Spending time in my Citroën BX this week left me feeling somewhat uneasy. Using a 20-year old car every day was always going to be a risky business and it isn’t that something has gone wrong rather a sneaking feeling that something isn’t quite right. Maybe the tickover wasn’t as steady, the throttle response less sharp and the vibrations more pronounced.
So I find myself contemplating my position and it isn’t great. Maybe my car just needs a service or maybe this is the beginning of the end. Do I spend money (which I don’t have) on the Citroën or save the money for an eventual replacement?
Contemplation of a new car is the best part of the exercise. I know what I want; something taught, purposeful, well made. Above all I want something with decent steering; the problem with the BX is the soft, rubbery steering. What I want is another Honda Prelude, maybe a Legend coupe or 4WS Accord; maybe a hydractive Citroën XM or Xantia; an Alfa Romeo 164; I even caught myself admiring a Vauxhall Carlton 3000GSI. Of course there is potentially a vast gulf between what I want and what I can afford.
Showing posts with label bangers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bangers. Show all posts
Friday, 19 October 2007
Monday, 1 October 2007
That sinking feeling
It is time to put my Citroën in for its annual MOT test. For international readers the MOT test is an annual safety inspection that all cars over 3 years old have to pass. It checks the condition of lights, tyres, brakes, safety belts, structural bodywork/chassis and exhaust emissions amongst other things. The older a car gets the more likely it is that something will fail – I try to take care of my car and keep on top of any jobs that need doing but there is only so much you can do.
The difficulty comes when your car fails and you have to weigh up the cost of repair against the cost of replacing the car. It becomes even more fraught when money is tight – would any replacement banger that I buy be any better than the 20-year old Citroën BX I’ve got at the moment?
The difficulty comes when your car fails and you have to weigh up the cost of repair against the cost of replacing the car. It becomes even more fraught when money is tight – would any replacement banger that I buy be any better than the 20-year old Citroën BX I’ve got at the moment?
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Vauxhall’s inflammatory press release
Apparently the sight of an old banger, belching choking exhaust fumes, is all too common. Clearly it is too common for someone at Vauxhall who – understandably, given their position – would rather see everyone in a new Vauxhall. As a result, Vauxhall are offering a £1,000 “bonus” to anyone trading in an old car as long as that car is scrapped. To add credibility to their argument about the number of old cars Vauxhall quote some figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders; 15 million cars are at least seven years old; of that 15 million nine million are over nine years old and four million are over 12 years old.
It is interesting that Vauxhall neglect to put these figures in perspective by quoting the total number of vehicles on the road or by offering finer detail about the rate of attrition past 12 years. I imagine that most cars can sail past their 12th anniversary with ease but few will see their 20th. My own unscientific study of the cars around me as I drove home suggested that most cars are less than 7 years old (based on the number of cars displaying the new format registration plates). If I hadn’t seen a Bentley station wagon (either MK VI or R-Type which puts it between 57 and 61 years old) then the 19yr old Citroen that serves as fourwheelsteer’s daily transport was the oldest car I saw. All of which suggests that old cars are pretty rare; the occasional banger is only noticed because it stands out against the background of newer cars.
An unscientific test which I inadvertently conducted earlier this year contradicts Vauxhall’s assertion that their new cars are more economical than the old ones. I had the dubious pleasure of hiring a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 because my own car was out of action; it was pathetically slow, embarrassingly low-geared and not that economical (35mpg I think). A week later I borrowed a 1995 Astra 1.4. Doing the same journeys, under the same conditions and enjoying better performance the older car used less fuel. Given the older car’s cruder engine management and fuel injection that is quite impressive. The older car had a catalytic converter (as will anything post 1992) so how much worse can its emissions be?
Never mind the pollutants that are generated by car usage, they are trivial compared to the energy and resources required to make a new car. Given that cars are getting heavier it is axiomatic that they must need more material and more energy to produce than ever before. The best way to repay the investment in energy and materials required to make a car is to keep it running as long as possible.
The final and most disturbing point is just how anyone with a car worth £500 or less – and it can’t be worth much more than £500 if a £1,000 trade in is to be considered worthwhile – is going to afford £6,500 for a new Corsa. Of course Vauxhall will gladly offer attractive finance packages, so that instead of owning a car outright someone without much money ends up with a burden of debt.
Maybe if Vauxhall were serious about cleaning up old cars they would do more to maintain adequate stocks of spare parts for older models. Perhaps some work could be done to see about adding more modern engine management to older cars (there was certainly room under the bonnet of the Astra for multi-point injection and engine management systems). It would be a more convincing statement than a lot of nonsense about a non-existent problem and a measly fixed-price trade in.
It is interesting that Vauxhall neglect to put these figures in perspective by quoting the total number of vehicles on the road or by offering finer detail about the rate of attrition past 12 years. I imagine that most cars can sail past their 12th anniversary with ease but few will see their 20th. My own unscientific study of the cars around me as I drove home suggested that most cars are less than 7 years old (based on the number of cars displaying the new format registration plates). If I hadn’t seen a Bentley station wagon (either MK VI or R-Type which puts it between 57 and 61 years old) then the 19yr old Citroen that serves as fourwheelsteer’s daily transport was the oldest car I saw. All of which suggests that old cars are pretty rare; the occasional banger is only noticed because it stands out against the background of newer cars.
An unscientific test which I inadvertently conducted earlier this year contradicts Vauxhall’s assertion that their new cars are more economical than the old ones. I had the dubious pleasure of hiring a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 because my own car was out of action; it was pathetically slow, embarrassingly low-geared and not that economical (35mpg I think). A week later I borrowed a 1995 Astra 1.4. Doing the same journeys, under the same conditions and enjoying better performance the older car used less fuel. Given the older car’s cruder engine management and fuel injection that is quite impressive. The older car had a catalytic converter (as will anything post 1992) so how much worse can its emissions be?
Never mind the pollutants that are generated by car usage, they are trivial compared to the energy and resources required to make a new car. Given that cars are getting heavier it is axiomatic that they must need more material and more energy to produce than ever before. The best way to repay the investment in energy and materials required to make a car is to keep it running as long as possible.
The final and most disturbing point is just how anyone with a car worth £500 or less – and it can’t be worth much more than £500 if a £1,000 trade in is to be considered worthwhile – is going to afford £6,500 for a new Corsa. Of course Vauxhall will gladly offer attractive finance packages, so that instead of owning a car outright someone without much money ends up with a burden of debt.
Maybe if Vauxhall were serious about cleaning up old cars they would do more to maintain adequate stocks of spare parts for older models. Perhaps some work could be done to see about adding more modern engine management to older cars (there was certainly room under the bonnet of the Astra for multi-point injection and engine management systems). It would be a more convincing statement than a lot of nonsense about a non-existent problem and a measly fixed-price trade in.
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