advertisement


Car mistakes?

Many years ago we were persuaded by a silver tongued dealer to buy one of these...he even promised us a steak dinner which of course never happened. We still talk about it (the dinner) not the car.

fiat by Michael Pratt, on Flickr
 
That reminds me, of the succession of sheds Dad bought, this one stands out as the worst:

7577930674_6abb2cf0c7.jpg


Having had a Fiat 124 (ie before Lada got their hands on it) which rusted and was unreliable and a purple Sunbeam Rapier that was a bit more reliable but rusted in a couple of years, you would have thought that dad would have avoided Italian cars and fastback-style cars. But no, in 1975 we all went to Ouse Valley Motors in St Ives and drove out in GVA 281N, a brand new 1.4l Beta Saloon in Forgettable Green. In 1976 we drove the car back to Ouse Valley Motors in St Ives, now resplendent in a two tone colour scheme, rust and Forgettable Green, for the last time after several trips back to try and deal with the corrosion on a brand new car. We drove away in a BRG Triumph 2500s which was much nicer and less rusty. GVA281N (a registration burnt into my psyche for its awfulness) sat in the garage compound for the next ten years rotting away until it was an engine block in a rusty frame.

Of course, Dad forgot how monumentally s**t it was by buying a Series 2 2.0l Beta Saloon in Grandads Last Car Gold in 1978 and allowed the salesman to convince him that Lancia cured the rust problem in the Series 2 and besides they'd Simonized it "just to make sure". ISTR that lasted about 18 months at which point he chopped it in for an SD1 Rover 2600.
 
A locally bought BMW E34 525iX. Cosmetically very good indeed. A local car. Good service history. And a Transfer Box made from chocolate. It was hard work finding a replacement 'Box. And when I did, this lasted approximately five minutes.

The best bit was telling an Engineer at work that it was all wheel drive. He didn't believe me and told me to f*** off. When he saw the completely different suspension and front driveshafts...

Kodak moment!

:D

When it worked, it was brilliant.
 
Quite a rare car, that. Now I know why not many were sold (ISTR they were quite a bit more than a standard RWD model). :)
 
Seeker, your dry wit has made me laugh this morning, especially “Grandads Last Car Gold”, I will look out for more of your tales.
 
Yes, thanks Seeker!

I still have a ca 1974 copy of a Swedish motor rag where Lancia Beta 'won' a group test! They also made Simca/Talbot (something) 1508 Car Of The Year, possibly prompted a sales rush. Three years later none was seen on the roads anymore. This where times when the two words Mercedes and Quality, if mentioned together, was considered a bit of a curiosity (why on earth would you want that?). Cars like Fiat 127 and 128 where also hailed as fantastic small econoboxes.
 
Not really a mistake because, while I loved that car, it had more than its fair share of problems. An Alfa 156 2.0 Twin Spark with the ‘Selespeed’ tiptronic gearbox…. Big ends went within 6 months (of buying from new), gearbox needed a compete replacement, the catch which secures the bonnet failed as I was driving at 60 mph along a B road, plastic side skirt peeled itself off… but strangely I still loved that car and kept it for 6 years. It was a beautiful and temperamental thing!

Alfista?

I had a 156 when new. Very little problems, but that didn't stop me from trading it for an MX5 after less than a year. The Mazda had even less problems but was only kept for two years. I'm mad, I know.
 
Alfista?

I had a 156 when new. Very little problems, but that didn't stop me from trading it for an MX5 after less than a year. The Mazda had even less problems but was only kept for two years. I'm mad, I know.

Not an Alfista because I didn’t know any better at that time! My previous car was a Renault Laguna…

The MX5 is a decent car by all accounts!

I eventually traded the Alfa (for pennies) for an e46 BMW 330i. A much better car in every conceivable way!
 
Yes, thanks Seeker!

I still have a ca 1974 copy of a Swedish motor rag where Lancia Beta 'won' a group test! They also made Simca/Talbot (something) 1508 Car Of The Year, possibly prompted a sales rush. Three years later none was seen on the roads anymore. This where times when the two words Mercedes and Quality, if mentioned together, was considered a bit of a curiosity (why on earth would you want that?). Cars like Fiat 127 and 128 where also hailed as fantastic small econoboxes.

Dad swore blind that it was one of the nicest cars he had driven and I am sure it's probably a combination of that and practicality that one the group test for it. However, even at a Lancia rate of oxidation (based on a scale of zero to Alfasud) rust might not have appeared in sufficient quantities to be hugely noticeable during the weeks test and affect the rankings.
 
Saw a lovely time warp Merc 190e for sale yesterday, incredible build quality & I would have one (or similar) as post retirement run about.
 
In nearly 35 years of owning various cars, mostly cheap ones, I haven't had too many problems. In fact I have had more problems with the more expensive ones I have bought.
Best/most reliable was a Subaru Legacy Turbo (actually the most expensive car I have ever owned). Only things that went wrong with it over and and above normal wear items was the T-union on the headlamp washer pipes failed, and it needed a new battery at nine years and 95,000 miles (not unreasonable, I feel).
Others included an Audi Coupe, Audi 90 20V, and Audi 100 which were all utterly reliable. Also various BL/Austin Rover/Rover cars that never let me down - including the much-maligned Marina, and Rover 25. Plus the legendary £275 Volvo V70 bought with 283,000 miles on, used for three years including many 500+ mile round trips, and sold (in better condition) for £600 three years later with 307,000 miles up.

Worst cars - Citroen BX 1.6. Unspeakably awful AND hideously unreliable. Lasted three months.
Rover 825 D - comfortable, good on fuel, good to drive. But that engine (the main non-Rover bit, it was made by VM in Italy) was ALWAYS needing something doing to it. Drove me potty, and I was glad to get shot of it
Volvo S8- T6 - a very silly car. Very fast, supremely comfortable, amazing at eating huge distances with ease. Bizarrely unreliable, to the point where my local Volvo specialist and I became good friends, it was always weird dealer-only things like the indicator control unit (a circuit board behind the steering wheel that had to be programmed to the car - that will be £400, Sir), or the 'throttle unit' (a mere £450 to you, good Sir). Or the ABS control unit - would have been £1200+ VAT for a new one. It was fixed in a morning by taking it out and dabbing the power inlet solder joints with a soldering iron ("They all do that, Sir. It's a feature" was the consensus from the Volvo forum)
My mechanic said "I think it is that the T6 engine is too powerful for the car"

Just bought a Volvo XC70 - this one has a few faults, I have rejected it with the dealer, who is not responding to my messages and letters. Legal action is imminent....
 
Last edited:
Saw a lovely time warp Merc 190e for sale yesterday, incredible build quality & I would have one (or similar) as post retirement run about.

A friend in Germany has a 2.3 16 valve version of the 190E (I think it was a Cosworth engine) and that was a fun car to drive. He also had one of the first convertible BMW M3's - also nice.
 
Worst cars - Citroen BX 1.6. Unspeakably awful AND hideously unreliable. Lasted three months.

That's twice the BX has come up now so I think I must have been lucky with my one, a 1.9TRS petrol estate, as I ran that to over 100,000 miles with only very minor issues - the worst being the need to replace some of the suspension pipework as it approach 100,000 miles. I loved that car, especially as I got it very cheap (it was my Dad's company car and was sold to me for something like £3K at 3 years old).
 
That's twice the BX has come up now so I think I must have been lucky with my one, a 1.9TRS petrol estate, as I ran that to over 100,000 miles with only very minor issues - the worst being the need to replace some of the suspension pipework as it approach 100,000 miles. I loved that car, especially as I got it very cheap (it was my Dad's company car and was sold to me for something like £3K at 3 years old).

To be fair, I paid £300 for the one I had because I needed something quickly, and it was a bit of a shed that got me out of a hole.
 
In nearly 35 years of owning various cars, mostly cheap ones, I haven't had too many problems. In fact I have had more problems with the more expensive ones I have bought.

Volvo S8- T6 - a very silly car. Very fast, supremely comfortable, amazing at eating huge distances with ease. Bizarrely unreliable, to the point where my local Volvo specialist and I became good friends, it was always weird dealer-only things like the indicator control unit (a circuit board behind the steering wheel that had to be programmed to the car - that will be £400, Sir), or the 'throttle unit' (a mere £450 to you, good Sir). My mechanic said "I think it is that the T6 engine is too powerful for the car"

No problems with the auto box then? They where bought from GM in USA. They had such bad QC there where a guy from the US stationed at the factory in Göteborg, Sweden who checked them ('That's a bad one, you can't use it!'). S80 was the first car that was controlled by software that was uploaded by the dealer, no surprise there was a lot of problems. The throttle body, if I remember correctly was from Italy (Marelli) to save a pound or so, while the rest of the injection system was proper Bosch.
 
A Citroen BX 1.6 was my first decent used car after running bangers for years and was nice to drive and absolutely reliable.
Replaced it with a 3yo Alfa 164, that was also reliable apart from getting through two oxygen sensors.
 
No problems with the auto box then? They where bought from GM in USA. They had such bad QC there where a guy from the US stationed at the factory in Göteborg, Sweden who checked them ('That's a bad one, you can't use it!'). S80 was the first car that was controlled by software that was uploaded by the dealer, no surprise there was a lot of problems. The throttle body, if I remember correctly was from Italy (Marelli) to save a pound or so, while the rest of the injection system was proper Bosch.

Surprisingly, the gearbox was the one thing that never gave a problem with mine. Lots of other things........
 
I owned 3 Citroen BX and the only problem I had was that one of them was written off whilst parked in Manchester by 'Joy Riders'. I loaded them up and drove them all over the country reliably. I bought them all second hand 3 years old with one previous owner.
 


advertisement


Back
Top