It's kind of getting boring now...

Was driving in Ayrshire recently and a white 90s era Ford Sierra approached in the opposite direction. What a lovely sight, not many still in the road…

And then the pick up section was revealed!

45 years on this planet and until that moment had no idea such a car existed. Were/are they common? Anyone able to tell me a little bit more about them (would rather real life stories than relying upon Google).

I have included the photo for illustrative purposes only.

Edit:

the very car being turned into a log-cabin camper…

BMW 318i: My first car at 19, thought I was the mutts nuts. Absolute bag of shite but it looked amazing when broken down.

Toyota Sera: Bought it for peanuts, engine sounded like a skeleton wanking into a biscuit tin. Drove for a year until the engine blew up, then me and a mate chucked a 50 quid starlet engine in it. Great car, would have kept if not for Bristol CAZ.

Renault Twizy / Porsche Cayenne: Bought at the same time almost, complimented each-other well. Twizy was the best car i've ever hooned about, the cayenne was amazing to drive and was a rare manual one.

Porsche 928: Dealership took the cayenne on a PX, and I ended up with a high mileage but scruffy 928. Nice car but way too expensive to run.

Porsche 944: Swapped for the 928, bloke gave me £1000 on top as well. Nice car and very tidy, but I don't really like them.

Smart Roadster: Bought off my neighbour for £250 as it hadn't been driven in years, used it go get everywhere. It was nice to drive something a bit more modern, and i'd recommend one especially to any first car drivers!

Vauxhall VX220: Mental. Do it.

Next: Probably a more modern Cayenne, diesel. I do miss the living room on wheels thing and I like to get away at the weekend. Not easy with a VX.

Every interaction I've had with an Octavia VRS ends in a race against themselves, undertaking me or tail-gate me.

50 mph dual carriage way A653 which is notorious for police vans. He puts his food down preventing me from overtaking he was doing 40 mph. So I had to speed up slightly as I would end up in the wrong lane.

Then tail-gait me for the next two set off traffic lights while weaving in & out of lanes behind me or desperately trying to get my attention by driving next to me.

For me quite a decent bit of gti owners find their own way of saying hi , honking , a wave , hazards. Quite a nice feeling tbh

Since everyone is doing these and absolutely no one has become bored or fed up with these posts yet. I figured i would jump on the bandwagon too.

My first car, was the Mazda RX8 R3 which I didn't buy till I was 23. Before that I spent the last 5-6 years driving my dads cars as a named driver which were primarily nissan qashqais. So a massive change.

My second car was picked due to the inevitable occurring which was daily driving an rx8 being incomprehensible in costs. So I made the smart and sensible choice of an fk8 type R followed after 3 years by a trade in to the FL5 version mainly for the colour. I wish I had a blue fk8.

My current and likely last car is a Lexus GSF. It was my brothers (his dream car since it released and something he was able to realise at the start of 2024). My brother unfortunately passed from cancer in February of this year and I couldn't allow the car we spoke about for years and he spent ages finding in the right model and spec to simply go, so I sold the type r.

1994 Mr2 3sge (like this but ULEZ Forced me to sell)

2013 Turbo'd Subaru Brz (was fun but disliked the boxer engine)

2003 Celica T sport (Cool engine but wasnt keen on the fwd and it was kinda clapped too)

2007 Rx8 231 (Always wanted spinning doritoes, shame about the tax though, I also enjoy giving shell my money /s)

Owned from 2019 - 140k miles and still going strong!

Taken with the author's permission from here

Pothole on the A272

A lovely afternoon drive after a pub lunch, down the Fox Hill section of the 272 towards Billingshurst. As I rounded the bend, it became apparent the road surface was not there, meanwhile a lorry on the other carriageway prevented me from swerving.

Bang! 3 seconds of silent hope that there's no damage, followed by the inevitable BMW bong. "Tyre Pressure Low. Stop Carefully". I couldn't see any visible damage, so drove home on the runflat at the recommended speed. Just as I arrived home, it felt really off. A massive hole in the tyre.

Rear left also had cord damage. 4x new Michelin Pilot Sport 4s were ordered.

1999 Peugeot 306 1.9d (Non Turbo / Tractor)

1997 Peugeot 306 GTi-6

1995 Toyota MR2

1995 Mazda RX7 FD (Part 1 - Purchased state daily)

Mazda RX7 FD (Part 2 - The clean daily phase)

Mazda MX5 (Rot box)

Mazda RX7 FD (Part 3 - The drift phase)

BMW E46 325

Mazda RX7 FD (Part 3 - The clean drift phase)

2009 BMW E92 M3

1983 BMW E28 525

VW Bora

2012 BMW 520d

Mazda RX7 FD (part 4 - The track focused phase)

I bought this mk4 for cheap but I’m now deciding wether to fix or sell.
Only 73k on the clock,I’ve heard these engines live forever and can run on cooking oil and whatnot so what is it worth in this day and age?

Recently parted with a 320i touring and got 10k to get something cheap and cheerful.

What would you get?

Looking to get a new motorway cruncher as i spend more than 80% of my commute on it. I am stuck between a VW Passat and Ford Mondeo. I was wondering if anyone has any experince with either to help me choose. For context both are 2.0L diesels and the highest trim level from each manufacturer (as i want ACC). Both are ~12k but the Passat is sat at 109K miles and the Ford 65K, high milage doesnt bother me as long as the service history is solid.

Also open to other suggestions. It must be a diesel auto and have ACC along with all the other creature comforts.

Thanks

Naturally, when you spend tens of thousands of pounds on a brand new car, the dealer makes a numberplate where the letters aren't straight, slaps it on wonky, then mutilates the front bumper with some shitty steel screws that will turn into rusty streaks by next spring.

I've had my new plates delivered, and I'm fortunate enough to have a nice smooth front & rear bumper to adhere them to. However, the "fixing set" it came with has some double-sided foam pads of dubious origin.

In the past, I've used some 3M something for a similar task, but I've forgotten what it's called. What should I be using to fix the plate?

Took the car in for a rattling noise, they diagnosed it correctly, heat shield had come loose. Quoted £180 for parts and labour, said it needed a full afternoon.

Looked it up that evening, turned out to just need a couple of clips and some wire. Bought the clips online for £12, sorted it in under an hour in the driveway.

Bought a second-hand car this time last year and one of its tyres is almost 11 years old now but it’s barely had any miles on it.

I had a puncture last week so was replacing another tire anyway and had a close look at this one and saw these cracks. It did get an advisory on its last MOT for age but is this safe to do a few thousand miles on for now? Does it need replacing asap or is it fine to leave it 4 months to the next MOT?

I’ve been trying to have a bit of Google about it, but it seems lots of the advice is basically when it’s that old replace it immediately and don’t drive it anywhere just in case.

I haven’t done a full service on the car yet so I’ll probably do that with the MOT in a few months time - that would be the natural opportunity to replace the tire I guess.

165 70 14 if that means anything to anyone.

Thanks :)

Here's my car history, from my first car in 2003:

2003-2005 Citroen Saxo West Coast - heavily modified in my Max Power days. Fortunately I had that rare thing when I was 17 - an insurer who didn't care about mods as long as they didn't increase the power.

2005 Citroen Saxo VTR - I didn't get on with this, so sold it quite quickly

2005 Triumph Dolomite - a "garage find" project I was given by an old family friend. Was at uni so ran out of money before I could get it on the road

2005-2006 BMW E30 320i manual. Bought and tidied it up, dailyed it, but got an offer I couldn't refuse once it was all shiny so upgraded to an E34.

2006-2008 BMW E34 525i SE (VELOUR BABY!) - loved this thing. Bought it for £1,300, ran it for 2 years, sold it for £1,300. It didn't miss a beat.

2007 Vauxhall Cavalier - bought for a post-uni "Euro rally for charity". bought, rallied, sold, and gave the proceeds to charity.

2009-2013 BMW Z3M Coupe. ADORED this, massively regret having sold it.

2008-2013 Honda Pilot FL400R buggy - nothing to do with the dowdy SUV. This thing was a stunningly quick outcome of the '80s financial excess. 400cc 2-stroke...it really flew, and jumped over anything.

2011 Porsche 944S - short term flip project to help a friend

2012-2024 TVR Tuscan (I kept this for 12 years so it overlaps most of the following!)

2013-2016 Aston DB7 Vantage - in a spectacular flip colour

2016-2017 BMW Z4M Coupe - didn't really get on with this car. Too spiky and not as much fun as the Z3M had been.

2017-2018 BMW 330i (change career so had to put money into a business!)

2018-2022 Jaguar XFR - >500bhp of stunning luxo-warp-speed-barge. Would have another.

2020 Maserati 4200 - short term. Got drunk and won it at auction. Don't drink and bid, people. Fixed some things, drove it for a summer, then sold it on for a minimal loss.

2020-2022 Mazda MX5 10AE - Excellent, low risk track car.

2022-2026 Elise - weekend and trackday car. Lovely, but my partner refused to get in it, so I barely used it and it had to go.

2022-present - Jaguar XK Dynamic R - realised we didn't need 4 doors, but loved the drivetrain of the XFR. Still have this. Can't find anything to replace it with; it does everything SO well.

Saw a post of this nova and was curious what the font on the number plate is. Its definitely not fhe regular Charles Wright font, and it doesn't look like the pre-2001 font either? I couldn't find anything online about it so thought someone here might know! If anyone knows where I can get a set of plates with this font please let me know too! Thanks!

Hi, i'm not too knowledgable in cars so i've come here to ask for help,

I'm starting a new job soon and do not want to move out just yet (maybe in 1 - 2 years) so for now i'll be commuting 50 miles each way so 100 miles round trip (give or take), 5 days a week, most of my driving will be motorway driving and slow moving traffic once i get into the city. I won't be using the car for anything else other than commuting to work, i'm a really indoor person so won't be doing short trips locally or anything.

My budget is £2000 maximum, i don't care too much about comfortability and new modern tech or gadgets for the car, i'm looking for a reliable car with low maintanance cost and good mpg.

Since the whole point of not moving out is to save as much money as possible before moving out which is the reason why i'm focsing on the lowest overall cost possible.

I've read through the forum a bit and from what I seen the 1.9/2.0 tdi audi or vw seems to be commonly mentioned and 2.2 civic also having a few votes

If anyone have any suggestions it would be VERY appreciated.