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"old cars and oil changes!"

 
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:50 pm    Post subject: "old cars and oil changes!" Reply with quote

I'll thank Sharter for the name of the thread Smile

Seeing as one of the frequent topics on this board is how expensive it is to buy a car and run it, I thought it would be fun to compare tales of cars/buckets/**** we've bought and ran or continue to run.

My first car was actually bought in the UK (left hand drive lancia dedra) which gave me and my old chum Richfilth plenty of hours amusement when the bloody thing broke down. Most of the time. Well actually, it was more Richfilth fixing it with me boring him senseless.

Anyhow, repairs were frequent and I have to say quite cheap - mostly you paid labour plus parts and labour per hour wasn't that much. I think they had it for 3/4 days once and I paid 300zł or so labour. I then sold it on to some mug for 1225zł. The 25zł I haggled on the end to pay for a bottle of voddy to celebrate selling it.

Second car was bought from Belgium (found in Torun) - a diesel opel Meriva which (touch wood) seems to be running straight and true. Still have that and now it's the wife's car. Once again, service costs are nothing extraordinary as they are parts plus labour which is quite cheap.

Now I'm going to be living out in the sticks, I had a very small budget to buy a car (4000zł) which had to include insurance (OC), przegląd techniczne (Polish MOT) to next year at some point, two sets of tyres and LPG. I found a 22 year old VW Golf 2 in "fair" condition which ran quite well. It is now, however, being a pig. Changed the fuel pump (was advised it was broken) and voltage regulator as that was up the spout too. Going in for a service to hopefully get it sorted. So far I'm at just over 2000zł so far although this will probably rise.

Let's have your stories on here....
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sharter



Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 878
Location: All over the place

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:15 pm    Post subject: Not me sorry... Reply with quote

Hey don't get me involved in the great car caper. Last car I bought was a spanking new 4-wheel drive imported from Dubai...sun roof, fridge the whole lot.

I've changed the oil in Bahrain a few times though. Smile ....that's a whole different story Wink
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hrvatski



Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My first car was an 84 Nissan Pintara I bought for $4000 AUD, which I spent $10,000 on in the next 5 years keeping it road worthy. The windscreen wipers died once in a tropical downpour while driving on the highway, not fun.

Didn't touch a car in Poland, didn't want to be overtaken on a village road while already overtaking someone else myself (seen this happen) Very Happy

Bought a new Mazda 3 now, life is great Razz
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Richfilth



Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 225
Location: Warszawa

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You filthy tease, Mr Porter, you knew I wouldn't be able to resist...

I started with a 1968 Peugeot 404, bought with no engine. That was my introduction to Polish bureaucracy; the car had to be crushed because, by selling to me, the car was deleted from the Vehicle Registry in Szczeczin, and could only be put back in to the system with its original engine, which had long since gone.

I replaced it with the classic 1978 Mercedes W123, a long green lump built of diesel-powered girders that maxed out at 107km/h. It made it to England and back... almost.

With a desire for something a bit more modern, I picked up an Audi Coupe in Bytom. 1.8 engine, comfort seats, alloy wheels, and all the trimmings you'd expect from a car built in 1982.

It succumbed to rust in the end so I got rid of it to some poor sucker on Allegro, and replaced it with a 1988 BMW E30 Touring. In nearly three years it's been completely stripped and now sits in my garage on jackstands. It cost me 2000 zlots to buy and 8000 in repairs so far, and I still haven't bought the new engine nor the crane to put it in; that's another 2000zlots. Which is less than the depreciation on a new car, without the embarrassment of having to drive a VAG product.

And somewhere in the middle of all that was the Syrena Bosto that didn't quite make it to Mongolia...

http://syrena.nekla.pl/forum/files/sloop77_360.jpg
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You haven't got room to swing a cat in your garage nevermind a tourer with engine stand. Are you going to take the roof off to get everything to fit?
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Richfilth



Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 225
Location: Warszawa

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can drop in another six-cylinder with the gearbox still attached, without even touching the sides.
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Jack Walker



Joined: 23 Oct 2008
Posts: 412

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I first arrived there in 2003, I bought a 1990 Renault 5 clunker for 4,000zl and sold it when I left in 2010 for 700zl Oh the adventures I had in that baby!

The terrible roads in Walbrzych were mentioned in another thread and I can personally attest to that.

I remember driving through there once and there were such terrible dips and crevices in the roads that my bumper scraped off the road quite a few times.

Someone told me the roads are so bad there because of all the old,collapsed coal mines in the vicinity.

The degree in "Reclamation of mining lands" is so popular in Poland, but everyone I met who'd studied this were unemployed or working in a completely different field because of a lack of jobs in the reclamation field.

Seems a place like Walbrzych should have enough work to hire all the graduates.The place is one big sinkhole.
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, so I'm getting my car back from the garage on Monday (it's ready now, but I don't have the time to go and get it),

Work done includes:
New fuel filter
New oil filter
Oil
New coolant
Cam belt change
new head gasket (and all preparatory work - cleaning the block etc)
repair/maintenance of LPG system.
righting the steering (it was pulling to the right)
and some other minor stuff.
This is effectively an engine rebuild!

Total cost 1280zł
of which:
200zł for the head work for the head gasket
40zł for the LPG guy
500zł for parts
540zł for labour - they had the car for 2.5 days.
This comes with a "guarantee" although I don't know what this might be.

I'll let you decide for yourselves whether this is expensive or not.
The process I used for choosing the garage was simple - find the closest one to me. Had no time to do research on the internet as to who is the best/cheapest so as usual hoped for the best.

It was, as it turned out, a back street garage run by a chain smoking 50 year old who had reassuringly dirty hands and his crew of 2 similarly appearing mechanics. The garage looked in danger of collapse and the tools had line markings drawn around them to make it easier put a tool back in its correct place. Perfect.

Personally speaking I think it was a fair price - although I'll try to get the price down to 1200zł anyhow and it's given me a car which should give me peace of mind for the next 4-5 years.
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sharter



Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 878
Location: All over the place

PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:20 am    Post subject: Optimistic? Reply with quote

Second hand parts? Cost of annual MOT? Cost of insurance? Cost of tyres? Cost of annual servicing? Cost of petrol annually? Parking annually? Just your bill is about half of what your average teacher has left after rent.

270 quid for an engine............well 4-5 years is a bit optimistic Simon but good luck to you.

Must be a real clunker.
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Richfilth



Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 225
Location: Warszawa

PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

simon_porter00 wrote:

Personally speaking I think it was a fair price - although I'll try to get the price down to 1200zł anyhow and it's given me a car which should give me peace of mind for the next 4-5 years.


That's not a bad price, but 4-5 years is, erm, a little bit too optimistic for my tastes. And that's presuming the LPG system doesn't burn out the valve seats in the head.

Even if it did though, old VW engines are peanuts on Allegro, as are most of the other consumables.

To sharter; yes, as a percentage of your wage it's higher in Poland, but pound for pound the prices for this sort of thing are cheaper in Poland than the UK. Tyres, MOT/Przeglad, Insurance, petrol, labour and parts are all cheaper in Poland.

The only things I can think of that are more expensive here is city parking (per hour, not per month) and tools; I bought my welder in the UK because Poland is still flooded with Chinese *beep*. Still, with Germany's exports falling we might finally see quality stuff getting here for a fair price as they try to recoup their losses.

As a new business area, I'm seeing quite a few self-service garages popping up in Warsaw; warehouses kitted out with post lifts and toolboxes where you can rent a work-bay by the hour or the day, to do your own repairs.
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