My New Car

[Naughty Magpie]

After the constant unreliability of my various vehicles, motorised or hoof power, I have decided to buy a decent car. Despite getting rid of my beautiful 54 plate white Cooper S to buy the Cobra exactly 2 years ago, I found myself screeching to a halt (in a borrowed 206) outside Cambridge Honda & spotting another 54 plate Cooper S.....which I bought.

As Tankerman knows, I was looking at a 55 plate Renaultsport Megane 225 in neon orange with snazzy orange seatbelts (hmm). It was totally chavtastic! With white rear lights & silver badboy grill. Wicked man innit.
I thought about the Renault overnight & decided, did I really want to be ostracized from all future PHEA meets with my chavvy Megane & opted for the more socially acceptable & cuter Cooper S instead. I hope that's okay.

I pick it up at 4pm on Wednesday & it was the easiest car purchase I've ever made - all credit to Paul at Honda who was a sweetie. Went in at 1pm & had signed by 3pm, fitting in a shopping trip in between (I don't like M&S sandwiches I've decided).
The car seems excellent value for money & they did me a brilliant deal on the finance.

Scott has had the 205 back as it ran out of tax & MOT a while back and the infamous track Smart has been exported to Poland to have two bike engines fitted into it!! How cool is that! My bike is in bits, the Cobra has gone pop, haven't had it checked out yet by anyone. One horse has been sold (hurrah!) and the other horse, the good one, fell over today with me on him so I have very painful legs from being squashed! Ouch!

[Naughty Magpie]

My other two MINIs. Seems I can't stay away from them....

[Tentenths]

Nicely done Hannah!

Must admit I had no time for the BMW Mini until the soon to be ex-Mrs TT bought an electric blue Cooper S a couple of years ago. One drive later (inc. an encounter with a Focus ST) and I was completely hooked. A rapid car that can be hustled along v.easily thanks to its go-cart like handling; and as for the accompanying supercharger soundtrack...

True point and squirt motoring. Happy days!

Sadly, Mrs TT subsequently headed off into the sunset with my so-called best mate and the MCS, so I don't get to thrash drive it any more. Am still trying to establish who/what I miss the most, but six months on and I believe the Cooper S is just beginning to edge it!

Have fun!

James

Edited by Tentenths on Tuesday 14th October 15:28

[detchibe]

Great choice - although I'm biased!

[iluvmercs]

Back to a Mini, then Hannah! Superb!
Oh one my friend's Mums has a Mini Cooper with the chilli pack, and it seemed great fun road the twisties.
With this Mini be tracked, too?

Darren

Edited by iluvmercs on Tuesday 14th October 16:15

[Mr M]

Have you got any plans to blow the bloody doors off ?

[perdu]

nice car Hannah

take your mind off the poorly Cobra for a while anyway

[Ian V]

Looks very nice Hannah. Think you had a lucky escape with the Renault. We had been looking at changing our 'stealth' Clio for a Mini until I was given a px value . Car is just over 2 years old with 26k and full main dealer history (we bought new), paid nearly 12k, now offered £4700 in px. That's a two thirds loss of value in 2 years. So looks like the Mini is on hold for now. Piece of advice, don't ever buy a Renault !!!!!

[MG Mark]

Well, what goes around comes around - I remember the white one with stripes from the very first Marham event! So, at least that gives you a good back up vehicle if the Cobra throws a wobbly in April.... Oh and I am sooo glad you chose that over a Megane....

MG Mark

[Naughty Magpie]

I might just have the Cobra fixed by April. I'm going to admit defeat, SORN it and work on it myself over the winter. I don't think I can realistically afford for it to get done by a garage & there's not really any major hurry to get it done, summer's kinda gone anyway.

It feels so good to have a good solid dependable car like the MINI to drive around. Yes it will be tracked but nothing planned this year & it will certainly be the back-up car for April Marham.

Good news is that I might have acquired a van & trailer too, so future Cobra hiccups & AA incidents might be avoided - 8 breakdowns in one year, £455.00 renewal from the AA!!! Usually £80.00.

[r3nuf]

So the AA have added the cost of recovery from Woodbridge onto your renewal then Hannah!!

I am sure if you need any help with the Cobra over the Winter, there are enough of us here to assist in one way or another.

[Naughty Magpie]

Thanks Gary, I'm sure I'll be on here saying some silly things & asking a lot of stupid questions about fixing cars but then that's nothing out of the ordinary?

Here's the chavtastic Renault:

[johno_78]

Is it wrong of me to actually like the look of that Renault?

[Ian V]

johno_78 said:

Is it wrong of me to actually like the look of that Renault?

Don't do it !!!!!! 'Step away from the Renault'

Build quality not that cracking, future value nearly zero. See my post above.

[markCSC]

Renault =

Nice looking mini. Even though they are as common as muck I still think they are a great drive.

[johno_78]

Ian V said:

johno_78 said:

Is it wrong of me to actually like the look of that Renault?

Don't do it !!!!!! 'Step away from the Renault'

Build quality not that cracking, future value nearly zero. See my post above.

Don't worry i have enough problems with french cars already. But when it's value is nearly zero, i may be tempted

[MG Mark]

Naughty Magpie said:

I'm going to admit defeat, SORN it and work on it myself over the winter.

455.00 renewal from the AA!!! Usually £80.00.

Good for you, and if you need advice, you only have to ask on the forum and there'll be plenty of answers!

In terms of renewal, sounds like a case of switching to the RAC, Green Flag or some such for a year or two! Not sure whether it is still the case, but the RAc always used to recover members from racing tracks/incidents because of the RAC MSA connection.

MG Mark

[boosty]

MG Mark said:

In terms of renewal, sounds like a case of switching to the RAC, Green Flag or some such for a year or two! Not sure whether it is still the case, but the RAc always used to recover members from racing tracks/incidents because of the RAC MSA connection.

I'm pretty sure that things have changed and the RAC won't recover you whereas the AA will. The RAC are also on my blacklist having taken a couple of months to recover a friends car from France - bearing in mind that this was an open top car you would have though that they would have made an effort to cover it up and store it indoors wouldn't you. No, not the RAC agents in france who left it outside in the rain for all that time - 600 quids worth of helmet, the seats and everything else was covered in mould and had to be binned! To cap it all the RAC tried to charge [mumble] thousand pounds for recovering the car that was covered under their european recovery policy!

I for one won't be touching the RAC with a bargepole.

[gtr-gaz]

Nice car Hannah

Don't give up on the Cobra, though.
Seeing cars like that on the road (especially yellow ones) always brings a smile to my face. It would be good to see it back on the road next year.

As Mark has mentioned, there will always be help on this forum. I'm not much good repairing engines but, I will be more than happy to do any spannering for you

[B'stard Child]

Naughty Magpie said:

My other two MINIs. Seems I can't stay away from them....

Err - two cars on the same plate - how does that work