What the hell is THAT still doing on the road??

[Jaguar steve]

Kermit power said:

Next to me at a petrol station this morning was a Mk1 Escort. A very nice example, which had clearly been absolutely loved and cherished, appeared to have had various performance enhancements made to it, looked better than I expect it did leaving the factory. That, to me, is the epitome of the once common, now rare car sighting.

We then pulled out of the petrol station and went past a mauve A reg Triumph Acclaim which looked like it's being used as a daily driver for an odd job man!

This was a hideous car when it was new, so who in their right minds is still running one 33 years later???

Anyone else seen anything recently and wondered what on earth it was doing still being driven around today? I reckon that Acclaim had photos of its owner shagging a goat or something!

What the actual fk has anybody elses car choice got to do with you? Go on, do tell.

Maybe it's all the driver can afford. Maybe it's all he wants to afford. Maybe he's chosen a car simple enough to maintain himself rather than bending over a for a unlubed rogering by a garage every time the auxiliary ashtray warning light comes on. Maybe he's had it from new and it's plodded on reliably and never ever caused him a moments grief for over three decades. Maybe he's happy his depreciation has cost him less than a packet of fags a week. Maybe he subscribes to the sensible Shed philosophy that cars make excellent servants but terrible masters. Who knows?

The real virtue is probably buried deep down in what it actually does and not on the surface of just what it looks like. It's a real pity so many people are blinded by whats new rather than whats best they just can't see that.

[cj2013]

Jaguar steve said:

What the actual fk has anybody elses car choice got to do with you? Go on, do tell.

Maybe it's all the driver can afford. Maybe it's all he wants to afford. Maybe he's chosen a car simple enough to maintain himself rather than bending over a for a unlubed rogering by a garage every time the auxiliary ashtray warning light comes on. Maybe he's had it from new and it's plodded on reliably and never ever caused him a moments grief for over three decades. Maybe he's happy his depreciation has cost him less than a packet of fags a week. Maybe he subscribes to the sensible Shed philosophy that cars make excellent servants but terrible masters. Who knows?

The real virtue is probably buried deep down in what it actually does and not on the surface of just what it looks like. It's a real pity so many people are blinded by whats new rather than whats best they just can't see that.

I see what the OP means though.

Sometimes I see things like a Hyundai Atoz or a Daewoo anything and think to myself that, considering the basement value and fuel/tax cost, why they don't just get something a bit...better?

I see so many significantly better cars for a few hundred quid everywhere these days, and whilst it's the owner's choice, some cars must seriously be subjecting their owners to a sort of Stockholm syndrome!

[Mercky]

Kermit power said:

Next to me at a petrol station this morning was a Mk1 Escort. A very nice example, which had clearly been absolutely loved and cherished, appeared to have had various performance enhancements made to it, looked better than I expect it did leaving the factory. That, to me, is the epitome of the once common, now rare car sighting.

We then pulled out of the petrol station and went past a mauve A reg Triumph Acclaim which looked like it's being used as a daily driver for an odd job man!

This was a hideous car when it was new, so who in their right minds is still running one 33 years later???

Anyone else seen anything recently and wondered what on earth it was doing still being driven around today? I reckon that Acclaim had photos of its owner shagging a goat or something!

I have had various mk1 Escorts and a couple of Triumph Acclaims. The Acclaim was a far better car.

[battered]

I think that you do get sucked in if you aren't careful. It's easy to say "well, that clutch was £x, and I want to get my use out of that" and you end up keeping it longer than you should. My parents did this with a Citroen BX in the 90s. A couple of times a year it would hand in a chunky bill, they'd pay up, thinking that this would see the end of the problems. It didn't, and finally it went to the breakers when the replacement hydraulic pipes also rusted through and the bill was north of £700.

All of us here know that you can get a decent working Mondeo, Focus, Vectra (if you must), Toyota Avensis/Corolla, on about 100k miles for £400-500, but we all know that you have to know how to select them and be prepared to take a bit of a punt. If you aren't these things, then you'll stick with what you know.