Gentle Ben
Vee-Man
Well, it's a van I bought for work. The £800 I got for the blue Vectra paid for this and a night out so I can't complain.
Anyway as Escort's go this doesn't seem to bad for the money, 1 years' MOT just put on and tax until January next year.
There's one or two niggly problems, the handbrake needs adjusting as the handbrake comes right up, the indicators don't self-cancel and there's a bush gone on the gearstick that stops it self-centering. If I'm being finicky then the fuel guage is a bit 'fluttery' as in when stationary it'll read say a quarter-tank, then you move off and the needle dips down to about the 1/8th mark.... a bit annoying.
Anyway, I did a very primitive economy test by running it down as far as I dare on the guage, fuelling up with a tenner of diesel and then driving it for as far as I dare.
The result is 90 miles to £10 which I am thoroughly chuffed with, a £10 of petrol would normally only get me about 55/60 miles in the Vectra.
Had it up on the ramps and it's not got any rot on it and it's never been welded either, so I've done rather well. The arches and bottom of the rear doors are pretty immaculate to.
All in all a good buy, doesn't clean up to bad and plenty of room for all my kit.
[BREAK]
Well, I just seen I haven't updated this since I bought it!
This van has been absolute diamond, it runs without fault and has just passed the 169,000 mark. It's slow as tar but that's the only thing to fault really. It's starting to look a bit aged too, rust has appeared on the leading edges of the bonnet and roof and the previously well dressed wheels are starting to corrode.
Last month it flew through it's MOT, with advisory notice issued warning of low brake pads on the front, a wearing tyre and slight corrosion on the chassis. It was the first time I'd ever had a vehicle pass the first time of asking!
So day after I swapped the worn tyre with the spare wheel and fitted some new front brake pads.
A couple of months previously the van decided not to start one morning, it had always had a lazy starter motor so I looked there first, a few taps with a wrench freed it up and allowed it to start, but I decided to renew the starter and just be done with it. Later that month it had two new tyres replaced on the front.
Other bits to mention are it's had a roof rack fitted, one of the firms' old Escort vans was retired at the start of the year due to corrosion, I cheekily asked if I could have the roof rack off it before it was scrapped and they agreed, which was nice.
So anyway over a year on and I'm still loving the van to bits, it's slow and looking worse for wear but it starts first time every time still, it does over 100 miles to a tenner of fuel and I would trust it to take me anywhere!
There's always the temptation to ned it up a bit, there's been a trip up to Chris's planned for a few months to collect some Escort/Mondeo 5-spoke alloy wheels to replace the tatty steels but things are a bit up in the air down here at the minute with various things going on.
Anyway as Escort's go this doesn't seem to bad for the money, 1 years' MOT just put on and tax until January next year.
There's one or two niggly problems, the handbrake needs adjusting as the handbrake comes right up, the indicators don't self-cancel and there's a bush gone on the gearstick that stops it self-centering. If I'm being finicky then the fuel guage is a bit 'fluttery' as in when stationary it'll read say a quarter-tank, then you move off and the needle dips down to about the 1/8th mark.... a bit annoying.
Anyway, I did a very primitive economy test by running it down as far as I dare on the guage, fuelling up with a tenner of diesel and then driving it for as far as I dare.
The result is 90 miles to £10 which I am thoroughly chuffed with, a £10 of petrol would normally only get me about 55/60 miles in the Vectra.
Had it up on the ramps and it's not got any rot on it and it's never been welded either, so I've done rather well. The arches and bottom of the rear doors are pretty immaculate to.
All in all a good buy, doesn't clean up to bad and plenty of room for all my kit.
[BREAK]
Well, I just seen I haven't updated this since I bought it!
This van has been absolute diamond, it runs without fault and has just passed the 169,000 mark. It's slow as tar but that's the only thing to fault really. It's starting to look a bit aged too, rust has appeared on the leading edges of the bonnet and roof and the previously well dressed wheels are starting to corrode.
Last month it flew through it's MOT, with advisory notice issued warning of low brake pads on the front, a wearing tyre and slight corrosion on the chassis. It was the first time I'd ever had a vehicle pass the first time of asking!
So day after I swapped the worn tyre with the spare wheel and fitted some new front brake pads.
A couple of months previously the van decided not to start one morning, it had always had a lazy starter motor so I looked there first, a few taps with a wrench freed it up and allowed it to start, but I decided to renew the starter and just be done with it. Later that month it had two new tyres replaced on the front.
Other bits to mention are it's had a roof rack fitted, one of the firms' old Escort vans was retired at the start of the year due to corrosion, I cheekily asked if I could have the roof rack off it before it was scrapped and they agreed, which was nice.
So anyway over a year on and I'm still loving the van to bits, it's slow and looking worse for wear but it starts first time every time still, it does over 100 miles to a tenner of fuel and I would trust it to take me anywhere!
There's always the temptation to ned it up a bit, there's been a trip up to Chris's planned for a few months to collect some Escort/Mondeo 5-spoke alloy wheels to replace the tatty steels but things are a bit up in the air down here at the minute with various things going on.
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