Gutted :(

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You don't need a >£10k 300hp car to have fun driving. I would suggest a two car solution. Focus bore-box or similar to placate her, and something cheap, old and fast to keep you entertained.

Your Vectra is worth what? 10k? Release that capital, buy 3k family car, and £1500 fun car. Then hide anything you spend on your fun car so as to avoid this situation again.

Possible cheap fun cars

Alfa 75 V6
Alfa 155
Carlton GSi 3000
Mk2 Golf GTI
Mk2 MR2
 
Firestar_3x said:
Tell her if you crash in a £500 banger its more likely to result in your child being killed, a newer car is much safer for all of you.

Or something along those lines.
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This is exactly what I was thinking. I'd be very wary of driving our little one around in a banger unless it was an unbreakable Volvo or something.
 
flat-6 said:
You don't need a >£10k 300hp car to have fun driving. I would suggest a two car solution. Focus bore-box or similar to placate her, and something cheap, old and fast to keep you entertained.

Your Vectra is worth what? 10k? Release that capital, buy 3k family car, and £1500 fun car. Then hide anything you spend on your fun car so as to avoid this situation again.

Possible cheap fun cars

Alfa 75 V6
Alfa 155
Carlton GSi 3000
Mk2 Golf GTI
Mk2 MR2
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We dont hide things from each other.I especially wont be able to hide it if it breaks and needs fixing

Plus, there is NO point whatsoever suggesting i run 2 cars as it just wont fly. Any savings you make will be cancelled out by having 2 lots of insurance, 2 lots of tyres to buy, 2 lots of MOTs, 2 lots of servicing etc..

Unless i can run a Golf GTI for half the cost of the vectra, and find another car that costs half as much to run, i'm not going to be saving anything.

Biggest problem will be the insurance. I still having a driving ban that is 4 years old next February. Still has to be declared next year, and the year after that.

I cant see how i can insure and run 2 cars and save money as Golfs still need tyres and servicing etc..
 
[TW]Fox;15454028 said:
In the context of this thread it is - nothing else anything like it will be noticeably cheaper this side of a normal Vectra/Mondeo.
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The whoel point of this thread is that he is being made to downsize i.e. cut costs, i agree with the devil you know and what not but regardless of what is said the running costs are high.

My dad has a Signum, nice enough car, starts and does the job.

He needs 2 front dampers and it is 5 years old, how much you say.

£50 a corner + vat, Vauxhall parts.

My car, with an OEM clutch + VAT + Fitting a whole £210.

Yes it is a vauxhall, but the parts for it are expensive and the wear rate on top of this makes it an expensive car, i admit for the power it is reasonable, but compared to a boggy standard 1.8 vectra it is the M5 of vauxhalls.

You mention another car may throw up another bill, yes this is true, you could buy a mondeo and the clutch on that goes but the cost to replace will not be £800.

Only MrLOL can make the decision.



[TW]Fox;15454028 said:
DOC only covers you on cars you dont own. Yes, YOU dont own. You still own it even when you pretend its your wifes.
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I am aware of the facts, it was a suggestion not a request.
 
Surely running costs are subjective. If you have lots of money then £800 = cheap, if not then it's a bloody expensive clutch change. If the amount of money the car is costing to run is a large percentage of your disposable income then it is a problem really and could well be a good opportunity to change. It doesn't matter if everyone in the thread is saying how cheap it is to run, is it expensive to you?. As someone said previously, you don't need a 10k 300hp car to enjoy driving. However if you earn lots of money and this has just come at a bad time for you, then get it done as cheaply as possible and stand your ground.
 
Vigoro said:
Would it be worth downgrading to a 4-5k sports saloon and saving the rest of the money into savings?
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i suspect this will be my alternative if im not allowed to keep the vectra

If i must find something else. I'll find something that costs the same to run, but use the 5k i make from selling it and use that to pay for the next 2/3 years running costs.
 
MrLOL said:
If i must find something else. I'll find something that costs the same to run, but use the 5k i make from selling it and use that to pay for the next 2/3 years running costs.
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Sounds like its Mondeo ST220. You'll even feel like you've upgraded. Because you will have ;)
 
Lookign at what this car has cost you again, your right the parts are within normal.

But you go through consumables at twice the rate of the 1.8 equivilent (if not more).

I've come to the conclusion you drive like a pillock.
 
[TW]Fox;15454503 said:
Sounds like its Mondeo ST220. You'll even feel like you've upgraded. Because you will have ;)
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I was going to suggest this from the start but thought I'd get slated!

5k would buy a nice one
 
Sounds like she is trying to take away something you really enjoy, just because she doesn't enjoy it or understand how you can enjoy it.

You could just buy a Focus Ecobox, but everytime you look at it, you'll be filled with resentment about the way in which you were forced to get rid of something you really liked. She can't just order you to get rid of a car you obviously love, just because she isn't remotely interested in cars.
 
I don't see the sense in spending £800 to get the clutch fixed then immediately trading on the car, especially as it's just had the brakes and tyres swapped out.

Get some use out of the money you put into it, drive it for a bit and hope she calms down in the meantime.

Some people might see the VXR as a pointless expensive to run performance car, but if the better brakes, handling and tyres help you avoid an accident in the first place they're invaluable. I certainly wouldn't want to drive my offspring around in a £500 disposable car on LingLongs.
 
A local indy should do the clutch for a better price? How much are the uprated ones?

You just came up unlucky with the remap so don't beat yourself up about it.

I've seen mapped Turbo DSG boxes that are meant to only go to 300l/b go beyond and thrashed without problem, the very same box could die as soon as 1,000 miles. The same applies to all sorts of turbo cars.

Personally I'd dumb it down with some written figures and explain it in emotional terms (thats how women function right?) and see where it gets you because tbh you are worse off trading it in.

If you must change, I'd take that bad boy in for p/x on an GTI Edition 30. Though the mod bug may get you again ;)
 
See my wife wants me to get rid of the Clio and get an R32, but keep telling her I'm not spending 16k on a Golf!

I think as suggested you are either going to have to jack in the 'fast' cars and get something down in the performance stakes or just go older.

ST220 sprang to mind for me as well, running costs shouldn't be too horrendous as it's 'just' a big engined car, no turbos or diesel wizardy to go wrong.
 
I think Fox was spot on, if you are tight for cash then maybe a costly to run car should be the first thing to go (I know mine would go for a cheap to run hatch) but if you are ok for money and you can still afford holidays etc. then it is a non issue.

...Just give one of the kids a knackered Vectra clutch and the other the box that your new one came in for christmas. Thats a few bob saved ;)
 
If you are considering keeping the VXR, you must get an uprated clutch imo. If it goes again in 6 months (which it could well do with that amount of torque), you really will be in trouble with her indoors.

I'm guessing from her reaction that like most of us at the moment money isn't sloshing around the coffers. Therefore, would you consider as has been suggested above a semi-reliable but older car like a well looked after mk2 GTi? If you are prepared to service them yourself (which is pretty trivial on these), the running costs will be low, and you can still have a lot of fun driving them even though they are obviously a lot slower in a straight line than the VXR.

Anything newish and even slightly luke warm will cost at least what your currently paying on the Vauxhall, likely more.
 
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