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[RedexRobB]

why are you walking round a scrapyard with a camera?

[zimm]

why are you walking round a scrapyard with a camera?

thats the wittiest thing you've come out with in ages Baz !

[tng21]

fpmsl i nearly choken on me herbal remmedies

[Vard66]

why are you walking round a scrapyard with a camera?

Dooooooon't Yooooooou beleeeiiive iiiiit.

[littleblondie]

why are you walking round a scrapyard with a camera?

Dooooooon't Yooooooou beleeeiiive iiiiit.

still wondering why the scrapyard n camera thing Vard??? or am i that blonde that i have missed something?

[Vard66]

Baz was alluding to the fact that I own Rovers and was in a car park full of Rovers.
(See the second to last post on the previous page of this thread).
He's making the common misjudgement akin with 95% of the Clarkson-informed-population that they are worthless, unreliable heaps of rust.

[zimm]

He's making the common misjudgement akin with 95% of the Clarkson-informed-population that they are worthless, unreliable heaps of rust.

its just that there's far more interesting vehicles can be had for the money..

how much ££ has been plowed into your 820 ? and honestly.. whats so good about it ?

[Vard66]

Well, so far, £250.
It's spacious, luxurious, comfortable, has cushty Recaro seats that rate superbly high in the NCAP tests, especially when T-boned by another car, it's got air conditioning, electric windows, sunroof, mirrors, boot release, petrol cap release, it's got remote central, and lazy locking (so you can walk away from the car with the windows all open if you forget, and then not have to bother getting in and putting the key in and doing them manually, you can just hold down the lock button on the fob) it's got superbly well thought through passenger lighting for navigational purposes, that don't distract from the driver's view in any way, something I've not found on any other car yet, it handles well and has minimal body roll for it's size, it's rapid, standing at 7.2 to 60, which may not be all that rapid, but it isn't bad for a car that weighs 1450 kilos, and it makes lots of lovely chirpy noises when you give it some beans, because of the nice turbocharger under the bonnet.
I like the way the Vitesse fastbacks look, and I love Flame Red.
It's easy to fix and maintain if it does go wrong, parts are plentiful and not too expensive, the later model 820s aren't very prone to rust at all, it's got lots of leg room and head room, it isn't affected by the ludicrous post 2001 tax banding, and I can afford it at 19.

In short, it's got a lot of toys that most modern cars don't have without you spending four grand extra to have them, and it's only cost me £250 to date.
I'm not so sure I'd call that 'ploughing' money into it - in fact, I'd call it pretty much a bargain, condition considered.

It's got a lot going for it in it's favour at the moment for me.

[zimm]

what did it cost to buy and insure ?

[Vard66]

Bought for £250.
Insured for £1050ish.
And yes, you can say that's a lot.
But consider this. I was going to have to pay circa eight hundred to reinsure the 214, so I thought why not get a nice big comfy, luxy, quick, pretty turbocharged roadbarge instead and pay that little bit more?

[zimm]

but its off the road right ? so whats broken ?

and really, they dont handle. yes i've driven one, a few infact including the v6 and a couple of examples of its sister car the legend

[Vard66]

but its off the road right ? so whats broken ?

In the end, nothing.
I panicked because the exhaust manifold gasket is blowing, making a ticking noise, which I initially misread as the alternator because it wasn't charging the battery and was cutting out and generally behaving erattically, electrics wise.
It turns out, there was a wire disconnected from the back of the alty, (which I didn't discover until I was taking it off to have it reconditioned - grrr), so I wired that back in, replaced the battery with a free one my mate got from the BMW garage (it looks like it belongs in a truck, ffs!) and she fired up fine.
The only thing I've wound up needing to replace is the remote fob.
Which I'd have had to do anyway, as it was on it's last legs.

[zimm]

sorry, im not really dissing it, its just not my cup of tea hence im curious as to what attracted you to it.

if i wanted something that size, i'd probably buy a jag.. but i have a FWD allergy, every time i go near one i wake up in a ditch*

*except the concerto, somehow that survived

[Vard66]

It handles a fair deal better than my mother's Subaru, it understeers much less than said car, it handles better than the focus I learned in (that was wallowy and really unpleasant) it handles better than my 214 did (though that wasn't bad, on the springs Rich put in it), it handles better than the Peugeot I had as a first car, it handles better than Dad's 418 TD, and in fact, better than anything I've so far driven on the roads, with the exceptions of;

a Skoda Fabia VRS with uprated shockers (Tein, I think, but don't hold me to that),
a 2004 Honda Civic Type R - stock,
a Lotus Esprit TT,
another Vitesse, but this one with full Koni yellowtops and whiteline progressively wound springs.

So my judgement on it's handling is only compared to what I've driven.
Yes, there's bagloads of cars out there that handle better, but I've not driven many of them to compare to.
And really, it's not that bad on the stiffer sports suspension they fitted post '96.

[Vard66]

And no, no worries. I didn't have you down as the kind of guy who'd do that for no reason other than spite.

*Edit* Also, yes, I would love a Jag.
I'd love to have an old XJS-R, but I'd never get insured on it,
I'd love to have an XJ6, but same,
XJ12, but same,
XJS but same, and I'd rather a new
XJR, but I can't afford it.

*Another Edit*
Oh, I forgot about the S1 E-Type Coupe.
Om nom nom nom nom. Pref '64 for the wire wheels though.