02-01-2013, 05:47 PM
Only once you've had a turbo on/off your car over 20 times can you come to me saying it's just too far gone...
Sometimes when you have NO money you just have to deal with the shit that goes with, when I was working in schools for near minimum wage and driving around to feeder primaries - I was doing ~17,000 miles a year, I couldn't afford a "better" car - I did the work myself, I've had rear beams fail (x3), Turbos fail (admittedly most of them my fault, but at least 3 of them weren't - I had a T2 fail on a 100% stock car because it eat a jubilee clip), Head gaskets fail (x4), Hubs (x2 pairs) and the list goes on...
I dealt with the shit, admittedly I tried tuning it to beyond double stock power in the process, but even if I didn't I'd have still had loads of problems, but the result is that I've almost DEFINITELY spent less than buying a "better" car and taking it to a garage - even with the tuning I've done!!
If you want something 100% reliable, just go and get yourself a Nissan Micra 1.3 or an Almera 1.6... They will go on forever, you may have rust issues, yes, but buy yourself a welder and patch it up... We've had 2 Micras now, I used and abused one, finally it was scrapped due to rust (that was a 1996..) and the other I abused for a year and is still going today, does 45-50mpg everywhere no matter how you drive it, it's SHIT, it's SLOW, it's CHARACTERLESS but until you can afford bigger and better things, that's the realm you have to stay in...
And for the record - if you say the Micra isn't big enough - on my way back from Uni I had my entire worlds posessions in the back of a Micra (bikes x2, computers, clothes, chair, uni paperwork, kitchen stuff) plus a Concept2 rowing machine... It's incredible what you can fit in the back of a small car if you try... It was tight, I was sat on clothing and had a bike wheel covering the gearstick so I could only get 1st 3rd and 5th...
Sometimes when you have NO money you just have to deal with the shit that goes with, when I was working in schools for near minimum wage and driving around to feeder primaries - I was doing ~17,000 miles a year, I couldn't afford a "better" car - I did the work myself, I've had rear beams fail (x3), Turbos fail (admittedly most of them my fault, but at least 3 of them weren't - I had a T2 fail on a 100% stock car because it eat a jubilee clip), Head gaskets fail (x4), Hubs (x2 pairs) and the list goes on...
I dealt with the shit, admittedly I tried tuning it to beyond double stock power in the process, but even if I didn't I'd have still had loads of problems, but the result is that I've almost DEFINITELY spent less than buying a "better" car and taking it to a garage - even with the tuning I've done!!
If you want something 100% reliable, just go and get yourself a Nissan Micra 1.3 or an Almera 1.6... They will go on forever, you may have rust issues, yes, but buy yourself a welder and patch it up... We've had 2 Micras now, I used and abused one, finally it was scrapped due to rust (that was a 1996..) and the other I abused for a year and is still going today, does 45-50mpg everywhere no matter how you drive it, it's SHIT, it's SLOW, it's CHARACTERLESS but until you can afford bigger and better things, that's the realm you have to stay in...
And for the record - if you say the Micra isn't big enough - on my way back from Uni I had my entire worlds posessions in the back of a Micra (bikes x2, computers, clothes, chair, uni paperwork, kitchen stuff) plus a Concept2 rowing machine... It's incredible what you can fit in the back of a small car if you try... It was tight, I was sat on clothing and had a bike wheel covering the gearstick so I could only get 1st 3rd and 5th...
