After the sight of all that exotic machinery, I hardly dare to introduce the last chapter of my car-owning saga, but here goes:
Daughter, down in West Susssex, had, just before Christmas '03, bought a '99 Seat Toledo. It immediately disgraced itself: coming up North on Christmas Eve, the water pump stripped its vanes (seems this was a known fault on the VW 1800 20v petrol engine) and she landed home on the back of a RAC rescue truck.
Of course it was fixed under warranty, and she ran it for another four years, then we gave her £2000 for it (twice the best trade in offer) to replace our Rover 216 which had just gone for scrap. She then bought a new Mitsuibishi Lancer, which has proved a fine, reliable car ever since.
Of course, buying a 9 yr old with 95,000 on the clock was giving a hostage to fortune; eight months later an electical failure put all the instruments on the panel u/s: our friendly local auto electrician couldn't fix it and the main agents (may the Devil take them) "did" me for £400 (which was about what the car was worth)
. Scarcely had I finished smarting from that, than the o/s rear door lock jammed shut.
Main agents quoted another £300 for that, but f.l.a.e. undercut them with 3 hrs labour @ £20 ph = £60. Job done.
The speedo was zeroed at 97,000, and we've done another 9,000, so now it's almost sixteen years old with 106,000 miles. It still looks smart in the line-up of our neighbours' Mercs and Beamers, for the dark blue paintwork is the best quality I've ever seen, there isn't a spot of rust anywhere -
and it goes like a bomb ! It'll see me out, of course'
It
really does look as smart as this ! (04, but same model as '99)
Happy New Year to PPRuNe and all who sail in her !
Danny.