Longevity we take for granted.

[ambermarine]

Reading some of the contributions on the forum it amazes me how we now take for granted the years we own these masterpeices.I have owned two for a  total of 30 years and counting.

I think the most I owned any of my previous cars was two years apart from the cars mentioned in a earlier post I had company cars for 22 years but non of them more than two years.

the improvement in those bog standard BMC and Ford models over that time was snail pace and so was the quality ,I can remember being given a escort popular, brand new and already rusting in the engine bay and you could see the rust everywhere because the engine was only taking up a quarter of the space in there. I used two tins of wd40 on a trip from Manchester to Head office in Bristol on a wet rainy motorway stopping every few miles to keep the ignition leads dry from what was a non protection open to the elements space.

I can remember having a brand new Montego estate in the October they were first produced and the front drivers door did not close properly,went back to the dealership Lookers and they ground off the edge with a grinder stuck some paint on and sent it back to us and you think present day dealershis are bad.

We as a family went all the way to Rimini in Italy on a  Cosmos grand tour in that car ,during the journey home the front windows fell out of thier slides and we had to tape them up.

Nostalgia for our classic cars is more about the era than the car because we tend to only remember the good times.

Because the LS400 does not give you any pain nostalgia is not part of the experience the car becomes part of your normal everyday being.

[BigBoomer]

A friend of my cousin bought an Allegro brand new in 1976. It had so many faults on the drive home from the dealers, he turned around and drove it back. The dealer got proper stroppy with him for wanting to return it, so he called the Police and told them that he had been given an unsafe car by the dealers and requested a patrol attend at their convenience to inspect the vehicle. It was subsequently declared unfit for a variety of reasons and the dealer had no choice but to take the car back. They offered to replace the car but he insisted on a full refund and after 3 weeks and the involvement of lawyers he finally got it. He found out later that the wiring loom had been fitted back to front and had been hacked about and bodged to make it fit, which is why pretty much nothing electrical worked. It's a miracle that the thing started at all. A definite "Friday-Afternoon" build. 🤣

That said, in the same year my Uncle bought a Princess 2200 and that car lasted 18 years and nearly 200k miles before it was scrapped. It was a gas guzzler though (18Mpg)

My longest car ownership was my first 1998 Honda Legend. I bought it off my Dad for £7k when it was 5 years old and at 45k miles. Ran it pretty much fault free for 10 years and up to 155k miles, although in the last couple of years it developed more and more minor issues and was pretty obviously tired.

Currently at 6½ years on my LS430 

[Malc1]

49 minutes ago, ambermarine said:

a brand new Montego estate

I can relate to this, albeit 2nd..hand  .............  whilst I chose my NatWest Bank Mgrs company car,  a brilliant and totally trouble free Vauxhall Carlton ( F560HNK ??? )👋  ................my colleague chose that Montego Estate ........... and WOW that was full of woe from day ONE 

My Vauxhall Carlton 1.8 ltr I kept to just over 200k virtually trouble free miles until well after I was made redundant and had kept ( had to buy, but for peanuts ) the car .  and that I took much over Europe too and loaded with kids etc 👍

So that era for UK cars wasn't all bad 😉

 

Malc

[donkmeister]

Modern cars (which to me is anything post 2000 🤣) do spoil us.

Funny OP mentioned the engine in the Escort being so small in the engine bay. I was checking the fluids on my 460 recently (a job that requires removal of the plastic covers to properly see the coolant) and I was remembering how my dad's cars always:

1) had loads of room in the engine bay

2) had a thick coating of grime all over everything in the engine bay

You would end up getting the swarfega out (well, washing up liquid and sugar!) just from filling the washer bottle.

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, ambermarine said:

Reading some of the contributions on the forum it amazes me how we now take for granted the years we own these masterpeices.I have owned two for a  total of 30 years and counting.

I think the most I owned any of my previous cars was two years apart from the cars mentioned in a earlier post I had company cars for 22 years but non of them more than two years.

the improvement in those bog standard BMC and Ford models over that time was snail pace and so was the quality ,I can remember being given a escort popular, brand new and already rusting in the engine bay and you could see the rust everywhere because the engine was only taking up a quarter of the space in there. I used two tins of wd40 on a trip from Manchester to Head office in Bristol on a wet rainy motorway stopping every few miles to keep the ignition leads dry from what was a non protection open to the elements space.

I can remember having a brand new Montego estate in the October they were first produced and the front drivers door did not close properly,went back to the dealership Lookers and they ground off the edge with a grinder stuck some paint on and sent it back to us and you think present day dealershis are bad.

We as a family went all the way to Rimini in Italy on a  Cosmos grand tour in that car ,during the journey home the front windows fell out of thier slides and we had to tape them up.

Nostalgia for our classic cars is more about the era than the car because we tend to only remember the good times.

Because the LS400 does not give you any pain nostalgia is not part of the experience the car becomes part of your normal everyday being.

I just could not agree more with your sentiments. Everytime I think about acquiring a so called 'classic car' I lock myself away in a quiet dark place until the idea passes. Summarised, they can look great (rosey tinted glasses) , but do you really want to own the problems they come with ?

I really think that post '90 period is the best of both worlds. The chance to own a really nice looking car that is modern enough in design and quality that you have great longevity. I wouldn't swap out my 2005 SC430 for anything classically older ,or electronically newer. It's right in the 'sweet spot'.

[GMB]

As teenagers with cars we would take the engine out/replace the clutch/put in new piston rings, main bearings, big and little ends, change suspension, brakes, add twin webers, tune 'em up etc with no fuss. Now I would hardly touch a modern car engine/ transmission too complicated.  But in those days cars were simple, as said lots of room in the engine bay to work, less of a plumbers nightmare.

The issue was that the old common cars were mainly unreliable   (- add Rusty to that )  . Ford 1200 4 cyl ,  3 bearing crank and white metal main bearings that melted, being the worst engine ever made. A modern  ( 1970 onwards ) Toyota engine is truly well made.