RE: PH Blog: Regretfully Yours
Discussion
deadtom said:
alfa 156 sportwagon
bought for shed money, and in the intervening year has cost about 3 times that much to keep the f
king thing on the road.
just as I was finally getting it in good shape (and having decided to sell it on soon due to not affording its drinking habit any more) it starts making a concerning whining noise from under the bonnet, rendering it unsellable and no doubt another 4 figure repair bill.
What engine, and where are you? Probably aux belt or something in its circuit, shouldn't be too bad.bought for shed money, and in the intervening year has cost about 3 times that much to keep the f
king thing on the road.just as I was finally getting it in good shape (and having decided to sell it on soon due to not affording its drinking habit any more) it starts making a concerning whining noise from under the bonnet, rendering it unsellable and no doubt another 4 figure repair bill.
This post is actually me.
Except the Rover 827 Coupe I bought was actually rather nice
Bought for £350, sold for £600 6 months later after I fixed the niggly electric glitches. To be fair, the 827 has a big Honda V6 so the engine is marginally less likely to implode. Same can't be said of the body though.
I am also currently looking at an XJ daily driver :S
Except the Rover 827 Coupe I bought was actually rather nice
Bought for £350, sold for £600 6 months later after I fixed the niggly electric glitches. To be fair, the 827 has a big Honda V6 so the engine is marginally less likely to implode. Same can't be said of the body though.I am also currently looking at an XJ daily driver :S
Metro, bought for a £100 with 30k on the clock, never been around a roundabout, needed £100 in welding. Sold it to the circus through an ad in the local post office. Always told they were using it as a clown car. Followed by Opel mantas with bald tires that piroueted on roundabouts. A lot of opposite lock went on in that car. Rust came as standard. Decided to stop working at one point when the electronic side of the ignition went out 90 degrees to the mechanical and it took 12 months to figure out. Bought a god awful escort 1.6 as I was then doing 600 miles a week. The engine gave up after 2 weeks (under a warranty they never expected me to claim on). Got it rebuilt. Ran to 140k, traded it for an mr2 that had a headgasket on its way out (found out after buying). Got pulled out at a junction on and tanked it, 6 days later. Rental civic for 6 months while they sorted themselves out, dull. Followed by another MR2 that has gone to 220k on the clock and another manta or two at the same time. Now in a silly moment bought an rx8 before the price of fuel goes up and am enjoying every minute of it. The coils went at 29k and cost me 500 quid but the car only cost me 2k on a 2007. And it sounds like a jet engine.
1982 380 SL!!
I was looking for a nice period car at the time and looked at a few old 911s but they were all beyond my means. As part of my search I kept running across Sls at very good prices and eventually I decided to go for one of these..
What a pile of st. The car itself was actually not a terrible example of a 107 series but I totally hated every moment with it. For me it had almost no redeeming features, it wollowed, looked crap and a 15mpg thirst when driven at a steady 60mph was just unbelievable, town driving would bring about half that. Also it was the most horrid Magnolia/Sand colour but somehow when I viewed it without the hard top on I kind of convinced myself that it was a good period shade...
I bought the car from a wily old gent who had all the right credentials, lived in a cottage in the country, owned the car for 16 years, 2nd owner, had seemed fastidious in documenting car's history... the car looked mint and so spurred on by his tales of another offer on the table I bought it without a PPI.
BIG MISTAKE. 2 days after buying I found rust on all 4 wheel arch skins, this had clearly been covered with recent underseal (certainly not 16 years old..). Also under the rear bumper, in the jacking points, by the fuel filler and the drainage tubes that run through the sills had rusted through!! What a piece of crap design that is... as soon as the tubes rust through the water just gets dumped straight into the sills.
I cut all the rust out myself, did bit of fibreglassing in the less critical areas and had the rest welded up. Also did some minor work to the transmission and other bits and bobs. Took me 2 years and about 2K to put it right. I then promptly sold it. Don't think I have ever been happier to get rid of any other vehicle I've owned.
I was looking for a nice period car at the time and looked at a few old 911s but they were all beyond my means. As part of my search I kept running across Sls at very good prices and eventually I decided to go for one of these..
What a pile of s
t. The car itself was actually not a terrible example of a 107 series but I totally hated every moment with it. For me it had almost no redeeming features, it wollowed, looked crap and a 15mpg thirst when driven at a steady 60mph was just unbelievable, town driving would bring about half that. Also it was the most horrid Magnolia/Sand colour but somehow when I viewed it without the hard top on I kind of convinced myself that it was a good period shade... I bought the car from a wily old gent who had all the right credentials, lived in a cottage in the country, owned the car for 16 years, 2nd owner, had seemed fastidious in documenting car's history... the car looked mint and so spurred on by his tales of another offer on the table I bought it without a PPI.
BIG MISTAKE. 2 days after buying I found rust on all 4 wheel arch skins, this had clearly been covered with recent underseal (certainly not 16 years old..). Also under the rear bumper, in the jacking points, by the fuel filler and the drainage tubes that run through the sills had rusted through!! What a piece of crap design that is... as soon as the tubes rust through the water just gets dumped straight into the sills.
I cut all the rust out myself, did bit of fibreglassing in the less critical areas and had the rest welded up. Also did some minor work to the transmission and other bits and bobs. Took me 2 years and about 2K to put it right. I then promptly sold it. Don't think I have ever been happier to get rid of any other vehicle I've owned.
Nothing as glamorous as a dying Jag or a disreputable Merc. A 1986 Ford Fiesta Popular 1.0 in beige...
Talked into it as a "sensible purchase" it was the worst and least loveable car I have every owned. No radio, exercise windows, four speed box, rear wiper... nope. Hateful. It was thirstier than the VW Passat that it superseded, horrid to drive, gutless and constantly reminded you that you had bought cheap by the paucity of the trim and equipment. Rusted like buggery. Sold for parts at six year old. Last Ford I ever bought.
Talked into it as a "sensible purchase" it was the worst and least loveable car I have every owned. No radio, exercise windows, four speed box, rear wiper... nope. Hateful. It was thirstier than the VW Passat that it superseded, horrid to drive, gutless and constantly reminded you that you had bought cheap by the paucity of the trim and equipment. Rusted like buggery. Sold for parts at six year old. Last Ford I ever bought.
Oh, I'm, or at least used, to be a complete spaz when buying cars. I was never really all that technically minded so just bought things 'on paper'. To my strange way of thinking Car A for £1000 is twice as good as deal as Car B which is the same model, age, mileage whathaveyou and £2000 setting aside the fact someone has dropped it with the use of a grinder, or perhaps that "sports exhaust" might in fact feature elements of scaffolding pole.
MK3 Golf VR6, the "cheapest on Autotrader" one of the pre-facelift cars that rust like an iron boat anchor. It looked alright in the pictures, and I convinced my mate to drive me for 2 hours to go and see it (despite there being hundreds of them for sale at the time) so I HAD to buy it, arrived, the boot hatch was visibly rusting, it rode like a oxcart and made a LOT of noise from the "sports exhaust" so not to be a 'time waster' I offered him £1900 of the £2000 he wanted and drove it home.
It did about 20mpg on the way home, which even for a VR6, is bad. After a bit of research I discovered that a damaged lambda probe in the exhaust could cause over fuelling, so I took it to a garage for a look-see. The report wasn't good, the probe itself was fine, only it was struggling due to be zip tied to the underside of the car as the "sports exhaust" didn't have the correct hole for it, being mainly a backbox from an unknown car, but certainly not a Golf, connected by various bits of mild steel tubing (including a section of Scaffold) to the downtube. The mechanic explained that the likelihood was the original sections had been damaged when the car had been picked up by a forklift at some point judging by the state of the underside.
I should have scraped it, or 'parted it out' but I've never been called a quitter, so over the next 3-4 months I sunk in the same amount again as I paid for it, having a complete OE exhaust fitted, brakes all around, huge sections of the underside removed (in fairness, nature and the rust fairy did most of the removal) and replaced, the timing chain replaced (this took 4 days of my friends and my time) replacing the cut and chopped suspension replaced by Eibach springs and Bilstien dampers and various other jobs to end up with quite a mechanically sound, if very rough looking VR6 worth about £1500 which had only cost me £4000, hell it even managed 30mpg once, which by the standards of some PH'ers Cars is good, but for a small hatch with 174bhp is pretty terrible.
This lasted oh, a few weeks, then early one fateful morning the nagging 'funny smell when the blowers were on' quickly became "oh look, flames are shooting between my legs from behind the dash." I managed to stop quickly (glad I spent the extra on track-day spec discs and pads) and the thing burnt to the ground in about 5 mins.
This was about 10 years ago now, but if you ever travel on the A4232 from Cardiff Bay towards the M4 and leave at the Culverhouse Cross exit, you can still see a Golf shaped scorch mark on the road.
This was also the day I learnt why, even when your insurance is £1500 a year, that the "fire and theft" part is worth the extra over "third party only".
MK3 Golf VR6, the "cheapest on Autotrader" one of the pre-facelift cars that rust like an iron boat anchor. It looked alright in the pictures, and I convinced my mate to drive me for 2 hours to go and see it (despite there being hundreds of them for sale at the time) so I HAD to buy it, arrived, the boot hatch was visibly rusting, it rode like a oxcart and made a LOT of noise from the "sports exhaust" so not to be a 'time waster' I offered him £1900 of the £2000 he wanted and drove it home.
It did about 20mpg on the way home, which even for a VR6, is bad. After a bit of research I discovered that a damaged lambda probe in the exhaust could cause over fuelling, so I took it to a garage for a look-see. The report wasn't good, the probe itself was fine, only it was struggling due to be zip tied to the underside of the car as the "sports exhaust" didn't have the correct hole for it, being mainly a backbox from an unknown car, but certainly not a Golf, connected by various bits of mild steel tubing (including a section of Scaffold) to the downtube. The mechanic explained that the likelihood was the original sections had been damaged when the car had been picked up by a forklift at some point judging by the state of the underside.
I should have scraped it, or 'parted it out' but I've never been called a quitter, so over the next 3-4 months I sunk in the same amount again as I paid for it, having a complete OE exhaust fitted, brakes all around, huge sections of the underside removed (in fairness, nature and the rust fairy did most of the removal) and replaced, the timing chain replaced (this took 4 days of my friends and my time) replacing the cut and chopped suspension replaced by Eibach springs and Bilstien dampers and various other jobs to end up with quite a mechanically sound, if very rough looking VR6 worth about £1500 which had only cost me £4000, hell it even managed 30mpg once, which by the standards of some PH'ers Cars is good, but for a small hatch with 174bhp is pretty terrible.
This lasted oh, a few weeks, then early one fateful morning the nagging 'funny smell when the blowers were on' quickly became "oh look, flames are shooting between my legs from behind the dash." I managed to stop quickly (glad I spent the extra on track-day spec discs and pads) and the thing burnt to the ground in about 5 mins.
This was about 10 years ago now, but if you ever travel on the A4232 from Cardiff Bay towards the M4 and leave at the Culverhouse Cross exit, you can still see a Golf shaped scorch mark on the road.
This was also the day I learnt why, even when your insurance is £1500 a year, that the "fire and theft" part is worth the extra over "third party only".
Most of my more "interesting" cars have cost me a small fortune to run tbh. I've had the lot
1) A piston through the block on my first ever performance car, a Fiat Uno Turbo because I turned up the boost too much using a manual boost controller. Luckily I was able to source a replacement engine for £200 and swap it out with a mate but this was back quite a few years when I was a poor student and it was money I didn't really have.
2) Vanos issues and various bits of bodykit nicked off my BMW at various points of ownership.
3) The turbo blowing up on my Subaru Sti Type R just two weeks after I bought it as I was pushing hard, "playing" with a mate in his tuned 300ZX. It did give me an excuse to upgrade with a better hybrid turbo and remap though. It would have been rude not to so didn't end too badly.
These are just some of the highlights, however do I regret any of them, not in the least. Yes they may have cost me a pretty penny to keep on the road but the memories they have each left me with are priceless.
In fact the only cars I've ever regretted buying are the sensible cars I've had to buy from time to time in an effort to save money. One in particular which stands out was a Mazda 626 I was running around in for about 7-8 months after I bought my first house and therefore didn't have enough money to run anything decent. It was probably the cheapest car to run I ever owned and it never broke but by God was it soul destroying.
1) A piston through the block on my first ever performance car, a Fiat Uno Turbo because I turned up the boost too much using a manual boost controller. Luckily I was able to source a replacement engine for £200 and swap it out with a mate but this was back quite a few years when I was a poor student and it was money I didn't really have.
2) Vanos issues and various bits of bodykit nicked off my BMW at various points of ownership.
3) The turbo blowing up on my Subaru Sti Type R just two weeks after I bought it as I was pushing hard, "playing" with a mate in his tuned 300ZX. It did give me an excuse to upgrade with a better hybrid turbo and remap though. It would have been rude not to so didn't end too badly.
These are just some of the highlights, however do I regret any of them, not in the least. Yes they may have cost me a pretty penny to keep on the road but the memories they have each left me with are priceless.
In fact the only cars I've ever regretted buying are the sensible cars I've had to buy from time to time in an effort to save money. One in particular which stands out was a Mazda 626 I was running around in for about 7-8 months after I bought my first house and therefore didn't have enough money to run anything decent. It was probably the cheapest car to run I ever owned and it never broke but by God was it soul destroying.
I bought an Audi TT 225 with the intention of sorting suspension and remap out before taking it to The Ring for some fun.
Trouble was, all hell started breaking loose after I bought it. Car was cutting out, things breaking all the time, suspension f*cked.
The more I drove it the more things started going wrong.
Then I saw an article in the Bolton News stating the traders premises had been raided and he was arrested for being part of a ring of crooked traders clocking cars and selling cut and shuts.
Had the car fully inspected and discovered it had been in a smash and a different engine installed that wasn't the right one for the car. The EMS light had been disabled deliberately to try to conceal the problems. Trader had alsofalsified certain documents and lied about what inspections had been carried out on the car.
Ended up having to take him to small claims court. He st out with days to go and settled, allowing me to recoup some of the costs.
The trader was C Mills Car Sales by the way in Westhoughton. You have been warned.
To be fair I should have been more diligent, but just didn't notice the defects prior to sale. I guess there is a difference between a lemon, and a car one which someone has deliberately concealed faults...
You live and learn.
Trouble was, all hell started breaking loose after I bought it. Car was cutting out, things breaking all the time, suspension f*cked.
The more I drove it the more things started going wrong.
Then I saw an article in the Bolton News stating the traders premises had been raided and he was arrested for being part of a ring of crooked traders clocking cars and selling cut and shuts.
Had the car fully inspected and discovered it had been in a smash and a different engine installed that wasn't the right one for the car. The EMS light had been disabled deliberately to try to conceal the problems. Trader had alsofalsified certain documents and lied about what inspections had been carried out on the car.
Ended up having to take him to small claims court. He s
t out with days to go and settled, allowing me to recoup some of the costs. The trader was C Mills Car Sales by the way in Westhoughton. You have been warned.
To be fair I should have been more diligent, but just didn't notice the defects prior to sale. I guess there is a difference between a lemon, and a car one which someone has deliberately concealed faults...
You live and learn.
Never bought a truly bad car... but I did make a bad decision with one I already owned.
I decided to get the Mountune 185 kit fitted to my Fiesta ST. It turned a warm hatch into a real rocket. Regrettably it also turned it from a practical, pleasure to drive to a noisy, bumpy, rattly mess. It was great on a race track, but horrendous on our roads. It gave me earache every time I went in it! Ended up removing the Mountune exhaust to put a quieter one on.
Eventually, someone stole the front bumper and spoiler. I decided I'd finally had enough and chopped it in for the Megane instead - which does everything much better than the Fiesta ever did. Without damaging my hearing further....
I decided to get the Mountune 185 kit fitted to my Fiesta ST. It turned a warm hatch into a real rocket. Regrettably it also turned it from a practical, pleasure to drive to a noisy, bumpy, rattly mess. It was great on a race track, but horrendous on our roads. It gave me earache every time I went in it! Ended up removing the Mountune exhaust to put a quieter one on.
Eventually, someone stole the front bumper and spoiler. I decided I'd finally had enough and chopped it in for the Megane instead - which does everything much better than the Fiesta ever did. Without damaging my hearing further....
Hmm, there've been a few, but the two that stand out...
1) A 2000 W-reg Jag S-type 3.0... cost £11k @ 2 years old (oops 1), many things went wrong over the years, engine faults (mostly "known"), the coolant expansion tank split (known fault) - nearest water was some cheap mineral water from Aldi....; driver's window regulator broke, in the middle of winter of course. Finally, on the day I finally decided to part with it, the gearbox broke (£1000 bill). Sold it for £4500, which was a bit of a miracle. Total cost of ownership: Around £11k. Ouch.
2) '93 Rover 820 Turbo. It went fine on the test drive, the day I picked it up, it emitted the biggest cloud of blue/grey smoke you've ever seen when I started it... but, it worked. It actually worked fine (if smokily) for several months & thousands of miles; In my quest to cure the smoke problem I even replaced the turbo with a Turbo Technics unit. 2 weeks later the head split on the M11. End of car.
The car I was least happy with ever was the a brand spanking new Audi A4 2.4 SE V6. Uncomfortable, oil-burning, not as fast as it should have been and no cruise control... but that was on contract hire. Oh, and it ate its battery a month before it was due to be handed back, for which Audi attempted to charge me over £300.
1) A 2000 W-reg Jag S-type 3.0... cost £11k @ 2 years old (oops 1), many things went wrong over the years, engine faults (mostly "known"), the coolant expansion tank split (known fault) - nearest water was some cheap mineral water from Aldi....; driver's window regulator broke, in the middle of winter of course. Finally, on the day I finally decided to part with it, the gearbox broke (£1000 bill). Sold it for £4500, which was a bit of a miracle. Total cost of ownership: Around £11k. Ouch.
2) '93 Rover 820 Turbo. It went fine on the test drive, the day I picked it up, it emitted the biggest cloud of blue/grey smoke you've ever seen when I started it... but, it worked. It actually worked fine (if smokily) for several months & thousands of miles; In my quest to cure the smoke problem I even replaced the turbo with a Turbo Technics unit. 2 weeks later the head split on the M11. End of car.
The car I was least happy with ever was the a brand spanking new Audi A4 2.4 SE V6. Uncomfortable, oil-burning, not as fast as it should have been and no cruise control... but that was on contract hire. Oh, and it ate its battery a month before it was due to be handed back, for which Audi attempted to charge me over £300.
Firstly PJ, I shouldn't laugh, but you post cracked me up!!!
My worst, had to be a 206GTi, i'd been running around in a Cavalier 1.8LS i'd picked up in auction which was fine but wanted something a bit "sportier", saw the 206 and thought "It's a GTI, small car, 2.0 engine, it'll be good" 1st few weeks of ownership it was average at best, not really that quick handled ok but not that well. Then a friend and I used it to get us to the borders for a a mountain bike day out, bad decision, we found a quiet bit of road and opened her up!!
Can't have done more than 2 miles of pushing the car a bit and we came off the twisty road and onto a main road, junction, slow down, brakes, brakes, brakes, BBBRRRAAAKKKESSS. My first experience of brake fade, I nearly Pooed myself.
We drove the next 5 miles to where we were meeting for the mountain bike ride very easily and then got out to be met to that wonderful smell of cooked brakes and clutch.
It was never the same, now had massive brake judder, huge clutch judder and slip, it was broken!
Traded it in a few months later for a Civic Type-R, kept that one for ages!!!!
My worst, had to be a 206GTi, i'd been running around in a Cavalier 1.8LS i'd picked up in auction which was fine but wanted something a bit "sportier", saw the 206 and thought "It's a GTI, small car, 2.0 engine, it'll be good" 1st few weeks of ownership it was average at best, not really that quick handled ok but not that well. Then a friend and I used it to get us to the borders for a a mountain bike day out, bad decision, we found a quiet bit of road and opened her up!!
Can't have done more than 2 miles of pushing the car a bit and we came off the twisty road and onto a main road, junction, slow down, brakes, brakes, brakes, BBBRRRAAAKKKESSS. My first experience of brake fade, I nearly Pooed myself.
We drove the next 5 miles to where we were meeting for the mountain bike ride very easily and then got out to be met to that wonderful smell of cooked brakes and clutch.
It was never the same, now had massive brake judder, huge clutch judder and slip, it was broken!
Traded it in a few months later for a Civic Type-R, kept that one for ages!!!!
Mine was my previous car, a Clio 172.
Hatefully unreliable car that cost well in excess of £1K in 3 months, and that was not counting the removal of some questionable modifications (that should have been my clue to run a fking mile).
I wouldn't care but unless you were thrashing the nadgers off it, it wasn't all that to drive either.
Hatefully unreliable car that cost well in excess of £1K in 3 months, and that was not counting the removal of some questionable modifications (that should have been my clue to run a f
king mile).I wouldn't care but unless you were thrashing the nadgers off it, it wasn't all that to drive either.
Bought a Cavalier Commander in silver for 200 quid off a mate. Was a bit of a rust bucket but the engine went well enough so i bought it as needs must at the time knowing all four tyres were as bald as my head! That night while driving to work as a club doorman, it was tipping it down with rain, as i blasted past Prestwick Airport (before they built the roundabout on the bend)the bloody thing just let go and it rolled about three times and landed wheels down on the grass verge on the other side of the dual carriageway! The engine was still running and the lights still worked so with a heavily swollen eye and a broken nose i drove it onto the the correct side of the road and clattered and banged into my work. Was actually laughing at the nick it was in and the steering being completely wrecked but luckily plod weren't about to witness rolling carnage. Parked it up, went to work and phoned the scrappy next day to pick it up, he gave me £50 for it and i thought that wasn't bad, better than losing 200! Damn thing, haven't bought a Vauxhall since.
jimxms said:
Have said it before....a 'cheap' Merc E55k AMG. What a fecking ruinous heap of shoddy german electronics that was. Had it have just been the engine, the shell and some seats however, it would have been awesome 
Interesting.Are these the ones that are properly, properly quick?
Been tempted by these in the past, but now, not so much.
Once (many years ago) I excitedly purchased an Escort Mk2 1600 Sport without really checking it over. Turned out to have no sills or floor. A mate's dad did some welding on the side so I took it to him for a patch up about a fortnight after buying it. He proceded (attempted) to weld in the new sill without removing or insulating the fuel line that runs along it. He lived on a farm and as we approached to pick it up my girlfriend laughing pointed to a burned out shell on the verge "ha ha, that's your car" she joked. It was. Unrecognisable. Nothing left at all. He was very apologetic and had buned off his eyebrows and fringe and also lost the overhead telephone wire to his house. He gave me back the cost of the care, which was a blessed relief. Bought a Mk1 RS2000 after that - now that was a sweet car, that I sold in 1995 for £2000! Worth ten times that now. Darn.
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