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If only you’d worked harder at school...


sierraman

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14 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

Honest John just seems like a load of toss these days anyway. “Ohhhh don’t buy a 10 year old car it’ll be fucked” yet on another question “£600 sounds perfectly reasonable to replace an AC condenser on an old Accord”

He’s a dickhead. Why’s he got that stupid fucking pork pie hat on in the paper?

Usual letter goes as so...

Dear HJ,

   Going to be doing 20,000 miles a year commuting from Leeds to Nottingham every day, I’ve got £1000 to spend on a car what would you recommend?

                             Skint of NG12

’Any car you buy for a £1,000 will be an absolute dog, no question. In your position I’d simply find a highly paid job. In any case I’d find a Yaris 1.3 which should be ideal for spending four hours a day in, after all being on a low wage you’ll be used to being miserable, I’d also give thought to fitting it with a set of Michelin Crossclimates, they’ll probably cost a peasant like you a months wages but for anything less and you’ll be talk of the Radio 2 Roadwatch. 

                                 HJ

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21 minutes ago, sierraman said:

He’s a dickhead. Why’s he got that stupid fucking pork pie hat on in the paper?

Usual letter goes as so...

Dear HJ,

   Going to be doing 20,000 miles a year commuting from Leeds to Nottingham every day, I’ve got £1000 to spend on a car what would you recommend?

                             Skint of NG12

’Any car you buy for a £1,000 will be an absolute dog, no question. In your position I’d simply find a highly paid job. In any case I’d find a Yaris 1.3 which should be ideal for spending four hours a day in, after all being on a low wage you’ll be used to being miserable, I’d also give thought to fitting it with a set of Michelin Crossclimates, they’ll probably cost a peasant like you a months wages but for anything less and you’ll be talk of the Radio 2 Roadwatch. 

                                 HJ

HJ doesn't exist. Like Aunt Bessie. 

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1 minute ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

I’ve always lived beyond my means and spent most of my money on cars, holidays and  eating out - the rest I wasted.

Im grateful to the people signing up for all those PCPs as this is what makes theUK used car market the best and cheapest in the World.

Shoosh mun that view doesn't fit in this thread,  This is for inverted snobbery and slagging off of sheeple who don't mind dept for shiney things.

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My folks are obsessed with getting a new car on the drive every 2-3 years.

Best one was the Evoque that shat its engine oil out after 5,000 miles.

Meanwhile, I'm smoking about in a mid 90s Volvo. It's top of its range which means it's not badly specced even by today's standards, it's comfy, it's roomy and best of all I'm not chucking hundreds a month at a car I don't even own and will have to hand back in a couple of years. I can keep my Volvo going until it's not economically viable to do so. Or I can swap it on here when I fancy a change for minimal outlay.

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Everybody knows you're supposed to buy a car cheap, spend far too much on it making it lovely, and then sell it at a preferably quite significant loss.  It's still more fun and less expensive than finance.  If you've got an endless supply of 10mm sockets, all the better.

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My wife works in a four star hotel resort money magnet that charges eleventy billion pounds per night per person and is full of superficial, shallow empty airheads that spend eleventy hundred pounds per month on a car, usually with a German PRESSED EEEEEEGE badge on the back. And that's just the staff. 

Except, of course, the wife who drives to work in a 17 year old Rover 75 presently. Last year, though, she had a CVT Rover 25 - a car so shoddy looking we took pity on it and bought it. The drive plate made more noise than skeletons having an orgy in a tin bath and the previous owner had done some seamless* touching up on the bodywork. It drove well, though. She got mocked for having such a shonky old car and that she "deserved better" - though I think that may have been aimed at me as well as the car. She'd find herself defending her car choice every day, until one fateful day where two of the Plastic Bints that worked* in her office had to have repairs to their cars. One was in for a service, one was in for run flat tyres. My wife found it amusing that Bint no. 1 had an Elevnty Twelve Million Pound Bill (she couldn't afford it and had to tap up Daddy) from the garage for the service and told the one with the tyre problem "I spent slightly more than that on tyres once. But I got a whole car free with them". She shares my liking for shite stuff and constantly defends buying shite. She also pointed out that her car only cost 50 quid more that one monthly payment for the PRESSED EEEEEGE* (entry level, obvs) German vehicle. 

We've done new cars before and got into a little bit of trouble because of it. Can't be arsed with it now, which is why both the 216 and 75  I have collectively cost less than a grand to buy. 

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Threads like this really bring out the inverse snobbery on here. IMO that's no better than those that look down on others for not having an shiny new motor.

I'm happy people are free to spend their money (earned or borrowed) on whatever they like. Don't forget all these PCP deals need people to build the cars, sell them, fix them, repossess them even - and that keeps thousands in work.

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Not sure how I fit in I didn't work hard at school, I slightly regret it now, but my parents had made it clear that they would not support me through university as I was thick.

I have worked since I was seventeen and been irresponsible for my own finances since then. I have wasted money on cars for most of my adult life. 

I like cars, I have bought cheap ones, expensive ones, new ones and old ones. I have driven ancient, end of life stuff as daily transport and new ones (some where my employer paid for them).

I currently have three cars, all bought because I just liked the idea of them. I have done sensible, but it doesn't last with me.

Someone has to buy cars new, otherwise there won't be any secondhand ones.

 

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14 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

Not sure how I fit in I didn't work hard at school, I slightly regret it now, but my parents had made it clear that they would not support me through university as I was thick.

I have worked since I was seventeen and been irresponsible for my own finances since then. I have wasted money on cars for most of my adult life. 

I like cars, I have bought cheap ones, expensive ones, new ones and old ones. I have driven ancient, end of life stuff as daily transport and new ones (some where my employer paid for them).

I currently have three cars, all bought because I just liked the idea of them. I have done sensible, but it doesn't last with me.

Someone has to buy cars new, otherwise there won't be any secondhand ones.

 

I’m similar I suppose. I don’t like very much from the last 25/30 years as a rule and I’ll be fucked if I’m buying modern stuff. I just don’t like anything about them. My choice!

But I’ll gladly buy classic stuff and spunk the same money on them instead. I could have bought a nice modern for what I’ve spent doing the Capri and Mercury as an example, I just don’t want to! Both of those cars are way way cooler and more my style than any modern.

Im not well off, not well educated either. I’m just good with money and good at saving. If you want classic cars, have one. If you want an old banger, have one. If you want new and shiny, have one. Everyone’s different with different needs and wants.

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8 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

For me, non-bloated car design stopped round about 1991

For me, it was the 90’s in general where car design just went downhill. Reliability went up but cars just lost style and uniqueness. I just can’t drive stuff like that and have absolutely no interest whatsoever in them. I like chrome bumpers or 80’s style metal/plastic ones that still look like bumpers, I like angular styling and coke bottle styling, and fins & chrome!

All personal preference I guess!

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Ah yes i know the feeling

had a massive argument with my ex about this, was told if i didn't frequently drink coffee/energy drinks i could almost afford PCP on a BMW 1 series.......

oh and my picasso is "a pile of old shit, ugly and embarrasing" he drove a 16 plate i10

that's what pretty much ended the relationship, still pisses me off to this day

i also have one of the oldest car on the street, the only thing older is my neigbours 04 clk 350

what was hilarious was back last year i had to tow a 2016 land rover discovery home for a relative as it had shit itself, got some looks doing it in my 15 year old picasso

i hardly like any new cars at the moment, i like the mk10 civic, mustang and the new camry but that's about it

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I'm just allergic to depreciation. Right now we're overpaying on our mortgage by about £150 per month, and even then it's only the equivalent of a BMW 530d on PCP. And the house is, theoretically, increasing in value.

I bought my 1.8T A4 for a grand thirteen years ago. Wouldn't mind betting I could sell it to some VAG-obsessed "slam it and wick the boost up" loony for a grand now.

Not saying it's the "right" way to live, but it's sure as hell the one I'm the most comfortable with.

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I'm guilty of being at both ends of the spectrum. I've had and still do have some old tat that's still just about serviceable, and I have the shiny new stuff that's still got a warranty. All fulfill a demand, which is why they were bought; cars here don't all have that plummeting depreciation you find in the UK. The only car I have that's slipping down the slope faster than what it's owing is my Jeep and I was aware that was going to happen for a while.

Hell, the real ethos of Autoshite doesn't really exist here the same way it does there. You figure, my 13 year old pickup truck was part-ex and then sold three days later on the dealership used lot for nearly ten grand. 

There's not a great deal of snobbery locally though- the megarich in the shiny houses drive around in exotic stuff like Range Rovers simply because. This street is an interesting collection- more often than not you buy a vehicle as a long term thing, and have a second vehicle (often the one it replaced) after it's gone past caring about car park dinks and stone chips. If it runs and drives then you're doing okay, doesn't ultimately matter what it looks like to most people.

So yeah, that attitude depends on a number of things- social issues, personal image and financial security. Do with it as you wish, I guess. 

I'm off to get a chrome stick-on badge for the bootlid now.

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7 hours ago, Kiltox said:

Honest John just seems like a load of toss these days anyway. “Ohhhh don’t buy a 10 year old car it’ll be fucked”

Actually a 10 year old car now (so a 2010 model) probably will be fucked; if not yet, then soon, most likely by something electronic and expensive.  This is why I prefer older stuff!

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15 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Actually a 10 year old car now (so a 2010 model) probably will be fucked; if not yet, then soon, most likely by something electronic and expensive.  This is why I prefer older stuff!

I don’t know, I’ve a 10 year old Mondeo only average for the age wear and tear. Of course something like an ABS module or whatever could go bang but it can be repaired. On cars years ago once the body went that was that. Most Cortinas celebrated their 10th birthday in the scrapyard due to rampant corrosion or engines needing a rebore at 100,000. Of course you could swap an engine in an afternoon on one but that’s some consolation in February. 

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I think the difference is that the sorts of things that kill cars has changed. Scrappies look like car parks now with rows of rust free cars with electronic problems that are too expensive to bother sorting. When my Capri was in for its MoT this week the old guy who runs the place brought the young lad over to look at it. He was gobsmacked how much space there was and his first questions was ‘where are all the cables?’ I think he thought we were lying when we said you could run an engine with less than half a dozen wires.

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I do like discussing a bit of socio-economics + cars. I currently live in a block of council flats* the same 7 cars are parked in the residential car park. I own the oldest one, which is 53 reg.

The others are: 06 reg Aygo, 07 reg 107, 68 reg Corsa, 61 reg Ibiza, 17 reg Audi A1 (recently upgraded from a 10 reg Kia Picanto) and a 65 reg BMW 1-series.

* hoping to improve this situation next year.

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The modern way of "owning" a car will never be popular here because we're "car people" who take an interest in what we drive rather than treating it as just another item of white goods and are reasonably proficient at keeping it running (says the man who just bought a Maserati).

Look at it like this; if, say, a fridge or washing machine cost £15k+ what would you do?...risk buying an old second hand one that looked scruffy compared to the rest of the kitchen, thus incurring the wrath of your other half or would you make a monthly repayment on a new one which looked good and will/ should be dependable?

For the vast majority of people a car is a car, in the same way a fridge is a fridge to you or I.

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