Gas Guzzling Money Pits
pointless expenses and cars
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Not long to go now.
CMN - 130

See M N - 130

Sea Men - 130

... obviously just me then
zaphod79 wrote:
CMN - 130

See M N - 130

Sea Men - 130

... obviously just me then


ha, I had similar thoughts.
You're well behind with semen jokes, I've had all those already.

Unfortunately I was quite limited in terms of available cherished numbers that:

1) Had 130-N in them
2) Were in the £100 price bracket.

Obviously HMN-130-N would have been ace, but that wasn't available.
In all seriousness, it's a lovely looking thing, that by all reports is a great drive :)
It certainly does look a lot like a Focus from the front.

Cras wrote:
But...he had a Focus ST.

Quite.
Please forgive me for losing track.

I'm sure eventually he'll have one anyway.
zaphod79 wrote:
CMN - 130

See M N - 130

Sea Men - 130

... obviously just me then


I was starting at Come On i30n
Hearthly wrote:
You're well behind with semen jokes, I've had all those already.

Unfortunately I was quite limited in terms of available cherished numbers that:

1) Had 130-N in them
2) Were in the £100 price bracket.

Obviously HMN-130-N would have been ace, but that wasn't available.

Why did you get a number plate that refers to the car when you will likely keep it under a year?

Oh wait, if you got a personal one you’d have to spend £80 every six months swapping it onto different cars. Fair enough.
Personal plates are for losers, car based plates are just for nerds, so not quite as bad.
Trooper wrote:
Personal plates are for losers, car based plates are just for nerds, so not quite as bad.

Fuck you
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
zaphod79 wrote:
CMN - 130

See M N - 130

Sea Men - 130

... obviously just me then


I was starting at Come On i30n

i30 Ta loo rye aye.
Mr Chonks wrote:
Why did you get a number plate that refers to the car when you will likely keep it under a year?

Oh wait, if you got a personal one you’d have to spend £80 every six months swapping it onto different cars. Fair enough.


I have a strange and unusual feeling about this car, I think this really may be the one, unlike the others that may also have been the one.

The seat slides back when I open the door, to make getting in easier, and then when I sit down and close the door it goes back to its memory position.
My 16-year-old Merc did that.
But it didn't do with with Korean reliability and a five year warranty.

(Although the I30N is actually made in Czechoslovakia.)

Also I just fucking spelled Czechoslovakia without spellcheck needing to do a goddamn thing, which I'm pleased about.
I’m pretty sure it’s not made in Czechoslovakia.

Or Yugoslavia or Rhodesia for that matter.
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
Hearthly wrote:
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

I now know it’s made in one of two countries.
Perhaps the factory is right on the border, and they make some parts of it in one and some parts in the other.
GazChap wrote:
Perhaps the factory is right on the border, and they make some parts of it in one and some parts in the other.


Bad Times at Hyundai.
Trooper wrote:
Speaking of gearboxes, the 745i had a minor smoke and mild fire issue the other day and the gearbox is shagged. It's up on ebay for spares or repair, and i'm on the hunt again!


I wanted to hear more about this Trooper and it sort of got lost in the Korean Melange.

'Minor smoke and fire issues' are always good value stories when it comes to high-end German cars that are getting on a bit.

Could you elucidate please?
This is what I posted on "the thread" on PH...

"Driving absolutely lovely today, even my friend noticed how smooth it was compared to previous drives, and she knows absolutely nothing about cars.

Hmmm... what's that smell? Is that smoke coming from me? I don't think that smoke should be coming out of the air vents...
Pulled into a handy parking spot and shut it down, opened the bonnet and there were wisps of smoke coming from behind the engine.
Let it cool down a bit, had a poke around and couldn't see any obvious problems, so I tried to fire it up again. Transmission error flashes up, starter motor goes but it doesn't catch, no drive, no nothing.

The gearbox is kaput, or at least the electrical connections somewhere around that area are.

It feels terminal to me, considering it is worth £2k on a very good day, and with the intermittent misfire and lumpy idle issues, It doesn't make sense to spend the money to try and fix it, so the thread car is dead baby, thread's dead.

I'm going to whack it on ebay as spares or repair and see what happens, unless anyone here fancies a project

Sad times for all of us I think, but onto the next challenge. This time it's £1k max spend, must be petrol, and has to be mildly reliable as it will be only car. Let me know if you find anything interesting would you."
Old German cars just ain't what they used to be.
Lexus IS200 is on the list!

Current options:
MX5 mk2 sport, there is a good one local to me that isn't rotten, but it's £1500...
IS200, a few around the grand mark. The half sensible choice, but tricky to find a proper good one.
XJ6 3.2 Sport. One is up for £700, and looks in good condition for the price. That's a stupid idea, so I expect that's what i'll end up with.
BMW E60 530i, up for £1500, looks in great condition, done 140000 miles, it's just a matter of time till it breaks and needs to be scrapped. Could be 6 months, could be a couple of years.

The annoying thing is, is that I should really buy this...https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified ... 5077703833
It's cheap, it's reliable, it's comfy, it's practical, it's well specced, it's in great condition, it's 2 miles away from me, it's from a dealer so if it is totally fucked I can just give it back, it passed it's last MOT with no advisories... but it's a Mondeo...
Why don't you get a nice car, or is it a money thing? Or you just want something that you don't have to give a shit about?
Trooper has always done bangernomics. He’s had some nice cars...
Yeah, I like bangernomics, I've done the new/expensive car thing in the past, but I do roughly 3000 miles a year these days so it's just a waste of money having something sitting in the car park that costs me £300-400 a month to do nothing. I don't have the cash in the bank to drop any sort of money on a new car, so it would have to be financed.

For comparison, even though the 7 series has shit the bed, it has cost me the equivalent of £180-200 a month.
I spent £4.5k on my Octavia and I’ve not done 2,000 miles since I’ve had it in just over four months. That includes two long journeys to Bournemouth and London which were around 400 miles each.

It’s not quite bangernomics but it’s cheap enough, even using 98 RON fuel. At this rate it won’t tick over 100,000 miles until it’s 17 years old.
MX5 all the way. It'll probably work properly, end up owing you nothing and will be the most fun over the summer.
markg wrote:
MX5 all the way. It'll probably work properly, end up owing you nothing and will be the most fun over the summer.


I think that's where i'm leaning, if I can get a good one. The are all rusty though, it's just a matter of how bad they are and if it has been caught in time.
Good resale value too, won’t loose much if you decide it’s not quite right for your needs.
I vote MX5
New rear silencer is on! Weird that the tailpipes on my car are now the cleanest thing on it.
Trooper wrote:
Yeah, I like bangernomics, I've done the new/expensive car thing in the past, but I do roughly 3000 miles a year these days so it's just a waste of money having something sitting in the car park that costs me £300-400 a month to do nothing. I don't have the cash in the bank to drop any sort of money on a new car, so it would have to be financed.

For comparison, even though the 7 series has shit the bed, it has cost me the equivalent of £180-200 a month.


Fair enough, it makes sense to match your vehicle and attendant expenditure to the usage scenario.

I only like having a nice car because I do the drive over the mountain 5-6 days per week (sometimes 7 days per week, and sometimes more than once per day).

I was going to suggest a Honda Legend but having had a look on Autotrader there aren't that many around and they're not properly cheap yet either. Still a lot of car for the money though, and they never break.

Erm, Hyundai Sonata. Cheap and reliable. And prestige that goes on for miles.
Was up early so I went for a drive around the entire TT circuit (38 miles), the ST has ended up at a dealer in Ballaugh (which is on the course, so I drove past it), it has a price sticker in the window of £12,995!

Didn't go nuts in the i30 but had it in N mode over the mountain and got to 120mph over the mountain mile, and gave it a proper workout through the corners, the handling is a big step up from the ST and the LSD does amazing work coming out of corners.

It's not as ruthless as R mode was in the Type-R, which is good because R mode was a bit too fucking psycho TBH.

A 50 litre fuel tank is a bit mean though (the ST had 60), and it looks like economy won't be as good either, so fuel stops are going to be more frequent.
Hearthly wrote:

I only like having a nice car because I do the drive over the mountain 5-6 days per week (sometimes 7 days per week, and sometimes more than once per day).



Define "nice" :D I'd call a top of the range 7 series pretty nice...

Legend, I'd happily have one of those, but they don't come up for sale very often and the banger price point.

Hyundai Sonata? Err... No.
Trooper wrote:
Define "nice" :D I'd call a top of the range 7 series pretty nice...


Right up to the bit where it sets on fire.

I couldn't live with a car that I know is likely to break in some horrible way at some point, not least because I cover a 24 hour on call shift one week per month so I need my car to just work and be able to get me anywhere on the island I need to get to without fuss or failure, at any time of day or night.

Quote:
Legend, I'd happily have one of those, but they don't come up for sale very often and the banger price point.


I've seen the mid-late 90s ones come up for cheap, but it's finding one for sale that's the hard part. There's one I see driving around over here and it's in fabulous condition.

Quote:
Hyundai Sonata? Err... No.


What's not to like? You'd have to budget a few extra quid for a stick to beat the ladies off with.

Attachment:
sonners0.JPG
Hearthly wrote:
Trooper wrote:
Define "nice" :D I'd call a top of the range 7 series pretty nice...


Right up to the bit where it sets on fire.

I couldn't live with a car that I know is likely to break in some horrible way at some point, not least because I cover a 24 hour on call shift one week per month so I need my car to just work and be able to get me anywhere on the island I need to get to without fuss or failure, at any time of day or night.



Yeah, I understand why you wouldn't do what I do, it's not for everyone :)
This is the first time in years i've had a car completely die on me though.
Hyundai Coupe. Four banger is a bit slow but the later GK V6 has a bit more poke. They're ace to drive too, like a big overgrown gokart.
JohnCoffey wrote:
Hyundai Coupe. Four banger is a bit slow but the later GK V6 has a bit more poke. They're ace to drive too, like a big overgrown gokart.


i was going to suggest that, £1500 seems to get a fairly nice one with sensible miles. Even the V6 only has 167bhp though!
Just ordered one of these, the i30 literally has fucking nowhere to put my air compressor and emergency tyre gloop thingy. (Although it has a proper spare so technically speaking I shouldn't need either.)

In the Focus (and indeed other cars I've had), there have been little sort of cubbyholes along the edges of the boot, but there's none of that going on here.

Attachment:
organiserooney.JPG
eBay finished at £1130, let's see if they actually come through.

£870 for 7 months of wafting around in a 7 series, I can live with that.
Hearthly wrote:
JohnCoffey wrote:
Hyundai Coupe. Four banger is a bit slow but the later GK V6 has a bit more poke. They're ace to drive too, like a big overgrown gokart.


i was going to suggest that, £1500 seems to get a fairly nice one with sensible miles. Even the V6 only has 167bhp though!


Aye it's pretty lame *but* you soon forgive it once you throw it through a few corners. They're very reliable too, with the only real weak spot being the TPS (throttle positioning sensor) and that's easily doable if you get one from a wrecker.
With all due respect guys, a Hyundai Coupe has never been regarded as a good car. Decent but not brilliant chassis, rubbish engine, cheap interior.

They look kinda ok at least, but you can do a lot lot better for your money.
Good car snob...
Small fuel tank and not enough storage space. It’s the beginning of the end already!
Mr Chonks wrote:
Small fuel tank and not enough storage space. It’s the beginning of the end already!

I was reliably informed "TWO YEARS"
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Mr Chonks wrote:
Small fuel tank and not enough storage space. It’s the beginning of the end already!

I was reliably informed "TWO YEARS"


Maybe this will be like Article 50.
I doubt it, but you never know.
I gave my in-laws a guided tour of the car when we went over this afternoon.

Even they laughed when I told them about the TWO YEARS bets at work.

They were both quite taken with the car though, they'll probably change one of theirs now too, as they tend to get itchy car feet when I do.

(They'll never get rid of their Mercedes 190, their other car at the moment is an Audi A1, so that'd be the one that gets changed.)

It was Jnr's first ride in the car and she declared that she liked it, and prefers it to the ST.
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