Practically Classics Forum

suffolkpete wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:46 amWhat's wrong with a Vauxhall Mokka?

Back in the day when I drove a company car there was quite a bit of company car snobbery, heavens knows why, it's not as though anyone owned the vehicle. I remember a salesman who had shunted his car just once to often. He was a good salesman but a lousy driver. The company took his Audi off of him and gave him a Vauxhall Cavalier. He actually wept. Mind you, if the Aggro had been around when I drove an Audi A4 as my company car, had they swapped it for the Allegro, I might have wept.

GHT wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:29 pm

suffolkpete wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:46 amWhat's wrong with a Vauxhall Mokka?

Back in the day when I drove a company car there was quite a bit of company car snobbery, heavens knows why, it's not as though anyone owned the vehicle. I remember a salesman who had shunted his car just once to often. He was a good salesman but a lousy driver. The company took his Audi off of him and gave him a Vauxhall Cavalier. He actually wept. Mind you, if the Aggro had been around when I drove an Audi A4 as my company car, had they swapped it for the Allegro, I might have wept.

He wept? Company Car snobbery ? You worked with some very odd people.. ive driven all sorts of vehicles for companies and all i wanted was a working heater and radio.. hbo856v (i think) had holes in the floor and the windscreen held in with bits of metal but no radio.. as long as I didn't have to pay the fuel bills etc i was happy..

My first "decent" car was an ex-fleet Ford Cortina 1.6 .. not even an L model. Red with beige vinyl interior. It had been the co pool car for a few months. I found out it was "clonking" at the rear which turned out to be the suspension bushes .. so being me I offered to replace them if they (a) lent it to me for a long weekend away and (b) paid for the parts and the bush replacement tools. They did both.

The other car in the "pool" was a beige Marina 1.3 Coupé ... I had the misfortune to borrow that too for a weekend to get to Wales but suffered with a stiff back and shoulders after fighting to keep it on the M4 all the way as it wanted to leave the motorway on the left ... and wasn't too concerned if that was at a slip-road or just up the banking!!

A couple of months later that Marina needed an MOT so I offered to see what I could do .. and eventually wound the steering across a bit so it then drove more to the right, overcoming the pull to the left!! Company was very grateful especially as I'd also put the driver's door mirror back where it came off in someone's hand along with some rusting door panel ... and this was a 4 year old car!! (I screwed the mirror to a piece of thick ali plate that we fitted inside).

The Sales Manager offered the Marina to me for a good price ... I said "No, but I'd buy the Cortina" .. and he agreed straight away! (Company also ordered and paid for a small panel beating kit as a "thank you" so I did well out of that. I think it helped I'd got the Marketing Director's wife's car started for him a few days before .. he looked a bit lost in the car park one evening and I didn't have his company Beemer ... Sales Manager reported to him )

Kept the Cortina for nearly 5 years and the only time it let me down was when it threw a cambelt on the M4 (J5 Slough/Datchet). Luckily being a low compression engine the valves and pistons didn't touch so just fitted a new belt and re-timed it!! Added some GL wheel trims and seat covers during that time.

Dick wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 6:44 amHe wept? Company Car snobbery ? You worked with some very odd people.. ive driven all sorts of vehicles for companies and all i wanted was a working heater and radio.. hbo856v (i think) had holes in the floor and the windscreen held in with bits of metal but no radio.. as long as I didn't have to pay the fuel bills etc i was happy..

The company car used to be a status symbol. It was an outward sign of the rank that you held within an organisation. Like gazza, I too had a Cortina, it was a 1600, I think, a Mark two. Promotion brought me a Corsair. Those on the first rung of the greasy ladder got a bog standard Anglia. When Ford introduced the Escort those still driving the Anglia went around like a dog that's scented a bitch on heat.

Company car snobbery was probably due to the car being a perk, at the time the tax man had yet to sting the company car driver, but when he did the bottom dropped out of company car "ownership." The tax was punitive. One of the reasons why you see so many four door pick up trucks these days is because they are classified as commercial and are exempt from company car tax.

The company I worked for back then had a good company car policy with a wide range of vehicles and makes .. but then, horror of horrors, they decided it had to be a Vauxhall .. so Cavaliers at the bottom end and pretty basic ones at that.

I got a new job and one of the "incentives" I was offered to stay was a car from higher up the ladder .. Senator I think .. but it still had a Vauxhall badge. So I moved on and the new ccompany's car policy was basically here's how much you can spend each month, what do you want? (Oh and here's a fully paid-up fuel card too!). To start with I went for an MG Montego 2.0i, then on to an Alfa 75 Twinspark LE, Jeep Cherokee (with LOTS of extras), Alfa 156 TSpark (with extras), and finally a Lexus IS200. We bought three of them when the leases expired and had them as second cars for many years .. especially the 156 which had 210k on the clock and was 18 years old when it had to go.

Ght, do you fancy spending a fortune to live likea homeless person?
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... tory_share

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/184713468324

That caravan looks like one I saw on a traveller's site. I would rather someone else do the restoring, but I wouldn't mind a caravan for festivals.

Gents, ive found an old rover a couple hours away and the chap hasn't used it since 2005... its been stood in a barn all this time.. are they fairly easy to restore? Im assuming it will need a new cam belt etc could a home mechanic do this?? Or do i need my sanity checked for even considering it??

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 434592554/

That Rover could be well worth the trouble. If it's a 75 it will have a BMW engine, but what I am not sure of, is the name. The seller describes it as a Rover Stirling, now I thought that the Stirling was only sold in the USA, but if that was the case it wouldn't be R/H/D. If it is an American Stirling it will have the Honda V6 engine. Just have a look under the bonnet, or should that be hood?
As you were, I've got my dates wrong. It's my age you see, amnesia and all that. 1991 would put the car under British Aerospace's watch. The naturally aspirated 2.7 Litre 24v V6 petrol engine gives it plenty of grunt, but all that poke going to front wheel drive, good luck with that.
Best advice I can offer, without taking potshots at the remnants of good old B/L is to read Parker's Review of the car.

It is a Rover 800 series. The top of the range model was badged Sterling in the UK market. A DVLA check on the registration number shows it to be a March 1994 model and it has the 2.7 litre V6. They are extremely rare now but were really nice luxury cars back in the day. It looks as though it only wants re-commissioning, although I'm told cambelt changes can be difficult.