Quavey

Regi user selling?? Doesnt seem much point in selling it mate especially if its got a few problems etc. Going from weekly to monthly pay shouldnt really make much difference should it? Thing to do is speak to people about mortgages/rent etc and have the payment moved to a more sensible time in the month (i.e. just after you have been paid) I get the impression you are panicking a bit have you sat down and thought about it? For the sake of a couple of weeks during your change over it might be worth looking at a credit card or temporary overdraft. Assuming youve had a contract phone in the past/mortgage/rent you should have enough credit rating to get a £500-£1000 credit card to tide you through. Having said that I'd assume you could draw £1000 for a quick sale so you'd not be far of your £1250 outlay. Not bad in a zed!

Yes and no, mainly no as ive not got the skills time or tools... its also a company van so not actually my problem. I had the "phone call" before, poor little SB09 PCF is on borrowed time now boss asking if I want a new one, I said not yet besides what are you going to do with this one, he replied "I was going to asked you to sell it and go buy your self somthing new". So we'll see in 6 months, need to try and manouver my self into a position where I can demand a car rather than a van :)

Mine are copies made by Phutumsch, Andy made a great job my car is on the right, his has genuine lights fitted on the left. Also shown at night with my light up rear panel :) I am personally not a fan of the crystal lights, I would rather stick with standard 89 spec than use those.

Its come out to a bill of £400 or so! I'm sure it'd be cheaper to do on a 300zx!

Yeah its been good to be honest! Service ever 20k, its had two sets of tyres, set of front brake pads a pair of wipers and two headlight bulbs @105k in 2 and a half years. Good really! Just glad I caught it, boss will want to change it now though... which you'd think would be a good think but I like that van, I doubt a new one would have all the options like this one!

Reminds me of a fish and chip shop in Rhyl called Roes Plaice... heh

Think Jay C was actually having a laugh in dry yorkshire wit. Mixture of direct at the OP and the rest of the country. Thought it was quite amusing - for a chap from the wrong side O't Hill! :)

Now im normally wax lyrical about my astravan and endlessly singing its praises to whoever I can bore to tears at the time but I came to it today to head over to see a customer in hull 160 miles or so from me started fine and drove away, I got about 50 yards from my house and realised id forgotten something so reversed up the road and stopped broadside to my drive way, to my horror there was a rather large lake of oil underwhere the dam thing had been parked! So I had a quick look and could see there was visably fluid on the undertray So i took it to a local garage that has done the service work on it recently and it appears that the crank shaft oil seal has failed causing it to wee fairly rapidly! So they recon its 8 hours labout and i've now got a lovely 106 diesel great! Lucky I went back eh? Considering if I had driven to hull I suspect it would have been out of oil by the time I got there. - The pitfalls of reversing onto ones drive is that you dont see the area where the van has been parked overnight! Shame really as its first 100k were absolutly brilliant!

If i've read this right you took a UK model in that you knew had rust issues at the front end. As the car was bodykitted it made it more difficult to see the rust on the sills, as far as I'm aware MOT requirements are not allowed to poke holes in rust so its hard to say if it would have passed or not. The specialist, thinking the bodywork had recently been done quite reasonably but incorrectly decided not to check the sills/bodywork for corosion. The intial complaint was childish, as was the response to some extent however I can understand why the specialist would repond in such a way, they offered to replace damaged parts (which no one can proove either way of how it was) FOC after some tooing and fro'ing. Now I would never expect a garage specialist or otherwise to retap a hole and put a new bolt in if a fixing were to break, unless you were paing £150+ an hour - there isnt enough days in the week to start messing about doing that. In this case I do think the specialist should refund the cost, if anything to shut the OP up. However i do feel the OP is annoyed at the state of the car and looking for somone to blame just to cheer them selves up, this is of course my honest opinion. Overall both of you, you win some you loose some in order to save face the specialist should issue the refund and an apology, the OP should take on board the lessons of communicating properly and giving people a break from time to time, people are only human they do make mistakes. ps how on earth can the specialist rectify and issue with the cambelt scraping if you hadnt mentioned it to them before pouring out the story on here?

Plus 1 for me as well, mine did another 40 miles on a tank after the conversion, I didnt dare work out the consumption even back then!

As yowser said, although if no 530d available, you should be able to find a reasonable 530i which offer good performance and the same economy as the 520i/525i give or take the odd mpg. Diesels will attract a huge premium, a £2500 530i is going to be in similar condition to a £4500 530d, £2000 is alot of fuel to save! E39's are lovely cars, ive actually got my mums 523i touring outside at the moment, it isnt the one you would buy as this one is a bit of a dog now but its survived the last 8 years of my mother bashing it up and down lanes at warp factor 9 going to the shop and the occasional towing run.

Why not try and find a nice NA, something in good condition can be had for little money, probably give you alot less trouble than this TT. You dont seem to have much luck with them I have to say but that might be down to the condition you buy them in? Sorry to hear about it though mate hope you dont leave the zed scene! Just get a good one next time!

no, its for limited the car to those gears for decending long grades in order to stop cooking the brakes. It does also aid in performance meaning that the car doesnt have to change down in order to overtake. Wont really help with quick starts as the car will use first if its stationary regardless of the position of the gear stick.

Just to ask an obvious question that I'm sure everyone knows but me, how come pre 94's suffer from this issue with cylinder 6 but not post 94? What difference is there? I knew the injector rails were different but I thought that was all?

its not that the autos are dodgy or even bad (que the long running debate) but the problem is the auto is showing its age, its very much a late 80's gearbox, 3 speed plus overdrive, not very smart and really does seem to make a huge dent in fuel consumption. I suppose the polite way to describe the box is "period", my first 300zx was an auto which i eventually had converted and the difference in performance, fun and economy (+5mpg for me!) in my personal opinion was lightyears away. You're coming from an X5, a 4.8is no less, a very nice car with a fabulous modern steptronic BMW 'box which is just lightyears away from a 300zx box. There were no important changes to the auto gearbox right through the production of the 300zx so regardless of year they are all the same, depending on condition of course some will be better than others.

There are auction sites you can look at, or even go to one of the importers and ask them to find you one. Any reason it has to be an auto?

I believe you can still import cars if you know how and have the time. Is there anything specific you are looking for?

I suspect its because most classic cars wouldnt pass a modern MOT even if they were in full working order, things just wernt built properly back then and also the skills required to know whats right and what isnt on an older vehicle just wont be around. I would say tahts the real reason behind it. Problem is you can bet your bottom dollar that insuarnce on old cars will rocket now unless you have taken it for a voluntry MOT.

Over the weekend heading south just near J40 of the M6 in the inside lane, I overtook you in my astravan. I know not a car usually featured on here but I'm sure we had a chap, prbayantknight was it? That had a replica, wondered if by chance it was you? Looking very cool - even if I am a little young to remember the series!

Okay so it boils down to how desirable the cars are. Here would be an ideal opportunity for a poll, given two identical cars, at the SAME price the only difference one being auto and the other being manual, how many members would take the auto? I would hazard a guess at 20% would take the auto, leaving 80% fighting for the manual so it would fall to who would pay the most for the manual, i.e it would reach its price premium of about £1000 for a nice one before you think hmm that auto is £1000 cheaper, I could convert it for that money.My thoughts anyway :)

Yeah I was meaning taking it to a garage, giving them the conversion that you'd got for say £350 and getting it back for an extra £150. I forget the exact figured but I put a new clutch and flywheel into mine, new pedal covers leather gaitor and nice gearknob. I had the vacuum tanks done properly with the pipework and check valves etc. It was a drive in and drive out service though from C&S woods, dropped it of one saturday and collected it the next they also serviced and MOT'd it whilst it was on, as I said though a few years ago now!

I doubt you could have a car converted for £500 including the bits? I know it cost me around £1200 4 years ago by the time id had a new clutch and had it fitted. To a mechanic or someone who has the time to do that sort of thing yeah its cheap but a garage will charge at least £500 for the conversion.

Manual worth £1000 more I would say, mainly that when the autobox gives trouble it'll need changing and the cost is 1000-1500. Assuming that the conversion was properly done, i.e with vacuum tanks and neutral switch then I wouldnt say a converted car is worth any more or less (perhaps in the case of it having a brand new clutch, solid prop etc worth more) In 10 years time or so, when there are people looking at these cars and looking for the perfect example at mega money then it being a genuine factory manual will make a difference I think.

Are you seriously considering a Z32 again? I know of a nice manual slicktop thats not actively looking for a new home but if a potential good owner were looking then the keys might be handed over?

These were the guys that put a 2 feet gash down the side of my van and cracked the rear light. I was in at the time and actually saw the truck get very close but figured since he drove forwards he hadnt hit it. Went out to it later on and saw the damage, went to a neighbours and got the tracking number of the parcel, called the company put me through to fleet, who put me through to claims who put me in touch with a chap from their insurance company, two weeks later he calls me and says yeahh.... Our driver says he didnt do it, and the drivers mate (clues in the name!) says he didnt do it either so I said thats hardly a fair witness. To which the insurance company stated that the guy working with him wasnt a biased opinion! It was a 7.5 ton truck and I think it was either the taillift metals or the corner of the "box", obviously not going to recieve any damage from the panel work of an astra van! My own stupid fault I shoudl have gone and checked at the time but you'd think if someone hit a car outside someones house they would get out and go "sorry mate" but no...