Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Thu 31 May 2012 14:42
Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry - Geoff Dude

Hi All

Just thought i would come on and say that as a self employed contract cleaner i rack up about 100,00 - 140,000 miles a year. Have owned all types of new cars that seriously devalue after a year. My last car a Ford Focus 1.6 petrol i had for 2 1/2 years. Owned when it had done 18,000 mile and recently written off by my mechanic when done 285,000 mile but ok and very reliable. Needed a car quickly and found a 1994 Toyota Carina E 1.6 petrol with just 49,000 genuine miles and one owner and full stainless steel exhaust and no rust anywhere. I love the car and have been averaging 2600 miles a week. The car is great and really reliable, averages 48mpg . The best bit is that it cost me £500. I love the car and just had to share this with you as i find a lot of the items on the back room tend to just cover the negative side of motoring on the cheap.

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Thu 31 May 2012 15:44
Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry - Falkirk Bairn

>>Needed a car quickly and found a 1994 Toyota Carina E 1.6 petrol with just 49,000 genuine miles and one owner and full stainless steel exhaust and no rust anywhere. I love the car and have been averaging 2600 miles a week

Driving 500 miles /day is a fulltime job - when do you get time to clean anything?

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Thu 31 May 2012 16:35
Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry - Geoff Dude

I know it is a lot. I start each day at 3am and easily cover half my mileage by 7 am including some of my work. I travel from job to job and get home by about 3 pm. I do 6 days a week and sometimes 7 days a week and have not had a holiday for 8 years. Having said that when i first started 16 years ago i was averaging 18 hour days. I owned a Saab 9000 then with a gas conversion and practically lived in the thing.

Getting back to the cars though i have also had a Citroen c3 diesel and put 90,000 miles on that in 9 months. My mechanic loves me though as i see him every couple of weeks just for oil changes!

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Thu 31 May 2012 23:50
Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry - likerocks

Geoff, I know this is a digression, but what on earth do you clean to make that kind of working life pay?!

On a non-digressive note, very pleased to hear that economy motoring works out for you!

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Fri 1 Jun 2012 01:30
Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry - Avant

Good buy Geoff - as I've often said on here, there's nothing quite like a old Toyota for soldiering on and on - except perhaps an old Volvo, which uses more fuel.

I'm curious too about your mileage. Our office cleaner, a lovely guy called Nigel, seems to make a decent living with his cleaning business centred on Reading. He has an old SEAT Ibiza for going round cleaning but also a new Citroen C4. He works hard but seems to avoid doing 2600 miles a week!

Edited by Avant on 01/06/2012 at 01:30

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Sat 2 Jun 2012 00:13
Toyota Carina E - Happy As Larry - barney100
2600 miles a week? Never heard of a bigger mileage to work over here. You deserve a medal for that, how many hours a day are you driving? I heard of Irv Gordon in the USA who has several million miles on his Volvo.
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