CAR Buying

[Ropi Jo]

Something else, brakes on cars, everyone ive bought the brakes were terrible, 2nd one i reversed out parking space to test drive it, nearly hit cars behind as didnt work till 3 quarter down, first one had just passed mot, breaks worked but ya should have seen state of discs on inside, who just puts new pads on when back of disc is half solid rust, new pads were worn down with groove in centre

No one takes the caliper and pad brackets off, cleans the rust off, i had to hammer the pads on on 2 cars, not just tap em lighty with hammer, i mean bash em out because the stainless steel guides have so much rust built up under them, pads should just slide in and move freely, then people wonder why brakes stuck on when its been parked a few days, coz pads are solid stuck on disc

Thinking about repair i did, had issue after 4/5 years and was my fault not honda failure

Wonder how many vehicle breakdowns, faults etc are down to hopeless mechanics at garages not doing job right or people at home trying there had at diy repairs, this is why i bought older car i can maintain myself but most dont want hassle and have to trust others

Look at Vauxhall when the Zafira and Astra were setting on fire, what did they say at one point, blamed independent garages for fitting cheap parts, oh yeah nowt to do with your cheap cars with poor components, people hadnt even had heater repaired, why would so many cars have issue with heater fan, they never want to admit its there fault

But ya have to wonder how many are down to poor work as they get older and cheap parts fitted, so when someone been replacing all the leads, pipes etc under bonnet i would walk away

@Bods..... 100% bang on Mate!

That's exactly why I do all my own servicing and repairs, and always have done. It's the only way you know your car is fixed properly.

I have never ever in my life paid a mechanic (if you can call them that) to fix any car I've ever owned.

Learned that from my dear old Dad before I was even a teenager!

Ropi Jo2021-09-28 19:49:09

 

[Venom]

Wow took me a long time to read the detailed descriptions and have a lot to think about.
More worried than I was previously.

I'll have to move company to get a company car again, but not sure anyone now offers final salary pensions !!

With my personal cars in past being a golf, Micra and a Yaris I have not appreciated the high brake, tyre and clutch costs. Drive it in Drive it out !

Realiabilty and no hidden costs was always the drive for the company car.

But my situation has changed that i work from home and most journeys we are not far away generally.

I think it may be a 5K car and drive it into the ground or a fairly new car with some warranty on.

It will be interesting to see what price Lex offer me my current VW golf estate for.

This golf has been great unlike my Mk1 golf I had when I was about 22 that was so unreliable. I blew up two engines !!

Thanks for the great level of detail. Off to buy a what car magazine and look at some sites suggested, like honest John.

That wow car seems a good business model.

Cheers

 

[Bods]

Sorry dude, dont mean to worry or confuse more

As said my dad has had fords since mk2 Cortina upto mk3 focus the last 2 which came from brother as he gets 25% off new fords, so chances are you wont have issues, same as uncle always Vauxhall and no problems either so you can buy any make car and have zero problems or just minor

It was pure luck with partners suzuki, 90 year old owned it and had to stop driving, son in law got roped into selling it but just genuine honest folk and not because i knew anything, i just bid on ebay and got lucky

If you can buy a car that you know already and youve been driving, you know its good one dont ya, no reason not to buy it if suitable and right price

Not going to lie, buying old (15+) years, can be a nightmare and many wouldn't be viable if you dont do the work yourself, garage costs arent cheap, £50 an hour average, you have internet to look at reviews of garages too for maintenance and look for ones that are members of the Good Garage Scheme like my local one, my brother new the owner which helps

If you buy old, you want something with full main dealer history, they will fit genuine parts at least, or something will really low miles, there are genuine good 2nd cars around, just finding them among the heaps really

Many after certain age, people will just buy it and drive, only fix if needed or mot fails and if not been properly maintained you'll spent months getting it up to a decent standard, then your invested, if you have costly issue, don you repair or scrap, knowing next you buy will probably need all stuff done like previous

My current one, i paid £175 with knackered engine because the plan was to swap it and couldn't do it with previous one, wasn't bad as new battery still had warranty, exhaust fairly new just damn rust, could of searched for better one or import with no rust but not many here, didnt want spend fortune and find out engine swap didnt work, all went fine tho so wish i'd got better one now but there ya go. The engine was knocking but ran ok, stripped it down and no surprise, the piston big end bearings on 2 cylinders were shot due to being ran on low or no oil, all worn, burnt

Important tip, DON'T rely on Oil light, i said to garage when that Vauxhall engine seized up, the low oil light never came on, got snotty response... its not a oil lever light its a Oil Pressure light, ok what ever i didnt work, came on with ignition so not bulb, i'm glad he did put right though, never forgot it

First HRV used quite a bit of oil, when it got low light would flicker on at times when braking, seems to be common issue high oil usuage, guy i got that from was wanna be mechanic, sensor wires loose got damage by timing belt, found gearbox oil drain plug loose, just finger tight, engine was bodged after it previously ran low on oil and not done right so bearings worn and engine knocking, thats when i bought 2nd HRV 3dr 2wd version, Oil light never came on while driving, i'd got mixed up and I hadnt checked the oil, it was nearly ran out, so i nearly screwed that up, i make mistakes like everyone, was running 2 cars and could of sworn i checked it but obviously didn't and it doesn't tell ya, so guessing thats what happened to current one i swapped engine in

So never rely on oil pressure light on dash, check it level yourself, you get to known vehicle after a bit and know if it uses much oil, they do state in manuals it can use upto so much oil per so many miles to cover them

I dont know if its just pressure sensor thats failed, or low oil pressure itself, guessing engine wont last long if the latter though as wont be oil pumped round, kinda expect the sensor to maybe fail on 15+ year old cars but Vauxhall wasn't 3 year old

Always keep checking mine now at least once a month but these civic engines dont seem to have oil usuage issue like HRV ones, so yeah 3 cars the same and only one sensor worked

 

[Bods]

@Bods..... 100% bang on Mate!

That's exactly why I do all my own servicing and repairs, and always have done. It's the only way you know your car is fixed properly.?

I have never ever in my life paid a mechanic (if you can call them that) to fix any car I've ever owned.

Learned that from my dear old Dad before I was even a teenager!

[/QUOTE]

Were both lucky there then, had awesome dads that do everything themself and it rubs off on us, remember helping my dad change clutch on his cortina, hes always done everything himself

 

[Bods]

Thinking about that, was watching a car programme the other month, they gave advise to people if you have this problem with ya car, no idea what make or model without seeing again, they said trade it in before it gets worse as they wont notice it and then its not your problem anymore or along those lines

Can see why people buy some with serious issues from dealers/garages

It depends how much money you earn, if ya bothered about spending money on a car, i'm just tight being honest, some are happy to spend more to drive something they want and thats fine, gotta have some pleasure in life

Check on Tax costs too, you can be paying £0 like mk1 insight as its hybrid and lowest emmissions or it could be £300+ a year for a 1.6 Petrol

If your likely to go in town centres may need one thats ULez compliantBods2021-09-29 10:42:12

 

[Bods]

On Clutches, i dont know about Dual Mass flywheel just what ive heard about costs when need replacing, not sure even if that needs replacing if clutch plate itself ok or both replaced, mates VW sharan had to be replaced other month, £600/700

Ones with standard clutch could last you 250k or more depending on how you drive or where you drive

Dont mean to keep saying about Honda, just thats all i own and worked on, the Civic i took engine out had 91k on clock, HRV 92k

Clutches both originals, Civic which i was using for 6 months till mot up, that was end of its life, HRV clutch was worn about 1/4

Service Manual says new around 8/9mm and worn out.. think 4mm and both same clutch as D Series engines, Civic about down to rivets, HRV still 6/7mm so hardly worn

If like me in company cars you sit at lights riding clutch, now i drive my own i have foot down on clutch pedal at least and handbrake on, not going to sit there wearing it out.

So going on that, Civic either driven buy someone that didnt care and or done loads of local driving, HRV must of done Motorway miles, as you wont wear clutch when driving, would say then if you did motorway miles and drive properly should be no reason to last 300/400k miles