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Car Histories

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Clock'd 0Ne:
So we haven't done one of these in a decade or so I reckon ;D It's been fun going back through the forum posts to see when I bought each car, along with the apparent excitement and naivety :lol:

Let's hear and see your car histories as far as possible (including matt who has driven the same car for as long as I can remember, kudos). I might add pics later, we'll see.



2002/3 - '92 Renault Clio RN, then some more petrol Clios, then some more petrol Clios
This RN was a sack of sh*t, but as my first car it started my on/off Helsinki syndrome at the hands of Renault (beggars cannot be choosers after all). As a first car it was just right for scraping, crashing and ripping out the stereo to fit a Pioneer HU and bass box in the boot. The mechanicals though... each one had something grossly abnormal happen like the thottle cable jamming, or were holistically unreliable. I'm not sure why I kept buying them, better the devil you know perhaps?
Worst incident: Clutch cable snapping, leaving me unable to change gear properly; I limped it 5 miles home in traffic using first gear.
Best incident: scrapping it.


2007 - '89 Eunos Roadster 1.6
So began the love affair with the MX-5, I spent top money sprucing her up, fitted new lightweight alloys with decent tyres. Easily the most fun drive I've had, especially in the summer with the topdown, steering, alignment and weight distribution were perfect.
Worst incident: Park brake failing on a hill and it rolled back into a wall, needing a bumper respray. Luckily nothing else was behind it!
Best incident: Having a kid come up to me saying "wow, your car is so cool, how did you get that?" thinking it was a Ferrari or something :lol:



2008 - '00 Renault Clio 1.2
Another turd, this one a little more polished, but still an instant regret purchased solely in the pursuit of cheaper motoring. Moving swiftly on...


2008 - Audi A4 B5 1.9 TDI
This was a terrible decision :lol: Not because the A4 is inherently bad but because I bought one from a Euro-meathead who had lowered it, tinted the windows, fitted some bodykit and RS4 stickers and a new exhaust. The engine rattled like a bag of marbles. If was okay to drive when the turbo was working (leaks aplenty) but it wasn't long before I had to get shot. The guy I eventually sold it to emailed me about a month later to say that that the engine basically exploded, but he got it for half the price sold as seen and just said c'est la vie!


2009 ish? - knighty's BMW 325td
Loved this car, this is the car that first got me interested in BMWs, I bought it off knighty after he sold it to mr_roll and then bought it back again, then he very kindly helped me keep it going until it was doomed to badly fail its MOT. The right shape, the right drive, comfortable and an unbreakable engine. This thing took some abuse, especially after we modified it to run on veg oil with the help of knighty fitting a heater and wider fuel lines. I did many long runs in this car to visit knighty and Bacon, which always ended up being an adventure of something hilarious happening.
Worst incident(s): Standing outside in the freezing cold desperately trying to get it started because the veg oil had thickened in the pipes (a bit of petrol in the tank helps!).
Best incident(s): Clock'd 'n' Bacon's dodgy car repair services & towing Alan's dying van to bump start it, before watching him drive down the road with a thick white smog filling the entire road for a few hundred yards as he began his perilous trip back to Sunderland. :lol: You can read about it all in that thread.


2011 - Skoda Octavia 1.9 SDI
This was another POS, anyone that tells you Skoda aren't like they used to be is lying. Utter garbage build quality, no refinement. Close call between this and the numerous Clio's I've had. Ran it on the veg oil again for a bit, but it didn't last long. Sold it to another guy interested in doing the same.
Worst incident: Having to drive it.
Best incident: Selling it.


2012 - '90 MX-5 mk1 1.8
Idris was raw, but also didn't feel as balanced as my other MX-5s. A good and interesting stop gap for me until I could find a better one, which came up on a classified wall at Tesco of all places.


2013 - MX-5 mk1 Harvard 1.8
Continued the love affair with the MX-5s, grabbing this rarer one at < 50k miles with red leather interior. Possibly my favourite of all the MX-5s I owner other than my first Eunos Roadster that I spent a fortune on. I painted the rocker cover red to match the interior!



2015 - Golf mk4 diesel
A bad example of a Golf, it certainly wasn't as reliable as I was expecting but nothing major went wrong with the worst problem being the heater unit packing in. Not much else to say about it really, they are very boring cars.



2016 - Mazda 6 TR2
This poor car had been really badly abused by the previous owner, the wheel alignment was completely wrecked and couldn't be properly fixed without a lot of work doing, so this didn't hang around too long. Nice to drive generally though and performed well enough.
Worst incident: Garage improperly fitting new front brakes causing the lines to get caught and shredded. I had to brake using the handbrake coming off a motorway slip road :o The garage admitted full fault of course and fixed it.


2016/17 ? - BMW X3 3.0 M-Sport TDI
I really liked this car. Quite nice to drive, silly fast once I had the DPF removed and it remapped, and all round practical and comfortable, good trim level with built in satnav, etc. I only got rid of it because of the incoming diesel regs (wasn't going to bother refitting a DPF).



2018 - '05 BMW 735i
I loved this car, even though it has cost me dearly as I spent as much again on fixing it as I did buying it. The first iDrive 7 series as seen remote controlled in Tomorrow Never Dies. Utterly buttery smooth ride, gearbox and acceleration, all the creature comforts, simply amazing as a tourer. £99 maxing the pump wouldn't even fill the tank though (which would last 350 miles driving economically). I regret never giving Sport mode a proper go and not getting the 750 instead.
Worst incident: Parking. Anywhere.
Best incident: Driving. Anywhere.



2020 - '05 Toyota Prius 1.5 T4 CVT

So I decided now I'm WFH full time and wasn't driving the 735 that I should really consider something more sensible that is going to be sat on the drive, doing 20 miles a week tops. Enter the Prius. I went in expecting to really hate this car but actually its not as slow as I expected it would be, its nicer to drive than I thought it would be - the CVT is as smooth as the 7 series astonishingly - and I have a new game seeing how long I can keep it reading 99mpg when it switches to running on the traction battery :D I filled the tank when I bought it in February and it has lost a single block off the digital fuel guage in that time (though admittedly I haven't drive the car in weeks now with the virus lockdown. Still. so far it is proving simply fantastic in terms of the hybrid tech and excellent Toyota build quality throughout. Insanely, this costs me more to insure than the 735, which I can only put down to every taxi in the UK now being a Prius (especially in London).

matt5cott:
That was a great read  ;D :thumbup: tbh when I see a colourful history of cars like that I feel I've missed out in a way, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side and all that.

2003 - 1998 rev5 MR2 Turbo.
I expected to keep it for a while, expecting it maybe to be "not economically viable" At some point in the future, but it's been so ridiculously reliable, and as time went on planned obsolescence crept more and more into vehicles, while shared platforms with manufacturers just made most choices more and more boring.

Worst incidents: Crashing more than once very early on (it can be brutal) Neglecting it a couple of winters, though it still came back for more. The back end melting (cosmetic only) As an arsonist set fire to the tree outside my parents house where I left it for a while (I'd moved to the other side of town and didn't need it much) Similarly whilst there my parents also opened their sh*tty base model merc door onto it repeatedly and damaged the paintwork on the driver side door, they can be astonishingly dim, as can I, I suppose, for leaving it on their drive, I'd have been better off parking it in an active war zone.
Best incident: Just driving it I suppose, a standard power toyota from 1998 (the actual engine spec is the same as a rev3 from 1994) Should be being left for dead on the roads in 2020, amusingly it's not the case.

I am looking at the plausibility of a new car next year (as well as, not getting rid) As it looks like the used car market might tank in the coming months, we shall see.

Clock'd 0Ne:

--- Quote from: matt5cott on April 15, 2020, 23:14:36 PM --- tbh when I see a colourful history of cars like that I feel I've missed out in a way, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side and all that.

--- End quote ---

Honestly, it's been a lot more bad than good, you couldn't pay me to drive some of those sh*theaps again :lol: I'm quite envious that you've managed to keep a car that you genuinely love for so long, whereas some of my car marriages have ended in painful divorce!

If I had to have a keeper for as long as you have out of them all it would have to be either the 735i or - more impractically for a family man - the MX-5 Harvard, which I would eventually fit a supercharger to ;D

Given the choice of a dream car I'd like as a keeper though I can think of plenty of alternatives I would still like to give a go before petrol disappears, like a classic 986 Boxster S with the flat six engine (attainable) or a V10 BMW M5 (that's never going to happen realistically though). What I can see actually happening though, is I will end up keeping this Prius for a long time and eventually go full electric (or hydrogen cell!) when the time is actually right for one of them.

soopahfly:
I'll have a think about the dates later, but here's a potted history!

Land Rover Series 1 Trialler - This had the standard 2 litre petrol engine, two bucket seats and a roll cage, painted bright yellow and blue with house paint.  Used it off road at various Peak and Dukeries events as a boy.
Once went out with all the land rovers my dad and friends had to go pull people out of the snow, I remember two lashed together trying to pull a bus up a steep Sheffield road, and me being ordered to go and get mine to help.  Must have been about 10 years old as I was ragging this land rover up through the park and up to where my dad and friends were.
Sold it to fund a pushbike.

1988 Mini Mayfair - Painted black with a red roof.  More rot than metal, bought out of someones front garden for £350, spent a small fortune on it and sold it for £50.  Drove it everywhere although I didn't have a license.  :dunno:

1999 Ford Ka, Started life off as a standard looking Ka, with a MSD Factory option bodykit.  Looked a little different on 15" wheels.
Sank an inordinate amount of money into it, bought a crashed Ford Ka Group N rally car and transplanted over whatever would fit, engine was sent away at one point to have various works done to it.  When I was insuring it, it took three pages of A4 paper to declare all the modifications.  All performance ones, no cosmetics.  Got annoyed with how much it was costing to insure, so I sold it on to buy...

1995 Vauxhall Astra Sport, 1.8.  Left it stock.  Just drove it and fixed the cam sensor every few months.  Great car really.  Sold it on and bought...

1996 Fiat Cinqucento Sporting - Fitted a stupid stereo, blew up the coolant system and fried the head gasket. Ended up getting properly ropy and traded it in against -

2005 Honda Accord Estate, 2.2 Diesel.  Great car.  Went everywhere in it.  It was the wife's resposibility as she was doing vast miles.  Turned out she never serviced it over about 60k miles and the timing chain snapped.  Prior to this, some drunken bellend side swiped it and trashed one side of it.
After the timing belt snapped, we spent a fortune trying to fix it, but it was never meant to be.  The garage who were trying to fix it let me advertise it for sale from there, and even chucked a bucket of water over it for me.  Was a mistake, as the buyer was an arsehole who kept ringing the garage to bitch at them.

Same time as owning that, I went through several other cars as second cars.

Mitsubishi Delica L400.  The 2.8L Diesel.  Scary fuel consumption.  Scary fuel pump that didn't work properly first thing causing it to die about 100m after setting off and not start until you'd given it about 5 minutes of cranking.  Ended up selling it, and getting -

Renault Clio 1.2.  Bought it hung over.  Didn't test drive it.  Sold it while on holiday, left the key on the wheel and the documents in the boot.  Hated it.  Must have kept it for about 6 months.
Replaced it with a Subaru Legacy 2.2.  Slammed.  Nothing worked in it but it was fun.  A lowered subaru puts the back door in just the right place to hit you in the dick every time you open it.
Stored this car, didn't sell it for ages.

Toyota Soarer - 3.0L 2JZ-GE engine, basically a supra in a suit.  Got given this, drove it ages but I was mostly not working at this point, so the fuel consumption was scary.  Another car stashed.  Eventually, took the number plate off and sold it on to a specialist.  Didn't fit kids seats in very well. 

Volkswagen Bora -  1.6 Auto.  Utterly hateful.  Tried to set itself on fire once.  I was willing to let it.  Scrapped it.  Brought my firstborn home in this car.

Honda Civic Type R - EP3.  Bought this off a colleague, it was an insurance write off, he was reluctant as he didn't want any comeback if there were problems.  Explained that once he's handed the keys over, it's my problem.  Happy with this, I ended up fixing the clutch, bumper bar and headlights drove it for ages until eventually I sold it on and bought.

2004 Nissan Elgrand E51.  3.5L V6 Mini Van.  240ish HP is good enough for a laugh, but worse than Nige's 735 on Fuel.  Around £100 to fill, 250km's to the tank.  No-one work out the MPG, I'm happy in my blissful ignorance.  RWD, no traction control, skids.   :nana:

Will be getting sold in the pursuit of normalcy.  The wife is looking at an NHS Lease i3, I'll be inheriting her UP! as I only drive to work and back and its' about 5 miles each way.  Can't cycle as I may be needed on site.

Still so many cars I want to own.  I still want something with a Supercharger, Something with a Wankle, something with a V8 etc.  Probably not going to happen though.

Clock'd 0Ne:
Good to see an equal amount of hatred for the Clio  :D

That's such a diverse list, makes mine look very dull really. I'm guessing out of those your favourites were the Hondas (maybe the Soarer)?

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