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What 40+ year old car would you choose?


Six-cylinder

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With ULEZ about to hit made me think about the fact that I mainly drive around in 1990s cars and if I lived in a city would not be able to keep running them the way we are. I would keep a modern but most of the time I drive around in old bangers and like it that way so I think I would replace my 1990 cars with a 40+ year old car to avoid paying ULES charges. I would be looking for easy to drive, practical and low running costs in a 40+ car to daily use. Capital cost is going to be a lot more but I think I have found one that I would like very much and is not too compromised in modern terms.

I would choose a MK2 Vauxhall Cavalier to daily.

What would you choose?

Cav 1981.jpg

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A Lada.

The onset of ULEZ in Birmingham was what made me buy one. Although I now no longer work in Birmingham, so that USP is now gone from it. Haven't really drawn the wife's attention to that actually. I must remember not to!

That said, when I was getting the Lada a friend of mine asked if I wanted his Morris Marina instead. The body was sound on it, mechanically speaking as well as structural - which was handy as this is the very same Marina he was pushing on to me:

morris-marina-piano.thumb.jpg.b549d145faade59e51d110b0f7ec3a15.jpg

Story is Clarkson the Cnut sought out the best possible example of the Marina to do that to. My friend and his friend got hold of it, cut the roof off from another scrapped Marina, welded it, job done etc etc. 

I do like the Morris Ital, I think it's a nice looking car. So would probably end up with one of them.

However then I think about the Morris Minor and think a Traveller would be a great thing to do an EV conversion with. 

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22 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Story is Clarkson the Cnut sought out the best possible example of the Marina to do that to. My friend and his friend got hold of it, cut the roof off from another scrapped Marina, welded it, job done etc etc. 

My friend had it for a while in 2015 and drove it around a field, was this the same car?

Marina piano.jpg

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might be something I have to think about soon, as the ULEZ extension comes to the next street over from me this month and the XM, Panda and Favorit don't qualify :(

For me it would be a mk2 Escort probably as it was my first car and first love, or if I was to go for something I haven't had before it would be a Kitten, Estelle or Lada

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If we're talking an actual usable everyday car, I think I'd stick to diesel as I can't be fucked with carbs or early fuel injection. Probably an estate too. Maybe a Peugeot 305 Estate;

440px-Peugeot305_VornLinks.jpg

I think with a 1981 cut off I'd be limited to a petrol, or the 1.55 diesel with a whopping 49bhp. The XUD didn't come along until 1982 by looks of things. The 505 estate and Citroen BX didn't appear until the same year. 

Maybe one of these;

bb757f169be655600106fe332bde1c5c.jpeg

Or maybe a 240 estate, not sure what diesel they would have been onto at that point, but there would have been one available;

w400_Volvo-240-Estate-1.jpg.8bfa2f378cfd140554f4cf57364ac9ff.jpg

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Interesting topic, as I live yards outside the South Circular and two of my three cars are non compliant (and even the compliant one is Euro 3 so potentially should not be compliant...).  I was thinking a few weeks ago I might look for a ULEZ exempt classic to replace my 205 at some point.  I'd probably end up with an MGB or a Midget.   This one looks delightful in brown:  https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1380092

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Mk5 Cortina 2.0 auto, preferably an estate for load lugging, and definitely with an Analogue Parking Sensor (aka towbar!).

With a bit better budget and less consideration for practicality: Huggy.  Or a PA Cresta, 2.7 auto.  Or a mk3 Zephyr 6/Zodiac auto.  Or a mk1 Bedford CF 2.3, plain van. In that order.

I don't think anyone will be surprised by my choices!

 

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9 minutes ago, PrinceRupert said:

Interesting topic, as I live yards outside the South Circular and two of my three cars are non compliant ....

Likewise I'm just outside the North Circular. Both the CX and the diesel Borat are non-compliant. I'm keeping both in the hope that their combined emissions will continue to be carried back into the ULEZ area as a sort of sticking two fingers up at Wrath of Khan gesture.

The CX needs another seven years to qualify for exemption, by which time the rules will probably* have changed again 🙄

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3 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

With ULEZ about to hit made me think about the fact that I mainly drive around in 1990s cars and if I lived in city would not be able to keep running them the way we are. I would keep a modern but most of the time I drive around in old bangers and like it that way so I think I would replace my 1990 cars with a 40+ year old car to avoid paying ULES charges. I would be looking for easy to drive, practical and low running costs in a 40+ car to daily use. Capital cost is going to be a lot more but I think I have found one that I would like very much and is not too compromised in modern terms.

I would choose a MK2 Vauxhall Cavalier to daily.

What would you choose?

Cav 1981.jpg

I think you’ve absolutely nailed this question with a mk2 Cavalier. I can’t think of any other 40 year old car that behaves closer to something you could buy new today. 

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2 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Mk5 Cortina 2.0 auto, preferably an estate for load lugging, and definitely with an Analogue Parking Sensor (aka towbar!).

With a bit better budget and less consideration for practicality: Huggy.  Or a PA Cresta, 2.7 auto.  Or a mk3 Zephyr 6/Zodiac auto.  Or a mk1 Bedford CF 2.3, plain van. In that order.

I don't think anyone will be surprised by my choices!

 

I doubt anyone will be surprised that I fully agree although a 2.0 manual estate would be my preference.

image.jpeg.fdc3e70ecd6420f84b8ae42b54be1a78.jpeg
 

I really need to prioritise getting this back on the road, it is the best car I have ever owned. Bought in 2002 for £400  and very reliable daily transport for the next 4 years doing around 16,000 miles per annum. It did well over 200k miles on it’s original 2.3 V6 engine, the Cologne engine is not Ford’s best, hence my recommendation of a 2.0. Unfortunately prices have gone up a bit in the last 19 years.

The picture above is the only one I can find of my car so below is one I found on the internet of a nicer looking one:

image.jpeg.a15bfc394c1c6ce75c56d72d3310cfc6.jpeg

 

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Oh im way ahead of yall here! :) 

as someone who sadly actually lives/is stuck in Central London (and im not kidding when I say that, if your not broken like me, you could easily walk from where I live to Liverpool street station or even Center point or London Bridge at a push)

I have already had to plan/prep for this and since because also Central London and other factors I can sadly only realistically have 1 car (parking restrictions etc!)

so 45 year old Invacar Model 70 as my first car it is! because thats logical right?

IMG_0505.thumb.JPG.31c9ceb5defa0b3ee0d09994293743c6.JPG

(I mean hey its an Automatic compact car, there could be worse choices for trying to navigate Central London in LOL)

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