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Hi, been a viewer of Eric on youtube a fair while. I’m from the very eastern part of the UK (Suffolk), and i’m car crazy. I run 2 old Skodas, one 19 year old, that cost me a hundred quid (around $150) in January, which barring a dented front wing (fender), comedy exhaust made from a bit of bent scaffold pole, and lowered suspension, is a great little car, and a 16 year old one that cost me £600 almost 5 years ago, that averages 650 miles a week, and is now showing it’s age with 117,000 on the clock. My hundred quid ‘POS’ has done less than 70,000 miles, and came with an MOT (roadworthy certificate) valid until November this year. It’s a 2nd car/toy which I plan to slowly improve, I’ve so far spent less than £50 on repair parts for it (rear wiper/spare tyre & wheel, and wood to repair the parcel shelf, which was free from the pop in law)
Ironically, both cars came from the same dealership, which freaked me out a bit, as ‘whitey’ was collected from around 80 miles away, and both still have the original dealer stickers and numberplates, and whitey even has the original leather keyfob, and both were new to people within 5 miles of each other.
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Cheers, the grey mega miler car is on it’s last legs, the head gasket is shot, but it still seems to run OK, and has no starting issues, and the heater is like a blast furnace, but there is ‘mayo’ inside the oil filler cap constantly, and the coolant has to be topped up weekly. poor thing only had 65,000 miles on when I got it in 2010, and its now nearing double that. When it does finally give up the ghost, it will become a spares car, as under the skin these cars are mechanically identical, and share the same floorpan, bulkhead, windscreen and roof
Out of interest Why Skoda’s? I work for VW And it’s pretty rare to see cars of this vintage still around well we never get them in the workshop that is.
Oh and gotta love the red dwarf sig 😉
I’ve had loads of makes over the years, and in the past I’ve owned a very early Felicia, a Felicia diesel van, and a Fabia, and my dad has owned a Favorit and Felicia in the past too, and they’ve all been fairly reliable, the last MOT, the grey Felicia passed with 2 minor advisories, and it’s been a cheap car to run, It replaced a ford Fiesta that was a money pit, every MOT it was chasing the rot, and it loved to drink 5w30 at an alarming rate, and when the clutch gave up, it was a £400 job. Ford, Fix Or Repair Daily. Not a fan of modern Skodas, way too fragile, especially diesels with DSG, game over at around 60k miles, and manual boxes barely last 100k, My Fabia was scrapped at just 9 years old because it needed over £1500 worth of repairs, the EPAS had died, it needed 4 shocks and springs, head gasket was failing, and the throttle body was on the blink. Bought that brand new in 2001, and it has to be the worst car i’ve ever owned for reliability, and i’ve owned Talbots and a pair of MGs in the past.
I also co founded an Essex based car club for cars from behind the Iron Curtain, members own Ladas, FSOs, Yugos, rear engined Skodas, Barkas, Trabants, Tatras, and my friend whom I founded the club with is a multi millionaire, who owns Ferraris, a Rolls Royce, Bentleys etc, and his every day car is a 1995 Lada Samara that i sourced all the parts to restore. the paint job on it alone was £2500, with over a grand in parts, and the car cost him £250
New cars aren’t built to last they have inbuilt redundancies manufactures have no interest in keeping a car on the road for 20 years.
I think they don’t give a stuff once the car is out of warranty these days, and that goes for every manufacturer.My works van is a 2013 Mercedes Sprinter, and at just 15,000 miles the engine was making ominous rumbling noises from the bottom end, and the auto gearbox was clunking badly. It’s had a new engine fitted under warranty, not good. It replaced a 3 year old Transit, that was already going rusty, and being front wheel drive, once there was some weight in the back, it liked to try and wheelspin, every junction, traction control light blinking dementedly. give me a smiley face Transit DI any day, knife & fork engineering
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