Car mistakes?

[eternumviti]

Had a mint Alfa 75 turbo Italian import that was rear ended at 70mph whilst I was stationary in motorway roadworks by a dozy bint applying make up, she ended up in what was left of my back seat. Needed a car quick so I replaced it with a Volvo S70 turbo which was soul destroying to drive, fairly ok in a straight line on the motorway but for anything else I hated it, lasted 5 weeks before I moved it on to buy a mint mk2 scirocco on twin Webber’s (so much fun) which lasted 3years before hitting a shitload of gravel dumped from a faulty farmers trailer.

So Volvo S70t, shit car.

I was lucky and walked/stretchered away with both collarbones fractured, compression fractures in cervical vertebrae and internal bruising, prob due to the 4 point harness and Corbeau seat, hate to think what would’ve happened if my Alfa was fitted with the standard seatbelt/seats though, The daft bint on the other hand didn’t walk away.

Having already pressed 'quote' I was going to say that surely she ended up in a box, and you were lucky you didn't too. What a horrendous experience.

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).

I ran a Citroen Xsara Picasso for a while. The design was bizzare. The only way you could tell which end was the front was by checking which way the seats were facing.

MY Grandfather ordered a 1750 Maxi in Harvest Gold upon his retirement. After waiting for it for ages, the dealer rang to say that it had been delivered but was the wrong colour. Spitting feathers, Grandfather took the Blue Maxi and moaned about it ever after. AND saw, later, on a service, a Harvest Gold Maxi 1750 in the same garage with a reg not more than a couple of digits away from his. The ruddy dealer had given/been bribed, whatever, to sell the gold car to someone else. Grandfather nearly died of anger...

Sadly it was not his 'last' car - for some stupid reason he bought an Allegro as the last car. I had to rig a volume enhancer box for the indicator bleeper to deal with his increasing deafness. By then he was a danger to all on the road anyway.

Father ran a Maxi for a while, coachwork in 'bum brown', as he described it. The front wheel fell off in Cornwall. Fortunately it was the nearside one. Had it been the offside we would have ended up in the Helford River.

They were extraordinarily spacious, I guess by virtue of having a wheel at each corner. Except the front nearside one, of course.

I still see one locally occasionally.

 

[eternumviti]

Of the cars that I currently run, the Ferguson TE20 is shockingly unreliable. I seem to have replaced everything except the bits that still need replacing. It had a fuelling issue for years, would fade and die after about half an hour. I removed and cleaned the entire system, including the fuel tank, but the problem persisted. Eventually I gave in and bought it a new fuel tank, which solved the problem. Then the governor went, and it kept overrunning. Its been sitting in the yard for a year, and the fields desperately need topping.

I think the farmer that swapped it for the Series 2 LR thought he'd got a bit of a deal, given that the tractor was 70 years old, and the LR only about 50. Ha, he didn't take into account the fact that the LR was rotten, and has cost him a small fortune. Then again, its probably worth a few quid now, and the Fergie isn't.

The Morris 1000 is a bloody nuisance because the modern rubber heater hoses perish after a shockingly short time. I wouldn't trust a set on a 20 mile round trip, let alone the 10 or 15 years it would be reasonable to expect. But then a 20 round trip in a Morris Minor is probably best avoided anyway.

The Bentley is bombproof, except for a miss that develops after its been sitting for a while. And its almost as old as the bloody tractor! I used it as the delivery van through the first lockdown. It probably cost more in fuel than it generated in profits, but the customers seemed to like it.

 

[Paul L]

I have never been in a Bentley and it is on the bucket list to experience one day, if you’re ever around the Surrey Hills and feeling generous I’ll hitch a short ride and supply a decent coffee for the journey!

 

[Paul L]

A car mistake for me would be a Tesla P90D, a mate took me for a spin and only put it in semi-vomit mode to show me how it accelerated from rest. I felt like I’d been on a playground swing or carousel (if anyone else can relate to how nauseous that makes us when older) for maybe an hour from a single launch, my face felt like it was pulled back onto the headrest! I would need a wipe down interior at a minimum and a pre-booked funeral plan at worst if I owned one, lots of laughs.

 

[Suffolk Tony]

My mate owned a Maxi 1500 for a while, probably the same sh*t brown colour as Mr eternumviti's dad's one. I remember it had an awful cable gearchange, and selecting any gear was an exciting voyage of discovery. The double bed in it folded up to make seats. My mate parked it in his dad's garage at night and was mystified that, most mornings, he had to readjust the driver's seat. Eventually, he worked out that a local couple were sneaking into the garage and, well, coupling in it at night.

 

[Rcook]

My mate owned a Maxi 1500 for a while, probably the same sh*t brown colour as Mr eternumviti's dad's one. I remember it had an awful cable gearchange, and selecting any gear was an exciting voyage of discovery. The double bed in it folded up to make seats. My mate parked it in his dad's garage at night and was mystified that, most mornings, he had to readjust the driver's seat. Eventually, he worked out that a local couple were sneaking into the garage and, well, coupling in it at night.

A very early one then, the Maxi was relaunched about a year after it was first released, with a lot of improvements, including to the gearchange which was notoriously awful on early cars. Development story here https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/austin/maxi/

 

[Rcook]

The Merkur did not sell well in the States. It was sold by Mercury dealers, had no "Ford" or "Sierra" badging, and used the unloved 2.3 liter "Pinto" engine. On offer here from 1985-89. In addition to the XR4Ti, there was also a Scorpio. This was during the same time that Rover attempted to re-enter the US market with a Rover 800 re-badged as a "Sterling 827".

If you go on to Youtube, and search for 'The Car Wizard', he recently had a Scorpio in.
Rover going back to the US with the 800 as the Sterling was a disaster. The used the 'Sterling' brand because the Rover brand had a bad reputation in the US. Interestingly, the Honda Legend, basically the same car as the 800/Sterling was a decent seller in the US.

 

[Barrymagrec]

I seem to remember that BL had a habit of upgrading a new car a year or two after launch and producing the car they should have built in the first place before their reputation was further trashed.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

It must have been a frustrating place to work as a design engineer.

If the car isn’t selling, we can’t afford to update it. If it is selling, there’s no need to update it.

Combined with awful management, unions, and strange practices on the production line.

Good riddance, I suppose.

 

[Rcook]

I seem to remember that BL had a habit of upgrading a new car a year or two after launch and producing the car they should have built in the first place before their reputation was further trashed.

Pretty much, certainly in the 1960s and 1970s. They would get the basic design, but I think due to pressure from management and lack of money mainly, release it too early and let the customer do the development, then incorporate the improvements during production. It more or less stopped with the Metro in 1980.

 

[Rcook]

It must have been a frustrating place to work as a design engineer.

If the car isn’t selling, we can’t afford to update it. If it is selling, there’s no need to update it.

Combined with awful management, unions, and strange practices on the production line.

Good riddance, I suppose.

That sums up BL in the 1970s. Large amounts of it still exists - Jaguar Land Rover and Mini, plus the truck making side in Leyland still makes trucks, they are owned by Paccar and the trucks are branded DAF these days. The MG brand is now Chinese owned, as is the LDV brand (nee Freight Rover and Leyland DAF Vans). In some markets you can get the old LDV Maxus van branded as LDV (UK), and in others branded as MG.

 

[SteveG]

If you go on to Youtube, and search for 'The Car Wizard', he recently had a Scorpio in.
Rover going back to the US with the 800 as the Sterling was a disaster. The used the 'Sterling' brand because the Rover brand had a bad reputation in the US. Interestingly, the Honda Legend, basically the same car as the 800/Sterling was a decent seller in the US.

I remember reading something that said that at one point the Honda Legend was at the top of the US reliability list, while the Rover 800 (which came out of the same factory) was at the bottom. Which, if true, might say a lot about Honda's ability to finish and prepare a car compared to Rover.

 

[cutting42]

I remember reading something that said that at one point the Honda Legend was at the top of the US reliability list, while the Rover 800 (which came out of the same factory) was at the bottom. Which, if true, might say a lot about Honda's ability to finish and prepare a car compared to Rover.

I think it says more about the useless nature of the US reliability list, JD Power and all similar top/bottom 10 lists

 

[cutting42]

My FIL had a Rover 827, and it was extremely reliable and he loved it. Not my thing at all but it worked pretty well and wafted about satisfactorily.

 

[Paul L]

That sums up BL in the 1970s. Large amounts of it still exists - Jaguar Land Rover and Mini, plus the truck making side in Leyland still makes trucks, they are owned by Paccar and the trucks are branded DAF these days. The MG brand is now Chinese owned, as is the LDV brand (nee Freight Rover and Leyland DAF Vans). In some markets you can get the old LDV Maxus van branded as LDV (UK), and in others branded as MG.

And even now brands make horrendous mistakes with names. MR2 is legendary of course and forgivable I guess in a pre-internet era but Pajero sometime after that still makes me laugh and Audi’s e-Tron in the past year or two astounds me. As does Kona.

amusing article from some time ago here https://drivetribe.com/p/cars-with-...b_7JQyqLp701m09smg?iid=RJFKfwXJRCWVZ_djM5H0FA

 

[Jono_13]

MkI Golf, never ran properly despite the best efforts of a couple of garages that specialised in them. Sold to a lad who turned up in wellies, he loved it!

Close escape... Alfa Romeo Sprint, pulled massively to the left on the test drive, opened the bonnet to find a prefect imprint of the alternator fan on the back of the radiator...

 

[Jono_13]

My FIL had a Rover 827, and it was extremely reliable and he loved it. Not my thing at all but it worked pretty well and wafted about satisfactorily.

There was one in my local bucket dealer last month, I was tempted to have a look, but SWMBO said no...

 

[Rcook]

And even now brands make horrendous mistakes with names. MR2 is legendary of course and forgivable I guess in a pre-internet era but Pajero sometime after that still makes me laugh and Audi’s e-Tron in the past year or two astounds me. As does Kona.

amusing article from some time ago here https://drivetribe.com/p/cars-with-...b_7JQyqLp701m09smg?iid=RJFKfwXJRCWVZ_djM5H0FA

Brilliant. I did think embarrassing car names were a thing of the past. There is a company who actually makes up meaningless but plausible sounding names that don't have any unfortunate connotations or sounding embarrassing anywhere e.g. Mondeo and Vectra

 

[Yank]

If you go on to Youtube, and search for 'The Car Wizard', he recently had a Scorpio in.
Rover going back to the US with the 800 as the Sterling was a disaster. The used the 'Sterling' brand because the Rover brand had a bad reputation in the US. Interestingly, the Honda Legend, basically the same car as the 800/Sterling was a decent seller in the US.

Yeah the Sterling was that rare beast - an unreliable Honda.

 

[Rcook]

Yeah the Sterling was that rare beast - an unreliable Honda.

It was half-Honda, half-Rover