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We've all had them, that car that seemed to constantly get dinged, or mysteriously break at inopportune times. What was your unlucky car? Mine was my poor Alfa 33. It was the first car I bought myself in 1998 (having previously had hand me downs from my Dad, the Sierra tried to kill me a few times so that almost made it as the unluckiest), it was relatively low miles and had been looked after by an enthusiast, you couldn't really have got a better one, 1989, so metal was good, 1.7 Cloverleaf so it made lovely noises and went places fast. For the first week of owning it I left every set of lights in a cloud of tyre smoke accidentally because I was so used to the aforementioned Sierra that needed booting to just get anywhere. Once I'd got used to it though it was spot on. Pretty soon the exhaust needed replacing, so an OMP straight through went on it and now it made the most awesome noise. Somewhere after this it got a hex on it I swear, within a year it was all over and the car was a write off. Firstly part way to an event with four other people in the car it just died. Like straight up stopped working. Couldn't get it started, couldn't work out what was going on. I don't even remember how we got home (I think roadside recovery was involved). My Dad took a look at it, and it wasn't anything obvious that I'd missed. A strip down later and it turns out that the little rod that operated the mechanical fuel pump had worn down at one end, when we got a replacement sorted the person that supplied it said they had never seen such a thing happen. One day I parked up outside the flats I was living in and it was all fine, next day I get in it and the brakes are making the most HORRIFIC noise, like they are stuck on, but they aren't. I check for stones and other debris, nothing. So back to my parents to speak to my dad again and jack it up to have a better look. The metal plate behind the brakes had bent and was rubbing on the disc. Absolutely no idea how that happened. A few weeks later I go out to where it is parked and there is a big dent in the front wing, nothing to stop it driving, but no reason for it, so I'm guessing someone kicked it, rather than it got ran in to, unless it was a SUPER low speed event. A few weeks after that there is a bin lorry turning outside the flats and it reverses in to the door of the Alfa and drives off. I was so furious I kicked the other front wing. It could still be driven, but not having money to repair it meant I'd be stuck with a car with three big dents for the foreseeable future. Insurance wrote it off. Knowing what I know now I should have kept it, but sadly that was the end of it I'm sure other people have more unlucky cars... what you got?
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The Doctor
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,434
Club RR Member Number: 48
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Dec 13, 2019 11:29:32 GMT
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Last Edit: Dec 13, 2019 11:31:39 GMT by The Doctor
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Dec 13, 2019 11:32:38 GMT
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Renault 16 - cooling problem, needed a new engine, then sold it.
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Dec 13, 2019 11:38:48 GMT
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The Jag pictured to the left felt quite unlucky because I loved it and it was perfect in every way. Apart from the passenger side sill which was just gone. As was the strengthener, inner sill, and a fair bit of the floor. I sold it to the MoT man who fixed it then drove it into a lamp post whilst avoiding an ambulance.
My wife had a smiley face Mondeo. Whilst she had it she reversed it into the lamp post at the end of our drive and rattled two doors down a bollard. Once those were fixed, someone drove a coach into it. Once that was fixed, someone else drove into the freshly repaired corner and promptly buggered off.
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,833
Club RR Member Number: 40
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Dec 13, 2019 15:03:22 GMT
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Anything I owned when I was young that got thrashed to within an inch of its life at every opportunity.... The Skoda 130 rapid blowing its head gasket on the way home from buying it was a low point however. James
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Dec 13, 2019 15:49:04 GMT
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My Current Transit, I've had to have the gearbox out 5 times in the last 4 months, dodgy clutch suppliers sending incorrect parts out and the latest one has just popped the slave cylinder so it's coming out again tomorrow.
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jmsheahan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 681
Club RR Member Number: 121
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Dec 13, 2019 16:05:12 GMT
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My MK5 Golf GTI. The newest car I’ve ever owned…
Bought as a pick me up after a few life dramas. Crashed my beloved MK2 on the way to pick it up.
Oil pump pick up clogged a week later. Random electrical issue where it would put all it’s windows down….when pouring with rain…
1 year later the high pressure fuel pump ate itself and the head. £800, replacement head.
2 months later the bottom end let go and seized. Engine out, clutch and turbo is fecked. All replaced.
1 week later dumped its coolant in spectacular fashion down the motorway after a pipe split.
Cost me £3500k in 3 months that car! Got sick of spannering on it so sold it on!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,861
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Dec 13, 2019 17:20:58 GMT
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I'm not sure if it was unlucky, or more a case of me being unexperienced but my Saab 9-3 was a source of constant expense forum.retro-rides.org/thread/175101/2001-saab-aero-hot-soldCouple days after I bought it, it had a fuel leak in the engine bay. Then realised it needed a cam chain swap. Bulkhead was cracked and needed welding. Locking wheel nuts all broke needing drilling out. Not long after that the clutch started slipping and needed changing. I had a remap done and did a dyno day which higlighted that there was a weird boost spike and it wasn't making the power it should. Towards the end, the gearshift was feeling ever floppier, I bought an exhaust for it that didn't fit, then found a destroyed CV boot and a rusty inner wing that was the last straw Sold it to a guy up in Cumbria who used it to reshell his flooded Viggen I believe Amusingly, the private plate from it is still for sale from the guy I sold the car to nearly 3 years ago! www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T44-ERO-T4-Aero-Private-Registration-Saab-9-5-Aero-Saab-9-3-Aero/122271524682?hash=item1c77f3674a:g:M-8AAOSw-0xYU9vX
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brc76
RR Helper
Posts: 1,107
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Dec 13, 2019 18:16:30 GMT
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1983 Alfasud 1350ti. I owned it from, I think mid 98 to the end of 2001. It had been a aroc uk concours winner a few years before I bought it.
I was, I think, something stupid like the 15th owner. I replaced the gearbox, twice. Once after a professional rebuilt the original, and it was worse. Rear panhard rod mount sheared off about 2 months after a mot. Much spinning, but very luckily no contact with others! Front brakes would randomly decide that allowing movement was beyond their capabilities. Lights would not work in the winter unless the car was warm. All sorts of random electrical gremlins.
But I loved it.
I stupidly sold it when I moved back to the USA, the first time, sadly the next owner left it in a field for a while. Should have bought it back when I found out that.
Have since seen it go through various auction houses at least 4 times.
I wouldn't be at all suprised if it was past 30 owners by now. Lovely car but needed love of the right person.
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Dec 13, 2019 18:27:33 GMT
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Has to be my second car, my blue clubman estate On the drive home from picking it up it overheated and spat it water out. After new engine, gearbox, brakes, fueltank and other stuff were fitted we headed off to the Isle Of Wight. Heading down a country lane into a village there was Dad, 2 land Rovers, then me. Dad managed to clip a huge rock that was sitting at the side of the road, spin it out into the road, the 2 landrovers had no problem having the rock pass underneath them, but as it appeared in front of me there was nothing I could do to avoid it, it smacked the sump breaking 2 fins off, battered the underside of the car, hit the gear remote knocking the car out of gear, and walloped the new fuel tank putting a big dent in it. After it had happened I put my foot on the throttle and it just revved. At this point I had visions of the gearbox being smashed to bits, but thankfully it wasn't. Not a nice experience. Soon after I was on my way to work on an icy day, got fuel, drove to the exit and some muppet hit me in the rear quarter, first thing he said was 'Oh well its only a mini' Turns out he was uninsured. Got the car repaired, went on holiday, pulled up at a roundabout and my mate slammed into the back of it, this time it was the other side that needed repairing. Leaving a carpark once that had a dip in the road that I didn't see, the car was so low that the exhaust clamp got caught on the road and ripped the big bore exhaust off, so I chucked the exhaust in the back of the car and drove home. Effin noisy that was. Some little scumbag knicked the GT badges off it once at a car show. Other things happened to it that I cant think off right now, so I guess I got a bit disillusioned with it and sold it because it really started to feel like it was cursed. Soon after I sold it the new owner sent me a message to say that someone had tried driving through it at a junction. I didn't actually realise it was Friday the 13th today, but that does go some way to explain the day ive had. Nightmare.
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Last Edit: Dec 13, 2019 18:30:25 GMT by bmcnut
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Dec 13, 2019 18:37:53 GMT
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I guess mine is either the unluckiest or luckiest depending on how you see it. Back when I was in my late teens/early twenties, I decided to buy a Mk1 Cortina estate to go with my Mk1 Cortina saloon (why I'm not sure). The estate was somewhere around Northolt if I remember correctly. It was a non-runner, rusty, and had been sat in the chap's garden for years (I'll get it fixed up and back on the road in a flash I thought! - oh the optimism of youth). So I roped in my mate with a Mk2 Cavalier SRi which had a tow bar, and borrowed another mates trailer and off we set round the M25 to pick it. Mate with the Cavalier had to be back in Surrey for an evening shift so time was of the essence. We got there all right, bought the car, loaded it up and set off back round the M25. I should at this point say that the trailer was an old plant trailer, with a timber deck with a sheet steel deck laid over the top - it was massively heavy, and as we found out the brakes didn't work. As we were around Heathrow, mate who was driving says "its starting to sway a bit, what shall I do?", well there are two choices, speed up or slow down - I advised (in all my infinite experience) to take all your feet off the pedals and gradually slow down. That's what we did, and the swaying got worse and worse until we were crossing all three lanes and the hard shoulder, until eventually the whole thing pirouetted right round and ended up blocking the inside lane and pointing the wrong way up the M25. The Cortina stayed on the trailer and the whole lot stayed upright - how, I have no idea! The only damage was a stone kicked up from the verge and smashed the passenger window of the Cavelier. So there we were blocking the inside lane of the M25 facing the oncoming traffic. Not much we could do except get out and wait for help (before the days of mobiles). After a while a traffic cop arrived, stopped the traffic and we swung round onto the hard shoulder. He then proceeded to check the car and the trailer thoroughly, and found that the trailer brakes were inoperative. So he gave my mate who was driving a fixed penalty notice (6 points I think), and strongly suggested we take the back roads home rather than use the motorway. God knows what time we got home! Surprisingly enough the Cortina sat round my mates for several years being scavenged for bits before being sold to a chap from the Isle of Wight and it snapped in half when he winched it onto his trailer! Lucky/unlucky - you decide! We all walked away
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Old Fords never die they just go sideways
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Laters
Club Retro Rides Member
Head Droid Builder and Bottle Washer
Posts: 123
Club RR Member Number: 115
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Dec 13, 2019 20:06:57 GMT
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Unluckiest car for me was a 1989 Fiat Tipo 1.9 turbo diesel DGT. It was a one owner low mileage car that had clearly been looked after by the elderly bloke I bought it from. The idea was to buy a car that wouldn't cost a lot to run and keep it for as long as possible.
On the test drive it drove superbly & the old bloke said he had kept it garaged from new washing every week even if it wasn't used and he even kept a small book in the car that listed every penny he spent on it including every fill up at the fuel station.
Within a few weeks of owning it there was a weird suspension noise on the drivers side and the heater controls started to fail to work correctly. Took it to the local fiat main dealer who was a friend of the family and he knew the car & said how great a car it was for the price I paid. They couldn't find the suspension noise but could help with the heater controls as it was stripped gear. In the short time I had the car I got to know how to change the heater control gears as they failed quite often & after the third time bought a few spare part so could just replace them when they broke.
Suspension noise still couldn't be found even after we pretty much stripped the entire front suspension off the car.
A few weeks later car was parked on the drive on a normal overcast summer day & the windscreen decided it was that time and ended up with a few cracks that went from one side to the other. Had the screen changed & all was good for a few weeks till driving to work one morning the windscreen decided to do the same again with a big crack going all across it.
That was the last straw & I swapped with the family friend who had the fiat main dealer for a Honda Accord aerodeck 3 door he had taken in part exchange earlier that week.
In contrast to the fiat the Accord aerodeck was one of the best cars I have ever owned & it one of the ones I wished I hadn't let go.
The above with the tipo happened in just under 3 months and was the shortest time I have ever kept a car for. It was the first fiat I had ever owned and quite likely the last.
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Club Retro Rides Gti Member
Garage Queen, 1987 Quantum Saloon
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Dec 13, 2019 21:04:41 GMT
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F type Vauxhall Victor. Wipers packed up on the way to a show, heater burst & filled the inside with steam, brakes failed, both rear springs snapped when I had a fat girl in the back, & it tried to run me over. Remarkably it's still on the road, according to the DVLA.
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Dec 13, 2019 22:06:44 GMT
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I've had 2 of those. This one was a Zastava ( a license built Fiat 600) That I built up with left over parts I had from constantly modifying my 1000TC racer. Lowered a bit with Koni's, 850 discs and Simca wheels, a 127 engine with a better exhaust, carb, and cam. It was loud and obnoxious, and I drove it like I stole it. It ate parts at an amazing rate. I called it the Italian Christine... And the other one was this Capri Classic. I bought it after moving to the States because I missed my Mk1 Escort estate so much. When I found it it had a dead engine, which was OK because I knew a 1st year Pinto 1.6 for sale ( which was a low compression version of the 1600 Kent ) I swapped that in with an aftermarket intake and bigger carb. It was cool when it ran, which wasn't often. I tried to use it as my daily driver, but it would breake parts, which I'd replace with new, and then it would break those. For no obvious reason. I sold it ( with a pile of spare parts I'd collected ) to a buddy of mine, who brought it back to original. ( he has since moved out of state, but last time I talked to him he said it was running and he was enjoying it )
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Dec 13, 2019 22:11:22 GMT
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Pic didn't post. And then there was this Alfa Romeo F12 Van. Not really unlucky, but wore out, unreliable, and to be honest a crappy design to begin with. It needed more more time , money and skill than what I could give it as a young man in my 20's. So I had to bail on it... Highlitghts of Alfa Romeo F12 ownership were ( as rare as they were ) a quick round trip from the Netherlands through Northern Italy and back ( from junkyard to junkyard to go parts hunting ) And me transporting my brother and his mates and their instruments to a gig when they had a Punk Band. But from what I spent on it Vs the distance traveled, it might have been cheaper to take a taxi for those trips... What I learned from that one was that some cars deserve to be rare.
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My mum and I decided once, years ago, when I still lived at home, that she needed a big vehicle for moving around chicken houses and animal feed, and I needed something to tow with so we ventured on to the sales market looking for a Mitsubishi Shogun. Some research meant we went after a 2.8td version, to avoid the timing belt woes of the other engines.
We (I) found what seemed to be a well looked after silver one in Belfast, which was priced right at the top of the market at the time and had lots of MOT. By then I'd purchased some few dozen old cars so I thought I was great at looking stuff over. Didn't find anything to sniff at, so we bought it.
The next day it was very hard to start. That led to having the fuel pump rebuilt, at great cost. Then we had to have the injectors rebuilt, at great cost. Then the head had to be skimmed, at great cost. Then the... we replaced a LOT of parts. It was on the road for 3 months out of 13 that we owned it. It failed the MOT on a hole in the chassis, which I patched up myself, then we immediately stuck it up for sale, and were offered a black BMW 525tds with almost a years MOT, which after about 5 minutes we agreed it was much preferable, and the Shogun was sent packing. The BMW was ultimately reliable for at least 2 years after that, thankfully, but that Shogun was one of the worst POS unreliable cars I've ever come across. I'm not sure I'd put that down to "unlucky" as much as "useless unreliable rubbish" though...
But "unlucky"... In December 1999, my parents traded in their 9 month old metallic blue Skoda Felicia 1.3mpi for a metallic green Skoda Felicia Estate 1.9d. It was a pre-reg, so a great deal, fitted with a rare 7-seater option and a towbar. My mum spun it on black ice and ended up pointing up a bank. My dad was sideswiped on the left side by someone pulling out into him at a crossroads, which mangled the wing and front door. My dad was sideswiped on the right side by someone pulling out into him at the same crossroads, which mangled the wing and front door. For added bonus he was on the way to the hospital where my sister was being born. I was practising reverse corner parking for my driving test, in our yard, when I decided learning how to handbrake would be more fun, and I smashed the car square into the corner of the garage, completely mangling the bonnet, bumper, slam panel, lights etc. All those were repaired. My dad and I were headed to B&Q for something and there was an accident on the road. We stopped as traffic was on our side of the road, then a Corsa came flying up behind us, couldn't stop in time and smashed into the rear of us at 50mph. The boot floor was buckled, although the car still drove OK. We were both taken to hospital for that one. He drove it around for another month or so, but it was written off after that one, at less than FIVE years old. BCZ4334 - a very hardy little car, but not an original panel left on it.
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Had s Vauxhall Firenza, swapped with a mate for a mk2 cortina ( what WAS I thinking!?!) which had the earth shattering 1172cc engine Oil light wouldn't go out, even when the engine was rebuilt, gearbox meant changing into 4th involved pulling up the front of the drivers seat bolster so you could get it in, chronic misfire was a porous inlet manifold,( guess how long it took to find that out!) it was hit whilst parked by someone who left a note and his number apologising I rang him up and asked why he hadn't hit it harder He said he was very sorry and would use a truck the next time Dashpot with a completely random oil use issue I even left it on the slope one night of my parents drive, window down and keys in the ignition It STILL didn’t get nicked Suddenly one day whilst I was trying to fix the oil light again, someone pulled up and asked if i wanted to sell it I still have his arm
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,829
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Dec 14, 2019 11:40:38 GMT
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I've had 0 fault accidents, 11 non fault accidents, 2 cars stolen and crashed, 2 gone on fire and one hit and run whilst parked. Makes me laugh when people ask why I drive the turds I do then I reel that lot of as a reason I don't drive nice cars.
*Just to add the Vitara was probably the unluckiest. Crashed into once on the motorway by a woman who fell asleep at the wheel, repaired so it was nice again, slid down a banking it was parked on at the farm when it rained and stoved one rear corner in, then the other corner was smashed in whilst it was parked on a street in York and eventually got written off after I tracked the driver/vehicle that did it down.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Dec 14, 2019 12:29:37 GMT
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Proably my senator lowrider, although there’s at least 3 or 4 other contenders. Pic is terrible, as it’s a photo of a pic on a laptop. It was a well known car, multiple mag featured. I bought it off here for a reasonable price. It was a pile of 💩 The air setup was a Ray Ramsey special so leaked like curse word, didn’t have a compressor capable of filling it fast enough again and the wiring set itself on fire at least twice. At the time I owned it he still had it up on his website trumpeting how great it was and was one of the first ‘strut bag’ cars he did. The struts has more silicon sealer than weld on em. The suspension would randomly drop on you, usually at high speed. Kinda funny in a way but not if anyone was following as the shower of sparks went all over their windscreen. The lpg setup use to randomly backfire/explode for no reason anyone could find. It got to the point where I had spare intake pipes in the car as it kept blowing holes in em, until I figured out there was one hose clip that if you didn’t do it up quite tight it didn’t blow the hose. My dog was sick in it twice. A lorry crashed into me on the day I was going to my first date with my mrs. (12 years, we get married next year). He pulled out on me on a dual carriageway, apparently his gearbox malfunctioned or something and dropped into neutral, and he just rolled out in front of me very slowly across both lanes. I put the car though a gap 3” narrower than it between him and the Armco, took off both wing mirrors and did one front wing. I managed to get into a street race on the a130 with an off-duty copper. He called a squad car on me when he lost, luckily by that point I’d figured something was amiss when he was still following me all the way into Southend, and I just went a drove round the block in a local estate until either he buggered off or the police turned up, which they did. Searched the car and me, couldn’t find anything and then let me go. I then got pulled 11 further times in 8 weeks. Very nearly wrote it off towing a Monte Carlo lowrider on a home made trailer back from Bristol for a mate. The Monte had 4 pumps, 8 batteries and a full chassis wrap, we found out when we got there it weighed over 3ton on it’s own. We loaded it up anyway and set off back slowly. We found the trailer brakes didn’t work when we got a wag on coming down that long downhill past Swindon on the m4. Couldnt power out of it and spun it across 4 lanes, snapping the straps on the Monte and half loosing it off the trailer. It was sat with its rear bumper on the floor in lane one with the trailer and towbar across lanes 2 and 3. It only stayed on at all cos we’d left the winch on. Managed not to hit anything and get the Monte off and on the hard shoulder (be unhitching the winch and dragging the trailer back and forth with the Senny until the front wheels fell off as well-good job it had hopping springs!) before the police turned up. Amazingly they let us reload it all on the hard shoulder then followed us to the next services with it and left. Not before telling me my MOT was up two weeks previously though! I guess they didn’t want the paperwork for that one. Nearly killed the same mate doing some late night rural street activities when he spun on the second bend of some Esses we were ‘enjoying’, only for me to follow him round at full opposite lock. I was looking at him out of the driver side window when I came round the corner. Luckily the handbrake was good and I missed his car by less than an inch. I finally put it out of its misery when I found the entire rear arches and chassis rails were made of filler and newspapers, dated a coupe of months before I bought it. That’s just the edited highlights for that one. Theres a escort van and a b4 estate that are also very strong contenders.
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Dec 14, 2019 17:07:37 GMT
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Not retro, but my previous VW van. Bought it brand new as a factory order 4motion At 6 months, a lad got road rage, tried to overtake and lost control and hit the offside of the van, it had everything from drivers door back replaced (though it didn’t look too bad as he managed to hit the van at a strong place) At 12 months, lady changed lanes into the near side, and damaged sliding door and wheel arch. A month later an artic did similar, but much better! So everything on near side had to be fixed/replaced. I collected it in the morning, drove to a job and someone smashed the tailgate in with a telehandler, Someone caught the drivers side when parked up, and damaged the drivers door and side panel (again) By now we joked the only original panels were the bonnet and drivers wing. So a prison van reversed into the front That was every panel replaced or had seen paint, so thought that would be the end of it, picked it up and a week later a guy I was working with dropped a set of ladders on the bonnet, so it had another bonnet. There are a few of the dents Current van is doing much better in comparison
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