I wish I'd never bought.....

[Pete-M]

Another stupid choice I made was taking a D plate Orion 1.6i Ghia, in black, as a p/x on a Mk2 Escort RS2000.

 

That thing was a very shiny disaster, the front cross member dissolved, the big end shells went (easy to replace..) and it wasn't a nice thing to drive. Not bad to sit in, just horrible to drive. Reasonably nippy when thrashed, but it was an EEC IV one so flat spots were the issue of the day. Heavy steering, horrible gearchange, nasty Teves ABS system.

 

It was good on fuel, but otherwise completely underwhelming.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

1998 Vectra 2.0 Snatchback. Bought it about 4-5 years ago for 150 quid from a Guy up the road who was fed up with timewasting council mounthbreathers in trakkeh bottoms pissing him about. He just wanted the fucker gone so I bought it.

 

Nice Sony head unit and changer whipped out. What to do with the rest? I know, I'll get a new MOT and sell it. So I drove the vile shitheap for an MOT - the smell of rancid '90's GM plastic, comedy handling, condensation on the glass and a useless heater - hmmmm, nice car.

But it passed the test, so I decided to make it better. The heater was the usual shagged matrix which is easy to change. Decided to do the cambelt and water pump so I could at least run it about for a while whilst entertaining the 'whass y'best price Pal' tracksuited morons. That went okay. Change the oil? You much be kidding - the sump plug just span around and around so just topped up the level.

 

The morons were coming thick and fast now, tattooed gutteral undermensch with an approximate approximation of communicationg via the English language. It was sold at least once with the cretins 'juss nippin' daahhn t'cashpoint Pal" etc etc etc.

 

Drove it one night and the oil light came on. I just kept going and abandoned it outside the car auctions. The following morning I went back with the docs, drove the bastard in, making quite clear to the auction that I did not, under any circumstances, want the bastard back. I think it made 200 odd quid to some scuzzer who of course allowed the tax to lapse and got a few parking tickets.

 

What an utterly hateful car that was, and a waste of time and effort. I should have taken the Sony stuff out, and weighed it straight in.

[Station]

I've been quite lucky, so I'll have to say the MGF which has been unreliable at times, but it's been totally fine for the past six months. I reckon 75% of the car is really well built and solid.

HGF x2, rear brakes x2, exhaust, backbox, gearchange cables, radio, windows, ball joints, etc.

The speedo cable snapped on the way to London the the other day and left me driving through millions of variable speed cameras without a speedo, and then the power steering went because it depends on the speed signal! It didn't overheat at all in 22 degrees temperature in 2 hours of crawling on the M40. I don't regret buying it though as it's quite a nice car, and I've learnt how to do head gasket changes in a couple of hours.

[catsinthewelder]

As I was given the Megane I can't count that but its put me off ever owning owt that's worth too much ie over a grand.

 

The first time that the engine blew I decided that I'd do the engine swap myself but to take the pressure off a temporary car would be acquired. The local rag and ebay were scanned and being somewhat naive I won myself an Espace "just needs a couple of bits for the MOT".

 

Borrowed the pickup from work and took the gf down to collect it, properly council seller who'd replaced it with an LDV Pilot to ferry his 6 kids about. Looked ok but with his entire extended family lurking round we just wanted to get away so didn't test drive it or look underneath, just handed 200 over and left. Needless to say it went over the bridge within the week but not before I'd managed to crash it into the Megane after it conked out in the dark and I tried to bump start it in reverse. I stripped it a bit to try and offset the financial hit but just ended up hoarding lots of unsaleable seats until I freecycled them when it was time to move house.

 

I really wish the girlfriend hadn't bought a Golf GTi off the bay for 1500 and rolled it within the day after the brakes failed. It went to court, with our local copper trying to do her for dangerous driving and in the process ruining any chance of getting the seller done over it. The only person that ended up in trouble was the copper. Still putting our insurance up though

[Rod/b]

 

Cambelt tensioner was on its last legs

 

Clocked, said 122k and i was told that the car had obviously seen 200k plus

 

Exhaust centre section collapsed

 

Thermostat replaced with a bolt

 

Signs of engine fire

 

Didn't start for 6 months due to untraceable fault - turned out to be fuel sender.

 

Manual fan switch which overheated.

 

Battery jumped out of the box while going round a corner and shorted on the radiator.

 

 

To be fair, if the above was an eBay ad, i'd probably still be tempted to lob a bid in.

[MK5 Escort]

Speaking of dodgy Peugeots, my brother once sold in a perfectly reliable D reg Austin Metro and bought an L reg Peugeot 106 Rallye (L361/631 OWA – something like that) from a 'friend' at a reasonable price. The only car he's ever bought without involving another member of the family somewhere along the lines.

 

What an utterly hateful thing that was. Unbelievably basic, noisy, sluggish, tinny and every single interior part rattled/buzzed. As he pulled up in it, proud as punch I could tell it was a ban 'un. Flat white paint and hardened blobs of concrete on the bonnet was the least of his concerns…

 

The clutch cable went twice to my knowledge (once right in the middle of Chester city centre), had various repetitive electrical niggles which left him stranded in various locations, the rev-counter broke, the driver seat backrest decided to suddenly collapse – whilst in lane three of the M56 and the passenger door never locked securely. The ever-reliable MK5 Escort become used to towing the bloody thing all over the North West every other week…

 

Decent things about it? Umm… I liked the red carpet and seatbelts. I think that was about it.

 

He only had it about five months when he accepted defeat and decided to trade it in. The 106 was to bite his backside one more time… When it was HPI'ed by the dealer he sold it to, it turned out to be a repaired Category C write off and basically had to sell it for peanuts. Lets just say his 'friend' denied all knowledge and the pair have never spoken again since.

 

It actually survived beyond this as about a year later I spotted it parked up outside a Llandudno B&B by the Great Orme – with the bonnet open.

 

It was another ten years before he bought another French car – and that didn’t last long either but that’s another story…

[garethj]

I don’t regret buying many of my cars, the only one that was really bad was my first one, a 1974 VW Beetle. I made the mistake of thinking “all the welding’s been done†meant it wouldn’t need any more.

 

Mistake.

 

What it actually means is the car is fundamentally rotten, has had a shitload of welding but will always need a shitload more. I kept it for far too long, getting it patched up, replacing the knackered engine with another that was slightly less knackered. At the same time, my best mate had a 1973 Beetle which was basically a Volkswagen advert made real; the engine kept going despite him thrashing it everywhere, it never went rusty, it never ever broke down and even after an engine fire he drove it home as if nothing had happened.

[jonathan_dyane]

my new 1982 900 is getting close . Paid 350 for it has only done 60 miles for me in the last 5 months. Now I have lost the keys to it! Already the bills add up to over a grand .. and it is a 8v turbo .. 5 door so is worth bugger all ...

 

I guess I must have unusual tastes; the 900 model I've always coveted is an early 8 valve Turbo 5 door...

 

Can you not order new keys off Saab on the VIN?

[richardthestag]

I don’t regret buying anything for myself that I can recall. However being handy with spanners and having a younger sibling with no idea what mechanical sympathy is kept me busy through the late 80’s.

 

I bought a rotten old Austin 1100 for my bro as his first car. Better of wrecking a £50 shitbox was the reasoning. “Drive it carefully and be gentle with the old duchess and it should last until the mot runs out in 6 months.†I told him.

 

Within a week he had crashed it and dislodged a couple of kilos of solid filla from the back wing. The rear suspension arm was cracking and he convinced me to replace the bearing. What a fucking job that was. PLUS lying on my back under the car I could see underside of the rear seat. Next he moans it is making a horrible noise. Went out for a run with him and within 50 yards told him to stop, I pulled the dipstick and it was bone dry. Bro wasn’t happy that I sent him up to Unipart’s notoriously bad tempered Albert to get a longer dipstick. Final chapter and after a months extreme abuse he arrived home without the car, “it broke†he says, I went out with my dad to have a look and he had sheared most of the front driveshaft, transmission was locked solid and the car wouldn’t move at all. “Thought I told you to take it easy on the corners!â€Â. As it was halfway across a busy road junction we attached it to the back of dad’s new sierra and I asked dad to keep going until we could get to the bus-stop about 200 yards away. Great fun rodeo ride until the shaft snapped, ripping the diff casing apart in the process and launched the 1100 into the back of the sierra. Dad was fuming, I was pissed off and after the ol 1100 sat outside the folks house for a couple of weeks while I flat refused to fix the bastard it got towed to the local dump.

 

Mom felt sorry for him so lent him her orange allegro estate. Within a week HGF, I fixed it via a couple of aborted trips to Heathrow Engines (remember them). Told bro to drive careful and not go over 40mph for a week until I could retorque it. Week later another fackin HGF. Found out the little sod was ragging it through the gears but no faster than 40mph.

 

Next was a 1500hl Allegro which he bought without asking anyone. It lasted a fortnight but was the very first car that he managed to sell on, the scrap man reckoned minimal work would see it back on the road. We grabbed his cash and ran like hell.

 

Dad bankrolled a FIAT Panda for him, we got through more clutch cables that I care to remember and then one day he came home with the handbrake lever in the boot. I welded it back and he yanked it off a couple of weeks later. I welded a huge steel sheet to the floor and attached the handbrake to that, but while doing to found that the rear floorpan was made out of filla and news paper. So that was offloaded.

 

After this debacle he got the hots for BX’s his first was a real tidy 1.4 petrol hatch in baby blue. Real low mileage and clean early BX. I felt sorry for that car but it survived long enough for a bloke down the pub to talk my bro into swapping it plus a load of cash for his BX1.9TD. Bro thought this was deal of the decade but the new dizzler BX was a shed, he found the front subframe was rotton when he took it for an mot a month after buying it. Muggins got to do that little job, larf I nearly shit myself. I then moved away from the area so didn’t really fix his cars after this.

 

He still buys cars on a whim and ends up with some real stinkers but also some beauties. His 1978 Merc 280TE was lovely, even though every one thought he was insane. He still has no mechanical sympathy.

[Station]

Speaking of dodgy Peugeots, my brother once sold in a perfectly reliable D reg Austin Metro and bought an L reg Peugeot 106 Rallye (L361/631 OWA – something like that) from a 'friend' at a reasonable price. The only car he's ever bought without involving another member of the family somewhere along the lines.

 

The Rallye is a lightening version of the 106 with sound deadening removed, steel wheels, electronics, etc etc to reduce weight. The cynical side of me believes that the Peugeot Citroen Group just found a way of making a very cheap car sell to gullible 20-somethings by somehow associating a bog spec car with rallying.

[M'coli]

Speaking of dodgy Peugeots, my brother once sold in a perfectly reliable D reg Austin Metro and bought an L reg Peugeot 106 Rallye (L361/631 OWA – something like that) from a 'friend' at a reasonable price. The only car he's ever bought without involving another member of the family somewhere along the lines.

 

The Rallye is a lightening version of the 106 with sound deadening removed, steel wheels, electronics, etc etc to reduce weight. The cynical side of me believes that the Peugeot Citroen Group just found a way of making a very cheap car sell to gullible 20-somethings by somehow associating a bog spec car with rallying.

That's a maybe because they built it in RHD; the AX rallye wasn't. The AX rallye had a 1294cc engine to get into the 1300cc Group A class and similarly had very little soundproofing etc. so that its homologated weight was as low as possible.

[Negative Creep]

Mk2 golf gti. Forever going wrong and caused no end of grief. Thought id MOT it and get rid of the damn thing. Cost me about £350 to do that then sold it for £420. Plus the DVLA are still trying to fine me for not taxing it months after it was sold.

[Pete-M]

I don’t regret buying anything for myself that I can recall. However being handy with spanners and having a younger sibling with no idea what mechanical sympathy is kept me busy through the late 80’s.

 

Austin 1100

orange allegro estate

1500hl Allegro

FIAT Panda

BX’s 1.4 petrol

BX1.9TD

 

He still has no mechanical sympathy.

 

Two running themes here; None of that lot would survive long in the hands of someone clueless and none of them (with the possible exception of the BXs) are actually much good.

 

If someone said to me "Here's an orange Allegro estate" I'd probably rag it to death within minutes as well.

[The Moog]

I guess I must have unusual tastes; the 900 model I've always coveted is an early 8 valve Turbo 5 door...

 

Can you not order new keys off Saab on the VIN?

 

With all the saab goings on it is a No. Cant even order a new set of locks from them as they are NLA. Need to get a secondhand set but will be £100

[eddyramrod]

Rover SD1 VDP, 2.6 auto. The gearbox was the only decent thing about it. I bought it as a temporary replacement for my beloved 1978 Volvo while I was going to have the Volvo's engine and box rebuilt. A few little jobs on the Rover and it's ready for the road... Parked up the Volvo and within the month the Rover has drained the savings, taking ALL the money I was going to spend on the Volvo; and in doing so, spent rather more time with my friendly garage than with me. Finally the engine seized, within 5 miles of me fitting a newly-reconditioned radiator (for sale, please PM) so I scrapped it and bought exactly what I didn't want, just to get to work: a one-litre Metro. Which I had 18 months and sold on for a profit, what a brilliant little car!

[Pete-M]

Rover SD1 VDP, 2.6 auto.

 

Heh, I had one of those. Blue one, CNB998Y I think it was. Auto box blew up and it was just beginning to suffer from the dreaded oil valve issue. Occasionally it'd rattle like a bastard from cold.

 

[eddyramrod]

Mine was blue too, but a bit younger...

You can just see the Volvo behind it. The Suzuki was wife's, and towed the Rover more than once!

[retro80sboy]

2 XR3is!!

 

both bought with my heart and not my head, made 20 quid profit on the first one at least, 2nd one though I was down about 500 quid.

[Guest]

Bending the "bought" here but...mate had a '83 Yamaha RD350 LCII (pre YPVS thing) for sale. £500. Test and rent present.

Quite rare.

Had a shutfty.

This thing had a 2 ton fibreglass Rickman fairing and top box...on a 80s two stroke!

I thought was rear wheel steer due to 3 inch play in swing arm and notchy headset bearings.

Walked away. Quick.

Then the fekker says "How much you want to give me?"

" NOTHING!! Don't want it. Money pit!!

So he only bloody gives me the thing!

Cock. Hadn't accounted for that.

Anyway so spend £800 sorting it all to lovelyness and sell it for £850.....oh and spent weeks wondering why only did 80 in any gear...some twat had shortend the fooked chain so you hit 80 rear tyre grows, rubs swing arm stops bike going any faster

Only on mates dyno did we spot this cos course on the road by the time you've coasted to a halt the marks on tyre are gone and you can't see that part of swing arm that easily. The chunks of tyre wanking about and the smoke were a wee give away on the dyno mind.....

[stuboy]

10 years ago got a j reg 1600 glx auto from 2nd hand car sales, 2 miles home broke down 14 times, took it back next day, and demanded my escort back and cash i paid....

 

wont never buy peugeout again

[Guest]

 

wont never buy peugeout again

 

No, me neither. The damn thing melted on you?! Were you performing a C&W song at the time too?

 

Devvoed.