Inspired by Jonny69 - A year in your parking space, 2010

Started the year with this:






;)

After being bored of having no car and in need of one whilst I was working I borrowed this:

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From my mother for a couple of months, during which I bought the car I'm ending the year with and fixed it and MOTed it, I'm now ending the year with this:

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Can only really compare it to the memory of the 328i on 225/50 R16...and they are even I think. I know that the bushes on this one are in need of replacing and I suspect a whole suspension refresh is needed really as it's nearing 170k on original parts as far as I'm aware and kicks out far too easily.

They work and don't throw the speedo etc. out enough to warrant worrying about it, especially as they have quite a few thousand more miles left in them.
 
Started and finished with the Exige, for the performance pretty cheap to run and will do 27-30mpg around town. I did ***** a fair bit of cash on the car but most were upgrades I bought.

The only thing to break on it was the gear cable on the Isle of Man, £90 for two cables and an afternoon to fit myself.
And I reversed it into a building, £2K to fix that one! :p

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Neil.
 
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Started and ended with the Saxo. Has only let me down twice when I've went to use it, both due to the brakes which I soon fixed :)

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started off with an accord type r, best car i ever owned but fancyed some boost

then i had a golf vr6 for a while to i found the right car

which was a rev3 mr2 turbo with the basic mods (decat, exhaust, air filter, intercooler, electric boost controller, alloys, coilovers etc)

sold the mr2 because i fancyed a scooby which i got in the 95 wrx form

then sold the scooby as one of my mates wanted it and got a e36 m3 which it looks like il have to the end of the year
 
Wasn't paying attention reversing into a parking space. Maybe a bit too quick reversing as well, by the time I realised what I was doing it was too late and smack into a corrugated lined building :o

Just lots of spider web cracks in the paint, I actually did it in Dec 09 but was repaired this Feb. You have to remember that apart from the wing mirrors there is no rear visibility and the wing mirrors have 'multi-vex' glass to help with blind spots on the motorway so depth perception is terrible!

Neil.
 
I started the year with my 1.4 16v Cinquecento. This car was always a toy, something for me to learn and mess about with. It was a hoot to throw around country lanes and the like, it was never meant for clocking up the miles and nor was it ever meant to be relied upon. I've had the car since 2003, and have always had a garage to tinker in with it and have never actually needed a car. However, after moving to Sheffield in Septemeber 2009 I was relying on the Cinquecento to do ~200miles a week and was without a garage/time/money to do anything beyond basic maintance on it. It held up well, only dramas were it throwing the alternator belt off and it snapping the clutch cable.
In July 2010 it's MOT was due, and it failed on quite a lot of fairly minor issues - and one major pita issue (emissions, the Cinquecento has a megasquirt ECU). I felt the best thing to do was take it off the road and store it until I had the time / money to fix all the niggley things and buy a new daily driver.

Getting the Cinquecento into storage was a fun task also;

I bought a replacement car last month and the plan was to drive the cinquecento until I had a free weekend where I could drive her up to be stored and then transfer the insurance etc over onto the new car. However, she had other plans - shearing a bolt on one of the engine mounts last week and forcing a rapid change over of insurance!

With the bolt 'kinda' repaired, temp insurance was sorted (and AA Roadside Relay added for an extra pound!!) and we were ready to set off. Quick trip to the nearest Shell station for some fuel and... the fuel cap would not budge. The key would turn a tiny amount, but not enough to unlock and release the cap... uh oh. Insurance was only valid that day, and a bus ticket (£25) was booked for the following day.

Wrestled with the fuel cap a wee bit and then gave up. Worried that if i broke it, i'd be well and truly stuck and that I knew of other ways to get fuel into the tank. Up comes the back seats, off comes the plate and out comes the fuel gauge sender unit. Direct access to the fuel tank. Perfect.

Only had one petrol can, so a few back and forth trips to the garage and some odd questions off the bloke behind the counter and the tank was eventually full.

So off we trotted for our 150mile trip. Very gingerly as I was only too aware that the engine mounting wasn't exactly clever. Once I got within 25miles I thought it was only right that I have a bit of fun on the country lanes seeing as though this was going to be the last drive in a while :(

So I did, and it was fun :D Then got within 5 miles and heard a weird noise from the back of the car. Pulled over and a had a look. The backbox had snapped the rear most exhaust hanger off. Broken the weld, and had then fallen off the next one along. The weird noise was my tailpipe skimming the floor. OOOPS.

Couple of cable ties later, and i was on my way. Made it to my destination - and parked her up for the last time in a while.

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As a replacement for the Cinquecento I picked up a Xsara VTS, low mileage, well looked after and for a very tidy £930

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The VTS is much comfortable on longer trips than the Cinquecento was. But with only around 50bhp and around 500kg extra weight over the Cinquecento it is no-where near as nippy. It's happier on the motorway. It's by no means boring, but it's not very inspiring either. Had some 'issues' with it, not really fond of it overall but it'll do for now.

To be replaced in 2011 with something 2.0, turbo'd and Japanese I suspect.
 
Started with this Rover 220SDi whick even though it was severely abused just wouldn't break (Until some bloke in a van drove into the side of it)

The pic shows some of what it had to deal with as this day I had a go at a bit of offroading, lol.

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Upgraded to a Mondeo TDCi about a month ago.

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And still have the Capri 2.8i too.

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Started the year with these two:

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Sold them both and had this as a stop gap:

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Sold that and now own a 2001 mondeo for a daily hack (no picture yet) and my rallye below is my fun at the weekend car.

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With any luck ill be owning the same two cars at the end of next year.
 
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