How many cars have you owned?

Just your normal general chatting in here..

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Welly
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by Welly »

highlander wrote: Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:03 pm Wifely Person bought it for me as a surprise from a work colleague who was apparently as short on mechanical sympathy as she was on ethics
Bet that was great*

Very personal thing buying a car, I think even if my missus won the lottery and decided to surprise me with a car I can guarantee it won't be what I'd have chosen :frown:

Bet you were gutted* when it failed the MOT on the brakes :P Clio brakes are well cheap, you coulda saved it for about £80.00 :mrgreen:
Cars in my care:
2021 Kia Spottage 1.6 Pez Turbo Dual Clutch Gearbox Trickery
2013 Renner Twingo - donkey work
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highlander
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by highlander »

She bought me that car as a surprise, as something I could learn to drive in. At that point, I had no idea I would be taking driving lessons - it seemed like a goal that was entirely out of my reach, being that we were kinda hard up. I worked a minimum wage job for BT (via Manpower) at a callcentre, and the Wifely Person couldn't get a job at all (small town, cliquey). Can't fault her for her generosity, but in hindsight it was quite naive of her to trust her colleague, and not get the car checked before she agreed to buy it.

I wouldn't have known how to fix a Clio's brakes. I was young and stupid (now I'm not so young). The most technical fix I did for that car personally was apply T-Cut to the roof, which was salmon pink vs the nice bright red the rest of the panels were. Turned out quite nicely, as it happens, but it didn't improve the brakes one little bit.

I was gutted it failed the MOT - I liked the little Clio (so much I bought another one immediately after I passed - by which point I'd moved down to Aberdeen and was earning a reasonable living). Ended up selling the first one for about £50, which was around £800 less than she paid for it... The second one went as trade-in for the 406, knocked about £300 off the asking price.

Mk.1 Clio is a nice honest little car. Nothing much to go wrong, on account of there not being much there in the first place - manual windows, manual sunroof, no power steering. If you ever end up buying one at any point, don't get the 1.2 as it's utterly wheezy and no good for anything other than a trip to the local supermarket. It should actually have been marketed as a 1.1; the engine was 1149cc, and produced a whopping 53 HP. Given that an average human is capable of producing around 5 HP... it was eerily like being pushed along by ten average people...
2002 (D9) Peugeot 406 Coupe SE, 2.2 litre Petrol. Scarlet Red/Rouge Ecarlate/Rosso Scarlatto. Black Leather interior. SOLD :(
2008 (E60 LCI) BMW 525i M-Sport, 3.0 litre Petrol. Carbonschwarz Metallic. Black Dakota Leather and Myrtlewood interior.
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Welly
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by Welly »

The 1.2 in our* Twingo is the fancy-pants 16 valver so manages to fart out 75bhp, its not bad actually with the Twingo being lighter, it feels a bit slow mid-range but I reckon its strangled down to keep it just inside the £30.00/yr RFL, it also has Clio brakes so they're better due to the low weight. We've had it nearly a year soon and its been totally reliable :?
Cars in my care:
2021 Kia Spottage 1.6 Pez Turbo Dual Clutch Gearbox Trickery
2013 Renner Twingo - donkey work
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highlander
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by highlander »

Both our Clios were totally reliable. Except one time in the 1.2, where I hit a pothole on the way in to work, and the lead for the starter motor disconnected. The AA guy turned up in minutes, and had it fixed within about 10 seconds.

The only other thing wrong with the 1.2 was that the plastic trim on the driver's side door had one of its tabs broken, so the front of it would pop out and slap against the side of the door when driving. *sigh* *wind down window* *smack the trim, hard* *wind up window* *carry on*
2002 (D9) Peugeot 406 Coupe SE, 2.2 litre Petrol. Scarlet Red/Rouge Ecarlate/Rosso Scarlatto. Black Leather interior. SOLD :(
2008 (E60 LCI) BMW 525i M-Sport, 3.0 litre Petrol. Carbonschwarz Metallic. Black Dakota Leather and Myrtlewood interior.
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Welly
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by Welly »

Exactly, all very simple. Shame the renner's get a bit of a slating but that's down to their experimental silly key cards and leccy handbrakes in the bigger cars.

Your Wife must be little diamond by the way 8)
Cars in my care:
2021 Kia Spottage 1.6 Pez Turbo Dual Clutch Gearbox Trickery
2013 Renner Twingo - donkey work
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Bailes1992
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by Bailes1992 »

Daily drives only...

Sept 2009 to Sept 2010 - 1998 Peugeot 406 L 1.9TD
First car, loved it but it was full of rust. I suspect it had been used to launch boats as all the sills from the B pillar back were non existent.

Sept 2010 to Dec 2011 - 2003 Ford Focus LX 1.6i
My Mother had this since new, as a district nurse it had done stop/start driving every day for the first 7 years/70k of it's life. It had been run dry of oil on several occasions and the lambda had failed causing it to run a bit rich. The engine was very tired and the suspension more so! I replaced every bush, fitted bilstein B6 shocks with ST170 springs, the steering rack, track arms, ball joints, wheel bearings, strut mounts and getting the wheels straightened out because of buckles. And I also replaced the entire brakes with ST170 items including all the lines from the master cylinder back. I then decided the next best course of action was to stick some cams in it, a 1.7 Puma inlet manifold, a 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, sports cat and an OEM-looking exhaust from the sports cat back. After increasing the stock power by 60% the bottom end shat itself a mere 15k/10 months later. What was I expecting? The engine was shot. :lol:

Dec 2011 to May 2012 - 2004 Peugeot 406 Rapier HDi90
Uncle happened to be P/Xing this for a new Citreon C5, luckily my Focus destroyed itself just in time for me to have this off him for £350. I put 12k on it in 6 months only changing the TPS and oil 3 times. Bodywork was shot but she done me well for 6 months.

May 2012 to Feb 2015 - 2008 Ford Mondeo Titanium 1.8TDCi
The one car I really miss!Took this car everywhere, done some tasteful mods and it was in a fantastic colour. The car never let me down until the final day which really wasn't the cars fault. Under warranty at 7,000miles it had a new flywheel for some reason. Whatever arsewipe replaced it cross threaded 3 of the bolts destroying the crank. Of course, I didn't know until I went to replace the flywheel again at 150k and found no thread in 3 of the bolt holes. I still see it about to this day although doens't look as well looked after.

Feb 2015 to Sept 2017 - 2015 Ford Focus Titanium 1.5TDCi
Nightmare car! 46 visits to Ford in 30 months. The engine never run right, it was slow, loud and poor on fuel. The paintwork was awful, build quality was awful and the car was generally awful. Ford couldn't care less.

Sept 2017 to Oct 2017 - 2014 Ford Focus Zetec ECOnetic 1.6TDCi
This was my first company car. Had 88,000 very hard miles in the clock. It has dents and scratches on every panel and inside was no better being an array of fabric tears and fag burns. The engine was loud and rough which I suspect was down to a worn flywheel, this was confirmed when the starter motor packed in due to eating a load of swarf but the lease company would only pay to replace the starter motor. :evil:

Oct 2017 to Present - 2016 Ford Focus Style 1.5TDCi
Current company car. I often joke that it's 'poverty spec' but I have grown quite Ford of my little work horse! It was well looked after by whoever had it for 18 months before me. The 1.5TDCi was a nightmare in my previous Focus, this one is smooth, quick, responsive and better on fuel. It must weigh a good few hundred KG's less to and it really shows when you throw it about.
2020 BMW 520d MSport Touring My Daily
2017 Dacia Logan MCV 1.5DCi Laureate Wifes
1996 Land Rover Defender 90 County SW 300TDi My Toy
2003 Ford Mondeo ST220 3.0 V6 My Other Toy
caprixpack
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by caprixpack »

My list, in the order I bought them most of owned at the same time as others.
1992 1.2 Vauxhall nova - my first car, bought in 2003
1994 1.4 Nissan sunny
1985 2.8i Ford Capri
1979 3.0 Ford capri
1998 1.6 Ford escort
1985 1.6 Ford Fiesta xr2
1984 2.8i Ford capri
1998 1.8 Ford Fiesta diesel
1996 1.8 Ford escort ghia x
1989 1.6 Ford escort xr3i
1998 2.5 Vauxhall calibra SE9
1984 2.0 Porsche 924 - still own
2001 1.3 Ford Fiesta
2005 1.9 VW passat tdi 130 - still own
2000 2.0 Peugeot 406 hdi - still own
1984 924 2.0 n/a crystal Green - The daily
2005 VW Passat tdi 130 Highline, now 170bhp & 290ft/lb
2000 Peugeot 406 2.0 hdi - stood for 4 years, fresh mot and mostly working.
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mjb
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by mjb »

1996 Renault Laguna RT Sport 1.8. Very comfortable, but so badly built it's a wonder it left the factory without bits falling off!
1997 Peugeot 406 2.0 Turbo estate. Loved it.
1998 Peugeot 406 V6 Saloon. Loved the engine, hated the body.
1999 Peugeot 406 V6 Coupé. Loved everything about it. Too much so. It took so much of my time, it had to go when the kid was born.
2000 VW Golf Mk.IV TDi. Meh.
2001 BMW 530i Touring, manual gearbox. Underpowered lethargic crap. Got rid of it after a couple of months.
2003 BMW 540i Touring, manual gearbox. Somehow dull as used dishwater, despite nearly 300bhp. Sold for 1.5x what I paid for it 5 years ago! :shock:

...and the new acquisition:
2012 Mercedes CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake. 557bhp/800Nm of utter insanity, uh, I mean nice sensible estate car... :twisted: Insurance is insane on this though - twice the beamer's cost! Think I might have to get a tracker fitted... I'm starting to fall for this car though, despite the sluggish auto box


The wife's almost gotten through more cars than me in just the years since I've had the beamers!
2000 Peugeot 406 hdi90 rapier estate. Weak
2004 Citroen C5 hdi110 estate. Abused high-miler clonker
2008 Citroen C5 hdi136 estate. Money pit clonker
2009 Hyundai i10 1.2. Horrible little granny car. Worked well for the school run though, and proved the city car+estate combo works
2017 Kia Picanto GT-Line S 1.25. Epic!

Bought the Kia new since there's not really much depreciation on those things in the first few years. Tell you what, it's a bloody impressive car which can seriously compete with the exec-specced BMW and Merc when it comes to toys! :shock: I seriously love that little thing! Crap over 50mph, but under that it's really comfortable yet seriously chuckable and fun to drive with very nice modern interior trim. The engine of the 1.0/63bhp model sounded much better when pushed, but it just didn't have the torque to pull off the local speed bumps in 2nd, so we went for the less racy but more capable 1.25/83bhp instead.

I think we've finally found that the combination of small fun car for the school run, and overpowered estate for the longer trips (or when lugging space is required) works well for us. The fact I'm simply too busy to DIY anything nowadays means we don't really lose out by having cars which need dealer servicing to preserve the resale value.
<steve_earwig> I think this forum is more about keeping our cars going with minimal outlay than giving our cars more reason to go bang
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Welly
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Re: How many cars have you owned?

Post by Welly »

Nice to hear from you mjb, sounds like things are going well for you and the family.

CLS63 eh? I is well jell :mrgreen:
Cars in my care:
2021 Kia Spottage 1.6 Pez Turbo Dual Clutch Gearbox Trickery
2013 Renner Twingo - donkey work
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