I shouldn't really be posting this on here but instead on the mini forum, but i have found myself more and more interested in locosts...

yes the mini, owned since Christmas 09 as a restoration present and restored and finally insured 1st of January 2011... first month or 2 was great, not a problem, but since then there have been more and more problems, and not cheap little fixes.

things like suspension, brakes and engine troubles... exhaust has nearly fallen off and some things knocking underneath the car again just today and i have had enough.

what can i do? insurance doesnt run out until 1st of january still has MOT and TAX... insurance was only £640 (for an 18 year old in london)

now the next car i wanted was a locost for modifying over my uni time, and then driven in the summer when im home, it will be left on the drive but i will find a decent cover for it and thats not a problem.

i was going to sell the car over winter and buy in winter, but im half tempted to just do it now and move on, but what about insurance? would have wasted a lot of it...

grrrrr why can't it just work....

i was hopeing for around £1500 for the mini in the winter with MOT and TAX, it is completely solid everywehre with no rust, i was going to refit the carpets soon but it looks a little shabby inside... plus its a limited edition.

i then have a couple of grand in savings account and a job plus £200 tax return to go towards it. so overall im looking at around £3.5k for a car (CEC) not anything bigger than 1.8 for insurance.

i knid of feel its now or never as summer only has a month or so left in it, and if i dont sell the car over the summer it will have to be winter and the whole idea of selling early will be useless..

i will stop rambling now and let you speak

-end rant/ramble-

[Edited on 14/7/11 by Kwik]

Pics please!

paint looks deceivingly good in that picture... dont get your hopes up...

i also have the decals on order for down the sides and boot.

and alloys need a bit of attention, but will be doing that if i decide to wait till winter...

Well i'd suggest if you have restored it and things are falling off and rattling then really you should look upon it as an opportunity to learn.............. and figure out what jobs need doing and do them properly.

Not being funny but parts really shouldnt be falling off if you've just restored the car. How far did the restoration go??

it was mainly a bodywork restoration, it had more holes than a sieve underneath and about the size of an A4 piece of paper worth of metal missing in the boot, paint was also bad..

didnt really touch the engine as it just worked, and the exhaust was fitted new before i got it, then had the problem and took it to a garage and now it sounds like it is knocking again (but might not be the exhaust)

and i did have a trained mechanic helping me throughout, and he has restored a fair few cars...

i have learnt a lot from it but there seems to be a new problem every other week and i end up just spending all my money on it.... would rather own a car which doesnt decide to break every week and something i can enjoy more...

quote:

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Originally posted by Kwik
would rather own a car which doesnt decide to break every week and something i can enjoy more...

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If you are going to sell I reckon you'd be best to do it in the summer, but as above things falling off all the time and making more work is part of the hobby.

Only you can decide what to do but it basically boils down to sell it, keep it on the road or keep it off the road.

I wouldn't worry about the insurance, If you sold up I'm guessing you'd buy another car so you'd just carry it over and if you didn't I think you get some of the money back for cancelling it (Though I could be wrong, I had to cancel my first insurance and had to pay a fee but my Direct debits stopped and the fee was no where near the rest of the policy).

I had a friend who wanted a mini and I went to see some with her and really aweful cars were up for strong money and were selling so I wouldn't be too worried, but I'd say stick with it.

Hello,

Mini is a beautifull car but the mecanic is crap.

Sell it as son as you can and go for lowcost.

With you budget, you won't find a perfect car, but at least, mecanical problems on a lowcost are more easy to solv thenn on a mini.


Gerardo

what attracts me to a locost is things like:
suspension aren't hidden in the front subframe, like the mini...
there is very little to rust, unlike the mini
better driving experience (i have my reasons, that is a whole other can of worms i dare not open)
no A series engine

but it has no roof
i would guess slightly more insurance
not a winter or wet weather car
i don't have a garage

i kind of feel like i have to make a decision quickly, as summer is coming to an end. the problems i can fix and i will do it all properly like i always have done with the car...

i will think about it for a week or so whilst i fix the problems

thanks for the comments, always a help

Having owned and raced.. Both.. an S3 Seven and a 1275 'S' .
Both are fun cars to drive and both are exceptionally easy to drive fast. Very unlikely any other cars are as forgiving and easy to learn to use.
MINI is a pretty damn Basic machine IF it confuses you welll..? then a Seven ain't gonna be that much simpler.. IF.. at all.
G'luck Boy.



[Edited on 15/7/11 by Bare]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kwik
i would guess slightly more insurance

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If you can maintain something as simple as a Mini what makes you think you'll fare any better with anything else?
With any restoration, once successfully back on the road there is then the ongoing shakedown/routine maintenance - you get that with any vehicle.
Get to know the Min & put it right (not that hard). I'm speaking as one who restored a Wolseley Hornet (Mini with boot) as his first car & then ran it for 4 years.

Phil.

quote:

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Originally posted by Grimsdale
Well here's some good news - i think the insurance will be less! Plus insurers aren't so bothered about engine size so a 2.0 is feasible.

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ok i think i should make things a little clearer as i was a bit tired and all over the place yesterday...

i can fix the mini, i can maintain it as i have done for the last 7 months or so...

the problem i have with it is problems keep happening, different problems that weren’t part of the original restoration.

i am pretty sure i could build a kit car given time money and a garage, but as i have none of that i was going to get one second hand.

"problems keep happening" - sound like car ownership!

sorry to burst your bubble but most kit cars are constant on going projects and will require plently of work to keep them on the road, probably just as much as your mini. But then again that's part of the fun, if you don't want that then buy a modern production car.

another reason for me selling anyway was because i didnt want to keep spending money on a car that is horrible driving at anything above 50. i dont mind ongoing projects, but if i do have one i would rather a car like a locost which is at least more fun to drive and a car i plan on keeping for 4 maybe 5 or 6 years...

I really, really, REALLY suggest that you enquire about insurance before committing to anything - you might have a nasty surprise (like no insurer will talk to you until after your 25th birthday, or similar... or they will quote some obscene amount so you'll go away.)

There are some advantages to being in my 50s... like stupidly cheap insurance for my kit car!

quote:

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Originally posted by Kwik

owned since Christmas 09 as a restoration present and restored and finally insured 1st of January 2011... first month or 2 was great, not a problem, but since then there have been more and more problems, and not cheap little fixes.

it had more holes than a sieve underneath and about the size of an A4 piece of paper worth of metal missing in the boot,

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quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
I really, really, REALLY suggest that you enquire about insurance before committing to anything - you might have a nasty surprise (like no insurer will talk to you until after your 25th birthday, or similar... or they will quote some obscene amount so you'll go away.)

There are some advantages to being in my 50s... like stupidly cheap insurance for my kit car!

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On a real Mini If you are having exhaust problems and knocking noises from under the car then they are symptoms of an engine mount and engine steady problem. The main engine mounts between the sump and the subframe are a pig to change, they may look ok but are almost certainly knackered

should it not be measure 100 times, cut once, mess it up and get really angry then do it again tomorrow, repeat until finished?

Thingsd going wrong is a big part of motoring even if you go out and buy a new car.

If you really don't like the driving experience of the mini then swap it, but make sure that your not just making yourself think that way because of the other stuff.

engine mounts have been changed in my ownership and found today it wasn’t the exhaust, which is a relief in ways as i must have done something right...

good point about checking insurance, though it will only be for 6 months at a time during summer (away at uni most of the year)

driving experience in a mini isnt nice in london, speed bumps is the main thing. dont get me wrong, there are loads of advantages with parking and getting out of tight spaces etc. but i dont see that many advantages over say the corsa i drove before the mini...

the biggest gripe i have against the mini is those little speed bumps that were designed so fire engines and ambulances can speed over them, so they only take up the middle of the lane. most cars can straddle them no problem but in the mini i need to slow right down due to the combination of the trumpet suspension being rock solid and a narrow track. do locosts have the same problem?

in all honesty these thoughts had been floating in my head for a whilst but ignored the numbers and asked if i really wanted it, answer was yes for the locost then all the trouble started to happen recently...

talking of numbers though, i have 4 months insurance left, which is a third of a year, insurance was £640, third of which is £212ish MOT and TAX will come to around £170. so if i sell now i dont need to redo tax and MOT and if i get nothing back on insurance its only a loss of around £50...

ill see how it goes once its back and running again though, i have decided not to use it this week at all and instead work on it, see if i can recoup some enthusiasm...

Selling the mini you say, hmmm fancy another mini whats the full spec as it stands??

U2U'd everyone, didn’t realise i had them...

quote:

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Originally posted by bartonp
"problems keep happening" - sound like car ownership!

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I started out with a mini and had it for four years, and went through all the troubles you've experienced... random mechanics failing etc. etc.

And it ended up being an irrational money pit that looking back on the choice now I would've much rather spent the money on a sorted 200sx which would've been fast, reliable etc.

But I learnt more from sorting out the mini and learning from it than I ever would have done otherwise. And trust me, if you sort your mini problems out and live with it, then when it comes to putting a kit car together with (perhaps not all, but a lot of) new components, it will seem like absolute heaven compared to battling with rusty bolts etc.

It also gives you a bit longer to actually figure out what you want and can get from a kit car - you do need to do a bit of research as to insurance, and anything else you'll need. There are a LOT of tools, space, storage, parts, odds and ends that you'd never think of that start adding up when you build from scratch.



I hope nobody here lynches me for it, but if what you want is a semi reliable car to use on sunny days, that's still fun and has character, may I gently nudge you towards having a look at something like an Mx-5? If you're good with a welder, there are some really good cheap projects to be had, and you can cut your teeth on that for a year or two, actually enjoy driving it in that time (which you won't be able to do if you start building a kit car) and then use that experience to build what you want.


However, if you do decide to just sell up and go for a kit, then you'll find an incredible amount of assistance, knowledge and encouragement on this forum!

my intentions wasn’t to build a kit, no money or garage space. but to buy one second hand.

only problem is it wont have a roof, which wont matter as i wont need it at uni, and will only drive it in the summer break...

my dream car would be a lotus 7 s4 GT, basically a 7 with a hardtop and gull wing doors... one day....

My dream 7 is something simmillar, I saw a picture of one of the gull wing GT's and from then on I wanted one.

I reckon you could make a hardtop fairly easilly, I've seen alot of hard tops on 7's and most look home made.