it or not, it's actually a reliable car now and would be trouble free if that thermostat housing didn't need rebodging every 500 miles or so.

Red Princess - already sold, I'm just doing the work on it to make sure it can be driven to Shitefest.  Presently, this car isn't costing anything but buckets of time, a commodity I can generate easier than buckets of cash.

Renault 6 - Saving this was a gamble and one that I still feel strongly was the right choice to make.  People must have worked out I'm not in this for the money by now.  It is a better counterpoint to the Princess and it will be easier to work on when it breaks than the BX.

Citroen BX - Anyone that's owned and enjoyed a BX no matter how ropey will be able to understand why I want another.  I think it probably is heart-over-head.  The BX occupies a strange place for me whereby it's not as precious as the Princess so I can feel more comfortable about just slogging about it in, but it's still special enough to maintain my interest.  I worry that having the 6 and the Princess together will mean I've got two cars I'm constantly worried about but a BX and a Princess is a nicer balance.

 

I think I'm a bit overstimulated and perhaps a bit over excited at the prospect of the BX.  Part of this could be that I've never actually properly met the 6 so part of me is fairly detached from it.  Whatever happens, I'll have the beige Princess and another car, that other car will likely be silly and French.

[cort16]

Just saw an advert for a new dodge challenger for 23,000 dollars that's 14,000 quid or the price of a mud spec corsa. They're great looking cars too do you think I can get that on as hand luggage.

[plasticvandan]

How's about just having the princess,plough all your time and resources into that,and make it the best it can be,and hey,you might even have the money then to put fuel in it and go places in it just for the fun of it

[vulgalour]

I could do that, yes.  If I wasn't an idiot.

 

Edited to add:  Running through what the beige Princess can and can't do, I can eliminate the need for a second car (once I can find an insurance company that will let me) by fitting a towbar.  The only thing the Princess falls short on at times is load carrying because of it not having a hatchback and a weight limit on the roof gutters.  I get 25mpg+ urban and nearly 40mpg on a run so it's economical.  It has a commodious interior.  Parts are generally easy and cheap to obtain.

 

I still want the BX, but it doesn't actually fit into a gap that isn't already filled and it would be a toy.  The 6 too would be a toy but that can do some things the Princess can't due to being tiny and a hatchback so it's more sensible as a second car if I have to have one and it's probably a lot of fun.

 

I'll keep my options open for now, but the comments above helped give me a bit of perspective.  I think I got a bit over-excited.

[bub2006]

Just out of curiosity what does the princess do the the gallon? After tinkering with the red one i am intrigued!

[Barry Cade]

I'd bum off a princess if the circumstances were right.

Did you own a white Fiat Uno at some point?

[vulgalour]

I get 25-27mpg urban and 35-38mpg motorway since doing the head gasket.  When I first got it I was getting 18-21mpg urban and 30-35mpg motorway but it was a very poorly car when I first bought it.

[plasticvandan]

25 to the gallon isn't economical... Driving that to work would bankrupt me lol

[vulgalour]

It's economical enough for me.  Most of the time I'm trundling down motorways and I'm not bimbling around town so I don't often see the 25mpg.

[bub2006]

Not too bad considering its a relatively large car with a smaller engine.

[trigger]

The Acclaim has started to make a warring noise when you start it in the last few days, I guess it had to be the starter motor sticking on so this afternoon i had it off, the starter that is, what a piece of piss to do, I had that sucker of and away from the car in under 10 minutes which is good going for me.

 

The bendex inside was sticking from a build up of soot and clutch dust so i gave it a good clean out with some carb cleaner and lubed it up with some 3 in 1 oil and it started moving again so boshed it back together and now it's working a treat, happy days.

 

Still don't like the car though.

[twosmoke300]

Hope im not teaching granny how to suck eggs and tell me to FRO if you like but using oil on a starter can cause more grief .

It collects all the clutch dust and makes a grinding paste . I was always taught to leave em clean and dry but I suppose dry graphite lue may work too.

 

Like I said tell me to FRO if you want.

[Timewaster]

I don't think trig intends to keep the acclaim long enough for it to become a problem.

[twosmoke300]

Very true , funny how some cars just dont gel with you isnt it?

[trigger]

As long as it keeps quiet until the summer I'll be happy, as you say, I just haven't gelled to it, It's not helped that I paid to much for it and that the head gasket went on the way home so the car owes me about £1100 now.

 

Hopefully someone will pinch it of the driveway but I expect the local common joyrider would be too embarrassed to be seen in a gold Acclaim.

[twosmoke300]

Ive had a couple of acclaims and I loved em but not £1100 worth of love admittedly

[trigger]

I paid £800 and decided that if i lost a couple of hundred pounds over 6-12months of ownership that it wasn't really a big deal, unfortunately unknown to me the head had gone porous and started leaking water in and done the gasket with it, I couldn't go and sell the car back on as it would have been worthless so i had no option but to get the head professionally welded and skimmed and gasket replaced.

 

Sadly this was all within 100 miles of owning the car so i never got chance to know if i liked it for not, I can see why it's had 13 owners now though!, annoyingly it's worth about £500-600 and I don't have £700-800 spare at the moment to buy a replacement car for the wife so I'm stuck with it.

[twosmoke300]

Bugger , the couple I had took a while to grow on me though.

The boot was useless iirc

[derskine]

Bought nisfan's beige 18 - I've got shitefever

 

[phil_lihp]

Panhard65 will be pleased!

[derskine]

It's excellent that lacquer peel liked it considering the state of the lacqur peeled bonnet!

[HMC]

That beige 18 looks lovely, threadworthy hint hint, well bought! 

[panhard65]

Another Renault saved good luck with it they are lovely old buses.

[skattrd]

Nice purchase derskine, is the engine borked or not?