Previous cars that emptied your pocket?

fonecrusher1

Ever punched above your weight in the context of car ownership? As in you had a car that sucked the life out of your bank balance but you just wanted the thing so badly you put up with the costs?

Closest ive come to being in this situation was when i owned my Subaru Legacy B4. A 2.0 liter twin turbo petrol guzzler. Be nice & it would return about 28/29mpg. Be 'enthusiastic' with it & it would do 22/23mpg. As 95% of my driving was in the city i would average about 25mpg?

I had to get rid of her, i had a decent enough job but other financial obligations forced me sell the beast eventually. Savage daily costs. But a hoot of a car!

You ever owned an animal of car that was a bit beyond your means??

-Corkie-

Audi A8..Reminded me of the film money pit.. I would love another one though..:rolleyes:.

dunsandin

Wife was having our first kid, so i wanted somthing safe to collect them with, went to dealer(1st mistake) and bought a volvo 740 2.3(2nd), a ahem, well used example. On the way home, i filled the tank, and while driving, I could see the bleedin gauge dropping. Rang the dealer to see if he would check for a leak(3rd.I was young). He laughed, and said"yeah, them volvos are a bit hard on the juice". And yes, it was. Had me broke all week, every week, until I "rehomed" it to an enthusiast from Cork. It also broke quite a lot, in inventive and expensive ways. Broke all round.

homer90

Had a JDM Impreza STI & 2x WRX's, loved them, but couldnt keep up with their drinking habit ! Spending a fortune on octane booster, servicing every 3k bla bla bla.....

But, that flat 4 mmmm

Guy:Incognito

My Safrane used to give me 350 miles from an 80l tank. Wasnt why I sold it in the end. It's surpriseing how you get used to spending €100 on fuel every week or two

Gumbo

2002 BMw X5 4.4 V8 - just had to get it out of my system! loved that jeep, absolutely loved it but 50 euro petrol 3 years ago and only getting 130 miles max meant for a broke kceire at times






1998 Evo 5 - similar MPG as the X5 but after some light tuning and remap the performance was more than worth it! to this day the one car i would love to be back in my ownership!





i had both cars for a year or so and commuted everyday from Finglas to Harolds Cross.

Grimreaper666

A Range Rover 4.6 V8, 8-10 mpg on a good day, with the exception of a Jensen Interceptor I also had it was the heaviest car on fuel I ever had, sold it to a guy who owned a filling station and by God he'd needed to.........the sound of the V8's though, very hard to beat...........

fonecrusher1

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

A 2.0 liter twin turbo petrol guzzler. Be nice & it would return about 28/29mpg. Be 'enthusiastic' with it & it would do 22/23mpg. As 95% of my driving was in the city i would average about 25mpg?

those mpg figures seem almost frugal for what was under the hood

Quandary

Had a 2004 Rx-8 (231 Bhp) - i really loved the car, great drive and it sounded like a jet engine but it crippled me on juice. just for comparison -

RX-8 - 231Bhp - 65L fuel tank - I used to get at best 270 miles out of a tank & at worst <200

I now have a 2006 Astra OPC - 240Bhp - 52L fuel tank - i can easily get over 300 miles out of a tank!

God i miss rear wheel drive though

101sean

Every Land Rover I've ever owned!

My 110 daily driver does 25-26 mpg no matter where I drive it.

The 101 does around 12mpg and there's only a thin sheet of ally between my left elbow and the glorious V8 (it's practically mid engined )

No way I'll ever own a vehicle with a different badge despite me keeping a couple of parts suppliers and the local fuel depot in business :rolleyes:

Driven plenty of other makes, mostly company vehicles to be driven into the ground at someone else's expense

JohnCleary

Evo4 - Nightmare on fuel but it was fun

Drove a Range Rover (1986) v8 Petrol Auto to the UK and back before - think it worked out at about 10MPG! Don't know what cc it was think it was 3.5l

CarMuppet

Italian. The end.


If you 'love' cars it doesn't matter right?

omb0wyn5ehpij9

CarMuppet wrote: »

If you 'love' cars it doesn't matter right?

Exactly

fonecrusher1

RoverJames wrote: »

those mpg figures seem almost frugal for what was under the hood

Ah she wasn't too bad on the juice if you we're delicate with the joy pedal. Not bad compared to some the monsters being mentioned above.

Soon as the second bigger turbo kicked in (which is when the car comes alive) you could see the fuel gauge twitching.:D And it needed octane booster every few days as the one i had was never remapped for irish petrol.

Voodoomelon

Not a previous car, but my current 728i costs me about €6000 a year in tax, insurance, petrol and parts to drive only 9000 miles.

In fairness I could service it less religiously, used inferior parts and get cheaper tyres (last set were €1100 worth) but I can't help myself. I'm at the stage in my life where I currently have nothing better worth spend my money on.

galwaytt

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Ever punched above your weight in the context of car ownership? As in you had a car that sucked the life out of your bank balance but you just wanted the thing so badly you put up with the costs?

what an excellent idea for a thread !!

sigh, my contribution....-8000 in 18 month's........

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

.... A 2.0 liter twin turbo petrol guzzler. Be nice & it would return about 28/29mpg. Be 'enthusiastic' with it & it would do 22/23mpg. As 95% of my driving was in the city i would average about 25mpg?

A 2.0 'supercar' that does 25mpg.......oh yes please.......I aspire to it !

kceire wrote: »

2002 BMw X5 4.4 V8 - just had to get it out of my system! loved that jeep, absolutely loved it but 50 euro petrol 3 years ago and only getting 130 miles max meant for a broke kceire at times

....looks well, take to long to polish ......seriously, though, is the bike yours........?

CarMuppet wrote: »

Italian. The end.


If you 'love' cars it doesn't matter right?

Jeez, I dunno.......owners of B6 Passat's are now aspiring Italian reliability, so maybe we'll see a bit of an Alfa Renaissance ?? I know I would !

I'm throwing €60/week into the ZT, do about 210 miles/week. Another grand ish to tax it a year, insurance is small enough money (€600 I think). Seems expensive when it's typed out. Reckon I'll keep her 'till the Summer anyway.

fonecrusher1

101sean wrote: »

Every Land Rover I've ever owned!

My 110 daily driver does 25-26 mpg no matter where I drive it.

The 101 does around 12mpg and there's only a thin sheet of ally between my left elbow and the glorious V8 (it's practically mid engined )

No way I'll ever own a vehicle with a different badge despite me keeping a couple of parts suppliers and the local fuel depot in business :rolleyes:

Driven plenty of other makes, mostly company vehicles to be driven into the ground at someone else's expense

Please don't start talking about landrovers. Im in the process of wanting one?:(

....can't help myself, i wouldn't mind getting my hands on a Defender at some stage. Was into 4x4's for a while (had a hilux with 32" mud tyres!!) & i can definitely see myself returning to the offroad life at some stage in the future. Went up the mountains a few times with munster 4x4. Brilliant fun. Theres a saying; your car can go fast, my car can go anywhere.

Seeing what your offroader can do in the rough stuff is class. God damn it see what you've done?!:D

Heroditas

My previous car - a 2003 A4 1.8T emptied my pockets in under a year.
In the space of 6 months, it underwent:

A servicing
Sump dropped to fix a low oil pressure problem
Replaced fuel line
Blown tyre
Temperature sensor replaced
2nd temperature sensor replaced
Ball joint replaced
Water pump and timing belt replaced

I got it at the wrong time .... it was coming to the stage where everything needed to be replaced. Urgh, never again. got rid of it and got a BMW 523i instead .... had it 15 months and bar a servicing, it's been perfect.

johnos1984

galwaytt wrote: »

owners of B6 Passat's are now aspiring Italian reliability, so maybe we'll see a bit of an Alfa Renaissance ?? I know I would !

Don't say that I've just bought a B6 Passat.

The only car I can contribute here is my Rover SD1.

I had what appeared to be loads of money in the bank, so decided to get another classic.

Withdrew said money, bought the car got some work done on it and hey presto.....6 weeks eating pasta for lunch and dinner, couldn't even afford sauce.

Was well worth it though.

Another car I bought (but this one was because I was stuck with no option) was a Renault Clio earlier the same year. It emptied one pocket but was gotten rid of at a lose as it was on the verge of emptying my other pocket

The joys of motoring, I miss that Sd1 even if it did break me

djimi

My Integra eats a sizable hole in my wallet. I dont even give it a second thought; Im more than happy to pay it to drive a car that I truely love.

Top Dog

23 and fresh out of college with a crap job - bought myself a 1.9 205GTI. Insurance wasn't too bad, but with all the little problems that reared their heads in the following 12 months it really did break my heart and bank account.

Loved that car, but simply couldn't afford to keep it

dmcar02

ST Fiesta.

Nice car, but 50 euro for a spurious air filter??? Also, yes it's worth it and whatever, but taxing a 2l Fiesta is not nice.

MG-ZS, lovely car to drive, but HGF and cracked block, cost me a fortune to put right. Would have another one tomorrow.

stealthyspeeder

Mazda 3 MPS was quite expensive once I started modding it, as parts had to come to the states, and had to travel to England for a remap at the time. Spent a couple grand on that car, but it got decent mpg (about 30 with very conservative mixed driving)

The Vauxhall Monaro, justs eats fuel (only really use it at the weekend) my average mpg for the last year is 15mpg, its strange as you get used to it! that V8 hum redeems all its fuel inefficiencies!

Planning on gettin a 2002/3 RS6 as the next car, they have higher running costs than supercars unfortunately, but as as another poster said if ya love cars it doesnt matter!

E39MSport

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Ever punched above your weight in the context of car ownership? As in you had a car that sucked the life out of your bank balance but you just wanted the thing so badly you put up with the costs?

Closest ive come to being in this situation was when i owned my Subaru Legacy B4. A 2.0 liter twin turbo petrol guzzler. Be nice & it would return about 28/29mpg. Be 'enthusiastic' with it & it would do 22/23mpg. As 95% of my driving was in the city i would average about 25mpg?

I had to get rid of her, i had a decent enough job but other financial obligations forced me sell the beast eventually. Savage daily costs. But a hoot of a car!

You ever owned an animal of car that was a bit beyond your means??

No. My 8er does 14 to the gallon in town but that's because its a 8er.

But I lost 32k in depreciation on a rangey in less than one year that irritated me quite a bit. Swings and roundabouts, I've picked up several cheap cars since.

Gumbo

galwaytt wrote: »

....looks well, take to long to polish ......seriously, though, is the bike yours........?

Not too long once you got into it

The bike is a 2002 Suzuki Bandit 600N.

cadaliac

Heroditas wrote: »

My previous car - a 2003 A4 1.8T emptied my pockets in under a year.
In the space of 6 months, it underwent:

A servicing
Sump dropped to fix a low oil pressure problem
Replaced fuel line
Blown tyre
Temperature sensor replaced
2nd temperature sensor replaced
Ball joint replaced
Water pump and timing belt replaced

I got it at the wrong time .... it was coming to the stage where everything needed to be replaced. Urgh, never again. got rid of it and got a BMW 523i instead .... had it 15 months and bar a servicing, it's been perfect.

I had a 04 Passat (b5.5) sport that did the same to me:
6-speed box had a main bearing failure,
Front suspension colapsed - different shocks and coils had to be used for the different ride height.
CV joints went,
Window regulators went,
Alternator went twice in 4 months, (replacement was a second hand one)
Egr Valve was fooked
Exhaust manifold was seperating (but not before I got rid of it)
I hated the car in the end and i couldn't wait to get rid of it.
On the MPG stakes I used to own a 1976 cadillac coupe de ville. It had a 501cu inch V8 (8.2l).
When I owened it the carburetor needed to be rebuilt - so it was returning a whole 8mpg. The carb was rebuilt and it doubled in mpg !! Horraay!! 16 mpg !!
It didn't actually matter to me at the time and gas was cheap in the states.

Voodoomelon

There's also a difference to distinguish here. Cars that empty your pocket because the dealer had you bend over, and cars that dont empty your pocket because you work on it yourself.
In many cases the cost of ownership isn't proportional to the reliability of the car.

If I had brought my car to the dealer everytime it needed something done to it, i'd be living in a cardboard box right now. Taking a spanner to your car saves you a packet!

Also if you borrow €10,000 over 5 years it's €200 odd a month in repayments, that's €50 a week petrol straight away Also most yokes bought for €10,000 will lose €2000 a year in depreciation, I paid €2250 for my car an would prefer it to a modern Focus, Astra, Corolla etc.

Zubeneschamali

E39MSport wrote: »

But I lost 32k in depreciation on a rangey in less than one year

Yes, depreciation is the thing, not mpg. I've "lost" €20k on an 08 S-Max (not really, as I won't lose the money until I sell it, and I don't plan to).

I'd have to be getting 13 mpg before fuel costs would equal depreciation.

101sean

One of the financial pages in a UK paper recently did a piece about how leaving your money in a savings account loses money at the moment but certain investments are safer, like classic cars. As an illustration they used a Series One Land Rover thus proving I've been doing something right all along

Paid £2500 for my 101, it's worth £5-6000 now. The value of my 110 is 2-3 times of a similar age Disco 2 or 3-4 times that of a P38 Range Rover.

Trouble is if you added up the money (ignoring day to day motoring) you've spent on classics and toys over the years you'd never do it again :eek:

101sean

101sean wrote: »

Trouble is if you added up the money (ignoring day to day motoring) you've spent on classics and toys over the years you'd never do it again :eek:

add drink, smokes, strippers, cigars, fast food, weekends away, holidays etc etc etc :pac:

Robertr

Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 V8. If you left it running at the petrol station you probably wouldn't be able to fill the tank.

The Recliner

I had a 97 Jag XK8 a few years ago, it liked its petrol but it was tax and insurance that killed me on it

That plus it had reached a point where it needed stuff fixing and replacing and I wasn't in a position to do it

Would have one in a heart beat again though but next time I will be more prepared for the associated costs, planning on going the Bangernomics route until I can get what I want

Gumbo

101sean wrote: »

One of the financial pages in a UK paper recently did a piece about how leaving your money in a savings account loses money at the moment but certain investments are safer, like classic cars. As an illustration they used a Series One Land Rover thus proving I've been doing something right all along

Paid £2500 for my 101, it's worth £5-6000 now. The value of my 110 is 2-3 times of a similar age Disco 2 or 3-4 times that of a P38 Range Rover.

Trouble is if you added up the money (ignoring day to day motoring) you've spent on classics and toys over the years you'd never do it again :eek:

ive the same moto as you

last year bought an E90 320d for 10,600 from a dealer, sold it 3 months later for 13, 600, then bought an MG ZR for 1900, and sold it 2 months later for 2100, then bought a 2001 Audi S3 in April this year for 5,800 and sold it last month for 6,850!

its all about buying the right car at the right time
ive never had to pay a dealer or garage for a servie in my life, never had to do a large service on any of my cars etc (never had them long enough), and simply carried out the oil changes myself and kept receipts as record.

stealthyspeeder

Robertr wrote: »

Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 V8. If you left it running at the petrol station you probably wouldn't be able to fill the tank.

The monaro's 5.7 V8 munches though 0.65 gal/hr on idle...... 0.73gal/hr with air con on!

Eoin

My current car is pretty thirsty (30mpg and expensive enough motor tax), but has been pretty reliable so overall I don't think it's been that expensive.

My previous car (320d) had one major repair bill and a few niggly minor ones that added up, so whatever fuel economy I did get out of it was a false economy. My 89 mini cost me a bit in DART fares because it was off the road so frequently.

Voodoomelon

kceire wrote: »

last year bought an E90 320d for 10,600 from a dealer, sold it 3 months later for 13, 600, then bought an MG ZR for 1900, and sold it 2 months later for 2100, then bought a 2001 Audi S3 in April this year for 5,800 and sold it last month for 6,850!

Kudos!

Run_to_da_hills

2001 Transit. Bought in 2006, first 6 months of ownership, new front disks, wheel bearings, then ball joints, did well for 4 years then it sh*t itself.

2010, central locking packs in, ball joints go again, starting motor strips ring gear on dual mass flywheel, quoted 1800 for job including new flywheel.

Result = Scrapyard.

Big Nasty

'99 A4 Avant 2.5td S-Line (company car - I'll never buy a diesel as long as I can manage not to). Paid €8k for it, kept it for 2 years, sold it for €4k and spent €4k in repairs and maintenance in that time. So car cost (my boss) €8k in two years excluding running costs! :eek:

My last car was a '97 523. Paid €4.5k for it in '07, kept for three years, got €1.5k for it against the 735. Pretty much no added expenses in that time bar servicing and running costs - served me well!

ottostreet

99 Lexus IS200...couldn't keep petrol in it.

Have an FTO GPX now, and its better on petrol, but I'm also driving more, so I'm struggling again to keep petrol in it, as well as pay the higher insurance.

fonecrusher1

ottostreet wrote: »

99 Lexus IS200...couldn't keep petrol in it.

Have an FTO GPX now, and its better on petrol, but I'm also driving more, so I'm struggling again to keep petrol in it, as well as pay the higher insurance.

Had a 2001 IS200. Nice car. I found it ok on petrol personally. That engine had me in a right dilemma for a while. Although it was a nice smooth motor with a lovely 6 cylinder thrum it lacked pace. The 1.7 civic coupe i had before it was actually quicker!! (not really a fair comparison though) It had to go.

On rolled the Legacy B4.....gulp.:pac:

Absurdum

My current car does its best to see 25mpgs but rarely gets there. €1566 a year tax is a pia too.

I had a DC2 Integra Type R a few years ago, it was decent on petrol but I couldn't resist trying to upgrade every single part of it. I spent a grand on an exhaust that was too loud. I went through a set of T1Rs on the front every six months. On the plus side, it was quite an easy car to learn how to DIY some basics on, so I learnt a couple of things that I probably wouldn't have bothered with on something else.

Big Nasty

I don't consider tax and fuel consumption at all in this thread - that's a matter of choice. My daily is a 735 and the weekend car is a 6.6, both V8 and 10.1L between two cars. I bought both knowing how thirsty they were. For me the subject is cars that ended up costing you a pile on repairs and more depreciation than you expected.

Ardennes1944

my first car, a 1.2 punto raped me on petrol, tax, insurance and breaking down!!



(it never broke down once! cork to dublin with 20euro petrol, €800 insurance at 17....loved that car )

fonecrusher1

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I don't consider tax and fuel consumption at all in this thread - that's a matter of choice. My daily is a 735 and the weekend car is a 6.6, both V8 and 10.1L between two cars. I bought both knowing how thirsty they were. For me the subject is cars that ended up costing you a pile on repairs and more depreciation than you expected.

In the original post i mentioned daily costs so thats what i mean't. However i suppose everyone has different views on what an expensive to run car actually is.
Ive had several different cars in the last 6/7 years. Most of them quite a few years old & none of them cost me much in repairs so i don't really identifiy with the burden of repairs or depreciation.

For this thread its more about fuel economy.

johnos1984

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

For this thread its more about fuel economy.

Then I retract the SD1, I averaged 34mpg

fonecrusher1

johnos1984 wrote: »

Then I retract the SD1, I averaged 34mpg

Yeah sure it did.:D

Ah no what im seeing is more people talking about repairs & depreciation. I suppose i never thought of it in that way. It is valid alright.

johnos1984

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Yeah sure it did.:D
.

On ONE trip then from Dublin to Lahinch with careful driving it did

But yes generally in the low 20's

Running costs mean different things to different people/cars

If my Corolla broke it would be a MAJOR running costs to fix it........if it broke of course

turbobaby

My last car was a Land Rover and it pained me to sell it, but it was costing so much to have on the road! I almost needed a second job just to pay all the costs - car park, nct, fuel, tax, tolls etc.

Zubeneschamali

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

However i suppose everyone has different views on what an expensive to run car actually is.

That's because some people can't add.

If a car is costing €50 a day in depreciation/finance while parked, petrol is not an issue.