The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[cmvtec]

On the newest Astras they're only on the top spec ones.

My other half has a 2017 elite with leccy handbrake. My colleague has the same model in SRi spec and it has a lever.

[anonymous-user]

So, given the absolute disaster this thread has become, owing to some rather dense fools, I've decided to bump my post up, and also elaborate on my decision to run this wonderful shed along side my shiny bit of PCP'd metal parked behind it.

So, trying to keep this quite concise, the issues came when I tried to save money by trading in my PCP'd UP GTI in for a £0 VED 1.6 TDI Leon on HP, basically had no end of bother and the garage wouldn't take it back, always been a great fan of the MK1 Focus and have tried shedding in the past, which was very liberating, anyway, whilst on the hunt for a good Focus, I went through various cars with hidden issues until I found a seemingly perfect 2000 W plated Focus 2.0 Zetec ESP, anyway, after blowing £1,500 on that including delivery and being reassured the car is genuine and no question being too small for the seller... it was a bad car - suffering gearbox failure (soon to be a hat-trick of gearbox woes) - so this was yet another car I had to sell, but as with the others, I made sure I was clear about the issues with the buyers, and they seemed happy to offer close to or pay the asking price, knowing what they were buying.

Anyway, after that came a £1,600 2 owner FSH 07 plated Octavia 1.9 TDI on around 95k and guess what... same gearbox as the former 1.6 TDI Leon mentioned above with the same worrying sound of bearing failure which my garage confirmed. The Leon saga drew to a close finally, with the finance company taking my side (owing to an engineers report and all my proof) I had to get out of this Octavia and a never ending cycle of utter crap that seemed to find it's way in to my ownership which was wearing me down.

Eventually I decided I should see what I could get at a reasonable monthly cost brand new, so after some searching, I found myself a brand new Suzuki Swift SZ-L (Burning Red Metallic for those wondering - stunning colour in the sun) on a 0% PCP with £350 discount, £1,000 deposit contribution and £1,000 in part ex for the Octavia (meaning I'd lose around half what it would cost to repair) which left me with a monthly payment of £159.87.

So, I've got the Swift on a blasphemous 6,000 mile PCP (knowing that being me, I would absolutely end up with a second car running along side it) and it has been excellent - and I'm sure is future shed material! Also as a side note, had I only been running the Swift, it would be on well over 4,000 miles at just 3 months in - it's on 3,200 currently. I absolutely love both my little Japanese superminis with their fizzy engines - great fun to drive, incredibly reliable and very very good on fuel!

(Yeah... that really was not concise at all, was it? Sorry folks! )

R50 BPS said:

Spent a month so far with my £450 eBay win Toyota Yaris GLS, scraped on every corner, with the most noticeable one being on the passenger door, I just don't care at all if it gets marked - it is however a local car from new, 56,000 miles currently, serviced every 5,000 miles on average, had a new clutch, brakes, wheel bearing and tyres not long before it's MOT which had 11 months to run upon purchase.... oh and with a blowing exhaust, zippy 1.0 4 pot and budget tyres that lose grip and squeal if you even so much as cough near the throttle, it's so much fun to drive!

[Arnie Cunningham]

OllieJolly said:

I have never experienced a problem with electronic handbrakes, but I have had problems with nearly every "shed" I've had with a 'regular' handbrake.

My 2001 Polo saloon and 2003 Seat Cordoba (essentially the same car) both had the welds break on the floorpan, meaning the handbrake ripped up the floor instead of applying.
Many of my other cars have had too much movement (6-7 clicks to hold the car, if it will hold) and I had one snap a cable.

Granted it's anecdotal and I haven't had as many electric ones to compare with, but I disagree with the idea that there's too much to go wrong. You're already in that camp with any car modern enough to be equipped with one. Personally, I don't like having to try and adjust a manual one correctly, my C5 at the moment (handbrake on the front wheels) is awful and I haven't even attempted it yet.

I suppose for the Astra, at least, the only thing that bothers me is that it's a little more work to change the rear pads as I have to put the handbrake in 'service mode', but really you can just do it in the car with the button, and then the same after to take it out and calibrate it.

On a shed, I have no issue with replacing (or even welding) any broken bits either on manual or electric. It's par for the course with shedding and wasn't quite what I meant actually.

It's the usability of them even when in good order that is my beef. I've just not seen any of them (but my research is not exhaustive - it's just every one I've come across so far).

We had a C3 on hire in the alps a couple of years back and the hill starts were embarrassing.

And towing a trailer on the back of a friends A4, the fine control to position the hitch and ball correctly was ridiculous.
And a 508 SW we hired on holiday - actually really liked the car, would happily own one. But hill starts. No feel to feather the clutch as you let off the handbrake to avoid either rolling down the hill or launch up it.

The 508 was manual, can't remember what the C3 was, and the Audi was auto (unsure whether classic auto or double clutch jobbie). All gave an inferior driving experience compared to a good old fashioned lever & cable.

There have been a few others too, but these 3 stood out.

[Arnie Cunningham]

I am sorry I don't meet your high standards.

R50 BPS said:

...owing to some rather dense fools...

[anonymous-user]

Well I suppose the plural was incorrect there, as to be honest, there was only the one I could see and it wasn't you...

Arnie Cunningham said:

I am sorry I don't meet your high standards.

R50 BPS said:

...owing to some rather dense fools...

[Arnie Cunningham]

We all have our moments. I felt dense for not knowing how lease deals work.
But I certainly am a keen sheddist though.

[anonymous-user]

R50 BPS said:

So, given the absolute disaster this thread has become, owing to some rather dense fools, I've decided to bump my post up, and also elaborate on my decision to run this wonderful shed along side my shiny bit of PCP'd metal parked behind it.

I tried to think of a polite way of saying this but I couldn't so I am just going to come out and say it. So let me get this straight, you have a brand new car on PCP but it has such a low annual mileage allowance that you have to run a shed as well?

Would it not have been less dense to just buy it with a higher mileage allowance and then just not worry about the shed? Surely running two cars and barely driving the new one is costing more than just running the new one with a higher mileage allowance?

Sorry if I am missing something, but it just seems you have the worst of both worlds with this arrangement?

[anonymous-user]

Joey Deacon said:

R50 BPS said:

So, given the absolute disaster this thread has become, owing to some rather dense fools, I've decided to bump my post up, and also elaborate on my decision to run this wonderful shed along side my shiny bit of PCP'd metal parked behind it.

I tried to think of a polite way of saying this but I couldn't so I am just going to come out and say it. So let me get this straight, you have a brand new car on PCP but it has such a low annual mileage allowance that you have to run a shed as well?

Would it not have been less dense to just buy it with a higher mileage allowance and then just not worry about the shed? Surely running two cars and barely driving the new one is costing more than just running the new one with a higher mileage allowance?

Sorry if I am missing something, but it just seems you have the worst of both worlds with this arrangement?

Putting it as simply as I can without ending up with half a novel again - if I just had the Swift and was running it all the time, I'd grow bored of just the one car very quickly - having a cheap shed means I can change something once I get the itch, and also have something to put miles on if need be, use for the supermarket run and for tip runs or any time some sh*t needs to be moved somewhere. I once had 7 cars on the road at once (mostly mundane 80s and 90s stuff) and it was for me like living the dream - doing this is the same, but cheaper and on a less interesting/exciting scale.

Edited by R50 BPS on Thursday 17th June 14:04

[Arnie Cunningham]

I have 5. And ridiculously, when the Mazda family car broke down last summer, I had to borrow my mothers's car since of the 5, only 1 other has 5 seats and it was sorned at the time and took me a couple of days to get it MOTd, taxed etc.

But, much the same as ^^, I do quite like having them all and the combined value of them is still pretty low.

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Thursday 17th June 13:29

[anonymous-user]

R50 BPS said:

Joey Deacon said:

R50 BPS said:

So, given the absolute disaster this thread has become, owing to some rather dense fools, I've decided to bump my post up, and also elaborate on my decision to run this wonderful shed along side my shiny bit of PCP'd metal parked behind it.

I tried to think of a polite way of saying this but I couldn't so I am just going to come out and say it. So let me get this straight, you have a brand new car on PCP but it has such a low annual mileage allowance that you have to run a shed as well?

Would it not have been less dense to just buy it with a higher mileage allowance and then just not worry about the shed? Surely running two cars and barely driving the new one is costing more than just running the new one with a higher mileage allowance?

Sorry if I am missing something, but it just seems you have the worst of both worlds with this arrangement?

Putting it as simply as I can without ending up with half a novel again - if I just had the Swift and was running it all the time, I'd grow bored of just the one car very quickly - having a cheap shed means I can change something once I get the itch, and also have something to put miles on if need be, use for the supermarket run and for tip runs or any time some sh*t needs to be moved somewhere. I once had 7 cars on the road at once (mostly mundane 80s and 90s stuff) and it was for me like living the dream - doing this is the same, but cheaper and on a less interesting/exciting scale.

Edited by R50 BPS on Thursday 17th June 14:04

Also anyone interested in the tat I had on the road all at once...

1986 Nissan Bluebird 2.0 SLX
1993 Peugeot 306 1.6 XT
1993 Ford Mondeo 2.0 GLX
1995 Citroën Xantia 1.9TD LX
2001 BMW 330i Sport
2003 Ford Focus 1.6 Ghia Saloon
2015 BMW 420d GranCoupe M Sport xDrive

Then it all came crashing down when I was made redundant!

[cedrichn]

Joey Deacon said:

I tried to think of a polite way of saying this but I couldn't so I am just going to come out and say it. So let me get this straight, you have a brand new car on PCP but it has such a low annual mileage allowance that you have to run a shed as well?

Would it not have been less dense to just buy it with a higher mileage allowance and then just not worry about the shed? Surely running two cars and barely driving the new one is costing more than just running the new one with a higher mileage allowance?

Sorry if I am missing something, but it just seems you have the worst of both worlds with this arrangement?

I thought the same (except only the shed and not bother with lease or PCP or whatever)

[cedrichn]

Arnie Cunningham said:

I have 5. And ridiculously, when the Mazda family car broke down last summer, I had to borrow my mothers's car since of the 5, only 1 other has 5 seats and it was sorned at the time and took me a couple of days to get it MOTd, taxed etc.

But, much the same as ^^, I do quite like having them all and the combined value of them is still pretty low.

Edited by Arnie Cunningham on Thursday 17th June 13:29

Not as bad here, but I do understand I have 3, and I do feel lucky when I actually have the choice of which one to use (which is not often). How people do with only one?

(yeah, they have only one reliable German on PCP...boring )

[anonymous-user]

cedrichn said:

Joey Deacon said:

I tried to think of a polite way of saying this but I couldn't so I am just going to come out and say it. So let me get this straight, you have a brand new car on PCP but it has such a low annual mileage allowance that you have to run a shed as well?

Would it not have been less dense to just buy it with a higher mileage allowance and then just not worry about the shed? Surely running two cars and barely driving the new one is costing more than just running the new one with a higher mileage allowance?

Sorry if I am missing something, but it just seems you have the worst of both worlds with this arrangement?

I thought the same (except only the shed and not bother with lease or PCP or whatever)

Thought I'd made it clear with the issues with sheds, became quite tiresome and thought something with iron-clad new car warranty was the way to go. Before the above issues, I'd had a CLK which chucked itself in limp mode and was a literal snail on wheels (Auto 'box ECU), a Meriva which did it's electric steering column and was barely drivable, a Focus which dropped reverse gear and an S40 which the clutch gave up on. The only one I wish I'd kept was the 235,000 mile £1,500 " new shape" V70 D5 Geartronic - a truly lovely place to be.

Edited by R50 BPS on Thursday 17th June 14:19

[giblet]

Surely the common sense thing to do would have been to just buy a more reliable shed.

To each their own but for me the only time a 2 car solution made sense was when I ran a leased Alfa 4C alongside a sheddy Rover 216. Allowed me to use the 216 for tip runs etc and the Alfa as a daily

[anonymous-user]

giblet said:

Surely the common sense thing to do would have been to just buy a more reliable shed.

To each their own but for me the only time a 2 car solution made sense was when I ran a leased Alfa 4C alongside a sheddy Rover 216. Allowed me to use the 216 for tip runs etc and the Alfa as a daily

This was the reason behind the low mileage 2 owner Octavia 1.9 TDI....

[Captain Answer]

giblet said:

Surely the common sense thing to do would have been to just buy a more reliable shed.

To each their own but for me the only time a 2 car solution made sense was when I ran a leased Alfa 4C alongside a sheddy Rover 216. Allowed me to use the 216 for tip runs etc and the Alfa as a daily

Depends... last PCP I had was for an electic car, I worked in city centre and could park and charge it free so it was a complete no-brainer - still had a shed for myself for tip runs and one for the wife

[anonymous-user]

R50 BPS said:

So, given the absolute disaster this thread has become, owing to some rather dense fools, I've decided to bump my post up, and also elaborate on my decision to run this wonderful shed along side my shiny bit of PCP'd metal parked behind it.

So, trying to keep this quite concise, the issues came when I tried to save money by trading in my PCP'd UP GTI in for a £0 VED 1.6 TDI Leon on HP, basically had no end of bother and the garage wouldn't take it back, always been a great fan of the MK1 Focus and have tried shedding in the past, which was very liberating, anyway, whilst on the hunt for a good Focus, I went through various cars with hidden issues until I found a seemingly perfect 2000 W plated Focus 2.0 Zetec ESP, anyway, after blowing £1,500 on that including delivery and being reassured the car is genuine and no question being too small for the seller... it was a bad car - suffering gearbox failure (soon to be a hat-trick of gearbox woes) - so this was yet another car I had to sell, but as with the others, I made sure I was clear about the issues with the buyers, and they seemed happy to offer close to or pay the asking price, knowing what they were buying.

Anyway, after that came a £1,600 2 owner FSH 07 plated Octavia 1.9 TDI on around 95k and guess what... same gearbox as the former 1.6 TDI Leon mentioned above with the same worrying sound of bearing failure which my garage confirmed. The Leon saga drew to a close finally, with the finance company taking my side (owing to an engineers report and all my proof) I had to get out of this Octavia and a never ending cycle of utter crap that seemed to find it's way in to my ownership which was wearing me down.

Eventually I decided I should see what I could get at a reasonable monthly cost brand new, so after some searching, I found myself a brand new Suzuki Swift SZ-L (Burning Red Metallic for those wondering - stunning colour in the sun) on a 0% PCP with £350 discount, £1,000 deposit contribution and £1,000 in part ex for the Octavia (meaning I'd lose around half what it would cost to repair) which left me with a monthly payment of £159.87.

So, I've got the Swift on a blasphemous 6,000 mile PCP (knowing that being me, I would absolutely end up with a second car running along side it) and it has been excellent - and I'm sure is future shed material! Also as a side note, had I only been running the Swift, it would be on well over 4,000 miles at just 3 months in - it's on 3,200 currently. I absolutely love both my little Japanese superminis with their fizzy engines - great fun to drive, incredibly reliable and very very good on fuel!

(Yeah... that really was not concise at all, was it? Sorry folks! )

R50 BPS said:

Spent a month so far with my £450 eBay win Toyota Yaris GLS, scraped on every corner, with the most noticeable one being on the passenger door, I just don't care at all if it gets marked - it is however a local car from new, 56,000 miles currently, serviced every 5,000 miles on average, had a new clutch, brakes, wheel bearing and tyres not long before it's MOT which had 11 months to run upon purchase.... oh and with a blowing exhaust, zippy 1.0 4 pot and budget tyres that lose grip and squeal if you even so much as cough near the throttle, it's so much fun to drive!

You were reassured that the focus was genuine by who? Do you buy cars blindly or do you check them out before you part with your hard earned?

[anonymous-user]

Lord Cunnington Smythe said:

R50 BPS said:

So, given the absolute disaster this thread has become, owing to some rather dense fools, I've decided to bump my post up, and also elaborate on my decision to run this wonderful shed along side my shiny bit of PCP'd metal parked behind it.

So, trying to keep this quite concise, the issues came when I tried to save money by trading in my PCP'd UP GTI in for a £0 VED 1.6 TDI Leon on HP, basically had no end of bother and the garage wouldn't take it back, always been a great fan of the MK1 Focus and have tried shedding in the past, which was very liberating, anyway, whilst on the hunt for a good Focus, I went through various cars with hidden issues until I found a seemingly perfect 2000 W plated Focus 2.0 Zetec ESP, anyway, after blowing £1,500 on that including delivery and being reassured the car is genuine and no question being too small for the seller... it was a bad car - suffering gearbox failure (soon to be a hat-trick of gearbox woes) - so this was yet another car I had to sell, but as with the others, I made sure I was clear about the issues with the buyers, and they seemed happy to offer close to or pay the asking price, knowing what they were buying.

Anyway, after that came a £1,600 2 owner FSH 07 plated Octavia 1.9 TDI on around 95k and guess what... same gearbox as the former 1.6 TDI Leon mentioned above with the same worrying sound of bearing failure which my garage confirmed. The Leon saga drew to a close finally, with the finance company taking my side (owing to an engineers report and all my proof) I had to get out of this Octavia and a never ending cycle of utter crap that seemed to find it's way in to my ownership which was wearing me down.

Eventually I decided I should see what I could get at a reasonable monthly cost brand new, so after some searching, I found myself a brand new Suzuki Swift SZ-L (Burning Red Metallic for those wondering - stunning colour in the sun) on a 0% PCP with £350 discount, £1,000 deposit contribution and £1,000 in part ex for the Octavia (meaning I'd lose around half what it would cost to repair) which left me with a monthly payment of £159.87.

So, I've got the Swift on a blasphemous 6,000 mile PCP (knowing that being me, I would absolutely end up with a second car running along side it) and it has been excellent - and I'm sure is future shed material! Also as a side note, had I only been running the Swift, it would be on well over 4,000 miles at just 3 months in - it's on 3,200 currently. I absolutely love both my little Japanese superminis with their fizzy engines - great fun to drive, incredibly reliable and very very good on fuel!

(Yeah... that really was not concise at all, was it? Sorry folks! )

R50 BPS said:

Spent a month so far with my £450 eBay win Toyota Yaris GLS, scraped on every corner, with the most noticeable one being on the passenger door, I just don't care at all if it gets marked - it is however a local car from new, 56,000 miles currently, serviced every 5,000 miles on average, had a new clutch, brakes, wheel bearing and tyres not long before it's MOT which had 11 months to run upon purchase.... oh and with a blowing exhaust, zippy 1.0 4 pot and budget tyres that lose grip and squeal if you even so much as cough near the throttle, it's so much fun to drive!

You were reassured that the focus was genuine by who? Do you buy cars blindly or do you check them out before you part with your hard earned?

If they're within a reasonable distance I do check them myself - this one was being sold by a garage linked to the Ford main agent where it was part exchanged (their site was part of the Ford site) as this was 200+ miles away, I made sure to ask all relevant questions I knew to ask after owning so many MK1s in the past. All checked out - fully stamped up history and incredibly low mileage meant it seemed like the right car to go for.

[cedrichn]

Lord Cunnington Smythe said:

You were reassured that the focus was genuine by who? Do you buy cars blindly or do you check them out before you part with your hard earned?

They were definitely some flags there, I agree. More experience for our friend, definitely Bad luck for the Octavia 1.9TDI I guess, as it is praised here (except by VW haters - no offense )
Was "trying in person and trust no-one expect yourself" in your 10 commandments ? :P

[anonymous-user]

cedrichn said:

Lord Cunnington Smythe said:

You were reassured that the focus was genuine by who? Do you buy cars blindly or do you check them out before you part with your hard earned?

They were definitely some flags there, I agree. More experience for our friend, definitely Bad luck for the Octavia 1.9TDI I guess, as it is praised here (except by VW haters - no offense )
Was "trying in person and trust no-one expect yourself" in your 10 commandments ? :P

I seem to have come out of the cars reasonably alright thankfully, as said previously, being open and honest with the buyers helped greatly and ended up in me getting more than I expected when having to sell on. I tend not to buy further than I can be bothered to travel for a cheap car so I can indeed try it out myself, unless, like the Focus, it's something slightly special, low owner/low mileage etc.