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

I need to sell my van and buy a car. I don't really know anything about cars. Ideally after an estate, it doesn't need to be remotely exciting but should be as reliable as possible and as cheap to run as possible. What should I be looking at? Definitely second hand and the less I can get away with spending on it without it being a piece of shit the better.

Mondeo estate is the one. Massive and cheap to buy / run.

Super unexciting though

Ticks all the boxes!

Octavia?

Mondeo MK3 boring cheap and the petrols go for ages.

@soul the mk3 are quite good, think that jag influence makes even the estate quite good. While the mk4 is shared with a few volvos.

Have access to a trade card, torque wrench wise i'd keep an eye on ffx as they have some good deals for certified torque wrenches. While trolley jacks look at machine mart or sgs engineering seem to have some good deals. Have one of their gearbox jacks that I got off someone else and they are good.

sgs engineering

The axle stands are superb. The trolley jack not so good in operation, but value wise hard to beat.

Holden axed!!!

So after a weekend with the Brera I have a few observations:

• It looks incredible. Even though it's a fourteen year old car it pretty much looks better than everything else on the road!
  
• Interior is lovely but back seats are entirely for show and weigh an outrageous amount so they would most likely go and be replaced by some sort of neat flat floor and an anti-roll bar. The good news is it's not impossible to fit a bike in the back with the front wheel off.
  
• Front seats are also quite comfortable but there's a rock in the drivers seat which is quite annoying and apparently a "feature" of early Breras so I wouldn't rule out replacing the front seats with some reclining Corbeau or Recaro seats.
  

• Head unit needs to be replaced with an Android one as I did in my 159. Also some USB sockets would be very useful.

• Exterior really just needs a new set of Alfa Romeo badges and a good detail and I'd imagine it will come up quite well.

• I'm not the biggest fan of the wheels and given how poor the roads are here I'd actually rather have 17s than the 18s but it's not a big deal really.

• The engine is pants. The 2.4 JTDM in the 159 is infinitely more pleasurable to drive and I miss it. Apparently a remap and new air intake and exhaust make it into quite a nice car though so there' a little leap of faith there in that respect. I'm effectively weighing up the compromise of astoundingly good looks against performance. It's a lovely drive but just a bit lifeless.

Going to have a chat with the owner later today and see how he got on with my 159 over the weekend and see where that leaves us.

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As I said I just have the sgs gearbox jack second hand.

Ah ok, so a petrol MK3 is the one to go for is it?

Yeah, crazy...

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/holden-brand-to-disappear-by-the-end-of-2020/news-story/c81a5e2993f664fc62965ad349601d0e

The diesels have injector (injectors are coded to the pump), lift pump (which then fuck the main fuel pump) and dual mass flywheel issues.

Petrol do less MPG. Look how much the VED is as some of them are quite high.

I like a citroen C5 estate with hydralic suspension and then fill to the brim as it self levels. Just make sure the spheres work as they will knock out the rear suspension arm bearings.

I’m getting ‘high discharge whilst stationery’ battery warnings on my car (E61), with various things playing up (active steering re-initialisation, clock resetting, hesitation with acceleration which I think is the map recalibrating), which I’m assuming are all related to low battery power. Knackered battery? If not how to find what’s draining things? I have a code reader.

I don't know what any of that means but will do some research! Thanks a lot

@Dramatic_Hammer I had the same after having some recall work done on my e91. I took it back to BMW and they put the car on charge to get the battery charged back up. They had it on charge for about 6 hours and I took it for a 200 miles drive after that and its been fine since.

Not sure what is causing yours but getting it charged somewhere might help solve the issue.

Dying cell?

I thought this might have been it but the first time it came up was the morning after a 90 minute motorway trip - I’d expect it to be pretty charged up after that. No issues after it sat for a week in airport parking prior. 🤷‍♂️

Wouldn’t that affect starting though? Touch wood no issues there at all...

How old is the existing battery?

This is pretty sad, wonder what will happen to their V8 supercars entry?

At least 3 years, I will check.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B8q6G4MlIMe/?igshid=pckdg4vmooeo

RIP bogan kings

Might be worth checking connections and earth.

In my experience not from cold, but from hot yes.