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As you may or may not know, me and my better half and 2 mates are forming 2 teams to do the Plymouth to Banjul Morocco off road challange, leaving on Boxing day. We're both now strapped with Mk1 Mitsubishi Shogun/Pajeros which combine motorway speed with some off road ability, space, and 80s cred. Unfortunately, since we decided to go on the trip, the global economy has collapsed, the pound has plummeted against the Euro and the price of fuel has rocketed. I sat down with Mrs Autohausdolby and re-worked our fuel consumption/cost figures last night and found out that whilst we can still afford to go, at the official 18-20mpg the Diesel Shoguns do we cannot afford to eat or spend money on anything apart from Diesel. We're talking over £1200 in juice, just to drive to Southern Spain and back - and that's twice our budgeted figure So, we've taken the radical step at this late stage of completely re-jigging our philosophy, sacking off the 4x4s and going for a small hatch that is economical and decent enough off road. 2CVs are too expensive (although another team is taking one) but AXs seem to fit the bill perfectly (i.e. the characteristics above and a budget of 200 quid for something with tax and test). So, anybody got any comments on them? Problems, characteristics, that sort of thing?
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the diesel one goes for ever but you will probably pay a premium for it.
The cheap common one is the 1.0 and we had one of them and it was quite simply the wurzd car we eVaH had. bits fell off it all the time, and it broke down lots.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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LowStandards
Club Retro Rides Member
Bigging Up The Sum Sum Man Since '99
Posts: 2,665
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Pish, buy my 306 and go in that! Close as well ;D ClickyMy mate once had an AX GT, horrible plasticy thing, but flew from the lights... thats all i've got to say, no help really!
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Shortcut
Posted a lot
I won't be there when you cross the road, so always use the Green Cross Code.
Posts: 3,037
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As mentioned AX's are the original papier mache car. Still that's not important to you I gues. The diesels are frugal but don't underestimate the 1.1 petrol. It too sips fuel in tiny tiny amounts. A nice run, without hammering it should see you get around 60mpg from the petrol. Cheaper to buy too.
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This space available to rent. Reach literally dozens of people. Cheap rates!
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Because they're so light even the GT returns 40+mpg most of the time!
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1997 TVR Chimaera 2009 Westfield Megabusa
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Nov 17, 2008 10:08:44 GMT
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Can you not find a Polo or Golf within your budget? I'm only suggesting those because you know your way around VW's and if it broke down you'd probably know how to fix it quickly. Golf might be tricky to pick up for £200, but a Breadvan should be easy enough?
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Stu
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,913
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Nov 17, 2008 10:13:03 GMT
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A '91 AX 1.1L TZX 5-door was my first car about 10 years ago. As I recall it went well enough, was pretty economical, comfortable and fairly reliable. On the negative side it understeered alarmingly on wet roads at pedestrian speeds, developed various random electrical faults with all the TZX spec gadgets (electric windows etc) and seemed to eat CV boots for some reason. Mine was the pre facelift type with the older style dash and headlights. My mate had a slightly newer, 94-ish one and it was much more up to date inside with better seats, more modern dash etc but still felt like it was going to roll over on corners over 10mph... ;D In summary, they are ok. Mine was cheap and about all I could afford to insure at the time and got me around ok 'til I could start buying loads of old VW's...
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'89 BMW E30 325i Sport, '04 MINI Cooper S, '09 Volvo V70 D5
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Nov 17, 2008 10:52:33 GMT
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A '91 AX 1.1L TZX 5-door was my first car about 10 years ago. As I recall it went well enough, was pretty economical, comfortable and fairly reliable. On the negative side it understeered alarmingly on wet roads at pedestrian speeds, developed various random electrical faults with all the TZX spec gadgets (electric windows etc) and seemed to eat CV boots for some reason. Mine was the pre facelift type with the older style dash and headlights. My mate had a slightly newer, 94-ish one and it was much more up to date inside with better seats, more modern dash etc but still felt like it was going to roll over on corners over 10mph... ;D In summary, they are ok. Mine was cheap and about all I could afford to insure at the time and got me around ok 'til I could start buying loads of old VW's... The understeer probably had more to do with the tyres than the car. I've just changed the tyres on mine and the new ones are terrible. Understeer heaven!
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1997 TVR Chimaera 2009 Westfield Megabusa
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Nov 17, 2008 11:51:58 GMT
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Can you not find a Polo or Golf within your budget? I'm only suggesting those because you know your way around VW's and if it broke down you'd probably know how to fix it quickly. Golf might be tricky to pick up for £200, but a Breadvan should be easy enough? I want something I don't care about, plus I kinda like the idea of being ignorant of any potential problems Plus the French cars seem to have better ground clearance and suspension to cope with curse word roads / off roading.
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joda
Part of things
Posts: 674
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Nov 17, 2008 15:28:14 GMT
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fiat 126 bis ! cheep to buy reliable cheep to run
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Nov 17, 2008 18:43:14 GMT
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Well, after leaving for work this morning I popped into the petrol station to buy yet more Diesel for the Shogun, and cast a brief eye in the nowadays rather scanty "under 500 quid" section of the freeads and lo! What should be in there but a 1.4 Diesel AX, non runner, no documents, £150 ono. I crossed the guy's palm with a desultory offer of 50 sheets and he delivered it to work for me. A battery later and it started up for the first time since 2005. I was going to drive up to Chester tonight to look at one, but buying this one was actually cheaper !! than driving to look at the other ;D I've got to apply for a V5c now to see if its mine enough or not. The most important question now is, can you fit a normal single din stereo in the huge hole at the top of the dashboard? It's got some Citroen unit partially stuck in there at the moment, and I assume their would need to be some sort of adaptor thingy. Anybody know?
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Nov 17, 2008 18:55:04 GMT
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Good buy you'll be able to get a facia adaptor to put a normal stereo in along with a wiring adapter. There might well be a normal shaped hole behind the big crazy Citroen stereo - Pop down to halfords and they can sort you the stuff out but it will be about £13 quid each for facia and wiring, not cheap against a £50 car. Your best bet on a car like this is to just hard wire it in, shove the stereo in the hole and use the remaining gap to hold cds and other litter. You'll not go far wrong with an AX - They are dead easy to work on and basically a peugeot 106 so bits are ten a penny throughout europe. The only real weakness is the rear axle on them, the seals perish and let water in which destroys the bearings leading to loads of play in the back wheels and an MOT fail, but the beam from a late model saxo bolts straight on and will cost about £60. The inner wings behind the headlights will probably be quite rusty.
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Nov 17, 2008 18:59:23 GMT
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Bargainous purch! I think the diseasel would be the one I'd go for - really frugal! Are the engines in any way related to the indestructible 1.8's found in Pug 205's?
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Nov 17, 2008 19:19:46 GMT
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no they aren't, they are based on the TU petrol engine, unlike the 1.8/1.9 which is derived from the XU. The TUDs aren't as long-lived as the XUDs, especially the early all-alloy 1.4s. I've always wanted to try an AX, would have to be a GT though.
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Nov 17, 2008 19:30:36 GMT
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I think the stereo hole may have been hacked out at some point - the back of the stereo is single din sized but the hole is as back as the face.
I can't believe Citroen didn't think it'd be worth putting a temperature gauge in the car - with an all alloy engine it's asking for trouble.
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Nov 17, 2008 19:52:16 GMT
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this may be a mad idea, but, arnt these the same torsion bar back end as a 205? if so, wind teh bars up!! theres bound to be some longer srprings thatll fit the front struts and bingo, AX lift kit agogo ;D just the job for some offroad action and the little deisal chugga should pull you out of the soft stuff lovely. I'm also thinking exo skeleton roll cage like a panda scicily(sp)
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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Nov 17, 2008 19:58:19 GMT
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Ooooo, HELLLO! That's not a bad idea - might make the on road manners "interesting" though...
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Nov 17, 2008 20:03:40 GMT
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Nice buy! Generally tough little engine - and while AXs are flimsy, my wife's old 1.0 was unkillable. I was forced to sell it on Ebay in the end as it refused to die!
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1986 Citroen 2CV Dolly Other things. Check out my Blog for the latest! www.hubnut.org
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Nov 17, 2008 20:16:44 GMT
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I like that diesel one,its got potential,whats the plans for it when you bring it back?
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Nov 17, 2008 20:19:43 GMT
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I had a debut as my 1st car, was alright but too small as I'm 6'3, done a million miles to the gallon though, unfortunately had to scrap it as would have cost more than it was worth to fix, only had 50K on the clock aswell :.(
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