Re: More car wonderings

Thats a bit crap. My 214 GSi had elec windows too. I assumed the GTi would be the same. Still a good little car though!

Reply to
Carl Gibbs
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Pick up one thats had it done and it'll fine.

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Yes, I found it the most emotionally scarring experience of my life...

Reply to
JackH

A mate of my Dad has one. Wonder if he could be convinced to part with it... Bloody good car.

Hmmmmm

Reply to
Doki

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, JackH decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

They're not good round town on fuel, but not /that/ bad. I managed to get 28 mpg out of my white one whilst *averaging* 90 mpg back from Dorset. Round town, 21-22 mpg, caning it, 15 mpg... so not that bad really

They're a very good car. I like 'em.

Reply to
Pete M

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in it's lifetime."

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Or one that's just had a careful eye on the coolant all its life.

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in it's lifetime."

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Ahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Yes. Done 5 or 6 times before the owner finally decided he'd had enough.

Reply to
Doki

Ah, do people with names like Helmut make better cars then? Thanks for clearing that up.

I always thought people with names like Sven and Bjorn made reasonable cars too.

Peter

-- "The humble bic biro draws 13 beards, 9 devil moustaches and 49 penises on newspapers in it's lifetime."

Reply to
AstraVanMan

It's funny how some people, who have half a clue in the basics of car maintenance (and just checking levels etc.) haven't had a single problem with their 1.4 K Series engines. My uncle had a Rover 214 and ran it up to over 200k without major problems. Tim Kemp had a Rover 414 (IIRC) and did lots of miles in that, still running at the end (but crashed, perhaps?). A mate of mine had a Metro GTi and it was a great car - good handling great engine, his was in excellent condition bodywise as well - he didn't do loads of miles, but must have done a good 10-15k in it and the engine was fine.

The gearbox, OTOH, is a known problem in Metro GTI's - they're held together with glue and often break. But it's not the end of the world if it's a cheapie (

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Better ones than Pierre and Benoit.

When they're not making terrible pop music.

Reply to
Doki

Obviously, they're not all buggered, but a fair bit of the time the K-series suffers warped heads and on something like a crap old metro, probably gets bodged back together rather than done properly.

Reply to
Doki

I wouldn't go anywhere near a K-series engine. My mother in law bought a brand new MG-F, did moderate mileage in it, serviced it on the dot, and it still popped it's head gasket _just_ out of warranty.

Seems you can be lucky with them, but there's far too many out there popping gaskets for fun for it to be a worthwhile risk, IMHO.

Reply to
SteveH

They came as 1.8 and 2.0 8v-ers. Only the 2lt got VVT. Most of the 8v cars are 'narrow body' like mine, you wouldn't get a late 8v car with a widebody (blistered arches like the Integrale Evo) for that kind of money.

Later cars had the 16v engine as fitted to the 156 (both 1.8 and 2.0 were VVT in these cars) - you definitely wouldn't find a decent one of these for your money, but I wouldn't buy one anyway as the 16v engine has a cast iron block (rather than alloy in the 8v) and very expensive to change cambelts.

Reply to
SteveH

Yes... and both will invariably cost more than £500 if you want one worth having.

Oh, and the Golf everytime if you're skint, as its far less likely to disintegrate before your eyes in a mechanical sense, out of the two.

Reply to
JackH

Heh.

I drove it to London and back yesterday, no trouble at all - was nice to be able to use something with cruise control for once, too.

If you wanted it without the tax, you could have it for £500 - I put new wipers on it yesterday, for the princely sum of £19.21.

Further investigation has revealed... the original rechargeable torch is in place in the glovebox, and actually works... the original toolkit is still in the boot... (now this is the one I really didn't expect), the original firstaid kit is under the passenger seat!

Drives spot on, the only fault I have found with it, is the airflow from the blower seems a bit weak - no obvious leaks, but must have one somewhere under the dash - the motor makes all the right noises anyway, it just doesn't seem to knock out as much air as you'd expect.

Tested the aircon at the same time, and it's 100%, no slipping from the autobox either, and no top end rattles from cold.

Reply to
JackH

Whereabouts are you based?

It's not for sale, but I can probably get you a quick go in my old 216 GTi Twin Cam, if you need any further convincing of why these are a really good hot hatch for the money.

Think three doors, not five, before thinking 'flat cap and pipe'. ;-)

Volvo 360... I think I'd sooner have an old E30, tbh, 'chavness' or not, and you can pick them up for next to nothing now, unless you insist on having a Sport or M3 stylee one.

Reply to
JackH

I can stretch the £500 a bit for something good. If I were going on full on budget special, it'd be a Volvo 360 straight away.

Reply to
Doki

Sheffield way.

They still look like Rovers though. The only alright looking one is the one with a funny bulge in the bonnet.

You can find 340s at £100 for something that runs alright though. 360s should be couple of hundred quid.

Reply to
Doki

Thats the shape he is talking about. The bulge is there to fit the cambelt cover in on the twin cam engines IIRC. Unless of course you mean the coupe (which i think you probably do).

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

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