New Tat - when will I learn?

[Jon]

It's been a busy time of late at Jon towers, namely starting some casual work which required some training, then a visit from some UK friends before a slight overlap of visiting parents, too. Therefore, the absolute best time to contemplate buying some new scat. Mrs_Jon has never really gelled with our pool car, the 505 (better know as the turd) though it's gone down well with visiting friends and family and so has served its purpose well. I'd had a feeling for a while that it'd be best to move it on whilst it's still a working car but laziness and complacency overruled this and it remained in the driveway, adding oil to the ever-increasing filthy patch at its parking spot. Here's the turd polished in preparation for sale:



The general idea was to replace it with:

- something newer
- similar in size or larger
- more common
- in better condition.

After all, it's a pool car and so things like power steering for guests used to moderns along with a central locking system that actually works outweigh the more interesting elements which attract me to new motors. What actually happened was that the car of my dreams (no, really) became available again after I narrowly missed getting it a few months back so I bought that instead. The only thing vaguely correlating to the criteria above are that it's only 27 rather than 29 years old.....



GR8* paint work couldn't even deter me. I guess viewing it in the dark and having already considered it bought before arriving to view it put paid to that. It was for sale up in Auckland and the agenda on the day I bought it was to drop my mates off at the airport, pick up my parents and buy a car. Naturally, the day started with a lie-in, then a couple of hours kayaking, followed by a mad-cap rush to do everything else, including undertaking the 180km trip north to Auckland on a Friday afternoon. Since my mates flew out very early on Saturday morning (and we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible) yet my parents wanted picking up in central Auckland around tea time, we all met up together for a meal at their hotel. Buying a car suddenly became a very sensible thing to do, as I'd unwittingly* created a situation whereby there were too many people to fit in to one car.

I'd been in contact with the seller since November, when he'd bought the car. You could say that I'd almost badgered him in to offering me first refusal should he sell, which to his credit he duly did. He probably knew he had me hooked, since I'd let slip to him how long I'd wanted one (16 years!) so it was hardly a difficult sale, though one I wasn't truly over the moon with, mostly because it looked like this:



Nice paint job on the rear door there. The other side is only slightly less crap.

In case you're wondering, the issue wasn't that it's a Citroen Visa GTi, rather that it's a very scruffy and rather smelly one, with plenty of small niggles and also a bit of rust. Despite all that, I really don't think I regret it!

[Seth]

That's got to be satisfying, getting a car you've wanted for so long. Now all you need to do is pay for Vulgalour to fly out and clean it for you.

[Leonard Hatred]

That's brilliant. I'd love to try a Visa GTi.
Am I right in thinking that these are essentially a weird 205/Visa hybrid?

[I.K.Brunel]

Pretty much a 205 gti that's been beaten with the ugly* stick??

*eye of beholder etc

[tone_depear]

[Jon]

Len, you're right in thinking it's a bastardised 205 GTI, at least at the front. I'm not so sure about the rear but have a feeling there's a different set-up to the rear beam effort of the 205 but quite embarrassingly I know little else about it

I think you've hit the nail on the head I.K, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there's just something about its ugly duckling aesthetics that do it for me and have done since I was an adolescent. The instigating factor I reckon is that I picked up a load of mid-80's What Car? mags around 1994 (which thankfully survived the mass cull of 2010 when we emigrated) and pored over them all the time, including a 1986 issue with a line-up and assessment of pretty much every hot hatch on sale at the time. The Visa just happened to shine through both in its price category (pitted against the likes of MG Metro and Alfa Romeo Arna Cloverleaf) and overall but it did have an unfair advantage, I suppose. There was probably the notion that its obscurity would make it cheap to procure and insure at 17 (!!!) but of course that never happened.

Funny you should mention the Vulgalor visit Seth, as I think this picture from my birthday sums up my rendition of the white Citroen cleaner:



Expect to see more detailing* snaps in the coming days.

[start]

I fear that Jon has forgotten the mantra of auto-scat, if it is a bit dirty and smells foul a quick vacum and a smelly nice thing in the air vent will do just perfectly.
On the other hand the Audi will be back in service soon, so expect a visit to inspect your very rare purchase.
Was this sold new in NZ?, The plate is about right for 85-86.

[Vulgalour]

Excellent looking Hitachi there, looks right at home in the silly French car.

[Jon]

Expect to see more detailing* snaps in the coming days.

There's only 120+ days in four months, so I suppose that still counts as coming days. Maybe. Anyway, I suppose it's worth updating this a little, along with a round-up of all the other scat littering my driveway over this period. First things first, some photos of cleaning:




Here's Dad liberally beating dirt out of the carpet with the attachment of a 1980's vacuum cleaner. Seemed to work well and was no doubt the pinnacle of his holiday experience.




Nevertheless, a hired carpet cleaner did its duty very well for the half day I had it (and spent my birthday money on doing so in the process, since I'm such an interesting guy), so here's a gratuitous dirty bucket shot, since we all like to see these.




Have an over-exposed shot of the commodious* boot, for good measure. Were the engine smaller (and the tyre skinnier), it'd be under the bonnet, of course. The loss of boot space hasn't caused me any issues but then I suppose I have a wagon, should I need the space.




A frankly flattering level of light which reveals the final sparkling* result. Plastic bumpers and skirts were attacked with Jif (still called that over here) and various nylon brushes, though I still need to get round to finishing off some areas. Looks rough still but a bit more passable, anyway. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't cleaned it inside or out since March, as I'm lazy and feckless and it doesn't stop the car from going so gets shrugged off. It's been used for commuting since and stands up well to the job, so long as I remember never to use the electric windows (runners corroded) and limit the use of the wipers, as neither are interested in parking back where they belong. Money has been thrown at it in the form of 4 new Hankook tyres (almost impossible to source, due to weirdo 185/60/R13 profile) and a replacement back box and a home service, as I had all the relevant bits for the 205 already. The tappets need attention as it currently sounds like a Talbot Horizon and there's oodles of bits to tend to which would make it a lot nicer but all in all, I'm a happy bunny.

To re-cap, this was the driveway line-up for a brief period (plus Commodore):



ALL THE GTiS


Then this came to visit shortly after (see:http://www.moto-scat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=124):




And has since headed south to my cousins. The spares car was picked up after a bit of a prolonged wait a couple of weekends ago:






And has currently attracted a heady $57 on Trademe, including a lot of spares.

Then this arrived on Monday from forum member start, since he's upped sticks and moved to the south of England.




It's here in the form of a prolonged test drive to work out whether we want to buy it or not and if not, sell on behalf. The 205 was butchered a few weeks back when some cretins tried (and failed) to steal an unlocked 23 year old French car from our driveway overnight, which has rather taken the sheen off its ownership, so I'm awaiting a verdict from Mrs_Jon as to what she thinks of the Audi as a replacement.

[start]

start of course having suddenly surfaced in London a few hours ago, is now feelings pangs of regret as I liked the old Audi. It was passed to jon in a tide of such words as " well you forced me to buy it, now take it" etc. In reality I was able to use it up until I left NZ, and leave it needing a good valet at jon's front door!!
My trip to UK was tiring and uneventful. except for an American spot. While I was sitting in a nice shady, breezy spot in Los Angeles a 60's Lincoln Continental convertible hove into view, it looked a thoroughly disreputable mess and was occupied by 3 thoroughly disreputable looking people. It just appeared from behind a bus , wobbled across the road as only a land yacht could do then left, obviously powered by a 7 or maybe 6 1/2 cylinder powerplant. Of course the camera was not at the ready!