A bit of shite - XJR to XJ6

[horriblemercedes]

2 hours ago, Matty said:

Brilliant little thing. Glad to hear you're still enamoured with it 👍

I did lose love for it a bit, because I was dealing with other things that were more important. Family, friends, deaths and so on. 

 

It stayed in the garage for months and I did occasional bits of tinkering. It runs like a champ. A great little car. As long as I can keep it, it'll stay with me. 

[horriblemercedes]

On top of this, the XJR is a great daily driver. It is an XJ, so it's quiet and comfortable, but it's a great sports saloon when you want that. I'm OK with 16mpg

[SiC]

I still want a 7. I keep looking at pre-war stuff but it's the seven I keep coming back to. Both the simplicity and the fact they're not stodgy to drive like many cars of that era. I think it might be a Chummy that would be my preferred choice. But no doubt budget will predicate something less desirable like a Ruby (but still fun ofc). 

Funnily enough I had @dollywobbler more recent Austin 7 video came up on my YouTube feed today too and I thought about yours. 

 

I don't want another restoration project .... but they do look awfully simple and easy to restore. 

[lesapandre]

They have a very keen following outside the normal orbit of the 'classic car' world - they seem to exist in their own space. I'd join one of the clubs. The cars get passed about there. 

They race and hill climb of course.

They don't take up much space - made to fit down the side of all those 30's semi-detached houses to tiny garages.

They remain affordable too. 

[SiC]

4 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

They don't take up much space - made to fit down the side of all those 30's semi-detached houses to tiny garages.

I'm overflowing with cars at the moment. Another is coming soon and that puts me at 8 vehicles...

However I think the narrow gap between the house and garage is wide enough for an Austin 7 to fit through providing I rebuild the gate. That way it could go where our shed is when that's demolished ... 🙃

[plasticvandan]

Don't know how I missed it either,in moments of rose tinted insanity I do wonder if a ruby could be used as my daily,being as I now only do around 60 miles a week,and work from home for two days. My grandad owned many sevens and tens, started restoring them in the late 60s,which must be like someone restoring a rover 100 metro today.

[Matty]

8 hours ago, lesapandre said:

They have a very keen following outside the normal orbit of the 'classic car' world - they seem to exist in their own space. I'd join one of the clubs. The cars get passed about there. 

They race and hill climb of course.

They don't take up much space - made to fit down the side of all those 30's semi-detached houses to tiny garages.

They remain affordable too. 

When we lived in our first house there was a field on a steep hill beyond our back yard. The lad who owned it used to run trials on the hill a couple of times a year. Was great craic sitting in the back bedroom Sunday morning and watching all the little Sevens going up and down the hill through the flags!

[horriblemercedes]

I went to Longstone tyres on Friday morning. A great group of guys. Chatty, interesting and properly into interesting cars. I actually enjoyed getting a tyre changed! 

 

@SiC this Chummy is for sale and is absolutely lovely. Belongs to the owner of Longstone. Go on! I didn't ask the price though..... 

[Matty]

5 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

I went to Longstone tyres on Friday morning. A great group of guys. Chatty, interesting and properly into interesting cars. I actually enjoyed getting a tyre changed! 

 

@SiC this Chummy is for sale and is absolutely lovely. Belongs to the owner of Longstone. Go on! I didn't ask the price though..... 

@SiC that's got to be pretty much pure 7

[horriblemercedes]

5 minutes ago, Matty said:

@SiC that's got to be pretty much pure 7

We need to see more of your Austin! 

[Matty]

3 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

We need to see more of your Austin! 

I only update the thread when I'm working on it. So no news is good news 😁

[horriblemercedes]

3 minutes ago, Matty said:

I only update the thread when I'm working on it. So no news is good news 😁

Give us updates when you take it for a trip out! I think we would all like to see that 

 

I think before this Austin 7, the last time I had been in an Austin was my dad's diesel Montego he had when I was a child

[SiC]

8 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

I went to Longstone tyres on Friday morning. A great group of guys. Chatty, interesting and properly into interesting cars. I actually enjoyed getting a tyre changed! 

 

@SiC this Chummy is for sale and is absolutely lovely. Belongs to the owner of Longstone. Go on! I didn't ask the price though..... 

I imagine probably the thick end of 15k or something like that. The Chummy hold their value the best ... but are on the down!

I live in a cul-de-sac that goes onto a 40mph main road with many doing more than that. However they are supposed to be making it a 30mph zone soon and I'm waiting till then before getting something pre-war. While some may not do 30, there will be some that will and I have some chance of getting out in time.

[Matty]

4 hours ago, SiC said:

I imagine probably the thick end of 15k or something like that. The Chummy hold their value the best ... but are on the down!

I live in a cul-de-sac that goes onto a 40mph main road with many doing more than that. However they are supposed to be making it a 30mph zone soon and I'm waiting till then before getting something pre-war. While some may not do 30, there will be some that will and I have some chance of getting out in time.

Having been to your house i can see the problem. When I was leaving I tried for a gap that wasn't really big enough then couldn't get the power down due to the truck axle tramping all over the shop. Didn't make me popular 🤣

[horriblemercedes]

No pictures unfortunately (I always forget to take any!) but I've had a lovely evening in the garage, working on the Austin. I bought it with the intention of enjoying summer evenings doing some tinkering, and days like this remind me why I like it (and cars in general!) 

Summary of this evening:

New coolant hose clamps have solved a persistent leak. They were from my "box of things that might be useful one day". They're from a Mk4 Golf GTI. 

Solved the battery drain. This was user error. I realised there's a switch to turn on the instrument lights. I hadn't realised that before! Turned it off. Over the weekend I'm going to check to see if the battery has drained. 

Oil change. Easiest thing in the world. I drained the old and added four pints of Morris 20W50 Golden Film oil. I'm a big fan of Morris Lubricants as a good firm that produces quality oil in the UK (Shrewsbury). I used their 10w40 semi synthetic in the XJR. 

Adjusted the slack in the Austin's wiper motor. It really does seem to work perfectly now. 

Next, I need to investigate the slight weep from the XJR's radiator. It's tiny, but worth checking. Haven't had time yet. 

 

All in all, the Austin is fighting fit and ready to go. Just in time for the thunderstorms 🤣

[horriblemercedes]

Last week I was bored one evening and took the XJR out for a drive. Great fun as always. It was low on fuel so I went to fill it up at the local big Tesco (99RON) 

As I finished filling up, I looked up and a young guy was walking over. He said, "is that an XJR? Cool! Oh... It's manual!?!" 

We agreed to meet up in the car park and had a great time comparing our cars (he had a nice BMW E38 740i) and we chatted for ages about cars. A lovely time. 

 

[horriblemercedes]

Well, I really liked my Saab 95 and will have another, but it was time to try something new. Another Saab. Sort of.

I've always been curious about these cars and barely ever seen one. I've certainly never been in one. A Cadillac BLS. I wanted another Saab estate because I like them and I have always thought it would be fun to own a Cadillac. Two birds, one stone. 

This one came up on Facebook Marketplace the day before my mum was coming to visit me. It was on her way home, so I asked for a lift to go and see it. It was cheap, but there was very little info in the advert. When I saw it, I realised it was way better than the advert showed. One owner from new. Almost immaculate condition. Full service history from only two garages - the supplying Saab/Vauxhall dealership and then a good garage after that. It drove perfectly. I'll share some pictures. Sorry for the poor quality. I compressed them to save server stress:

 

The bag over the mirror is because I damaged the mirror glass. I put a bag over it to stop water from getting into the wires while it was removed from the car.

[horriblemercedes]

It has ice cold air conditioning and the 1.9 TTiD engine from the Saab 93 Aero diesel. It really is a 93 - just superficial differences. 

[horriblemercedes]

I had never been in a Cadillac BLS before this one, but I've been in and driven many Saab 93s. The steering wheel is the same. The seats are the same. The gear lever is the same. 

It has a nicer interior than the Saab. Nicer materials. It's also quieter and more refined. I actually like it a lot. It's a cheap, economical estate car that's odd and rare. I like it. I like that I haven't seen another in the time that I've had it.

 

It's funny that things like the dials, climate controls and the radio head unit are the same as the Saab - just a different typeface and the backlighting is white, rather than green.

[danthecapriman]

That is weird! It kind of looks familiar but not! I’ve never seen one before, not even heard of them tbh.

Nicely bought.

[horriblemercedes]

Even the VIN plate doesn't say Cadillac. Just Saab and General Motors. I also found a magazine ad from 2006. Experience Turbo Diesel Excitement! 

 

It seems the estates are particularly rare. Only made at the end of production. One source says that only 37 estates were sold in the UK. I don't know if it's true, but it seems plausible. 

[Surface Rust]

Never seen an estate either - fascinating dead end. Presumably it wasn't sold in the US?

An estate would have been far more practical for mafia activities....

[Schaefft]

Whenever I saw one of these I'd confuse it with an odd looking CTS at first, it's still a bit mind boggling that GM would commit to a model like the BLS but I guess they had no chance if they wanted to be a serious player in the European market. Naturally it didn't help much in the end.

With the interior being a bit nicer than the 93 I'm wondering how it compares to the first generation CTS. I've said it many times before but the materials in that were a real letdown.

[Schaefft]

2 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

Never seen an estate either - fascinating dead end. Presumably it wasn't sold in the US?

An estate would have been far more practical for mafia activities....

They sold the CTS estate in the states (and Europe), they are actually quite desirable and somewhat of a collectible now. The BLS meanwhile is completely unknown to pretty much everyone.

[horriblemercedes]

8 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Whenever I saw one of these I'd confuse it with an odd looking CTS at first, it's still a bit mind boggling that GM would commit to a model like the BLS but I guess they had no chance if they wanted to be a serious player in the European market. Naturally it didn't help much in the end.

With the interior being a bit nicer than the 93 I'm wondering how it compares to the first generation CTS. I've said it many times before but the materials in that were a real letdown.

It's nicer than a 93 inside. I've got no doubt about that. I had a BMW E91 (you went in it!) and I think it feels nicer inside than that. 

 

It helps that this one is high spec. The most powerful of the diesels with navigation, Bose stereo (with a subwoofer instead of a spare wheel), memory seats, auto-dimming and power folding mirrors. 

 

From my research, GM said at the time that they planned to sell only a few of these, but it would be a small start to making Cadillac global. The next generation would be on the Sigma platform, with rear wheel drive and similar to a BMW 3 Series. It would be a global product. In the meantime, GM went bust and plans changed. 

 

It's an interesting piece of history. It was supposed to be a start, not an end. It was intended to be the first step to Cadillac directly competing in Europe with Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes

[horriblemercedes]

19 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

Never seen an estate either - fascinating dead end. Presumably it wasn't sold in the US?

An estate would have been far more practical for mafia activities....

The BLS was never sold in North America, no. I think it was offered in Mexico late in the production run. 

 

Estate would've been practical, but it would be inconvenient if the body was visible through the windows! 

[Imhotep]

Just be really careful if you see the oil light flash on for a couple of seconds on cold start - usually means the oil pickup seal needs replacing and despite what the internet says that is an important job to do ASAFP, because otherwise it’ll end up sounding like a dry sump Ducati

Source: I’d still have my 9-3 Aero TTID otherwise…

Otherwise, that looks lovely inside, I’ve never seen inside one compared to a 9-3, even from the photos it looks better quality, without seeing the materials with my own eye. 

[horriblemercedes]

7 hours ago, Imhotep said:

Just be really careful if you see the oil light flash on for a couple of seconds on cold start - usually means the oil pickup seal needs replacing and despite what the internet says that is an important job to do ASAFP, because otherwise it’ll end up sounding like a dry sump Ducati

Source: I’d still have my 9-3 Aero TTID otherwise…

Otherwise, that looks lovely inside, I’ve never seen inside one compared to a 9-3, even from the photos it looks better quality, without seeing the materials with my own eye. 

Thank you - I will watch out for oil lights. So far, nothing like that. Just normal operation. 

 

I've only found one fault so far. The parking sensors occasionally don't work when it's wet. I can live with that. It's a very easy car to park and has very good visibility

 

I have read all the reviews from the time that I can find and it seems that the interior got a lot of praise. I don't really care about those things, but I'm pretty impressed with it. It really is quite nice 

[loserone]

That's brilliant, well done!

[Split_Pin]

Brilliant, I didn't know you could get an estate one of these, and a TTiD. 

Interesting that the chassis number starts with YSCF where as Saab 9-3s start with YS3F. 

Dougie from Once Driven Forever Smitten has or had one of these on his You Tube channel albeit in saloon petrol V6 guise. He hasn't updated it in a long time though.

I'd love to find one although they do all seem to be a tad out my price range.