by "BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
Published 04/28/2017 at 05:34
by "BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
Published 04/28/2017 at 05:34
No Tags
STARS: 5
It’s not often I’m this negative oppo, but a little clarification. I’ve recently come into the ownership of a dirt cheap E46 330i Touring, as you do. I’m no stranger to dirt cheap cars, or the problems that need fixing to get them roadworthy. In chronological order, my daily drivers have gone as such: Alfa 156 (currently on 140k, 70k when I started), BMW E36 (bought for £300, 170k), Jaguar XJ40 (£1500, 140k), Citroen BX (£255, 170k), MG F (£150, 140k). Yeah. No stranger to fixing cheap, old cars.
However, this E46 has pissed me off.
It’s just about to fail its MoT today due to lights on the dashboard caused by a faulty steering angle sensor. It’s £50-150 to replace, depending on whether I want used or new. Why does it have a sensor to measure the steering angle? Utterly needless complication. Yes, I know it uses it for traction control. Something else that is utterly needless complication when really all you need to do is not drive like a prat.
So, I think I’ve come to the realisation that I have pretty much zero interest in owning a car that’s ~post-2000. It’s sort of something I already felt, but this has clarified it. Here’s a list of all the things that are non-existent, or at least rarer in cars that are pre-2000.
1. Needless sensors that cost an arm and a leg to replace, but will cause MoT-failing lights when they go.
2. Related to the above, multiple O2 sensors. They’re pricey and often fail at the mileage I buy cars at. Most are a real bugger to get to. I could do without 3 of them to replace.
3. Interlinked electronics systems, such that if you want to do something fun like swap in a manual gearbox or ITBs there’s a whole load more work that needs to be done to get things
4. Un-cancellable traction control.
5. Fakery. Fake exhaust tips, fake exhaust noise, fake vents (malaise era excluded). Just general extraneous crap that clutters up design.
6. Engine covers. ‘Hey guys, wouldn’t it be fun to put an extra thing in the way of someone who wants to change his spark plugs! Yeah great idea Gerald, this is why we pay you’ . Screw you Gerald.
7. The feeling that you’re driving in a pillbox. Sat in an Audi A5 once. No wonder your average Audi driver is a dickbag. You feel like you’re in your own personal tank, and everything happening around you is sort of happening on a screen you’re looking at, rather than actually happening 5ft away from you.
8. Overlapping interior trim panels. Another E46 irritation. To get at the headlining (to change the sunroof mechanism), you have to take off nearly all the interior trim panels down to the floor because they’re all overlapping the fixings. Needless irritation.
9. Not just weight but girth. Yes cars are heavy nowadays which means you need more power to go just as fast so they’re more expensive to run, and just think about how fuel efficient a modern car engine would be in something that’s ~1000kg. However, that’s not the whole problem. Modern cars are huge physically, with comparatively little interior space.
10. Grumble grumble get off my lawn I don’t like change. Especially when it’s not very much change at all from a £50 note for a sensor that doesn’t exist on any of the other cars I’ve ever owned and they’ve done fine without it.
tl;dr: cheapskate complains about unexpected repair cost on 170k mile car ;)
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/28/2017 at 05:52, STARS: 1
My cutoff year is roughly 2000 as well. I don’t dislike everything post 2000 but I prefer designs from before that time. I prefer the 80s and 90s; usually much better reliability and rust prevention (and safety) than older cars, yet not as overweight, computerized and disconnected as more modern ones. Design wise the 21st century wasn’t much of an improvement either, with a few exceptions.
I gave up on BMWs after the e46 to be honest. Although I prefer the older ones the Bangle-era BMWs are the last BMWs that appeal to me somewhat. Aesthetically that is. I did drive a 2016 BMW 3-series Touring on the Autobahn recently and, despite its clear objective qualities, it did nothing to me. Well, I did have to pay a fine for speeding but that’s besides the point.
I’m going to drive my 1988 205 GTI right now. Now that’s a car .
"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer)
04/28/2017 at 05:53, STARS: 0
Solution to the E46 problem: remove engine, put it in one of the Spitfires.
From a maintenance/repair perspective I think you’re about right giving up on cars after 2000. Though some cheaper cars are still dead simple for a few years after that, like my Twingo which is basically a 90s design but happens to be built in 2011 giving it some of the interior trim overlap problems.
From a technology perspective, I hope industry will be able to stop the cars from growing (both in dimensions and weight), because that is one thing that will help obtain the better real world fuel efficiency which they will need when the NEDC test is replaced by WLTP.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 05:58, STARS: 0
Yeah that neatly summarises my thoughts too :) I was thinking earlier that there’s probably a sweet-spot around the mid-to-late 90s where cars usually have half-decent crash protection, still have some sort of onboard diagnostics, but don’t have all the extraneous crap I’ve been ranting about :)
Saying that, 70s and 80s are my favourite just for the style :)
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/28/2017 at 06:03, STARS: 0
Agreed. The 90s is a decent compromise, slightly worse designs but still good to drive and even better rust prevention and reliability. My 17 year old Peugeot 406 coupe is on the new side in my opinion but I just love the design and you can’t argue with its reliability and its utter lack of rust at 299k on the odometer.
"for Michigan" (formichigan)
04/28/2017 at 06:05, STARS: 1
2017, because they don’t make 2018 models yet.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 06:06, STARS: 0
Yeah I gather there’s some excellent little throwbacks. The Lada Niva’s the ultimate one, but glad to hear there’s others :)
I remember reading that during the 70s oil crisis the US automakers cut an average of 200kg out of their cars by just making them smaller. I think the only way to make that happen in today’s consumer culture is to market smaller, lighter cars as desirable and fashionable compared to big tanks. It’s a hard ask, but the car manufacturers largely make what the public will buy, so changing the what’s fashionable is important.
It’s why small sports cars were such a boom business in the 60s and 70s, hot hatchbacks in the 80s and 90s, and now CUVs and ‘lifestyle’ vehicles now.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 06:07, STARS: 0
Yeah I gather a lot of people are perfectly fine with modern cars, and it does mean that I tend to miss out on kickass cars like the 4C and F-Type and stuff. Still, they’re just such a royal PITA to work on it’s just not worth it for me.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/28/2017 at 06:12, STARS: 0
While cars are getting larger some people don’t actually buy larger cars from a footprint point of view. People replace their Passat with a Tiguan. They get a heavier slower thirstier worse handling car (when equipped with the same drive train).
Problem is that a Tiguan is smaller than a Golf wagon yet weighs more than a Passat wagon, with the same drive train. This is true for most manufacturers.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 06:13, STARS: 0
Plus, 90s cars are at the bottom of their depreciation curve at the moment ;) 80s are on the rise which is a bugger :S
Yeah the 406 coupe is one of the all-time great looking cars as far as I’m concerned :) the 2000 cutoff is a bit of a vague one, as the mechanicals of the 406 coupe is pretty much a 90s car bar a few bits and pieces despite it being newer. I suppose it’s dependent on when the manufacturer took the leap into the sort of philosophies that typify post-2000 cars...
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/28/2017 at 06:17, STARS: 0
Those cars suffer from huge depreciation now and will probably suffer from high upkeep/maintenance costs when they get older. It’s something I can go without. Now a ND MX5 does sound appealing to me, although I would prefer the MX5 engine in the Fiat 124 body.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
04/28/2017 at 06:28, STARS: 2
Somewhere around 2011-2012. Throttle-by-wire was already around for years in 2011, but for whatever reason most cars 2011 and above the behavior changed. It makes it hard to modulate the throttle, simple tasks like pulling into the garage can’t be done smoothly. There’s also a half second delay between pressing the pedal, and the engine reacting. Making it near impossible to have smooth starts from a stop (especially if you’re pulling out into traffic).
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
04/28/2017 at 06:32, STARS: 0
This E61 FB group, although being filled with a lot of barely literate people who call each other Bruh, gave me some insights into these cars while making me fear the day something lets go. Who would have fought that a low battery could cause the gearbox to go into limp mode and throw codes? Or that after changing an injector you have to code that into the ecu, otherwise the engine will run like shit and you could have just left the faulty one in. Scary stuff...
I ordered a code reader on amazon.
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
04/28/2017 at 06:35, STARS: 0
That E46 engine wouldn’t run in the Spiti unless you mate it to those freely programmable ecus and get a map for it (expensive) or you use the old ecu. Which wouldn’t let the engine start unless a plethora of other system talk to it. So you would have to set up a whole set of fake E46 electronics for it to be happy. Talk about unnecessary complication.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 06:38, STARS: 0
Very interesting. Having never really driven a car from that era properly I’ve never come across that. My Alfa’s drive-by-wire but the throttle response is great and very intuitive.
Actually, both of the BMWs I’ve owned have felt a little like that. The throttles feeling slightly odd in their relationship to engine response, but I’ve put that down to the unfamiliarity of floor-mounted pedals and possibly just age of the engines and possible small faults that have accrued.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 06:42, STARS: 0
Ugh, that sounds awful on both counts. Forum population and maintenance irritation.
I wonder if that’s still the case on the E46. We have to code the new steering angle sensor to the ECU, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the injectors are the same. What a bloody stupid idea.
If I actually gave a toss about the car I might consider ripping everything out and going standalone engine management, but that’d probably cause just as many problems!
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 06:42, STARS: 0
Ugh, that sounds awful on both counts. Forum population and maintenance irritation.
I wonder if that’s still the case on the E46. We have to code the new steering angle sensor to the ECU, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the injectors are the same. What a bloody stupid idea.
If I actually gave a toss about the car I might consider ripping everything out and going standalone engine management, but that’d probably cause just as many problems!
"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer)
04/28/2017 at 06:43, STARS: 0
I didn’t think it through in that much detail, haha. Seems like a lot of hassle indeed.
"kanadanmajava1" (kanadanmajava1)
04/28/2017 at 06:51, STARS: 0
I used to firmly limit my cars to ~1990 due engine modification legislation. The legislation was eased up, so currently I could consider anything up to year 1997 (or in certain cases -2000). A bit unlikely that I would buy anything so new though.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
04/28/2017 at 07:06, STARS: 1
Best I can explain it, it’s as if the pedal sensor has only relays 5 throttle positions. 20%, 40%, 60%, etc. Nothing like a half second delay followed by 40% throttle when you’re parking.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 07:08, STARS: 0
Ugh that sounds horrible. Has that been across a number of cars post 2012? It sounds like really poor calibration of the throttle response, but if it’s widespread then there might be some underhanded fuel economy thing...
"E92M3" (E46M3)
04/28/2017 at 07:21, STARS: 1
Mostly German cars act this way. BMW’s, Porsches, but Hondas don’t do it.
There’s a couple aftermarket companies that sell products that are supposed to reprogram the throttle response to combat the issue.
Seriously what was wrong with throttle cables? They worked just fine for decades..
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
04/28/2017 at 07:23, STARS: 1
I agree my 04 lancer is fine
Manual windows, no Tc or abs
Next to no issues, car has started breaking down under load this week only replaced spark plugs last Friday so I’m guessing it needs leads now only done 300k km
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 07:42, STARS: 0
Worked just fine for decades, and still work decades after they were first fitted. Plus, they cost £5 to replace when they break, rather than lord knows how much for any part of the drive-by-wire mechanism (although I don’t think they’re particularly troublesome).
I’d bet it is something fuel efficiency/CO2 emissions related. Something like it ensures that there’s the minimum amount of throttle opening at the test rpm, even if it’s not intuitive as to where the throttle should be at that particular point.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/28/2017 at 08:12, STARS: 2
There are plenty of “simple” Japanese cars out there. Something like the current MX5 or 86/BRZ do not have obtrusive engine covers and are still simple enough to work on. But even mid to late 00's can have plenty of normal, simple cars.
But I agree in general, I would prefer a car from the ‘90s just to simplify everything.
"CAR_IS_MI" (car-is-mi)
04/28/2017 at 08:17, STARS: 0
I think I gave up on owning a project type car as my primary car the instant I purchased a house. Between having a “big boy job” that requires much time, and then a house to maintain, having to worry about fixing the car so I can get to work in the morning was just not on the list. Don’t get me wrong, I still love wrenching, but the priority shifted to ensure I had a good reliable car before I bought older fun cars.
I shared a lot of your sentiments about newer cars (still do to a point), but if you find the right car, it will show you how nice it is to have some of that new-school electronic bull crap.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 08:22, STARS: 1
Yeah I did think of the MX-5 and BRZ when I was thinking this, but I don’t have enough experience of working on them to know how much they fall foul of some of the irritating things. Stuff like unnecessary sensors you can’t remove/disable or they’ll cause MoT-failing stuff to happen when they’re high mileage, and needing to key them into the electronic system rather than just plugging them in and they work.
Bearing in mind that I buy my cars at low prices and fairly high miles, additional irritation and needless complication of maintenance is a big thing :S
"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo)
04/28/2017 at 08:26, STARS: 0
Well HondaS last good enthusiast car, the S2000, died in 09. And pretty much every other car designed in the late 90s had also died off by then. So I guess that’s my answer.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 08:42, STARS: 1
Yeah that does make sense. Saying that, I don’t know how much I value the niceness of a modern car in monetary terms. The thing I always come back to is relative cost during ownership.
Take my Citroen. Bought for £255, did some welding to pass MoT which cost maybe £10 in materials. Drove for a year before anything else needed doing and it had to come off the road. So, ~£300 + insurance and fuel for a year’s driving. Because it’s so cheap, I can afford to have 2 other cars on standby in case something goes wrong, ensuring I can always get to work.
Compare that to a lightly used modern car, purchased at lets say ~£5000. While it (hopefully) costs nothing in maintenance, you’re losing maybe £500 a year in depreciation, and if you keep it until things might start going wrong then sell it you’ll lose maybe £4000 from the initial purchase cost. If things actually start going wrong then that cost increases.
Personally, I can’t really justify spending, lets say £2000 for the cost of having multiple cheap cars, for the added luxury of maybe having a car that can always get me to work without me needing to work on it at some point. With the housing market as it is in the UK at the moment, I doubly can’t justify it if I was a homeowner with a mortgage, and it only gets worse the newer a car is as the depreciation hits harder.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a massive fan of wrenching under pressure either. That sucks bigtime. I just can’t really justify spending so much to avoid it when it could go on other things in my life, like mortgage payments, holidays, dates, neat stuff for the house, a project car, whatever the hell you want :)
I suppose it could be that I just don’t value my time particularly highly!
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 08:44, STARS: 1
Yeah, I think it is influence by the fact that I mainly like Italians and Brits, and they sort of went through a period of not making anything worth a damn starting from the late 90s...
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/28/2017 at 08:47, STARS: 0
Speaking from my BMW experience: you need specific coding software to code anything, an OBD code reader only tells you what’s wrong. Carly is the app-based one that does most common coding things.
That said, somehow I’ve accumulated an OBD code reader, an OBD bluetooth dongle that talks to my phone, and an OBD USB cable to work with the MHD ECU flashing app for my phone. But not Carly yet, and really some of the other stuff is redundant, and yet here I am.
"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
04/28/2017 at 09:16, STARS: 0
I rather differ. My present car is 1994 and I wouldn’t buy one anything like that old again.
Why?
Rust
Things break, which is a problem when you have a car with increasingly poor spares availability
Rust
Safety. No airbags, no ABS, not crash tested
More rust
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
04/28/2017 at 09:19, STARS: 1
I would allege that I give up at 1972, but that’s more a conceit than anything practical. No sensors, no electronics, no emissions bastardry, no fakery or covers, great visibility, big cars that are big inside, cheap parts.
In actual fact, I do like cars made since then, but it’s rarely my first thought. Probably why my average year of manufacture is 1969 - though me wanting an XJS is a spanner in the works of all this. Is it alright if my first thing would be to strip down the XJS to be in compliance with my standards?
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
04/28/2017 at 09:29, STARS: 0
Funny, my two primary vehicles are an E46 touring, and a 1961 Ford F100 with manual everything.
I’ve had two examples of the E46. One wasn’t really properly maintained by the previous owner and it was a constant battle for me. I learned a lot, and had the free time, money, and a shop so I didn’t really mind. Now the one I have, it was properly maintained its whole life. So I’ve had a really easy time with it, simple repairs and/or just stuff that wears out at 150k+ miles like wheel bearings or half-shafts. I try to buy my cars when they’ve been treated nicely by one person, maybe two, but well over 100k so the price is way down in the depreciation curve.
That said, I wish I could just drive the ‘61 every day. But kids...
And to answer your question, without really answering it: I’m currently looking for a boat, and one that I will likely have for the forseeable future. I’m specifically looking at 1998 Nautiques. Because they have fuel injection which is sooo nice in a boat, but everything else is manual or mechanical, like the gauges, ignition switch etc. whereas after 2000, things got more digital and hence, worse. It’s one thing having a touchscreen display in your car - which I’m still basically against - but in a freaking boat. WTF is that going to be like in 10 years. I seriously doubt I will ever, in my life, own a boat newer than MAYBE 2003.
A real answer to your question for me would be early OBDII. So electronics were still fairly simple and mostly helpful (e.g. igntion, EFI management), but diagnostics were standardized.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 09:41, STARS: 0
Yeah ideally mine would be hovering somewhere around the 70s. Perhaps edging into the 80s for the odd Biturbo or GTV6. Probably the only reason mine aren’t is that they don’t actually come up as often as you’d think in the £300 range ;)
You can get XJS’ from ‘76 so I’m sure you could find one that won’t overly affect your average ;) oh, and you’re completely forgiven anyway if the first thing you do with the XJS is strip it down to basics ;) extra plus points if you go for ITBs or downdraft webers on the V12...
Just worked out my average and it’s a disappointing 1987. I blame that on having a number of old design cars in the latter years of their selling career (‘92 XJ40 and BX, ‘96 Niva)....
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 09:42, STARS: 0
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. If you can weld, and more importantly enjoy welding then half of those problems go away and unlock a massive pool of potential transport for pennies ;)
Poor spares availability is a bugger though, I’ll give you that. Try finding a shock/strut for a biturbo nowadays...
"fintail" (fintail)
04/28/2017 at 09:47, STARS: 0
Depends on the role. For the DD, I don’t mind a modern car, I don’t have time or patience to work on something older to make it 100% reliable, and in most cases, the DD won’t be with me forever anyway.
For the old/hobby car, being a MB person, I’d probably keep it to W140 or anything introduced before that.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
04/28/2017 at 09:51, STARS: 0
I’m currently driving a car that’s from ‘87 and has more miles on it than the rest combined, but it’s coming up on quite a lot of expense due, between long term poor performance ignored issues and parts giving up. Needs a turbo rebuild kit, new or rebuilt injectors, tampering with or even rebuild of the injector pump, possibly a head gasket (!), gasket service for the trans, rebuild of the driveshaft, sorting out of rear wheel bearing noise, and (in the not too distant future) possibly a front set of calipers and a set of CV axles. None of this is cheap, and this follows a front and rear suspension rebuild I’ve just done in the past year. In other words, I’m reaching a point where reliability expense of the Galaxie will be much less and the Benz may be relegated mostly out of daily service.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 09:53, STARS: 0
Absolutely agree with you that the ‘high mileage but well maintained’ cars are the real gems. My MG F falls into that category and it’s really nice because of it :)
The point I was really getting at with the E46 is that it’s got all of the usual high-mileage problems that I expect, but then a whole heap more because it’s a high-mileage modern car. The steering angle sensor was just the most egregious example. Unnecessary point of failure.
You’ve definitely hit the nail on the head with there being particular sweet spots where technological progression is on the upswing of the useful vs needlessly complex curve. The advent of OBD (whether it’s 1 or 2), but before the massive integration of electronics is a definite sweet spot. As is the mid 80s where fuel injection started to get decently reliable on a lot of cars.
I’d also say that the late 60s, just before all of the emissions crap complicated things is another sweet spot. Everything on the car is dead simple to fix once you know how to do it, and there’s only so much on the car that can actually go wrong in the first place. Add into that some modern fixes for problems they couldn’t fix in the day and you’ve got quite a good recipe :)
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
04/28/2017 at 10:02, STARS: 1
The newest car I’ve ever had was a ’96, and I’m currently driving a couple of ’95 models. I don’t know if I’d be willing to consider 2000 or later models. Depends on the car, I guess. I really have no problems with OBDII, but I don’t like my car to have a whole lot of electronics and drive-by-wire. I’m also getting the sense that manufacturers are trying harder to be cheap that they used to.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 10:04, STARS: 0
Hmmm, there’s definitely a point of diminishing returns for the economic viability of an older car, although I’ve always thought that getting all the stuff done will pay dividends in that you know it’s fixed for the forseeable future. Plus, it’s more environmentally friendly keeping old cars on the road :)
I’m sort of approaching that point with the Jag. Head gasket blew while I was running it in the background to charge the battery (suspect it’s been slightly gone for quite a while), burnt all of its coolant and overheated for god knows how long before I realised. Now there’s a thoroughly ominous mechanical knocking while it’s running so I think that engine’s days are numbered. Add to that I have to get the rear diff out again as I messed up aligning the CWP when I swapped in the LSD centre and there’s quite a bit of work to do before it’s driveable.
Still, it’s on the list after the Citroen and my random purchase of another 4.0l I6 a couple of years ago is looking like quite the prescient investment!
"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
04/28/2017 at 10:06, STARS: 1
Agreed on all points. The E46 has some needless complication for sure. I submit the same-era Impreza or WRX as a more fun and less complex car, I just wish they were made better in the first place because I’m not sure any 2003 WRX is in the condition my ‘03 325 is in.
And oh boy, my truck is so fantastically nice to work on. Parts are available anywhere, often for free, interchangeable between whole decades of other trucks, and if stuff isn’t available, something better is. It’s going to cost less to put all new shocks in my truck than we spent on a nice dinner out last night.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
04/28/2017 at 10:10, STARS: 1
If nothing else, the Benz becoming slowly more knackered is an object lesson on age vs. mileage issues. Most everything failed, failing, or weak on the Benz is miles related and mechanical, most everything at issue on the Galaxie is pure age, isolated decay of rubber, fabric, etc.. The Galaxie has *as good* parts availability and in many cases better vs. a car 24 years its junior, and consistently less expensive, so at some point it will simply be the vehicle of choice due to those parts with few miles on them...
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 10:17, STARS: 0
Yeah OBD is nice, and there’s a sweet-spot when you can still get it without all of the extraneous crap. Even if it’s OBD1.
Drive-by-wire I don’t mind as I’ve never once had an issue with it on my Alfa, nor heard of many actual problems surrounding it, but things like keying in new sensors to the car’s ECU can die a painful death.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 10:25, STARS: 0
You raise a very good point on something I was thinking while writing this: what am I going to do once all of the cheap cars are from post-2000 and the older stuff falls into the rut of poor parts availability.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head by going for something older that has a large community-driven parts availability. Something like the Spitfire or the MGB would be ideal, provided the classic car bubble doesn’t burst :)
MGBs in particular are ideal as aside from a few trim pieces you can pretty much buy the entire car brand new from aftermarket providers, including the monocoque!
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 10:30, STARS: 1
I think you’re absolutely right that the transition into needless complication set in at different rates for different manufacturers. I’d be willing to bet that the Germans were ahead of the curve on that...
Sounds like you’ve got the idea situation with your truck :) it’s actually relatively similar with my MG F. Because it’s a relatively neat car, and shared a lot of mechanical bits with a ton of other MGs of the era (not to mention Caterhams, Lotuses and Land Rovers for the engine) you get tons of dirt cheap parts. Aside from the fancy hydragas suspension you can get most stuff for a pittance :)
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
04/28/2017 at 10:59, STARS: 0
I know. The code reader is just the entry to this rabbit hole.
Carly seems to get rather mixed reviews. Some people praise it like the second coming while other say it’s a rip off.
From what I’ve read the best solution is an old laptop with win XP that runs INPA.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
04/28/2017 at 11:08, STARS: 1
...and in the case of the Ranchero, most of the odder parts I’ve gotten from outside the Ford Falcon/Mustang bubble, itself fairly available, are from common Jag, extremely common Chevy, common Toyota, common Land Rover, common modern Ford - almost every part one that lasted a decade or more in a multi-million seller.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/28/2017 at 11:14, STARS: 0
Very smart :) must bear that in mind for the MG B as that’ll have quite an oddment of parts on it I expect. the Spitfire’s got so much on it that’s modified that there’s actually not much that I could buy again without changing somehow...
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/28/2017 at 11:19, STARS: 0
I haven’t had any hands-on with either, because for coding there’s a local guy who runs a side business out of his house doing coding and he’s already updated my nav maps, switched some hidden settings, registered a battery, and did the BMW PPK ECU flash for me before MHD was available for N55 cars like mine. He lives only a few miles from me, and has a yellow Mini Countryman with checkered flag graphics on the side that I keep seeing his wife driving around town. I’ve run into him at the supermarket a couple times since then. Go figure.
"MM54" (mm54mk2)
04/28/2017 at 17:52, STARS: 1
I pretty much agree fully, some point around the early 2000s cars seem to have crossed a point where they became unservicable once they begin to wear out. Based on the headline I had a whole long thing in my head to write out, but it’s basically the same thing you wrote.
"davedave1111" (davedave1111)
04/28/2017 at 17:52, STARS: 0
‘89 Camry is fine, ‘98 MGF worries me a lot. But that may be to do with Toyota vs Rover build quality.
"Die-Trying" (die-trying)
04/28/2017 at 18:06, STARS: 1
nothing that interests me much after around 1990 squarebodies
i started stockpiling inventory for them some time back.......
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
04/29/2017 at 04:37, STARS: 1
Great minds think alike ;)
Yeah there’s definitely a line around 2000ish for a lot of cars, and increasingly as you get more modern. I suppose it’s less unserviceable, more a royal pain in the arse to service.