What's your most costly car disaster (work/time/money)

This Alfa Romeo F12 Van.

One of only 3 sold new in the Netherlands.

I spent a fortune on it, just to get it drivable enough for a road trip to Northern Italy.
To go parts hunting for it.

When I was there, I discovered they were mainly used by branches of government ( because Alfa was officially backed in those days )

Anybody who was spending their own money bought a Fiat Van.

Yes, it was that bad.

At some point, after the road trip, I'd reached my limit and traded it for a regular Giulia Super 4Dr.


Some cars deserve to be rare...



Years later, I had a Mk1 Transit.

Which was a much nicer, better, and more reliable vehicle.

Except for the engine , I had a V4 out of a Consul GT in it  ( so it was faster than the Alfa too ), but I was not a fan of the V4.

If I had the time, money, and knowledge at the time, the better van would have been a combination of the 2.

The F12 body on a Transit floor, with a 2 Litre Alfa engine. ( since they both knew how to rust, mating them up would have been easy... )

My Nissan cube is already becoming a horror story 😭 got water getting in somewhere on the roof and the gearbox went bang on the way home Wednesday 👍🏻 So my Astra’s back on daily duties

I had a BMW e39 touring which I sank far too much time, money and effort into. It was a 525TDS that was pretty down-at-heel, but obtained in exchange for a set of alloys that didn't cost me much in the first place, so not too costly initially. It had no MOT and failed on a fair few things.
I dropped the rear subframe and replaced every arm, balljoint and the very expensive subframe bushes. I did the brake hoses and brake lines from over the axle right to the master cylinder. I replaced all the front suspension arms. I gave it four new tyres. I serviced it, replaced the leak-off pipes that were leaking, replaced the tailgate which was rotten, which involved soldering about 30 wires above my head in the boot, as BMW had not found it necessary to fit any kind of plug in the loom.

I ran it for a bit, but the rear suspension level sensors both failed while it was parked at work and the system filled the rear airbags up to maximum which made one of them explode. I made the mistake of buying some cheap Chinese bags which leaked instantly so I sent them back and got a pair of Bilstein bags.

The ignition barrel failed and I had to remove the lock part and make a "key" out of a suspension bolt.

The lift pump failed on the way home from the airport leaving me, my other half and our dog stranded on the hard shoulder of the M1 for hours.

A whole load of other things went wrong with it, which I've purged from my mind as it's too stressful.

On the plus side I did about 25,000 miles in it before I threw in the towel and moved it on to someone even more foolish than I.

That must of been hard to do - Such a beautiful little van.

Yeah... It was.

But by that time I was out of options...

My cars?

A few.

In timeline order:

-1975 MG Midget ; Bought in 2005

If there is one car I should have put out to dry and frag, this was the car. I bought this car thinking it required a minor restoration and that is how it was sold to me ; the ignition barrel was broken. Forgive me if this sounds familiar.

When I went to look at it, and see the keying, in addition to hindsight, I realised this car was a pile. Not a bad looking pile, but still just that. But it looked solid on first glance, the oil was super clean inside, and so I took it away.

The hindsight version is the last chap, a teacher at a local college, bought the car to rob it of a set of Revolutions for his MG Midget and the number plate ; 6 GYE for those wondering.

After removing dubious washers on the front wheels (so hub-wheel, washer, nuts), It became apparent why they were there. The front studs were too long; That's where the penny dropped on the Revolutions. After replacing the ignition barrel for a new one, I came to fire it up. Then through trying to fire the car up, but almost have a battery explode in my face due to a spanner 'carefully' left between the starter positive terminal and the engine bay, I eventually found the start wasn't turning anything. The mechanism was broken on it. Deliberate or not?

Looking more carefully around the car, the sills didn't quite line up right, and it became clear the car was a bit of a pile. the rear boot floor corners on further inspection were made of Polyfiller and underseal, along with the driver's side floorpan being tacked into the aperture from a simple bit of bent metal; that's before I get to the underside of the car being a partial patchwork quilt. But at least it had new lower wings previously fitted right? I only knew that as someone very crudely hacked the inner wings to fit a set of speakers. Yes, it was that bad!

Once I had the engine fired up, I found out why the starter motor was bad, the barrel broken and why I almost had a battery explode in my face. The head gasket was knackered. No problem. I'll fit another! Upon finding stripped bolt threads in the block, I had no choice but to bin the engine off, especially as a chance meeting with a guy at the MGOC had me take an Ivor Searle 1500 engine for £50 with decent carbs (much better than mine), an alternator, clutch and an 8,000 mile engine which came out so a K-Series could replace it. Then it became apparent the gearbox was shot on this. Oddly, every 1500 I've had has had a tired 'box, with it not seeming that uncommon.

I eventually got rid of it for £1200. Not bad when you consider I bought it for £300 + a rented trailer and a day to get the car from Preston. I barely broke even on that car and it was a struggle to sell it. But what a waste of effort. Or so it seemed at the time. I guess the car taught me a valuable lesson ; never ever go off what an owner says or be pressured into feeling like a timewaster. Or maybe I was unlucky ; I doubt that.

But, I was 18, with not much cash and I couldn't take the hit on the car. It was a waste of over a year on a car. I guess for £1200 it was a reasonable Midget, and a big step up from what it was.





If that wasn't bad, I once entrusted my dad to buy us a 7 year old car for £1k; we both drove for a living; He doesn't test drive cars like me, but this the the car was off a friend of his. What was it? a 2005 B6 Passat 1.9 TDI S in 2013. This car shouldn't have been that bad. It was a 2 owner car from new, with a friend owning it from it being 1 year old, and it had always been to the local garages to be fixed. He said it was tired, but he was using it daily. When I came to use it, I could not believe how he was using it daily.

In short,
-Some doors wouldn't close ; bowden cables had gone bad
-The engine smoked like a choo-choo train and had a misfire off idle
-The fan heater didn't work. Great for when it rained
-It had a horrible and dangerous twitch in going onto an uneven surface at 50MPH, like some of the gentle bends on the A5.
-It also had a habit of not starting which one day became a non-start. Perfect with a car that has an EPB which then couldn't be released. Oh wait!

If this was anyone else, they've have sacked this car off and got rid. My long suffering garage/MOT tester normally will have a bit of banter about some of my personal cars, like saying "Pug GTis can be fragile so I'm not a fan, and going "More BL stuff"? That B6 is the only car to date where he said, "Cut your losses, and move on". He was right. My dad was stubborn though. He did not want to be renting a car off our firm at quite a cost. And so the parts bills came including:

-New EPB calipers
-New door Bowden cables
-New camshaft with followers ; they were shot
-A bodged wire to the heater to get it to work
-New rear arms to get the rear to drive straight
-Steering lock rework.

Finally, it drove nicely! I could see why people bought these. It almost seemed like this work was worthwhile. We had a car which was superb now. Until the dif decided it wanted to make a break for freedom. Given 5 speed 'boxes then were £500+ secondhand and it had taken out the DMF and clutch with it, we then made the decision to part the car out.

The below photo was taken as we moored the thing up in a layby by where the diff went. No idiot stole it, and so it was fragged out by us over a period of time. On the plus side, the EPBs went super quick.



There is one more car, but I'll save that for another time .

Searching for a daily about 5 years ago (bloody hell, where has that time gone?!)

This popped up for £900 on Facebook having just blown its head gasket:




Was told it'd be a £350 job to get the HG replaced, and it couldn't be more complicated than that really, could it? After all it's a Toyota, and the engine is the legendary 4AGE 20V Blacktop which is known for being Not Rubbish.

Paid the man via paypal, sent a recovery driver to get it (another £250) and booked it in at my local Japanese specialist. After stripping it it became clear that the car had been bodged to high heaven, all the water galleries were jammed solid with K seal, the VVT pulley had been welded solid (presumably to stop it knocking) A new pulley was £450 alone, and had to come from Japan which took weeks.

All in all it cost £1350 to get it running, then a week or two later while doing New Years Eve taxi runs the water pump failed, it dumped its coolant and started getting hot. Can't remember what that cost, but I got that quite easily from a Toyota dealer.

It never ran 100% perfectly but occasionally it'd pick up it's feet and run properly for a bit, and it was a lot of fun when it wanted to be. Sounded fantastic too, but the ownership experience wasn't great. I'd love an unmolested one.

I don't think I've ever had a costly mistake, as I've never paid more than £1200 for a car. I've had a few cars that I've just not had the use out of to justify even that modest expense/outlay though. Of all of those, the worst was probably a really tidy old E30 320i. It was bought running fine but the slave cylinder went after 24 hours and I lost interest as I'd already bought a Mk2 Golf GTI, so the BMW got sold on for less than I paid for it, having only been driven twice.

Place holder whilst I try and find more pictures.

This is from a later add after I had sold it on - first picture is outside my garage with the 56 in the background - that was a long time ago!

P.


Renault 21 Group N: You Know You Want To



A Penthouse centrefold car, endurance racer and very rare Renault to boot!

The Renault 21 Turbo is a exceptionally rare car. If you think it's hard tracking down an unmolested 5 Turbo in 2015, try finding a 21. The little 5 is practically commonplace compared to the boxy saloon, probably explained by the fact everyone did and will want the 5 more than the 21...
"Chaps, how do we make the 21 sexy?"





"Chaps, how do we make the 21 sexy?"In case you hadn't guessed, this is not a roadgoing Renault 21 Turbo. At least, not at the moment. It's a Group N-spec Renault 21 Turbo, one with a fascinating history and one crying out to be restored to its former glory. Surely other people share a passion for unloved fast French curios?
According to the ad, this is the last remaining Group N 21. You can't imagine there were many to start with... It began its life in Holland but was soon sold to Renault UK and competed in the first 24-hour race held in Britain, at Snetterton in 1989. It was driven by Giles Butterfield, Charles Challenger, Charles Rickett and Peter Sneller, perhaps the four most splendidly named racing drivers ever known.

It was also sponsored by Penthouse. Yes really, check out the pictures. They were so proud of the alliance in fact that this very car was the centrefold image in the May 1988 issue. Classy.

But sadly after the glamour and girls of the Snetterton 24 Hours (plus the Penthouse shoot), this 21 went into storage in 1991. Nearly a quarter of a century later it is being sold, currently residing in Bicester and looking a little sorry for itself. Unused racing cars, especially those without their liveries, nearly always do. There are still some fairly clear clues to its past though, namely the side-exit exhaust, cut-off switch and gigantic fuel tanks.

Turbine wheels still very cool



Turbine wheels still very coolHere's where the car gets really interesting. The 21 Turbo is being sold by Velocity Automobiles, a garage with a strong Renault appreciation judging by their Avantime, Clio V6 and Alpines for sale too. Though it has never been road registered, a letter of authority from Renault means it can be converted if you wish. An intriguing possibility, but surely a racing car should remain a racing car? You know how people can be about left-hand drive too. The advert states the car can be provided as is or 'restored to your requirements'. Now then.
Brought back to full health - hopefully someone can sort a livery too - it could compete in a Classic Touring Car Racing Club series, plus surely a few sprints and hillclimbs too. There wouldn't be any danger of seeing another at the very least!

But whatever the final outcome for this 21, let's just celebrate that it's here and available. It will probably be a fairly time consuming project, and it's far from the obvious choice, but surely the scarcity is a big part of the appeal. As for a price, a Group N 405 Mi16 was being sold privately for £5K recently; this car will likely be more than that given the provenance. Imagine if you could get the two together...

RENAULT 21 TURBO GROUP N
Price: POA
Why you should: Turbocharged and 80s touring car
Why you shouldn't: Not a Sierra, probably needs lot of TLC

See the original advert here.