EPILOGUE.
So then, nearly two months on from the end of Twelve Cars In A Year. I've had time tio sit, and reflect on what the heck just happened, but before i do i promised the youngest Pistonpoppet that i would include this short Merrie Melodies clip before the final post on the Firebird, i completely forgot, so to make up for that, here it is, all 1 minute and 21 seconds of it! The reason that i was to include this is because she didn't see me as Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, she thinks i'm more Foghorn Leghorn, dear oh dear, enjoy...
Now that i've got that out of the way, here are some of my pointless views, now that i've had a chance to sit down, have a coffee, and gather my thoughts. Over Christmas 2014 i said:-
because i was being foolish i said something really stupid! I suggested we have a little bet, and that would be that i would buy, drive, experience, and then sell one car a month for a year. Each of these cars should be less than £1000, although if something comes up that i consider to be especially cool or interesting, then i can spend more! If i manage it, and do manage to get through 12 cars in a year, then he was to stop being a whiney-ass, and go out and buy something interesting to drive, and stop complaining that he can't afford a cool retro or classic car!
Now it does need to be mentioned that as a rule i don't drink, i maybe have half a dozen pints of Cider throughout the whole year, however in 2014 i hadn't done that, so as i sat there with my friends i decided to play catch-up and have my half a dozen pints of Cider all in one go! This, as i'm sure you can all imagine loosened me up somewhat to some pretty wild ideas, like buying a car a month! However initially i did think it would be easy to do, but it wasn't as easy as i'd imagined it to be. The first hurdle that i encountered was to do with niether the buying, or the selling of the cars, but the insuring of the cars. I just thought that every month i'd call up my insurer, and just change the details, easy, and ofcourse pay the admin fees etc. But that didn't go according to plan, and after just the third car, my insurer didn't want to play this monthly game of car swap, and told me that if i was to keep doing such a thing, then i would need to find another kind of policy! From the advice given on this very forum i sought refuge with a company offering a traders type policy. I called them up, told tham what i was trying to achieve, and asked them if they could help me. They said they could, and my new policy was set up immediately! Now, having experienced this type of policy i have to wonder why all motoring insurance isn't like this? How much better it was to have a policy, pay the premium, then whenever i needed to change my car simply log onto the website, insert the details, and it was done, easy! No faffing around on the phone for hours on end while they've got you on hold waiting for an operator, no messing around with having to pay more, or less depending on what the car before/after was, and no admin type fees. Simple, i genuinely believe that this is how motoring insurance should be done.
The other hurdle was ofcourse the idiots that infest the Bay of E! Don't get me wrong, i knew they were out there, and i expected to encounter them from time to time. But i hadn't counted on the frequency of the encounters, or the mind-numbing stupidity of some of the inhabitants of the By of E! The frustration this caused me, and the stress levels of some of these encounters really was a struggle sometimes. Infact sometimes i really thought that i should just forget the whole damn thing and get a new hobby like cross-stitching or something!
Those of you that buy and sell cars for a living... I salute you!
Something else i expected to become a bit of a hurdle to overcome was this when i wrote:-
I plan to use the vehicle as the sacrificial family car for a month, enjoy it with my family, take some photos, and then write about my experience with the car, whatever it might be, hopefully it might be an interesting read, which doesn't include too many photos of me and my car waiting for the RAC to turn up while i'm in a cloud of steam by the side of the road!
I really thought that i would be firm friends with the RAC patrolmen, and probably know them all on a first name basis by the end of the year...
But with the exception of this little incident which cost me £288 in Germany it was happy motoring! As for becoming firm friends with the RAC... Ha haaa... Thats not gonna happen! If any of you out there are reading this, and have followed my other thread of drivel you will no doubt be wondering if i ever got my trailer back, or if i was ever re-imbersed? The answer to that of course is NO. In the end, due to just not having enough time in the day to fight them for it i just let it go, it was starting to really get to me, and it was wearing me out, and stressing me out. So in the end i thought it's better to just walk away and chalk that up as yet another motoring experience! Which of course is what they wanted me to do all along, which is why they messed me around all along and made me jump through hoops in the hope of either gettting my trailer back, or being re-imbersed for it. Anyhoo, moving on as i can feel the tension levels rising just thinking about it all!
The only other thing, that was more a pain in the bum than a hurdle really was the Vehicle Excise Duty, or Road Tax if you like. The way they do it now so that you have to buy the tax from the beginning of the month whether you buy the car on the first day, the seventeenth day, or the thirtieth day you have to pay for the whole month, this is such a swindle especially as the seller also has to pay for the VED for a whole month whether they sell the car on the first day, the seventeenth day, or the thirtieth day! Therefore the car is taxed twice in the month it is sold in. They say that the DVLA make no profit out of this, and they say that the DVLA is self funding, and is currently running at a loss, and is unable to support itself. My personal opinion is that like most, if not all government departments there's quite a lot of deadwood in the DVLA, and what they really need to do is streamline everything, and cut out all the deadwood, then maybe atleast they could manage to break even without inflicting higher taxes on our cars, and the double taxing of them when we buy and sell them... End of my partly political broadcast!
Now then, what you're really here for is to read about the cars right? So without further ado, here we go! So here's some facts a figures. In 2015 i spent a whopping £17,172.14 on cars! Obviously not all at once, but if i had kept them all, thats how much i would've spent! Excluding the Firebird, as i still have it i only spent £10,437.14 on cars. When i sold them all i got back (again exculding the Firebird as i still have it) £9,542. This means of course that the Twelve Cars In A Year saga cost me £895.14 to do, which means that it cost me on average £74.59 a month. So that was just over eight packs of 20 smokes at last years average prices per month, well most of my friends who smoke, spend that in a week. Or to put it another way, thats about 24 pints of beer or cider if your out and about in the pubs! So all in all, £74.59 a month doesn't sound too bad to me for a months fun! This price ofcourse doesn't include road tax, insurance, or fuel, as no matter what i was driving i'd have to have those anyway.
Speaking of fuel. During my mission i drove my 12 cars a total of 13,112 miles! This 13,112 miles burned off 348.73 UK Gallons of fuel (321.56 Petrol & 27.17 Diesel) all of this fuel together cost me £1,767.83... Phew! Glad i didn't have to fork out fo that all at once! But this all equates to an average miles per gallon figure of 37.59mpg! Thats not too shabby considering that i had two V8's, two V6's, and two 4x4's! 37.59 (s)Miles Per Gallon!! I must say that i'm pretty impressed with that, i was expecting it to be much much worse!
Finally we come to the cars themselves. I'm going to talk about the cars i felt were the worst three, or the three i enjoyed the least if you prefer first. I know this is going to upset the fans, but for me the worst car of the twelve was the 2001 Golf Cabrio.
It was a tough call for me to pick this car as the worst car, but one of them had to be, so this is it. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that it was a bad car, it's just that it was a very bland and boring car. Had it have been a tin-top it would've been truly un-remarkable, and very un-inspiring. It did everything you'd expect it to do, but nothing more.
Car number eleven, or the second to worst car if you will, for me was the 2004 Jaguar X-type Estate.
I think that the biggest problem here was its engine, i think had i have bought one with a petrol engine it would've been better. But the fact was that for me this car never felt special. In my mind it didn't feel as good as a Jaguar was supposed to feel, and infact my Dads Rover 75 Diesel estate felt more special than the Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag, and that in my mind didn't seem right.
Car number ten, the third worst car was again another close call, but in the end it was the 1993 Citroën Ax.
This was so hard for me to pick this as number ten, but the truth is that it wasn't a bad car, for the type of car it was, however i'd never really wanted one, so it was a bit of a surprise, but in all fairness to it, it followed a tough act. Had it have been a Citroën Xm as i was looking for, instead of a Citroën Ax it wouldn't be sitting here at number ten!
So that takes care of the cars i liked the least, the next six i just thought they were ok, not bad enough to be the worst three, and not good enough to be the best three, so in at number nine was the 1988 Mercedes 500 SEC.
Not a bad car at all, but i had already had one of these some years ago, and this one wasn't as good as my first one!
In at number eight the 1994 Vauxhall Carlton estate.
An absolutly lovely car, and drove without fault, but like the Citroën Ax, just not quite what i was looking for!
At number Seven we've got the 1997 Rover 416 Touring.
Condition wise this was without a doubt the car that was in the best condition, it really had been looked after, and really was bordering on a showroom fresh finish, i liked this car a lot. But stupidly i listened to all the nay-sayers telling me the head gasket was going to go at any minute, and i spent the whole time driving it worrying about head gasket failiure, and this is why i didn't enjoy this car as much as i should've... I'm such an idiot, anyway...
In sixth place, and i hope you're all sitting down for this, we've got the 1980 Pontiac Firebird!
Now let me start by saying that this is a great car, it is fantastic to drive, and i do enjoy, and i am still enjoying it. But much like the Mercedes 500 SEC, i've had one before, and my first one was a 28,000 mile car that had been hidden away in a barn for getting on for thirty years, it was like a new car, and this one isn't. Having said all that this one is a 36 year old unrestored original, and has great patina, and drives fantastically, but something had to be sixth, and this is it!
In at number five, the 1996 Toyota Rav4.
Again a fantastic car, and the one that Mrs Pistonpopper thinks should be at the top of the heap, it was pretty good off road, and pretty good on the road. I liked it a lot and had planned to keep it, and let Mrs Pistonpopper use it, and thats what i told her we were doing with it, but then i bought something else
(that will be revealed in my other thread at some point soon) and as my toybox is already overflowing, something had to go, and the Rav4 was that thing... Although i have told her we'd find another one once my toybox has a bit more room in it!
At number four, the other 4x4, the first car of the Twelve Cars saga, the 1997 Vauxhall Frontera Sport.
In a nutshell, i loved it. Whenever i drove this thing i found myself grinning from ear to ear like an idiot. It was big it was roomy, and it drove like a car... In all honesty i'm gonna try to convince Mrs Pistonpopper to have one of these instead of the Rav4!
And so here we are, finally arriving at the top three. I struggled to decide which way around to put these last three cars, to the point that i thought about assigning numbers on a dice to each of the top three cars, then rolling the dice to decide which came where. But after some long and careful thought i decided this is the order they should be in, so then Pop-pickers in at number three the 2001 Vauxhall Omega Estate.
What a truly brilliant, wonderful and underrated car. Despite breaking down in the middle of Germany in this car, and having to wait over eight hours before the RAC got around to organising someone to pick us up i really enjoyed this car. Such a lot of car for so little money!
In at number two, i honestly felt like flipping a coin to decide the top two, but number two is the 2003 Ford Street Ka.
This is litterally only in at number two because it only has two seats so i couldn't get Mrs Pistonpopper, and the Pistonpoppets in at the same time. But for me on my own, or with just one of my little family, it was brilliant. I bought it at the right time, the sun was out, and the roof was down, i cannot praise this little car enough, for recreational driving, this is the car!
So now, here it is, the best car (in my opinion) of the Twelve Cars In A Year saga, which no doubt you've already worked out it's the 2000 Jaguar S-type.
Superb, just superb! This to me was exactly what i thought a Jaguar should be like, i really enjoyed this car, and i often see it about. For me it had it all, road presence, comfort, power, even handling, the whole package. But not just that, with the ridiculously low second had values the S-type is really good value for money, and i must admit, my ebay watchlist even has several in it at the moment! Will i have another one... Hopefully!
And here endeth the lesson in buying a car a month of a year. Was it all worth it? You're damn right it was, yes there was heartache, yes there were problems, yes it cost me a small fortune, but i had such a good time buying the cars, driving the cars, and writing about the cars that the good times far outweighed the bad. It really was quite exciting, every month my ebay watchlist was filled with potential cars for the month ahead, on more than one occasion i struggled to decide over which of the cars in my watchlist i wanted to be the star! Did i learn anything? Yes, yes i did. I learned that i am an absolutely rubbish car salesman! I'm just dreadful at it. I have a couple of theories as to why this is. On a couple of occasions i think i was bid up, buy the seller using someone to falsly raise the bids (the X-type springs immediately to mind!) But the main reason is that i think that when you do an advanced search of the completed listings on ebay i brings up all the items that were sold up to ninety days previously (I think) Therefore if someone is looking for a car, and does an advanced search of completed listings just to see what sort of price they should expect to bid up to, then they come across my car listed just a month before from a different seller they're going to wonder why i've only had it a month, why am i selling it so soon? What's wrong with it? These people who have done this advanced search are then unlikely to bid on it, or they'll be bidding low, thats my theory anyway!
What was the worst thing about doing this? Well to be honest the worst thing was that i only got to spend a month with each car, for some of them a month was more than long enough, but for most of them i wanted to play a little longer, to get to know the car a little better, but the month had ended and i wanted to shift it on to continue with the story. Incidentally, if any of you out there are one of the proud owners of one of the stars of the story, it would be great to hear how the car is still going, get in touch!
Moving on, i know that there were a fair few of you that were hoping there was going to be a Twelve Cars In A Year 2016, well four months in i'm guessing you've probably realised that there isn't, sorry. The thing is if i had broken even i probably would've carried on, but i didn't, so i couldn't. But do i miss it? Yes, i really enjoyed it, i liked writing the posts about the different cars, i liked driving them about, and i really enjoyed your input, and reading your thoughts, it was just brilliant. When i started i never had any idea that it would attract so much attention, i had no idea that so many of you would be reading it, let alone bookmarking it. As for being nominated for Retro Rides New Thread Of The Year 2015, it never even crossed my mind, let alone the thought that i might actually be second (Or first loser as my brother would say!) But thanks for the nominations, and votes people, i was chuffed to nuts! Anyway guys thanks for reading, following, and writing in my thread, i hope that i made it as enjoyable for you to read, as you made it for me, i had a great time! So what am i up to this year? Well, Mrs Pistonpopper wants some work doing on Pistonpopper towers, so i'm looking for a new K/I/T/C/H/E/N If anyone can point me in the direction of a supplier that would be great! So where do we go from here? Well, if you're at a lose end there is my other thread of
pointless views. Have a look there, i can't promise that it'll be updated as regularly as this was, but i'll try to babble on about something every once in a while! Lastly, the BIG question you might be asking yourselves, am i going to do it again? Well, i ain't gonna tell ya! lol... Maybe. I've got something in mind, something along the same lines, but different! I guess you'll have to wait and see. I'm not making any promises, but there's a possibility of something along the same lines, but obviously not this year... To be honest i am kinda enjoying the break
But stay tooned! Oh, even more lastly, some of you may be wondering if my friend kept to his word, and bought something retro? Er, no! We're still not talking, and infact he's shunned the whole lot of us as a group now, never mind, it's his problem, and i've not got the time or the energy to worry about it, as Freddie Mercury once said...
Thanks for reading!
, only ever see a couple pop up for sale in the UK each year.
