I forgot how rubbish older cars can be..

Its started out being fun. I was asked by my sister to use her car to go to work and fetch some timber from a nearby timber merchant. I got in the old 1l polo and it took me back a few years to my first cars. No power steering, de-misting the inside of the windows with a chamois pad, wipers that couldn’t cope with the mornings torrential rain and brakes that took an eternity to stop the car to name a few traits. I had a big smile on my face until halfway to work it died as I approached an island at the top of a hill. I managed to start it again and get round the island only for it to cut out again a few hundred meters later. This time it wouldn’t start and I was blocking the whole lane causing a big tailback. I sat with the hazards on trying to restart it but it wouldn’t fire up. I ended up getting out and pushing 50m or so onto a pub car park in some of the heaviest rain I have seen. I then had to run the last couple of miles to work. I don’t think I could of been any wetter by the time I got there.
Worst was the thought of telling my sister. Knowing the car is old and tied but she never has any problems with it.

I have just been back up and it started fine and runs as if nothing ever happened.

Next time I get in our car I will be thankful for modern electrics and all the creature comforts we now have. Not that new cars don’t go wrong but for me its a lot less common than it used to be.

andysredmini – Member

Worst was the thought of telling my sister. Knowing the car is old and tied but she never has any problems with it.

I have just been back up and it started fine and runs as if nothing ever happened.

Operator Error, then?! 😆

How old is this old car, mid 80’s or something?

She’ll probably just tell you that it does it all the time and all you’ve got to do is wiggle the fuel pump relay under the drivers side dash or something.

Not that I had to do that in my old Ibiza, nope, not at all

T-Reg whenever that was.

Edit: 1998 – 1999. Not as old as i expected from how it drove.

T-Reg ain’t old-old. Thought you meant something from the early 80’s!

I got in the old 1l polo and it took me back a few years to my first cars. No power steering, de-misting the inside of the windows with a chamois pad, wipers that couldn’t cope with the mornings torrential rain and brakes that took an eternity to stop the car to name a few traits.

just sounds poorly maintained.

1998 – 1999

So not that old then 🙂

Talking of ‘no power steering’, I lost all the fluid from the power steering system on my honda accord tourer the other day, topped it up, started the engine and lost it all immediately, split hose probably. So I booked it into the garage which is two miles away and through 3 roundabout – my god that drive was hard work 🙂

old 1l polo

There’s your problem. I suffer the pain of driving around in an old Megane estate (shoot me someone) which needs its fuel pump massaged almost daily in order to start. It makes me feel dirty and I miss my Volvo.

Agreed, my Dad’s got a 2001 Passat, a top of the range V6 diesel SE with all the bells and whistles no less, but he lives abroad so it spends it’s life in a garage with a flat battery and flatter tyres most of the time.

I dragged it out the other day for him, charged the battery and drove it to the MOT station, now really it’s not an OLD car, they stopped making them about 10 years ago and unlike OPs Polo it has air-con and power steering but it drove horribly compared to mine, the steering is more suggestive than direct, it wallows like a boat and when I took it down an empty A road for a bit of an ‘italian tuneup’ for the sake of the emmissions test it felt pretty unstable at 70. It’s not like I’m unfamilar with it either, between us we’ve owned it from new – Dad bought it new, had it for 3 years, then I had it for 5-6 and it’s been used by him a couple of weeks a year ever since.

It’s not a bad car at all, perfectly capable way to get about in 2016 but I was a bit shocked how much things have progressed in the last 10-15 years, if someone asked me before I would have guessed the current one drove pretty much the same way as my Dads did, just looked a bit newer.

My first car was a Peugeot 106. There was something wrong with the seat adjustment mechanism so sometimes you’d unleash all 59 wheezing french horses and the seat would slide right back and then lock. I’d be hanging onto the steering wheel but not able to reach the pedals!

P-Jay – Member

It’s not a bad car at all, perfectly capable way to get about in 2016 but I was a bit shocked how much things have progressed in the last 10-15 years,

Sounds like there’s something wrong there, if it’s that bad.

Not long got rid of an 03 Ibiza & compared to my wife’s 12 plate Ibiza (virtually the same model as the latest 16 plate versions) there’s not a lot in it.
Her Ibiza handles a bit better, but mine did have 274k miles on it when I got rid so things had probably got a bit ‘baggy’, but I actually preferred the power delivery of the engine & the gearbox in my old Ibiza, plus it had more comfortable seats, a bigger boot and more storage options.
The main thing I like about the newer one is built in Bluetooth connectivity & a USB port to put memory stick full of music into.

I saw the bloke who bought my old car a few weeks ago. He’s really pleased with it & has mapped it (from 130 to 170bhp) and stuck some ‘yoof’ wheels on it. I can’t see it lasting much longer.

Sounds like there’s something wrong there, if it’s that bad.

agreed. my old passat wallowed round corners but on the motorway it was great.

I do try to mention this to my teenage children as I ferry them around in reliable, modern cars with creature comforts like climate control. The cold, damp mornings spent pumping the accelerator, spraying WD40 on the HT leads/distributor cap and pulling the choke out etc.

They look at me with what I can only describe as pity. Ho hum

just sounds poorly maintained.

Not poorly maintained at all. Just compared to modern cars.

That’s not old.

I was running a 1961 Volvo as a daily driver int he mid noughties.

Prior to that in the early 90’s I did 15-20,000 miles a year for a couple of years in a 1965 Triumph Herald convertible.

I have a brother like your sister.

I was trying to squeeze the last few miles out of an old FIAT before taking it to the scrappers later in the week. However it died on me on the way to work and I had to abandon it beside the road.

My brother said he wanted it and then proceeded to drive it for another few years reliably despite it smoking and making horrible noises all that time. He has absolutely no mechanical sympathy and uses only an imperial pipe wrench which also serves as a hammer.

The family reckon he could take a dying horse from the knackers and ride it around the country. 🙂

My car isn’t “old” – it’s an 09 Vectra with about 107,000 miles on it so a reasonable car.

However for my job I occasionally get to drive lovely new fleet/sponsor vehicles. Had a top end BMW 5 Series a few weeks ago and an Audi A7 S-Line (both with a head-up display).
The auto-gearbox on the Audi was a joy and while it would drive in a nice sedate manner in eco mode if you put it on dynamic and hit the gas (I had a closed road to play on), God it wouldn’t half shift.

Then I had to get back in my car to drive home. 🙁

There was something wrong with the seat adjustment mechanism so sometimes you’d unleash all 59 wheezing french horses and the seat would slide right back and then lock. I’d be hanging onto the steering wheel but not able to reach the pedals!

Mate of mine had a MkII Escort with a similar problem, only it was the seat back latch (it was a 2-door with foldy-forward seats to get in the back). So every time he gave it beans, which given that he’d have been about 19 and in a MkII Escort was “every time he set off,” there’d be a *snap* and you’d be looking at the ceiling with your head on the back seat.

Just wait until all these modern cars age!

They might be more refined, but they are also a lot more complicated. Won’t be economically to keep them going in these days of dual mass flywheels, DPFs, turbos and so on. A lot more difficult to DIY as well. I’ve got a 1l Toyota and just to change the spark plugs takes 2 hours! Need to remove wipers, wiper motor, drain coolant, and then remove throttle body just to get to them.

Takes about 10 minutes on my 1999 Focus.

tbh you are comparing the worst era VW to anything. id have more confidence in my 87 landy than i would a VW of that era.

Volkswagon hit a real low point between 97 and early 2000s.

you’d be looking at the ceiling with your head on the back seat.

*narrows eyes*

“Sorry luv it’s always doing that! But while you’re down there?”

WD40 is your friend.

Yes newer cars are much much better

HH – whats the service interval on your yaris plugs ?

whats the service interval on your 99 focus plugs

thats probably why they are less accessable.

im hedging on the the 99 focus being a 1.6 or 1.8 zetec with a 30k interval on the plugs . i bet toyota quote 100k on the plugs on the yaris.

A lot more difficult to DIY as well.

Mate once had an Astra van, the headlamp bulb went so he picked one up from Halfords. After a bit of headscratching he asked me for help. I couldn’t fathom it either, so looked in the manual. “Dealer service only.”

IIRC we hit the Internet for instructions and it was something like, “step 1, drain and remove the radiator…”

was this some foreign astra van ? the most difficult it gets for an astra van is the need to remove the wheel arch liner for the passengers side bulb on the more modern stuff . the older stuff the light unit just came out – if it hadnt already fallen out . Our Mk2 astra van (badged Bedford) actually set its self on fire due to the headlight wiring being incapible of the current required for the 120% Bulbs fitted.

andysredmini – Member
just sounds poorly maintained.
Not poorly maintained at all. Just compared to modern cars.

When I drove a car from the late 80s (around 2002-3 I owned it), the brakes were looked after and easily powerful enough to lock the wheels, and it only stopped running once in 3-4 years of owning it. That was due to particularly heavy rain submerging a bit of electronics due to leaves blocking up some drainage points under the bonnet.

If brakes are poor and it breaks down, it’s not being looked after properly (admittedly it does get harder to look after cars as they get older, that’s why people buy new ones).

he has a point on the brakes .

i had a set of brakes on the landy that passed an mot with no issues but i rebuilt them with new seals pistons , MC, slaves, lines , flexies, drums and shoes.

took them for the next mot – the chap said WTF have you done to those brakes – as he was using the decellorometer on the seat to test them. and just about stuck him self through the window. Dirty big 4pots upfront all working as they should and not partially siezed like most landies on the road.

I remember my brothers old mini.
enough power in it for only 2 things at a time.
so it was lights and wipers OR lights and radio OR radio and lights.
oh and the brakes were a joke

T-Reg whenever that was.

Edit: 1998 – 1999. Not as old as i expected from how it drove.

Pimpmistress Jazz had an R plate when we got together. On moving to the IoW we left it at the hoverport for me to use to get to work on the mainland. It lasted one week before catastrophically failing its MOT, essentially making it a write-off.

Have to admit, I wasn’t sorry to see it go.

Takes about 10 minutes on my 1999 Focus.

Very easy to get to them on my 2000 Focus too. 😉

Bye bye Focus by Neil Cain[/url], on Flickr

Are you really kidding yourself that old brakes are as good as new ones? Have you tried many new cars?
As I said the car is not poorly maintained. The brakes are perfectly adequate and will lock the wheels if pressed hard enough but that doesn’t mean they are as good as modern brakes.

Not sure if you can claim older cars are ‘rubbish’, although I have fond memories of being in a knackered Renault 4 one freezing January, with no heating, and the moisture from our breath forming ice on the inside of the windows. 😥

Old cars might not be as comfortable or idiot-proof in operation as current motors, but try replacing a lightbulb, then discovering you have to take the engine out to access it, or having a problem with the electronics, which require towing to a garage with the required technology, and paying £800 to fix the tiniest intermittent fault which totally immobilises the vehicle. Or needing a replacement part, and discovering that the local breakers yard, with thousands of old cars stacked up, and millions of parts, doesn’t actually have that particular bit you need, as entire models change every few weeks, and you need the specific bit which will have to be ordered new and will cost you £500. For a 2cm bit of moulded plastic.

I could get my friend on here to talk to you about his Ford Focus, and it’s dodgy bonnet catch, but I think such an action would be banned under the Geneva Convention bit on Torture…

was this some foreign astra van ?

Dunno, it was a lease vehicle at the company I worked for at the time so who knows. Probably early 2000s, whatever Mk that would’ve been.

It’s entirely possible that I’m misremembering and it was a different vehicle he was in at the time of course, but I could’ve sworn it was that van.

There was something wrong with the seat adjustment mechanism so sometimes you’d unleash all 59 wheezing french horses and the seat would slide right back and then lock. I’d be hanging onto the steering wheel but not able to reach the pedals!

I hired a nissan vanette one – forward control so you seats are on top of the engine. I learned this detail about the engine position pulling out from the hire co onto a roundabout. It became apparent that as part of the pre-hire engine checks they hadn’t re-secured the seat properly – so pulled out and fell into the back of the van.

Went and picked up my GF and as we set off again I told her about the falling into the back of the van thing and as I pulled away she fell into the back of the van.

Mate once had an Astra van, the headlamp bulb went so he picked one up from Halfords. After a bit of headscratching he asked me for help. I couldn’t fathom it either, so looked in the manual. “Dealer service only.”

IIRC we hit the Internet for instructions and it was something like, “step 1, drain and remove the radiator…”

What vintage of astra is that? Not a problem on my circ 2004 but I want to replace it with another astra van when it finally pops (if it ever does).

I had an 06 Astra, there’s a flap in the wheel arch that you take off to replace the bulb iirc

I drove my Father’s 5 series E39 sport 6 cyl 1997 I think.

Drove fast, responsive and handles better than recent Mondeo I drove.

LPG and only 105K.

It has all the toys that are standard now luckily.

Are you really kidding yourself that old brakes are as good as new ones? Have you tried many new cars?
As I said the car is not poorly maintained. The brakes are perfectly adequate and will lock the wheels if pressed hard enough but that doesn’t mean they are as good as modern brakes.

i thought about this as I had to brake hard for an errant sheep on the moors this morning in my 14yr old A3.

Has brake technology really moved on that much? Its still applying friction pads to a metal disc. with equal tyres fitted then I’d reckon my old A3 would out brake a modern A3 as its smaller and lighter.

P-jay’s Passat sounds like there might be some problems with the alloy suspension control arms, which wear surprisingly rapidly and need replaced on a fairly regular basis. Worst thing is there are a lot of them…
If these are replaced as they wear, that car should still be taught and stable. I’ve a TDi of similar era and when driving quickly, it feels much better than the brand new 16 plate Toyotas and Astras in the office pool. Less toys to wrong and a proper handbrake for when it’s snowing too.