Bloodstock Community

Yeah, but who wants sensible and docile? That said, I agree that it's too fast for a public road. I'm happy to do it on a racetrack, though...

My wallet very much prefers sensible and docile. Much, much more than that strange 120 mark...

Car tax time again and as always I'm wondering whether it's worth it.
My tax for the year is £230, which works out to pretty much £20 a month.
I barely drive these days as i'm working in london most of the time and away on tour a fair bit, so it just sits in the drive. Add the insurance and MOT, service etc on to it and it seems like it's pretty uneconomical to be keeping it
I don't want to get rid of it, it would break my heart, but I'm 100% sure just taking taxi's whenever i need to drive would save me money in the long run.
BLeh

Picked up a new car yesterday. Land Rover Discovery II. Much like my previous one, except this is diesel rather than LPG. Tax and insurance are still punishingly expensive, though.

It's been a year since I bought the Leggy! I got it to have a year of having a quick car before settling down with a more sensible choice... But I can't. Despite its poor MPG, its pricy running costs, high tax, discomfort over long journeys and the scarcity of teplacement parts, I can't bring myself to part with it.

It's so much fun to drive, it's such a lovely place to sit in, it tows so nicely and I still like thw idea that I can drive it off a muddy festival car park. Perhaps it can stay until September-ish, as long as it behaves itself. Saying that, it's been throwing up an error code for the catalytic converter, for which the replacement part price is, well, as Tet did warn about, laughable.

I think I have a speeding ticket in the post. M25 on the "smart" system a few miles before the Dartford Crossing bridge. Going from a 60mph zone to a 50mph zone. Didn't slow down quite soon enough for the beginning of the 50 zone. I must have been just on the cusp as I was at 55mph on my speedometer and on the brakes when the thing flashed. The camera flashed a good few times for people behind me too. Never actually seen one in action on the motorway before.

Got a new car recently. Was between a Golf GTI and the Astra GTC 2.0 TDI, I opted for the GTC purely down to the fact I do 15k miles a year and I looked to be far more economical. 2 months in and I'm getting around 35-38 MPG. Was expecting far more. Could've gone for the bloody GTI after all!

Andy (Dr Sin) wrote:Got a new car recently. Was between a Golf GTI and the Astra GTC 2.0 TDI, I opted for the GTC purely down to the fact I do 15k miles a year and I looked to be far more economical. 2 months in and I'm getting around 35-38 MPG. Was expecting far more. Could've gone for the bloody GTI after all!

How old is it? You can get an engine clean done by these guys, might improve MPG back up a bit: http://www.terraclean.co.uk/

Jim wrote:

Andy (Dr Sin) wrote:Got a new car recently. Was between a Golf GTI and the Astra GTC 2.0 TDI, I opted for the GTC purely down to the fact I do 15k miles a year and I looked to be far more economical. 2 months in and I'm getting around 35-38 MPG. Was expecting far more. Could've gone for the bloody GTI after all!

How old is it? You can get an engine clean done by these guys, might improve MPG back up a bit: http://www.terraclean.co.uk/

It’s only a 64 plate. Lot of my miles are done driving Round a busy town or driving up to Cumbria for work where I am guilty of putting my foot down a little bit on the fell roads.

On a motorway run, it’s up at 43/44 mpg.

Will get in touch with terraclean, looking through it’s history it the car did about 5000 miles a year for the first 2 1/2 years of its life - most of which was probably around towns so the engine could just be in need of a good clean.

Over the few months I’ve had it, and the more long few hindered miles trips I’ve done the better the mpg is getting.

Seems I nearly killed my engine. Car was booked in for its overdue service when I went on a long journey towing the trailer tent. Got to the destination and the engine light flicked on, with the engine giving a little splutter. Tested the oil level to discover it was't even registering on the dipstick. I dumped 2 litres of oil in, RAC chap dumped 2 more in and concluded the engine light was to do with misfires in 2 of the cylinders.

Got back home (carefully) and had the service, plus new auxiliary belt. I then had to order a new idler and a new tensioner from Subaru dealer directly. I think I got away with it as it's running smoothly again a month and a bit later, but lesson has been learned.