Do you drive a banger of a car?

qwert_yuiop

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=674508

34 pages. I couldn't face it. Did he buy a Lamborghini or not?

BeenThroughItAll

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

34 pages. I couldn't face it. Did he buy a Lamborghini or not?

No idea, but the point was to explain what the custard test is.


Some say it originated from the PH 'Jason Plato' thread (Google that one), but others claim it originated on a site called 'BarryBoys' before that.


All we know is, DM101 has never completed it.

DD265

I'm just doing the same as OP and the financed car is being collected this week, whilst my new-to-me '05 Golf TDI appears to be up to the job nicely. I wouldn't say it's a banger by any stretch though, costing over £3k.

For me it was about gaining back control of my finances. I looked at buying brand new again and whilst I could have met the repayments, I didn't want to commit to it. OK I now have to pay down my credit cards, but it's all on 0% and at the end of that at least I'll have something to show for it.

gycraig_2

bugslet wrote: »

Nooo, VX220 is loads more fun. In my opinion:p.

A lot more expensive for insurance and tax and also terrible on fuel.

I see all these nice cars getting cheaper but I'm far to tight to pay for the fuel on them, get 40mpg out of my little roadster

Herzlos

palgrave wrote: »

My bad, I have been busy. 100% I will do it tonight!!

It takes all of 2 minutes to do. Or you can just come clean again :j

Zola.

Seems like there a few porkies being spewed, pathetic

[Deleted User]

Herzlos wrote: »

It takes all of 2 minutes to do. Or you can just come clean again :j

Here are the options
1. we will get a photo of DM`s car with custard and paper.
2.DM finds a photo online of an Accord with the custard and paper and claims its his own.
3.DM starts posting more nonsense under another name (has this ever happened )
4. ...........

add options as you like.

Stoke

Yes. I always drive bangers. My first banger (after passing my test) was a fairly ropey 106. Engine and gearbox were great. Electricals were a pick 'n mix of weirdness and issues, but on the whole, the car served me well for many years.

After some numpty slammed me in the back, at high speed. I took a break from driving due to some physical after effects (a few of which follow me today). After a while, I found myself scoping around for cars but I was scared of spending too much money because I didn't earn a great amount; only to stumble on a bargain of a VW Lupo for £1200. 50k miles on the clock, full service history, 'racing green', in very good condition. I absolutely hammered it. Smashed in excess of 50k miles on it, in just over 2 years before a small accident wrote it off. Maintenance on that car was pretty cheap. Services were cheap (at my local garage) and as far as issues: I seem to remember the temperature sensor packed up and the lambda sensor went, but as far as cheap travel went, it was a bargain.

My good experience with the petrol Lupo convinced me to buy another Lupo, diesel this time. An SDI model with some extra features and creature comforts. It had 90k miles on it but being a diesel I felt it was pretty low mileage. I paid £1000 for this one. It was absolutely dog slow and was rough as old boot, but I got insanely high MPG and the running costs were ridiculously cheap. Part way through my ownership of this, I began to fancy doing my own services. I realised, heck, everyone else seems to be doing it, and it'll save me a fortune if I buy the fresh oil in bulk, and the filters from places like EuroCarParts. An interval service cost me around £30 (oil, oil filter, air filter). A fuel filter I did only twice and it cost £11 per filter. I sold the car with 172k miles on the clock and I believe it is still going to this day. The only issue I ever had was a known fault in the relay (relay 109). New relay was £6 and I swapped it out myself.

I decided to go upmarket bangernomics territory next and despite now earning the money to buy something more expensive, I've opted for an 02 Reg Audi A4 B6 Saloon, 1.8T for £900. This was the first time I'd ever gone for anything but a small hatchback and the trim levels of the Audi are unreal compared to the Lupo and 106. It really is a near enough luxury car to me.... that said, I feel the A4 has been my only bangernomics failure and perhaps that's the risk of going with a complex and 'luxury' vehicle. When I first picked it up, it already had some little gremlins, but I felt I could handle them, mostly electrical and I've got a good grasp of electrical's in cars anyway. After fixing those, I felt as though the car was good to go, but I hadn't driven it much up to this point. A long trip down the motorway revealed some issues that I hadn't picked up before. It was giving a very strong fuel smell, to the point that it would be nearly choking you. My girlfriend suffered greatly and suffered from head aches if and when we took trips. I took a day off work to diagnose where the fuel was coming from and after some diagnostics, found that the car was pouring out neat fuel from the 'vapour'/vent pipe. I was told to look at the charcoal canister. I took it out and cleaned it, although it was absolutely drenched in neat petrol. I took some time to actually investigate properly and after removing the fuel filter, noticed they had used a cheap unbranded fuel filter (something considered to be a No-No on the Audizine forum). I installed a proper fuel filter at a cost of £30 and the car started running better and the smell slowly disappeared. If only this was the end though.... after driving it as my daily for a few weeks, the screen started to complain that the car was low on oil. This isn't a pressure light, just a bit like a computer dipstick. I topped it up, only for the issue to appear again a few weeks later. The car wasn't burning oil though, however I noticed it was dropping a fairly big dollop after every drive, although more often in the morning hence I'd missed them on my drive. The engine is a lot more complicated than your usual Lupo, with all kinds of breather pipes around it. I took it to a mate who suggested that the rocker gasket was leaking, apparently a common issue. The problem is, the root cause of a rocker gasket leaking is almost certainly a blocked breather pipe, which usually involves replacing the entirety of the breather system. Replacing a leaking rocker gasket is also a gamble, because if you don't replace the entire breather system, you can simply blow the new rocker gasket. I removed the breather system and cleaned it using compressed air, but I noticed that a lot of the pipes were sludged and malted and these all needed replacing. The problem was that my engine was not the common engine, so the breather parts weren't readily available on eBay. I had to mix and match new and old parts, but ultimately after cleaning/replacing those, I went ahead and replaced the rocker gasket which fixed the leaking oil and I had a period of very pleasant driving. I then started having issues with the climate control system. One of the flaps on the passenger side was getting jammed and started making some very very strange noises and this was interfering with the way the automatic mode handled it. To be fair, on manual mode it worked very nicely (the best I've ever experienced) but for stuff like demister mode, the climate system opts to use the automatic mode. A new flap was £48 or you could try and refurb the old one, which I successfully did. The next issue I had was the boot solenoid seizing up, which meant you could open the boot but after closing it, it wouldn't open for a good 5-10 minutes as the solenoid slowly worked it's way back. I fixed that by silicone greasing the !!!!er.

The problem is, all these may seem like cheap fixes, but the sheer number of them felt like the car was simply too much like hard work. The time I spent doing all these fixes, it just felt like I was spending too much time on it and never seemingly getting to a state of relax. I decided to sell it as I was concerned about what the next issue was, and I always had a lingering doubt about the breather system although the issue never returned after I fixed it.

So, that brings me to now. I am officially car-free, for the first time in over 10 years and have been for quite a while. I am looking for my next banger. I am torn between something like an old Lexus GS300 (which is basically a souped up Toyota Avensis), or, something really crazy and bizarre, like a Daihatsu Sirion MK2. I have to say, they may not look much, but the Sirion has some moves. 50MPG, £30 tax, cam chain, air conditioning as standard, and you can get an 08 plate with pretty low mileage for anywhere from £1000 to £1500 which is crazy cheap for a car that new. Higher mileage models you see regularly for less than a thousand.

Joe_Horner

palgrave wrote: »

My bad, I have been busy. 100% I will do it tonight!!

You do realise that on the third time the wolf really will turn up and eat all your sheep?

Sam_Fallow

And another night has been and gone yet here we are, custardless. <frownyface>