My latest 'project' car.
I say project because I bought it knowing it had a couple of issues, roof not working and the SRS light on. It was in poor cosmetic condition both inside and out, but detailing is the sort of thing I really enjoy doing. On the plus side it's low mileage for the age and came complete with lots of service documentation so I thought it'd make an interesting winter job (I bought it last December).
However, it has introduced me to the world of fettling MB's and it's been a harsh learning curve. The hood mechanism is both massively over-engineered as well as overly-complicated - and that applies to the rest of the car: numerous electronic modules, often located in the most unlikely places resulting in wiring looms running hither and thither. Even with a MB-specific aftermarket scanner it has been a long labour of tracking down fault after fault appearing on the dashbord display.
But eventually I got the roof working, the SRS light extinguished and then took it off for it's MOT late January...which resulted in several failures and a spectacularly long list of advisories.
Some of that I managed to do myself, but it needed workshop attention as well and then back to me for some more DIY. Finally it went back for another MOT last week and it came away with a pass and just one advisory (which was a nit-picking decision by the tester, IMO!).
Anyhoo, some pics of the cosmetic stuff:
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
That's lovely, worth all the effort I'm sure. Looks like it's just been driven off the fourcourt.
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That's lovely, worth all the effort I'm sure. Looks like it's just been driven off the fourcourt.
That’s a fine looking car Ralphy what’s the model?
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I’m in a bit of a dilemma…..
I’m moving jobs at the end of the month and losing my company car. Ive never actually owned my own car in my whole career, I’ve had a company car from the age of 18.
The new job I can order an electric but not for 6 months and then probably a 9 month build slot, so maybe 1.5 years of having to get my own car.
I want to spend maybe 7-10k to tide me over for 1.5 years until I can get an electric through my new place. I’ve swing from getting a mid mileage focus to a 100k on the clock Eclass and everything In between.
Any advice from the forum to what to get ? Will a 90/100k merc or bmw end up a money pit ?
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Yeah deffo an MX5
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Hopefully soon! Ionic 6 First Edition. Should be good.
Depends how good it’s been looked after already. I used to buy 5 series BMW at 100,000 and run them to 170-200,000 and usually it was only the consumable and things you’d expect to change and I never had a problem. My partner has a 140,000 Merc and it’s a dog as she’s never looked after it and is basically scrap without thousands thrown at it. Rule is find a good independent specialist and get to know him, there’s loads about and they are worth there weight in gold. Find a good forum and take the faults as knowledge but loads just winge and complain so take it all with a pinch of salt.
Just a quick edition, I currently have a 3 year old Merc and the service pack and extended warranty costs far more per year than I used to spend on my older cars repairs.
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Last edited by aa388; 14th March 2023 at 13:22.
Been absent from this forum for a while. Still about big watches and fast cars... lol.
Back to planet Earth. A car takes you from A to B. With people or stuff or both. I lost my rough stuff mover last year in a June hailstorm that left our village looking like a battle scene from Ukraine - no roof survived the apple-sized hail, nor did the cars. All our three vehicles were out of order, one still must be repaired, one took three months and no 3 was just a total loss.
We live rural, far from everything, shops, services, etc. and no public transport. Losing all your vehicles in a single blow of one 30-minute hailstorm makes you realize that OK, nice cars are fun but first and foremost, it's transport. We could not even go shopping for food or take all the broken stuff to waste disposal.
So I had to replace my lost go-around transport vehicle in a hurry while also having to spend lots on repairs of the house (we now have a new roof, still some leaks around the chimney and a large wall that needs reconstruction).
I found this one, had to import it as used cars were way too expensive in France and almost impossible to find in the area as all garages had also lost parking lots full of vehicles to the hail.
This one had a hard life as a service/delivery van in the Czech republic, lots of bad roads, snow, salt, mud, bumps, scratches, minimal maintenance. But the price was low, accordingly.
No fancy stuff here.
VW Caddy type III phase 2, from early 2015. Almost 178000 kms on the counter. Two seats, load space with a rubber floor, a bag of tools and a spare wheel lying around. The very low quality Sava tyres had gone soft during a year in the parking lot of a large dealer in 2nd hand utiliy vehicles, in the Netherlands. The battery was flat. There were rust spots and a lot or mud traces in the engine space. The engine warning light came on every few hundred kilometres with a fault code saying the O2 sensor was stuck on rich. The shock absorbers were shot and the rear exhaust muffler was a pile of rust.
OTOH, it ran. And it was blue. All our cars are blue. Not many delivery vans are blue like this. The cockpit was clean and the driver had not smoked in it. Is has airco and electric windows and mirrors, which my old clunker had not.
It was a huge risk, buying it before even having seen it (I live in France, the car was in the Netherlands and I had about one day to decide; I had sent my brother to look at it; the dealer had three of them from the same Czech fleet and while he was there, another was sold on the spot). Took the train down to collect it, they put a new cheap battery in it and the next day I drove it a thousand kilometers back home, with the engine light on most of that time.
That was August 2022. The import formalities took about three months during most of which the car was immobilized in our yard.
Once it could be driven legally on French roads I had a small programme of repairs and upgrades done on it. Tyres, shocks, coil springs, exhaust, engine maintenance, O2 sensor, added a skidplate...
It's a two-liter TDi with 4Motion allwheeldrive. 6 speed manual gearbox. The drivetrain is essentially the same as that of any of the smaller Audi Quattros (TT, A3) - same Haldex coupler. No fancy tricks, no buttons other than Traction Control ON/OFF; just a very low first gear for trundling on slippery backcountry roads, lots of torque and a long 6th overdrive for the highway. Big disc brakes all around. This thing corners like a dream, totally neutral (you can make it drift the back end in snow if you hit the gas in low gear). If you shift down on a long straight stretch and hit the gas it launches down the road totally straight, no vibrations in the steering as all four wheels claw at the surface. It is not a superfast sportscar but nifty, and a great driver. I have to limit myself as I tend to go illegally fast on our winding country roads, the car just whizzing through the curves as if they hardly exist. Fortunately there are very few speed cams here...
Just a middle-aged delivery van with some scars. But fun nonetheless. If anyone in a fancy city slick car is pushing behind me I just accelerate through a few curves and they become very small in the rearview mirror. Bye bye.
Last edited by Fschwep; 14th March 2023 at 13:49.
Got this a few weeks ago. 2021 Taycan Turbo. Wanted one since they first came out.
Had a couple of little niggles with it but other than that an amazing bit of kit.
Would leave my motorbike for dead.
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Would go potty for a Taycan estate. That would be my pick but wouldn’t say no to that one either.
Don’t you have a cayman or a 911? How does it compare to an ICE Porsche
I had a 991 a couple of years ago but I had a wobble in Covid and moved to a Tesla.
If I'm honest I would have bought a 992 over the Taycan if I could make the figures work but they are miles apart (double the yearly outlay) when running through a business in the UK.
Is it as fun as the 911? No.
It's loads more fun than the Tesla though, which was an amazing all-round mode of transport but just felt like a white good.
Being a petrolhead I don't think I could have an EV as my only car if I didn't have a motorbike. I would miss that Petrol engine as sad as it sounds.
Before covid we had a GLC, a Golf and a 1200 GSA. Now we only have a Tesla. I know exactly what you mean so thanks for the reply and comments, you’re preaching to the choir.
The ride is sterile and soulless but on the plus side I have to drive 3 hours tomorrow and I can set the start time on my phone and leave with a warm car and 100% charge. Boring drive though and a total bellend at the top.
Looked at the Taycan estate and quite frankly can’t afford it but for the same price I could keep the Tesla and add a 997.2 which I think I’ll do. While I can’t have a motorbike due to lack of garage in london I at least want a nice car.
I would keep the Tesla and buy a 997 without a shadow of a doubt if I were you.
I didn't expect the Taycan to be as much of a talking point with people as it is. I get stopped when I get out of it and people want to talk to me at traffic lights which is weird. A 911 is still way cooler to me though.
I deal with a load of owner managed business owners due to what I do and pretty much all of them either want a Taycan or have got one due to it being the top tax efficient car at the moment.
This makes me cringe a little If I'm honest, it feels like such a 40 something, business owner uniform at this stage.
I'm sure that will pass as some of the range rovers go full electric and those people revert to type.
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Remote with occasional travel but 95% London/south east.
What’s amazing is the last place had a restructure in Aug and let a bunch of people go and have openly and almost weekly since told us there is enough round in April and if we can’t bring in enough money to justify our prescience we will be in the next round. They have now just announced layoffs for 15% of the workforce and everyone is shocked.
Best part is they announced it prematurely via a press release by accident so everyone found out via news stories and LinkedIn first. But they have 8 different kinds of milk in the fridge, hand out macs and you can wear hoodies to work… sUpEr Ko0L
Thanks Tony. Hope yours is going well too.
I’ll see what the scheme looks like once I’m in but if it’s just a bunch of Kia’s I won’t bother.
On my wife’s scheme she’s allowed a Kia which costs more than a Tesla but isnt allowed a Tesla because she’s isn’t a head of.
Green cars are cool. We collected this M3 last month, 14 months after ordering from Park Lane, the NHS discount was chunky so we held out.
20230410_082423 by Simon Gee, on Flickr
Same colour as one of Vivian Campbell’s, was reading about his 911 collection in a magazine while my car was getting a service.
GT4 is a stunner in that colour & about the only thing I can see me swapping my GTS for if the timings and budget allows for. 911 is too large IMHO.
The GT4 has been a revelation to be honest- I’ve had a couple of more recent 911’s and this feels so much more nimble and agile even if it does miss the top end grunt of a more powerful 911.
There’s situations on narrow B roads where I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to overtake in the 911 due to the size but the GT4 feels at home.
I’ve got the PDK gearbox which is a joy to drive.
Father in law has the latest GTS 911 Cab & agree with you on the size aspect, it just seemed too large for some situations and this was on my familiar roads I drive often.
Current cayman is just the perfect size really, and you can't use all the grunt all (if any!) of the time on the roads unless you get up nice & early on a Sunday morning.
You had a 3RS and 2RS IIRC?
I'm strongly thinking of ordering the manual GT3, as the gearing, although long, won't be as bad as the GT4s due to the extra 1000rpm.....
I've swapping my manual 718 GT4 for a 992 GT3 soon, did you ever try the manual? I do track the car but also like a b-road blast - I'm still undecided as the PDK is so good these days but the manual might seem more of an occasion!
Yes it looks well and draws a few comments.
You must get on very well with your local OPC if they are letting you order a GT3!
I had a manual 981 GT4 once but I just didn’t bond with it- I much prefer this GT4 with the PDK.
I do a few track days at Cadwell etc and just much prefer the pdk- I know the purists all like manual but I like being able to just floor it and max out the revs without concern-
the pdk is always in the correct gear.
I did have a 3Rs and 2RS..I sold the 2RS ages ago- it’s still actually in the trade unsold- Tom Hartley has it , 6800 miles on the clock.
The 2RS is a total beast- but 99% of the time completely unnecessary!- obviously.
Yeah, I know the OPC quite well, certainly feel lucky to get an allocation! Probably the last one they're going to get of the 992.1
I totally understand,I do maybe 6-8 track days a year, (Actually Cadwell is my local too). Did you feel when blasting on the backroads any lack of involvement? Problem with the GT4 was it was essentially a 2 speed gearbox! In that case I might as well go PDK. I'm just thinking that I'll be able to stir the box a bit more on the GT3
looks fantastic, am a big fan of them!
I feel my 981 GTS is a 2-3 gear car on backroads PDK, can’t imagine the GT3 being more involved without silly speed, unless you’re using first and second!
I’ve always been a manual fan, but I love the PDK, even more so than my S2K which was the best box I’ve ever used.
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Bought this a few weeks ago and I love it. As SUV’s go I think it looks pretty good.
My days of performance cars are well behind me. I want cheap running now.
We got this through PL also and luckily, ordered in Feb 2022 before the Forces NHS deals were pulled. It made the car reasonable value. IMOG is a stunning colour and my photo doesn't capture the true depth of colour at all. There aren't enough green cars on the road, too many gray/light gray/dark gray/undercoat gray/silver/black/white.