Downgrade or give up?
Discussion
Xaero said:
That's life OP, you have to give up some pleasures for the greater good sometime. Moving from a flat to a house is a nice enough upgrade in life anyway and is a lot more difficult to achieve than running a fun car.
Very true mate, to be honest, I am glad for the year I had with the Z4. It was an absolute pleasure when it was working, but I have to say it wasn't perfect either so I will look back with fondness and move onwards. I am looking forward to other aspects of my life improving which is definitely more important to me now than a car; certainly not the case in the past, but I'm getting older! 
TameRacingDriver said:
@whitegoodman - interesting post. I didn't think the MR2 was supposed to be unreliable? To be honest re: the Z4 if I thought that the gearbox was the only thing that's going to need sorting I would have maybe considered sorting it, but I know there are other things that will need sorting too (water pump is basically a time bomb waiting to happen, another £500, among the faults I already know about).
I can't remember exactly went wrong with it. They're not really that unreliable but there are a few common and potentially expensive faults and his suffered all of them meaning that what looked like a bargain buy turned out not to be (I believe it was the cats and something else). He buys a lot of French, German, Japanese cars and Volvos but as far as I know never another Toyota! Just thinking about your luck but as late an example as you can afford would mitigate this and if you can manage without a boot then go for it, you are more dedicated than I.
I sympathise with the Z. I had a mk4 Golf GTi a few years ago that was a complete disaster and forced me into a new Polo TDI and then a Jeep Grand Cherokee (always wanted one) that superficially looked good but was a complete money pit that I kept fixing only for it to break again expensively a few weeks later. I should have cut my losses with that one a bit sooner but I let my affection for the car cloud my judgement. That was replaced by a new Toyota Auris for her and the newish Civic for me. Both really dull cars but we needed some time where we didn't have to worry about constant breakdowns and repairs. I hope that we have finally found some equilibrium with a newer MPV for her (much more suitable than a small hatch as a family car) and my MINI (much more fun than the Civic) for a similar net cost per month.
I have owned some great fun cars as well though that have been totally worth it, so don't give up on owning something fun/interesting, just stay within your means financially. The nice thing is that there are great cars available at all budgets, so whatever your budget, you don't have to drive a dull repmobile.
Edited by white_goodman on Thursday 8th December 21:08
white_goodman said:
I can't remember exactly went wrong with it. They're not really that unreliable but there are a few common and potentially expensive faults and his suffered all of them meaning
that what looked like a bargain buy turned out not to be (I believe it was the cats and something else). He buys a lot of French, German, Japanese cars and Volvos but as far as I know never another Toyota! Just thinking about your luck but as late an example as you can afford would mitigate this and if you can manage without a boot then go for it, you are more dedicated than I.
I sympathise with the Z. I had a mk4 Golf GTi a few years ago that was a complete disaster and forced me into a new Polo TDI and then a Jeep Grand Cherokee (always wanted one) that superficially looked good but was a complete money pit that I kept fixing only for it to break again expensively a few weeks later. I should have cut my losses with that one a bit sooner but I let my affection for the car cloud my judgement. That was replaced by a new Toyota Auris for her and the newish Civic for me. Both really dull cars but we needed some time where we didn't have to worry about constant breakdowns and repairs. I hope that we have finally found some equilibrium with a newer MPV for her (much more suitable than a small hatch as a family car) and my MINI (much more fun than the Civic) for a similar net cost per month.
I have owned some great fun cars as well though that have been totally worth it, so don't give up on owning something fun/interesting, just stay within your means financially. The nice thing is that there are great cars available at all budgets, so whatever your budget, you don't have to drive a dull repmobile.
I've had a bit of a read and the main threats seem to be from early models before 2003; oval bores causing pre-cat disintegration which then get sucked into the engine destroying it. I've also heard that subframes can be a problem, and about £400 to replace. If that's the worst that can happen, I can certainly live with that. I would be looking for a facelift as they do have a number of beneficial changes.that what looked like a bargain buy turned out not to be (I believe it was the cats and something else). He buys a lot of French, German, Japanese cars and Volvos but as far as I know never another Toyota! Just thinking about your luck but as late an example as you can afford would mitigate this and if you can manage without a boot then go for it, you are more dedicated than I.
I sympathise with the Z. I had a mk4 Golf GTi a few years ago that was a complete disaster and forced me into a new Polo TDI and then a Jeep Grand Cherokee (always wanted one) that superficially looked good but was a complete money pit that I kept fixing only for it to break again expensively a few weeks later. I should have cut my losses with that one a bit sooner but I let my affection for the car cloud my judgement. That was replaced by a new Toyota Auris for her and the newish Civic for me. Both really dull cars but we needed some time where we didn't have to worry about constant breakdowns and repairs. I hope that we have finally found some equilibrium with a newer MPV for her (much more suitable than a small hatch as a family car) and my MINI (much more fun than the Civic) for a similar net cost per month.
I have owned some great fun cars as well though that have been totally worth it, so don't give up on owning something fun/interesting, just stay within your means financially. The nice thing is that there are great cars available at all budgets, so whatever your budget, you don't have to drive a dull repmobile.
As for the whole situation, well, as a fair few people on here (maybe even yourself) will probably already know, I have been here before, many times! It's a bloody disease being a petrolhead
A car isn't worth money troubles, I think most people have made that clear. In your position I'd downsize to something small, simple and nippy - then again I'm not a fan of refined autos.
The most fun I ever had owning a car was due to a Suzuki Ignis Sport, a bit marmite but it was fun (it handled great), reliable and all around cheap to run. It even went on to win SOTW (http://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-features-sheds/shed-of-the-week-suzuki-ignis-sport/30296). To this day, I've owned 10 more cars (including a cammed 182 and Mazda 3 MPS) and I miss the Ignis most, maybe it's because it was my first sporty(ish) car though and I was a few years younger.
The most fun I ever had owning a car was due to a Suzuki Ignis Sport, a bit marmite but it was fun (it handled great), reliable and all around cheap to run. It even went on to win SOTW (http://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-features-sheds/shed-of-the-week-suzuki-ignis-sport/30296). To this day, I've owned 10 more cars (including a cammed 182 and Mazda 3 MPS) and I miss the Ignis most, maybe it's because it was my first sporty(ish) car though and I was a few years younger.
TameRacingDriver said:
I've had a bit of a read and the main threats seem to be from early models before 2003; oval bores causing pre-cat disintegration which then get sucked into the engine destroying it. I've also heard that subframes can be a problem, and about £400 to replace. If that's the worst that can happen, I can certainly live with that. I would be looking for a facelift as they do have a number of beneficial changes.
As for the whole situation, well, as a fair few people on here (maybe even yourself) will probably already know, I have been here before, many times! It's a bloody disease being a petrolhead
Yeah. I think it was the cat and the subframe. Relatively expensive fixes compared to the purchase price of the car (I believe that it was a 2000) but in the grand scheme of things I guess not a complete disaster.As for the whole situation, well, as a fair few people on here (maybe even yourself) will probably already know, I have been here before, many times! It's a bloody disease being a petrolhead
this old chestnut!
MR2 MK3s have a lot of storage space, just gotta pack creatively. it's just not in one big lump at the back of the car.
the oil starvation: it is a thirsty engine oil wise, and not wanting to be sexist but its a hairdressers car and hairdressers are often female...and they dont want to break a nail so they dont top up the oil every 1000 miles like the book says!! no oil, busted engine. buy one that as good history and keep on top of the oil - it'll be fine. it's not a long-build-up type problem... its fairly instant when it does lunch itself. so if you're buying one with good history and you look after it oil wise it shoudl be fine. ignore oil at your peril (but an excuse to fit a 2GRFE!!)
otherwise, they suffer the jap curse of boring reliability, except for rear calipers and handbrake adjustment.
if you dont want the aggro... then buy the celica 190 which is the FWD 4 seat version...it's just as fun to throw about.
MR2 MK3s have a lot of storage space, just gotta pack creatively. it's just not in one big lump at the back of the car.
the oil starvation: it is a thirsty engine oil wise, and not wanting to be sexist but its a hairdressers car and hairdressers are often female...and they dont want to break a nail so they dont top up the oil every 1000 miles like the book says!! no oil, busted engine. buy one that as good history and keep on top of the oil - it'll be fine. it's not a long-build-up type problem... its fairly instant when it does lunch itself. so if you're buying one with good history and you look after it oil wise it shoudl be fine. ignore oil at your peril (but an excuse to fit a 2GRFE!!)
otherwise, they suffer the jap curse of boring reliability, except for rear calipers and handbrake adjustment.
if you dont want the aggro... then buy the celica 190 which is the FWD 4 seat version...it's just as fun to throw about.
Mastodon2 said:
Horrendous? It's irritating at times but we should be grateful for how lucky we've got it up north. Anyway, buy a cheap, comfy car and a bike. Save money, have more fun.
That's what I did, got a Volvo S60 D5 for general comfort which it does immensely and it is 100% reliable. I'd be lucky if it's worth £1000! I also have a Kawasaki ZX6R for a bit of fun in the nicer weather, I don't really miss having a posh/fast car to be honest.
Having a nicer/bigger house was well worth the sacrifice.
Edited by Rammy76 on Friday 9th December 14:21
I honestly couldn't give a single f
k TameRacingDriver said:
MR2 Roadster, more than likely. Hopefully soon I wont need to drive to work, and just have a runabout for the weekend or hoons, hence, a midship runabout 2 seems the best low budget option!
Not having to commute by car is one of the best things that a petrolhead can do - it removes driving from the daily grind and makes it just for pleasure and errands. It makes such a massive difference. You don't mind getting up early on the weekends for a hoon when you're not spending 10 hours a week doing the daily grind in a car.Mk3 MR2 would be what I would do in your position.
If you need more than 2 seats it would be a RX8. Those two, along with the MX5, are the three massive bargains for cheap driving fun these days.TameRacingDriver said:
cerb4.5lee said:
I'm like that and since I've had the N52 engine it's made me appreciate a V6 engine far more, and the straight six just doesn't really deliver noise wise.
Really sorry to hear about the woes with the Z4 because I know at first you were really happy with it.
Yeah I'm with you on the V6 noise. I've come to the conclusion that, for me, V6s sound much better than a straight 6. I guess the latter howl better, but otherwise, not much competition.Really sorry to hear about the woes with the Z4 because I know at first you were really happy with it.
Moving on to your OP, who is going to want a Z4 with buggered auto box without paying buttons for it?
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