Modern cars

[happy daze john in oz]

Had my 8 year old Land Rover serviced Thursday and the front braks had to be done. New pads and disc as they tell me with the modern car discs can no longer be machined. The mechanic was amazed that the original battery is still on there and in good condition particularly as the engine is diesel. New tyres but the old set did 115,000 kilometers, about 72,000 miles. Is this good going, or have I just been lucky?

[John Pruden]

JOHN until a couple of months ago i drove an Audi i always had one bullet proof that's what the fitters call them nearly 200.000 miles on it full service history 17 years old then i got this new thing Nissan qashqai+2 not a patch on the old Audi this has got to many gadgets i still haven't used most of them full glass roof with the summer sun its like sitting in a greenhouse until i found the air con?jp

[Les Woodard]

Is it a TD5 disco John? My son has a series one disco V8 and would not get rid of it for anything. Not over fussed on diesels myself. If it is a TD5 then would be looking at trading it in as soon as possible before you are up for big bickies for electrics. As for changing discs they are quiet easy to do and they have the minimum sizes stamped on the edge of them so you can measure them yourself to see if there is any wear.

[Captain Kong]

My best ever car was a VOLVO ESTATE 575, Automatic, I did 260,000 then the oil and radiator bust and got mixed up and I had to be towed to a garage. It was tired and then died. until then exceedingly comfortable, reliable and fantastic.
I had it for 14 years before it died, Very sad.
My car now is a KIA Carens, had it for 7 years, not the best car on the road but is very reliable.The problem with cars today is Technology which bangs up the price of Servicing.

.
My first car was a Morris 14, 1937. with Big brass headlamps on. I bought it in 1957 just paid off the Dunedin Star.I was in the alehouse and a fella shouted, " Who wants to buy a car" `Me` , I heard myself shout, `How much?`
£10. `I only have £7, ` That will do, he said. `its outside, here is the Log book, its yours.`
Next day I cleaned it out inside, it was like dust bin, I found Two shilling piece under the back seat , so it cost me
£6.18 shillings.
Those cars were so easy to service, I think most people in those days Serviced their own cars. Change the plugs change the oil tighten the brakes with a spanner. done.
The cars in those days had no heaters, no electric windows or indicators, Turning right you wind down the window stick your hand out and gave the relevent signal. There was nothing to go wrong with them.
Not good on a freezing night when the winscreen freezes up on the inside.
The night before I sailed on the Adelaide Star in April 1957 I went to town and got bevied, I must have come home in a taxi, the car was somewhere in town , but I had a train to catch to get to Liverpool to sail. I never saw the car again, I searched every where when I came home Five months later.
Memories of happy motoring, The Insurance was £5 a year, petrol four shillings a Gallon, not a litre.
Cheers
Brian.

[Keith Tindell]

Ah those memories of early cars, bloody thing wont start, take the distributor cap off, pop it in the oven for a couple of minutes, dash outside, reconnect it, and fingers crossed it might start. Vacumn windscreen wipers, that went slower and slower as you went up hill, and having reached the top of the hill, they thrashed their selves to bits going down. the saving grace mostly was they had something that no cars have today, a bloody starting handle. Motoring sure was an adventure!!!! KT

[alf corbyn]

i bought a 1934 riley kestrel for a £5.00. knock on racing wheels pre-select gear box. the battery was encased in a wooden box and was about 2feet long in the bottom of the boot. the lid of the boot had a complete set of tools including a grease gun all in a fitted section inside the lid. i had it for about three years then sold it for a fiver to a scrapyard. i was working in a garage at the time and the day after i sold it , a bloke came to fill up with an exact same model in showroom condition.when i told him i had just sold one he said take me there and if its still there i'll give you £300 just for showing me, but it had already gone. i loved the old cars

[Lou Barron]

I never thought that i would have a Jap car but after a Holden then a ford falcon i have had a Toyota Corolla for a few years my last car that i have now is also a Toyota Corolla with all the whistle and bells it is a bit on the small size but it is the best car that i have had

[Les Woodard]

How many of you still remember the rule of not gripping the starting handle by wrapping your thumb around it LOL. Only ever do it once if it backfires. I often think about how times have changed with cars. The bodies would be rust prone and the motors would be bullet proof and now it is the other way round. Not much metal in the bodywork today to rust but the motors are so finely tuned that there is no tolerance left and they are now a throw away item on the car. Now if you where to have the old mechanics installed into a modern car it should last you for your life time in my view. About the only extra I like on the new ones is the air conditioning other than that all the rest is just to force the bloody price up and make it impossible to work on.

[Tony Wilding]

The Achilles Heel of all modern cars is all the Electronics, thats what goes wrong, costs a fortune to fix, on specialised diagnostic computers, everything has to be renewed not repaired, the worst idea is a rubber cam belt, goodbye engineif it breaks, my son is a car enthuasist, he rebuilds them, from mechanics to bodywork, has a 20 year old mini, totally rebuilt, a opel manta sports coupe, and a austin 1300 mint condition, just bought a triumph dolomite for £300 one owner from new allways garaged thats about 17 years old, runs and looks perfect, all are easy to repair, no electronics, has an old van for work, i had a vauxhall vectra 1.8 a lovely car, roomy, comfortable, quite good on fuel, but could not keep with replacing electronic parts, ifone went wrong it shut the engine down. last car is an old vauxhall corsa, small but utterly relible, has a 1500 cc Japanese Turbo Diesel, no electronics, its fast,50MPG At least. . done 140,000 miles never let me down. simplicity is efficiency.























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[Tony Morcom]

Have to agree. It shows how tightly integrated these cars are today: When we got our Nissan Qashqai I took it back to get the cigar lighter changed to a permanent positive feed so that I could leave my mobile on charge. They had to phone the factory only to be told it can't be done as every single part of the electrics runs through the onboard computer. There are some benefits to this mind you: you can't get a flat battery by leaving the lights on as they are all automatically shut down 20 seconds after you lock the car. I also like the automatic hands free. I only have to get in the car with my phone in my pocket and as soon as i start the engine it automatically pairs up my phone (and my wife's) so that it can be used hands free via a switch on the steering wheel.