AndyRKett said:

Used car ad france ��

Probably the reason for the C3 air bubble sides is to protect against french driving, maybe because the French are so good at destroying cars and then throwing them away is why they made an effort for with the C3 and aircross models, try and keep them on the roads longer

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While you'd look at that and think it looks knackered..it's not.

My dad had one of the 1st ones in the UK on a Y plate and there was no steel in the front panels at all. Bonnet was aluminium, front wings and nose all plastic.

Wing is a bolt on piece of plastic, headlamp
mount may be a bit bent but a new bumper, wing and light and it'd be good as it ever was...probably have better panel gaps.

StevenRB45 said:

While you'd look at that and think it looks knackered..it's not.

My dad had one of the 1st ones in the UK on a Y plate and there was no steel in the front panels at all. Bonnet was aluminium, front wings and nose all plastic.

Wing is a bolt on piece of plastic, headlamp
mount may be a bit bent but a new bumper, wing and light and it'd be good as it ever was...probably have better panel gaps.

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Oh no it’s not knackered, that’s a perfectly good car in france, they would happily drive that on the road. Lol ?

AndyRKett said:

Oh no it’s not knackered, that’s a perfectly good car in france, they would happily drive that on the road. Lol ��

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I think it could be tactical...the less steel there is, the less surface area for rust to start on.

Speaking of rust.. It's quite amusing that being "the type" I occasionally pop the reg number of the DS3 into the Mot test checker see how it's getting on. Apparently new owner hates it more than I did it's managed 5k miles in 3.5 years.

AndyRKett said:

They’re a bit rich for my blood especially how often I use the bike but I will keep an eye out for a better front calliper, I might try some new pads first to make sure it’s nothing like the pads are contaminated.

What is the bike you’ve got to have a brake set up like that on it ?

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The bike is a 2004 Cannondale Jekyll 1000 complete with "Lefty" fork. I paid £300 for it in 2010 complete with the owners manuals. It has a few chafes from cables rubbing but no dents in the frame. The gears were worn out but once I got that sorted it's way better than I'll ever be off road.

The calipers bolt on with spacers (no sliding mounts) so have to be careful with replacements. As you say, the price for M4s is "HOW MUCH?"

Dentist appointment at 8:30am, 22 miles away.

That's what covid has done. A trip to the dentist is a grand day out, and to be cherished.

portland_bill said:

Dentist appointment at 8:30am, 22 miles away.

That's what covid has done. A trip to the dentist is a grand day out, and to be cherished.

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Aye the little things keep you going don’t they?

For instance, wife was in town shopping with our daughter. Went to Marks and Spencer, sale on, back home there’s clothes for me even I don’t really do shopping these days, but I even became a bit excited when pointed out....... two thick smart T shirts under £2 each and a short sleeved dress shirt for just over £2. They would’ve purchased more, but that was the last of my style and size. Wife had tops,dresses, jackets and more all for twenty quid.

Thought of a good idea today... I don't know about all of your towns and cities, but here every lamp-post, railing and bus stop you walk past has a 'CeX' sticker stuck on it...


Going to make a couple hundred promoting my website business and stick them about the town.


Worth a shot... The curiosity alone of this sticker saying 'Websites.' and a link should be enough to at least get people on the site.

StevenRB45 said:

I think it could be tactical...the less steel there is, the less surface area for rust to start on.

Speaking of rust.. It's quite amusing that being "the type" I occasionally pop the reg number of the DS3 into the Mot test checker see how it's getting on. Apparently new owner hates it more than I did it's managed 5k miles in 3.5 years.

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I don’t think French car brands are renowned for their longevity, that’s why it’s better to do as you’ve done get the car new and keep it for the first few years till the warranty runs out the. Swap it for a newer one, or get something like your Mazda which lasts better ?

I had a 2005 Espace 2.0 turbo. It really was a very good car, but cam belt would cost £1000 to replace on a car worth about the same. I sold it while there was still a decent life on the belt.

DaveMcT said:

I had a 2005 Espace 2.0 turbo. It really was a very good car, but cam belt would cost £1000 to replace on a car worth about the same. I sold it while there was still a decent life on the belt.

It did have some silly stuff. ABS unit is behind the front bumper out f sight out of mind and corroding away quietly. Clutch is hydraulic with a part steel and part flexible line that has to be replaced in one piece and can't be done with the engine in the car. I managed to repair mine when a flexible blew off its steel ferrule. I was going to fit a braided stainless line but could not get the master cylinder off the car. WTF?

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Makes the argument for own it till it needs work doing, which is basically what you did before it needed a cambelt it’s a shame because those Espaces where nice looking and hugely practical just clearly not built for the long term, probably why you don’t see any of them on the road anymore

AndyRKett said:

Makes the argument for own it till it needs work doing, which is basically what you did before it needed a cambelt it’s a shame because those Espaces where nice looking and hugely practical just clearly not built for the long term, probably why you don’t see any of them on the road anymore

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The car was solid, well built and should be still going strong. Sadly not a few very strange design decisions on serviceable parts made it horrendously expensive to conduct major service work.

DaveMcT said:

The car was solid, well built and should be still going strong. Sadly not a few very strange design decisions on serviceable parts made it horrendously expensive to conduct major service work.

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In the early 2000s I worked in the motor trade and we used to get a lot of Meganes at that time in the dealership, usually end of warranty 3 and a half year old cars.

I don’t know what Renault did with these cars but loads of them would seize their own water pump, this usually resulted in the cambelt snapping due to friction on the seized water pump pulley and then the pistons would say hello to the valves and the whole engine turned itself into a boat anchor all for a water pump that would seize up just out of warranty but about 2-3 years before anyone would do a cambelt replacement.

Renault was of dealing with this because it was out of warranty was to offer a good will 50% off the price of parts and Labour but this still usually resulted in a £2k bill on a car that was at that time worth maybe £3-4K and the customers we sold to where not the sort of people to have £500 for a deposit let alone £2k for a car repair, so what normally happened was they’d stop paying for the car from us, we’d repossess it and then send it off to copart to sell at auction usually for scrap money. It’s a shame because as you say about the espace the rest of the car was solid,


Citroen C5 were the other cars that we had terrible problems with seemingly well built but just endless niggly issues like an electric window not working for no apparent reason, fuel dial not working then working, then more expensive problems like hydro pneumatic suspension loosing pressure and even water soaked engine ecus one car had all of these faults and more and spent more time back in the work shop than on the road in the first year since we sold it

AndyRKett said:

Makes the argument for own it till it needs work doing, which is basically what you did before it needed a cambelt it’s a shame because those Espaces where nice looking and hugely practical just clearly not built for the long term, probably why you don’t see any of them on the road anymore

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There's always door number 2....run it till the belt goes ping then weigh it in.

Mate of mine bought a mk1 C3 few years ago, obviously at that age all the nice bits had fallen off. Bought for 100 quid with a loud screech emanating somewhere from the engine bay and the thought "run it until something breaks then bin it".

Timing belt was well overdue at 16 years old and 75k miles on original obviously none of the previous owners had given a toss either.

He hated the thing, it leaked, the central locking had a mind of it's own and smelled of wet dog. What's quite funny is this bloke actually has had some very nice cars but he's not above a cheap beater. Same guy who had a Monaro and a Galant Vr-4 but needed a stop gap after his E92 3 series coupe became too annoying to keep.

So obviously a car he expected to have for 2 months lasted 2 years punishing him everyday until eventually the belt went on the A1 at ahem miles an hour.

Rather than pay for recovery, he told the scrap man where it was on the A1 and they paid him to take it away .

StevenRB45 said:

Rather than pay for recovery, he told the scrap man where it was on the A1 and they paid him to take it away .

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There is a law somewhere that states the more you hate something and want it to break the more likely it is to keep going this story is the perfect example,

Probably because the c1 was so cheap and simple and built along side Toyota and Toyota engineering it was a better car than most from a reliability point of view.

It’s the combination of masses of electronic gadgets and Friday afternoon engineering that usually doesn’t help.

Obviously the newer the car the better, but given a few years.... well there is a reason the warranty is only 3 years on some brands. Just happen to coincide with the average length of the PCP deal

Yhprum's law - Antithesis of Murphy's law?

Pugglt Auld Jock said:

Yhprum's law - Antithesis of Murphy's law?

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Of course the Japanese reliable one is currently suffering from the latter...because having not gone wrong in 6 years at all. It's been broken 3 times since I bought the Citroën and is currently broken.

Decided to punish me for buying French clearly...nothing to do with 85k miles and 10 years at all

StevenRB45 said:

Of course the Japanese reliable one is currently suffering from the latter...because having not gone wrong in 6 years at all. It's been broken 3 times since I bought the Citroën and is currently broken.

Decided to punish me for buying French clearly...nothing to do with 85k miles and 10 years at all

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The Japanese build the best quality cars in the world. The German's have an undeserved reputation of reliability. Toyota puts them all to shame. I think Honda is going downhill. Don't know enough about Mazda or Suzuki personally though. Nissan has sold it's soul to the devil in Europe at least because of their links with Renault...

The French reputation is bang on to be honest. This weekend, my DS decided it didn't need working parking sensors anymore. That'll be an interesting phone call now that I'm out of warranty with the dealer

SB1500 said:

The Japanese build the best quality cars in the world. The German's have an undeserved reputation of reliability. Toyota puts them all to shame. I think Honda is going downhill. Don't know enough about Mazda or Suzuki personally though. Nissan has sold it's soul to the devil in Europe at least because of their links with Renault...

The French reputation is bang on to be honest. This weekend, my DS decided it didn't need working parking sensors anymore. That'll be an interesting phone call now that I'm out of warranty with the dealer

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Yep can’t beat a Toyota. I miss mine. Only went for the Kia as it had a 7 year 100k mile warranty. I’d put them in a similar place to Toyota for reliability now.

jimboy said:

Aye the little things keep you going don’t they?

For instance, wife was in town shopping with our daughter. Went to Marks and Spencer, sale on,
two thick smart T shirts under £2 each and a short sleeved dress shirt for just over £2. They would’ve purchased more, but that was the last of my style and size.

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Much more of this 'lockdown' and I will

'Grow into' other sizes..

Styles.. well.. ahem..

AndyRKett said:

There is a law somewhere that states the more you hate something and want it to break the more likely it is to keep going this story is the perfect example,

Probably because the c1 was so cheap and simple and built along side Toyota and Toyota engineering it was a better car than most from a reliability point of view.

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Read today that a Council bought a 15year old C1..
Giving its owner £3k worth of 'Bus tickets'

In a move to cut pollution..

You would think any vehicle with 5+ cylinders wouldve been better value..