What have you done to your car today?

I started to clean under the bonnet. It's taking me a lot longer than I had thought!

I have painted a spare rocker cover to swap over tomorrow, and some new stainless nuts/bolts.
 
I can get 45MPG with mixed driving if I try for it, but what I like about my car is that if I thrash it all the time, I still get about 33MPG out of a tank... :p

Of course it being dog slow is a bit of a trade-off... :D
 
Acme said:
I can get 45MPG with mixed driving if I try for it, but what I like about my car is that if I thrash it all the time, I still get about 33MPG out of a tank... :p

Of course it being dog slow is a bit of a trade-off... :D
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I get 45 without trying ;) I get 30 if I thrash it. Filled it up today and reset the average MPG, by the time I'd got out the petrol station and to the road to where I was going I was sitting at a pleasant 19 MPG :p
 
Your car is much never than mine and actually has enough power to pull its own weight, so thats not surprising. :p
 
Acme said:
I can get 45MPG with mixed driving if I try for it, but what I like about my car is that if I thrash it all the time, I still get about 33MPG out of a tank... :p

Of course it being dog slow is a bit of a trade-off... :D
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Not far off my ~250bhp 2006 car tbh. Average 33mpg since I've had it and did 42mpg on a round trip from Exeter to gatwick this week - with plenty booting it away from roundabouts on the 303.

Slow cars should be getting 50mpg+ to make them worthwhile
 
What is your sporty car again? I forget... :p

I'm considering a Corolla T-Sport as a cheap & reliable hot-hatch, but they seem to get pretty bad economy for a 1.8.
 
Acme said:
What is your sporty car again? I forget... :p

I'm considering a Corolla T-Sport as a cheap & reliable hot-hatch, but they seem to get pretty bad economy for a 1.8.
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To be honest, you've been talking about a T-Sport for a while now I think you should go for your gut instinct.
 
Acme said:
What is your sporty car again? I forget... :p

I'm considering a Corolla T-Sport as a cheap & reliable hot-hatch, but they seem to get pretty bad economy for a 1.8.
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Octavia VRS

Get something with a turbo if you want a decent economy and performance balance. Plus remap goodness
 
The corolla is absolutely bang average in every way imaginable. Buy something with at least some strong positives.

In saying that, given how long I've been reading about this mythical car, just buy something
 
Strong positives:

- Cheap (£2000 for a good condition 70K mile car)
- Reliable
- 0 - 60 in <7.5 seconds and VVTL-I noise :D

So none at all then... :p

Apparently they are a bit wallowy and unexciting in the handling department though, but thats nothing that can't be fixed further down the line...
 
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[TW]Fox;28267142 said:
Did pretty much the same sort of route also via the 303 and only got that in my 530d :D

Remind me again why everyone loves diesel?
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Your 5 is significantly larger though so that offsets it somewhat. If you somehow managed to cram that 30d engine into my skoda it'd probably be doing 50mpg.

Although the same trip in my old peugeot would only have seen 47mpg as that was never brilliant on fuel due to the gearbox... So I'm not missing those few mpgs all that much, especially for the grin factor :)
 
iaind said:
Not far off my ~250bhp 2006 car tbh. Average 33mpg since I've had it and did 42mpg on a round trip from Exeter to gatwick this week - with plenty booting it away from roundabouts on the 303.

Slow cars should be getting 50mpg+ to make them worthwhile
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Wow, I got 39.3 MPG in an N52 330i on a roundtrip from Sheffield to Central London.
 
- Cheap (£2000 for a good condition 70K mile car) - so what? Loads of quickish cars can be had for £2kish
- Reliable - so are most jap motors
- 0 - 60 in <7.5 seconds and VVTL-I noise. So what? Most 200(ish)bhp coupes or hatches will be similar. They don't sound great either.

They look awful outside
They look awful inside
They don't handle brilliantly
Brakes are meh
Wheels corrode
Nobody knows nor cares what they are


If you want the engine the celica is a vastly more interesting proposition (in itself not brilliant but I at least see the appeal)
 
Howard said:
I've ordered some smaller 4" polishing pads and appropriate backing pad for my DA to make buffing the smaller areas easier but since my 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper arrived today I thought I'd make a start on removing my fibreglass-inflicted scratches.
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That's a very good result :) Have you attempted to fill in and then wet sand any stone chips on the bonnet?
 
All done now, shiny A pillar and shiny mirror! The mirror had a big scuff about where the reflection of the house is (didn't take a 'before' photo unfortunately), and there was also a scratch on the door below the mirror which I have eliminated about 90% of.

Even managed to reduce the visibility of the mark in the plastic trim with some 303 Aerospace Protectant, but I wasn't fussed about that, since it's replaceable.

scratchfinished1.jpg


scratchfinished2.jpg




Voxination said:
That's a very good result :) Have you attempted to fill in and then wet sand any stone chips on the bonnet?
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Nope but I will be at some point :) I have a Chipex kit and I've tested it on a couple of chips on the bumper with good results so I expect with some wet sanding and buffing it'll be rather effective. Black is an easy colour to damage, but fortunately also an easy colour to match!
 
Project Bentley has just had new rear tyres (Avon, replacing a pair of truly awful Goodyears), so took it out for a play. Also topped up with fuel - if you believe the fuel gauge (and I never do) it had about a quarter of a tank, it took £86.41 to get it up to full. I'm glad it doesn't need Super....

Please excuse the crappiness of the following photo, I only had my Moto E to hand:
nl39fm.jpg

Next up - she has a wedding to do, so we've got some ivory ribbons and bows to deck her out in. A/C needs re-gassing. MOT this week, which nearly always throws a curveball (though we've attended to the advisories listed last year). And I've got to do something about the bumpers, they're genuinely getting tatty now.
 
rodenal said:
They look awful outside
- I don't mind how they look
They look awful inside
- agreed they are not brilliant inside, but a few minor adjustments will fix that
They don't handle brilliantly
- I know, I said that myself
Brakes are meh
- That can be taken care of
Wheels corrode
- I won't be keeping the standard wheels on (apart from for Winter use)
Nobody knows nor cares what they are
- which is brilliant!
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They're not my only consideration of course, but I find the package quite appealing...

I haven't decided if I want a £2K car now or if I want to wait a while and get a £5K - £6K car. It rather depends on how long the Polo lives... :p
 
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