OT-ish DIY-friendly cars

[charles]

Interestingly, when looking for a new car 3 years ago, SWMO chose a Skoda over a VW.

[charles]

there were such things as "small doubles" in those far off days.

[Chris J Dixon]

Otherwise known as an "occasional two"

Chris

[meow2222]

Old cars are so reliable and long lived now that there's little reason to pay for a new one, unless you want something very specific.

If you're tight enough to need to do your own work, an old car can oblige on that point too.

Handymen, some landlords etc can justify a nice comfortable car plus an old van specifically for diy, or difse.

NT

[Another John]

JPG! JPG! (As they say in another group.)

I was going to say myself: the few times I've driven a hire transit recently I've been delighted and thrilled with the driving position (height/breadth), and astonished at how easily the long journeys (Newcastle-Woodbridge, last one) have flown by.

Unfortunately however I too suffer from GMM's other-half veto.

John

[Capitol]

You can get an 8 x 4 sheet into a Metro.

[Capitol]

Dogging?

[Capitol]

No problem for a Grand Voyager.

[charles]

that must have been about its only "for" point.

[Andrew]

The ECU of most cars is the most reliable part. Problems are usually connector-related, and typically because a cack-handed 'mechanic' has treated the multi-way plug like a 13 amp mains plug.

My 1998 Astra 1.6 has never ever had any problems. But now it has developed a strange misfire I can almost guess the scenario if I go to most garages - 'keep giving us the money and we will just keep changing things until it is fixed'.

'Reflashing' the ECU seems to be the latest scam perpetrated on unsavvy owners. They won't get away with that one where I am concerned.

[Andrew]

The Vectra estate from 2003 onwards is much wider than the earlier model and carrying 8x4 sheet material on roof bars shouldn't be a problem.

There is always the trusty Volvo V70 too.

[john james]

Yeah, I initially thought you meant the second one until you started to talk about moving 3M lengths of timber with it.

In some ways they are much easier to DIY than they used to be when you can use an OBDII adapter that costs almost nothing and have the management system tell you what sensor has failed.

When I needed to change

Most cars are much better designed than that.

I still do the oil changes and sparkplug changes myself and am very happy that I don?t have to fart around greasing the suspension and doing the timing anymore.

[john james]

When they end up pregnant.

[john james]

Yeah, that's what I do. And can borrow an even bigger one if I need to move even larger stuff like a car too.

[LumpHammer]

Modern hatchbacks with their short bonnets and steeply sloped windscreens that nearly reach the front of the car can carry surprisingly long bits of wood inside.

[Adrian]

FFS, I've managed ten pieces of 2.4m 3"x2" CLS and a couple of packets of ten T'n'G 100mm planks - into a Pug 205. With the tailgate closed.

[john james]

They are actually, much more DIY friendly than they used to be.

Which tell you which sensor has failed if you use an OBDII adapter to see what they are telling you about faults.

Yes, but you get a lot more help with where a fault is as well.

Yes, but an OBDII adapter is very cheap indeed, much cheaper than say a timing light used to be in the past.

[Scott M]

It's these sort of statements that date usenet users and shows that many posts are somewhere to the left of total gibberish.

My car is 10 years old. It has 202,000 miles on the clock. It has towed many trailers. It has had roofbars put on it and made to carry much weight. I have repaired and replaced bits of it with spanners and hammers. It has only failed to start once and that was when I drowned the engine in a floody puddle - and I simply pumped it out and carried on.

It is therefore exactly be what the OP is referring to and what NT is implying. It is most definately an /old/ car.

It only went to a garage once in the last seven years because I couldn't undo the crank pulley bolt (200Nm + 60deg + 60deg)

It has not been to a main dealer since it was three.

And it has been a joy to DIY.

But, 10 years ago, as it was rolling off the production line it was exactly the sort of modern day monstrosity that had usenet crying into their porridge about unreliable modern crap. 10+ years ago I remember posts from people then still decrying how they still weren't going near electric windows as they always break. How CAN was the antichrist and meant that we were all in thrall to the main dealer forever and we should be looking to second hand Austin 7s. How alloy wheels were just a Which bating nonsense. All the air sucking about common rail Diesels and the inherent turbo eating nature of them and how, if you must have one, go to VW who still made engines without them for reasons best known to themselves.

My 10 year old car has electric windows. And they still work.

It does not have points and a coil since it is a Diesel but it has a turbo. And that's still original. As are the non-mechanical injectors.

It is full of electronic buses. And ECUs - not the Norman Lamont type - and they all work. The CD head unit that came with it plays MP3s.

The battery lasted 10 years and 4 months.

I'm still on the original clutch (and flywheel. Oh god, dual mass flywheels, they always break you know?)

When people on Usenet talk about old, they're thinking of Dave's SD1 and are totally wrong because no-one's going to attempt to cross europe or visit B&Q in a Wolesley.

Brand new cars are designed and built the same way as old cars now.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well since I bought an old freelander its needed a new fuel pump, most of its filters replaced, its wheels lined up and a new electrical mechanism for the tailgate window. Still to go is the propshaft centrer bearings, and the sunroof cable driven mechanism. £1200 to date in 6 months and still going on...

It is all DIYable and I did the window mechanism OK, but there's a lot that can go wroing with injections turbo and so on on most cars that you need specail diagnostics to get near.,

My ppint is they are just as bad as old cars, they just are more sophisticated and you probably need a laptop more than a timing light, as it were.

[spuorgelgoog]

And has the secret under-floor compartment in the back for a second coffin / anything over your duty-free allowance / new tools you don't dare tell the SWMBO about

Owain