Cars of old
- Thread starter Highway Man
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- 30 May 2022
- Messages
- 1,319
- Reaction score
- 782
- Country
It's not a photo of the car I owned, just a representation.
Do you have an idea about where it is?
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2008
- Messages
- 10,139
- Reaction score
- 1,152
- Country
My second car.
An old photo of my Reliant Robin DUA4T, coming the motorcycle route then this enabled me to pass my car test first time.
Quick to leave the other traffic but heck it was noisy inside, got me from A to B though.
My first car was an Audi something or other I got for £80 from a garage over the road from me, it was driven into the side garden where I was going to fettle it. Took the spark leads off and could not figure out how they went back on so sold it again.
An old photo of my Reliant Robin DUA4T, coming the motorcycle route then this enabled me to pass my car test first time.
Quick to leave the other traffic but heck it was noisy inside, got me from A to B though.
My first car was an Audi something or other I got for £80 from a garage over the road from me, it was driven into the side garden where I was going to fettle it. Took the spark leads off and could not figure out how they went back on so sold it again.
Yes forgot the landcrabs.
We had two growing up. They were incredibly spacious for a big family.
Looking back, BMC were actually very innovative.
Was cars a hobby or a job?
Was a partner in a small garage doing servicing/repairs and we branched into Sports cars, buying, selling and taking on refurb work. Lasted about 10 years all told, never made a fortune but loved doing it. I haven't had a boss for over 35 years, always managed to earn a reasonable living but fortune evaded me.
I started off with nothing and I still got most of it left.
edit: it did start as a hobby.
Do you watch Bangers & Cash Restoring Classics? I love that show.
Not regularly but I do enjoy it. It's almost impossible to do a full restoration and make a profit. We once bought an MGB Roadster (not far off scrap) for £100, we were offered £1000 the next day but decided to go the full hog on it, after labour costs we probably turned a profit of £500 which doesn't make good business sense, but it kept us busy for a few weeks or more. In fairness it was at a time when the price of classics were falling sharply.
- Joined
- 11 Jan 2004
- Messages
- 45,848
- Reaction score
- 3,514
- Country
Nobody has mentioned any more cars that I've owned!
Disappointed!
Apart from those I have already mentioned, there were Metros and Montegos. I had two of each, but can only remember one reg of each. One was a poverty spec A reg City. The other a Mayfair, C293 FVU. I had two Montego estates, one a D reg 16 petrol, the other a Perkins Diesel H424 LOX.
My Dad's Suzuki SJ413 which he exported to Burma but had to leave when he was airlifted out of the country at the height of the troubles in 1988. Funny story there, when it eventually made it back to Manchester, he sent it for MOT and nobody thought until it came back....it still had the Burmese plates on it! So the MOT tester (Mottie will be laughing here) had faithfully transcribed all the Burmese characters from the numberplate onto the certificate. We had to go home, fit the D plates it left the dealer with before being exported, then bring it back for a retest.
It was a rugged little thing and very reliable but not at all stable. It hated crosswinds and would certainly have failed the moose test...
Other cars were a Xantia TDi estate that I bought from a Citroen dealer. 3 years old and tiny mileage.
First service included but before I got there, the dreaded Citroen STOP light came on. As soon as I could I stopped and rang the dealer. Don't worry, they said, just drive it gently home and bring it to us as soon as you can.
So I did precisely that, and was told that the pads had worn down to the metal, wrecking the discs and I was now facing a multi-hundred pound bill.
I was not happy. First, that I had bought a car with brake pads that had worn out within around 3000 miles. Second, that the super duper system had not illuminated the stop light before the pads were worn down to the metal and the discs were forked. It was an extremely heated discussion, made worse by the fact the service guy insisted I pay for all the work.
This discussion was happening in the showroom amongst customers buying new cars and it was not looking good on the dealer. Eventually, I agreed reluctantly to pay for the pads and the dealer agreed to pay for the discs and the labour.
Then there was the time we went to visit a family friend in Coulsden. We'd just parked up, got out and we're in the front room chatting with a drink. What car did you come in? Oh, the white one. That one going past the window now?
By the time we got outside, the car had run down the hill and bumped into a VW Polo.
I unlocked it and checked the handbrake. It was fully on.
I took pictures of the Xantia and the Polo. Neither looked remotely damaged. The Polo's bumper, grille badge, headlights and number plate were all intact.
When my insurance company got in touch, they told me their engineer's report noted damage to the front end of the third party vehicle. I posted them the photos. That didn't change their opinion.
They also went to great lengths to check with the dealer that the car was serviced properly and the handbrake was working correctly and therefore I must have not applied it correctly. So I was doubly shafted there.
But, we all know the handbrakes on BX and Xantia are dodgy and have a design flaw where they contract on cooling and release their grip.
I was going round a roundabout one day in the Xantia when a Ford Mondeo estate ambulance failed to give way and I sailed into the side of it.
It was the 1st March 2002.
When I rang the insurance company, she asked the reg of the ambo. When I mentioned the numbers 02, she said "Oh, God...."
It was sent away for repairs. It never drove the same again. I sold it privately with full disclosure.
I had 4 accidents in that car, none my fault, unless you include the handbrake incident. The reg was P418 CMO.
Decide for yourself whether 4+1+8 is an unlucky number....
Next I had a new Octavia Elegance Diesel estate. Decent motor, with all the extras. Didn't pay extra for them though! DU02 RMY.
Sold it at only 88K to a fella and he had to scrap it a few years later due to airbag failure. I think I'd have put another dash in.
Then we got another new car. Honda FRV Diesel. Excellent car, very reliable. Sold it at 176,000.
Now we have our current motor. Forgive the pun.
Electric MG.
Disappointed!
Apart from those I have already mentioned, there were Metros and Montegos. I had two of each, but can only remember one reg of each. One was a poverty spec A reg City. The other a Mayfair, C293 FVU. I had two Montego estates, one a D reg 16 petrol, the other a Perkins Diesel H424 LOX.
My Dad's Suzuki SJ413 which he exported to Burma but had to leave when he was airlifted out of the country at the height of the troubles in 1988. Funny story there, when it eventually made it back to Manchester, he sent it for MOT and nobody thought until it came back....it still had the Burmese plates on it! So the MOT tester (Mottie will be laughing here) had faithfully transcribed all the Burmese characters from the numberplate onto the certificate. We had to go home, fit the D plates it left the dealer with before being exported, then bring it back for a retest.
It was a rugged little thing and very reliable but not at all stable. It hated crosswinds and would certainly have failed the moose test...
Other cars were a Xantia TDi estate that I bought from a Citroen dealer. 3 years old and tiny mileage.
First service included but before I got there, the dreaded Citroen STOP light came on. As soon as I could I stopped and rang the dealer. Don't worry, they said, just drive it gently home and bring it to us as soon as you can.
So I did precisely that, and was told that the pads had worn down to the metal, wrecking the discs and I was now facing a multi-hundred pound bill.
I was not happy. First, that I had bought a car with brake pads that had worn out within around 3000 miles. Second, that the super duper system had not illuminated the stop light before the pads were worn down to the metal and the discs were forked. It was an extremely heated discussion, made worse by the fact the service guy insisted I pay for all the work.
This discussion was happening in the showroom amongst customers buying new cars and it was not looking good on the dealer. Eventually, I agreed reluctantly to pay for the pads and the dealer agreed to pay for the discs and the labour.
Then there was the time we went to visit a family friend in Coulsden. We'd just parked up, got out and we're in the front room chatting with a drink. What car did you come in? Oh, the white one. That one going past the window now?
By the time we got outside, the car had run down the hill and bumped into a VW Polo.
I unlocked it and checked the handbrake. It was fully on.
I took pictures of the Xantia and the Polo. Neither looked remotely damaged. The Polo's bumper, grille badge, headlights and number plate were all intact.
When my insurance company got in touch, they told me their engineer's report noted damage to the front end of the third party vehicle. I posted them the photos. That didn't change their opinion.
They also went to great lengths to check with the dealer that the car was serviced properly and the handbrake was working correctly and therefore I must have not applied it correctly. So I was doubly shafted there.
But, we all know the handbrakes on BX and Xantia are dodgy and have a design flaw where they contract on cooling and release their grip.
I was going round a roundabout one day in the Xantia when a Ford Mondeo estate ambulance failed to give way and I sailed into the side of it.
It was the 1st March 2002.
When I rang the insurance company, she asked the reg of the ambo. When I mentioned the numbers 02, she said "Oh, God...."
It was sent away for repairs. It never drove the same again. I sold it privately with full disclosure.
I had 4 accidents in that car, none my fault, unless you include the handbrake incident. The reg was P418 CMO.
Decide for yourself whether 4+1+8 is an unlucky number....
Next I had a new Octavia Elegance Diesel estate. Decent motor, with all the extras. Didn't pay extra for them though! DU02 RMY.
Sold it at only 88K to a fella and he had to scrap it a few years later due to airbag failure. I think I'd have put another dash in.
Then we got another new car. Honda FRV Diesel. Excellent car, very reliable. Sold it at 176,000.
Now we have our current motor. Forgive the pun.
Electric MG.
- Joined
- 11 Jan 2004
- Messages
- 45,848
- Reaction score
- 3,514
- Country
That 1985 Maestro VdP is taxed and tested till July this year.
OK just to keep you happy, we had a Mondeo Ghia which the mrs loved, and a mate who ran a business was outing a Xantia Estate 2.0 diesel he'd bought as an ex demo 3 years previously and offered it to me for just under 3 grand which was a great price. He said look, I'm coming up to Heathrow and going away for a couple of weeks, he'd drop it on my drive, I could smoke around in it for a couple of weeks and when he gets back I can say yes or no.
Next morning I went out the front and the car was sitting suspiciously low and there was a large amount of 'fluid' under the car. Luckily there was a small independent garage on Slough Trading Estate who happened to be a citroen specialist, I drove it there slowly and left it with them, they replaced one of the spheres? and filled it with new fluid, about £120 from memory.
I took it out for a serious drive and I can honestly say it was mind blowing, the power and handling. It wasn't a beauty to look at but she was a beast, mrs filly wasn't convinced until she drove it and it was love at first drive. Another mate had a Xantia and he bought it simply because of the 2.0 Hdi engine which was a b1oody good diesel engine and he was quite envious because our was the later engine with twin turbos which knocked out an extra 20bhp (I think) but had better fuel economy than the single turbo. In the early days I'd be cruising on the motorway thinking I was doing about 80/90 and get a shock seeing 110 on the speedo.
I'm tempted to say it was the best car we ever owned, it was certainly the longest we kept a car, 10 years and apart from that 1 sphere, we never spent a penny on it other than routine servicing, in fact when he got back my mate knocked off a couple of hundred to cover the sphere.
Obviously, as cars have progressed along with our finances, we've had better cars, but we both have fond memories of that bad boy.
- Joined
- 11 Jan 2004
- Messages
- 45,848
- Reaction score
- 3,514
- Country
The HDI lumps from PSA were flipping good and Ford borrowed them for their TDCi range. I think Jag and Volvo too?
But sadly mine predated the introduction of the HDi. I liked it, but it wasn't a patch on the sprightly, nimble BX I also owned. I know the Xantia was a lot heavier, but even adding a turbo wasn't enough to offset that weight gain.
It also had that bonkers keypad where you had to enter a number every time you got in or you couldn't drive away.
And a few times it left me stranded. I knew the number, but the system would not accept it!
Eventually it did. It must have been a dicky keypad.
But sadly mine predated the introduction of the HDi. I liked it, but it wasn't a patch on the sprightly, nimble BX I also owned. I know the Xantia was a lot heavier, but even adding a turbo wasn't enough to offset that weight gain.
It also had that bonkers keypad where you had to enter a number every time you got in or you couldn't drive away.
And a few times it left me stranded. I knew the number, but the system would not accept it!
Eventually it did. It must have been a dicky keypad.
Citroen were quite a company back in the day for innovations, I think they might have been the first with FWD and several other things. I remember Audi making quite a song and dance about a new model of theirs where the headlights turned slightly as you steered into a corner but the Citroen DS had that 20 years previous.
- Status
Similar threads
- collisioni
- General Discussion