Automobiles : Good,Bad & the Ugly.

[Oldsmobile-88]

Nope! The garage noted oil in the coolant a couple of years ago. Recently I've been topping up the coolant more often than before, but can't see any leaks.

I imagine a head gasket job would be too expensive to justify now. Any idea what it might cost, Olds?

I would guess around £500-£600 minimum.
It’s a time consuming job.The water pump would be changed at the same time.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Has anyone thought about buying a electric car or plug in electric/petrol car ?
Or who has one already ?

I would imagine the looming economic Armageddon is going to put the roll out of infrastructure for electric vehicles back a bit.

I have a self charging petrol hybrid which is great in slow moving traffic just running on battery but of course is limited over a prolonged period.
The smart bit of the technology is when braking the heat from the brake pads is converted into battery energy.

 

[Rosencrantz]

As a small kid my first dream car was...



Now though I would prefer...



Not sure what TV my mum was really into at the time as she doesn't go for action now (she preferred Doyle to the cars ).

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

^^^^
Real seat of your pants cars..No ABS,Drum brakes not disc,I don’t think the RS2000 has power steering.
The only Capri that had it was the 3 litre version iirc

Wearing of seat belts not mandatory(very few people wore them) if you had a serious bang in a car back then you would be seriously injured or die..No one gave it a second thought.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Loads of ads on TV from claims company’s about a class action against Mercedes who have been caught out fiddling the emissions figure on Diesel vehicles.
I’m not convinced the majority of motorists who purchase or lease a car look at the emission data.

The cost that I looked at was the RFL(yearly car tax) that was more a gauge of emissions that you could see in pound notes(of course this has been proved to be false in the case of diesel vehicles)

Anyone thinking of trying to get a few quid out of the German motoring giants in a class action.

 

[Stuffy]

As a small kid my first dream car was...

View attachment 1903

I had one of those in John Player Special black and gold. I bought it at Tewkesbury Car Auctions and after replaving the gearbox idler shaft it gave me years of trouble-free motoring

 

[Stuffy]

I've had a 1994 Rover 214 SLi since 1997, which now has 160,000 on the clock and may be coming to the end of its days! Especially as I've got a nasty feeling there may be head gasket problems looming. A faithful servant, but it's probably time to find a replacement which is OK for local use and can also handle a motorway stint.

I used to set the dies in Swindon's Austin-Rover plant and can inform you that 214/216 used zintec steel that cut down corrosion. Manufactures weren't always keen on zinc coated metal as they received less money from scrap merchant for the off-cuts.

 

[elginCity]

Once had a Capri 2.0 Ghia, racing green, hefty insurance for a 20 yr old, when heart overruled head.

After about two weeks the big ends went, warranty wasn't worth the paper, and then the rust started bubbling through. Lesson learned !

 

[Stuffy]

Loads of ads on TV from claims company’s about a class action against Mercedes who have been caught out fiddling the emissions figure on Diesel vehicles.
I’m not convinced the majority of motorists who purchase or lease a car look at the emission data.

The cost that I looked at was the RFL(yearly car tax) that was more a gauge of emissions that you could see in pound notes(of course this has been proved to be false in the case of diesel vehicles)

Anyone thinking of trying to get a few quid out of the German motoring giants in a class action.

I bought my daughter-in-law's Mercedes GLA200 and asked her to look into it. Will keep you informed if we get anything from them.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Once had a Capri 2.0 Ghia, racing green, hefty insurance for a 20 yr old, when heart overruled head.

After about two weeks the big ends went, warranty wasn't worth the paper, and then the rust started bubbling through. Lesson learned !

Needed a bit of ballast in the boot,to stop the back end slide,if going into a corner too fast

Weight distribution was very much at the front in 1970s Fords...Cars were of course much lighter in those days.