What was the last straw for you car?

[The Li-ion King]

Yugo 513. My first car. Very rapid relative of the Fiat 128. Ownership didn't get off to a great start with having to buy a water pump. No one ever wanted a lift in it, and it wasn't great with clutch cables. After the third clutch cable went, it was time to call it a day.

The last car before the current one went because not enough followers on my YouTube channel liked it and found it boring

[Chubbyross]

993kimbo said:

When you own a second-hand Porsche, the 'Last Straw' is every yearly MOT and Service. Plus the things that go wrong and bankrupt you in-between.

Ain’t that the truth. Yet we still go back for more each time.

[AmosMoses]

Rust on my MK2 MX5...

[HannsG]

2005 E46 M3. Repaired the rusted sills and arches, restored all original interior, redone the alloys OEM. Lowered on eibachs. Countless other things.

Never let me down and then the dreaded electrical issues arise. Biggest thing was it losing power above 40mph and coming to a shut down. Was absolutely terrifying with the kids in the back.

Got it repaired and moved it on. Lost all trust in the car.

Miss it dearly. But the total shutdown issues terrified me.

I would go so far as to say it was one the best M3s Condition wise. Sold in one day



I have an M140i now, but the E46 era is my favourite. The noise of the M3 on start up and overall sense of occasion really made me look forward to driving. Whereas the M140i is pretty much put in D and foot down.

Edited by HannsG on Monday 13th January 08:26

[OldGermanHeaps]

the last several motors I have sold have been for practical reasons not failures, but most of the cars I have sold cheap or scrapped because i reach the end of my tether eith repairs have been bmws, from classics to 3 year old 1 owner cars they have mostly been money pits with the exception of a couple of 4 cylinder e36s which were reliable, but boring.
terminal overheating, terminal rust, 1 caught fire, 1 melted its wiring, multiple gearbox and diff problems.
lovely driving machines, probably great under warranty.

[the cueball]

E34 540 manual - a bit of rust on the drivers door (really stupid getting rid)

Abarth - Every time I got out the car, no matter what, the drivers door bounced back and hit my shins...

220d - hated the 6th gear on motorways... just wouldn't sit nicely at 70mph...felt like the gear ratios were all wrong.

RS6 C5 - 3 gearbox rebuilds later (1 from the previous owner at "one of the top garages for the RS6 cars in the UK" - 1 from my local "automatic gearbox specialist" and the last at the same place as the 2nd because the rebuild lasted 2 weeks and 400 miles then imploded on the outside lane of the M6),

After that, I gave up on the car and really gave up on cars in general... Been a car nut my whole life, and at the time I was on great money, and I still couldn't keep this diva of a car on the road...

[Prohibiting]

Prohibiting said:

£5k repair bill made me think "stuff this". Paid out then sold as didn't fancy any other risks. It tainted my experience.

Alfa 147 GTA. Big ends went or something.

Noticed a few Alfa's already mentioned on this thread....

[xjay1337]

Retiredandcycling said:

Where have all those once treasured cars gone? In the past it was normally rust but now?
What fault made you sell your car? The last straw?

My Scirocco project over 4 years.
When you are running 2.6 bar of boost keeping the cylinder head attached to the block is a problem.
to this end, we used higher tensile strength bolts and kept the tune in such a way that the cylinder pressures were as reasonable as could be.
This was fine for road use but as I tracked the car this also caused some problems.

When I got to 400hp running 3.4 bar of boost the cylinder head decided it didn't want to be attached anymore.
This also broke the head gasket.
It would drive fine at low boost, but any sort of enthusiastic driving would pressurise the cooling system and overheat.

The plan was to rip engine apart again, and put in low compression pistons (another OEM piston for a different variation of car) as well as the next step up of thickness headgasket (again, oem) to reduce the comp ratio from something like 16.5:1 to something like 15.9:1 as well as even stronger head bolts . but as my block had done nearly 200k at this point, i'd want to put in a lower mileage bottom end, but then if I'm going to that effort I may as well put in stronger rods (after all my car was producing 665nm torque at around 2800rpm, and stock was around 330nm) , if I was going to put stronger rods I may as well look into increasing capacity slightly, etc etc, all the things that add up.

I worked out that it would have been around £4k in parts alone to get the things I wanted - by this time I'd also missed out on taking my car to 2 trackdays and a ring trip, I'd just bought my first home and I decided that I really couldn't be bothered - So I bought an M135i instead, and split the Scirocco for parts. I got around £15k in parts back and the BMW has been very reliable all things considered. So haven't looked back.

[FrenchCarFan]

xjay1337 said:

Retiredandcycling said:

Where have all those once treasured cars gone? In the past it was normally rust but now?
What fault made you sell your car? The last straw?

My Scirocco project over 4 years.
When you are running 2.6 bar of boost keeping the cylinder head attached to the block is a problem.
to this end, we used higher tensile strength bolts and kept the tune in such a way that the cylinder pressures were as reasonable as could be.
This was fine for road use but as I tracked the car this also caused some problems.

When I got to 400hp running 3.4 bar of boost the cylinder head decided it didn't want to be attached anymore.
This also broke the head gasket.
It would drive fine at low boost, but any sort of enthusiastic driving would pressurise the cooling system and overheat.

The plan was to rip engine apart again, and put in low compression pistons (another OEM piston for a different variation of car) as well as the next step up of thickness headgasket (again, oem) to reduce the comp ratio from something like 16.5:1 to something like 15.9:1 as well as even stronger head bolts . but as my block had done nearly 200k at this point, i'd want to put in a lower mileage bottom end, but then if I'm going to that effort I may as well put in stronger rods (after all my car was producing 665nm torque at around 2800rpm, and stock was around 330nm) , if I was going to put stronger rods I may as well look into increasing capacity slightly, etc etc, all the things that add up.

I worked out that it would have been around £4k in parts alone to get the things I wanted - by this time I'd also missed out on taking my car to 2 trackdays and a ring trip, I'd just bought my first home and I decided that I really couldn't be bothered - So I bought an M135i instead, and split the Scirocco for parts. I got around £15k in parts back and the BMW has been very reliable all things considered. So haven't looked back.

Sort of proving the old adage. To make a car fast, first you must start with a fast car.

[RizzoTheRat]

Used to love my old ZX, did 100k miles in about 3.5 years, with a fair few miles running on veg oil. Final straw was the radius arm bearings, local independent Citroen place reckoned it usually cases damage to other bits when they go and was going to be expensive job for a car that was already pushing 200k miles. Annoyingly I'd had a new exhaust fitted a month or so before.

[xjay1337]

FrenchCarFan said:

Sort of proving the old adage. To make a car fast, first you must start with a fast car.

To be fair at 340hp it was pretty reliable. Ran that power for 18 months and 30k.
It just needed more money than I was prepared to spend

[Shrimpvende]

Aston V8 Vantage (2007)

My whole ownership experience was tainted with daft problems or consumables costing a fortune suddenly needing replacing. I decided to get rid when an intermittent starting issue (just would not start most times when it was warm) took many dealer visits to diagnose and repair. Then, when it was up for sale and people started coming to view the satnav screen stopped opening, requiring expensive repair.

Then, the night before the eventual buyer was due to come up to collect after leaving me a deposit I went for a final drive in it. All was (fairly) well and I was sure that the new owner would get a sorted car at my great expense...until the emissions warning light came on and it went into limp mode. On the long steep hill out of Ashbourne.

I wasn't all that sad to see the back of that car when I finally managed to complete the sale!

[Deranged Rover]

Most of my car sales have been because of upgrades, but I have sold three when i didn't really want to:

(1) Mazda MX-6. Loved it to bits but over-stretched myself financially to buy it and then proposed to my girlfriend, so it had to go to help pay for the wedding.

(2) Range Rover Classic - was completely reliable for the four years I owned it but then it came back from the garage with a new MOT but seven advisories - five of which mentioned the word "corrosion". Consequently, I decided not to push my luck and reluctantly sold it. Still miss it...

(3) Range Rover L322 - having spent £2000 on the engine and cooling system, another potential bill for £3000 on the gearbox barely a year later was too much so I got shot of it.

[Gad-Westy]

I got rid of an E46 330i Touring in manual flavour for next to nothing, about £500 or something a few years ago. It always seemed to need something doing (springs, bushes, cooling system, engine ancillary stuff etc), and I guess at the time I didn't do enough preventative stuff and just kept patching things up so was always waiting for the next problem. The annoying thing in hindsight is that had I spent about £1k on bits and bobs to fix everything that was wrong with it, it would have been a really nice car but instead I spent that sort of difference on something else which had its own set of problems. You live and learn.

[james_TW]

I had a 57 plate Saab 9-3 which I loved, but it was due a big bill and given it's approximate value, it didn't seem worth it. It needed:

• 4 Tyres
• Brakes all round (I suspect disks AND pads)
• A major service
• The air con fixing - I think there was a leak somewhere as when it was gassed up, it worked

Then the water pump cracked and it left me on the M1 - That was the very last straw so I got shot of it and went back in to company car "ownership" (25k miles a year makes this make sense)

I do miss that car as it was comfy, smooth and economical - Private car ownership doesn't make sense at the moment...

[UTH]

My Evo 6 Extreme has been a black hole of money in the last 5 years or so, I'm far too deep now to think about selling it, and when it works properly it's still awesome, but I am tired of worrying what will break next any time I put my foot down!

[PomBstard]

Chubbyross said:

993kimbo said:

When you own a second-hand Porsche, the 'Last Straw' is every yearly MOT and Service. Plus the things that go wrong and bankrupt you in-between.

Ain’t that the truth. Yet we still go back for more each time.

Imagine owning one that’s 33 years old...

[sleepezy]

Many years ago - Mini - tin worm

More recently:
CL500@ 130k miles - just about everything electrical (SRS system, CD player, navigation system & windows are the things that I can recall at 1st but the total added up t over £7k)
Range Rover @ 185k miles - combination of fuel pump, alternator and battery all going at the same time (I suspect not helped by the recovery guy flattening the battery trying to get it started) put it on the 'short list' - when one of the turbo's went shortly after that was it

Edited by sleepezy on Monday 13th January 13:51

[mike9009]

Mr E said:

156 again. On 130k. Engine fine. Driven year round and not particularly babied. Suspension wanted a complete refresh and would cost significant more than the car was worth. I had other priorities at the time, so it went and assume was broken for bits.

My 156 eventually died at an MOT needing

1. new wishbones (again)
2. fuel lines
3. brake lines
4. Airbag light (again)
5. Floor pan corrosion (advisory)

It was actually quite a good car, but when the bills start mounting up above the value of the car I start getting twitchy.

My first car (1987 VW Golf) had loads of issues (early form of start-stop technology, would internally flood, crappy clutch, firing on three cylinders, etc) The final straw was one cold morning at 6AM, I switched the heaters on full whilst driving. It filled the car with acrid black smoke which I then proceeded to clear by opening the windows. That weekend it was part exed for a new car.

[Turbobanana]

It's the mid eighties. I'm a teenager, working part-time as a car valeter and with access to all the cheap part exchanges. I need a car, but I walk past the sensible Renault 12 because a Hillman Avenger catches my eye. It's dark blue with a gold stripe, Rostyle wheels and a few other choice modifications. It was "sort of" prepared for road rallying and even had a tuned 1600cc engine in place of the standard 1500.

It was the same price as the Renault - £125. It was quick. It handled well and would oversteer seemingly on demand. It looked cool. It had... terminal chassis corrosion. I didn't realise this until I had to brake to avoid an oncoming Transit on a country road one night. The car turned sharp right, directly into the path of the Transit - the driver of which was mercifully alert and in control of his vehicle because he missed me by inches.

On close inspection the following morning, the offside front chassis leg had divorced the rest of the car and was waving freely in the breeze. I had it towed to the scrapyard, wishing I'd bought the Renault.

Years later my wife's 2CV, for which I'd paid £390, cracked its chassis but didn't want to die as it caught fire en route to the scrappy. Escargot flambé?