Selfsufficientish.com

thank you all, yes my car is a sparkly gem, it looked gray on the photos that I bid on.

this is the last MOT I got for the van



he could not be bothered to list all the advisory items, it would have taken to long.

the Vito will not be alive in 38 years time unlike the beetle

Fantastic

Cars are for going from A to B, if I ever fell in love with any of the 10 cars I've owed, it was because they did just that, went from A to B without trouble until their time was up. Fortunately most did just that and I loved them all for that. I'd run them until they could go no more or I gave them to a friend desperate for a vehicle.
Cars have got more fuel efficient, well anything could do better than a Ford Pop with a side valve engine, but not as much as they might. The Citreon Ax I had regularly returned 65/gallon in London and my friend's diesel version people would do 80. Even the Smart car doesn't do anything like that (friend's only does 45 and can't go over bumps like a Citroen).
Then what's the point of making a 3 litre Mercedes that should go on for ever and ever, except the computer gives up after 6 years and you have to scrap it because it's too expensive to fix (colleague's I know).

I bought a new car just over a year ago. Prior to this I had a second hand Clio which was my first car and I adored it. Sadly it got written off in an accident and I panic-bought a Megane which broke-down constantly and cost a fortune in repair bills. Anyway, I got this new car last July and this July I got a letter from the garage telling me that by now it would be due for its 12 000 mile service so I checked the mileage and discovered that in a year I had driven less than 5000 miles! I was delighted to call the garage and tell them and they seemed quite surprised AND I didn't have to get it serviced! We are very lucky that my partner works for a major public transport company who give him a free bus/rail card - much better than a company car as when we go anywhere by bus or train we only have to pay for me so it's always cheaper to get the bus to town etc instead of paying to park. Also I reckon it saves us about a thousand pounds a year on what he would spend on rail cards to commute to work. I'd prefer to go to work by bus so I could have a little extra sleep. Unfortunately the bus services are organised so that a 3 mile journey would take about an hour with 2 changes!

http://www.wisebread.com/7-ways-my-clun ... n-a-hybrid

mamos

i have a w reg'd astra van that i'm in the proccess of swapping for either a landrover discovery v8 petrol with lpg or a 3.1 diesel isuzu trooper, i do about 60 miles a day. there is no question of me using public transport as i run my own garden maintenance business so cant take the mower strimmer etc on a bus and i dont think the bus driver would wait around wile i hitch my caravan on the back.

i understand that vehicles are big pollutants but i do think that a large factor is uneccasary trips and irratic driving and poor maintenance. i'm sure there are better ways to help the environment than targetting cars, i have a 1959 austin a35 in a friends garage its restoration is almost complete i'm sure that has paid for its own carbon footprint over the years

i'm in love with that beetle!

I have no driving licence, but if i did...i'd be going for a beetle!

The beetle is not very well, it is badly rotten, I had it up on a ramp for the first time in ages and had a look at some past repair work. It had been badly repaired and has enough other issues that really it needs a full 'body off' restoration. I currently do not have the time, money or skills to do that.

BUT I really want to keep it or at least have A beetle, so while I am undecided, I might use the engine / gearbox / wheels / interior etc on something with a better floorpan. I have a friend that is egging me on to do this, because he would get to do loads of the work (mental Scottish engineer shed dweller type) OR I might just get rid of the whole thing on ebay spares and repair and find something else old and classic.

(technically I should not get attached to any car)

Interestingly, the Merc Vito white van in the picture died ages ago, loads of things went wrong so I traded it for the parts and money and got a pugeout 406 diesel estate, slow but cheap to run, very big boot, roof rack if needed. kids, dog and wife all fit in.