Car History (18 - 35) Alfa BMW Merc Jag Content
Discussion
I thought I would do a car history thread as some others have done here. As you will see, I tend to buy with my heart and not my head and to be fair, it's not worked out to badly for me over the last 17 odd years. Here we go...
Bought this when I was 19 for £270 with some MOT on it. I was a big fan of the Capri as my Grandma and Dad both had them in the past. This was a 'laser' model with the 1.6 pinto engine giving a heady 73 bhp I think. It was quick enough for me at the time and probably would have killed me if it had had more power. I thought it was so cool but as you can see, it is a bit silly with the knackered body kit etc. I had this for probably between 6 months and a year and then sold it to a friend who ran it for a while.
At uni I decided to buy a 2.8i Capri with my student loan and picked up a tatty one from Tamworth for £600. It felt so fast at the time and the cologne V6 loved to rev, but had some hot starting issues, which left me stranded a few times. Loved the recaro seats in this.
Towards the end of uni, I decided to buy another 'dream' car and bought an Alfa 164 V6 off ebay for £1000. I had experienced the V6 when my uncle had a 164 V6 in the mid 90s and was just amazed at how good it sounded. I absolutely loved this car and it led me on a path of buying many Alfa V6 over the years as you will see. This one went wrong when the throttle stuck open and it was never the same after that. Knowing what I know now about Alfas (not much...) I think that it was the Mass Air Flow meter that was screwed up but at the time didn't know to look into this and stupidly didn't take it to a specialist. Sold it to an Italian car enthusiast for £100 ish.
A Mercedes 190E Auto followed which I paid £950 for. A very satisfying daily and lovely for cruising about in if you're not pushing it too hard. Rock solid build quality and engineering. I regret putting stupid wheels on the car.
I traded the 190E for a very silly car, a Merc SEC 5 litre V8. Being an early one, it had about 230bhp so wasn't wildly quick but had lots of low down torque. It looked like a drug dealer car but I loved it with the AZEV alloys and the glittery purple custom paint job. It sat so well on the road. There was one problem with this car; it was absolutely mechanically f&%£"d. The chassis had been welded in the past and it became a death trap basically, so I sold it on to someone for £100 (I only paid a grandish for it). Think I had it for over 6 months, so was fun while it lasted. This was my daily car and was achieving 20mpg so was costing me a LOT to run.
What followed was my motoring low point. I had no money at this juncture, so scanned Autotrader for the lowest priced car in the country with a long MOT. A peugeot 1.4d with 54bhp or thereabouts. I loved this car! The engine sounded like lots of tiny hammers being hit in quick succession. The satisfaction came from getting an easy 60mpg combined or at best 76mpg on a run.
Crashed the 106 into a tree during the Christmas holidays in the early hours in heavy snow. Oh dear. I gave myself a £500 limit and ended up with an Audi A4 2.6i Auto. Great car, lovely solid build and a good daily but the engine wasn't great for a v6 and it was a bit strained in the upper revs.
I gave the A4 to a friend who was a bit down on his luck and picked up another Alfa, this time a V6 GTV for £3500 in 2011. The GTV felt very special, dominated by the fantastic busso v6. Gorgeous looks and interior, the car felt fragile as GTVs do but it was great fun until a lorry driver took me out on the M1 late at night. Luckily uninjured but the car was a write off.
I then picked up an absolute belter, an E34 540i Auto for just £900. This had a really old skool feel to it after the GTV and I almost lost it when the back end kicked out on a wet roundabout, but managed to correct OK. This car had a 'hewn from granite' feel to it like the 190E. I only sold it as I wanted another GTV.
The next GTV I bought for peanuts (£1700) but was a lemon; the 3 litre engine was replaced with a 2.5 by a previous owner which I was unaware of (it looks the same almost it just felt a bit slower!) until an Alfa specialist told me when it was being serviced. I also replaced most of the cooling system as it had an overheating problem which was eventually resolved when the water pump was replaced. After all this hassle, but still with the 2.5 engine, I had this car for a long time and it is probably my favourite of all my cars even with the lesser 2.5. I prefer the sweetness of the 2.5 over the 3.0 even if it lacks torque. I just really bonded with it and drove it to Italy for my brothers wedding where it didn't miss a beat. I then sold it to a friend on the proviso that I could buy it back when he came to sell.
Next up, what better car for a daily than an E38 740i? Cost about a grand and gave me a big issue, probably the biggest single issue I've had with a car; the fuel tank had corroded and a previous bodge to fix it had failed resulting in me returning to it in the Tesco car park one day to find petrol leaking from it. Sourcing a spare petrol tank was hard work (probably as so many E38s have had reconditioned tanks) and eventually it was all sorted. Cost me a grand to sort that...Great car though, lovely to drive but felt its weight and had a tank like feel. The 4.4v8 felt quick enough with close to 300bhp and was at home blasting down the outside lane of a motorway. Sold to the same friend who then sold me my old GTV back!
So back to the black GTV, which I kept until it started to get a bit tired and required a lot of money to be put in. It needed some manifold work which would have set me back at least £1000 and as the car was a little tired, I thought I would sell it on as it was doing too many miles as my only car. It was bought by an enthusiast who put the 3 litre engine back in and is restoring it.
Next car, a £600 Alfa 166 V6 Manual. My trip to pick it up was from York (home) to the Isle of Wight. Took me all day and most of the evening but was worth it. The 166 is a great car, with build quality way better than the 164 or GTV. It is up there with the germans in my opinion for build quality and I am a little unsure as to why they didn't sell that many as it was a lovely alternative to a 5 series or e class. A trip to Germany with some friends involved us trying to see how fast we could go on the Autobarn. We hit an indicated 140 (probably just over 130 in reality) before bottling it. The car had more to give and I'm sure would hit 150 eventually. Sold this on as I suddenly became really sensible (boring) and wanted an economical daily hack.
My sensible daily? A 406hdi 110 estate. Don't knock them, they are fantastic cars. Old skool Peugeot. Lovely soft suspension but superb damping means you can cover ground surprisingly quickly on the crap roads we have here. Very much enjoyed this car until MOT time came where it failed spectacularly and required too much work. So it was scrapped.
So onto my current 'fleet'.
As I had some band gigs coming up I started looking for mpvs and 4x4s as well as estates for a new daily. A Ford Galaxy was the result of my search and for £300 with 12 months MOT, who can argue? Apart from a new relay, the car has been faultless and is my main car for driving to work.
I have two other cars for no other reason than I just wanted them to drive now and again and why not? A 156 V6 manual with 68k miles on it. I have a feeling I will be hanging onto this 156 for a long time; the engine and gearbox ratios are just perfection. Not quick (0 - 100 mph is about 18.5) but not slow either, you can really hammer the car without getting to stupid speeds too quickly.
My newest addition is a Jaguar X308 XJR. 4 litre supercharged v8 with 370 bhp, a dream car for me when I was growing up, I couldn't resist buying it when I saw it for only £2400. Great car and I'm still getting to know it.
So there we are, hope I didn't bore you to death. I guess the summary is that I love Alfa v6s too much!
Bought this when I was 19 for £270 with some MOT on it. I was a big fan of the Capri as my Grandma and Dad both had them in the past. This was a 'laser' model with the 1.6 pinto engine giving a heady 73 bhp I think. It was quick enough for me at the time and probably would have killed me if it had had more power. I thought it was so cool but as you can see, it is a bit silly with the knackered body kit etc. I had this for probably between 6 months and a year and then sold it to a friend who ran it for a while.
At uni I decided to buy a 2.8i Capri with my student loan and picked up a tatty one from Tamworth for £600. It felt so fast at the time and the cologne V6 loved to rev, but had some hot starting issues, which left me stranded a few times. Loved the recaro seats in this.
Towards the end of uni, I decided to buy another 'dream' car and bought an Alfa 164 V6 off ebay for £1000. I had experienced the V6 when my uncle had a 164 V6 in the mid 90s and was just amazed at how good it sounded. I absolutely loved this car and it led me on a path of buying many Alfa V6 over the years as you will see. This one went wrong when the throttle stuck open and it was never the same after that. Knowing what I know now about Alfas (not much...) I think that it was the Mass Air Flow meter that was screwed up but at the time didn't know to look into this and stupidly didn't take it to a specialist. Sold it to an Italian car enthusiast for £100 ish.
A Mercedes 190E Auto followed which I paid £950 for. A very satisfying daily and lovely for cruising about in if you're not pushing it too hard. Rock solid build quality and engineering. I regret putting stupid wheels on the car.
I traded the 190E for a very silly car, a Merc SEC 5 litre V8. Being an early one, it had about 230bhp so wasn't wildly quick but had lots of low down torque. It looked like a drug dealer car but I loved it with the AZEV alloys and the glittery purple custom paint job. It sat so well on the road. There was one problem with this car; it was absolutely mechanically f&%£"d. The chassis had been welded in the past and it became a death trap basically, so I sold it on to someone for £100 (I only paid a grandish for it). Think I had it for over 6 months, so was fun while it lasted. This was my daily car and was achieving 20mpg so was costing me a LOT to run.
What followed was my motoring low point. I had no money at this juncture, so scanned Autotrader for the lowest priced car in the country with a long MOT. A peugeot 1.4d with 54bhp or thereabouts. I loved this car! The engine sounded like lots of tiny hammers being hit in quick succession. The satisfaction came from getting an easy 60mpg combined or at best 76mpg on a run.
Crashed the 106 into a tree during the Christmas holidays in the early hours in heavy snow. Oh dear. I gave myself a £500 limit and ended up with an Audi A4 2.6i Auto. Great car, lovely solid build and a good daily but the engine wasn't great for a v6 and it was a bit strained in the upper revs.
I gave the A4 to a friend who was a bit down on his luck and picked up another Alfa, this time a V6 GTV for £3500 in 2011. The GTV felt very special, dominated by the fantastic busso v6. Gorgeous looks and interior, the car felt fragile as GTVs do but it was great fun until a lorry driver took me out on the M1 late at night. Luckily uninjured but the car was a write off.
I then picked up an absolute belter, an E34 540i Auto for just £900. This had a really old skool feel to it after the GTV and I almost lost it when the back end kicked out on a wet roundabout, but managed to correct OK. This car had a 'hewn from granite' feel to it like the 190E. I only sold it as I wanted another GTV.
The next GTV I bought for peanuts (£1700) but was a lemon; the 3 litre engine was replaced with a 2.5 by a previous owner which I was unaware of (it looks the same almost it just felt a bit slower!) until an Alfa specialist told me when it was being serviced. I also replaced most of the cooling system as it had an overheating problem which was eventually resolved when the water pump was replaced. After all this hassle, but still with the 2.5 engine, I had this car for a long time and it is probably my favourite of all my cars even with the lesser 2.5. I prefer the sweetness of the 2.5 over the 3.0 even if it lacks torque. I just really bonded with it and drove it to Italy for my brothers wedding where it didn't miss a beat. I then sold it to a friend on the proviso that I could buy it back when he came to sell.
Next up, what better car for a daily than an E38 740i? Cost about a grand and gave me a big issue, probably the biggest single issue I've had with a car; the fuel tank had corroded and a previous bodge to fix it had failed resulting in me returning to it in the Tesco car park one day to find petrol leaking from it. Sourcing a spare petrol tank was hard work (probably as so many E38s have had reconditioned tanks) and eventually it was all sorted. Cost me a grand to sort that...Great car though, lovely to drive but felt its weight and had a tank like feel. The 4.4v8 felt quick enough with close to 300bhp and was at home blasting down the outside lane of a motorway. Sold to the same friend who then sold me my old GTV back!
So back to the black GTV, which I kept until it started to get a bit tired and required a lot of money to be put in. It needed some manifold work which would have set me back at least £1000 and as the car was a little tired, I thought I would sell it on as it was doing too many miles as my only car. It was bought by an enthusiast who put the 3 litre engine back in and is restoring it.
Next car, a £600 Alfa 166 V6 Manual. My trip to pick it up was from York (home) to the Isle of Wight. Took me all day and most of the evening but was worth it. The 166 is a great car, with build quality way better than the 164 or GTV. It is up there with the germans in my opinion for build quality and I am a little unsure as to why they didn't sell that many as it was a lovely alternative to a 5 series or e class. A trip to Germany with some friends involved us trying to see how fast we could go on the Autobarn. We hit an indicated 140 (probably just over 130 in reality) before bottling it. The car had more to give and I'm sure would hit 150 eventually. Sold this on as I suddenly became really sensible (boring) and wanted an economical daily hack.
My sensible daily? A 406hdi 110 estate. Don't knock them, they are fantastic cars. Old skool Peugeot. Lovely soft suspension but superb damping means you can cover ground surprisingly quickly on the crap roads we have here. Very much enjoyed this car until MOT time came where it failed spectacularly and required too much work. So it was scrapped.
So onto my current 'fleet'.
As I had some band gigs coming up I started looking for mpvs and 4x4s as well as estates for a new daily. A Ford Galaxy was the result of my search and for £300 with 12 months MOT, who can argue? Apart from a new relay, the car has been faultless and is my main car for driving to work.
I have two other cars for no other reason than I just wanted them to drive now and again and why not? A 156 V6 manual with 68k miles on it. I have a feeling I will be hanging onto this 156 for a long time; the engine and gearbox ratios are just perfection. Not quick (0 - 100 mph is about 18.5) but not slow either, you can really hammer the car without getting to stupid speeds too quickly.
My newest addition is a Jaguar X308 XJR. 4 litre supercharged v8 with 370 bhp, a dream car for me when I was growing up, I couldn't resist buying it when I saw it for only £2400. Great car and I'm still getting to know it.
So there we are, hope I didn't bore you to death. I guess the summary is that I love Alfa v6s too much!
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