What was the biggest pile of scrap car you ever owned and tell us a bit about it. ( Volvo content )

TTony

I once bought a Metro.

An *MG* Metro.

It had all the go faster stickers and everything, though I'm not sure that they were hugely effective.  But, more importantly, the insurance was affordable for a 21yo with little NCB.

Fortunately, I also bought a full warranty on it.

So, when it went *bang*, the warranty paid out.  

As I was walking back into town from the garage that handled its cremation, I passed a car showroom that was proudly displaying a Peugeot 205.

A Peugeot 205 GTI.  

Peugeot made much better go faster stickers.  That was one stunningly brilliant car.

Most insurance brokers just laughed when I phoned for a quote (this was the early '80s) and I ended up with a policy from a specialist syndicate at Lloyds.

Telejester

TTony said:

I once bought a Metro.

An *MG* Metro.

It had all the go faster stickers and everything, though I'm not sure that they were hugely effective.  But, more importantly, the insurance was affordable for a 21yo with little NCB.

Fortunately, I also bought a full warranty on it.

So, when it went *bang*, the warranty paid out.  

As I was walking back into town from the garage that handled its cremation, I passed a car showroom that was proudly displaying a Peugeot 205.

A Peugeot 205 GTI.  

Peugeot made much better go faster stickers.  That was one stunningly brilliant car.

Most insurance brokers just laughed when I phoned for a quote (this was the early '80s) and I ended up with a policy from a specialist syndicate at Lloyds.

I once bought a metro was all you needed to say 

ICBM

dern said:

Loved citroen because of my 2CV, would never buy one again because of the BX.

Having also owned both, I have to say that modern Citroens have nothing at all in common with either of them. They're no different, or better, or worse than any other big car brand now.

They don't even use the odd-size M thread bolts that they used to any more.

Haych

ICBM said:

dern said:

Loved citroen because of my 2CV, would never buy one again because of the BX.

Having also owned both, I have to say that modern Citroens have nothing at all in common with either of them. They're no different, or better, or worse than any other big car brand now.

They don't even use the odd-size M thread bolts that they used to any more.

My mechanic summed up my own thoughts when it comes to PSA group cars: "Built to a price point".

nanoman

Close call between a Mini Metro and an original Skoda Rapide. In fact definitely the Skoda PoS. 3 weeks before it emptied itself over the motorway and the engine fused together before i could even come to a stop (although the brakes were so bad that the melted engine was far more effective)

Also a Cavalier SRi 150. Great when it worked but an electrical/ECU fault meant it could cut out at any time. Interesting when it did it when overtaking. No garage could diagnose it. Bump starting at 80mph was a frequent part of owning it.

Garthy

olafgarten said:

I've only owned one car, and haven't owned it long enough to find out if it's crap, but my Dad's friend's 2008 6 Series is a contender.

He bought it for £2000 in Malaysia where he lives which is a very good price, the only obvious damage was a 4cm dent on the front wing. He repaired that but things started to go wrong very quickly.

First the battery would die every 10 miles, even when it was replaced with a fresh one, turns out it was a dodgy alternator, so that was replaced.

Next one of the tyres burst while driving, apparently when the dent on the front was made it caused a bit of metal to break and come loose and it protruded out towards the wheel hitting the tyre.

After that he had to replace Spark Plugs, Engine Belts, Suspension Parts, the Starter Motor, the Radiator and parts of the exhaust system.

After spending almost £5000 on repairs he thought he had finally got to the end of the problems until one day he was started the engine and pulled out of his office car park and the car told him there was a transmission failure and that acceleration was reduced (This means it accelerates like it's in 4th gear and you can't go faster than about 40).

He has now replaced the Clutch, and most of the gearbox and hasn't had problems for around 2 years now.

Two grand's worth of 6 series was never going to be the stuff of dreams was it. The scrap value must be more than that.

57Deluxe

A1981 Talbot Alpine. I paid £395 for it in '91 with an MOT, caved-in near side and heavy condensation. I got it as was made redundant and was offered either a month's use of the compmay BMW 3 series or its rental equivalent value of £400. So took the rental value, bought the Alpine so would not have to use my MGB Roadster daily.

Pushed out the dent, resprayed in a mate's shed, and used it for over 3 years without issues and sold it for £395 to an AA engineer with a MOT on it.

But it was a real pile of crap butt went like a train. However, it kicked out of first gear, had a faulty alternator and slow deflating tyre right at the point of sale but still sold! Owed me nothing but earned me a fair few quids getting car expenses in it when I got mack into work and did a few trips up to the NEC for client exhibitions! Oh yes and a trip to Salford with no heater but with a blanket and hot water bottle on my lap!  - earned over £200 for that trip!

http://i68.tinypic.com/2a5x4sp.jpg

vale

old school mini. m or n reg, maybe 1975? so 25 years old when i got it. my first ever car.

i loved the look & feel of it & the gokart handling. but after failed my test twice the subframe fell off due to intense rustage & i was at college so couldn't afford to repair it.

i was very fond of it so kept it for a while as somewhere i could go to get away from my parents. a place of my own where i could hang out with friends & listen to music & make out.
then after keeping it for a while i got a sticker from the council saying i couldn't keep it on the road (council estate) & we had no drive, so i sold it to a boy racer.

he conveniently 'forgot' to register himself as the new owner & did what boy racers do.
so not long after i had police troubles to go with losing my beloved mini too.

sighs. it's a girls life.

(more trials & tribs from 'the world of vale', my forthcoming autobio to be released on the 12th of never).

mike_l

TTony said:

I once bought a Metro.

An *MG* Metro.

My Aunt had one, when driving through Hendon she stopped at a set of traffic lights. The nearside front wheel didn't.......

Haych said:

.

My mechanic summed up my own thoughts when it comes to PSA group cars: "Built to a price point".

When I worked at Peugeot one of the master techs said "they last 60K miles then they're fucked".

johnswiss

Telejester said:

My one and only Volvo......Sigh.

1987 silver Volvo 340GL 1.7. What a pile of shit that thing turned out to be. Weighed about 100 tonnes and that underpowered excuse for an engine gave 25 miles to the gallon  on a run and sub 20 on town driving. Acceleration, don't make mme laugh.Rattles and squeaks by the bucket load and the carburetor, remember those ? ,gave up the ghost rapidly. Decided I would never own another Volvo......Ever.

Tell us about your worst pile of scrap car.

I remember at 19 in my first job a guy in the office used to give me that same car to take out on site visits. Even aged 19 and driving a brand new car I thought it was a horrible piece of crap.

Danny1969

57Deluxe said:

A1981 Talbot Alpine. I paid £395 for it in '91 with an MOT, caved-in near side and heavy condensation. I got it as was made redundant and was offered either a month's use of the compmay BMW 3 series or its rental equivalent value of £400. So took the rental value, bought the Alpine so would not have to use my MGB Roadster daily.

Pushed out the dent, resprayed in a mate's shed, and used it for over 3 years without issues and sold it for £395 to an AA engineer with a MOT on it.

But it was a real pile of crap butt went like a train. However, it kicked out of first gear, had a faulty alternator and slow deflating tyre right at the point of sale but still sold! Owed me nothing but earned me a fair few quids getting car expenses in it when I got mack into work and did a few trips up to the NEC for client exhibitions! Oh yes and a trip to Salford with no heater but with a blanket and hot water bottle on my lap!  - earned over £200 for that trip!

http://i68.tinypic.com/2a5x4sp.jpg

I had one of those, paid £195 for it with an overheating problem. Rad was full of oil as was the expansion bottle and all the pipes, headgasket was blown. I spent a day doing the gasket and flushing everything through, a month later it blew the new gasket and I sold it on.  It did go well, easily topping 100mph with 5 people in it

Snap

Telejester said:

Who had a car or had a dad whose car flunked the MOT year after year ?

ah you see, my heaps fell to bits before the MOT was due. Never put a crapheap through an MOT, it was always scrapped first. I'd buy them with at least 6 months test on in the first place. |Back then you'd get 75-100 for a scrapper, not bad when they usually cost about 150 in the first place.

MPG? No idea, I was more concerned about the car actually lasting a full tank of petrol without seizure or collapse, that was a bonus

Snap

I want a Cortina MkIII. Obviously with a vinyl roof. I really do.

Danny1969

I've just found the MOT failure sheet for the last MK3 Transit I owned and ran as a band van for a couple of years. When I went back to the garage to collect the van he was still sweeping most of it off the ramps ...

Telejester

Holy shit, did you drive that thing with a pencil behind the ear, copy of big ones on the passenger seat and a chirpy cockney accent ?

speshul91

My punto now has a fucked exhaust because the rear engine/gearbox mount is fucked. 

Got a 53 plate fiesta last night in need of a clutch, clutch came with the car, giess what im doing tomorrow. 

HAL9000

Just remembered another one - a Triumph TR7. 'nuff said.

thomasw88

Austin Metro -  I got this after driving my first a car (  a mini) into the back of a volvo.  The volvo wasn't touched apart from a bruised rear light. The entire front end of my mini collapsed..  Behind the restaurant I was working at that time was a garage .

They picked up the battered mini and then told me about a metro they had lying in the yard they were selling for someone. They said it needed a new engine - which at the time was the same as the mini's engine,  which survived the crash virtually untouched.

Needing a car I got them to put my old engine in and drove away thinking I had got a bargain.

Over the next few years that metro went wrong countless times.  It was garbage and cost a bloomin fortune.  Eventually it got scrapped as the engine had seized up, and I had no money to pay for it get fixed/or mot'd/taxed.    Remember getting £30 for it from the scrappy and then drowning my sorrows in the pub with that dosh.


More recently had a 2009 ford mondeo diesel.  Got to say I really liked that car, great fun to drive, wicked stereo, decent fuel consumption etc etc.   However, it was a bit of a pig in maintenance.

It burnt through tyres quicker than a dried twig in a furnace.  Went through 4 sets of front tyres and 2 sets of rear tyres in 2.5 years.

It developed some weird undiagnosable problem that no-one could fix - engine kept stuttering/losing power occasionally cutting out.  My garage 'fixed' it on a number of times only for it to reoccur

 Final time it spent 1 week in my garage who then sent it to the best auto-electrician in the area who had it for a week.  Couldn't find what the problem was and started replacing random parts.   My garage didn't charge me anything for their time on it and gave it back to me saying they didn't ever want to see it again!  

I  Spoke to Ford who said yep bring it in and they'd start the process again from beginning -  except they charge £80 an hour and they would only look at it from scratch ie not speak to the other places
I  traded it in at a garage who didn't even start the engine/drive it or ask if anything was wrong with it.

Interestingly enough both my garage and the auto electrician both said this type of thing happens more frequently and particularly with diesels, both recommended getting a petrol car!

Snap

HAL9000 said:

Just remembered another one - a Triumph TR7. 'nuff said.

I really wanted one of those, around 1987. I was on the brink of buying one for about £600, lucky escape or what?

TR8 was cool too.

Its no wonder that you seen absolutely NO TR7s around these days is it? Most will have turned to dust years ago.

57Deluxe

who remembers the MG Maestro Turbo... I quite fancy one now!

http://only-carz.com/data_images/models/mg-maestro/mg-maestro-01.jpg