mikeyv

Yes, £9 off a tankful will be very nice, but tinged with sadness.........you're next tankful will be back at full price!! I'd guess that the new 15p off cards will be available all over though, surely. I might grab a few more next time I'm there, in case it's temporary.

I use the same garage, but also use one in Brighton that uses the same discount card. Popped in last week, on my way home from Yorkshire, and needed a new card, which now goes up to 15p/L off.

At last! He's just appeared on my LS400 ebay notifications list. Link to his auction As I said, it's been a while since I bought the wing, but worth a call, as he's obviously still active.

Actually, I had a good delve around the manheim site after the above post, and, for private buyers, the fees are around half of those charged at Eastbourne. I went to look at a sc430, at eastbourne auctions, a few weeks back. It was a surprisingly nice example, and I felt a tingle in my wallet, then I checked the fees, which would have been around the thousand pound mark, and the tingle left me. I don't know why auction houses advertise to, and encourage private buyers, then proceed to charge rip off fees, compared to trade rates, especially.

Paul, do you ever follow these auction cars through, to find the selling price? I presume they do the same as my local auction house, and whack on over 12% in fees for buyers and the same for sellers? Wonder how much the traders pay these days, a lot less I imagine.

Good news for you Phil, it's available from Amazon and ebay. AMAZON LINK EBAY LINK I think the Amazon one is from UK, but the ebay seller is in Thailand, but posts free.

Do they really expect anybody to cough up £3,500 on repairing cars of this age and value?

Should have gone to specsavers, it's the white one.

Yep, but it's great to have the caravan as a base and the camper to travel round every day. This was us at Tredegar house caravan club site, in Newport, before I fitted the bar to the LS.

No, I didn't, but I certainly would if I intended towing for more than a few miles. If I'm towing the caravan long distance, I use my Peugeot Boxer based campervan to pull it. The LS is only used for garden trailer duties and storage facility to caravan site and return, which is only around five miles each way.

They are like rocking horse droppings, David, I looked on ebay for ages before getting mine, which also fits some earlier cars, and there is an issue with legality, which you should look in to before fitting one.

Just got back from two weeks of visiting family. East Sussex to South Wales, towed caravan from storage facility to site, ran around Newport for a week, then towed van back to storage and travelled up to North Yorkshire for second week. Again travelled round visiting Yorkie in laws, then did the 300 mile trip back home to Eastbourne. My 18 year old LS was, as ever, an absolute pleasure to drive. I don't normally bother with mpg calculations, but i set the trip this time, and the car managed 27mpg overall, on LPG@ around 50p/litre, with the boot and back seat full of luggage. They really are fantastic cars.

Re the 460, it's got a years gap in the mot history, expired 2nd dec 2011, not tested then till dec 20th 2012, then another 4 month gap in 2016. I seem to recall reading a few stories of failed steering racks, on the 460, which is a bit of a worry, when you consider how few are about, and, of course, the eye watering price to repair. Hopefully some bright spark will come up with a cheaper repair method, for those stricken.

Well, you're experience is more recent than mine, as I bought lots from BCA Brighouse in the 80s, usually after watching the car go through with imaginary bids, which the office staff freely admitted. If they have cleaned their act up, good for them. I only attend auctions sporadically these days (not BCA), and they are definitely still at it.

Has it though? It's very common for the auctioneer to bid vehicles up themselves, to near reserve, and hope some mug sticks their hand in the air.

I've mentioned it before I'm sure, but I part owned a taxi firm in the 80s, and we bought loads of bluebirds and laurels at auction and ran them as cabs 24/7, with an assortment of kamikaze drivers. I serviced them once a month, oil, filters, plugs, points, condenser and brake pads, and a thorough all round check. Rarely were any other parts required, breakdowns were unheard of, and 200,000 miles was the normal lifespan, by which time the bodywork and interior was showing the usual signs of taxi abuse. I stripped down a couple of write offs, for spares, gearbox, back axles etc, and never used them. By contrast, I also looked after some of the independants cars, including Leylands, Vauxhall, Peugeot and Fords. The fords weren't too bad, but the rest weren't great and the British Leyland were, sadly, pretty appalling.

That looks to be in lovely condition. Must be pretty rare too, and to think you couldn't drive 100 yds without seeing one, in their day.

From October 2017 New car insurance write-off categories The current A, B, C, D classes will be replaced by the following: A: Scrap B: Break S: Structurally damaged repairable N: Non-structurally damaged repairable. So, basically, the new classes, S and N, are based on the severity of the damage, rather than the cost to repair, which SHOULD make it safer to buy a cat N, as there should be no structural damage.

Not in my, admittedly limited, experience. I used to be a member on a Honda Type-r forum, and the for sale threads often mentioned tracking, in a negative way. Personally, I would look to avoid buying a car that's been ragged round a track, on a regular basis, but, as you prove, there are some who aren't bothered.

Is it attached to the exhaust, or chassis? If chassis, then I'd certainly argue the point.

Then add the fact that, even if you don't crash, but just mention on a forum that you have "tracked" your pride and joy, a lot of people will be put off buying it when it's time to sell.

Must have done Malc, the Opel Ascona was virtually identical to the first Cavalier. They did have a few different models though, including the Manta.

My brother in law served his apprenticeship at Nidd Vale motors, in Knaresborough, they were an Opel main dealer in the 80s.

^^^^^^^^^^^^Agreed.^^^^^^^^^^^^

The motoring press have always been rubbish, but they are getting worse imo. Firstly, they don't care about reliability, running costs, depreciation, after all, it doesn't affect them. Secondly, they are badge obsessed, more than ever. Thirdly, they use the track too much, and test drive like it was stolen, which most people don't, particularly these days, when you are never far from a camera. As a fan of Jap metal, for many years, this has suited me down to the ground. I've bought some belting Japanese cars, particularly at auction, because the average punter knew nothing about them, having been brainwashed by the likes of Clarkson and co, in to thinking German was the only option. On topic, turkey to classic, Jag XJS, panned when they came out, unsellable not that long ago, particularly 12 cyl, now fetching decent money, apparently.