The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[anonymous-user]

Jaguar steve said:

JDB96 said:

dunc01965 said:

There seems to be an in built hatred on here of all things French and a love of all things German but all of the little French hatchbacks that I've had have been fine. Servicing is easy, parts are cheap and running costs minimal and as no fuss transportation that can be kept running for buttons they take some beating for a long life shed.

A friend of mine (who is on here but never posts and may or may not be reading!) did 20k a year in a 106 1.1 petrol for around 3 years I think all told. I just dug back through our old messages, he bought it for £700 and sold it for £600 if I recall correctly a snapped throttle cable was the only time it ‘broke down’, otherwise just routine maintenance, timing belt etc (he was a mechanic, said it was the easiest one he ever did).

I was passengered in it a couple of times, it was even pretty comfy for a tiny hatch.

People who noisily hate French cars do so because it makes them feel better about their choice of a German one.

I've had dozens of cheap French cars and vans going right back to Renault 12s and 18s in the early '80s. In all that time and hundreds of thousands of miles I've had just three roadside breakdowns - a ignition coil and two snapped clutch cables.

I've had one headgasket fail that was on its way out anyway and the odd wheel bearing and driveshaft go but despite using them hard as family workhorses and running them all on a shoestring that's it.

The complete lack of social status and prestige and zero fkucks given that surrounds older French cars is a significant bonus too.

Don't get me wrong I have in the past gone down the "premium product " route and have owned an Eclass, very nice until it needed parts, C class, pile of rubbish , 190E so so, 5 series not bad, 3 series, completely overrated, none of which offered the promised and fabled bank vault build quality and hewn from granite reliability.

I'd rather now buy a mainstream model and enjoy the lower running costs.

[ooid]

Captain Answer said:

RAV4 is on the drive now after a 6 hour journey to collect yesterday. Seems to be in good form and drives nicely, Mrs is happy with it

After market alloys are carrying the wrong size tyres so speedo is a bit under but if we keep it long enough I'll get an OEM set off eBay. Going I swap the stereo out to a decent aftermarket one as requested by Wife

SAAB has gone to scrappy now and Citroen should go Wednesday...

Congrats, what did you get ? I've been looking for a 3 door, Auto, gen 1 rav4. Hard to find a moderate condition with sensible price!

[Captain Answer]

ooid said:

Captain Answer said:

RAV4 is on the drive now after a 6 hour journey to collect yesterday. Seems to be in good form and drives nicely, Mrs is happy with it

After market alloys are carrying the wrong size tyres so speedo is a bit under but if we keep it long enough I'll get an OEM set off eBay. Going I swap the stereo out to a decent aftermarket one as requested by Wife

SAAB has gone to scrappy now and Citroen should go Wednesday...

Congrats, what did you get ? I've been looking for a 3 door, Auto, gen 1 rav4. Hard to find a moderate condition with sensible price!

5 door manual with 2ltr Diesel. 2003 plate

Thay do hold the values very well it seems. Picked it up for £1500 so only just in the thread budget. Quite liked it on the drive back home, prefer my x-trail but the wife is over the moon with it

[Jaguar steve]

James_N said:

Jaguar steve said:

The complete lack of social status and prestige and zero fkucks given that surrounds older French cars is a significant bonus too.

I love my 106 for exactly this reason, hell I don't even lock it!!

I rarely lock my cars either.

None of them are of much value or have anything worth stealing in them, but if anybody actually wanted any of Mrs JS's Phill Collins CDs or a half eaten packet of mints or a tatty 2012 road atlas I'd much rather they simply opened a door and helped themselves rather than smashing a window to get in.

It's a lot less hassle.

[anonymous-user]

Jaguar steve said:

People who noisily hate French cars do so because it makes them feel better about their choice of a German one.

I've had dozens of cheap French cars and vans going right back to Renault 12s and 18s in the early '80s. In all that time and hundreds of thousands of miles I've had just three roadside breakdowns - a ignition coil and two snapped clutch cables.

I've had one headgasket fail that was on its way out anyway and the odd wheel bearing and driveshaft go but despite using them hard as family workhorses and running them all on a shoestring that's it.

The complete lack of social status and prestige and zero fkucks given that surrounds older French cars is a significant bonus too.

I have had my "temporary" Megane DCi for three and a half years now and I can agree with this. I paid £1200 and aside from oil and filters it has had a set of tyres, a set of glow plugs, a battery (the original one was 14 years old) and front brake pads.

It seems to be that if a French car suffers from something minor like a broken window regulator then it is "french crap". If a German car with it's thin veneer or quality suffers from massive oil consumption (Audi), stretched cam chain (All of them), Injector Issues (BMW petrol) or requires big end bearings replaced (BMW M cars) then this is just accepted.

There still seems to be this myth of "German Reliability" even though there is no end of stories on the internet of German cars suffering catastrophic engine failures at under ten years old.

Give me a heavily depreciated second hand Renault any day.

[psi310398]

Joey Deacon said:

I have had my "temporary" Megane DCi for three and a half years now and I can agree with this. I paid £1200 and aside from oil and filters it has had a set of tyres, a set of glow plugs, a battery (the original one was 14 years old) and front brake pads.

It seems to be that if a French car suffers from something minor like a broken window regulator then it is "french crap". If a German car with it's thin veneer or quality suffers from massive oil consumption (Audi), stretched cam chain (All of them), Injector Issues (BMW petrol) or requires big end bearings replaced (BMW M cars) then this is just accepted.

There still seems to be this myth of "German Reliability" even though there is no end of stories on the internet of German cars suffering catastrophic engine failures at under ten years old.

Give me a heavily depreciated second hand Renault any day.

That said, I know what sort of car is likely to let me walk away relatively unscathed were I to have a serious collision in it...

[anonymous-user]

psi310398 said:

Joey Deacon said:

I have had my "temporary" Megane DCi for three and a half years now and I can agree with this. I paid £1200 and aside from oil and filters it has had a set of tyres, a set of glow plugs, a battery (the original one was 14 years old) and front brake pads.

It seems to be that if a French car suffers from something minor like a broken window regulator then it is "french crap". If a German car with it's thin veneer or quality suffers from massive oil consumption (Audi), stretched cam chain (All of them), Injector Issues (BMW petrol) or requires big end bearings replaced (BMW M cars) then this is just accepted.

There still seems to be this myth of "German Reliability" even though there is no end of stories on the internet of German cars suffering catastrophic engine failures at under ten years old.

Give me a heavily depreciated second hand Renault any day.

That said, I know what sort of car is likely to let me walk away relatively unscathed were I to have a serious collision in it...

Renaults were getting ful NCAP ratings nearly 20 years ago. Look for the video on Youtube where Fifth Gear drive a Renault Modus into an old Volvo estate. The Modus just punches a hole straight into the drivers side of the Volvo cabin.

[psi310398]

Joey Deacon said:

Renaults were getting ful NCAP ratings nearly 20 years ago. Look for the video on Youtube where Fifth Gear drive a Renault Modus into an old Volvo estate. The Modus just punches a hole straight into the drivers side of the Volvo cabin.

Maybe.

But in the real world, over the years, I’ve driven past several prangs in France where the indigenous product had seriously compromised passenger compartments and corpses were being removed. The other vehicles less so.

In my own experience, I’ve had people hit me at relatively low speeds in rural France in both a BX and a 205. In both, the penetration into the passenger compartment was severe and I was lucky to be in a RHD and have no passenger on either occasion.

[Jaguar steve]

psi310398 said:

Joey Deacon said:

Renaults were getting ful NCAP ratings nearly 20 years ago. Look for the video on Youtube where Fifth Gear drive a Renault Modus into an old Volvo estate. The Modus just punches a hole straight into the drivers side of the Volvo cabin.

Maybe.

But in the real world, over the years, I’ve driven past several prangs in France where the indigenous product had seriously compromised passenger compartments and corpses were being removed. The other vehicles less so.

In my own experience, I’ve had people hit me at relatively low speeds in rural France in both a BX and a 205. In both, the penetration into the passenger compartment was severe and I was lucky to be in a RHD and have no passenger on either occasion.

The BX and 205 are antiques that date back to the 1980s though.

You need to compare like for like under carefully controlled conditions and analyse all the subsequent data just like NCAP do in order to make value judgements with regard to which car you'd prefer to have a crash in.

Anybody would favour having a head on in any new Citroen or Peugeot than an old one.

[Captain Answer]

Jaguar steve said:

The BX and 205 are antiques that date back to the 1980s though.

You need to compare like for like under carefully controlled conditions and analyse all the subsequent data just like NCAP do in order to make value judgements with regard to which car you'd prefer to have a crash in.

Anybody would favour having a head on in any new Citroen or Peugeot than an old one.

Def wouldn't have wanted a head on in the 205 my mum had, pretty sure it was made of Lego Kinects

[cirian75]

Captain Answer said:

Jaguar steve said:

The BX and 205 are antiques that date back to the 1980s though.

You need to compare like for like under carefully controlled conditions and analyse all the subsequent data just like NCAP do in order to make value judgements with regard to which car you'd prefer to have a crash in.

Anybody would favour having a head on in any new Citroen or Peugeot than an old one.

Def wouldn't have wanted a head on in the 205 my mum had, pretty sure it was made of Lego Kinects

Thats the one thing about cars that have designs more than 15 years old now vs car designed since

[James_N]

So I have a slow puncture (goes flatish every few weeks to around 8PSI) on one of my rear 1,000 old budget tyres. But have a good electric 12 volt pump in the boot. A few mins with that sees it right.

Is it wrong to just keep putting air in it for now (especially given my covid very low mileage!)

[Mr-B]

James_N said:

So I have a slow puncture (goes flatish every few weeks to around 8PSI) on one of my rear 1,000 old budget tyres. But have a good electric 12 volt pump in the boot. A few mins with that sees it right.

Is it wrong to just keep putting air in it for now (especially given my covid very low mileage!)

Is it definitely a puncture? Could be the bead not sealing or leaking valve. I had that recently on a tyre and a local garage tried to seal it but no joy and I replaced it in the end, mainly because it was losing a ton of air too quickly (2.8 bar to <1.5 bar in a week)

[anonymous-user]

James_N said:

So I have a slow puncture (goes flatish every few weeks to around 8PSI) on one of my rear 1,000 old budget tyres. But have a good electric 12 volt pump in the boot. A few mins with that sees it right.

Is it wrong to just keep putting air in it for now (especially given my covid very low mileage!)

Its probably not sealed properly I have this on my front drivers side. I had to replace a steelie on the back with the same problem. As they get old and rust it gets harder to have a good seal, luckily my local tyre fitter swapped my old wheel for a better one he had lying around for no charge. I thought at first that it was my part worn but I bought 3 with 7mm of tread in good condition.

[SidewaysSi]

psi310398 said:

Joey Deacon said:

Renaults were getting ful NCAP ratings nearly 20 years ago. Look for the video on Youtube where Fifth Gear drive a Renault Modus into an old Volvo estate. The Modus just punches a hole straight into the drivers side of the Volvo cabin.

Maybe.

But in the real world, over the years, I’ve driven past several prangs in France where the indigenous product had seriously compromised passenger compartments and corpses were being removed. The other vehicles less so.

In my own experience, I’ve had people hit me at relatively low speeds in rural France in both a BX and a 205. In both, the penetration into the passenger compartment was severe and I was lucky to be in a RHD and have no passenger on either occasion.

Do you crash for fun?!

[ooid]

I know it's not a proper shed, but planning to sell both cars and get a Land Cruiser 100 (V8 Petrol)... there are a few high milers around 5-7k region, and as far as I know v8 petrol is bulletproof. So before the whole EV revolution, one last time to spank mother nature's a$$

[cirian75]

ooid said:

I know it's not a proper shed, but planning to sell both cars and get a Land Cruiser 100 (V8 Petrol)... there are a few high milers around 5-7k region, and as far as I know v8 petrol is bulletproof. So before the whole EV revolution, one last time to spank mother nature's a$$

I'd love a V8, but the fuel cost would bankrupt me

[giblet]

I keep looking at old V8 sheds as I do very little miles these days. It’s the faff of selling my current car that puts me off

[ooid]

cirian75 said:

I'd love a V8, but the fuel cost would bankrupt me

I agree, on pre-c19 conditions it would bankrupt me like 5 times in a row but been mostly flexi and WFH so miles will be lower.

[OllieJolly]

James_N said:

So I have a slow puncture (goes flatish every few weeks to around 8PSI) on one of my rear 1,000 old budget tyres. But have a good electric 12 volt pump in the boot. A few mins with that sees it right.

Is it wrong to just keep putting air in it for now (especially given my covid very low mileage!)

Just get some Tyreweld.
You can usually find it on offer, somewhere.
I've used it in 4-5 tyres now, and it has always fixed the leak.
Had a set of 4 tyres fitted not long after I used a can, and ATS didn't mention anything about the old tyre being "full of gunk" as you always hear stories of.