Welly's Fleet extension happened

[Welly]

6 weeks after sending the Twingo off to Daughter_Welly at her new 'oop north' gaff I have been missing it (the car not the person haha)

Most of all I have been missing using a not-so-expensive car so I can do things like parking with common folk and such...

Also it was always nice to have a 'tip run' car that can be filled up with many unwanted things for land fill or recyclement.

Anyway I only gone done bought another Twingo

After looking at 3 other horrid shitters (Fiesta, Suzuki and Daihatsu) of less than £1.5k monies at car 'dealerships' I decided to move to Private Sellers

Speaking of money, old cars in the UK are commanding a high price at the moment due to the silly Scrappage Scheme so choices are SCARCE.

This 'ere Twingo is a 2013 high-miles, comes with French-style dents all along the Passenger side, the coolant reservoir was dry and the fan was running after 5 mins, the eggsauce is Swiss Cheese, lump missing from one wheel, unsecured anti-roll bar, misfire when cold, 3 YEARS past it's Cambelt replacement, V5 was missing as was the parcel shelf and one of the keys - so it had to be bought! £2,200.00-ish worth of car for £1,400

And yes I have gone mad

[Doggy]

I can relate to the 'attraction' of a vehicle suitable for recycling centres, supermarket car parks and the like after some weeks trying to prevent the aged, non-mint BMW getting any more 'character'. Don't think I'd go so far as buying another car unless I really, really wanted to keep the post-midlife crisis mobile wrapped in cotton wool.

You may well have gone mad, just not sure how recently........

Seriously though, if you've got the space why not?

[steve_earwig]

V5 was missing

That's the log book isn't it? Oooh, neglected shitter that could be stolen, WCPGW?

I can understand but I wouldn't be happy about the extra cash I'd need to fork out - insurance, registration, maintenance etc. For me there's no point in even having a "best car" 'cos sooner or later I'll need to use it and then the inevitable will happen. I remember the first time I parked the D9 outside the supermarket, I parked it right over the other side of the car park away from all the other cars and when I came out it was surrounded by builder's vans. It really pee'd me off every time it got some more careless bastard damage. So now I'm driving this handbag special Toy otter, I don't really care about it, it's now what? 13 years old, it's covered in light dings but it still looks reasonably presentable. I do notice that every time I wash it I find more car park/trolley dings, last year someone squashed the spare tyre cover and I also spotted the protrusion under the back bumper where the number plate is is now broken. So I stopped washing it.

[Welly]

I (and missus) are probably over-protective about possessions but we've worked hard to finally get nice(er) cars and make an effort to keep them out of harms way......this is all well and good but when it recently came to circling a car park and saying "nah" and leaving the exercise I knew we needed an alternative. The Twingo will be pressed into active service asap.

Plus I get an 'old' car to tinker about with again without risking a bluetooth/wi-fi/diagnostic dealer experience (I can't really touch our other two cars).

Insurance was a hoot, me and the missus fully comp with ZERO no-claims discount and it cost £162.00 Road Tax is £30.00 per year and the car does about 44 MPG's all day long, 'ickle wheels and cheapo parts

[Doggy]

Guessing that there Twingo's a manual?

How does that feel now you've presumably got used to slushmatics?

[Welly]

Yes, manual. Funny it's just instinctive when driving either flavour now although Mrs_Welly sometimes forgets to dip the clutch when stopping

[Welly]

Little update.

And a 'sorry I've not been here' apology I am well and relaxed, changed even, for the better, I feel. Although I did hurt my shoulder in November and it gave me MEGABASTARD pain like never before, a 'severely inflamed' trapezius muscle so I've been doing Physio for 8 weeks solid, couldn't drive for a month. Something is trying to kill me off I think

Twingo has had my pants down this year, I've spent £1,000.00 on maintenance and essential repairs

Cambelt noise (almost failed).
Coil Pack replacement.
Eggsauce Spillage.
Broken sussy.
Radiator Pissage (front end off and mechanic very unhappy).
Damaged Alloy replacement.

Now the gearbox end-plate (sideways sump) is leaking oil at an embarrassing rate due to rust and small holes. The car originated from that Inverness and it seems the salty air really got a grip of Monsieur_Twingo ready to inflict misery on the lucky* owner at around the 8-year mark.

The V5 eventually turned up from the Department of Very Lost Applications and taunted me with it's 6 previous keepers I had no knowledge of and a polite bollocking for failing to Tax the thing during the wait

So it's official; I own the cheapest Twingo on the internet back in July and have now replaced almost all of it with new bits so now own the UK's worst and best Twingo - work that out

[steve_earwig]

Ah Welters, good to hear from you me old mucker

Sorry to hear of your woes, inflamed trapezoid sounds like a bastard. It's the year of production I'm afraid (and maybe stressful desk-bound job's not done you any favours). Not sure how you did the trapezoid (sneezing perhaps, seems a bit risky to me these days) but you know the deal, you ain't as young as you used to be/take it easy etc. I have to stop and think myself sometimes, like carrying things that might be too heavy, I have a range of trolleys for carting stuff about (thankyou Lidl ) but I have to remember to go and get the bloody things

Is a 12 year old Twingger actually worth a grand there? It does sound like the sort of stuff that can go tit sup on most cars of that age and at least you have a car you know about (better the devil?), rather than taking a punt on something different that might have its own shopping list of issues.

[Doggy]

Good to hear from you young Welton.
Sounds like you're doing OK bar the trapezoidythingy, which sounds deeply unpleasant.

Cars can be problematic, in our 'fleet':-
Younger daughter's Smax suffered a clutch failure, (wouldn't disengage), but has miraculously cured itself at least for now.
Older daughter's other half bought a diseasal Insignia only to have the engine pack in 3 days out of warranty.
My bro's Merc is laid up with non-starting issues, (but he bought a 'temporary' Passat estate to keep him on the road).
The aged 107, 307 and amazingly the BM are all fine.