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[MaxV6]

right.....  this month looks like it's gonna be busy as all hell,  i'm working all over the place, literally...   5 days in Glasgow, 2 weeks in oxford, 2 days near Falmouth, 2 days in Exeter, 2 days in London.....   

the upshot of it all is that towards the tail end, probably around the 20th-21st i'm gonna need to GET a car....  coz it's either that or spend another bloody fortune on my much loved, but aged, and worn out Elite Estate...


well, I say worn out.....   actually she's not THAT bad....  but i have to draw a line somewhere....  or i'll continue sinking more and more money into garage bills..

exhaust manifold gaskets,   new front disks,  pads all round, new rear bumper,  a few rust spots....   the suspension is starting to feel a bit softer than it ought,   the list goes on,   none of them need necessarily be car killers on their own, but cumulatively, they add up to the cost of a lower mileage replacement..... 
(to those of us without the tools, or physical robustness , or time, to spend a week crawling around in the cold & damp , then a week laid up in traction....  )


some of you may remember, i've already been in this position this year, in January, she had a new Exhaust, cam covers, cam cover gaskets, cam belt,  and what not... totaling about £1500 in bills.


i'm determined not to be in the same boat again....

at the time, there was only one v6 Miggy elite estate for sale in the UK....   a green one , with a dodgy front end repair  (no headlight washers fitted )

and so i blew the money fixing  the current car up....


this time i'm absolutely determined not to end up in the same boat.


so....   current cash flow projection says i'll have maybe £2500 in cash, at the back end of the month.....     spare (after allowing for paying all the bills this month, and shopping and so on)

While my dream car ,  currently at Josh's , is still out of my reach,  if i don;t buy something i'm going to HAVE to blow it all on this one AGAIN...  and gawd knows what else will break in another 3 weeks....

SO

what else is there, realistically, that falls in budget,  with similar load carrying capacity, and comfort??   with decent reliability, and not astronomical servicing costs.





and if any one wants to play Spot the bargain Miggy, i'd be grateful.....

last month i spotted one, in autotrader, for about £1850, ...   late plate, sub 100K miles, black elite estate.....   with all relevant toys.
...   but was about £500 short on being able to just go buy it....  and i will NOT get a loan out ....   if i can;t pay cash, i ain t buying it... 

[bluey]

I was going to say Merc E-Class estate, but the W124 series are heading to the end of their bullet-proofness while the W210 is an utter shed of a car and should be avoided at all costs. Besides, even the nicest MB can still make your wallet cry if you do high miles.  5-Series Beemer is a very good motor but you will feel those obscene gestures no matter how well you drive, and as for Audi....nope, I just can't think of anything from them that has a good load capacity and drives well.  Actually, I can't think of an Audi that drives well at all, overrated wooden benches the lot of them. 

For reliability you could look at something Japanese but make sure it's beige.  You will die of bordeom driving it so have it just as exciting on the outside.  Thinking about it, the Mitsubishi Galant estate was pretty decent and they don't cost a fat lot to buy either.

Saab 9-5 estate maybe?

[RobG]

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1286393490 :-/

[hoofing it]

Just keep it.
as you say its had a fortune spent on it.
You could buy a newer car and end up spending even more on it plus the traveling you do i'd stick with the mig.  :-/

[Kevin Wood]

I don't see a lot of costs in that list. Nor much that isn't pretty much a consumable on an Omega (or any car for that matter) the like of which you'd probably have to do on any car you pick up second hand.

I'd get Loo-Knee on the case for a day myself.

Kevin

[feeutfo]

As Kevin says, I think all you need is Daft Pinks number.

Any omega, not from an oofer possibly, but any omega will need that list doing again, and you have just done most of it, only to give it away and start again....? :-?

Pm Daz with a list of jobs and see what he says first at the very least....surely?

[pedroMV6]

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1286393490
 

[MaxV6]

not  a bad plan....  I was also going to call James (assuming he still does such things)

i'll add that she's on 151K now....  and i'm just a bit leary of spending yet more on her, knowing that the tin worm is eating away at bits....  , and worrying that yet more bits will let go before the end of the year....

Pedro's looked awfully tempting, till I saw the mileage....   despite the care it's had of late....  (and i thought he'd already sold it.....   )

There is definitely an element of feeling a little happier being closer to 100K than 200K

given the travelling i do...   (i'm flying to glasgow,  but the rest is car based) , with 3 figure commutes at least 3 or 4 times a month, the miles add up....

i've only had this one maybe 2 and half years, and i've piled on over 50K in that time...

my general trend is to buy em at around the 90k mark, get 60k out of em, and move on.....   


I love em, and take reasonable care , servicing oil changes and stuff, but paying Garage labour rates round here means it comes out a LOT more expensive than you'd think...


for example, local garage over the road, std rate is £60 + vat an hour.

main dealer was £87.50 + vat last time i checked.... 

so.....    4 hours on a manifold gasket goes between £300 and £420 depending on where it goes...


+ parts....

then there's all the other bits....

tot that up and it's very quickly the wrong side of a Grand.

at which point, maybe Pedro's 2.6 might be an option.... 

but.....   if there's funds available, and the right car turned up.....   i dunno.....


maybe i should  get a push bike and trailer .

[pedroMV6]

Oh well, worth a shot!

[MaxV6]

hmmmm     is there any mileage / practicality in the idea of getting Pedro's, and swapping in to it with stuff from My Elite (Mini facelift)


is it possible?    EG...  I'm married to the Bose stereo in the elite, with the built in phone....    and would, literally, be utterly lost without my sat nav....  which i much prefer to those bloody horrid tom tom things....

then there's the leather seats...     but maybe the facelift ones will prove as comfortable on the long haul drives late at night..... 

oh i dunno......   just moidering about options really....  I;'ve been spoilt for too long....  having 2 of these things, IDENTICAL on the trot..... covering over 110K in them  there is an element of wishfully hoping for a 3rd....

[MaxV6]

Oh well, worth a shot!

Pedro, old bean, i've not entirely thrown out the idea ......   i'm just a picky idiot, as well as  nervous about miles.....   

[pedroMV6]

Mine doesn't have leather, but heated and far more comfortable, in my humble opinion!
We have an Elite [truck] too.

The Bose in my wife's Elite isn't that much better then the stereo in the MV6, just a bit more depth and perhaps mid-range clarity. The phone is handy though - can't argue with that!

[Martin_1962]

Out of interest where in COrnwall are you going?

[MaxV6]

Good stereo's are important to me, because I'm an audio professional....  I do an unfeasible amount fo critical listening/mix assessment in the car while screaming down the motorway to the next session.....   


and likewise long phone calls to clients trying to do remote support at the same time as heading down there.... 


and the utter hatred of stopping to read a map, and refusal to try doing so on the move.....   ..... 


okay, so I could get a hands free bluetooth kit....


phone solved...

and I could, under duress, get  a tom tom, although i'd prefer it if the Carin system from My elite was capable of being fitted to the Mv6



my leather seats are heated too !! ;-)    in icy conditions, I fire up the car, turn on all the heater bits, and THEN go round with the ice scraper !   while the seats warm up!

does the Mv6 have the auto-dipping rear view mirror?

if not is it possible to fit one?


it looks a decent car pedro, and it's a very attractive price.....   on the assumption that it doesn't do unto me what mine is already doing..... 

  i'm currently assuming mine has very little resale value in it's current state....   and that therefore i'd not be losing much, if anything if i were to transfer bits out of it, should that be possible .....

[MaxV6]

Out of interest where in COrnwall are you going?

Offhand I think it's Porthleven (Helston) ...   waiting for precise details....   only booked it out today....