What was the last straw for you car?
Discussion
Oilchange said:
Tin worm, Alfa 156.
Again the engine, 2.5 V6, was a gem and had about 150k on it but would have gone on for double that I think.
My poor heart aches for that car...
Can I ask, did you use it all year round? And was it garaged?Again the engine, 2.5 V6, was a gem and had about 150k on it but would have gone on for double that I think.
My poor heart aches for that car...
Cant help thinking, by not using cars over winter with salt and leaving them out in all weathers would extend the life...but it does mean having another car!
The recent jettisoning of my Outback was a case of death by a thousand cuts. The engine, gearbox and 4wd gubbins are still spot on, but it seemed that barely a month went by without the suspension or brakes needing attention and I just got a bit fed up with it. For someone doing 5k miles per year that's handy with the spanners it would be a good utility car/dog wagon/winter hack, but with me doing 15k+ and with no interest in getting my hands oily it's got to be too much hassle. It's served me well though so no complaints.
2004 Alfa GT JTD...replaced my much missed 156 TS Veloce and I initially loved it, the black and red combo looked good and it was a rare CF3 with no unwanted swirl flaps to worry about.
When the front end started rattling I thought paying £850 to have every single bush replaced with Powerflex was a good long term investment...OK.
When the rear suspension collapsed I shrugged and took the opportunity to renew everything including arms and fit a 174 GTA roll bar.
The drivers window repeatedly failed in the down position (usually when raining of course) which I dutifully fixed 3 times before hard wiring a pair of relays in to bypass the CANBUS nonsense.
Aside from the above it was actually pretty good and I enjoyed driving the thing until....
The 3rd MOT I had revealed the floorpan had somehow gone from fine to riddled with holes front and rear in the space of a year, being obviously a terminal case I had the bare minimum dome for an MOT pass and sold it back to the bloke I bought it from at a rock bottom price as I think he felt slightly sorry for me....he shifted it fairly quickly for not much more and I gather it failed the next MOT drastically on rust and is now presumed scrap.
Shame really...it was my 11th Alfa, the newest yet by far the worst example you could wish for...I finally packed it all in and bought a Golf...
timberman said:
Previous car ( fiesta st3) sold due to,
Rock hard suspension,
cheap feeling interior,
uncomfortable seats,
and just because I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be after all the rave reviews.
If I hadn't just replaced all the tyres and brakes on mine I'd be getting rid for exactly the same reasons. Problem is I can't think what to replace it with, either another MX5 or an electric Pug 208 are 2 of many on the shortlist.Rock hard suspension,
cheap feeling interior,
uncomfortable seats,
and just because I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be after all the rave reviews.
Sold my 7 yr old Seat Córdoba 1.9tdi as I couldn’t turn the heating on without coolant somehow evaporating into the airflow. Ergo the front windscreen would mist up. 162k miles at the time and the independent garage said they couldn’t get the standard heater matrix to fit my car.
Recently sold my 2008 v50 d5 with 175k on the clock. Running well, but needed something bigger
Recently sold my 2008 v50 d5 with 175k on the clock. Running well, but needed something bigger
poing said:
timberman said:
Previous car ( fiesta st3) sold due to,
Rock hard suspension,
cheap feeling interior,
uncomfortable seats,
and just because I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be after all the rave reviews.
If I hadn't just replaced all the tyres and brakes on mine I'd be getting rid for exactly the same reasons. Problem is I can't think what to replace it with, either another MX5 or an electric Pug 208 are 2 of many on the shortlist.Rock hard suspension,
cheap feeling interior,
uncomfortable seats,
and just because I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be after all the rave reviews.
previous car to the fiesta was a Scirocco which I sold just because I'd had it for a long time, then regretted selling it.
Out of all the cars i've owned there have only been 2 sold as a result of a last straw or a i can't be a.rs.ed with this anymore.
First one was my old Renault 5 GT Turbo - loved that car (it was my first performance car at 18) and i modified it - A LOT. Unfortunately as was the case with the 5Turbo + big power mods, generally = regular breakages either engine or gearbox related.
The thing that really killed that car off for me was the company tasked with building me a new engine basically took a chunk of ££££ for a downpayment on the supply of parts & work and then never delivered the end product. Ended up with small claims court and a meagre amount of £££ repaid, claiming financial hardship & stress, plus the expected phoenixing of his business.
Ended up selling the shell to another R5GTT enthusiast who dropped in an engine from their own car, that had rotted away, and last time i checked it's still running today.
The other car was a Saxo VTS i bought cheap and used as a track car. Was a bit of a cheap crapper when i bought it, improved it with numerous decent mods, had some fun for a couple of years, then discovered that the ever expected rust had set in on the rear sills and it wasn't worth sticking with it any further. The mods were worth well in excess of the car, so it was quickly stripped for parts accordingly and sold in bits with the shell going to a bloke who wanted it as a backup shell for his own race / track car.
First one was my old Renault 5 GT Turbo - loved that car (it was my first performance car at 18) and i modified it - A LOT. Unfortunately as was the case with the 5Turbo + big power mods, generally = regular breakages either engine or gearbox related.
The thing that really killed that car off for me was the company tasked with building me a new engine basically took a chunk of ££££ for a downpayment on the supply of parts & work and then never delivered the end product. Ended up with small claims court and a meagre amount of £££ repaid, claiming financial hardship & stress, plus the expected phoenixing of his business.
Ended up selling the shell to another R5GTT enthusiast who dropped in an engine from their own car, that had rotted away, and last time i checked it's still running today.
The other car was a Saxo VTS i bought cheap and used as a track car. Was a bit of a cheap crapper when i bought it, improved it with numerous decent mods, had some fun for a couple of years, then discovered that the ever expected rust had set in on the rear sills and it wasn't worth sticking with it any further. The mods were worth well in excess of the car, so it was quickly stripped for parts accordingly and sold in bits with the shell going to a bloke who wanted it as a backup shell for his own race / track car.
Tesla Model S
Didn’t sell but palmed off to the wife and replaced very quickly after driving back from Austria January last year.
The whole EV charging thing has been wearing thin for about 12 months and already had one eye on getting something else. But then we went skiing at my in laws house in Schladming. Journey out was painful but fine. On the way back however there was a huge snow storm and temperatures dropped even further. Range went through the floor took 9 charges to get to the hotel at half way point. Was meant to arrive at 9pm, we arrived at 4am exhausted stressed and really pissed off. Added stress of autistic son going completely bat s
t in the back for the final 3 hours of the journey.
This is on top all the door handles and boot freezing shut every night whilst out there and the sat nav deciding it couldn’t work in a snow storm.
I was test driving cars 2 days after getting back and the Tesla hasn’t left the county since.
On the up side a Tesla on winter tyres really will go anywhere in the snow!!!
Didn’t sell but palmed off to the wife and replaced very quickly after driving back from Austria January last year.
The whole EV charging thing has been wearing thin for about 12 months and already had one eye on getting something else. But then we went skiing at my in laws house in Schladming. Journey out was painful but fine. On the way back however there was a huge snow storm and temperatures dropped even further. Range went through the floor took 9 charges to get to the hotel at half way point. Was meant to arrive at 9pm, we arrived at 4am exhausted stressed and really pissed off. Added stress of autistic son going completely bat s
t in the back for the final 3 hours of the journey. This is on top all the door handles and boot freezing shut every night whilst out there and the sat nav deciding it couldn’t work in a snow storm.
I was test driving cars 2 days after getting back and the Tesla hasn’t left the county since.
On the up side a Tesla on winter tyres really will go anywhere in the snow!!!
2005 Volvo V70R estate which I bought after a long long line of older, 90's performance stuff and upon arrival of first child. Vowed to just use it as a rare, quick family estate but started 'fixing' bits and it became a garage tart.
A move and temporary loss of said garage spurred me to start driving it daily and I did love it but I couldn't ignore the fact it was just too unrefined to cart a baby around in and the general abuse would have ruined it.
My stress levels and fear of damage and / or a serious failure along with soaring values prompted me to bail out whilst the going was good. Now run a quarter of a million mile V70 diesel that looks like it's been used as a taxi in Beruit and it's utter bliss!
A move and temporary loss of said garage spurred me to start driving it daily and I did love it but I couldn't ignore the fact it was just too unrefined to cart a baby around in and the general abuse would have ruined it.
My stress levels and fear of damage and / or a serious failure along with soaring values prompted me to bail out whilst the going was good. Now run a quarter of a million mile V70 diesel that looks like it's been used as a taxi in Beruit and it's utter bliss!
MOT advisories on my 2002 Discovery 2. It had 150k on the clock and had been generally exceptionally reliable, but the fuel lines and rear end were getting rotten so I sold it while it was still worth something (in 2014). It’s still going but looking at the MOT history it hasn’t been cheap to keep alive.
YouTalkinToMe said:
Oilchange said:
Tin worm, Alfa 156.
Again the engine, 2.5 V6, was a gem and had about 150k on it but would have gone on for double that I think.
My poor heart aches for that car...
Can I ask, did you use it all year round? And was it garaged?Again the engine, 2.5 V6, was a gem and had about 150k on it but would have gone on for double that I think.
My poor heart aches for that car...
Cant help thinking, by not using cars over winter with salt and leaving them out in all weathers would extend the life...but it does mean having another car!
Porsche Cayman 987.1 S. Started burning oil at an alarming rate very quickly. Upon inspection it was deemed to have bore scoring. Faced with a £10k rebuild on a car worth maybe £15k, and a list of other work. Radiator and crossover pipe corroded and leaking, chain tensioning guide worn, suspension needing a complete overhaul I just traded it in for a M135i, which has probably depreciated more than I would have spent fixing the cayman. My first Porsche ownership experience has probably put me off buying another.
Mr E said:
YouTalkinToMe said:
Oilchange said:
Tin worm, Alfa 156.
Again the engine, 2.5 V6, was a gem and had about 150k on it but would have gone on for double that I think.
My poor heart aches for that car...
Can I ask, did you use it all year round? And was it garaged?Again the engine, 2.5 V6, was a gem and had about 150k on it but would have gone on for double that I think.
My poor heart aches for that car...
Cant help thinking, by not using cars over winter with salt and leaving them out in all weathers would extend the life...but it does mean having another car!
Kept a souvenir though
Disco 3. Auto .
Gear box shudder / judder. Dr Tranny cured it ( for how long?). Impending £2500 bill for replacement. Then...
Mot , " your rear bushes are on the way, they might need doing next year . It can be a 10 hour job as the bolts always seize and the whole swinging arms have to be cut out with a grinder, a chunk at a time.". He's a friend too, no lying.
Sold two weeks later!
Gear box shudder / judder. Dr Tranny cured it ( for how long?). Impending £2500 bill for replacement. Then...
Mot , " your rear bushes are on the way, they might need doing next year . It can be a 10 hour job as the bolts always seize and the whole swinging arms have to be cut out with a grinder, a chunk at a time.". He's a friend too, no lying.
Sold two weeks later!
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