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

Update on my car woes: it's being towed back to the garage this afternoon, and I'm expecting the issues to be fixed. Hopefully that does happen, because it will be a good outcome.

Parent wins. 😎

Anyone have experience with we buy any car? I've been trying to sell privately and if I reduce it anymore will be less than what they have quoted me, do they drop the valuation when you get there?

My old man had a mint E21 320i on BBS in navy.

Fuck I wish I still had it. 😜

Wife is selling her car with them on Saturday, will give you an update then.

Supposedly when you turn up with the car they pick up any marks/scratches/dents however small and reduce the price accordingly...

Dad cars, finally something I can really contribute to! Actual colours shown, lots of cars omitted for not being very interesting (e.g. several Toyotas including the first one built in the UK*, lots of Stuttgart taxis).

(This one talked)

Sometimes refused to start, an AA man showed by Dad how to start it by lifting the bonnet and hitting it in a very particular place was fun.

(Known as the teapot - the inside of a Tipo had a very particular smell)

You can guess which of those was most fun to drive but he had a few VWs too including an early Golf 4motion which gave the s2000 a run for it's money tbh.

Nice Ruby.

@mmccarthy please do.

@pryally that's what I was worried about not that it's got loads of scratches or dents but tempted to go round it with black nail polish and bodge some bits up.

Pains me to think that they will be making cash from it, but I'm only getting stupid enquiries selling private.

Whispers anyone want to buy my CLK350 convertible I'll take a grand + a nice bicycle in PX.

The price they’ve quoted you is for your car if it’s concourse.
As Mick said every mark on the bodywork bigger than 1mm they will deduct money from that quote

The valuation is for the car of that model with that mileage. Any marks, dents or faults, they subtract the cost to repair from the valuation.

However, they only start it up, walk around it, sit in it, maybe move it across the car park. If the car doesn't run well but sounds fine in a car park then it should get through fine, they don't have time to test drive or look for mechanical issues.

Source: Family member works there buying the cars

Right - just for variety - mum cars. Mum drove 4 of us around in a Peugeot 505 estate, followed by a series of Volvo estates, but always liked a sports car for herself:
Fiat X19 -

Lady Di special (4evainrharts)

Chimaera (always breaking down, natch)

Griffith in the pearlescent paint. Was awesome.

@PhilDAS @furious_tiles thanks both I've booked an appointment for next week, I guess it's the convenience selling there. Car needs to go now anyhow.

Just polish it up and park it so any marks are shadowed :)
Even better is book an appointment after it's dark

heroic!

Where should I be looking for car insurance beyond the obvious comparison sites? Are there any other good places to try that won't get picked up on those?

I don't have any no claims bonus so insurance is looking fairly steep so far.

Martin Lewis - do all the comparison sites then there's a few like directline who aren't on PCW.

Do you have any relatives in the Police?

Two solid final choices there although I am biased.

A mate's experience was that they down valued it (£4-500 final price I think). But they were efficient and as it wasn't worth much and as they were moving abroad for work on the Monday (this was on the Sunday) they weren't too fussed.

Unfortunately then they realised that they didn't have the V5. The dude who valued it said he'd buy it off them for £200, handed over the cash and left with the car.

I recently sold with them. Went as expected. Knocked cash off for a few panels.
Then said without logbook I lose 500 quid but he'd scrub some of the loss from various dents.
Got him to agree that. Then went and got log book and he was annoyed about readding that 500 quid.

TL/DR they'll chip away the price. Still. Was easier than FB marketplace or gumtree and just wanted rid of the car.

I've heard they reduce the price due to any little imperfection, might be worth a go though...

To add to Cake's point, they're allowed to add up to 10 or 25% (I forget which) of the reductions back on, so haggle.

Could you share some info about how the drive train is setup on your cars?

Sure, it's pretty straightforward. The engines are rotated by 90 degrees compared to how they'd be in the bike, so they're longditudinal with the exhaust sticking out on the LHS. This is the R1 lump in my racer in place:

You then replace the cog on the output shaft of the bike gearbox with an adaptor flange which you can bolt a propshaft to, shown in the picture below. It has a large gear fitted to it as part of the electric reverse system - bike engines don't have reverse of course (except in a few very rare cases) and racecars have to have a reverse system.

The two are then connected by a custom-made propshaft. Because there's no gearbox running down the transmission tunnel as there would be on a conventional car engine/box combo the propshaft is long, and so includes a centre bearing to help ensure it doesn't flail around too much.

That's it, basically.