Tales of the tool - My daily work hack Arosa
Discussion
So lets picture the scene in March last year, i'd left a job in the motortrade and obviously left behind the ideas of demonstrators/loan cars etc, to take up a job where no car was provided. Add to this the aim to purchase our first home within a couple of years, buying the missus the Ibiza SC seen in some pictures and life was bleak for a car for me.
I set out looking for a tidy sub 4k diesel as i was expecting to be doing a decent amount of mileage... so i looked, and looked, and looked some more, and bar the odd gallactic mileage Passat nothing struck me. So the net widened... something cheap to run, reliable, and if possible VAG group.
One dark night we drove 3 hours to Cambridge to view this wee beast (sarcasm at its greatest) as a quick stopgap as time was running out.
Its a 53 Plate Seat Arosa 1.4 (S) - Not an S for sport believe me, packing an enviable 60bhp, with a barely worn in mileage of 34k respelendant with full service history and a single lady owner. All checked out, chipped her a bit because of a 9 inch scratch across the boot lid and drove home a semi happy man having laid out just under £2.5k
The day she arrived...
Slapped a CD player in it, and started using it for work, all went well for a couple of months untill one day...
The rear tyre decided to die on me... driving on a donut wasnt fun, so a plan was formed...
Some Weitec Hicon GT coilovers were ordered, and a set of G60 steels with some decent Goodyear Eagle F1's on arrived...
Some rare clean photos
And then it got stuck into its role as a daily work tool, it gets abandoned all over the place, is often used to transport inappropriate loads from Bathroom suites (inclusive of bath), 2 mountain bikes, and used to clear the mother in laws house.
It went from its rare clean and tidy look to a much more battle hardened look
We live on top a reasonably steep hill, and when Kent had its monster snow fall it performed exceptionally, Mercedes slipped and slided, BMW's crashed into Meganes, and Nissan 4x4s destroyed walls...but the Arosa trekked on.
Untill one day, on a back road in the middle of no wear i met some black ice...
Almighty bang (well a knock, but carrying a good 15-20mph),and i came to rest bumper first into the metal and wire fence, fearing the worst i got out and promptly fell on my arse
By some sheer bit of luck the only damage was a bent rim, some knocked out tracking, a few lumps out the front bumper, and the whole plastic undertray malarky smashed to smithereens
And there goes the story of the probably most un PH car on here... but it handles brilliantly, does 40mpg all day long,and besides some new brakes, a precautionary cambelt change, in 20k its not cost particularly much.
So from a cheap fill in car, to something i've grown rather fond of.
Bring on the house move and decorating...who needs a van
I set out looking for a tidy sub 4k diesel as i was expecting to be doing a decent amount of mileage... so i looked, and looked, and looked some more, and bar the odd gallactic mileage Passat nothing struck me. So the net widened... something cheap to run, reliable, and if possible VAG group.
One dark night we drove 3 hours to Cambridge to view this wee beast (sarcasm at its greatest) as a quick stopgap as time was running out.
Its a 53 Plate Seat Arosa 1.4 (S) - Not an S for sport believe me, packing an enviable 60bhp, with a barely worn in mileage of 34k respelendant with full service history and a single lady owner. All checked out, chipped her a bit because of a 9 inch scratch across the boot lid and drove home a semi happy man having laid out just under £2.5k
The day she arrived...
Slapped a CD player in it, and started using it for work, all went well for a couple of months untill one day...
The rear tyre decided to die on me... driving on a donut wasnt fun, so a plan was formed...
Some Weitec Hicon GT coilovers were ordered, and a set of G60 steels with some decent Goodyear Eagle F1's on arrived...
Some rare clean photos
And then it got stuck into its role as a daily work tool, it gets abandoned all over the place, is often used to transport inappropriate loads from Bathroom suites (inclusive of bath), 2 mountain bikes, and used to clear the mother in laws house.
It went from its rare clean and tidy look to a much more battle hardened look
We live on top a reasonably steep hill, and when Kent had its monster snow fall it performed exceptionally, Mercedes slipped and slided, BMW's crashed into Meganes, and Nissan 4x4s destroyed walls...but the Arosa trekked on.
Untill one day, on a back road in the middle of no wear i met some black ice...
Almighty bang (well a knock, but carrying a good 15-20mph),and i came to rest bumper first into the metal and wire fence, fearing the worst i got out and promptly fell on my arse
By some sheer bit of luck the only damage was a bent rim, some knocked out tracking, a few lumps out the front bumper, and the whole plastic undertray malarky smashed to smithereens
And there goes the story of the probably most un PH car on here... but it handles brilliantly, does 40mpg all day long,and besides some new brakes, a precautionary cambelt change, in 20k its not cost particularly much.
So from a cheap fill in car, to something i've grown rather fond of.
Bring on the house move and decorating...who needs a van
The Missus doesnt get to spend more on a car than me... i bloody spent it!
Facts sadly are she's a teacher and doesnt do many miles, i do a fair whack of miles, have to park in varying not so nice areas, regularly find trolleys etc wedged into it, so it made sense for me to run the cheaper car.
At some point it will go, either for something small and quick like an Abarth 500, or something completely different like a Vw T5 van with a camper conversion (always wanted one, and to use for some planned european trips)
And yeah G60's are cool cheap wheels, my offroading expedition i think cost me under £120 with a replacement rim, and a full laser balance and allignment
Facts sadly are she's a teacher and doesnt do many miles, i do a fair whack of miles, have to park in varying not so nice areas, regularly find trolleys etc wedged into it, so it made sense for me to run the cheaper car.
At some point it will go, either for something small and quick like an Abarth 500, or something completely different like a Vw T5 van with a camper conversion (always wanted one, and to use for some planned european trips)
And yeah G60's are cool cheap wheels, my offroading expedition i think cost me under £120 with a replacement rim, and a full laser balance and allignment
A brief update on the old sweater...
shes due an MOT in the next couple of weeks and was looking very grubby and unloved
spent a couple of hours washing, vacuuming, and t-cutting the major lumps off - sadly its picked up more knocks and lumps since i last looked, but its kind of an urban patina (well i convince myself this!)
It maybe not be the p definitve PH car, but on ocassion like the other night blasting back home across the Kent downs its suprisingly good fun!
shes due an MOT in the next couple of weeks and was looking very grubby and unloved
spent a couple of hours washing, vacuuming, and t-cutting the major lumps off - sadly its picked up more knocks and lumps since i last looked, but its kind of an urban patina (well i convince myself this!)
It maybe not be the p definitve PH car, but on ocassion like the other night blasting back home across the Kent downs its suprisingly good fun!
Another year in since the last update..
Still here - yes i've still got the thing; what started off as a very much temporary solution has now been with me for 2 1/2 years.
Recently made redundant but always been the plan once i've found the job i want to replace it with someone newer and quicker. However its been utterly faultless in the time i've owned it so it will be a hard call to make.
Its made moving house easier, carried some truly stupid loads, and regularly embarrasses far posher metal down the local lanes - and still returns 43mpg.
Just passed its MOT on 74k and not a single advisory
Still here - yes i've still got the thing; what started off as a very much temporary solution has now been with me for 2 1/2 years.
Recently made redundant but always been the plan once i've found the job i want to replace it with someone newer and quicker. However its been utterly faultless in the time i've owned it so it will be a hard call to make.
Its made moving house easier, carried some truly stupid loads, and regularly embarrasses far posher metal down the local lanes - and still returns 43mpg.
Just passed its MOT on 74k and not a single advisory
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