How long we keep cars for?

[Adrian E]

I generally keep my cars quite a long time, but I'm now getting to the age where I can't remember when I sold some of them!

In rough order:

1968 Mk2 Cortina - bought 1992 as 2nd owner - sold about 10 years ago so in the family over a decade
1969 Mk2 Cortina 2 door - bought 1993 - sold 2002ish - recently stolen from owner in the Midlands after the bloke I sold it to converted it to a V6 and sprayed it white
1981 Golf GTI - bought 1997 and only on the road for 2 years before rust got too bad to manage
1984 Passat GL5 - 1999-2002 - cheapest car I've ever owned and sold for a profit after 40k miles!
1992 Citroen BX 16Valve - bought 2001 - sold 2005
1993 Citroen ZX Furio 1.8 - wife's first car! 1999 till it was scrapped after both my parents and sister owned it after us! Only died in about 2010
1988 Citroen BX GTI 16V (v early one) - bought about 10 years ago and still have it!
2005 Seat Leon Cupra R - new-2008 - did hardly any miles in it and sold when it got scratched!
1998 VW Passat 1.8T Sport auto estate - 2005-2009 - bought to save the wheels on the LCR!
2004 Audi A6 Avant 3.0 QS - bought 2008 - sold 2014 - definitely the longest owned daily driver in the family and now with a happy new owner
2002 S8 - bought 2010 and still got, so 4 years and counting!

Guess I fall into the long term ownership camp since most seem to have stayed at least 3 years!

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by tersono

moltuae: I share your like of old Citroens. I've owned 4 CXs over the years - the last one a CX Gti, which I loved. The 8s are superior in just about every way, though - and as you say are a lot better screwed together!

Absolutely. Especially the electric window mechanisms. The sound of the cable snapping as the glass drops into the door still gives me nightmares!

I very nearly bought a CX, a few years before I bought my first BX. I always loved the look of the CX, and I found one at the right price too, but on closer inspection it appeared to be fabricated entirely out of painted rust!

I've always been a fan of big old Citroens, especially the DS. The SM has got to be the ultimate big old Citroen to own though; Citroen's suspension coupled with a Maserati engine -- superb!

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

1988 Citroen BX GTI 16V (v early one) - bought about 10 years ago and still have it!

Wow!

But in how many pieces?

[Goran]

I'm a hang-onto-car sort of person. I wish I changed cars more often, I do like trying different ones.
2000 Volvo S40 2.0 owned for 3.5 years
2001 S8 owned for 5.5 years
2001 S8 LHD so far 1.5 years, no plans to sell

[Adrian E]

Originally Posted by moltuae

Wow!

But in how many pieces?

It's entirely road legal, but hasn't come out of the garage the last couple of years except for its MOT test. Previous year it did about 300 miles IIRC.

It lives at my parents place 150 miles away and my dad usually manages to make some excuse that means it doesn't get taxed at the start of the summer. Before you know it the summer has gone and it's not seen the road!

It's insured and MOTd with agreed value on a classic policy at £3.5k - it's very low mileage and pretty much original. The back box is a Scorpion stainless jobby and it's got a much later Blaupunkt MD player and 10 disc CD changer fitted. Had a head replacement a few years ago due to corrosion of the water ways resulting in a head gasket failure, but otherwise has been reliable.

Took it to the Ace Cafe in 2010 for the Citroen 90th birthday bash and drove it all round central London!

Some recent pics

[mik15]

that looks great, seeing these pictures reminded of my childhood when i used to see a few of these in flesh but now realized that they were soon gone or very rare as i haven't seen any in the last maybe 10-15 years....

what classic value do you reckon it has? or it might have? if any...?

[moltuae]

That does look in good condition Adrian!

Those pictures bring back memories. One thing I loved about my BXs (and my XMs) were the seats .... so soft and comfortable! And the large adjustment wheels at the front on the BX (replaced by electric buttons on the XM) made getting comfortable really easy, even on the move.

To be fair, all the Citroens I had were pretty reliable. Most of faults that they developed were little niggling faults rather than breakdowns. My BXs were also both high-milers. The diesel had over 200,000 miles on it when I bought it at just over 2 years old. I gave it away to a friend's sister when I bought my first XM and it went on to do well over 300,000 before eventually being scrapped. There wasn't much left on it that still worked by then though.

Funnily enough, the one thing I rarely had any problems with on the 4 hydropneumatic Citroens I owned, was the suspension, the complexity of which is the main thing that puts most people off buying them. I did manage to bust a front suspension strut on one of my BXs however, which led to a dramatic bleeding to death and that sinking feeling (literally) as the suspension fell and it emptied its green blood all over the road. I think my years of hard driving probably damaged the strut prematurely though.

I actually owned a Xantia Activa for a while too. If you ever get the chance to drive one, you should. Amazing handling and practically zero body roll.

[Adrian E]

Originally Posted by mik15

what classic value do you reckon it has? or it might have? if any...?

It's agreed value on classic insurance is £3500 and we've had fairly frequent attempts to buy it at £2500-3000, but have resisted.

Originally Posted by moltuae

That does look in good condition Adrian!

To be fair, all the Citroens I had were pretty reliable. Most of faults that they developed were little niggling faults rather than breakdowns. My BXs were also both high-milers.

I actually owned a Xantia Activa for a while too. If you ever get the chance to drive one, you should. Amazing handling and practically zero body roll.

My late one was daily transport for me so used to require 6 monthly services - would routinely break down a week to the day after each service with something completely unrelated to the service work! This one has always been a 2nd car since we owned it. Can't recall the exact mileage now but it's in the 50s!

I have driven an Activa - very strange sensation! It did suffer from a nodding dog problem due to wear in the joints - you'd be sitting stationary at traffic lights and it'd be constantly trying to correct the ride height! I always fancied a V6 one....

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

It did suffer from a nodding dog problem due to wear in the joints - you'd be sitting stationary at traffic lights and it'd be constantly trying to correct the ride height! I always fancied a V6 one....

Haha, yeah the one I owned had that problem for a while.

I would've much preferred the V6 too, but the one I had was a 2.0L Turbo. It was however somewhat remapped. It delivered far more power than the front wheels had traction and, having a French engine made of cheese (or whatever they make them from over there), the extra power eventually proved to be a bit more than the engine could take. While heading up the M6 one day, the head gasket blew in a big way, throwing coolant into the cylinders and huge plumes of steam and smoke all over the carriageway. Such fun!

The car was sold (as a non-runner) and I went and bought my first A8 .... the rest, as they say, is German history.

[Norretal]

1984 Golf GTi Mk2 1987 - 96

1987 BMW 325i Sport - 1996 - 2001

1994 Audi S4 - 2001 - 2005

1999 A8 4.2 QS - 2005 - 2014

2006 S8 - 2014 - ??


I don't change cars very often