The grumpy thread

[burraston2006]

When did Shitroen 2 CV's suddenly skyrocket in price?  Did I have a nap and miss it?

 

Been looking on flea bay for one for my daughter as she loved the one I had years ago and thought about getting one to do up.The prices are mental. I've still got a garage full of spare bits and I thought a gentle doer upper would be ideal (she's only 15 so a couple of years in the man garage with beers etc to do it would be fantastic!). I've spent less on my daily driver than the cost of a total wreck of one of the fine pieces of french shizzle!

 

Ho hum rant over and back to the drawing board!

[dollywobbler]

They are getting a bit daft. They are changing hands for a bit less away from Ebay though. Tat seems to sell for stupid money on the Bay. You don't see very many for less than a grand anywhere though. I couldn't afford to buy one these days.

[320touring]

It's due to folks writing blogs about hoe good they are;)

 

Even Mr Harris is in on it. .

[Negative Creep]

Probably add it alongside the Mini and Capri on the "stuff I should have bought 10 years ago" list

[dugong]

The pizza I had last night was DISGUSTING. Had a violently awful, crap night with visits to the small room. 

LOVELY. 

[Cavcraft]

I still reckon it just needs one 'Doctor' or similar to post up an overpriced car on ebay, then they're all at it. Almost like a contagious illness or something, a few people see the expensive version of their own motor, then just assume it's worth the same. They don't look at the condition, effort and work involved with someone like the doctor, they just see an old car and money.

 

Once a few have followed suit trying to offload ordinary cars for stupid money, then before you know it most people are at it and the game is ruined for the rest of us. To back this theory up, just take a look at the price of a Golf GTi, Mk1 or Mk2 Escort (though I suppose at least the Fords have a rally history) the VW Camper and now the 2CV. How many are truly worth the money they make now? I'm not saying they're shit by the way, but they're not 'special' either.

[Ratdat]

There's also a degree of supply and demand. That's one of the prime drivers behind the rise in prices of old Japanese stuff. It's a small niche market of people who want them but the number of cars left is tiny... often into single figures for some models. Add to that the cost of restoring one which has risen considerably in the last 10 years and suddenly the few remaining good ones can command strong money.

 

In the past values in the old car market were not very stable, such as in the early 90's when Minors and Spitfires were making 8 grand plus and a Mk2 Jag could see £25k. At that time every garage, barn and shed in the land was emptied of that sort of thing and they were restored with the hope that the owners could cash in. Before you knew it, there were more shiny Minors, Beatles, Heralds etc on the market than there were people to buy them and the bubble burst, prices plummeted over the next decade. Today, the numbers of old cars left are way smaller than they were back then so the prices seem to only go one way... up. So long as there's demand, the prices will remain high and I can't see the demand from things like old Fords declining any time soon, nor can I see the market reaching saturation point any more.

 

Whether a car is worth the money is purely subjective. I wouldn't pay 5 grand for a splitty camper let alone 25 grand but then I don't suppose the buyers of those would entertain paying over a grand for a rusty Datsun. 

[Negative Creep]

Anything RWD and Japanese is even more expensive, irrespective of actual handling and performance

[chaseracer]

2CV? Marvellous bits of kit, but common as muck compared to the rocking-horse poo that is a decent Dyane... 

[vulgalour]

Cars on my early wish list were a lowlight Minor, 2CV, Dyane, '64 Beetle, Commer PB and a Sunbeam Rapier fastback.  Even ten years ago these were out of budget, with the exception of the Commer but I didn't have access to a welder or deep enough pockets to pay a company/man to do the welding for me.  Now there's fat chance of me getting an example of any of these in part because some of them are getting seriously rare now but in the main because the prices for anything other than a basket case are astronomical.  Mind you, my paltry maximum budget to purchase a car of £500 doesn't go very far now when you want a 'proper classic', a big reason for me sticking with the Princess now I've got it and likewise the Xantia.

[beko1987]

FFS Popped up to asda again to check if the £1 had cleared, it hadnt! Just phoned up the telephone banking who were quite helpful and they said it had cleared... (checked at the cash point 20 minutes before and it hadnt...)

 

So back up again after work to see, if it hasnt then Amy needs to come find me with a tenner so I can get home, 31 miles showing on the range, needle fully against the bottom stop... Knowing how accurate the range readout is there's probably about 6 actual real miles left

[scruff]

British FUCKING Gas.

 

Just lost it with some poor euro-teleperson who was the unfortunate messenger of the latest BG bollocks in a long running dispute. 

 

Sooner we can sack of these bag of shite companies and bugger off to the canals the better. 

[eddyramrod]

Cars on my early wish list were a lowlight Minor, 2CV, Dyane, '64 Beetle, Commer PB and a Sunbeam Rapier fastback.... my paltry maximum budget to purchase a car of £500 doesn't go very far now when you want a 'proper classic',

Although only the Rapier would make it to my list, I do know exactly what you mean.  The price of entry-level classics is running away beyond the "normal working man."  I have no idea what the remedy is, or even if there is a remedy.  The only solution I can see is, earn more money.  Yeah right.

[vulgalour]

The remedy is to look at newer stuff.  Thank goodness I don't want an Austin 7!  We have to remember how old the traditional classics are and how much rarer they become with each passing year.

 

The solution is Autoshite.

 

What is now a classic was once humdrum and average, the sort of thing you saw on every street corner everywhere doing boring everyday stuff.  That means it's likely things like the Corsa, Polo, Multipla, Picasso, Berlingo, 156 and myriad other average vehicles will one day become desirable and sought after even in their most appalling and miserable of specifications.

 

In related news, I begin to wonder if the Picasso is about to start disappearing because there's craploads of the bastarding things about at the moment so they must be about at the bottom of their value curve, probably all with impending clutch implosion set to put them over the bridge.

[Louise2cv]

Because when they were cheap they were just old cars, now they are older and rarer and considered classic. You are looking at the wrong age range for cheap motors I'm afraid.

 

My dad got a Morgan three wheeler in the early 70's and no one could understand why he'd wanted that old heap. He's laughing now though and the new members to the Morgan club aren't green grocers and teachers like he and his mates were back then.

 

The 2cv set are moaning about the exact same thing, and in a way that puts me off the 2cv "club scene" altogether, which is a real shame as it is coming from the type of people who made the club so attractive when I started getting interested 15 years ago.

[Rocket88]

There's still stuff out there..........just sourced [for a mate of mine] a very tidy MG YA saloon for £5k................

[eddyramrod]

VA: yes, you're right, but cars of this age are the cars I enjoy. It doesn't seen unreasonable to me, to be able to find them within budget. I understand as time goes on I'll be slipping down the condition scale, more and more work will be required, but I think it's a bit soon for all I can afford to be photos! Apparently I'm wrong.

Louise, sad but true there.

 

 

My MR2 is 22 years old and should get me in to most Classic shows; it even has the right gearbox and is painted (however badly) in the right colour. But, that 22 years old makes it a 1992 car. It's too modern. Doesn't feel special enough, which is a shame. Maybe I'm just being grumpy and should cheer up a it.

[Ratdat]

Times change. Back in the 50's you could buy a pre-war Bentley for buttons. The only reason I now have the cars I have is mainly because I bought them when they were cheap or, as with my 510 SSS, I just got lucky. If I didn't have a Datsun 710 SSS now I wouldn't be able to afford to buy one as it's out of my range already. 

 

At them moment, there's a wealth of cars that can be had for absolute peanuts but will almost certainly end up becoming sought after eventually. Look at sports cars like Mk1 MX5s, Fiat Coupes and MGFs... all at rock bottom now but that wont last forever. MG Midgets and Sprites, TRs and Fiat 124s were all  worthless too at some time.

[eddyramrod]

Absolutely. Unfortunately, knowing that the MR2 I've bought for not a lot will be worth a couple of good holidays in 20 years isn't a lot of help, because I won't have it then. I'll only see them on the resurrected "For The Love Of Cars" presented by Philip Glenister's grandson.

I've owned a load of 60s and 70s cars when they were worth nothing, so at least I can say I've been there, done that. I've even got some of the T-shirts!

[DVee8]

My sort of grump time

It all started last Friday morning when i woke up with a dull thud pain in the right side must have twisted or pulled something.Went to work Friday night shift,got to bed around 6.45 Saturday morning.

 

At 9.30 i'm wide awake with the most amazing pain in my side,a couple of pain killers some water,i get some more sleep.I'm up at 1ish feeling rough trying to think what have i done,twisted,lifted or pulled?then it dawns on me how about my appendix?

 

At 5.20 i go into work as the shift goes on i fell worse,at 10 i carn't take anymore and tell everyone i'm going home.

 

Sunday morning i'm up,god the pain.I ring 111 and go through the problem.I'm told to get to the University Hospital North Durham asap.

With the kids farmed out we go.

 

The doctor takes a look has a feel,yep appendix up to ward young man.So by 09.20 i'm on a surgical ward.

A lot of coming and going.I go down to theater at 14.30 for a 20-40min keyhole procedure.

 

3hours i'm in theater why you may ask.I had a perforated,gangrenous appendix with abscess that burst,so the surgeon went to a full on appendectomy.

After a full clean out i'm back on ward with my wife a 2 kids looking at me,my wife whisks them away very quickly so as not to upset them anymore. I  drift back off to sleep.

 

I wake up Monday morning.I have an oxygen mask,monitors on my chest,drips in my arms and a tube leading to a bag of blood that comes from some were.I go back to sleep.

 

11 o clock a voice says Mark,Mark,o fuck that hurts what happened so they give me a couple of minutes do some more obbs then tell me what a luck man i am.

 

Well its Thursday and I'm back home i have a stomach full of bruises and bandages,lots of drugs to take,Around 8 weeks off work.

 

My whole Hearted thanks goes out to the staff at ward 14 The University Hospital of North Durham.and my wife and kids.

It may have started as a grump but it is now a grin.

[Ratdat]

Hindsight, eh? Always a disappointment. I've had some lovely old cars that would be worth some coin by now but alas at the time I never considered 60s and 70s cars getting out of my reach financially. I had a lovely Datsun 140J with 20k on the clock and an equally smart Datsun 1200 coupe with 28k on it. I sold a rusty but never welded and restorable 1958 Beetle for £300 and I even had a rust free 1980 Mini van which I WEIGHED IN. Just kill me now.

 

Even 80s cars on their way up. I had an absolutely mint low mileage Nissan Sunny ZX hatch. Mint ones now are making £3k+ and I can't afford one. I also sold this for £300 and it was immaculate 

 

[Bren]

Hindsight, eh? Always a disappointment. I've had some lovely old cars that would be worth some coin by now but alas at the time I never considered 60s and 70s cars getting out of my reach financially. I had a lovely Datsun 140J with 20k on the clock and an equally smart Datsun 1200 coupe with 28k on it. I sold a rusty but never welded and restorable 1958 Beetle for £300 and I even had a rust free 1980 Mini van which I WEIGHED IN. Just kill me now.

 

Even 80s cars on their way up. I had an absolutely mint low mileage Nissan Sunny ZX hatch. Mint ones now are making £3k+ and I can't afford one. I also sold this for £300 and it was immaculate 

 

In 1991 i bought a 1300e escort for £300 that needed a lot of welding. At the time I thought i was ripped off.

 

I wish i could pick several of them up for that now.

 

Why does everybody pay top dollar for snap on stuff on ebay, no matter how old or tatty when perfectly good stuff is available for a fraction of the price?

 

I think if i plucked one of my dogs' turds from the garden and put a snap on sticker on it then punted it on there somebody would buy buy it - it must be OMGSCENETOOLTAX.

[Bobthebeard]

Had a phone call last night about "the accident you had last year". Whoever it was did seem to have partial details, as in hit from behind, did not claim for whiplash, full settlement from other driver etc. Assume they got the details from my insurance company.

They did not know the date of the incident though. When I gave them the date, they asked if I wanted to make a claim for minor discomfort. WTF?

Told them no, as had no discomfort whatsoever. Was punted at less than walking speed etc....

Guy got pushy, "no,no, you should claim. You will get a minimum of £2,000 for this.....You must have had some discomfort. Put a claim in"

Lost it at this point.

Told the guy to "just fuck off, and stop ringing me"

This sort of shenanigans annoys me massively. False claims for non injuries, just minor discomfort...... Crap.

Even though it possibly* cost me £2,000.

[gordonbennet]

We popped out twice today, missed a parcel the first trip out.

 

Then just now, having not seen nor heard a magpie all day, we took the dog for a walk and as we walk back down the drive there's one of the sods trying to get to the thrush's nest in our trees, got a bastard trying to raid the nest earlier in the week, this one's for it when he comes back too.

 

 

^^^oh yeah, by the way i can't stand those accident scam merchants either, presumably they like my foul abusive texts answering their invitations to commit fraud.

[anonymous user]

Had a phone call last night about "the accident you had last year".

I usually put the phone down on these, or don't answer it at all if it's a foreign or witheld number. I did have a slightly strange conversation with one where I just kept saying yes, up to the point where I revealed that we were at cross purposes and I was talking about when I had accidentally dropped a custard tart on the kitchen floor and the dog had snaffled it* before I could pick it up, rather than anything that they would ambulance chase.

 

* I left out the bit about him rolling in it first as I didn't think they'd be interested.

[vulgalour]

@DVee8:  Glad to hear you're well again.  Having been through similar - drove back from Middlesborough to Sheffield without realising I had a burst appendix, thought it was just a bad guts ache - I can empathise with the whole deal.  I also had an abscess that had been there for a while, which had caused an infection and dissolved my appendix which led to the pain... at least they think it dissolved my appendix as they couldn't find it when they went to remove it.

[fordperv]

How stupid are people? Coming back from a 2 day training course and I saw a full liveried van with how's my driving on the back and the drivers happily talking away on his phone oblivious to other road users

[dave21478]

I used to be right into minis and the whole mini scene. When I started driving, you could pick up a good runner with MOT and tax for a few hundred quid. Myself and a couple of mates went through literally dozens of them, saloons, pickups, vans....all bought, run, and sold for under £300 and often for as little as £50. I try not to think about how much they would be worth today.... Even the mini van I restored just a few years back I sold for well under its value for reasons I cant quite comprehend now. 

 

 

If I was less of a disorganised fucktard and had a little bit of spare money, I would be seeking out the mintest example I could find of an early Impreza turbo, Saxo VTS mkI and an MX5 and I would be tucking them up in dry storage for a future investment.

[dave21478]

Oh, and I set about the Citroen as its still immobilised at the back of the barn. I received my diagnostic voodoo thing from ebay so plugged in the laptop and straight off it says the clutch actuator is faulty.

 

I ran a wire from the battery direct to the starter solenoid and the engine fired up first time so it would seem that the ECU has disabled the starter feed due to the clutch solenoid failing and it doesnt know if its de-clutched or not.

 

I took it off and took it apart and the wee gearwheel on the end of the motor shaft has fallen to bits. Its not repairable so I will have to stump up for a new one....looks to be about 200Euros.

 

All moderns r shit etc, what was wrong with a good ol fashioned clutch cable grumble grumble grumble moan moan....

 

Still, if thats all it needs to get it running again, then fair enough I suppose. I can get on with selling it and replacing it with something with less electrickery.

[Cavcraft]

If you're trying to second guess current/future shitemobiles, then you'll be a good way off with Citroen Picarseholes. They're cheap but will get cheaper still yet, and won't be desirable for many a year.

 

We, as a group, are lucky to be living in the times we do as the mid 1980s and the 1990s were the best years ever for reliable motors, and there are still shit loads of cheapos about in the Autoshite range. I.e the sought of car nobody really cares about, because they're too new/shit to be sought after, too old to be wanted by most of the British motoring public and at the bottom end of the price curve.