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TheIsleofShite

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I’ve just realised I’ve owned my Allegro for over 5 years but have failed to join the club. 
 

What do you guys think of paid membership car clubs? What clubs are you members of? I’ve always been a bit reluctant especially single marque clubs.
 

Oh and anyone have experience of the Allegro club, worth joining? 

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It's a thumbs down from me. 

A few years ago it might have been worth while for the info and expertise available through the club but the Internet has replaced that. 

Adenoidal anoraks who met up in a wet pub car park and nit pick other peoples cars. 

I was in a local mini club for local people once, one chap was seen as some sort of God because he had 68 Cooper S  and was the first to be invited to anything, the meets were arranged around his availability. 

One meeting he turned up in his wifes new BINI cooper. 

Some of the members literally turned their back on him and refused to have anything to do with him. 

Wankers. 

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I recently joined a smallish club. Asked a question if anybody got an image on how the inner and outer wing together with the inner and outer sills plus splash panel fitted together and got a load of advice about how they wanted me to do the restoration.  But nothing to answer my question. Doubt if my membership will be renewed.

Another one make club I used to belong to was able to organise car rally and racing events. That was great made acquaintances from all over the UK.

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200/400 OC are a nice bunch, cheap membership, and loads (I mean loads) of good knowledge and stacks of spares easily unlocked. Always enjoy meeting up with other club members at events. Chair, John Batchelor, is a genuinely nice bloke and makes everyone feel special. Absolutely no snobbery about the condition of your car at all.

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A good club magazine was once a measure of a good club.  These days I would say a good club forum is important these days.  Single marque knowledge sharing can be very useful

There are always some Bellends about, but then again, occasionally it has been known to kick off on here because some cunning stunt starts balking tollocks and getting all bent out of shape.

generally though, we manage to get along alright given the wide range of shitedness.  

I dunno how good the Allagro Club is though.  You don’t get much Allagro stuff on here.  

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1 hour ago, TheIsleofShite said:

Oh and anyone have experience of the Allegro club, worth joining? 

I can echo what @Craig the Princess has said above.  I've been a member for 22 years (what, where did that time go?) and on the committee for the past eight.  As with any club there have been ups and downs, but the last few have been generally up.  Membership is at its highest since 2012, the club magazine appears regularly and the (club owned, available to members only) spares service has gone from strength to strength under its current custodian.  For example we've had repair panels made for front wings and front panel.  It would have been nice to have full panels made but tooling is prohibitely expensive.  We don't charge members to attend our own events (unlike other clubs I've previously been a member of; cough 1100 cough), and subsidise entry to venues; for example this year's National rally is at Whitewebbs museum on 10th May, and the club will pay entry to the museum for the driver and one passenger in each Allegro attending.  I could go on but suspect I'm getting boring now...

Obviously past success is no guarantee of future performance, and there are areas we'd like to improve (a webmaster would be nice!), but why not join for a year and see what you think?  Feel free to PM me if you want to ask anything.

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I was in the Allegro club a few years back (didn't own an Allegro but I sometimes join clubs if I like a car).

Seemed a very well organised club & looking at events & comments etc seemed friendly. Club magazine was interesting too.

Clubs do help to keep cars on the road & often the funds go towards re-manufacturing projects. 

Years ago when I had a 105e Anglia I was in that club & they were great at helping with spares etc.

I think they're worth giving a try as lets be honest it doesn't cost much & if you don't like it you just don't renew.

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I’ve been a member of the opel manta owners club for over 10 years and to be honest the only reason I carry on with my membership is because of the friends I’ve made along the way. Old school friends will give you parts knowing it’s better off with a good home. Unfortunately some folk have turned it into a career and now charge high prices for second hand parts, which is a shame really. There’s not much other benefit to it, I think Facebook killed the forum but some hard core members continue to post stuff from time to time. 

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@Six-cylinder and I belong to the Allegro Club International, which has just turned 30 years old. The 30th anniversary edition of the pleasant magazine arrived last week.

We have found the club and members to be friendly, helpful and down-to-earth.

My super-scruffy VP1500 was put back on the road with their help and has been welcomed at their events.

Up to you if you want to join a club or not, but our experience of this one has been good so far.

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15 minutes ago, Mally said:

I join because the insurance say it's 'cheaper for members'.

Is it ? and if so why?

 

I guess that's a question for the insurance companies.  I believe the principle is that someone who bothers to join a club is more likely to look after their car and drive it carefully; who knows whether there's any truth in that assumption!  I use Peter James, who offer a discount to members of any club that is a member of the FBHVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs).

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I paid to be a member of UKPOC which is the Ford Probe owners club.  Some lovely people on there, but also some strange folk and sadly not much experience /knowledge for mk1s (unsurprising given the handful in the UK). Some suggestions I shouldn't be (lightly) modifying such a rare car despite the fact that the Probe is a car which seems to attract some fabulously tasteless modification which is often praised on there. 

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Something I don't like is the assumption that if you are not in "The Club" for whatever car it is, you can't be a proper enthusiast, and in fact maybe shouldn't really be driving one at all.   Many clubs are not very welcoming, especially if you have a different take on the cars to  the norm, or maybe know a bit more than the resident expert.  Clubs need to remember why they exist.

I'm a member of the club which supports my current project car, because there is a backlog of good technical stuff on their forum.  However, the forum is dominated by two complete tossers with vast experience who know everything. Whenever a newbie comes on, usually with a perfectly sensible question,  one or other of these characters kicks off with the  bullshit and generally cuts them down to size, to the point where the newbie  must wish they hadn't asked, and they still haven't got their problem solved.  It is a waste of time trying to intervene. That is an appalling situation for a club.

I find this place a refreshing change - actually friendly and helpful, and not confined to cars, which is great.

That said, some people do enjoy clubs, a lot of hard unpaid work goes into running them,  and they do raise profile of the old car movement,  so overall they are a positive thing - but only just, IMO.

 

 

 

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For me, other than not being a 'Clubby' type person (I have a low tolerance of self-important people), the problem is that the quality and therefore the point/value of being a club member is extremely variable, from really good (open minded, laid-back & useful) to a total waste of time (utter marque-nazis, overbearing & /or useless). Guess it helps to ask around and find out what it's like from present/past members.

Personally, I'm not a member of any clubs that are relevant to either the GTi, the MX5 or the LC, I used to be in some cases but only really used them for info - info that is readily available on the interweb. Is it more reliable from a club? Not in my experience, these days combined with any number of useful 'How-to' videos on YouTube etc., kind of makes that part of club membership a bit questionable to a degree. They can be useful for sourcing spares but again, the interweb is your friend, I've not failed to find anything I've needed in living memory and didn't need to be in a club to do so.

Overall, I'm not anti-club at all but for me it doesn't really work, I don't do the show thing despite having some extremely nice vehicles, just not interested but understand the attraction if it's your thing, similarly with the social side, some enjoy that aspect more so being in a club is a good idea so I get it here too.

(Also notwithstanding the Groucho Marx quip 'I don't want to join any club that would have the likes of me as a member'). 

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Thanks for the positive info on the Allegro club, I’m going to join this week.

 

I share a lot of what has been said here. I’m a member of the local classic car club which is good value at £15 a year and organises a lot of events. I’m also a member of the Historic Volkswagen Club but don’t really involve myself too much. 

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On two occasions when I've taken my tatty old BX to some show or other, I've been collared by adenoidal weirdos who identified themselves as being in some Citroen club or other (as if that conferred powers of arrest or something) and then went on - their opinions entirely unsolicited - to tell me what a scrapyard-dodging pile of shit my car was, then continuing in great detail to list the non-standard parts fitted to it etc. I'm not ashamed to say that I told the more offensive of these rivet counters to fuck off and mind his own business. Apart from anything else, that car (as scabby and non-original as it is) has lived several lifetimes in its 31 years, and merely the fact that it still survives and provides me with transport (and also the occasional green puddle) is remarkable in itself. As much as I love my old Citroens, based on these experiences you can probably see why I've never bothered to join any related clubs. There is a body of owners past and present gathered here who have kindly provided knowledge and assistance in keeping it going to the extent that I've never felt I was missing out by not by joining a one make club.

 

Someone mentioned magazines earlier, and I still think that's a good yardstick. I haven't had a moped that was rideable for years, but I still enjoy the Buzzing Club's mag. Also the Cossack Owners Club (which I joined to help with getting my Tula registered) rag is genuinely excellent, and they have been very helpful all round.

 

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I am a member of the Saab Owners Club (you will be surprised* to hear) and also the Tayside Classic Car Club. Tayside organise lots of local things. SOC organises a few great meets a year. Made some excellent friends through both. SOC does not have a forum, UKSaabs provides that and we work closely together. Tayside does an electronic newsletter, SOC a great colour magazine. Happy to be a member of both.

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