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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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I'm havin a similar debate with my dad, I'm set on an mr2 but he'd rather I buy newer (08+) fwd hatch back like a golf but I hate the feel of having everything overengineered and I dont like electronic throttles, it makes the car feel like its on a spring and just "pings" when you accelerate.

I've had this discussion with my dad too and he's totally with me. He would obviously, considering he's been driving the same MGA for over 40 years now.

I'd say go for the MR2. The most fun cars I've driven were from the late 80's to mid 90's (albeit the S2000 which was more modern). This even includes the silly Daihatsu Charade which I bought for like 300 quid. It just feels way better than anything modern of that type despite being a seemingly uneventful 4 wheel drive town car.

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And gay.

If it is money you are inheriting or being given as a gift, why not buy something meaningful. To me, blowing it on a poor excuse for a sports car seems mighty irresponsible and a bit short sighted.

If you got a Mk1 MR2 you could potentially argue it is a classic and it will go up in value as an investment, if you kept it mint.

Have you driven one yet?

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I see where your coming from Jardo but it's what different people like. I'm yet to actually drive one but I've been a passenger and I'll obviously test drive one before I make the final decision to buy or not. The way I see it is it'll cost less than a much newer car and because it's what it want surely thats more meaningful than getting another car I dont like

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If it is money you are inheriting or being given as a gift, why not buy something meaningful. To me, blowing it on a poor excuse for a sports car seems mighty irresponsible and a bit short sighted.

I bought my A3 all those years ago with money left to me by my gran when she died.

7 years down the line it doesn't feel irresponsible or short sighted to me!

Why spend inheritance money on something 'to remember' someone that you don't really need? They didn't leave it to you to be nostalgic, they left it to you to help you out a bit! Spend it on something you need that'll get you somewhere.

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And gay.

If it is money you are inheriting or being given as a gift, why not buy something meaningful. To me, blowing it on a poor excuse for a sports car seems mighty irresponsible and a bit short sighted.

If you got a Mk1 MR2 you could potentially argue it is a classic and it will go up in value as an investment, if you kept it mint.

Have you driven one yet?

Like what? I'd have said a car you'll use and enjoy every day's a pretty damn good thing to spend your money on. It sounds like this guy needs a new car soon either way, and even if he doesn't need one, then it's not like he's blowing a load of cash one something expensive and flashy just to show off. There's no real downside to a mk2 MR2 over a normal hatchback other than luggage space, (but I'm guessing if he's looking at them, that's probably not much of an issue.) so why shouldn't it be a serious contender to replace his city rover?

If he'd said he was going to buy a normal hatchback with it you wouldn't have batted an eye lid at the idea of someone spending inheritance on a car, but because your own opinion's that an MR2's a 'poor excuse for a sports car' it's suddenly irresponsible and short sighted, despite the fact that if he buys well he'll loose very little on a mk2 MR2 because they're pretty rock-bottom as it is.

Edited by RobinJI
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I really don't know what to do :(

The caddy is in the garage, been told it'll be about £600-700 to get it in a state to get through mot. And there will be lots of ongoing costs afterwards. And the clutch is meant to be on the way out too.

The insurance from the Honda Jazz that my sister writ off has been put on the caddy until March. No insurance company wants anything to do with me, other than Aviva. And I suspect Aviva will try and charge me a lot of money since they're the only ones who will insure me and they will charge me more because I was on the same policy as my sister that writ the Jazz off...

First option is to get it through mot, use til insurance runs out, sell it.

Second is to do as the above, try and keep it for as long as possible but get as much work done to it for free with use of my college garage and fix up everything so costs to keep it going are low.

The most annoying thing is the previous owner didn't know any of these issues, and that he doesn't seem keen to get his hands dirty to help me either. He was a mate and is always like "Ah shit, that's not good" when I tell when another thing that I find wrong with it. But won't offer anything to do with giving me some cash help or even helping me fix it too.

If you're gonna reply to this saying "your fault for not checking it properly" or "it's 22 years old what do you expect" please just don't bother. It's the first time I've bought a vehicle and I will know full well better what to do with my next car, and I'll hopefully have a lot more experience with how to maintain a car and keep it running.

Just so much f**king stress!!!!!!

Edited by Jake.
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I really don't know what to do :(

The caddy is in the garage, been told it'll be about £600-700 to get it in a state to get through mot. And there will be lots of ongoing costs afterwards. And the clutch is meant to be on the way out too.

The insurance from the Honda Jazz that my sister writ off has been put on the caddy until March. No insurance company wants anything to do with me, other than Aviva. And I suspect Aviva will try and charge me a lot of money since they're the only ones who will insure me and they will charge me more because I was on the same policy as my sister that writ the Jazz off...

First option is to get it through mot, use til insurance runs out, sell it.

Second is to do as the above, try and keep it for as long as possible but get as much work done to it for free with use of my college garage and fix up everything so costs to keep it going are low.

The most annoying thing is the previous owner didn't know any of these issues, and that he doesn't seem keen to get his hands dirty to help me either. He was a mate and is always like "Ah shit, that's not good" when I tell when another thing that I find wrong with it. But won't offer anything to do with giving me some cash help or even helping me fix it too.

If you're gonna reply to this saying "your fault for not checking it properly" or "it's 22 years old what do you expect" please just don't bother. It's the first time I've bought a vehicle and I will know full well better what to do with my next car, and I'll hopefully have a lot more experience with how to maintain a car and keep it running.

Just so much f**king stress!!!!!!

What sort of stuff is it that they're saying's wrong with it? One thing you'll learn quickly with cars, (especially old ones) is that most garages are crap, and have little to no interest or knowledge when it comes to fixing up old cars. That said, there are good ones out there, but you need to find them first and the trouble is, that garage that's genuinely great for Mr and Mrs Average with their bland modernish a-b runaround is often really not the right place to take an old interesting car for a bit of restoration work. Luckily for you caddy's are simple old trucks and there's really not that much you can replace before most of the wear and tear bits are new and it'll start getting perfectly reliable, just make sure you use decent quality parts.

Welding's a bitch, and unfortunately is perfectly capable of being too big a hurdle to overcome, but assuming that £6-700 quote's from a normal 'highstreet' garage it's probably perfectly savable, especially if some of that's for mechanical work. Really you need to go somewhere a bit more specialist. I'd suggest signing up to Retro Rides forum, introducing yourself and asking about local places that could be good to take it to be looked at.

To be fair to the previous owner though, if he didn't know about it it's not really his issue, if he's a decent person he'll feel a bit bad about it, but you can't really expect help from him with it. It's the trouble with buying cars from friends, they can be genuinely oblivious to the issues that you'll later hold them accountable for in your mind, no mater how much you tell your self it's not really their fault.

Edited by RobinJI
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Unfortunately you bought it and it isn't his problem anymore, why should he have to pay for it? A hand with the occasional job as a mate would be kind of him, but he doesn't really have to?

As Robin said, get onto RetroRides, it's a great place for help and you may meet some really helpful people who will keep your costs down. Unfortunately many older cars are absolute money pits to keep in really good order, that's why the good ones cost plenty as they have had all the work done! I have made this mistake (kind of intentional as I enjoy the work) many times and it can be very disheartening at times to find you have to spend rather more than you planned to fix the buggers.

Post up the photos of the rotten areas/list the mechanical problems again, we may be able to point you in the direction of doing it slightly cheaper

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Unfortunately you bought it and it isn't his problem anymore, why should he have to pay for it? A hand with the occasional job as a mate would be kind of him, but he doesn't really have to?

Because he mentioned offering to help out with welding if I found places that were in places he mentioned other than the wheel arches.

Unfortunately my parents wanted the caddy to be sorted as soon as possible so they made them start the work, even though it'll cost a bit more it's the quickest way to get it done. They seemed to want to hurry me to get it done too and they said they'd pay the difference in cost if it was a lot. My Dad has used them a lot for our modern cars and likes using them I guess.

I won't be taking it back there for any future work though, I will be looking at finding a specialist or doing the majority of the work myself. Thank you guys, I do feel a tad better now.

Any tips clutch wise? All I've heard is that it's the hardest part of the car to fix.

Looking at Retro Rides now, thank you fellers.

Will get pictures of the entire underneath of the car when it's road legal and I put it up on the lift at college.

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A clutch shouldn't be too hard on that I would imagine apart from some seized bolts (get some plus gas on them several days before hand to give you a fighting chance), I've done a few by myself and not struggled much apart from jiggling the gearbox back on to the splines. You just need some axle stands and a trolley jack along with the usual tools (you may find you need some specific ones for the drive shafts and to drain the gearbox oil). I wouldn't say it is the hardest part, it's just bloody awkward at times! It shouldn't take you longer than a day really as a first timer, offer a mate some food and drink in return for an extra pair of hands/moral support and you will be fine.

I need to whack a new clutch in my Porsche at some point, means dropping either the gearbox (which is at the back of the car), the torque tube (propshaft essentially) and then the front bell housing or whipping out the engine instead... either way I really cannot be bothered but I guess the first way means I can drop the tank, clean it out and replace all the fuel pipes whilst i'm there

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Sweet! That's a bit relieving lol, nice to know.

When replacing a clutch is it just this that I would need to buy? Or are there other parts involved? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2PIECE-CLUTCH-KIT-VOLKSWAGEN-Golf-Mk3-1-9-Diesel-11-1991-10-1997-/160854175842 Just curious.

The Porsche sounds like a lot of effort especially with the clutch being at the back of the car. :/ If you do it make sure to stick pics up!

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Shame they've already gone ahead with the work! Make sure it doesn't escalate, i'm sure they'll try it on.

In the mean time, get yourself on Retro Rides as Robin said. Introduce yourself, let people know the situation (ie you've bought a bit of a pup and are new to old cars, therefore could do with a hand) and i've no doubt you'll get a few local people offering to help out.

Just the way it goes sometimes mate, old cars are never simple. My "completely rot-free" Capri is currently missing a passenger floor, it's just part and parcel of old stuff that it will need fixing.

What else did it fail the mot on? Seem to remember it being brake lines and maybe some bushes? Stuff like that you can do yourself, I do understand why you wouldn't want to tackle the welding necessarily though.

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Cheers Matt, you were the first person who I thought would be like "hate to say I told you so" and you weren't like that (I'm sure you thought of it haha!) so I appreciate it. :)

I signed up to it I'm just waiting for staff approval, would be sweet if there were some helpful locals who're willing to give a hand! I'd return the favour if I have enough expertise on whatever they needed help with.

Yeah true that! All part of the fun to be honest, just a lot of shitty things happened quickly and this was almost the tipping point. I am determined to get her to a level where I can be proud to take her to shows!

Just horn/sidelights. They were working just failed at time of mot for some gay reason, brake lines yeah was gonna replace them myself at home but too late now. My Dad wanted it sorted quickly... Not complaining really, I think part of it is because my Mum is away for 2 weeks soon and he starts work early and doesn't fancy giving me lifts to college...

Plus I'll be able to actually take my bike places (other than a shitty wall in Lewes) once again :D :D forgot how much I actually relied on the car to go ride places.


Car is in for MOT tomorrow, hopefully nothing too drastic! Been clunking from the suspension for a couple of months now, with best of luck it's just arb links; it has felt a little wallowy of late. Fingers crossed!

Best of luck dude.

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