View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently May 15th, 2025, 5:56 pm



Reply to topic  [ 33 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next
 Reached the end of the A series road ... 
Author Message
Firing on two.
User avatar

Joined: March 10th, 2010, 12:37 am
Posts: 1927
Location: Alone in my polytunnel with my pitiful competition onions
Post Reached the end of the A series road ...
I've sold my last A series. I've finally realised that these things are now just a little too rare to run as I always used to run them, viz. driving it until it fell to bits, then getting another. While I am pretty good at the maintenance of the oily bits - those are the bits that interest me - I have no aptitude for, or interest in, maintaining the bodywork. Nor do I have the money to pay someone else to do this. Sooner or later, my cars fall to bits and get broken for spares: this was ok back in the 1990s whne 2cvs were ten a penny, but not any more.
So, my Dyane has gone to SteveQ of this very forum. I'll be shopping for something with a bit of character but also something I can run into the ground and scrap when it gets old and tired. I'll miss the Dyane - in fact, I had second thoughts about selling it right up to the point it disappeared round the corner on an A frame - but I know how the story would have ended if I'd kept it. And that would have been a shame.

_________________
The best things in life aren't things.


July 17th, 2013, 9:46 am
Profile
2CV Fan
User avatar

Joined: August 10th, 2010, 2:46 pm
Posts: 51
Location: Beckenham Kent UK
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
Sorry to see you go. Quite understandable given the increasing rarity and climbing prices.
All the best

_________________
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. (Albert Einstein )


July 17th, 2013, 10:14 am
Profile
Firing on two.
User avatar

Joined: March 10th, 2010, 12:37 am
Posts: 1927
Location: Alone in my polytunnel with my pitiful competition onions
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
I'll still be around here ... I'm planning a "how to rebuild your carb" thread and I still like little Citroens. But I honestly don't think I'll be owning another one, unless the prices drop and they start making them again!

_________________
The best things in life aren't things.


July 17th, 2013, 10:26 am
Profile
Firing on 1-2 Spark
User avatar

Joined: November 8th, 2009, 5:42 pm
Posts: 2847
Location: NL
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
You can make an art of it buying cheap pieces and make a drivable 2cv out of it (this is what I am doing the last 25 years or so........

_________________
Russell wrote:
Hi Geo,
you've been one of the sites biggest attractions in recent years.
Russ


July 17th, 2013, 12:31 pm
Profile WWW
Firing on two.
User avatar

Joined: December 26th, 2008, 9:40 pm
Posts: 3332
Location: Surrounded by 2cvs...
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
lpgo wrote:
You can make an art of it buying cheap pieces and make a drivable 2cv out of it (this is what I am doing the last 25 years or so........

Finding a cheap bodyshell and panels that don't need work is going to be the challenge, though.

_________________
Image
Zookeeper of a miscellany of motorised silliness - from 0.75bhp to 9ft tall - now living life on the road in an old VW.
http://WhereverTheRoadGoes.com


July 17th, 2013, 12:40 pm
Profile YIM WWW
Firing on two.

Joined: February 21st, 2012, 9:01 pm
Posts: 1136
Location: Avranches, Sud Manche, France
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
Maybe the Visa on the other thread may be of interest - good price and nearly a 2cv


July 17th, 2013, 6:09 pm
Profile
Firing on two.
User avatar

Joined: November 29th, 2008, 10:05 pm
Posts: 9259
Location: West Sussex, U.K.
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
toomany2cvs wrote:
lpgo wrote:
You can make an art of it buying cheap pieces and make a drivable 2cv out of it (this is what I am doing the last 25 years or so........

Finding a cheap bodyshell and panels that don't need work is going to be the challenge, though.



I agree with Lpgo. I can't remember the last time I ordered a 2cv panel. My £900 2cv is still going now, at least 100k and 7 years after I bought it, and it's cost me nothing except when it was written off and an insurance company picked up the tab for that. You just have to be in the right place at the right time to find cars and once you've got one you can keep it going by using secondhand shit picked up for next to nothing. It doesn't have to be expensive. Running a normal car, now that's expensive. I had to put two driveshafts on our 106 which cost £60, or, a fucking fortune in my book. If the 2cv needed the same I'd dig through the piles of shit in the shed and fit the first two I found, for free. 'Ooh, but that's not sustainable' everybody cries. Well when cheap scrappers stop presenting themselves and I run out of used shit I'll think about changing my ways, but as that doesn't show any sign of happening, I'll carry on running my car on a shoestring and not giving a toss.

_________________
samfieldhouse wrote:
What I like about I2F is that there is no pretence of democracy.


July 17th, 2013, 10:25 pm
Profile
Firing on two.
User avatar

Joined: March 10th, 2010, 12:37 am
Posts: 1927
Location: Alone in my polytunnel with my pitiful competition onions
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
^^ That does work well, given a shed full of spares and a couple of scrappers on the drive. The problem is, I haven't got a shed full of spares, and I haven't got the room for a couple of breakers anywhere. And even if I did have, the supply of cheap scrappers dried up some time ago for me!
You say modern cars are expensive ... I had a 1998 Saab 900 a while ago. I bought it for £300 and ran it for 18 months. Total expenditure was 75p on a sidelight bulb for its first MOT; when it failed its second MOT in my ownership, I sold it as "spares or repair" for £200. Compare that to what I spent on the shagged out 2cv which replaced it - three figures on service parts and piston rings alone - and suddenly 2cvs don't look like the cheap motoring they once were.
The Dyane I've just sold will, sooner or later, need some money spending on the bodywork if it's not going to slide inexorably downhill. I haven't got that sort of money, and while I can weld, I wouldn't feel at all confident in replacing big chunks of visible bodywork. I wouldn't have felt easy about running the thing until it went past the point of no return, because they're not making Dyanes any more. So what else was left but to sell it and get something like a tired old GM Saab 900, which doesn't matter and will be no great loss when it dies?

_________________
The best things in life aren't things.


July 18th, 2013, 5:45 am
Profile
Firing on 1-2 Spark
User avatar

Joined: November 8th, 2009, 5:42 pm
Posts: 2847
Location: NL
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
and where the next (world) meeting for Saabs?????? You can't express that in money...

_________________
Russell wrote:
Hi Geo,
you've been one of the sites biggest attractions in recent years.
Russ


July 19th, 2013, 12:16 am
Profile WWW
Firing on two.
User avatar

Joined: March 10th, 2010, 12:37 am
Posts: 1927
Location: Alone in my polytunnel with my pitiful competition onions
Post Re: Reached the end of the A series road ...
Well, maybe. I also feel I've "been there, done that" with the camping scene ... if I haven't got the money to run an A series, I certainly haven't got the money to drag one half way across Europe to go camping! I have other stuff to do with my weekends these days. My cars only really have to perform transport functions nowadays.

_________________
The best things in life aren't things.


July 19th, 2013, 1:32 am
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 33 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 256 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by STSoftware for PTF.