What's the oldest car you saw on the road today?

BonnieSituation wrote: »

I went over to England last year to look at a couple of 91/92 saloons before I bought my 90 liftback in Wexford.

They were rough! On first appearances they looked really straight but the second you got inside of them there was pools of water every where they could be collected inside the panels. Lord knows what level of disintegration the seals were really at. The levels of corrosion that peaked out from under uncovered parts of the engine bay just shouted out loud that there was a world of pain ahead for the next owner.

Toyotas are an absolute hoor for letting water into the boot and footwells. All the Toyotas we have had down through the years in the family of which there were quite a few and differing models let water into the boot/footwells, bar my current Avensis touch wood. We would never have had any that were up to almost 30 years old as in the case of the 91/92 models you looked at. No doubt with water inevitably lodging in any car for that long it will cause bad corrosion.

Moreover (and I was discussing the same on another thread here very recently) advanced corrosion is still a major issue with UK imported cars. There are some on here that will tell you that rust should not be a problem on newer cars. While it will have being a more pronounced problem in older cars it is very much a problem that effects new cars in a bad way too. You may say it was an unfortunate coincidence but I viewed many UK imported cars down through the years, all of which were in a bad way underneath with advanced corrosion. Most recently a 2010 Auris and a 2011 Mondeo about 2 years ago - both were horrendous underneath with rust. More will say its no less a problem with original Irish cars and absolutely, Irish cars are in no way immune to it - in particular in more recent years roads are gritted more regularly. However, on balance there is no way as big a problem on Irish cars as those imported from the UK.

Old Passat today on the Merrion Road

The Carina is SmartinMartin of this parish

Galway

PukkaStukka wrote: »

A general question in relation to older cars: is there any way of finding out if a particular make and model was still registered as in use on Irish roads? Asking the question with a view to purchasing such a car.

For a start stick the reg in www.ncts.ie

https://www.cornmarket.ie/car-insurance-quotes/your-car/ and there to see when it had its last change of ownership.

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Reading that again, are you looking to see if a particular model is road legal in general?

PukkaStukka wrote: »

I don't have a reg no. I just want to see if a particular make and model of car is still in circulation

Let us no what it is and we can answer I guess.

recent north Wicklow sightings

IrishPlayer wrote: »

Dublin 15

Think they've had that car since nearly new.

Duke O Smiley wrote: »

They have indeed

You must be one of my neighbours so!

Carson10 wrote: »

Nice little Peugeot. Looks fresh. Is it kept garaged? Would love to take that for a good run to Cork and back on the motorway. Probably never done a run like that.

Don't think its garaged. Its his daily driver, think his father owned it originally.

Were those Escorts cheap back in 00 and 01 compared to the Focus?

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Were those Escorts cheap back in 00 and 01 compared to the Focus?

My folks each had one of those Escorts for a few years until the mid 2000's before moving onto the Focus - my dad still has his 00 Focus going strong.

IIRC both Escorts were 1997 regs. and €4-5k (they think) when they were bought. Even today neither of them speak too fondly of it though.

Cuir_Cosc_Orm wrote: »

Itd have imagined that the Escorts were heavily discounted by the dealers whereas the Focus moderately discounted.

But I'd like to know the difference in the RRP.

They obviously had a glut of them to get rid of.

I distinctly remember at the time that Ford were a bit wary of the New Edge design language and the reception of it amongst their core customers and were afraid that the more conservative buyers of their vehicles needed time to adjust, so there was overlap between them.

I had a Green 97 one as my second car. Horrible horrible machine. And given that the MK1 is my singular favourite car of all time it annoys me that the MK4[.5] (or whatever it was at that point) is the only Escort I've owned til now.