Looking for a first car

[MLyons]

5.9l good enough?

https://whitelabel.globalauctionplat...?clienturl=wca

Would I need to even worry about insurance at that point. Like what are they gonna do.

[Ttaskmaster]

5.9l good enough?

Alas no, as OP likely has not yet obtained H-Licence, having only just done the prerequisite car test... Might as well post a bike or a helicopter.

Would I need to even worry about insurance at that point. Like what are they gonna do.

Having driven the CRVT platform before and wanting to get into it, I found even my insurance was painful - It's the Third Party risk that you might do that kills it!
Damage to you will be minimal, but you so much as clip anything else out there, it will be an instant outright write-off!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Obviously not trolls derailing the thread.

Yes,because all the posts I made before in the thread are trolling. Because OFC I have done nothing but troll for 11 years here.

[MLyons]

Alas no, as OP likely has not yet obtained H-Licence, having only just done the prerequisite car test... Might as well post a bike or a helicopter.


Having driven the CRVT platform before and wanting to get into it, I found even my insurance was painful - It's the Third Party risk that you might do that kills it!
Damage to you will be minimal, but you so much as clip anything else out there, it will be an instant outright write-off!!

Is it something you could actually get insured and drive legally? I assumed that was a no go.

[Ttaskmaster]

Is it something you could actually get insured and drive legally? I assumed that was a no go.

It is.
You need an H-Licence. Before you can get one, you need a car licence.
Thereafter, you can legally drive any tracked vehicle on the public road, so long as it is suitably insured and roadworthy... which in the case of an FV432 or Saracen/Scimitar, etc, means rubber feet on the tracks to stop you from ripping up the tarmac as you hoon around at up to 45mph!!

I'm not allowed one, but still want one for obviously comedic reasons - One being that NO-ONE will cut me up. I also believe it's impossible to clamp and highly unlikely to get towed.
But one day I really want to hang my head out the hatch and shout, "Come on, luv, you could get a flippin' TANK through that gap.... Here, I'll prove it, if ya want"!!

You can get a decent, running FV432 for about £4.5k. A good one in great nick is around £9k.

[DanceswithUnix]

"Infected" What do you have against VW?

When you say Skoda this is what comes to my mind, a rear engined flat four with excellent handling which made it a pretty good rally car in its day:



The layout allowed an easy conversion into one of these kit cars:



But now Skoda is gone, sucked into the VAG group. You can buy a Rapid these days, but you will get a SEAT Toledo with a different body shell, coming out of the same factory as the SEAT. Dull, boring and the world doesn't need it. If this led to better quality then I would be OK with that, but the number of VAG cars I see at the side of the road with the hazard warning flashers on seems well out of proportion with how low down the sales rankings these cars are in this country. So it isn't quality, just cost reduction.

But I think the "oh FFS" moment for me was when VAG bought Ducati. There was zero business case for the purchase, it was just a trophy for the VW CEO who fancied it.

To be fair, I think VAG have done a good job with Lamborghini.

Wonder how the extent to which manufactures cut corners has changed over the years. Old cars were near invincible. And yes I know a lot of it is electrical not mechanical issues on new cars.

It isn't old cars, there was a specific era of well built cars.

Really old cars were a menace, my original Mini broke down weekly and many people I knew in the 80's drove around with a full toolkit in the boot of the car as well as spare coolant hose and a bottle of water for when (not if) your radiator system let go (I'm specially looking at you Talbot Sunbeam).

Around 1995 there was an EU ruling that consumers could reasonably expect a car to last I think it was 150km. Car manufacturers found that difficult to judge and most cars of that era were over engineered. Still, it is easy to find cars that last well, don't go looking for ancient cars expecting them to still be reliable after all these years.

Still, I think all modern cars are well built. You can pretty much get any car regardless of whether it is at the Hyundai or Bentley end of the market and expect it to get you to work just fine. That's pretty good for us consumers.

[Butcher]

I definitely recall old 80s cars being pretty crap. Modern cars have far fewer random mechanical failures (but more electrical failures) and largely don't rust themselves on to the scrapheap within a decade.

[cheaperinsuranc]

good luck with your first car buddy

[MLyons]

Yes,because all the posts I made before in the thread are trolling. Because OFC I have done nothing but troll for 11 years here.

Yh that may of been a bit of a sweeping statement on my part


In other news should be buying the corolla this weekend

[Ttaskmaster]

Still, I think all modern cars are well built.

Oh, u serious...?

Modern cars have far fewer random mechanical failures (but more electrical failures) and largely don't rust themselves on to the scrapheap within a decade.

Only because flimsy plastic doesn't rust...

[Dashers]

Many reliability things have improved on modern cars, but they are also far more complex so have more things that can go wrong. Can't remember the last time somebody had a leaky radiator, yet that was a fairly common thing in the old days.

Rust? My car is chiefly made of aluminium and the newer model even the body work is almost entirely aluminium.

[Ttaskmaster]

Can't remember the last time somebody had a leaky radiator, yet that was a fairly common thing in the old days.

I can.
Tuesday.
Mercedes E-Class.

[pp05]

Usually for a new driver one used to be advised to buy a cheap banger and get road experience for a year. I dunno if pass plus still exists, if it does consider doing that as it might help lower premiums in the future.

For a car most lower end cars are coming with more and more features these days. Get a VW Golf 1.4. Don't buy it brand new. If it can come with extra's even better (park assist, cruise control). They are the little things that will make your driving experience more pleasurable.

[DanceswithUnix]

Oh, u serious...?

Hell yes. I take it you have never experienced something "classic" like a Marina, or an old Vauxhall Viva? Driven a car like my old 70's Mini where you know that if you are in an accident of any seriousness the engine can come straight into the passenger compartment and take your legs off? Couple that with drum brakes that at best don't really work and it makes for an interesting drive, but that's OK because by 60K miles the car is utterly shot. Not "needs a few bits changed" like you would expect these days, but stuff like a full engine and gearbox rebuild. Have you had a car with a 6 month service interval?

Cheap modern cars might not have a quality feel, but I haven't come across one I thought was actually dangerous since the early 90's (Citroen Xantia Estate if you are wondering, though a Rover of the same era came close). I have come across plenty of people who have now had cars that reached the quarter million miles mark, because modern cars can do that. All complex things occasionally break, specially when as you said some owners don't bother having them properly serviced. Never understood that, many people seem happy to spend £4000 a year on depreciation on a new or nearly new car and balk at a few hundred service bill every 18 months, then they complain that the cam belt broke when the service interval says to change it 10000 miles ago.

So yeah, some cars are better built than others, but please name me a complete lemon of a car model currently in production? There are plenty of cars out there I haven't driven so am happy to be proved wrong.

[Biscuit]

Yh that may of been a bit of a sweeping statement on my part


In other news should be buying the corolla this weekend

Glad to hear it. Did you manage to get the issues with the quotes sorted out then?

[Ttaskmaster]

Hell yes. I take it you have never experienced something "classic" like a Marina, or an old Vauxhall Viva?

Nothing you'd really consider a 'classic', per se... because Classics tend to last long enough to become Classics!!
I have some personal experience with the Talbot Horizon, Daewoo Nexia, Daewoo Esperro, Rover 214, first gen Smart Roadster.... oh, and a couple of a couple of 1980s Opel/Vauxhall Somethingorothers, although they could have been Datsuns. Never sure who owned what back then, as I wasn't into cars so much.
All were outlived by Dad's Nissan Bluebird, though!!

Have you had a car with a 6 month service interval?

Car? No.
Motorcycles? Hell yes... Some are three month intervals.

Cheap modern cars might not have a quality feel, but I haven't come across one I thought was actually dangerous since the early 90's

I think safety itself has improved dramatically... but failure rates of both engine parts and general bits has probably stayed even. Instead of rusting out, bits just snap off.

I have come across plenty of people who have now had cars that reached the quarter million miles mark, because modern cars can do that.

That's not so new, though. People were passing the 1mil mark so often in old Mercs that they stopped giving out free cars and just gave you grille badges instead.

So yeah, some cars are better built than others, but please name me a complete lemon of a car model currently in production? There are plenty of cars out there I haven't driven so am happy to be proved wrong.

Jeep Cherokee!!!
Jeep anything, to be honest... Personally, I'll never own a BMW. We just get so many in with failed bits all over the place.

Looking at the rust issue for cars we've had to weld up or replace panels on this year, after it failed MOT due to excessive rust:
3 Zafiras, 2 Accords. Got a Dacia Duster in there and a Porsche Cayenne. Quite a few Golfs and Ford Focuses (Focii?). Got a Mazda, got a Jeep. That's just a quick squiz through past invoices. The boss likes welding though, so he often does the smaller work for free.

Oh, and we had to replace the floor of a BMW that had rusted through in several places, with the boot floor almost completely gone. We didn't replace the floor itself, but instead replaced the 3ft x2ft "sheet" of chemical metal a previous mechanic had laid in as the new floor!!