Reason's to Love your Sh1t Heap

[Honoop]

I dont currently own a whole car, let alone a shed (I own half of my fella's Astra). But afore mentioned boyfriend does currently drive an absolute pile of poop and has done for over a year now.

Its an R plate Rover 420 Turbo Diesel and I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!!
For a start its Silver, well its only been washed about twice.... so under all the dirt its supposed to be silver!

There is rather a large dent in the offside wing where he wacked it with his maglite when it wouldnt start one morning!

One of the rear calipers keeps binding so we cant use the handbrake.... so have to leave it parked in gear

It has grey leather interior and that horrid fake walnut wood look on the dashboard

There are screws in the top of the drivers door card because it used to squeak!

The parcel shelf doesnt lift up when you open the boot because the stringy-strap things are missing

It STILL smells of 'Floral' Magic Tree over a year after removing the darn thing from the car!

it currently has different wheels on the front than the rear!

BUT.... he loves it! Why??
Because its done over 130k and doesnt ever miss a beat. The only time it did was when the battery needed replacing.

He can drive it to the end of the earth and back on less than quarter of a tank of diesel.

But mostly because he can drive defensively in it when Mr BMW/Mercedes etc decide the own the road because he "really doesnt give a **** if they put a dent in his £300 car, its gonna cost them more to repair theirs"!

Its currently worth more to us as a runner, than it is actually physically worth if we were to sell it! I think that is the ultimate reason anyone ever loves their sh1t heap, in my opinion.

[Zak33]

Its currently worth more to us as a runner, than it is actually physically worth if we were to sell it! I think that is the ultimate reason anyone ever loves their sh1t heap, in my opinion.

that, missus....is Zakkly whatI'm getting at

[Konan555]

New cars. Flash cars. Expensive cars. Bah.

Nothing beats my mates old 205 that would just about get us to Norwich with diet coke in the coolant system because it's the only fluid we had to hand to top it up with.

Cars with stories are much more interesting than cars someone wondered into a dealer and purchased on finance. Well done.... you can spend money.

[Howard]

Yeah that's sorta the whole point of this thread


Diet Coke.. lol

[Konan555]

Yeah that's sorta the whole point of this thread

Hence why I posted it

Although the car I'm using right now was £500, I'm not classing it as a sh!t heap That white heap stuck on my drive... that qualifies for the next few months, then it's becoming a money-pit.

[Howard]

Really, you should just buy a nice VAG diesel.

[tiggerai]

I've only just got rid of mine, but only because a better deal came up. (Fear not... My beloved Micra is still in the family, it got donated to my bro')

So it's still going, and I loved it (and people on here may recall how defensive about Micras I got - not the new silly bubble cars, the K11s!) and it was at the stage where it, like Hoonop's was worth more to us as a car than selling it.

I loved my micra because I could fit my whole life in it coming back from uni.

I loved my micra because it never broke down once.

I loved my micra because I didn't care if people drove into me, it already had dents in it (inc a major one in the front bumper, 7 years old now, touched up by moi!)

[Howard]

Hey my Cinq has gone to the mechanic mate of my dad's (knows his Fiats) who always looked after it for me.... nice to know He even gave it a new ECU when it went tits up

[Moby-Dick]

My current runnabout is sh1t but comes up smelling of roses.

Its a 160,000 mile Pug 306 Diesel. Plenty of dents ( some in the wheels ) not a whole lot works on it apart from the engine , which is a combination propultion unit and smoke generator , If I can't beat a car , I'll slow it down by obscuring its view
genuine brown interior too !

[jon bda]

Love my Laguna. Cost me £250 over 3 years ago with a broken 'box...fitted the replacement and then ANOTHER since then (blame the driving style...and the chocolate diff ). Has needed a grand total of two bottom balljoints (not worn, the previous 'mechanic' had mullered the threads) and one arb link rod for its mot's ever since. I can get the missus, kids and the dog in it all at the same time and its never let me down at all. Its now my works van as well and has endless amounts of tools and random car/van parts in it at any given time and still it keeps going...i've just decided i'm going to marry it...

[badass]

My current runabout/main car is a Xsara VTS and I love it!
It may be french, but currently the only electrical problems it has are the airbag light flashing every now and again due to wiring under the drivers seat and the front shocks need replacing after over 90,000 miles
Ignoring regular maintenance, in 3 years of ownership and 40,000 miles, it has cost me £220 to fix the power steering leak and £90 to fix the interior fan. I just "put up" with the tempreature control that lets you select either really hot or really cold. The Aircon has has 1 regas and works fine.
Apparently the rad was leaking but it turned out to eb a common mistake with these rads and the paint coming off and exposing the core.
She was dynoed at 179 BHP with no modifications a couple of years ago and in the 3 runs I bought down santa pod, I got a 15.7 1/4 mile.
She might be rubbish according to conventional wisdom, but she's been the most reliable car I've had so far and both goes allright and does over 30MPG with short sub 5 mile rind combined with country lanes once per week to clean her out!
That said, I have always treated her right! (decent warming up period etc)

[Funkstar]

My first car was a H reg Rover 214.... i hated it

It was a complete shed. Electrics were trashed because some idiot tried to install a CD player and got it wrong. the wipers didn't come on when you put the washer jets on, even though they were supposed to, and you had to have the interior light on to get the intemitent wiper setting

It was a Rover so it leaked oil badly. I ran it for months before i realised that the leaking oil meant it might be running low. 5L took it to half way between min and max.

The alternator was loose (i think) so there was a constant weird rattle coming from the engine bay until one day there was a clunk, then a bounce from the tail end as i ran over some braket that fell off. That stopped the rattle, didn't bother looking at it further.

Despite all this it managed to do 96mph in a straight line. This cost me 6 points, £400 and a test re-sit

It sat is a garage for 18 months while i thought about driving again and eventually passed a test. It had got damp inside. The seats were moldy in the back, so much so that it has eaten into the fabric. The gear box had developed a weird squeek when you change gear. It smelled of drains a bit too.

But then a couple of months after i started working i absolutely loved the car because i got a £1000 trade in for it against my P reg 1.4 Polo which i really did love

[Zak33]

you know what people?

I love this thread.

It feels like Hexus Cars n Bikes did 4 years ago

Which is good.

I think we owe Direct Hex a clap and prolly Howard too....cos he still owns a normal car and talks the talk and walks the walk.

/applause.

[SilentDeath]

Took my fiesta for its MOT today. It has a slight oil problem, it filled the whole garage with oily smoke, but still passed, without anything being done

Ive only broken down once when the clutch cable snapped!

Its got a dent on the drivers side rear bumper where I was too close and scraped somones bumper. It looks nicer now, but not sure the other driver would let me do the other side.

Insurance next week, and tax at end of month, and becuase of some %*%^ in goverment I have to pay almost double what everyone else does, £180 this year, which is almost 1/3 of my inurance....


But it looks a LOT nicer than all the other mk3 fiestas. Its funny how many of them have horrible black square bumpers, vs the rounded green metal? ones on mine. I might give it a proper wash sometime (its only had 3 so far) but Id like to get it looking a bit more shiny. it has plenty of clearcoat left - is there anything better than wax?
My tyres look awesome too. I sorta miss the grip issues from the old ones, which made me do a 360 on a roundabout.

Just about everything is cheap to replace, easy to get to...


did I mention 25mpg with it permently floored?

[Zak33]

Death....your car rocks

[menthel]

If I can't beat a car , I'll slow it down by obscuring its view
genuine brown interior too !

Thanks for making me laugh out loud mate!