The old car thread

[gavroche]

When I got married to my first wife in 1971, I had a 1964 Vauxhall Victor 3 gears column change. We went to Portugal on honeymoon and drove it all the way from Worthing to Lisbon through France Spain and finally Lisbon. Top speed was about 65 mph. It never missed a beat and made it there and back. Rust was a problem though. When I sold it, I bought a Vauxhall 101, what a load of sh*t that was. Never bought a Vauxhall since.

 

[Threevok]

When I got married to my first wife in 1971, I had a 1964 Vauxhall Victor 3 gears column change. We went to Portugal on honeymoon and drove it all the way from Worthing to Lisbon through France Spain and finally Lisbon. Top speed was about 65 mph. It never missed a beat and made it there and back. Rust was a problem though. When I sold it, I bought a Vauxhall 101, what a load of sh*t that was. Never bought a Vauxhall since.

My Dad had a FD 2000

Loved that car

 

[Bonefish Blues]

BTU327F Vauxhall Viva estate in Peacock Blue was the first family car I can properly remember, followed by AMB266K Viva saloon, IIRC.

1256cc of throbbing anonymity

 

[swee'pea99]

BTU327F Vauxhall Viva estate in Peacock Blue was the first family car I can properly remember, followed by AMB266K Viva saloon, IIRC.

1256cc of throbbing anonymity

Vauxhall Victor estate when I were a lad. Rattly uncomfortable unreliable piece a carp that was. Typical '70s British motor really. Mind, my Dad finally gave up in frustration and got a Volvo...which turned out to be no better. He never had much luck with cars.

 

[gbb]

Now this isn't mine but it's there for the family ....

2005 Doblo hightop, 1.9 turbo diesel, circa 130k miles. I used it last night to take the ebike to Halfords, you don't even have to lay it down .
It's my son on laws....cost....zilch.
He's a garage mechanic and while it was in for some work, sadly the owner died. The family didn't want it and handed the logbook to the garage to cover any costs incurred. Owner and SIL are very close and he gave him it. It gets used about once a month for a tip run or similar. Very spacious, does around 60 mpg easily, very fast on the straight but does roll at speed...a bit disconcerting
I love it, it makes me laugh when I drive it.

 

[KneesUp]

KneesUp is right. Morris were the first to do it with the Minor, it reduced tooling costs for left and right hand drive versions. They did the same with the Mini.

The SD1 dash was the ultimate cost saving design.

The instrument binnacle just swapped from one side to the other, and there was a steering column 'hole' on either side, which was filled with an air-vent on the side it wasn't needed. Swap over the clock and the handy 'which gear is where' diagram, and it's job done other than the handbrake - which moves into what looks like an 8-track storage space, and the pedals - but no new mouldings needed.

 

[KneesUp]

Now this isn't mine but it's there for the family ....

2005 Doblo hightop, 1

Every family needs something like this from time to time. A mate's dad has a Peugeot Berlingo, which is very useful on occasion: as I used to walk their dogs every now and again I was able to borrow it a few times. I wouldn't want to own one, but it was nice to borrow!

EDIT - Partner Teepee - definitely the Peugeot version, not the Citroen one.

 

[Drago]

My Father in Law has a newish Berlingo. I love it. It moves people and stuff from A to B with no attempt whatsoever at image or pretence. Economical,c omfortable, hilarious amount if space inside. Many people think the late model is derived from the van, but this is not the case - both were designed simultaneously, and were based upon the 308.

 

[Jody]

The only thing that will kill one is (typically) an aux belt tensioner going bad, the belt snapping and ending up'interfacing' with the timing belt, with terminal consequences.

That's where all our sales come from for replacement engines/heads. They are a pretty good engine apart from that.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

That's where all our sales come from for replacement engines/heads. They are a pretty good engine apart from that.

Odd, isn't it? Never the timing belt itself.

 

[Bazzer]

2002 Golf, with 185,000 miles on the clock.
Still someway to go yet to beat its predecessor Golf which came into my hands with 9,000 miles on the clock and left with 250,000 miles.

 

[Drago]

Good man Bazzer, I like a man who squeezes every pennies worth of value from a car.

This Volvo I'm soon to be getting has 140k. Reading around some of the XC90 forums. 300,000-400,000 isn't unusual. I'm a very low mileage user, so that'll probably be with me until fossil fuels become unobtainable.

 

[MarkF]

Tomorrow is mot day for the 2002 Focus. It seems to be going crackers this past week. We've got:-

Air con given up.
Drivers window stuck.
Radio not picking up MW/LW.
Water ingress when using rear window washer.
Boot unlocking switch on dash given up.
2 headlight bulbs out.
2 tyres losing air.

 

[Drago]

Can't receive Radio 4 on long wave? That's an MOT fail for sure!!

 

[Reynard]

Can't receive Radio 4 on long wave? That's an MOT fail for sure!!

And no Test Match Special