Automotive cockroaches for the 20s and 30s.

[Spiny Norman]

Throughout the past there have always been cars, often Japanese that you just don't seem to be able to kill until rust eventually takes them with an engine still running as sweetly as the day it left the showroom. Of course there were always the solidly built posh cars like Mercedes W123s and Volvos but I'm thinking more of things like the K11 Micras many of which are still going strong despite the very youngest being 22 years old.
 

The one I'm starting to notice everywhere these days is the Honda Jazz, almost always in this nondescript shade of pale blue. Two of my neighbours have them and it's not uncommon to see another visitor one parked nearby as well.

What other 20 year old cheapies will we still be seeing on the roads in another 10 years time?

[ProgRocker]

Toyota Yaris and Corolla.

More surprisingly: Chevrolet Spark and Cruze maybe? Sparks got a good rating in the US and an AS member on here praised the Cruze. 

[sierraman]

Micras were complete rusters, I’d imagine next few years will see last of them off. Problem with Japanese/Korean cars is that they’re fine until they’re not, expect years of service then everything goes at once. 
 

Also I don’t think many people today have the will/skills to keep cars going. 

[TheIsleofShite]

Mk1 Aygo/C1/107?

 

[Asimo]

Yaris hybrid.

[Tommyboy12]

This thing is a damned cockroach. 160k miles on it and with regular servicing and consumables it just keeps going. Rust is only just starting to creep in at 15 years old. My girlfriend really wants to replace it but it's just so damned reliable 😅

I see plenty of them around too. Dozens in fact and theyre all 2010ish.

[mk2_craig]

4 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

theyre all 2010ish

Scrappage scheme stalwart. My aunt had one on that basis. Until she recently crashed it into a bollard 

[Dobloseven]

7 minutes ago, Nyphur said:

Thought they were already rusting to bits?

The oldest are going to be around 19 years old now.Often think us ASers are trapped in an automotive timewarp.On another thread, someone just described a 56 reg Vivaro as modern!Think small cars have a better survival rate because of the owner profile.They're more likely to be bought by the elderly and used sparingly.Being little, there's more chance of them being kept undercover as well.Always surprises me what old cars are still in use though.The old stuff usually comes out on nice days when the morning school run has finished and tucked away again before the afternoon one starts.A  trip to the Post Office followed by a look round a Garden Centre!

[Tommyboy12]

7 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Scrappage scheme stalwart. My aunt had one on that basis. Until she recently crashed it into a bollard 

Yeah theres a few cars of that era that are pretty common because of the scrappage scheme! Equally I am trying to buy a very specific car from that era and theres none of them!

[egg]

1 hour ago, Tommyboy12 said:

This thing is a damned cockroach

Agree, I know some on here say the Kappa engines can have their problems,  but there is going to be a supply of low mileage ones for a long time. Auto ones can be a bit weaker like ours I think. Ours is 2011 and equally has little rust at all. Now it's not that remarkable until you think these are budget cars - meant to be throwaway. I also think they are incredibly simple - as in - there's not an ounce of complication on them.

I think the next 2014 generation is proving equally reliable too?

Probably be a few i20's/30s around for pennies too in the future.

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Nyphur said:

Thought they were already rusting to bits?

The amount I’ve seen with 2 foot long patches on the sills suggests otherwise. Or the black Rhombus of doom where the garage has sprayed a hard masked readers wivesesque shaped underseal over the patch instead of a clean tide all along the sill. 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

The oldest are going to be around 19 years old now.Often think us ASers are trapped in an automotive timewarp.On another thread, someone just described a 56 reg Vivaro as modern!Think small cars have a better survival rate because of the owner profile.They're more likely to be bought by the elderly and used sparingly.Being little, there's more chance of them being kept undercover as well.Always surprises me what old cars are still in use though.The old stuff usually comes out on nice days when the morning school run has finished and tucked away again before the afternoon one starts.A  trip to the Post Office followed by a look round a Garden Centre!

Isn’t it? There’s the perennial thread that crops up where someone will ask what to spend £3,000 on to tow a burger van from Peterborough to Thurso six times a week. Then the suggestions come in thick and fast with anything over £749.99 is a waste of money and they’d be best with (delete as appropriate) Rover 618D, Talbot Horizon 1.9D, Peugeot 405 with a Bosch pump or a Renault 21. If it breaks down all the time or the wife doesn’t like it because it’s heavy to drive and stinks of weed she can go fuck herself! 😂

[GeordieInExile]

I feel like I see quite a lot of Saab 9-3s about the place - the 2nd generation ones in saloon, estate and cabrio flavours. Way more than the equivalent age 3 series, A4 or C class.

[Dyslexic Viking]

52 minutes ago, egg said:

I think the next 2014 generation is proving equally reliable too?

That's the one I have and are good cars. if maintained and taken care of, I have confidence that these will last a long time. Mine is a 2017 and has 114,000km on it now which has been hard ones with a lot of bad roads, and the previous owner has driven it off the road and it just keeps going. The only thing that has gone wrong in my 3.5 years of ownership is that a mouse ate some wires which in turn killed a coil which is not exactly the car's fault. And impressively everything underneath except the brake discs and pads and tires is original, which I can't believe with the abuse it has goten.  So I have no plans to replace this one and the goal is around 20 years of ownership.

I really rate the i10 highly it is one of the best cars you can buy and I really like mine.

There is a Dane with a 1 gen i10 who has driven it 500,000km with only a cluth and windscreen wiper motor as the biggest repairs, they are also very popular as taxis in developing countries which says something about these cars.

[Dobloseven]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Isn’t it? There’s the perennial thread that crops up where someone will ask what to spend £3,000 on to tow a burger van from Peterborough to Thurso six times a week. Then the suggestions come in thick and fast with anything over £749.99 is a waste of money and they’d be best with (delete as appropriate) Rover 618D, Talbot Horizon 1.9D, Peugeot 405 with a Bosch pump or a Renault 21. If it breaks down all the time or the wife doesn’t like it because it’s heavy to drive and stinks of weed she can go fuck herself! 😂

Noooooooooo!You need something Japanese!Run forever,they will!

[Rustybullethole]

Gonna go for an outsider here and though i'm aware that when you own one you notice them more. That said Ive always thought there is loads of them still about. 

May i present. The Pugroen Partlingo.

They have their imperfections, who and what don't. Basic mechanicals and bodies that do a fair job of resisting rust (apart from mine which may have been parked in the sea) must play a part. Possibly mainly owned by sympathetic drivers (not me) may also play a part. Unfuckable they ain't. Been very impressed with how mine laps up abuse and there's loads about.

[Lacquer Peel]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Isn’t it? There’s the perennial thread that crops up where someone will ask what to spend £3,000 on to tow a burger van from Peterborough to Thurso six times a week. Then the suggestions come in thick and fast with anything over £749.99 is a waste of money and they’d be best with (delete as appropriate) Rover 618D, Talbot Horizon 1.9D, Peugeot 405 with a Bosch pump or a Renault 21. If it breaks down all the time or the wife doesn’t like it because it’s heavy to drive and stinks of weed she can go fuck herself! 😂

Did you mean a Rover 618i or Rover 620Di?

[Spiny Norman]

I used to doubt that the Korean stuff would be as tough and long lasting as the Japs but give them their due there are plenty of 20 year old Kias and Hyundais kicking around. the place.

Another local delicacy is the old (Stan) Getz, either in black or this same wishy washy blue colour. Must be a giffer's favourite shade, maybe it reminds them of their missus' hairdo?

 

[320touring]

I think the Jazz is a bit too rotty and prone to low mileage high intensity clutch usage to be considered a cockroach..

The first gen i10 is a good shout though - I was genuinely surprised at how good they were. 

I think the vast majority of stuff nowadays is too complex to be reliable for 20+ years - realistically, modules fail, things cost too much to repair etc.

For someone like me (bottom of the depreciation curve feeder, gets nose bleeds over £500) I think it is rapidly turning into a case of

"What is about with the fewest non critical issues?"

Things I'd consider CRITICAL issues are:

ABS faults 

Airbag faults

Dual mass flywheels

Clutch issues/slave cylinders inside bellhousing leaking

Air suspension failures

Overly complicated suspension (Passats, I'm looking at you)

 

I'd say we are at a point where even small superminis have a significant number of the above systems (with the inherent risk of failure as they age)

 

I'm away to see if I can think of anything post 2010 I'd buy for a relatively hassle free ownership situation...

[sierraman]

Cars though seem to last longer than ever? Although they’re much more complex they don’t rot out or wear out really quickly like they used to. 

[320touring]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

Cars though seem to last longer than ever? Although they’re much more complex they don’t rot out or wear out really quickly like they used to. 

They don't though as the average lifespan is still 15 years. Whether it gets scrapped for rust or a dead module, it's still gubbed.

[Coprolalia]

Another vote for Yari. The missus has one from 2006 (a MK2) since ~2011. It's blown two coil packs and otherwise just needed servicing since. No DMF. No emissions gumph. Chain is getting a bit rattly at 140k, but still serviceable. Minimal rust. Basically bombproof.

[artdjones]

Any 1.2 Panda will last well. Even the issues they have (hgf, rotten rear beam ) can be put right relatively cheaply. The shell itself seems rust resistant.

Japanese cars are fine until something breaks. A friend had a Yaris load sensing valve fail. €450 and impossible to get. He did eventually find a s/h one, but it took lots of messing around. Things like door checks, which do break, tend to be over £100 each.

[vulgalour]

The Berlingo et al seem to have superseded the mk1 Citroen Picasso.  I do still see the old Picassos tooling about, not as often as I used to, but there's still a lot of them kicking about for what is quite an old car now.

Mazda 323 and Demio of the early 2000s also seem to be surviving in surprising numbers, though often overlooked as the styling just seems to make them blend in.

[MrBiscuits]

It might just be because there were millions in the first place but I see a surprising amount of Corsa Cs approaching their second decade. My parents had one from new in 2005 and we ended up with it as a second car from 2013-17. I regularly see it and it's still going several careless owners later though the 'ultra blue' paint is flat as a witches tit now and the top end is knocking nicely. I'm hoping it makes it to its 20th birthday next year.

[egg]

The only slight downside I can see with the i10 is parts. I can still go on eBay and find almost anything for a Mondeo MK1 cos Fords, whereas with the Hyundai already you get the impression main dealers don't carry everything and eBay aftermarket is pretty limited. It's not a problem, but I guess in a few years it might be if anything critical gets difficult.

[Zelandeth]

Aygo et al definitely gets my vote.  Yes they can and do rust, but equally the sheer weight of numbers I think works in their favour.  Plus you still seem to see plenty without any rot so I think there's a bit of a corrosion protection lottery between cars.

The big thing I think which works against Hyundai and the other Korean brands is just how astronomically expensive (or completely unobtainable) a lot of relatively routine parts are.  

PSA Parlingo is another good shout.  It's essentially a van, but if looked after like a car, especially if a bit sympathetically they should live to a ripe old age.  Though I do have some anxiety going forward as PSA don't exactly have a good track record where legacy parts supply is concerned - that was one of the reasons that saw me move the Xantia on as getting parts was starting to become a headache.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, MrBiscuits said:

It might just be because there were millions in the first place but I see a surprising amount of Corsa Cs approaching their second decade. My parents had one from new in 2005 and we ended up with it as a second car from 2013-17. I regularly see it and it's still going several careless owners later though the 'ultra blue' paint is flat as a witches tit now and the top end is knocking nicely. I'm hoping it makes it to its 20th birthday next year.

Interesting.  I realised the other day that I haven't seen a Corsa C in quite a while. They all seemed to have disappeared around here. 

 

I reckon certain cars of a certain age are more popular in different parts of the country. Like all Volvo's ends up in Scotland, I've seen loads of Reading registered E60 when they were down here new in the 00s but then seen loads up in Preston/around that area when I went up there last. 

[SiC]

The Jazz is a cockroach car not because it's rust resistant but more that the mechanicals are hardy and the owners are prepared to spend out to replace burnt clutches. 

Rust prone-ness matters less when an old biddy only drives when it's not raining and puts it away in the garage after a journey. 

Aygo/107/C1 are still plentiful as they're cheap/easy to fix/plenty of parts available/no big catastrophic failures. They made bazillions of the things. 

I still see a lot of TT MK1 about considering the age of them and that they aren't the cheapest (in labour) to fix. I guess because many people still love theirs and rather not bin something they have affection for. 

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Cars though seem to last longer than ever? Although they’re much more complex they don’t rot out or wear out really quickly like they used to. 

According to the SMMT the average age of a vehicle in the U.K. was 8.4 years as of 2021 so it would suggest on figures alone that vehicles are lasting longer. The certainly look presentable for longer, my car is 15 years old, the equivalent 1985 Granada in 2000 would be hanging.