2019... Your motoring year

Mine was uneventful in my own wagon.... Put 33k trouble-free kms on my 2018 Sorento. Just shy of 60k kms on it now. Will be serviced in Jan/Feb and it'll get new tyres also. The factory Nexen N Fera SU1 have been great and I might well get them fitted.

Very happy with the Sorento.... It's a cheap bus of course all considered but a nice enough drive with the AWD shuffling power around as needed.

I'd some interesting enough rentals in so far as I drove some modern, smaller cc stuff in cars that you wouldn't have found small engines in up until now.

Merc CLA200d 2.2 45mpg over 500 miles.

BMW 118i 1.5 3cyl turbo  40mpg over 500 miles.

2019 Golf GTi 27.5mpg over 430 miles.

2019 BMW 220i estate auto turbo 37mpg over 350 miles.

2019 merc C class 1.5t mild hybrid 40mpg over 480 miles.

Hitting in excess of 250kph in the GTi was noteworthy... The lowpoint was a burst tyre on the c class approaching Heathrow airport ... €1400 damage as two doors got a smack from the metal thing I hit. AIG car insurance excess FTW

ba_barabus

I had a blow out on Saturday. Thats about as exciting as Avensis ownership got.

I also bought a Renault 19 RSi saloon which I've got back on the road.

TrailerBob

Nice thread...

For me it was many more flawless miles in the landcruiser. Over 345,000 up on it now. (Real miles, not km) The highlight of the year was the summer camping trip to the south of France. It does enjoy stretching its legs on the autoroute.. makes a change from the dual cabbageway at home. Here it is hiding in a car park overlooking the gulf of St Tropez.



It will be having a quieter 2020 with a baby on the way in a few weeks, so probably it's last trip abroad.

CIP4

It was a busy enough year for me. Traded my A4 for a Golf GTI in July. Didn't have issues with either throughout the year. Put up around 25k km between the two of them.

The stand out was a trip to the Nurburgring in June. was there 4 days didn't really know what to expect but absolutely loved it. The atmosphere the passion people had there for cars and the track. Ended up doing quite a lot of laps even though I had only booked 2 laps initially. Kept to the lower end stuff mainly a 197 Clio RS and a new model Polo GTI. Absolutely loved the Clio it was just made for the track on of these cars where the handling out did its power in other words you could just drive it flat out and it would not budge going around there worst of corners. Also got a taxi in a jag XJR which was very impressive.

Its difficult to describe but for anyone on the fence about going just go its really an amazing place. I will be going back in May 2020 and can't wait.

LRNM

By my rough estimates, between my personal driving/commuting and my workplace driving I did approximately 90,000km give or take.

Was all over 11 counties. Every sort of a road, town and village.
Involved in road operations on 4 different motorways, interesting work but dangerous.
Saw places so rural I never thought existed in Ireland. Really great job to see the countryside.

the downsides:
cracked a windscreen on my own car and at work.
The sheer amount of narrow lanes, driveways and gates resulted in plenty scrapes and bumps.
1 blow out.
birds collided with = a lot.
seen some of really atrocious driving and dangerous things happen.

selectamatic

My trusty e46 320d succumbed to rust.

The rear arches are gone and when I got around to removing the side skirts I found holes and rust galore in the drivers side sill. Jacking points look fairly dodge too. I'm currently tipping away at it here and there, it's not worth saving really but shur I'll see how things go.

I knew it wouldn't have a hope of passing the test so I bought a 1.3 e11 corolla saloon in April that was pretty local and had test till January 20 for €280 I've since put about 10,000 miles on it on mostly sh1te roads and it's holding up like a champ. Will run it in for test soon and see how that pans out.

A few other projects and such knocking about and progressing gradually.

DaveyDave

Fairly uneventful year in the 1 litre Golf, second service and a new set of Pilot Sport 4. Just hit 30,000km recently and did around 14,000km this year.

Went to Toronto in May, got to the airport and there was no rental cars of any kind, only SUVs. Patiently waited to see if they had any at the nearby lots and after about 20 minutes they gave me the Mustang with just 200km on it. The facelift has a much nicer 10 speed gearbox, people dismiss the 3.2 EcoBoost but it's still fun to drive, if a bit heavy. Got it up to 200kph driving to New York. It seemed to be a head turner as I had a few people taking pictures and giving a thumbs up, must have been the colour as there was a few Mustangs around. It's even more surprising when you see the amount of M5, AMG, RS5/6/7 around as daily drivers with a sprinkle of Lambo, Ferrari, Aston and even Lotus and RUF etc.

Then I done a 3 hour car tour in Hamilton, got to drive a MP4-12C, NSX, Huracan, GT-R and a 458. That was pretty cool, although I would have liked to have done a track session with the Huracan to really thrash it.

Marcusm

ba_barabus wrote: »

I had a blow out on Saturday. Thats about as exciting as Avensis ownership got.

I also bought a Renault 19 RSi saloon which I've got back on the road.

Was that a chamade? A BX I could understand but something as bland as an R19? I might be biased. You had a 159 FFS.

Dartz

~About 20k in the Mazda. Still ahead of the rust.

Puncture in April.
Then vandalised in August when some ****ing scum cut the empty cat-shell out, and then slashed the rear tyres when they realised it was an empty shell.

Ended up getting stung on a pair of Chinese ditchfinders which put less a thousand kilometres under them before I got them taken off. They were ****in' lethal yokes.

Now has four new hankooks on it and needs a service but it's otherwise fine. It's just a little rusty - it still runs.

SmartinMartin

The Carina turned 30, so cheap tax, and flew through the nct til July 21. Imported a mondeo estate as the family car for peanuts, so all in all a good year.

ba_barabus

Marcusm wrote: »

Was that a chamade? A BX I could understand but something as bland as an R19? I might be biased. You had a 159 FFS.

Having children has brought out the boring old git in me. The BX is gone. I still have Nicoles Clio too and a new Beetle.

My Dad who's into his 70s bought an is300h earlier in the year after I suggested them to him..... He was considering an i40 and is absolutely delighted with the Lexus.

He had less then an easy life at times (like most I suppose) ... Was great to see him get something quite nice for himself.

Wailin

Picked up a suzuki jimny back in April for a small price as I do a good bit of landscape photography as a hobby. It gets me places where I couldn't get with my 5 series and I love the little yoke. I did a good bit of work on it myself and spruced it up a bit from this:

To this:


Have been waiting patiently for the snow to hit the mountains as I have some nice winter shots planned. Still waiting
I'll probably move it on when the insurance expires in May as the tax and insurance adds up.

Have my f10 535d for 2 years now and it's been a joy to own. Never an issue, had a few little mods done to it and it's just a lovely cruiser, very comfortable and refined. Plenty of power too when needed. I switched from bridgestone runflats to michelin ps4's recently and the difference has been great. Better traction in the wet smoother over bumps and just better feel to the car.

Have a set of eibach pro springs which I will have fitted in the new year to lower the stance about 30mm and will improve looks and handling. Will hold on to it for another year at least.

L-M

I got to drive some of the most fantastic Italian roads listening to “On days like these”.

The rest was unfortunately boring commuting kilometres

Stoolbend

Drove up the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to Santa Barbara. Pretty impressive road.

Unfortunately it was pissing rain and I could barely see the car in front!

Duke O Smiley

Sold the following:

Both 7 series





Corolla



Alto, thankfully it lives on in boards circles



Had this a few months



Bought and subsequently sold this when the hybrid battery died



Bought this 200k mile gem



I haven't got a daily driver to my name at the minute, hopefully that'll change in the new year. Dunno what it will be though

bear1

Well I went from a 06 sporting Punto to a lancia thesis.
Lancia crapped itself which put me back into the Punto.
Sad i got rid of it as it was a cracking car and brought it down to the south of Italy this year without fault.
Sold that and got a fellow boardsies Subaru outback.
All in all I've done about 50k this year.
The Subaru in 3 months has done about 10k.
Average is mid 20s but it has been quite reliable.
2020 will be a quiet one I suspect

ofcork

Put about 15k km on my avensis nct passed in November so good until feb 2022 debating whether to change next year really like the camry,will see how much a 2019 will have dropped next year.

Leonard Hofstadter

I've had better motoring years to be honest! Most of my misery was either self-induced because I'm so fussy about it, or a result of what one of its previous owners did to it, so not really the car's fault in its defence:pac:.

It started very well, coming back with an M3 steering coupler, Bilstein shocks and new springs, and a few other suspension bits, plus a refurbished diff, and got even better when I finally got around to refurbishing the wheels, Wheel Wizards did a truly excellent job on them. These made a massive difference to the car, it was a lot more supple over the bumps and a lot quieter at speed.

However, it then went downhill, some of the things done to it before I bought it caught up with it, when the handbrake was starting to stick and the ultimate cure was new discs and pads, and it developed a tiny coolant leak. As always with old BMWs, when it comes to them going going wrong, it never rains, it pours so immediately the ABS module decided to jam on the rear left brake for no reason, so it spent a while off the road being refurbished.

I had the front wishbones replaced last year but they had to be done again in May because the previous person who did them put cheap ones in and the rubbers had worn completely after just 8,000 miles. I was not happy about that at all as decent E46 wishbones are not cheap to put it mildly and it's always frustrating to replace the same part twice in a short period of time.

During the summer, I decided that it was finally time to get the chassis undersealed, and it turned out that around the fuel tank area was rather rusty to say the least, so this didn't come a moment too soon, it was off the road for weeks getting the rust removed and cleaned up, but it's all sorted now.

I did find time to do some upgrades as well, new gearbox oil went into it back in March (you simply wouldn't believe what a difference that made to the shift quality - and it's not as if the manual gearbox in it wasn't lovely and slick beforehand), it got the interior detailed in April (although it could do with being done again), new diff bushes, genuine chrome exhaust tips (a nice subtle upgrade), and while it was getting the chassis cleaned up, it got subframe reinforcement plates and new rear brake lines. It's just back from an oil service, fresh NCT and new exhaust flanges, and at last a longstanding issue with the speakers has been resolved (the aftermarket ones it had never worked properly), so at least it's working very well at the moment !

All I want to do next year is just drive it, although naturally I have a few preventative maintenance and cosmetic jobs planned already :pac:.

kevin1962

Do you still have the jimny ?

bear1

Do you or not????

Dravokivich

Went an entire calendar year with the same car!