Not sure how to ask this, but, how long would it take for abuse in a cars history to manifest as faults?
It's just that, seeing the way a mate of mine treats his Corsa (2003 SXi), I'm actually really worried of buying a car that has been treated the same way (Thrashed from cold, speedbumps at 70 mph, up to the redline in every gear, changing gear without coming off the throttle...the list goes on). Of course, the car is too new to just give up and die, so if you were to look at it on a forecourt it would seem in very good condition, as he keeps it meticulously clean.
Again, I'm hoping you'll all know what I mean.
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Not sure how to ask this, but, how long would it take for abuse in a cars history to manifest as faults?
When I was young and naive I assumed that new cars lasted a long time no matter how you treared them. In my naivety I thrashed my first new car (1965 Hillman Imp) unmercilously. I used to take it up to 7000 in the lower gears and regularly managed 50 mph in second ~ not bad from an 875cc engine producing 39 bhp nett! After 25000 miles the valves had stretched (I assume that the heads had mushroomed) to the point that it was no longer possible to achieve the specified clearances. Following that I adopted the policy of excercising a modicum of restraint!
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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When I was young and naive I assumed that new cars lasted a long time no matter how you treared them.
I've just remembered that a friend treated his 1964 Triumph Herald cruelly. After 30000 miles we had to strip the engine to fit new crankshaft thrust washers and and have the cylinders rebored. It also needed a new clutch. I've no doubt that there are other cases of abuse that I've forgotten about.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I would have thought a modern engine would handle abuse like this in its stride - BUT - abuse oil change intervals and the like and thats a different matter.
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Been in a 52 LDV Conyoy mini bus with a full load supplied by Lex Defense (because I was with the Air Cadets)and the bloke nearly rolled us over about 4 times, reving the hell out of it and he was complaining it was slow and that you could see the steering wheeling vibrate. Although he complained about this we still did 80 on the motorway. I wonder what happens to them and how long they last. I noticed a few bits off a transit stuck on it ,including the gearlever.
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The transit bits are almost certainly there as it uses quite a few parts from the old ford transit including engine and gearbox. The old 2.5 diesel transit engine does need to be worked fairly hard - especially when it's a high top long wheel base version.
The vehicles supplied by Lex defense are usually looked after pretty well normally by main dealers.
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"speedbumps at 70 mph"
Ouch!!
And presumeably in a 30 mph (orless?)limit!! Perhaps he won't get to drive it to destruction - maybe banned first!!
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For those of you that know Surrey - we made it from Addlestone to Kingston in 15 minutes.
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I knew someone who did High Wycombe to Southampton center in 31 minutes (80 miles) in an E-reg Ford Escort 1.6, now that is quick!!!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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80 miles in 30 minutes? thats an average of 160mph, in a 1.6 e reg escort? i do hope your fibbing.
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Well he told me he was 110mph down the M3, how it survived i dnt know, but hes still got the vehicle!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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>>Well he told me he was 110mph down the M3,
Just capable of 98mph flat out if OHV..CVH possible 120MPH.Pushing it to extremes.Though has been mentioned 130mph over several downhill miles.Without performance upgrades??
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Steve
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PAh - thats nothing I once made it in an hour from addlestone moor roundabout to M25 J11 in the rush hour!
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I did London to Manchester in 11 hours once. It was a deciding factor in me leaving the country.
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:^D
Where are you from RF? I'm off Orchard Way...
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And I live in Woodham - so know the Addlestone area and its traffic well... queued up for more than an hour to get petrol in Addlestone during fuel shortages.
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Addlestone is rapidly turning into one giant speed bump
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Live on the New Haw/Woodham boundry.
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"Addlestone is rapidly turning into one giant speed bump"
The latest ones are being built on Hare Hill in Rowtown. Coming back from work late last week I saw the first one at the top. It was not marked or highlighted in anyway, nor are there any signs to warn of humps. At that time one had been built and the locations for the rest to be to be built the way down the hill to the garden centre and the three headed sheep fields.
Mind you - its a bad road, badly lit residential, cars parked, side turnings/pub bilnd bends and fast downhill, but they should be marked or posted tho.
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This is one of the reasons I would never buy an ex-company fleet car driven by a sales rep. Mondeos, vectras etc are beaten unmercilessly, given minimum manufacturers servicing, but washed once a week so the look good.
I used to regularly get my Volvo diesel from Plymouth centre to Scarborough in 4 hours dead. My markers were pretty constant. The last couple were East Mids Airport to York in 60 mins and York to Scabby in 30.
When I handed the V40 back it looked beautiful.
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Hmmm. 360 ish miles in 4 hours is pretty good going - isn't that averaging 90? And 30 mins to do the 40 from York to Scarborough is knocking on as well - especially since well over 70% of the distance is on single carriageway (Malton by-pass, and bit from what was the Spitalbeck Inn to turnoff to Kirkham excepted) Also passes through a good few villages - Rillington, Sherburn, to mention but 2 which have 30mph limits (and traffic lights). Presume there were none of the "it's lovely round here, let's drive at 30mph all the way from Leeds to Scarborough and look at the scenery" types, nor any of the McCain Frozen chip lorries that I encountered last Saturday on my 140 mile and 2 and half hour trip from the Midlands to Scabby last Saturday?!
Which route did you take? Sounds like your car was "beaten unmercifully"!!
:)
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>Which route did you take? Sounds like your car was "beaten unmercifully"!!
:)
The Standard:
M5
M42
M1
M18
A1
A64
The interesting bits were the A1 and A64, as they get very twisty. Keeping up the average was not always easy.
I was always doing the runs starting at 7 or 8pm, so by the time I got there the roads were empty-ish.
Not done it for a while, and probably never will again. I changed jobs and handed the shiny blue beast back to a colleague. It has probably blown its engine up by now after the way I treated it. What is even worse is that I had the reputation of being one of the 'kinder drivers' on the fleet!!!
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Did you notice a big change in the way that the car drove from when you got it to when you handed it back?
Blue
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I never really ran it in. The bloke from the dealer we bought it from said it would do motorway speeds from new and shouldn't need a gentle baptism on the roads. Unfortunately the first journey it went on was at 90+ on the M1 for a couple of hours as I was late...
After only 12 months of ownership and nearly 40k miles it felt soggy around corners. The front suspension was on its way out after cattle grids at full speed and standing it on the bumper when a speed camera came in to view. The exhaust seemed to push out more smoke than normal, with brake discs failing (fading) and warping on a regular basis.
It just felt looser than it should have done. My expectation is that it would go just like the car that the Blues Brothers had.
Everything was nearly always working at the upper end of their tolerances.
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The running in shouldn't have hurt it much, although 90 was probably optimistic for a brand new car, I'd normally wait a few hundred miles before trying that!
Blue
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Trouble was it had done 300 miles by the end of its first journey.!!!
All of us got the first 'tighten things up' service at 1500 miles within a fortnight of delivery.
It was a set of front tyres every service, new brakes every service, if not sooner, and bulbs seemed to go out every month or so. What is worse is these major services were only at most three months apart. This means the engine was being left as a time bomb for the mug that bought it at 85 to 90k when we sold it on.
I seriously would not want a company abused vehicle after having one. If the general public saw how bad/dangerous we really were, they would only pay tuppence for them. We would regularly use third gear on the motorway for that extra push to 80. Handbrakes on to slow without putting the brake lights on, roundabouts in second until the wheels scream as they loose grip etc....
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Oh, er, is that considered abuse then? oops. :-)
Funny my old company car used to make similar noises around roundabouts...
Blue
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