MODERN CARS SUCK

[lordyoung1980]

But you already knew that,My MOTs due next month on my pug 306 HDi.Being a diesel means the MOT tester has to rev the of it to test the emisions,which in turn means the cambelt has to be in tip top condition.Mine has'nt been changed in 50,000 miles so it needs doing.My old haynes manual does not cover HDi engines but when i was in halfrauds yesterday i notice that its been updated for HDis,great i think i'll do the job myself,how wrong i was.For a start the top pulley has 3 bolts for a vernier style adjustment and the way its described in the manual is vague in the extreme and then you need some stupid electronic black magic to set the tension up on the belt to a form of measurement i've never heard of FFS .So i've decided to pay someone to do it,so next tuesday i'm going to be 140 quid lighter . PEUGEOT........MERDE!!!!!!!!!

[arthurbrown]

But then again, having 10,000mile service intervals, cars that can do 50mpg day in day out and live for hundreds of thousands of miles without a rebuild is utterly pointless isn't it?

[vicsmith]

£140 doesnt sound too bad, could be a lot worse, £140 would barely get the job started on a Renault 1.6 16V engine. Also the 306 HDi is a great car, modern or not, looks good and its a bit of a driver`s car, I`d have one in a flash. Compared to how mercilessly dull and complicated to work on a lot of modern cars are you should be counting your blessings!

[reanimation]

Yeah at least you picked a decent diesel!

Thuought I was clever with apetrol sapph, parts and labour wise, but my mechanic nearly had kittens when a 1769cc CVh water pump cost him (ME) £80

Still turned out to be an ecomomical and reliable halfway retro though.

[lordyoung1980]

The HDi is a good car but why have a stupid black box to tell me that its set correctly,By the way it cost me 102 quid for the belt kit and and water pump inc VAT.In some ways i miss my old 306 Dturbo as its quite easy to do the belt on that one.But this will be my last peugeot i'm afraid to say,question is what to get next.

[akku]

horse and cart?

black box which needs restting or maybe a new sensor ater 10, 15 years in service vs. a carb and dizzy which needs fecking with every 3000 miles to stand a chance of running 97% right?

Thats why modern cars are like they are.

I have to say that much as I moan about them I like the way the Mazda can be servicedand then pretty much forgotten about until 6000 miles have passed then its just oil, filters, plug and its good to go again. And it has taken it until the last MOT for it to start rusting...

For a modern TDI the 306 is about the best of the bunch really.

You'll need to look at petrol cars for something better to drive.

Edited for clarity and my abysmal typing.

[xbo11ox]

Simply get the right tool and learn the new measurement units! Problem solved, moderns are acceptable again.

Can't really diss peugeot too much if you are not equipped to do the job, its not their fault.

[lordyoung1980]

The right tool for the job eh,it costs over £1800 to by the tool.If you've got one can i borrow it.

[akku]

I feel your pain, regardless of my joviality. We had a Mini with the SPI EFI. One day it would not start. I spent all day fecking with it. I called my mate who's a mechanic. he dragged it up to his garage. He feckewd with it for 3 days before giving up and dragging it over to a EFI specialist who still needed it 2 days to diagnose what was up with it. Took three weeks to get it to run in all and cost me about £300. PITA. Its all good until it goes wrong.

[JonnySierra]

lordyoung1980 said:

But this will be my last peugeot i'm afraid to say,question is what to get next.

TBH if this is the reason your Peugeot has p155ed you off, I doubt you'll find many cars which will help you sleep any better! This is the future - pretty much a DIY-free zone.

But like Pog says, if you do enough miles, 50+mpg and huge service intervals (20k / one year on Mrs JS's Vectra!) should make up for it. We've put 55k on the Vectra in two years and if it fell apart like a clown's car on Monday morning I'd stick the panels on Ebay and wouldn't feel hard done by.

[vicsmith]

^Thats just what I was thinking, if you`ve fallen out with a Peugeot HDi there isnt really anywhere to go from there. Have you seen under the bonnet of a modern VW lately? I`ve heard a Lupo has to go into the main dealers to have its bonnet opened!

[lordyoung1980]

Thats my point exactly,yes modern cars can do galactic millage between services but when they fail or need a service you need a computer programer to suck air through his teeth and say "ooo that i'll cost ya".The guy who's doing the work for me said he had a renault clio in last week for a new clutch.Reno main dealer could'nt give the punter a time or price to do the job cos you have to drop the whole subframe,suspension,engine and box I'd rather set points every 3000 miles with tools that anyone can buy, even Snap on don't charge £1800 for a screwdriver and a set of feeler guages.

[lordyoung1980]

Its not the lupo its the Audi A2

[xbo11ox]

Hmm, £1800 is a bit steep I must admit. I wonder whats so good about it? I presume its some sort of digital force gauge.

[vicsmith]

So it is true about something then? I was hoping this would be an urban legend. Fair enough, leave all the T reg onwards stuff to the reps and people who like a nice recent letter, I like early `90s stuff as daily drivers myself, 16 valve engines and good rustproofing but still on carbs or with really basic ECUs that you can swap over with ones from a scrapper. Its just that if you want all these non existant computer generated problems to go away you`ll have to opt out of the club entirely and just run your Rangey or something.

[lordyoung1980]

Its a black box with a wire coming out the bottom going to another black box with a slot in it that you slide over the belt and tention to some unit of measurement that i've never heard of and i'm an engineer FFS.I think its been done deliberatly to scare off DIYers,And it worked.On the plus side i can spend the time fiddling with my Retros.


RANT OVER...........

[reanimation]

vicsmith said:

Fair enough, leave all the T reg onwards stuff to the reps and people who like a nice recent letter, I like early `90s stuff as daily drivers myself, 16 valve engines and good rustproofing but still on carbs or with really basic ECUs that you can swap over with ones from a scrapper.

Must admit. i'm worried about the future for when these old cars of the future get seriously enthusiast taxed, yeah loads of 80's and 90's snotters and daily grinders available for next t nowt right now, parts are cheap too but what happens when its all been turned into metal tat in china and all we have is a load of over inflated projects car and parts. will it happen?

Cant see car parts getting simpler or having servicable bits, or nuts and bolts on em in the future. maybe its time to stock pile some power plants and donor part top trumps?

[dollywobbler]

I feel your pain Lord Young although in my opinion, the older DTurbo was a much better car. Simpler engine and intercooled!

You have hit the nail on the head though. Running classics everyday, you always seem to be fiddling with something or other to get them running properly whereas a modern is less hassle. Until something goes wrong which will inevitably be a nightmare or very expensive to fix.

Personally, I'm happier in the "meddling" camp. Very rare that one of my classics has a big enough problem to stop me getting somewhere.

[akku]

I was interupted on my Mini mumble. The point being that the SPI Mini got us everywhere we set off in it for faultlessly, until the day it just died due to some sensor loom short. We had several carb & dizzy Minis before that and every single one of them spluttered to a halt at the side of the road at least a couple of times a year. One of them did it a couple of times a week at one point and was a sod to fault fix it too as I recall.

However, I digress and I think that points been made by others already in this thread.

The thing is that the jobbing mechanics don't go out and buy £1800 special tools from Pug to repair pugs. They come acorss a lot of mixed brand cars and many require "special tools". They either know work arounds or where to get equivalents to the special tools on the cheap. Even the FSM for your car may suggest an alternative to the special tool needed for a job.

Best thing to do is ask people in the owners club or even on the Car Mechanics forum or something.

Theres ways around most things. Even the BMW-only service indicator light can be reset on all models using aftermarket tool to do it.

[Robinxr4i]

reanimation said:

Cant see car parts getting simpler or having servicable bits, or nuts and bolts on em in the future. maybe its time to stock pile some power plants and donor part top trumps?

Manufactures are not interested in repairing or servicing parts, they only want to replace. I.E. If the engine goes wrong its not a case of replacing the worn out part or fixing the problem, they simply replace the whole engine! I can see the point in doing it but I personally think its the wrong way of going about it.

What happens if you own a Mazda 6 with the new fangled interference fit engine, in 10 year time the engine is worn you wont be able to get it rebuilt cause the parts arnt avaiable. You will have no other choice than to buy a new engine from the main dealer......... if they still make it?