Bye bye HAE

[mjb]

I'm going to get my beautiful Coupé through its MOT then sell it if I can

I love the thing to bits, but it's just so demanding in terms of work needed. It's got over 190k on the clock and it's been brutally abused, but it's not that which is hurting it - it's old age. Rubber bits, bits that bounce up and down, bits which have been exposed to British weather for 13 years.

Spectacular failures? Just the steel band propping the throttle wide open after my Nürburgring crash and the (now replaced) battery which caused manic electrical problems the other winter, but that's not the Pug's fault; blame there lies with the cheap "Lion" brand battery.

Such a brilliant car, I really have loved it and it's been a great friend to me, but with a family now, giving it the garage attention it needs and deserves has become a hassle and not the joy it once was. I've let a few things slip and it's starting to get annoyed at me. It wants me to buy new clips for the driver's door card. It wants me to change the suspension parts a few years before they give way. It wants me to buy a passenger wing mirror with a working heating element. It wants me to buy a pair of new rear brake backplates to give it a handbrake unlike any other 406. It wants me to fit the shiny new exhaust I've got on my garage floor to replace the cheap new one I bought last xmas. After years of me giving it everything (I even bought it a brand new washer fluid cap from the dealers because the old one was manky!!! It even had EVERY nut and bolt cleaned or replaced when I changed the clutch!!) it now wants so much of me that I can no longer give it.

If anyone can give my Coupé a loving home in the next month or two, and promise to make its glorious V6 sing every day (it really likes that), please let me know. I'd be truly heartbroken to see it go to be broken at Ade's. Whatever happens I'm sure I'll cry when it goes


I'm going to buy an M5. Hopefully it'll be disappointing enough for me not to care about it like I do with the Coupé.

[Captain Jack]

It is a shame but I think you bled too much for this car. It was just one thing after another - strangely not much to do with the engine itself, just bits around it!

[Bailes1992]

It is a shame but I think you bled too much for this car. It was just one thing after another - strangely not much to do with the engine itself, just bits around it!

Isn't that true of all french cars? The engines are always perfect when they fail. It's everything bolted to the engine.

My first 406 1.9TD was on 108k when I started tuning it giving it an extra 40bhp more, running on veg oil filtered through J clothes and thrashing it from freezing cold every morning.
I gave it to my mother on 132k 8 months later the engine was perfect, the car was falling apart around it though. The car did another 8,000miles doing start/stop driving before my mother part ex'd it for her panda.

[Captain Jack]

I've been quite lucky with my '6s actually. Other than the usual service items, not much really has gone wrong. My 2.1TD lasted 5 years - probably still working in Romania (where it was taken after I sold it) and my current is still going strong.

[mjb]

It is a shame but I think you bled too much for this car

Literally...

[rwb]

Same here really. The engine is as good as ever (if slow), but the rest of it is getting shabby (which is mainly my fault) and rattly, and it's just not what it was when I got it 7 years ago. Despite some really stupid things going wrong, it's never actually let me down. I understand why it's heartbreaking to let it go.

What's different is that you need something more practical for your family -- both in terms of transporting them and getting in the queue for your love. So I reckon it's the right decision.

M5 though
But at least it's not another volvo

[steve_earwig]

A sad day but I can appreciate why, get shot before it turns into (even more of) a money pit

You will miss it, you will wish you'd got another one, especially the first time you loose your bimmer in a carpark amongst the rep mobiles

Now, how much are they getting out the 2.2 HDis these days?

[steve_earwig]

Oh ffs

Internal Server Error

[mjb]

Hmm E39 M5s are in rather short supply. Manual 540s are even rarer.

Any other car suggestions? I want a 2000 or later car with good handling, a manual box, hard top, at least 250bhp from a normally aspirated petrol engine (preferably V8 - I love the sound!), RWD, a comfortable drive when not hammering it, a not excessively garish exterior, cruise control and electric leather seats.

911s are too expensive, Mercs aren't known for their manual boxes, RX8s look fun but aren't as relaxed/effortless as I want. The 350z is tempting, but back seats and luggage space are handy things to have

[rapport25]

Have you considered an Audi RS4 :-):-):-):-)

[mjb]

Audis are staying unconsidered - I'm not a tw*t! The RS are too expensive and I'd rather an RS6 over an RS4 any day (same reason I'm not even considering the M3)

[Welly]

What about a V8 Jagwarr?

Or can we interest you in the Forum Approved Volvo T5 brand?

[steve_earwig]

Moronaro?

[Welly]

I know.........



Apparently those things are not so much of a joke as you would first think, cheap too

[leestudd30]

Always fancied an MG ZT like that! Has the Mustang block, think its a bit detuned but still has 260bhp. Its just the parts situation that bothers me, seeing as lot of the chassis (I think anyway) was changed for the V8 and I've read that when the rear brakes go they have to be re-lined (?) as you can't buy them any more. Does handle very well though, was on Top Gear years back.