Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

that is excellent. Love it

I bought my three year old leaf at the bottom of the EV depreciation curve (when it was believed they would die at 5 yrs old). Nissan offered cheap finance and warranty/breakdown cover to get rid of gen 1 lease cars. It's now 8 years old on 71k miles with 10 of the original 12 battery bars. It was serviced on the yearly intervals to keep warranty and breakdown cover in my first three years of ownership. I used to grudge the money because there is no actual servicing to be done. Now I don't bother. The only real service item is a diff oil change at 130k miles.

I'll invest in a brake fluid change and it might need some suspension work for its MOT this year. Otherwise the only costs are tyres and electricity.

As a previous bangernomics car owner, it's the cheapest car I've ever owned so far in terms of costs of ownership. Glacial depreciation and saving £200 a month in petrol. Nothing has broken yet.

Range is shit in the winter but it's only used for commuting and town shit trips. Perfect size for this, and I can fit two MTBs in the boot.

I'm going to keep it till it dies; a battery refurb might be an option in the future. I also like the leaf's essential classlessness... A car that says little about you.

A dream come true

Now you’re speaking my language. Sounds very manageable.

Amazing isn't it. Predates "SUV" by some margin.

And build it with the dangel 4x4 drivetrain for the ultimate adventure mobile.

Why the fuck wouldn't they take a single image of the actual bed!?

That's literally the point of the car.

Ha, that’s all I could think about when scrolling through the photos! Bit short sighted.

Abarth was delivered last night. Drive from Frome to Bristol via Radstock along the backroads this morning left me grinning ear to ear the whole way. It's far from being a proper fast car , but it is just so much fun to drive - exactly what I wanted.

Tyres that came on it, although fairly new, are a bit shit, so just ordered some Yokohoma Advan Flava's to be fitted friday, and also booked it in to have a stage one remap on monday. 180hp and 310nm in a car the size and weight of rollerskate should equate to a proper little pocket rocket.

Electric cars are minidisc

That sounds absolutely wicked/terrifying.

ha, excellent stuff dude. when I am next anywhere down your way I will be begging you to take me for a spin. once you have taken the stickers off natch

It's far from being a proper fast car , but it is just so much fun to drive - exactly what I wanted.

"It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow"

I'd love an ND MX-5, but it's definitely not driven by the additional 20-50bhp over my NB. Small & light is the way to go as far I'm concerned.

Possibly because it wasn't all that large. Still an annoying omission!

Sounds like my old mk1 eunos. Definitely not that quick but you could thrash it around with all the fun noises and still not be too close to going too fast to lose your license. Miss that car a lot.

Indeed, I don't commute often, but the 15 mins or so from the house is a bunch of mountainside driving which is a great way to start/end the workday. I can't think of a car I'd rather be doing it in (maybe a Caterham, but I'd be leaving skidmarks in my seat as well as the road if it was raining)

Respray of the strut tops, to me, shows that the renovation work was not to a high standard.

Is the optional final payment on a pcp deal a good indication of the predicted value of the car at that point?

Depends on your mileage, i had done under the predicted mileage at the end of my PCP so the car was worth more than the balloon payment at the end. I bought it outright and used it for a year until I left the country and then sold it for the same price as the dealer had offered me to trade in

Love this.

(I wish I could find my mini discs)

Is that a 1/ 18 scale diorama with a mini banksy?

could a blocked up catalytic converter have led to a blown head gasket? i have old car and recently had suspected blocked catalytic c, which i 'solved' by top revs up and down a quiet street releasing a huge cloud of soot. now i have coolant level that wont stay up although no 'mayonaise'.

I believe so.

Altho it was actually made too.

Ah. Good point. Cheers

The current generation ford fiesta ST. Anyone driven one? Lived with one? Down here in Aus we only get the 5 door so I'm wondering if I could get one as a short trip family car that's also rewarding to drive. My kids are 5 and 1 so I have a few years before leg room is an issue. Getting sick of hauling 1600kg of Audi wagon around for every little trip. An EV would be perfect but we have no charging infrastructure and there's no nothing available yet that is of interest.