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Dec 15, 2019 18:51:32 GMT
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As a companion thread to @hotwire 's unlucky thread.
Which cars were so good they sent you in a different direction of car ownership?
I've got a couple...
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Dec 15, 2019 18:59:10 GMT
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My first Fiat, A 1972 Fiat 500 F, which I bought with the exact amount of money my grandma bribed me with to not own a moped. This car set me on a multi decade love affair with small rear engine Fiats, which continues to this day. I drove it to school, to my first real job, and then I did a full resto on it, with lots of modifications. Style wise, I built it kind of as a blend of race car & cal look, spent an obscene amount of money on its paint job. I got it close to being done, but work stalled when I really got into racing. I had to sell it when I moved to the States, but somehow it followed me here. Its in a museum in Miami, its for sale, but for way more than I can afford to spend on it...
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Dec 15, 2019 19:04:48 GMT
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The Zastava I bought when a buddy showed me how easy it was to swap a Fiat 127 engine into one. I bought it from a Junkyard, drove it home, and yanked the engine before it had cooled off. It set me on the path which led me to the 1000TC I still own and race some 30 years later, and it went on to several friends of mine who are also seriously affected with the Fiat virus... ( pic of one of my friends and his wife on a vacation to Italy )
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Dec 15, 2019 19:16:02 GMT
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My first Ford. A Mk2 Escort Estate. ( with Mk1 front sheetmetal after some guy cut a corner while chasing his buddy, and crashed into me head on ) Owned by an old lady who was a customer at a shop I had worked at. She had some trouble with her eyesight and/or coordination, because there wasn't a straight panel on it. My test drive included a handbrake turn, and I said " I'll take it" before it had slid to a full stop. I swapped the complete driveline out of a 1600 Sport into it, with twin DCOE Webers, etc. Lowered, Koni's, Ronal's, and with helper springs in the rear I modified so I could could quickly remove them for daily driving, and put them back in for weekend Towing of the racecar. It also saw some track time on a couple of tracks in the Netherlands, and one memorable lap on the Nurburg Ring ( after which I blew up the engine on my way home , on the Autobahn. I had it running again a day later. ) It was the perfect car for me at the time, and it set me on a track of trying several different Fords ( a Consul Capri Classic, a 105e Anglia, a '64 Falcon Sprint V8, a '66 Ranchero, a '28 and a '29 Model A, a '23 and a '27 Model T, a '60 truck, a '03 F250 Superduty, and many Mk1 Capri's ) like a heroine addict trying to recreate the first high...
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,834
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Dec 15, 2019 19:38:38 GMT
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I posted this as my unluckiest car too, but this is probably the luckiest I've ever felt in a car. The rub marks on the door are where the other cars tyres were, I had the window down and arm out and didn't get a scratch. I can only imagine what a motorway speed impact could do to a exposed limb and that's probably that it wouldn't be attached any more.
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Dec 15, 2019 20:17:05 GMT
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My Astra, bought by my grandad as my previous cars were lasting weeks before exploding, with the explicit terms of I kill it I'm on my own... £350 car still owned 10 years on bought at 89k and now on 174k, its failed to proceed twice, once with a master cylinder fault, and once with an escaped diff. Both faults fixed for less than 50 a time. I've spent money improving it, but as a car I've owned since 18, ragging the out of, its been an utterly dependable little car. Moved into my first house (and a further 2) with it, brought both my children home from hospital in it, and used it as my wedding car earlier this year. Showing its age now so really needs to come off the road, but I know the daily will break and I'll have to depend on it again My grandad has also released me from said terms, and cant believe I still have it
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Last Edit: Dec 15, 2019 20:17:49 GMT by astranaut
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Dec 15, 2019 20:58:15 GMT
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My old Polo saloon. Was looking for a runaround after my Beetle failed its MOT spectuacularly, came across this for £350. Managed to get there before anyone else did (the ad had been up for half an hour and the seller was already being inundated with enquiries!). It gave me over four years of trouble-free retro motoring and even got a few glances at VW shows, with it being the rarest body type of the facelift Mk2 Polos. All for less than a year's tax on a Range Rover. After I moved it on, its next owner gave it a mild resto and sold it to someone else, and as far as I know it's still going today! Very much a case of being on the right website at the right time.
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Dec 15, 2019 21:05:15 GMT
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My first Micra, a black 3dr that the previous owner had tried to drive down the side of a lorry, peeling the front edge of the door back. I repaired myself, very happy with the results. I got it dead cheap as it hadn't really been looked after, but it just went on and on and on and on..... Until it got rear ended. So after my decent experience with a truly good car (Micras are amazing little things IMO) I bought a decent manual 3dr 1.4 SE+. Once again, a supreme little car, this one had been looked after and was an absolute peach. Did loads of miles in it, serviced it and that was it, nothing ever broke or stopped working on either of them, apart from a starter motor on the second one which was a mare to do, buried down the back of the engine. I now have a Nissan Cube, not quite as good as a Micra but its not quite as much Nissan as a Micra. Having these Nissans has sort of made me a convert to the Japanese brand cars, whereas I used to be BMC/BL/Austin Rover all the way. I guess I have JDM in my head and UKDM in my heart.
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astranaut surely failed master cylinder isn't fail to proceed, more failure NOT to.......😀 My Grandads wisdom, ‘theres only one thing worse than a car that wont go, and thats one that wont stop!’ I find this to be true......,
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Dec 16, 2019 13:50:55 GMT
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astranaut surely failed master cylinder isn't fail to proceed, more failure NOT to.......😀 My Grandads wisdom, ‘theres only one thing worse than a car that wont go, and thats one that wont stop!’ I find this to be true......, Well it was a failure to stop followed by a failure to proceed as there would have been another failure to stop
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I probably shouldn't put a picture of it in it's current habitat up, as it will (rightfully) shame me. My 1995 Skoda Favorit GLXiE CD. This car is in this thread because: I think it would otherwise have ended up being crushed It never failed to proceed for me It cemented my preference of daily'ing a retro rather than the 2 year old car it replaced It survived a side-on 50mph impact from an Escort van - while the van was demolished, the Skoda only needed a kinked wing pulled out and off I went It survived 5 minor accidents in 5 weeks It also survived me cutting a corner and walloping a signpost, which upended and came through the windscreen on the passenger side, crushing the A pillar. As a good strong car, no other panel was damaged, and it was repaired. If anyone had been in the passenger seat that day though, they would have been past repair. It got me away from a Vectra police-car in the only chase I've ever taken And probably more. That car has been good to me... and will be again.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,681
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Dec 17, 2019 11:01:24 GMT
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Which cars were so good they sent you in a different direction of car ownership? I don't think that anything I have owned can be considered to be "so good" that they sent me in a different direction of car ownership as its quite subjective as to what good is. However, the most recent example of a car that was pivotal in regards to ownerships was My Ginetta G31 A car that was just different to prior ownership's, nothing particularly special apart from being pretty rare, and re-introduced me to the Ginetta marque. It was a Ginetta model I just happened across whilst browsing kit cars and met a criteria of being mostly waterproof. My fun car at that time was an Aeroscreen Westfield. The G31 was different, fun, reliable and I do now regret selling it, but only because it just deserved better as I doubt it will ever return to the road. I was the last person to put an MOT on it in May 2017. Probably just end up being robbed of it's Ford parts and its identity used on something else which would a sad end to car with such an interesting history. That white plastic wedge started a sequence of events that led to the ownership of 8 further Ginetta's two of which I still have and a Lancia Stratos replica.
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Paul
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,907
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Dec 17, 2019 12:03:36 GMT
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I've had far more good luck stories than bad ones with cars I'm pleased to report - this was probably the best of them... 300 mile round trip to pick it up with a busted speedo and curse word oil everywhere, so just sat behind a lorry all the way home knowing that they'd keep me to speed. As if the asthmatic 1200cc engine would do anything near 70! I learned a lot about old cars, and like many people enjoyed working on it as no job was too big or difficult. Diagnosed the rear main oil seal as the fault, so 4 bolts and the engine was out from underneath. With the engine out I was able to service it and clean it up. Replaced the seal and the clutch for good measure for pennies, refitted and awaaaaaay we went. Honestly, it's the only aircooled car I've seen that didn't leak oil. Like at all. Speedo cable? About £8 - boom, job done Drove it around all summer, gave it a shonky Rustoleum paintjob and sold it (through here) for a profit! Sadly, it looks as though it went to meet its maker in 2016 :-( No MOT since then
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Last Edit: Dec 17, 2019 12:05:46 GMT by Paul
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,191
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Dec 17, 2019 18:44:29 GMT
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metalshapes, your first encounter sounds like torture! Seeing something you want but can't afford. A cool story mind you . The stories are probably what makes a car lucky to me. And having owned a few cars as some know here, there are a few stories to tell! So, where do I start? Firstly this car unintentionally and ironically became a bit of a savour. What was it? A 1989 Ford Escort XR3i Cabriolet '89 Spec bought for the princely sum of £350 in 2006, complete with a year's ticket. Oh, and a £220 Volvo 740 GLE Estate. Yes, it really was as bad as expected for that money, but we were poor students and it was all we could afford and were willing to pay as 20 something year olds! Sure, it had an MOT, but it also had a number of issues. If you are talking about issues, let's get started! -A completely collapsed driver's bolster -Ran very cool on the move -Thanks to a 1.6 Carb exhaust being fitted from the downpipe back, it was hillariously raspy -Brakes worked in a fashion -All tyres were 10% larger due to the wrong sized tyres being fitted and were super old part-worn remoulds -Stunk of fags inside -Looked like it had been painted with Dulux Emulsion hiding around 3 shades of paint all around the car! The worst problem however, by far, was the shake. Jesus Christ, the car shook itself to death if you touched that accelerator pedal. What was our plan for this automotive heap? To go on a 2,000 mile tour of Europe! It's fair to say we didn't do things by halves! A cheap Escort with a questionable history, what can possibly go wrong? It turns out quite a bit! With that in mind, we set about fixing it, including -Respraying the entire car in Diamond White Rattle cans. Sure, it didn't look amazing but it was a huge improvement on what was there before -The cause of the shaking was 80% found ; the O/S driveshaft had lost almost all of its Tripod Bearing cups. With a cheapy recon 'shaft fitted, it was OK -The doorcards were fixed with Fibreglass, albeit were a bit bumpy! With the alternator light only slightly glowing towards Dover at night, it should have been great right? Errr, no. Approaching Frankfurt, we head a pinking sound now and again. No, it wasn't the engine, but the pattern, yet previously fitted alternator coming apart. Did the driveshaft shake this unit apart, or was it something else? Either way, besides almost freezing to death in it whilst driving through the Alps in a car with no thermostat fitted, thus having the temperature gauge firmly pegged in the white, things finally came to a head in Genova, Italy. That exhaust? It's meant to be on the Escort! Yup, the car had broken down. But let's get to how that happened There we were in Italy, with us going down through the lovely mountains while on the Autopias! It was divine! We had the roads, the scenery, the weather. We had it all! But then, the Escort decided it had enough with it! With my friends leaving the headlights on through the mountains, it was enough to make the alternator light become a bright red light etching its battery symbol into our eyes. Finally, the exhaust fell off at the downpipe, and with the car becoming much louder! Yours truly was tasked with bringing the car in Genova. With a car with no exhaust, being deafeningly loud, and with the familiar K-Jetronic Fuel pump hum getting lower and lower in pitch as we drove the car (not that we could really hear it in those circumstances!), things were looking bleak. At this point, a young chap in a chavvy looking 306 took pity on us and told us to follow him to a garage. What could possibly go wrong by taking the lead of a suspicious stranger? Well, we would find out. As we drove through Genova with half of the pedestrians looking at the noisy shitbox, we finally arrived at the garage with the owners shouting in Italian for me to turn the car off ; yup, it was loud! When I pointed at the alternator light being on, then they did calm a bit. At this point we were waiting to get the bill, and to scrap the car and somehow have the rest of us jump into the Volvo. Here, things would change. A lovely Italian girl of our age came out, as follows: "Do you guys speak English?" "No, of course not" - She got the joke "Your generator and exhaust piece are bad. It will take a few days to get the replacement parts in" (Yes, we knew this) "Ah, ok, thanks for the help" "You can stay at our house with our two sisters if you want"No, it wasn't a dream! At this point we decided to be a little chivalrous "No, it's fine, we'll find a campsite nearby, but thank you" - We may have been telling our friend to pipe down with it here! "The nearest site is 30km away, It's no problem" "Ah, ok, maybe we can stay in the guesthouse"My friend to this day claims he was playing it calm. Yeah, er, right. What followed was something that made the holiday spectacular, and eased alot of tensions. Besides a personal tour with the sisters around Genova and their father's toy shops within the city, we also went out with the family as a whole for a meal, which he insisted on paying for despite us objecting, and having a few drinks, and generally a great time. What greeted us the next day was great. There we were about to leave early after the news arrived that the car was repaired. After a 4 hour lunch (no joke), we would finally leave. Sure, the bill for welding two exhaust flanges (oooh Matron!) together, and throwing in a secondhand genuine Ford alternator was questionable at €120, but for that experience and a free stay of that kind, it's something I won't forget for a while. If Carlsberg did breakdowns, they would probably be like the above! It really is a memory I should recall on when the chips are down. After this, we finished our holiday, and gave our friend who stayed in Spain the car. After all, he would end up putting 4 brand new Uniroyals on to fix the remaining vibration problems (and handling issues!), a new XR3i exhaust to replace the bodged system, as well as selling the Volvo to our own RRer here, now known as HubNut . Yes, that story went on a bit. But for such a bad car, it certainly rewarded us with some of the best times; I'd show more photos, but Photobucket took care of that and my HD is not available at this moment . RIP F204 XVN.
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Last Edit: Dec 17, 2019 18:48:23 GMT by ChasR
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,864
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Dec 17, 2019 19:44:46 GMT
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My luckiest was my BMW 750i Spotted on Gumtree for the ridiculously low price of £750 when I was actually looking for a decent 740i to daily. Decided that this was the best chance I was ever going to get to experience V12 ownership. So got a one way ticket from Coventry down to Kent, gave it a quick test drive, met the previous owners family as he was stuck in traffic, got 50 quid knocked off the price without asking after he'd heard I'd travelled down, and drove it to my parents house in Ipswich without a problem. It was absolutely loaded with just about every extra available, and I couldn't find much wrong with the car apart from the out of date sat nav, trafficmaster, and analogue TV and Phone not working. Had nearly 200k on the clock but drove like a car with not even half the mileage. Kept it for a bit, did much better fuel economy than I expected. Stretched its legs on some "Autobahn", after which I found at the next MOT that the front brake discs were wafer thin! Did have to replace a partially collapsed rear strut to get it through the MOT but then sold it on for a decent profit It seems to still be going, I checked the MOT history and I think it needed even more work for the one after I sold it so lucky that I got shot when I did!
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Last Edit: Dec 17, 2019 19:45:50 GMT by adam73bgt
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Dec 17, 2019 20:31:45 GMT
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Luckiest car was not retro... A 2003 Volvo S80 2.9 Geartronic.
Won it on ebay despite not really wanting it, but it was local and auction was trundling along at very low money so I thought I could always flog it on!
Anyway I went to collect begrudgingly and unwillingly (as opposed to ignoring the seller which most seem to do) and it was mint. Service history the most comprehensive I've ever seen, owned from new by the MD of a local machine tool company.
I drove it home and instantly decided it wouldn't be sold on. Drove it (hard) for 18 months and 25,000 miles changing nothing but your standard service items.
The only older car I've ever bought where absolutely nothing has gone wrong.
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Dec 17, 2019 21:19:32 GMT
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Not exactly a lucky car but a lucky buy:- Late '90s I was running bangers and throwing them away when the MOT was up. I spotted an ad in the local press for a Granada 2 litre manual (Scorpio shape) at £150.00. I went for a look and the appearance of the car would probably have put most off, it had been mainly parked under a tree for its lifetime so it was moss green and it looked like someone had emptied a sack of coal dust inside it. The elderly disabled owner was giving up driving, he'd had it from new, it had always been serviced but never cleaned. It had a long MOT and seemed to be running OK. It was a 14 year old car with 80K miles on it but it was all unstressed motorway mileage, when the old guy was still working he was driving from Rhondda to London parking up and working a week then driving home. I spent a very busy weekend scrubbing, valeting, polishing & sealing - the car looked like it had just driven out of the dealers! There were no dents, scratches or distorted panels and no corrosion. With lots of shampooing the seats & carpets came up like new. There was nothing on the car that didn't work properly, it was tight, comfortable, solid and drove nicely. I drove it for 9 trouble-free months without spending a penny on it apart from a drop of oil and sold it on at a profit. Not my car but pretty close:
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Last Edit: Dec 17, 2019 21:26:54 GMT by MkX
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Dec 18, 2019 17:28:21 GMT
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Mine are all GM products and not so much lucky but reliable apart from the usual wear and tear stuff like tyres/brakes/exhausts
A 1985 Opel Manta 2.0 GTE hatchback owned from new and covered 90k miles with one clutch cable failure and one waterpump failure which happened on the drive at home after a long journey
A 1989 Astra GTE 2.0 16 valve owned from new which covered about 80k miles with no failures apart from a savage appetite for tires, boy did it go but handled like wearing custard filled shoes on a bouncy castle!
A few MK3 2.0 Carlton estates with no failures I can think of
An R reg Omega 2.0 16 valve estate which was 6 months old when I got it, complete rubbish, rubbish, rubbish car that GM spent 3.5k on it trying to fix the faults, chopped it in after a year for the next one
A 2 year old Carlton Diamond Estate 3.0 24 valve manual that had 22k miles on the clock, I still own this and its just shy of 400k miles with just 2 away from home failures, a poly V belt went due to my own lack of maintenance and took out some coolant hoses and a heater hose split, what a car and it used to get driven like I had stolen it!
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Dec 20, 2019 21:24:49 GMT
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Sometimes I hated my old Mini Mayfair, but there's 2 reasons why I think it "looked out for me". 2 potentially very serious things happened to me with this car and I got out without a scratch. Let me explain: I was driving down the A12 to my friends' house when I was tailgated by an absolute fox picture in a modern Ford Mondeo - he obviously wanted me out of HIS lane. Rather than get the red mist, I simply pulled off the main road and headed through the country lanes. I was about 2 miles from their house when the bottom left balljoint separated and the car effectively said "YOU'RE GOING LEFT!!" I wasn't going that quickly (30-35 at a guess), and I made a bit of a mess of the hedgerow and the Mini. If that balljoint had let go at 70+ on the A12 the chances are I wouldn't be typing this here... The other was the aftermath of when I had been doing maintenance and changed the steering column bushes. I had put the steering column back in and had somehow not got the pinch bolt in correctly. I was again on a country road and the column detached from the rack. THIS IS UTTERLY TERRIFYING!! Amazingly (considering I was doing 50mph) I was able to stop in time to avoid any damage and just gently scraped the hedgerow. Worryingly, it had been several weeks since I'd done the column bushes and I'd done a couple of thousand miles like that. I do not know how I escaped serious injury or death in that car. It must have really liked me. So I sold it...
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Last Edit: Dec 20, 2019 21:37:30 GMT by mrbounce
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Dec 20, 2019 22:04:32 GMT
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My mate did exactly the same thing with his Delorean. He’s been on the motorway, dual carriageways etc etc & it came apart at about 20mph going round a mini roundabout. Lucky lad
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