New Car

[Night Train]

Low mileage, 3 years old & one careful lady owner... the fact the said owner, while careful, drives less than half a mile before red-lining the engine to pull onto the motorway doesn't really get a look in & that's a rather good way to wreck an engine!

Exactly!

I live next to a motorway junction and many of my journeys were on the motorway. However, I take advantage of a long downhill slip road and I build up speed gently giving the engine a chance to warm up over the first 2-3 miles before 'working' the engine.

 

[Over The Hill]

I would not buy a second hand Skoda. Noting to do with the car. About 80% seem to be used as mini cabs and I am quite sure they would take 100k being wiped off the speedo before being sold on.
Similarly you never see a "ex driving school car for sale" sign.

 

[tyred]

It was a bit odd that eastern block counties took over old Fiats and Renaults which were bad to start with.

I would have to disagree. They may have been rust prone but so were most cars then. Renault and especially Fiats of the 60s and 70s were very well engineered, cars like the Fiat 128, 127 and Uno set the standard for small cars for years to come, the Renault 4 was probably the most practical car of all time.

The British industry offered such delights as the Morris Marina, Vauxhall Victor and Hillman Hunter in that period, cars which were just as poorly built as anything to come out of France or Italy but were also built using 1940s mechanicals. The Continentals were busy building the future in the 1970s while the British car industry were busy being stuck in the past (with a few exceptions).

 

[GrasB]

Exactly!

I live next to a motorway junction and many of my journeys were on the motorway. However, I take advantage of a long downhill slip road and I build up speed gently giving the engine a chance to warm up over the first 2-3 miles before 'working' the engine.

This is also why I like larger capacity higher performance engines. They don't need to be worked nearly as hard when pulling onto a slip road etc. so there's less cold load on the engine. This is one place where modern low-cc turbo charged engines fall down, they're relying on parts spinning at high speed & also put relatively large force loads into small components to extract the same performance. Yes they're very economical but the engine its self is under more load.

 

[asterix]

Some people, my late father had a fixation with bottle green Morris Marina's, I still recall the shame..................

I am utterly immune to critiscism about my car. My father, well paid with a mortgage-free house in well in the Surrey stockbroker belt, owned a 2 cv then a renault 4 then another renault 4 followed by.. yes... a lada. These are things that build character and, at school, skills in self-defence. I now drive a 16 year old van or a yaris. I just don't care, see.

 

[Night Train]

I am utterly immune to critiscism about my car. My father, well paid with a mortgage-free house in well in the Surrey stockbroker belt, owned a 2 cv then a renault 4 then another renault 4 followed by.. yes... a lada. These are things that build character and, at school, skills in self-defence. I now drive a 16 year old van or a yaris. I just don't care, see.

I am pretty much the same, not interested in 'street cred'.
However, I do value reliability.

 

[MarkF]

I am utterly immune to critiscism about my car. My father, well paid with a mortgage-free house in well in the Surrey stockbroker belt, owned a 2 cv then a renault 4 then another renault 4 followed by.. yes... a lada. These are things that build character and, at school, skills in self-defence. I now drive a 16 year old van or a yaris. I just don't care, see.

Not the same. Renault 4's are coolio, I owned one, so are 2CV's, I drive a '98 Jeep, coolio, a bottle green Marina never was and never will be.

 

[Cheddar George]

Not the same. Renault 4's are coolio, I owned one, so are 2CV's, I drive a '98 Jeep, coolio, a bottle green Marina never was and never will be.

It could have been worse, the Marina was also available in a nice "turd brown" colour.

 

[ASC1951]

I am utterly immune to critiscism about my car. My father, well paid with a mortgage-free house in well in the Surrey stockbroker belt, owned a 2 cv then a renault 4 then another renault 4 followed by.. yes... a lada. These are things that build character and, at school, skills in self-defence. I now drive a 16 year old van or a yaris. I just don't care, see.

My name is Sue,
How do you do?

 

[HLaB]

The important question if it hasn't already been asked, an you get a bike in the back

 

[oldfatfool]

The important question if it hasn't already been asked, an you get a bike in the back

I bought one of these and fitted the components to a couple of pieces of old floor board, I can now mount the bike in the boot (with seat post removed) it is perfectly stable and safe from scallys nicking it, saves having a light board or worrying about low headroom..

 

[Profpointy]

I would not buy a second hand Skoda. Noting to do with the car. About 80% seem to be used as mini cabs and I am quite sure they would take 100k being wiped off the speedo before being sold on.
Similarly you never see a "ex driving school car for sale" sign.

I bought my vehicle from this Dutch bloke - Hertz van Rental I think his name was.....
..... I'll get my coat...

 

[asterix]

My name is Sue,
How do you do?

Now your gonna die!!​

 

[Night Train]

The important question if it hasn't already been asked, an you get a bike in the back

Yes.
I could get my Marin Hawkhill in the back of mine, or a recumbent trike with Arch still on it!

 

[TheDoctor]

She did very well to ride that trike into there
Especially backwards...