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Or when the response to a new noise is to turn up the radio...
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Or when you drive past a better example sporting a 'police aware' sticker.
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or worse, when you consider stopping to nick bits from the "police aware" car for yours..................
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Its directly proportional to the number of spares and tools you have to carry to keep you motoring.
As a youngster, any long journey (that over 30 miles!) meant a checklist for the large holdall in the boot by my father.
Tools? check
Spare plugs? Check
Bailing wire? Check
Spare points? check
Spare Fanbelt? check
Gerry can of water? check
Gallon of oil? check
Box of bits?? check ("bits" are nuts, bolts, insulating tape, split pins, repair bandage, roll of electrical wire, spade terminals, ring terminals. - note NO fuses, either the car never had any or the spare wire would do!)
Etc etc
Leaving home would mean topping up levels (no checking you KNEW they needed topping up). Every 50 miles would be the same.
In those days a banger meant there was nothing terminal about the car, anything and everything could be fixed at the roadside.
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10 years later and what do people feel now defines a old banger?
I notice lots of 10 year+ old cars that dont look "old" - even though they are a few generations old I must say I dont see many that even look "old fashioned".
In fact, with "new technology" such as DPFs, DMFs, grossly overcomplicated electronics and frenchy style wiring technology that still hasnt improved in the last ten years, I would argue we need a new category defined - "new bangers"
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Interesting question, I rarely keep cars long and never past 4 years old (so far in 20 odd years of car ownership) but have no objection to doing so, I just get bored.
I think cars get 'tired', in past years I've had Vauhxhall company cars which felt decidely tired at around 70K miles but only 2 years old and knackered at 100K miles yet I hear others boast of their Saab/Volvo/Mercedes running like new at 150K miles (I suspect I'd find such cars a bit saggy). My Audis seemed to last better than Vauxhalls I would say.
Cars' bodywork certainly seems to last much better than their mechanicals these days, again I suspect mileage is the true measure of life-span and I am convinced there's a design life of (IMHO) 100K miles after which they're on borrowed time whatever make you buy. Of course others will argue that their Toyota will do 1,000,000 miles without an oil change. I know HK Toyota Crown Comfort taxis get to this mileage (in around 10 years) but I'd contend that nothing much of the original car is left by this time and they are tatty.
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I rarely keep cars long and never past 4 years old (so far in 20 odd years of car ownership) but have no objection to doing so, I just get bored.
Forty years ago I seem to remember a Which? recommendation to change a car every two years to avoid the problems of 'old age', usually the advance of tinworm. I did that with a series of BL cars - 1100s, then Maxis - and I recall moving one on quickly after easily poking a screwdriver through the sill of a 3-year-old car.
When manufacturers finally decided it might be a good idea to prevent corrosion in the factory, it became more important to check the mechanicals; if the bodywork of a used car hadn't been tampered with, it would be OK. A well-maintained car would not become a banger - its value would just dwindle towards zero as it became out of date. An 'old-fashioned banger'?
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On the subject of whether some cars may now look 'old-fashioned', it’s a crying shame that the 2002-2007 3-door Fiat Stilo wasn’t a car made by Toyota, because for something from 2002 its styling still stands up amazingly well: Compare it for yourself with the likes of the Audi A3 and Kia ProCeed.
The 5-door was awfully awfully frumpy, but the 3-door would be a far better match for a dashing young blade than the otherwise-obligatory spangle-taillighted Corsa (yawn). If only, as I say, it had been made by Toyota.
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Rust is not the issue any more, but it seems that recent cars are going expensively wrong after about 7-8 years. In fact, the two most recent cars I've owned have had more faults, costing more to fix, than the previous cars put together.
Anyone else get the feeling that, like consumer white goods, cars are being designed to survive the warranty period then start getting flaky?
I'm currently considering buying a 24-year old Mercedes 190E to replace my chronically unreliable 9-year old Seat. I must be mad, right, but maybe it will turn out to be more reliable?!
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I bought a new Golf GTi in 1989 and ran it for seven years selling it in 1996 with 113,000 miles on the clock. Bodily it was perfect and mechanically it ran like new. A few bits of trim were starting to show wear. During my ownership it had a new waterpump, exhaust, battery, rear brake caliper, diff bearings, several sets of tyres, front brake pads, front brake disks and a cam belt. Never broke down.
Checked on the DVLA site the other day and the car still shows a being taxed. How many miles now? what condition? where is it?
Is it an old banger at 24 years old.
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A banger is surely something that bangs - so, a noisy, clapped-out engine and by extension a rusty and/or battered body.
So it's a car near the end of its useful life, the length of which will have depended to some extent on make and model, but mainly on how well it's been looked after by its owner(s).
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I would define a banger as a vehicle you would hesitate to take on a journey of greater than 100 miles from home.
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I would define a banger as a vehicle you would hesitate to take on a journey of greater than 100 miles from home.
Good one!
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So we took our 13-year old Camry V6 to France earlier this year (haven't done that for a while). Dealt with the perennial irritant of procuring and carrying a spare bulb set, along with several new pedantries -- a breathalyser kit and spare glasses in the car -- but I do not recall having opened the bonnet to do any preparation, tho possibly I checked the tyre pressures. All went fine (of course).
Thinking lifetime cost, 28 mpg is a small price for a car that has served us reliably for 5 years already, yet was purchased for around 10% of new list price,. A bit 'baggy'? Yes of course, if you are used to a new car. But banger? No, no! And it was registered in 2000, just before tiered VED, so I get away with £260 VED. Ha ha!
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Anyone else get the feeling that, like consumer white goods, cars are being designed to survive the warranty period then start getting flaky?
Yes, Toyota and Honda being two notable exceptions and we had a recent thread where even Honda turned their back on a 4 year old Hybrid charging the owner a substantial (though helped a bit) figure to fix something that shouldn't have failed.
I'm currently considering buying a 24-year old Mercedes 190E to replace my chronically unreliable 9-year old Seat. I must be mad, right, but maybe it will turn out to be more reliable?
Far from mad, one of the very best cars MB has ever produced.
If you check underbody and rest of bodywork carefully for rust, and hopefully have the services of a good make specialist indy then with careful maintenance and keeping on top of the tin worm you could well still be running that car in another 24 years.
My own MB (W124) is now 17, i'm spending/investing some money this year to make it sound enough to last me another 17 by which time i'll either be pushing up daisies or gaga.
You can do whatever you like with the throwaway modern cloned car, boring to the nth degree and far too much to go wrong, no thanks.
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