The Dark Wob

Who wants a car for life? My life is interminably dull, one of the few pleasures I have is smoking and choosing which heap of shit I wish to mooch around in next.

PhilA wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:45 am You can always burn alcohol instead of drinking it.

Are you out of your mind???

Furthermore, the times were never better for having a car for life, at least if you managed to reach a certain age, like I have for some inexplicable reason. At a good guess my driving career will last another 30 odd years, should I not give up driving before that, because the ever increasing number of those so called road users who don't use the fucking roads just piss me off too much. I swear my last ever car for the roads will be a BriSCA F1 Stockcar. Or a Kraz 255.

Anyway, my dream cars of yore are around 60 years old by now. Sod MoT, shit on tax and merrily hoon them for another quarter century on a classic insurance policy. Or buy the real car for life, a Ford Model T. There are still millions out there, they were designed to run on Ethanol and actually run better on it, there will not be the day when the spare parts supply dries up and there will always be a hammer to fix them should anything ever break.

Already trying this....

190E 11 years owned.
T25 13 years owned.
Minor 15 years owned.

Not a great innings yet, I grant you, but there isn't any reason why I shouldn't double those ownership periods. Keeping the rust at bay is the biggest war plus fuel system obsolescence. I've had the Pierburg rebuilt on the VW and chucked half a bag at the Merc injection system, neither of which would be economic on a short-termer.

Ignoring fuel itself going off-supply or becoming unusable and the antics of politicunts things of the age of these vehicles seem likely contenders for being prodded and cossetted through another decade or so at least. If I keep the Minor as long as I've had it I will be 76 myself so it's probably me that will be fragged first.

We try but people have the habit of driving into us. Saab 9-3 managed 1.5 years of us and 4 years of my parents before hand until it was rear ended on the M4/M5 interchange near Bristol by a van. Admittedly everything was failing at that point - airbag light on, flywheel failing, Aircon dead, swirl flap valves bodged to work, door locks temperamental and a few other problems. My wife MX5 mk3 was 5 years before it was rear ended - wife didn't like it had afterwards and we sold it. Failed it's MOT on rust 2 years later. Spaceship Civic I got to 6 years ownership when that was rear ended at a set of traffic lights in Bristol. Didn't know if I was able to get it back, so bought something else. Ended up buying it back for £300, fixing it and then gave it to my in-laws who are still running around in it.

Currently on our 2010 A4 estate. 2011 to 2017 my parents owned it and 2017 on we have had it. Currently on 187k and the only fault is the clutch judders on take off. Oh suspension is even crashier than normal now and you can tell some of the ponies have escaped. Thing is, I don't think it can be a car for life. It'll get to a point where it'll break in a big way and there will be too much to fix as its a complicated beast. Or it'll be driven around with everything broken...

Another surefire bet are those 1930s Rolls Royces. Having been handed down through the generations and the fact that you can still sniff up a decent driver for 20 bags, drive it until you keel over and then leave it to your heirs must make them the cheapest cars in automotive history.

Good points there; I was out in the Datsun this afternoon as the weather was reasonable, an old git pulled out in front of me in a 740 Ovlov and I had a nasty moment, he stopped just in time and the lane was wide at that point.

It's true that if you're going to use it as an everyday motor, even with the currently high prices, an older car makes much sense.

Sort of. But you need late eighties early nineties for things that do matter due to adverse driving conditions - a doubling of road users since 1984 means at least twice as many idiots. Therefore I need ABS and a body shell with something resembling a crumple zone. A car being written off is one thing, me being killed or maimed is something else. And no, your Wolseley 6/110 will not come off better if hit by a 2014 Golf at 40 mph.

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:40 pm And no, your Wolseley 6/110 will not come off better if hit by a 2014 Golf at 40 mph.

Maybe if you built it onto a Rhodius chassis... Those damn things are nigh on industructable, or possibly a London cab.