|
|
|
Gotta admit I don’t tend to anymore.. been to see too many cars that were way worse than described (mainly fords/BMW’s!) In my 20’s I’d often travel a few hundred miles to see stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A teeny distance in comparison and not a car, but as a dumb teenager I bought a non running Yamaha RD350B in St Albans and pushed it back to Tewin north of Welwyn Garden City because I had to have it. Was only 15 miles, but was a hell of a long evening/ night!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am but a mere amateur compared to some here, but have never shied away from a journey for something I want;-
A 325 mile round trip from Colchester to Cheltenham for my XJR, 318 to Mansfield for my wife's XFR, 332 to Wolverhampton for her previous XF, 690 from Ille et Vilaine France to Buckingham GB for my Pajero. In order to sell my wife's LHD Hungarian registered Clio, we drove 1,300 miles from West Sussex to a tiny village somewhere South of Budapest. Then flew back to England. More recently, when Marlin hunting, I almost made two 900 mile round trips from Norfolk to Londonderry, to view, then collect later, but couldn't make the figures work. A shame; the car was probably better than the one I bought locally, but the travel costs would have added 60% to the price of the car.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok hold my beer. In 2009 I took my Golf Gti from Thurso to Exeter to trade in for a BMW 530d and drove it back again. Left Thurso at 2am, arrive Exeter circa midday, did the deal and drove back as far as Glasgow in day 1, got there around 10pm. Up early doors next day and the short 5hr trip North. Absolutely lovely car and well worth the trip. All in circa 1400 miles round trip. Heading South only stopped for petrol and food.
Also in 2007 I made the trip from Thurso to Hull to pick up the Golf Gti, cannot remember how I got down to Hull, must have been a flight as I had no trade in.Came up the East coat to gods country that was a 530 mile rum in one direction, did it in a oner only stopping for fuel.
I love a long distance road trip!!
|
|
Last Edit: Dec 6, 2021 6:56:06 GMT by henspeed
|
|
perf
Part of things
Posts: 35
|
|
|
Sweden, 2006, i flew to Stockholm, got the train 3 hours north to Huddiksval to buy a 56 Cadillac. I am from that part of Sweden. Lived in Hudiksvall about 25years ago. Nice little town. And a lot of car entusiasts.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sweden, 2006, i flew to Stockholm, got the train 3 hours north to Huddiksval to buy a 56 Cadillac. I am from that part of Sweden. Lived in Hudiksvall about 25years ago. Nice little town. And a lot of car entusiasts. I love Sweden, we’ve visited most parts of it over the last 25 years and have done most of the larger car events there including Classic Car Week in Ratvik,in 2011 we rented a house overlooking the lake for 10 days and put an old 63 Caddy Fleetwood on the now defunct cargo ferry from Harwich to Gothenburg. 6 of us flew in, picked up the car from the port and drove up to Ratvik. When we were done we left the car behind and a friend sold it for us, we made a little profit which covered the house rental
|
|
Last Edit: Dec 5, 2021 20:29:20 GMT by Motorama
Fake patina sucks!
|
|
|
|
|
2 years ago I flew Luton to Edinburgh to pickup a ‘tidy’ but cheap XKR from an ex work colleague, with a few advisories for corrosion on the MOT 2 weeks before. Drove it back 380 miles without issues. However after investigating that corrosion, it’s turned into a major restoration project
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many many years ago I got fed up with sellers dishonesty I vowed I’d never travel more than 100 miles to buy a car…and I haven’t in at least 20 years…bought a few blind and had them collected and probably missed a few gems due to not travelling but I’ve bought some lovely cars over the years, I fully understand wanting to travel for the right car But I can’t be bothered with it now
|
|
Fraud owners club member 1999 Jaguar s type 1993 ford escort
|
|
|
|
|
On my two mega runs the trip to hull was for a spanker so no concerns over condition. The bmw from Exeter I had a 3rd party inspection carried out in it first, cost about £200 but saved a wasted trip and I knew it was spot on beforehand.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not a long journey for me but still a car from a long way away. We purchased my wife's Laser online from a French girl in Auckland who was returning home. We live in South Otago, the distance involved being close to 1000 miles. At the time my eldest was living in Auckland so we sent him, armed with some knowledge of French due to having spent six months in the south of France on student exchange while at high school, to collect the car for us. Between his limited French and her less than perfect English the transaction was made and my boy set off on his own to deliver the car to us. Not sure if he had a full licence then or not, might have been still on a restricted. Only minor issue was when his mother (my first wife, we've both remarried) called his mobile and discovered that he was in Wellington waiting to catch a ferry to the South Island instead of in Auckland where she thought he was. For some strange reason she was less than impressed with his actions. Oh dear, what a shame. My son wasn't impressed with his mother's attitude either from memory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After having my time wasted a fee times in my younger days. I don't anymore.
Furthest has been York (about 70 miles) and that wasn't as described either but I had gone up in a recovery truck so had it anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aside from my Sweden trip mentioned further back the furthest in the UK ive travelled is from Chesham, Bucks to Glasgow. About 10 years ago i flew up to Glasgow from Luton to buy a 97 Chevy Suburban i'd won on Ebay for circa £4k, the car belonged to a country estate and was used as a runabout, lowish miles, looked decent for the money, had a new MOT. The seller got his driver to collect me from the airpot and take me to collect the car from the estate, i gave it a quick once over, it was tidy and for the money seemed a bargain. I paid the money, did the paperwork and jumped in it to go. Fired it up and set of down the mile long driveway, got to the gate, put my foot on the brake which went straight to the floor and i shot accross the road narrowly avoiding a ditch and a wall. After i'd collected myself i turned it around using the foot park brake and carefully drove it back up to the house where a heated discussion ensued. They got the guy from the local garage to come out and look at it, he couldnt fix it. As it wasnt as described i got my money back and persuaded them to pay for my flight back to Luton, a waste of a day and the cost of a flight. They did call me a few weeks later and said it was fixed but i couldnt be ar5ed to go through it all again
|
|
Fake patina sucks!
|
|
|
|
|
Scary stuff! I had a similar experience recently with one of our bodyshop's courtesy cars, a 2003 VW Polo 9N; I'd just set off out of the yard along a straight entrance approaching a main road, tried to slow before the junction and discovered an almost complete lack of brakes, despite pumping the pedal. Fortunately, I managed to slow just enough before emerging onto the road, and returned the car for another one.
It turned out to be a leaking rear wheel cylinder: I would have thought that the dual-circuit braking system of a modern(ish) car would have meant it would still have reasonable braking, but alas not.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
^Is this not the entire reason for the invention of dual circuit brakes?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 10, 2021 13:17:48 GMT
|
That's what I thought, but the braking was only very marginal, only helped by pumping the brake pedal, and yanking on the handbrake!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 10, 2021 18:44:08 GMT
|
That's what I thought, but the braking was only very marginal, only helped by pumping the brake pedal, and yanking on the handbrake! Could be there was no fluid left Doesn't matter how many circuits you've got then! Would point to VERY dodgy maintenance tho
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 10, 2021 20:12:30 GMT
|
I would have thought any reputable business would keep its courtesy cars in at least reasonable order given that they will be driven by all manner of people with a wide range of skill/intelligence levels.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 10, 2021 21:05:00 GMT
|
about 90 miles [manchester airport to birmingham centre] for a fiat cinq sporting, other half didnt want to drive back in any way but I had a car trailer at the time to picked it up with that, good job really cos the water pump was leaking.
other than that try to buy car really local, except for my last one which I got from wigan and I got all friendly with using a taxi to the station, a train to wigan, and a taxi to its seller. Quite enjoyed that trip really so next time I buy a car aprt from going to see it in my own car when I come to buy, a bit of dirty public transport lol I will quite enjoy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 10, 2021 22:49:13 GMT
|
I would have thought any reputable business would keep its courtesy cars in at least reasonable order given that they will be driven by all manner of people with a wide range of skill/intelligence levels. Well, here's the rub: we do strive to maintain them to a good standard, and it had only recently passed the MOT, and yes, there was a reasonable amount of brake fluid in, despite the suddenly leaking rear wheel cylinder. Prior to this incident, there were no known issues with the brakes; it was quite by luck that I happened to be driving it, rather than a customer! Anyway, it's all been fixed now, again just been MOTd and new tyres, plus I fitted a new nearside front wing onto it today, after a previous (Romanian) hirer of it managed to dent the recently fitted one.
|
|
|
|
|