Ghostly Goings On - over the moon

[Ghosty]

Off the train. Seller said he'd pay me a taxi to his place, unfortunately there was only one taxi at the station and a woman with two heavy cases got to it before me. 55 plate C-Class.... 

[mintwth]

Almost Bournemouth, can recommend an excellent pizza place if you'll still be in the area after 5.

Going to take the new collection for a lap of Sandbanks to vastly improve the ambience of all those millionaire's mansion while you're there? 

[Cord Fourteener]

OK drum roll, can't be long now...

[chaseracer]

Can we all imagine we're sitting under a gazebo at an intermittently rainy FoD, offering increasingly bizarre suggestions of what he's bought this time...? 

😁

[Ghosty]

The C-Class taxi came back. Eccentric Lithuanian driver. 

 

 

One owner, French holiday home car. Next to no rust. 

[SRi05]

Ooft, that's lovely looking 

[mintwth]

Nice.

Just remembered it's Bournemouth airshow today. The collection could be celebrated by a flypast

[Ghosty]

38 minutes ago, mintwth said:

Nice.

Just remembered it's Bournemouth airshow today. The collection could be celebrated by a flypast

I got a flypast waiting for my taxi! 

[Crackers]

I hope your trip home goes less eventfully than this chap's airshow display.

[chaseracer]

It'll be reet, he's only flooded it...

[Liggle]

Wow, an unmolested EG Civic... They were rare when I had my EM1 10 years ago! 

[Schaefft]

2 hours ago, Ghosty said:

The C-Class taxi came back. Eccentric Lithuanian driver. 

 

 

One owner, French holiday car. Next to no rust. 

In this condition this can only be a granny owned automatic that somehow survived for 30 years, these are awesome, favorite gen Civic for me!

[Ghosty]

That was a day that was. SUCCESS. 

[beko1987]

Their the best looking shape civic ever imo... Top looking car in general. 

How secure is the cat? 

[Ghosty]

2 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

How secure is the cat? 

Don't bloody remind me, I need to do something about that. 

 

[beko1987]

Is it old enough for a decat? Or it must be old enough to have some easy fit straight sections and just swap the cats back in for the test at its age... Might even get some fancy brackets

[Ghosty]

Just now, beko1987 said:

Is it old enough for a decat? Or it must be old enough to have some easy fit straight sections and just swap the cats back in for the test at its age... Might even get some fancy brackets

93/K so just inside needing a cat. 

That's not a bad suggestion, but I'd rather not mess with it as that tends to put the EML on. 

This has an interesting dual point injection system I've not seen before so I'll have to read up on that. 

 

[beko1987]

Slam it to the ground so hard they can't get anything under it to jack it up yo 

[Ghosty]

I don't want to mod it, it's far too clean, much like the sedan. 

Besides, they don't need mods if you know how to drive them.  

[Ghosty]

Writeup? Writeup. 

Today was LONG. 
Having found the Civic on Marketplace yesterday, 2 hours after it was posted, I made arrangements to view it. Knowing the Rover was outbound I messaged the buyer and offered delivery of it if I could be dropped at a railway station - a deal was made  - luckily the Rover had half a tank of fuel already, so I chucked a cursory tenner more in the night before. 
6:30 start and drive the Rover to the buyer, for reasons currently under wraps. Good run, no issues. The Rover had a new pair of driveshafts fitted that my dad refurbed, meaning it was doing motorway speeds down the A1 without issue, one diesel Passat owner took a rather amusing exception to this. 

Handover complete, the Rover leaves me, and I'm on the train from March to Christchurch. Nothing much happens, it's just trains. 

Get off the train in Christchurch, and it's a tiny little place. The seller said to just get a cab from the station taxi rank (no Uber here!), alas there's only one taxi in the rank and a woman with two big cases is heading for it. I let her take it and hold out - I let the seller know  and he's surprised it's empty. He says to wait a bit then call a taxi. I look at the station information and there are three taxi phone numbers  - two taxi companies and something like 'Marek's taxi' with just a mobile number. I realise this last one is the taxi I'd just seen leave. A little one man operation - curious.

After a few minutes, the taxi comes back. 
It's a 55 plate C200 CDI Avantgarde on 237k, in a dark purple colour with a white vinyl  stripe down the flanks, with a mobile number and 'Christchurch' on it, and a hackney cab plate on the rear bumper. A stocky middle aged man in a polo shirt and puffer vest is driving it. There's a taxi meter and a TomTom satnav on the dash. Cash only! 

The man's English isn't the best, but I manage to give him the address I'm going to and ask him to stop at a cashpoint on the way so I can pay him  - he duly took me to a branch of the Co-op on the way. 
Turns out he's Lithuanian, and he intended to go back to Lithuania to retire next year. He claimed that he worked for state radio there in late Soviet days. He's very talkative and had some interesting opinions on Western politics - it was interesting to see them from the perspective of someone from a post-Soviet country. As mentioned above it was Bournemouth airshow this weekend and he talked a bit about that, and also about how much he liked England. It was a bit disjointed, but utterly fascinating. He never drove above 30mph anywhere for some reason, which might have been to do with the TPMS fault the Merc's dash was displaying. 
Anyway he drops me off at the seller's house, and I'm met with a garden full of all sorts of cars, this is driveway trader turned up to eleven. This Civic had been described vaguely: 



but the pictures said it all - there was no visible rust and the MOT history was really rather good - however there was an eleven year gap where the car covered 30k... 

From what I could see this was a great deal - the car looked fantastically tidy, and EGs sell ridiculously well so as the ad was fresh, I decided I'd go and view it. It was well worth a punt at 1750 - the prices people want for 75hp manuals are insane at the moment. 

Anyway. 
I'm met with a ludicrously clean Civic, with four new looking tyres, and one or two patches of surface rust, but that's it. It's a fantastically honest car, and a test drive reveals spot-on mechanicals. The seller is a pleasure to deal with as well.

He explained that he was selling the car on behalf of a couple - they had owned the car from new, and 16 years later they took it to their holiday home in southern France and reregistered it there, giving it an annual Controle Technique. And they'd kept all the paperwork for it too. 
The 'grazing' on the bonnet is lacquer bloom, presumably from the French climate? 
The bottom line is, the car's exceptionally good, exactly what I'm looking for, so of course I bloody leave with it, as the price is a bargain. I think the chap knew he was underselling it a bit, but he seemed to need it gone.
Get in, fill it with super unleaded, drive home. Over the drive home it just kept running better and better, more responsive, smoother. No faults, FTPs or foibles - though the seller did mention that he'd been told sometimes it'll crank but not fire apparently - that to me says it needs a new fuel relay and/or the HT leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm need replacing. 
Someone's very neatly fitted an Alpine radio to it which made me happy  - it wasn't mentioned in the ad or pictured so was a rather nice surprise. Stuck my Bluetooth adapter in the cigarette lighter as it's an old FM/CD unit and tuneage was achieved. The speakers are shot though so I'll have to buy some new ones. 
As something to knock about in daily, I don't think you could ask for more. It has one or two little foibles (bonnet cable/catch is temperamental, TADTS) and the central locking doesn't lock on the key, but it's in remarkable condition and for a little care and maintenance it should be a faithful, practical and interesting daily driver -  hopefully for quite some time too. 
 

[Ghosty]

9 hours ago, mintwth said:

Almost Bournemouth, can recommend an excellent pizza place if you'll still be in the area after 5.

 

Missed this - had to head straight north as I couldn't afford to lose any time, I've got work tomorrow and I'd been up since 6am. 

I forgot to mention I did everything today on 2 hours' sleep. I am FUCKED. 
The fact I've managed to find an unmolested EG hasn't quite sunk in yet. 

[Ghosty]

5 hours ago, Schaefft said:

In this condition this can only be a granny owned automatic that somehow survived for 30 years, these are awesome, favorite gen Civic for me!

Nail/head - it is auto, and the box is in fine fettle. The key to its survival was an easy life in Dordogne since about 2008.

[stripped fred]

Very well bought sir!

[Eyersey1234]

12 hours ago, Ghosty said:

The C-Class taxi came back. Eccentric Lithuanian driver. 

 

 

One owner, French holiday home car. Next to no rust. 

Phoooaarrr that's chodtastic

[Cord Fourteener]

Amazing find, and an epic tale. Well done.

[Jazoli]

15 hours ago, Ghosty said:

The C-Class taxi came back. Eccentric Lithuanian driver. 

 

 

One owner, French holiday home car. Next to no rust. 

Nice, we have a similar condition 1996 one that my youngest is learning in, it was owned by an old bloke from new till he popped his clogs last year, its an auto too, they are really nice to bimble around in

 

[J-T]

Split tailgate FTW.  Lovely little cars these, if bizarrely overpriced now thanks to VTEC YO types. Looks like you got a belter there.

[Timewaster]

23 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Standing on the train as there aren't any seats, even in 10 or so carriages. 

People keep wandering up and down looking for seats. 

 

Thankfully this train doesn't stop again before Kings Cross. 

Cambridge to King's X, normal. 

[Ghosty]

For those that don't know: 

[Ghosty]

The guy that gave me the Ignis for that Aerodeck took it on a track day, and apparently it now has rod knock.