I'm a hoarder of junk...

"Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction" (rustholes-are-weight-reduction)
06/13/2017 at 04:14 • Filed to: BEL AIR, TO DO LIST

Just like your... ABORT THIS JOKE!
I currently own 6 cars (don’t judge). Only one of which is driveable.

My previous daily driver, a Peugeot 505 2.5 GTD has been engineless for 6 months, I haven’t driven it for about 8 months due to high oil consumption. An engine rebuild is on schedule, but the schedule keeps slipping.

The Peugeot 505 V6 has a healthy engine, but it has rust issues. This isn’t a huge problem. The real problem is a collapsed front suspension, which in itself could be a quick fix if the car didn’t have ABS. See, the ABS version had specific suspensions, which are not available anymore. The best solution is to get rid of the ABS, especially since the ABS rings are so worn that the sensors won’t ever be able to get a clear signal. But getting rid of the ABS means changing the whole system and the pedals, from what I’ve heard, so it’s not an easy task. Moving on.

The 4 door Bel Air is currently on the lift, as it has been sitting for about 2 months now. The rebuilt engine is neatly placed near it under a blanket, so it doesn’t get dusty while I prepare the engine compartment and the front suspensions.

The Mégane is ready to be registered, I drove it the whole last week while doing the necessary paperwork for the import on a temporary German plate. The only roadblock is French administration, which requires you to make an appointment to register a car.
I made an appointment last Sunday on their online platform, thinking I’d take the last day of the week, so I have all the week to get the necessary papers, the available slots were Thursday or Friday anyway. So I got there on Friday morning. For about 5 minutes, the clerk looks for my appointment, only to discover that my appointment was the week after. They have a freaking wait of 2 weeks! The thing is, the appointments are for 5 minutes, which is a bit more than the time they need for the registration, and nobody came in that time despite the schedule being full. So had she done her freaking job instead of looking for my name, I would have my car registered by now! Gotta love Administration. And it is planned to get worse in the upcoming months. Yeah.

While parked near a wall last week, I noticed that the Pajero made a suspicious sound when I released the clutch in neutral. I asked my father to listen to it yesterday morning, and he confirmed what I thought: worn bearings, transmission rebuilt needed. And keeping driving would make the rebuild unnecessary/impossible. He lend me his Peugeot Partner to get to work. The thing is, my parents need their car too.

That leaves me with one driveable car, and that’s a 57 year old american land yacht. Could be worse, but come on!

DISCUSSION (31)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 04:53

Well at least your only drivable car doesn’t have a hole in the floor anymore. Can’t you drive the CrossGolf instead? Or is that still on German plates?

pip bip - choose Corrour > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 05:02

i wish i had your problem

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/13/2017 at 05:18

It is still on German plates, we wanted to wait to register it. It turns 10 in July, saving us 115€ on the registration.

The thing is I learned that the prefecture closest to me will stop doing car registrations by the end of the month. This means all the people in the current 2 week queue are going to the next prefecture in Strasbourg, which already has a long wait, and I don’t want to deal with that, so I made an appointment as soon as possible, next Thursday. I would have registered it 2 weeks ago had I known this before.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > pip bip - choose Corrour
06/13/2017 at 05:28

I wish I had a Holden Ute, which would inevitably break down if I owned it

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 05:55

Ah I see, sounds like a reasonable choice.

So they are closing some of the registration offices? Looks like you’re going to end up with similar long waiting situations as we have here in the Netherlands: Jobjoris ran into a waiting list of a month for getting the Pao registered.

Jobjoris > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 05:59

“Only” two weeks!!! I had a waiting period for about a month when I made an appointment for the Pao with the Dutch “DMV”! And we need pictures of that Peugeot Partner. I had a dark blue one for a while. Awesome cars! ;-)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 06:06

Is there any car you haven’t had? Haha

Jobjoris > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/13/2017 at 06:09

Just shows my age. ;-)

And was for a company I worked together with in my younger years. If I ever have an estate there will be bought a Partner. Awesome little haulers.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 06:14

Well you’re not that old, right? Haha

If you ever buy a Partner for use on an estate, it must be a Dangel!

Jobjoris > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/13/2017 at 06:19

If I ever get a Dangel it will be a 504 pickup!!!!

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/13/2017 at 06:21

This is getting ridiculous.

Rumors say dealers will eventually be able to handle imports. They are already handling the registrations for French cars (as in: already registered in France). No timing though

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 06:24

If I ever get a Dangel, it’s gonna be a 505

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 06:26

I hope for you that the move to dealers improves the situation eventually.

Jobjoris > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 06:26

Pickup? Or Break?

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 06:27

That is ridiculous. I hope the dealers in France soon get autorisations for international registrations.

The Partner is a first gen, in silver, with green plaid seats and no power. Lovely

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 06:30

Was there a 505 Dangel pick-up? I know there were the Dangel breaks, and there were pick-ups, but Dangel pick-ups?

Jobjoris > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 06:35

Dealers can take parts of the tests over here. But as the Pao is from outside the EU I need a special “judge” to check the car. Otherwise I could have just park the car queue at the DMV. And wait...

There wasn’t a 505 Dangel Pickup? Then I definitely need the 504! No HDI needed in the Partner!

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 06:53

Ah, so that why it takes so long! The Mégane is a regular car though. Had I had an appointment in advance, I could have registered it the day I bought it. But it was a really quick buy.
The 505 pick-ups were really rare themselves, Gruau took the break version, and just cut the back part of the roof. You could get approximately the same result by removing the trunklid of a sedan.

Kinja'd!!!

Jobjoris > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 07:01

I still favor for the Dangel 504 Pickup, that Gruau is a monstrosity beyond imagination!

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Jobjoris
06/13/2017 at 07:04

Yeah, they weren’t beauties

shop-teacher > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 07:20

Hard to believe that the DMV in the barely functioning and nearly ungovernable state of Illinois, is light years ahead in terms of customer service.

A brief example: Years ago my parents passed down to me the Cadillac that had been my grandma’s. They gave me the title with my dad’s signature, but my mom hadn’t signed it. I gave the clerk the title and he told me, “You’re missing your mom’s signature.” Then he slid it back to me and said, “Why don’t you go outside, and have her sign it out there?”

So “she” did, and 20 minutes later I walked out with my license plates.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > shop-teacher
06/13/2017 at 08:01

Wow, functioning humans at the DMV? Must have bien fired since then

Klaus Schmoll > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 08:57

That’s a weird system! When I got the plates for the E61, I just drove to the DMV, had to get a number, and waited for like 10 minutes before it was my turn.

duurtlang > Klaus Schmoll
06/13/2017 at 09:29

You didn’t import that E61 though. Had you bought it with non-German (but EU) paperwork it would’ve been a lot more work.

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > Klaus Schmoll
06/13/2017 at 09:32

A few years ago, it was like that in France, although the wait was generally 15-60 minutes, depending on when you went there.
Then, they decided to give the dealers the possibility to do the paperwork or cars sold inside France. So if you buy a car from another Frenchman, you just go to a dealer, pay a fee (usually 30€ on top of what you would pay for the registration anyway) and walk away with your registration.
Doing so allowed to reduce the number of people at the DMV, or assign them to other tasks, mostly immigration stuff.
With more and more people going to the dealers to do the papers, only importers left at the DMV. So they further reduced. Currently, any car registration on the DMV requires an appointment. The nearest DMV for me is 30 km away. the nest one is 60 km away. Both have about 10 days of wait for a 5 minute job (every appointment is really only 5 minutes). The one closer to me will shut down the car registration end of the month. The other one at the end of the year. I heard rumors that dealers will be able to do imports too, I sure hope so. I prefer paying a fee than waiting for 2 weeks to get a car registered.

Klaus Schmoll > duurtlang
06/13/2017 at 09:34

Not exactly. A few years ago my parents bought a Mazda 6 which the dealer had bought from Italy. It still had the Italian papers. I showed up at the DMV with the Italian papers, purchase agreement, a very grainy copy of my mom’s id, a waiver that I was allowed to register the car in her name on which the signature was obviously photoshopped, and proof of insurance. Twenty minutes later I walked out with German plates and registration papers.

shop-teacher > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 09:56

No, my local DMV office is actually staffed by friendly and helpful people ... it’s weird ... but also great.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 10:08

Well, I have 5 cars, three running, but have just had registration expire on two, one of which will need a set of tires to pass inspection and re-up. So, I’m driving my 57 year old American land yacht.

Kinja'd!!!

JR1 > Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction
06/13/2017 at 10:15

You sir are living the dream

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
06/13/2017 at 10:22

There are worse situations I guess :)

Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction > JR1
06/13/2017 at 10:31

There are worse situation to be in I guess :)
I guess it’s all about choices, most of my friends go the marriage, kids, house and vacations way, I have an awesome dog and cars.