"Will I break HF's beloved Astra?" If you are very very lucky.............
Rob I can assure you of two things if you do break it;
We'll all read all about it and...
It'll be all your fault!
Oh - and HF will be 'making points' about it for months to come I'm sure!
Have a great holiday when you go!
Hugo
|
Average mileage of a car is around 12,000 p.a. I believe.
That equates to 250 odd miles a week.
HF\'s 100 miles per week and Rob\'s 600 miles per month equate to 200 miles a week.
So, hardly high mileage and less damaging than just normal existance around town.
On the other hand, it is old, and it has done 137,000. It isn\'t going to improve from what it is now.
I would guess that HF & Rob\'s 1,000 miles per month is going to make it die quicker than just HF\'s 400 miles per month. But, in reality, probably not that much quicker. And the fact that Rob\'s mileage is motorway isn\'t going to particularly harm it as long as he isn\'t thrashing the wotsits off it.
If the car is good for say 170,000 then it will die in 4 years time rather than 8 years time - lets be honest, 4 years from now the engine probably won\'t be the problem - everything else will have broken !
Oh, and by the way, Dave or I will move this to Discussion later. Done. DD.
I thought you\'d prefer that to me cutting all the not technical stuff out of the thread !
Mark.
|
guys guys, dont scare her. HF this is what i do to my car
12 year old AX, 1.4 diesel, non-turbo, 142K, cambelt changed at 70K
1) ok, four evenings per week, I work as a take away delivery driver, and i use, no sorry abuse the car, as if it was one foot in the grave already. I sometimes feel sorry for the car, and give it a pat on the back - sorry boot- when I park it on the drive. I do 300 miles per week just on that. start and turn off the car 20 time on average per day and 5 out of 10 times, I am burning rubber as I pull from the lights, because the an average person will only call for a take away AFTER they get hungry, not BEFORE, to allow time for the food to get there. Which means getting there one minute earlier can make the difference between getting a tip and getting a phone call to the shop asking where the hell am I. Add to that driving about 80 miles in city and how many times you stop and start at light to cover that, you can imagine , what Rob will do to your Astra, is merely a stride in the park.
2) make a 500 mile round trip to London every two weeks. I don?t drop below 80mph and the car does not go more than 95 (maximum I ever did in it).
3) a few weeks ago, a friend of mine visited England and she was here for one week. In this one week, this is the route we went with the car MANCHESTER-LONDON-OXFORD-BIRMINGHAM-LANCASTER-STOKE-LAKE DISTRICT-GLASGO-EDINBURGH- LAKE DISTRICT-LONDON-MANCHESTER. I think it was a total round trip of about 2500 miles (with the distance we covered in each city). And the car was an angle, we just drove, filled with diesel and drove more.
You may think I am crazy, BUT, I do look after the car. Every noise, every glitch, every little squeak, every little tick, all are investigated, traced, corrected unless I am happy its not a problem which can worsen. I change oil and filter every 3000 miles, and every two weeks just do a general inspection, oil, cooling, fluids?. So doing what I do to it, does not come easily. If you take care of your car, it will pay rich dividend, otherwise, expect an early grave for it. It just its passed MOT without any problems, other than replacing a front wheel bearing, which after 140k is reasonable.
Hope this will give you some strength of heart!
|
Hi Amin, yes it does, and thanks for posting.
From what everybody has said, it seems I have no real reason for barring my car from those long journeys. I'll just have to make sure it gets plenty of TLC on its return.
Still find it hard to accept that this may halve the remainder of its life, and have tentatively suggested that Mr HF gets a similar car (his and hers Astras, how quaint).
In the meantime, I suppose I will have to continue putting up with the flippin' Golf.
Thanks Mark for moving the thread.
HF
|
HF,
I think you need to refer back to the thread entitled "Do we molly-coddle cars ?" for more comfort.
M.
|
Ok, ok, I see I am fighting a losing battle here since not one of you agrees with me!
The consensus on the mollycoddling thread seems to be just do oil changes, cambelt and nothing else, so, apart from the hoses suggested above I'll have to live with that.
|
Thanks, all, for your informative replies.
I guess that the Orpington branch of Kwik Fit will be doing a few oil changes on a certain Astra in the not too distant future.
Cheers
Rob
|
|
|
|
