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

Nice, getting on for 100 years old. Driver could do with cheering up, or is that the normal face of the owner of a near 100 year old Ford;)

I not seen much in the way of classics in recent months. Did see a Lambo Jalpa which you don't see every day, a lovely baby blue Triumph and the ultimate pink Cadillac....

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..and did lol at the little and large. The Fiat was an og Abarth with the engine hanging out the back. And talking of small vintage Fiat's, have to give @jonny a mention, think the Seat would be in his dream garage. But the coolest vehicle by far I've seen all year I'm going to post here as I dont think there's a show us your favorite bus thread, but this is so cool it made me want to convert it and move to Bristol.

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..the dream bus.

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Cad and Lincoln are great spots.

Mate in HS dad's had a black Jalpa back in the 80s. The "baby Countach.' Thing was always in the shop for something. His dad gave me a ride home once and it hit 110 mph in 4th gear. Thrilling / terrifying at the same time. Fun memory.

Heh cool story, I can totally imagine Jalpa ownership being a money pit/ often broken down experience.

Here's another one for you, I thought Joe Pesci had come to dump some stiffs in my road or something. Did make me think what is the biggest boot/trunk on a saloon car, this has to be up there. Buick Electra . (tho I prefer the Dame Edna's glasses styling of the 1st generation one).

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Driver could do with cheering up

He probably thought he'd go for a nice drive but his good lady wife called shotgun.

Stayed in an Airbnb owned by an ex Citroen WRC test engineer with a great collection of old french cars.

The blue HY used to be owned by John Malkovich, the Renault 4 is the actual movie car from Rien à Declarer, the Purple CX is a Turbo 2 (and I think I want one), not pictured is a green HY which is his campervan, a yellow Mihari, and an Avantime.

The green sports car is a Caravelle (I'd never even heard of one or seen a picture of one, let alone seen one in real life).

The Z3 is a very special one of one Individual factory build for a rich German owner he bought it off. Z3M chassis, 2.8 engine, custom body styling, 3 piece wheels, special exhaust, slightly different interior, and all exactly as they built it at the factory!!

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Is there a car nuts filter on Airbnb?!?
Looks amazing.

My dad had a white CX turbo 2 once, but only for a very short time I think. That was a great car.

Just got lucky, pulled into the driveway and he immediately asked what the VXR8 was so we got to talking cars straight away. He invited me to come look at his cars during the stay, we had a beer and chatted cars and cycling, and when I told him about my longer term plan for a 928 was severely impacted by sitting in his CX, he immediately offered to let me take it for a drive but we didn't have the time to fit it in.

That’s a lovely little holiday bonus, great haul of rare cars.

If you don’t mind me asking, did you get double figures mpg out of the VRX with having bikes on top too?

Yeah but I drove mostly at 110kph on cruise control and you can drive for miles and miles without ever having to adjust your speed so I really eaked out the best possible mpg tbh. There were plenty of times when I was without bikes on the roof where I could properly enjoy some of the French roads but there's no point doing a long slog on a Peage at 130-140kph just to save 20 mins.

That Espace tho 😍

M340i also did its first long distance trip - Somerset to Grenoble

At a steady 120kph ish it would do 40mpg on super unleaded - about 35/36 on 95ron
That was with 4 bikes on the towbar rack, 2 adults and 2 kids plus camping gear etc

The towbar being enabled deactivated the coasting feature - so would be quite a bit higher without the bikes/rack

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Update on four wheel drives / SUVs.

I have been driving a Jeep Wrangler Sport CRD. As a family car on the road, it is inferior in almost every way to the Peugeot Partner. And it has less head room.

😭

Yeah, pretty good for nearly 400bhp - but doesn’t sound as good as your v8 :)

Too many words; 'Jeep is inferior' is always sufficient.

New timing belt kit went in the Suby today, all good. I thought we were in for the 150k service as well but I fucked up, forgot to book it in. Oops.

I asked Ian the mechanic to check the spongy brakes, he said it could be servo or a bad vacuum in the line or just shit pads, I don't know TBH. I'm getting a slight vibration under braking at high speeds, that's gotta be rotors, no?

I'm gonna keep an eye on it and listen out for leaky air noises when I brake. Car runs great, so smooth and quiet, never gets old. Muffler next week and then I'll get on to GFB and order the blow off valve. Pshhhhhhhh!!

Can't wait to be locally hated.

Peterborough-ish.

Thanks for the kind offer. I’ll figure it out.

If I ever decide to do an engine swap for the 4.2 v8 I’ll hola back

How often do people actually get cars serviced? Just looked and it's ~ 3 years since I last had my 2017 Yaris serviced. Mileage is pretty minimal, 3k a year. I don't have any intention of selling until resale value is minimal so not too concerned about that aspect.

I've done nothing to it other than MOT in those years, is it worth a service? Similarly, it was 4 years ago when I last had the air-con regassed. Does this need doing again, cold air still seems to come out the vents? I've not noticed any issues whilst driving.

But can you cozplay Part of Five in it?

I service ours every year, we do the same sort of mileage. I say service, but it’s really just the oil and filter and a look that everything else. Air and cabin filters every 3 years maybe, same for cooling fluid, brake fluid every 5 years. It’s cheap preventative measures really.
Not changing oil is what kills low mileage cars.

Now my car is older I have tended to do it every couple of years, and this year did the minor one myself (plugs, oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter). However, the next one I'll take the hit of sending it to a main dealer for the major service and a full check up.

My MINI had some sort of extended service package so I originally followed that, but they were very spaced out* and for the price I started taking it to a bmw indy specialist annually who was better imo. When I swapped it with my folks they went back to following the BMW service packages, mainly because they'd collect it.

My KA before it used to get done annually.

I your case I'd just get it done every year or two and keep an eye on the fluids or yourself. Idk about the Yaris but a basic service like I did on a Golf isn't that hard. However, without a decent area, jack and axel stands the oil change is a real pain. Frustratingly so for what is technically an exceptionally simple job. I know people will explain why the oil suction do-das shouldn't be used, but for diy not having to lift a car high enough to drain oil would be a game changer. Also plugs can be a fucker. But the filters are just unscrewing and opening things, pulling one bit out and stuffing another back. As for plugs Imo dealers recommend doing them annually because they're quite cheap and can be done while the oil drains, and look like something has been done - I can't understand how they can wear out that quickly.

The excellent wechillanycar guy said old cars will probably need a regas every 2yrs. Ours has needed a regas twice in the last 4yrs so it tallies. Very annexdotal, but IME Japanese cars have much better air con than European cars.

*one aspect of the Prince engine failures you read about I'm sure