Car Histories

[DiscoPol]

Arghh!

I cant remember anything, christ how do you really old fellas remember anything?

I am pushing 40 and i genuinely can not remember my car history ,

i will ponder this for a few days and get back to you

[steve_earwig]

I get reminded every year or so when someone asks the same question.

[FarmerPug]

I learnt to drive when i was 11, my dad needed me to drive the tractors but i also wanted to learn in a car, so it all started in a renault extra petrol van. Dodgy carburettor, and i did plenty of stalling while learning. So there was a number of cars i had for just rallying round the farm:

- 1990 nissan micra, my mum gave me this when she got another micra. Barely used it though it didnt feel safe.
- ford sierra 2.3d, an absolutley woeful car, unreliable, slow and bad handling. £80
- Peugeot 405 estate, bought for £30, lasted 1 day.
- 1988 Peugeot 205 GLD £20 and the best car i ever bought, was extremley reliable and great fun.
- 1991 Peugeot 205 GLD P/X for the 405, was a write off i used for parts.
- Vw Golf MK4 SDI £100 and absolutley woeful in every way, its why i hate VW so much, intended to replace the 205 with it, but kept the 205 another year after it.
- 1985 Peugeot 305 van £60, i always wanted a 305 and got this one, had been hit by a tree the roof was damaged in the middle, and the windscreen smashed, only a 4 speed box and it was really slow, but was almost as much fun as the 205. I made the back into a camper. But the head gasket went. And it was rotten.
- 1987 Peugeot 305 van £40, a stupid choice to use this for spares and not the 85 one this had a 5 speed box, cleaner engine and mint body just the clutch cable was snapped.
- 1994 Peugeot 306 1.9d £70.
- 1991 Peugeot 309 GLD red. A mint car for £70 and as equally good to drive and as reliable as the 205, had it 3 years thats how tough it was.
- 1991 Peugeot 309 GLD white. An iffy car for £90, not as good as the red one more rust but it went just as good, used it and the red one for racing round the fields.
- 1988 Mercedes Benz E250d Estate £250
Bar the Merc and the Golf all of the field cars, they all got more than their value in scrap, then i went to jeeps, which has basically involved buying a vitara liking it, then buying a samurai and liking it even more. I never thought much of suzuki before that but they really are very good.
Then there was a few cars i bought just to scrap/break:
- Citreon Bx diesel
- Vw Jetta
- Ford escort van
- Austin Maestro
- 2000 Peugeot 406

Then i got my driving test in december 2008 and have had 3 cars for on the road.
- 2004 Fiat Panda 1.1 Active.
- 2002 Renault Clio 1.2 Dynamique
- 2002 Peugeot 406 Executive the current car.

[Welly]

Across the road were a huge B&Q, a very good Indian takeaway and a massive Greek deli. Those were the days

Were you a regular patron of the Ponder's End Kebab house

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 13154&z=16


Carry on.....

[steve_earwig]

Bleurgh, no never. I never really liked kebabs, they smell like sweaty armpits to me. I have succumbed a few times in my younger days when I've been too drunk to know different but then I did a job in a factory where they make them in Tottenham Hale and I could never even touch another one for the rest of my life. Bleurgh, I feel sick just thinking about them. One spicy kebab with tasteless lettuce, soapy chillies and extra maggots coming right back up

[steve_earwig]

Looking around on your link I think I may have bought a burger from there once when I had a migraine and knew I should eat something but didn't even feel capable of crossing the road. It was vile. Looks like the big B&Q is now Nettos, the guy who ran the Greek deli has bought up most of the shops in that bit and I can't find the Indian take away anywhere, which is a tragedy Oh, and I only ever went in The Boundary once that I remember and not while I was living opposite it. Further up the Hertford Road there was an M&Ws (I think it was) that used to be open all night (this was when nothing opened all night) but you had to order stuff through a little window and kind of direct the monkey towards what you wanted. It seems to be called "One Stop" now, it's the shop with all the cop cars parked outside

Hold on, I can date this - I remember stomping down the road to the town hall to vote Labour and get rid of those damn tories, which would be 1997, it's only 14 years ago but it seems like a lifetime. From what my life is now, going back to that would be like going to hell - what a sh!t hole!

[puggy]

Arghh!

I cant remember anything, christ how do you really old fellas remember anything?

I am pushing 40 and i genuinely can not remember my car history ,

i will ponder this for a few days and get back to you

Well Well Well !!!! not even 40 and you cant remember can't say i'm surprised disco , think your brain melt down started when you bought that disco

[Welly]

Without straying too far off topic - steve that area does look a bit run-down but then most areas outside of the shiny new shopping centres look like this now walking along an old high street now is like;.......shop.........boarded up shop.......bookies.....boarded up Pub........old appliances shop.........etc. etc we all prefer shopping centres and out-of-town retail parks where it's all together and who can blame us really?

I suppose looking around there like that now would make you very very happy to be where you are in Croatia, and to use that stupid expression; it's a No Brainer!

[Captain Jack]

Oh, er... I never posted mine.

1998: Passed test - F Reg (1989) Ford Fiesta MK3 1.0 - slooooooooow and smoked like hell due to perished piston rings, but never let me down
1999: Went to uni, left the car at home and it got nicked a week later Was found with a broken rear window but generally undamaged.
1999: Dad's car - H Reg (1991) Peugeot 405 1.6 LX - the most comfy car I've driven in. Starter motor was wonky so had to hit it with a hammer now and again to get it to turn over
2000: Mum's car - H Reg (1991) Renault Clio 1.4 Auto - wrecked the gearbox
2001: Mum's car - S Reg (1998) Renault Clio 1.9 Diesel (non-turbo) - OK car, she still has it but it's rattly as hell
2003: After saving up for a year I bought my mint green S Reg (1998) Peugeot 406 2.1TD at 74k miles and sold at 145k miles - many of you will have seen it floating around the forums
2008: New job - 54 Reg (2005) Honda Accord 2.2 CDTI Executive. The most unreliable car I've ever owned. A worn clutch, creaky master clutch cylinder and a smelly cracked exhaust manifold were replaced in the first year under warranty. Then turbo went and I crashed it on a snowy evening into a sign-post at 5 mph (maybe intentionally ). Written off, unnecessarily (bumber and bonnet was all that was damaged), but according to VOSA it is still on the road somewhere.... poor sod whoever bought it
2009: 52 Reg (2002) Peugeot 406 HDI 110 Executive - still have it with no plans to change...

[yan101]

k reg rover metro - hammered it, never changed the oil in 40k miles and 5 years. still ran perfect when i got rid

k reg fiesta automatic - was my mothers, i had this car twice youll see it crop up later, was an incredible car. i loved to drive it, no fancyness, just en engine a chasis and a heater. brilliant, and had a lovely whistle when you reversed

2002 52 vauxhall corsa - did the old teenage chav thing with it, £500 cd player, footwell neons (i know ) alloys etc, was a nice car but i had a baby and it ended up being too small soooo....

v reg ford focus 1.8td lx - what a car, sounded like a tractor but pulled like a train, it was sooo fast, there was a problem on the steering and was going to cost too much to fix so i swappped it for a

x reg rover 25 1.4 - good car, felt like it should be owned by a posh grandad, drove well, i loved it actually. but it was a k series engine and i started getting the old mayo in the oil so i got.....

p reg vauxhall vectra - another good car, but the ecotec engine was too expensive for me to keep up with, cam belt change was £350 just for the belt! so i got....

r reg - citroen xsara, another car i didnt do anything to at all, just drobve it for 2 years, never liked it much, had 98k on clock, engine was good but sounded a bit dodgy towards the end, battery died overnight so i had to charge it up everyday. sold it and got.....

k reg fiesta again!!! was sat in my mums garden for 6 years, dad changed the plugs, had a tiny bit of welding dont on footwell, sailed through mot, still only had 43k miles on it. drove it for a bit while i looked for a new car, reluctantly swapped it for...

n reg astra 1.4 - great car, i loved the drive etc but it had a misfire that 4 garages couldnt find a reason for, found one vacuum leak but it didnt solve the problem, got fed up of spending money trying to fix it so i sold it on ebay.....the guy who bought it broke down on the way home on the motorway cos the clutch cable broke. was a shame as i loved the car and best part was it had a non interfearence engine so if the belt broke, slap a new on on and no harm done

then, the car i have now

x reg 2001 megane 1.4 expression+, has a/c electric windows, mirrors, sunroof. does 36mpg on work runs which is ok i suppose, can get 50mpg on a run if im frugal with the old foot. i loved it when i got it, but roof tiles fell on it not long ago and its very shakey at idle due to a tie bar having excessive play, the gear nob wobbles all over the place, driveshaft oil leaking from a rubber boot, needs cam belt change £230, im just not prepared to put money into it that i dont really have.

you will notice that i dont buy newer and newer and better cars, i got into debt with the corsa and just kept losiong money on em cos i went or straight swaps all the time. im now looking at an s reg 406 with 160k miles, my gut keeps saying i must be stupid getting rid of an x reg 45k miles car for an s reg 160k miles diesel 406, still havent decided what to do

i know the 406 is a brilliant car and the part that keeps pushing me towards it is i know that it will easily out live the megane......what to do

[waue1978]

v reg ford focus 1.8td lx - what a car, sounded like a tractor but pulled like a train, it was sooo fast, there was a problem on the steering and was going to cost too much to fix so i swappped it for a

x reg rover 25 1.4 - good car, felt like it should be owned by a posh grandad, drove well, i loved it actually. but it was a k series engine and i started getting the old mayo in the oil so i got.....

r reg - citroen xsara, another car i didnt do anything to at all, just drobve it for 2 years, never liked it much, had 98k on clock, engine was good but sounded a bit dodgy towards the end, battery died overnight so i had to charge it up everyday. sold it and got.....

n reg astra 1.4 - great car, i loved the drive etc but it had a misfire that 4 garages couldnt find a reason for, found one vacuum leak but it didnt solve the problem, got fed up of spending money trying to fix it so i sold it on ebay.....the guy who bought it broke down on the way home on the motorway cos the clutch cable broke. was a shame as i loved the car and best part was it had a non interfearence engine so if the belt broke, slap a new on on and no harm done

x reg 2001 megane 1.4 expression+, has a/c electric windows, mirrors, sunroof. does 36mpg on work runs which is ok i suppose, can get 50mpg on a run if im frugal with the old foot. i loved it when i got it, but roof tiles fell on it not long ago and its very shakey at idle due to a tie bar having excessive play, the gear nob wobbles all over the place, driveshaft oil leaking from a rubber boot, needs cam belt change £230, im just not prepared to put money into it that i dont really have.

Don't take this too badly as I know I've only picked the "lowlights" there, but I do hope you were honest about these cars when you got rid, as if you weren't, karma will punish you on your next one...

I know I've bought & sold a few, but any time I've had a fault with one, I've been totally transparent about it. My C5 with the FAP (before removing was an easy solution) & the Saxo which I sold after it failed the MOT are prime examples. Lost a few quid, but at least I wasn't waiting for them to bite me in the a*se.

[sirwiggum]

I tried that once. Advertising a car honestly. 0 calls.
Then edited the ad, removed all negativity. Just put "needs TLC" and got more interest.The faults were obvious anyway, a non-matching paint on the wing and a blowing exhaust.
I usually price them lower if somethings wrong, then if the caller asks what it needs try and be honest at that point, usually they've phoned and hold a bit of interest and eventually sold as seen.

[STALLED]

I've only ever had 2 cars...

1994 Holden Commodore Acclaim (had the airbags and ABS) - think big V6 Omega, mated to a 4 speed slushbox, live rear end and no steering feel. This when I was 17, so I was the coolest kid in town. Would get 15mpg in traffic, 25 on the highway (if driven carefully).Not a very fast car, but the torque is amazing. Has still got around 50,000 miles on the clock - it's been barely driven since new. Shared the car with my grandmother - so I gave it back to her when I purchased the 406 in 2006!

1997 - Peugeot 406 2.0 ST Manual - Bought this car in 2006 as a replacement for the Commodore. Has been my daily driver ever since. Bought it with 115,000km on the clock, and now it's about to hit the 200k mark. Since then it's gone through a stack of money, but still returns 35mpg in mixed driving and is moderately cheap to run. Serves it's purpose of being a safe and reliable car to get me between work and uni

Just ignore the scrape on the front bar

[yan101]

yes they were all advertised honest, the metro just went to a dealer and was scrapped, corsa was part ex'd, foucus went back because of the fault and swapped, rover went to my uncle (a rover specialist mechanic) and his wife drove it for a bit, vauxhall vectra was part exchanged at the dealer i got it from, xsara went on ebay to a mechanic- he came and looked round it for an hour before he committed to buying it he brought a battery when he picked it up lol, astra went on ebay...i had no idea about the clutch and the add said it had a misfire, and the good old fiesta was a minter anyway , although i dont think itson the road now as ive checked the insurance database at ask mid and its not insured, and not taxed on dvla site.

[Sonia406]

1992 Peugeot 205 1.8 DT
1993 Peugeot 205 1.8 DT (electric windows, power steering!)
Now, happy(ish) with my 2001 Peugeot 406 LX Family Estate.