Be Excellent To Each Other

I saw another M5 out earlier today, and I felt another pang of sadness that I got rid of mine.

That's not normal, right? All the hardship it caused me, financially and stressily (?), and I miss it and regret selling it? The only one of my cars that I regret getting rid of?

Just finished changing all the brakes and track rod ends on my van. In the rain.

Yesterday, was defeated by wookie's straight-six engine problem.

Last week, had to take a hammer and drill to the catalytic converted on my car, because it had clogged up and gradually reduced the power to about 1/3rd of what it should be.

Dislike old cars at the moment.

I still like my car.

It needs a new CV joint I think and two new front tyres.

And yet I spend my money on remote control cars.

I have to get rid of mine. Best damn car I ever had.

Since I must have something bigger I feel as though I want a Volvo, I blame watching too much Nordic Noir.

How much did it cost you in the end (if you don't mind)? You may have already mentioned this in the thread somewhere.

I don't think it's abnormal, just a case of emotion overpowering the logic innit? I regret selling our cars even though one was hardly ever used and a nuisance in traffic and the other was poor on fuel, heavy on tyres, tax and insurance (which we foolishly used to load up on our credit cards and never quite settle).

Lost £4K in depreciation (purchase price less part exchange value)
£2,150 to replace the clutch and flywheel.
£100 to get the car recoded to play MP3s.
£380 to buy and have fitted a Dension Gateway iPod/iPhone link-up-thing-me-do, although the guy that bought the car from the dealer I part'exed it at wanted to keep it (I didn't include it in the part-ex, so the dealer was going to take it out and give it me back) so they paid me £320 for it on top of the part-ex value.
£60 in oil (not oil changes, just topping up oil - £15 for 1 litre)

And fuck knows how much in fuel. I only did around 5-6,000 miles in it in the end, but at an average of 16mpg... I don't want to do the maths.

That's nothing compared to what I lost on, spent on, and pumped into my M3. I was still sad to see it go in a way I won't be when I chopo the Twingo on.

It took years to get over the CTR and I lost £6k in depreciation on that, although it cost me relatively little otherwise.

Yikes! You're both crazy, but at least you had fun.

Would you do it again?

Presumably you kept your M3 for more than 6 months, though?

Seems to be more easily repeated now. I've had the same problem with the EGR value in the past with the loss of power but never with the engine temperature. I've ordered a new thermostat for the coolant which google seems to suggest might also be the problem. If it's not that I'm not sure and I'll have to risk spending money on a garage to tell me again they can't find any problems.

EDIT: It's a 2001 Astra.

The Lexus has a fault! The brake wear sensor light keeps coming on, even though the pads were replaced 2000 miles ago.

Will that be an MOT failure, even though the pads are fine? I seem to recall warning lights are failures now? If so, i'll do something about it, by which I mean shorting out the sensors I expect...

Yeah, I think any warning lights are MOT failures now. Could be wrong though.

Hmmm.... I might be ok

"Warning lights
As well as electronic parking brake and electronic stability control warning lights (where fitted) the MOT test will also include checks for the correct function of the following, where fitted;

Headlight main beam warning light
Electronic power steering warning light
Brake fluid level warning light
Seat belt pre-tensioner warning light"

Ah, so you have a separate warning light for brake wear? I thought the brake fluid level light did the job of both in most cars

Aye, a circle, with two broken semi circles on either side of it.

)o( ?

(O) but the brackets are in 3 bits.

I have to admit, the one thing that's bothering about this job I'm in the running for at the moment is that it comes with a Vauxhall Vectra company car, so I'll have to end up getting rid of the Alfa Romeo 156 as I simply cannot afford to run 2 cars.

It's cost me a fair bit and I need to spend more this coming weekend as it needs a service and desperately needs the rear brake pads and discs to be replaced, but I love the car. I couldn't even really explain it in a sensible way - I got through a few company cars in my last role, all of which were objectively better than this, but it's a damn nice car. If I got the job and could claim an allowance rather than an actual car, I'd definitly keep hold of it, but alas that won't be an option.

Of course, I might not get the job yet.

Vectra? Won't it be the insignia?

No, that's 'Evade, evade, there's a TIE fighter behind you'.

My car kept on showing an animated volcano erupting in the DIS. Turned out it was low on washer fluid.

I did wonder that, but they told me Vectra. They already have the car, I'd be inheriting from the guy who previously did the job and they told me it was a couple of years old.

I don't reckon they'll let that pass.

Could be a Vectra then, as the Isignia replaced it a few years ago. Sounds like you will be running out the lease, until you get yours.

I'm not sure, the regs talk about the brake fluid warning light, which I have and it isn't on.
When I take it in for an MOT i'll ask the tester before I book it and see what he says.

It's up to him, of course, but I think I'd rather he failed it if it were mine. How will you know if another brake wears low if the light is always on?

The same way you would on the majority of cars that don't have a brake pad wear indicator?

I dunno, man. I reckon you'll be lucky.

Lucky is my middle name.

I mean what could possibly go wrong?!

Next you'll be saying that you can't wait to be home for christmas, its so close and you've survived so much recently that you're bound to get home ok.

There is no way anything can go wrong for me, it's a 1 in a million chance.

And they only pop up nine times out of ten.

with a 50/50 chance of that!

The light has gone out! See, lucky.

Loads longer, but in just the last year I had it I had a clutch and flywheel for £1750 and suspension all round for £2400.

Then I sold it for £1500. After buying it for £6500. With first year insurance of £1850.

Don't forget the repairs after poking the M62 central reservation, at least 3 full sets of tyres, rocker gasket... I got rid of it before spending at least £2k on the head gasket. That's something.I'd say no but I sold it to get a French car.


French.

In some good news since changing the temperature sensor in the the astra I've not seen any problems. Only been on a 20 mile drive so far but I wouldn't have even tempted 2 miles before. Fingers crossed, it only got the get me to Manchester airport and back next week for now.

The A3 was a bit sluggish and grumbly in the week. So gave it a dose of injector cleaner, a tank of BP Ultimate and an Italian Tune-Up and so far she seems happier.

Took the Celica out today for a bit of TLC.

In a sense, I regret getting it all stickered up with the Castrol livery. It's impossible to drive through town centre with the windows down without everyone thinking I'm a poser. It gets a few admiring looks from middle-aged Dads who clearly remember playing SEGA Rally, and from little lads who just like "the racing car", but I get a fair bit of abuse as well.

Sometimes I hate this country.

Abuse as in people writing Nintendo on your dirty rear screen?

Did a Lancia driver give you two fingers before beating you at the lights?

Does anyone fancy an ace little sports car that's tons of fun, well made, cheap to run and will hardly depreciate in value?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... 4236407217

Goodbye, old pal.

Gah, advert is off at the moment due to me editing it slightly. Trust me though, it's great. Never raced or rallied, first to see WILL BUY etc.

Not sure about that bit, seeing what some of the early ones are selling for :/

Good luck with the sale though, looks like a good'un - I'd buy it off you if I could afford it!

Been considering getting rid of everything except the Celica again, with the aim of saving more money up so that I can eventually get that F355 or 360 I've been hankering after for years

I mean in relative terms, old MX-5s hold their value relatively well and the value is mostly down to the condition, sure some go for really cheap but they're probably a bit fucked, nice ones get decent money. I reckon if someone buys it off me for £3k and keeps it for four years they could probably sell it on for just over two grand if they looked after it and kept the mileage reasonable.

That's probably not too far off the mark, maybe down to £1500 at that point. It's pretty hefty depreciation in percentage terms though, but good in monetary terms

Mine is probably worth £700 I would have thought, hence why I'm arseing about with it rather than bothering selling it.

Looking for a new car I came across this one and went to have a look:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... 206379205/

It's a petrol rather than a diesel and it all feels like it's been looked after.

I really liked it (I had an E30 3 series many years ago and loved that too), it just felt so much nicer inside than the Mondeos I've also been looking at. But I don't know if there are any potential pitfalls to look out for with these particular ones.

Anyone know anything about these?

You'll feel like you should be kerb crawling. I test drove a 3 series and disliked it intensely.

For any particular reason?

Felt wrong. I can sit in a car and know in a few seconds if it is a Chinny car. You spend alot of time sitting in a car so if I'm not happy I won't buy. The BMW felt slightly sleazy. Not a car for driving, but a car for creeping around back streets in.

Can't remember the engine but it felt slow compared to my old Golf. In actual fact on paper it was faster but diesels can be more nippy at certain speeds due to the torque. My Audi can give other much faster cars a real scare between 40 and 60!