Beamer or Banger

GreyPilgrim

We paid £240 for a ford fiesta after Mrs GP passed her test so she could practice and grind away for a few months. For the price it's been great.

She called me tonight to say she was filling up the oil and put anti-freeze in there instead. Suddenly the car isn't running that well....

immoral_angeluk

GreyPilgrim wrote:

We paid £240 for a ford fiesta after Mrs GP passed her test so she could practice and grind away for a few months. For the price it's been great.

She called me tonight to say she was filling up the oil and put anti-freeze in there instead. Suddenly the car isn't running that well....

lol.. kind of like the time I put windowscreen wash in the coolant.... :rolleyes:

GreyPilgrim

GreyPilgrim wrote:

We paid £240 for a ford fiesta after Mrs GP passed her test so she could practice and grind away for a few months. For the price it's been great.

She called me tonight to say she was filling up the oil and put anti-freeze in there instead. Suddenly the car isn't running that well....

Managed to scrounge around for an hydraulic jack, axle stands...picked up a new oil filter, got the day off work...I'm going in for the oil change. Have no real idea what I'm doing and am relying on the Haines manual (it says it's an easy job)...wish me luck

GreyPilgrim

GreyPilgrim wrote:

Managed to scrounge around for an hydraulic jack, axle stands...picked up a new oil filter, got the day off work...I'm going in for the oil change. Have no real idea what I'm doing and am relying on the Haines manual (it says it's an easy job)...wish me luck

And greypilgrim screws it up. I managed to take the edges off the nut that holds the drainage plug in the sump. So now instead of being hexagonal, it's just round. Figured I could risk buying tools to get the rounded nut off, or just admit defeat and take it to a garage.

Buying the tools would be cheaper, but I might still screw up another stage. I think it's got to be the second choice. :mad:

HenryWeston

theirs a lot of advantages of running old banger.... no worries about it getting scratched or dented, you dont need to polish it or wash it! you can buy any parts it needs from a scrap yard for a few quid (i needed an ABS relay for my 18 year old audi - £3 from local scrap yard!) other people in new cars move out of your way....as you obviously dont care if your car gets dented, so you get around town quicker!

Tustastic

GreyPilgrim wrote:

And greypilgrim screws it up. I managed to take the edges off the nut that holds the drainage plug in the sump. So now instead of being hexagonal, it's just round. Figured I could risk buying tools to get the rounded nut off, or just admit defeat and take it to a garage.

Buying the tools would be cheaper, but I might still screw up another stage. I think it's got to be the second choice. :mad:

Hope your mechanic does roadside calls.:) Good luck.

Cumbrian_Male

I run a 10 year old Volvo 960SE 2.5 24v Auto.

Luxury motoring for £1750 (approx £24k new), costs a bit for fuel but I get most of it back through work for business mileage. I have done 11k miles in the 8 month I have had it. 212k on the clock now and still going strong.

Would have also considered an old Merc or Audi or Saab. In fact I was nearly tempted into a Saab 9000 2.3 turbo but wanted an estate for the dog.

lil_me

We manage to run 2 cars by buying old ones, Volvo T5 and a Jeep Cherokee and repairig/servicing them ourselves, not scared of snapping a nail or getting my hands dirty. One is a fuel guzzler 4x4 but we don't do that many miles in it and handy for the bad weather we get up here (inc pullin trees out of road like last week) and getting in and out of the village when it's been snowing or raining heavy as it gets flooded, aswell as it being used to tow the quads with. The T5 may be over 10 years old but is very comfy, not too bad on fuel etc, and we've done under 10k in that in 2 years and because it was so cheap when we got it (bargain just before Xmas) it's worth more than I paid for it still. Jeep would sell for the same price now as I paid aswell.

GreyPilgrim, we had an Escort with same problem, got replacement sump from the scrapyard and took the old one off, very carefully until I slipped and coated myself in oil!!! But it is possible & sometimes cheaper with older cars.

gravitytolls

#We've had a couple of nice motors over the years, and several bangers.

On the whole, the nice cars have been money pits and the bangers have been better in terms of maintenance cos all parts come form the breakers.

avantra

iolanthe07 wrote:

I'm terrible with cars. Buy a new one every three years because I hate having to have an MOT. That's why I'm on this board!

Shame, if you just knew how much it is costing the planet to get a new car every 3 years just because you can't be bother to go to the MOT station.

The agreed statistics talk about the fact that making a new car (in emissions terms etc') is equal to 10 years on the road of any standard car. So should you get a new car every 3 years?

There is a simple solution to the problem = drive a Nissan or a Honda or a Mazda or.. any car for that matter which is well put together. We drive a 1993 Primera from new and with 230k under her belt she still pass her MOT every year.