*Gouranga* originates in the Hare Krishna religious movement, whose founding father, Shri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was also called Gaura. Stickers bearing the word Gouranga or stating "Call out Gouranga and be happy!" have been appearing on bridges over motorways and railways in Scotland and the north of England, purely to annoy drivers as to its meaning.
This was a public service post.
Apologies to anyone who's now even more bewildered than before.
Ahah, thanks after many times playing the original GTA I wondered why I gave you the Gouranga bonus when you ran over the complete group of Hare Krishnas.
If you want to see some real live Gouranga people, come to Dunfermline. They are still here after many, many years with their stickers. I often feel like emulating that scene in Airport when walking down our highstreet.
You should have popped in! My Kramer, PME-40X and DG-1000 are all set up, I've been finding that learning (read: picking up and trying to play) violin is improving (read: I can mess with a few chords and NOT look at the instrument) my guitar...
What's so bad with the Punto (I mean, apart from the awful build, the inadequate brakes, the offset pedals, the... FIATness of it?).
Heh, I should hope so! I don't think I can afford it right now, I just bought another Sera (the black one) - and for what they go for, the finance would be as much as my contract hire car!
But, Beetle goes back at the end of February and I don't know what my plans are after that. Could be anything. Could be a banger a month, could be >£15K of finance blown on a late-as-possible E300/320 W124 Cabriolet (or if house things get interesting, cash) as a car "For Life", or £150/month on a Smart Roadster, or whatever a Mercedes A-class costs. No idea. Might even be another Beetle (but this time, bright yellow).
Because anything in between is stupid, and buying a new car is silly - I'm only interested in contract hire on a new car, unless I was buying something quite special.
With Contract Hire, you are paying pretty much for the depreciation without any other outlay (I don't take the maintenance contracts, as the periods I have the car for are usually too short to get more than one minor service these days - and oddly enough, having the maintenance means you don't get your 10K oil change done on a 20K interval car unless you pay for it anyway - may as well take non-maintained, save that part of the cost, and maintain the car properly).
With 'banger a month' (which of course, doesn't actually mean a month, but 1 x Contract Hire payment gets a good banger and I could theoretically throw the car away after a month and be no worse off), you might get one that lasts a year, you can find oddball stuff like Lancias, and have fun.
Inbetween is the land of 5 year old cars for £6K that get to be 7 years old and worthless, whilst breaking down/needing all those service items doing at once. I've been there, done that, and learned not to. You can't escape depreciation; even the "ex-demo" or whatever is going to fall like a rock - 18 month old Legacy Outback for £10.5K when they were £14.5K - I thought I'd done well - 3 years later and it's worth £2,300 and no-one wants the damn thing, plus it's cost a fortune in repairs.
Dunno. But if I was buying a W124 Cabriolet, you can be damn sure I wouldn't part with it. I might have other cars, but as far as I am concerned the W124 cabrio is the perfect car. Only way it could be better is if it had 4Matic (more to go wrong though). I'd spend a LOT of time on making sure I got the right colour, trim, options and history though.
Ideally, I'd have an E300 Cabrio (not sure about the 320, which I'm thinking must be a newer V6 instead of the unkillable straight six) and a Mk II Golf GTI 5dr. That would be the ideal set of cars for me. Though the Golf could be replaced by an A140 for all but actually driving fast, and how long an A140 lasts has yet to be seen. I've read about failing trailing arms and the like.
Banger a month is how I'm doing it now. First was an immaculate old Mazda
626 bought off Peter Simpson, the editor of Car Mechanics. That actually lasted 2months followed by the current Audi 80 TDI which I will make a small profit on if bidding keeps going the way it's going. I'll run the punto for
7 or 8 weeks and then see what comes up next. When you have a short attention span and a hatred of depreciation, like I do, it's the only way to fly. Oldest brother has just bought an immaculate old Rover 400 tourer for next to nothing. I have a strange inclination to take that off him and run it for a bit then ebay it. That's today's plan anyway...
P.S. I know your parents now have an A class. Remember, I put 60,000 miles on a new one between 2000 and 2003. Yes, they really do eat rear suspension components. It's almost as if the stifness kills all the bushes. They also like the occasional front ARB drop link as well.
My neigbour has one of them, a diesel. Cost peanuts for a car which I'd always considered to be quite a classy, if not entirely practical, little vehicle.
Their's is only 2 years, 14,000 miles old - feels fine at the moment. As long as the parts aren't too horrid - i.e. it is just a matter of bushes if you pay attention - I think it's fair enough. I really, really like the A-class myself, only the occasionally 'scrabbly' front end spoils it for me. And being an A140 it gives you a great smug feeling as you manage to both belt around at 80-90 (excellent gearing) and get 40+ mpg.
And drive a car that is 'smaller' than an old Daihatsu Charade, but can fit a dishwasher with space for another.
Unfortunately, I think the A-class wouldn't be quite enough for me. I like it in a lot of ways, but I don't find it particularly 'fun'.
I used to fit a 1.2Kw PA complete with bins into it at the same time as a lighting rig with stands. People refused to beleive that it was shorter than a Ka. But, you're right. They're not really fun as such. I drove every model right up to an A190 which was not that quick in all honesty. Better - yes, but not hugely so.
I'd go for a coupé rather than a cab but a W124 is certainly a potential Car for Life.
320 has the M104 twincam 24v I6 as does the 300-24 and (perhaps) the late 260/280. All the pre 300-24 sixes have, AFAIK, the M103 single cam
12v I6. The really god thing about the M104 is that it comes with a smart(ish) 5-speed auto rather than the dumb 4-speed.
A
I'd have the Cabrio because I like softtops (and I suspect there is a hardtop for it) - if I was going to have a hardtop then it would be the estate version; they handle almost as well after all.
The multimode 5-speed is a must. The 4-speed is slow witted and not suited to Scottish twisties, even with top locked out.
I had a W123 280TE which was a bit of a barge - more to do with being W123 than an estate - but still capable of phenomenal cross-country speeds with a bit of gearbox intervention and left-foot braking...
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