Emergency quickfire tat purchase

[scruff]

Greetings Shiters, hope all are well. 

Found myself in urgent need of alternative transport,  last week. Long story cut shorter, after just shy of ten years I changed jobs and the new role involves a fair bit of training up and shadowing,  plus some cab hopping as my designated truck wont be ready until March. 

Thus, my commute has gone from a 3 mile round trip to 60. For nighttime shifts it's been OK as I have borrowed the wife's Puma, but for day work all I have is my Series 3 Landy. 

Now this is fine on paper and I can, have and probably still will do mega miles in it, but sub-30mpg a shit heater and general Landroverness has lost its appeal very slightly.  The cost alone isnt amusing any more. Also I'm 40 this year, and aching for a excuse to buy something as I haven't bought a car for myself for fuckin ages.

Last Thursday I had a paid day off sorry standing down shift (this new job is the tits) so decided to go car shopping. 

Budget a grand, targets: 45 to 50mpg, cheapish tax and ability to seat four a bonus - originally was gonna get a van but the RFL LOL and lack of child carrying capacity quickly ruled them out. 

An hour on autotrader and three phone calls I had my target. The guy sounded like a normal human being and was genuinely surprised I hadn't just ghettoblasted his inbox with stupid offers. Mrs Scruff was at work and unlikely to want to ferry me about after doing the school run etc etc so I decided to be totally self sufficient and get the train. Worse case scenario, if the car was shiter than I expected, I could walk to work and borrow a van to get home. 

First job was route planning. Took the Land Rover to the yard where I keep all my old kak and left it there:

Next a pleasant walk to the station. Here i punched my destination into the ticket machine, and once id got myself off the floor went on the interweb and got a ticket twenty five quid cheaper:

Stamford station looking a little shabby in the cold. 

It's not far to Northampton, but my cheapo ticket meant changes at Nuneaton and Rugby, no matter I had plenty of time and it was a nice day for window gazing. 

coffee rating 3/10 

It was pitch black by the time I got to Northampton, and very cold so I got all extravagant and got a taxi. Nice Passat in case you need to know.

I shit you not, the driver was on his phone the whole ten minute or so, on some live cam bonking chat with a Eastern European (I assume from the lingo) sort. He must have sent her fifty quid by tapping his screen on the journey, she didn't even get her bits out. By the time I was about to say something we were there anyway, I told him to keep the meagre change as he will need it if he's addicted to bongo chat while driving. 

Anyway the car was much better than I dared hope, it was the cheapest example I'd seen and been described as having "more dents than a golf ball" but mechanically sound. Fortunately the guy had floodlights on his drive but TBH I didn't look that hard, you just know don't you? I went round the block with him and it felt tight as a drum, everything worked and after handing over 800 notes I was the tenth owner of this beauty. 

I insured it sat outside his house, taxed it (swearing a little it wasn't a 35 quid tax one as i smugly thought i'd researched but its not too bad) and then drove it home. 

Been going to and fro work in it for a week now and its great, I really like it! It is rough, but that's fine as I can leave it anywhere and not worry. It is absolutely mint inside and everything works. 

 

I have NO history of anything except what the guy I bought it from had done (DPF, various sensors, shockers etc). Its got 188k on it, I'm going to do the belt ASAP and then just see how we go with it. 

[wesacosa]

I do like those. Ex Mrs had a blue R design when they were new. Nice looking cars 

[Back_For_More]

I love the shape of these - just think they're a handsome motor. 

I think a resident of this beige has/had a t5 version and I have had a search configured ever since...... 

[hairnet]

This makes me laugh as you started with a vehicle to catch a train that coulda dropped you right in the shit

[andyberg]

I like these ovlovs. They remind me of my old 480. I hope it serves you well.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Powered by the ubiquitous 1.6HDi, for extra  low cost/high liability points !

To be fair, if it's survived so far it's probably been looked after. Belts are fiddly but perfectly DIYable. Give it an oil change while you're at it, 6-9k mile intervals and 5W30 low saps oil are essential for those.

[Crackers]

Christ, you can pick these up sub £1k these days?! Such a cool car, and they've aged brilliantly - far better than most late-2000s street furniture. 

Top marks. 

[sporty-shite]

Like these a lot, one is firmly on the radar for when I get rid of the Alfa. The fact that they're out there for less than a grand is good news for me!

[Bren]

Well done.

[scruff]

4 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

Powered by the ubiquitous 1.6HDi, for extra  low cost/high liability points !

To be fair, if it's survived so far it's probably been looked after. Belts are fiddly but perfectly DIYable. Give it an oil change while you're at it, 6-9k mile intervals and 5W30 low saps oil are essential for those.

Excellent Intel SF. I know absolutely nothing about them. 5w30 is like water isnt it?!!

[catsinthewelder]

I was following a red one of these this morning and thinking I'd like one.  However a lad at work has one and everyone else calls it the big toe 🤐

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Just now, scruff said:

Excellent Intel SF. I know absolutely nothing about them. 5w30 is like water isnt it?!!

They're "peak diesel", sadly, meaning too complicated for their own good. On the plus side, they are really common, so parts and know-how are thankfully plentiful.

5W30 does seem like the kind of stuff you pour into an F1 engine rather than a family turbodiesel, doesn't it ? How times change !

 

[Matty]

Can't go wrong at that money. Low cost low liability on my book. Proper walk away money. Great result.

[Dobloseven]

Was reading the opening post whilst parked.Looked up and an almost identical one with a personal reg had pulled up opposite and a lady was unloading the boot.Youngest son had a facelifted 1.6 diesel with zero tax,which had engine issues.Managed to get refund from the seller.Still fancies one and so do I,but probably a pre facelift petrol.Neices husband inherited a 62 reg automatic with a bigger diesel,which he's had for some time.Looks a good buy.

[RoverFolkUs]

That's bloody cheap, well bought. These are pretty desirable and hold their money

Not only have you ticked all the boxes, it's pretty much guaranteed you'll see all the money back and then some when the time comes to get rid, as long as it doesn't spectacularly shit itself. 

Since it shares the same platform as the MK2 Focus, most parts are cheap as chips and readily available. And as said, the ubiquitous 1.6 HDI lump is a good egg if looked after, also relatively cheap to look after. One of the easiest modern cambelts to do

[scruff]

Hi gang. I’ve done 3000 miles in this now and I love it,  we will see how the MOT goes in the summer but I’d like to keep it I reckon . There’s been a few things of note. It can get a bit fumey in traffic so maybe the exhaust is blowing somewhere, and occasionally a message saying “engine power reduced” or similar but no EML on. I went and got an OBD reader from euro car parts and it came up as glow plugs, that looks a shite job to do but we shall see. Anyone here done it?

I got the graunch of doom last week so yesterday chucked some new pads in it. Been to the Nene Valley Railway today and the bit of sunshine was enough to try the air con properly, works a treat.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Glow plug codes are "one of those things" in the 1.6hdi - check resistance at the relay connector to make sure they aren't really borked,  but any further investigation is likely to be a waste of time.

Intermittent running issues that don't result in a code (or result in a red herring code) are another "of those things". A proper diagnosis can take hours of being driven around by a willing assistant looking at live data. The bodger's approach is to start by attacking the commonest and easiest to resolve issue, which would be a sticky EGR.

 

 

 

[ruffgeezer]

7 hours ago, scruff said:

It can get a bit fumey in traffic so maybe the exhaust is blowing somewhere,

 

Pull the top cover off of the engine when it's warm and listen for a chuffing sound, pound to a pinch of shit, it's got a blowing injector.

[scruff]

Cheers fellas I will do just that