What older cars do you notice on the road

Stoke

JP08 wrote: »

What is quite odd though, is how quick the tail off can be. Ford Sierras that someone mentioned earlier a good case in point. At one time aged ones were everywhere, over the space of about 2 yrs they disappeared off the road.

Boxy Volvo 240s and 740s did something similar. You could see old ones, pushing well into their late teens, running around every day. In the space of 3 years in the middle of the last decade something just beamed them all up !

Was me who mentioned the Sierra. So the tail is off is due to the longevity and quality of the car surely and I take Ford KA's vs Lupo's as a good example.

The Lupo is considered a bit of a late VW gem. A quality car, made in their factory in Wolfsburg, using many of the parts from the Golf and Polo siblings.
The KA felt like a decent car when it was manufactured and was sold for much cheaper than the Lupo. It was riddled with design faults though. They rust, and I mean seriously rust. They'll rust to the point that they're simply too expensive to fix (something that simply doesn't happen with the Lupo's). They have weird heating valves which pop every 6 months and cost a fair bit to replace. They have problems with suspension mounts rusting, seat belt mounts rusting etc etc.

Yet, the KA sold so many, that you still see more on the road than Lupo's, and they got a Haynes manual etc.

So, refer to HowManyLeft, if we just take the base model Lupo, the 1.0E:
At peak, there was 14k on the road, in around 2007. In 2016, there are about 9k left, so with broad brush figures, with 1.4k SORN'd (so include breaking etc in that), about 100 or so taken off the road this year. 64% of the 14k are left, from 2007.

The Ford KA (again, base model). Their peak was actually 2006, where 206k were on the road, but let's use 2007 to be fair, where 203k were on the road. Now, there are just 70k on the road. Extrapolate the figures, and just 34% of Ford KA's have survived the same amount of time as the 64% of Lupo's, and the numbers being SORN'd are flying through the roof, at a fairly constant 500 every 4 months.

Now, there's two possibilities here:

a. Ford KA drivers are absolutely terrible and therefore crash at higher rates.
b. Ford KA's are absolutely terrible cars and become irreparable much easier/quicker than Lupo's.

Joe_Horner

ratrace wrote: »

Very nice car mate, try to keep it if you can they are going up in value

Im keeping an eye out for a nice clean merc 190e

We're aiming to keep it and use it (it's got a LOT of mileage in reserve to still be low miles for its age!).

The bills are likely to start biting soon thanks to age. There were advisories on the last MOT for slight corrosion near one rear subframe mount and for the mounting bushes showing deterioration but it's a good garage and puts the advisories on in plenty of time - I'd rather be advised early than only told when it fails!

A little more worrying is a (very) intermittent tendency to stall at no throttle - usually when parking / low speed crawling and applying load through the steering but it's done it twice slowing on the road around 5 mph.

The box can also be slightly "thumpy" going into first which I suspect may be related. On any auto I've had before I'd be checking the fluid level but no dipstick on this one. Hoping that the planned fluid & filter change will cure both!

[Deleted User]

With early/mid nineties cars it seems to be the more "exotic" type I see still on the road, like N reg MX5's and L reg Merc saloons, etc which are probably more hobby than runaround. Hardly ever see a P reg Fiesta or a R reg Astra these days.

As for old school Ka's I don't think I'd seen one for ages until someone turned up for work in 51 reg model last week but that didn't last long, the owner has traded it in for something newer already.

I was rocking a 51 plate Megane until July this year.

Stoke

Deleted_User wrote: »

With early/mid nineties cars it seems to be the more "exotic" type I see still on the road, like N reg MX5's and L reg Merc saloons, etc which are probably more hobby than runaround. Hardly ever see a P reg Fiesta or a R reg Astra these days.

As for old school Ka's I don't think I'd seen one for ages until someone turned up for work in 51 reg model last week but that didn't last long, the owner has traded it in for something newer already.

I was rocking a 51 plate Megane until July this year.

P reg Fiesta's rusted away.
R reg Astra's blown up.

Probably

parking_question_chap

Zola. wrote: »

My VW Bora is 2002 reg and has 226,000 miles on the clock.

Going strong so far. In two minds to drive it to the death, or replace?!

Replace? Its only just run in!

The_Last_Username

There's an immaculate-looking red Renault Fuego in daily use near me.
To think that at one time I liked the look of 'em - but never bought one.

[Deleted User]

Stoke wrote: »

P reg Fiesta's rusted away.
R reg Astra's blown up.

Probably

Those were just examples, same applies to all average cars of that age.

Richard53

ratrace wrote: »

Im keeping an eye out for a nice clean merc 190e

I copped a nice example earlier this year. 1992, full MB service history, 80k miles and absolutely immaculate. Zero rust anywhere, and underneath apart from light road dirt it looks about a year old. Although it's slow (1.8 auto) it's a lovely old barge to drive about in. I've had to replace the back exhaust, thermostat and battery, and it's a pleasure to work on as it is so well designed and put together. Wait for the right one, and you will love it.

Stoke

Richard53 wrote: »

I copped a nice example earlier this year. 1992, full MB service history, 80k miles and absolutely immaculate. Zero rust anywhere, and underneath apart from light road dirt it looks about a year old. Although it's slow (1.8 auto) it's a lovely old barge to drive about in. I've had to replace the back exhaust, thermostat and battery, and it's a pleasure to work on as it is so well designed and put together. Wait for the right one, and you will love it.

They call it polite German engineering.

JP08

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hardly ever see a P reg Fiesta or a R reg Astra these days.

[JP looks out of window at neighbor's daily runabout P plate Corsa] Umm ...