So, Rebecca has eaten her gearbox. This is not wholly surprising because the rebuild involved a company who told me that time was a human construct that had no place in a workshop after having it for weeks and weeks on end. Finally when I threatened them with non-payment and them having a dead minor gearbox it was very suddenly ‘ready’. Once installed it’s always had a noisy layshaft, and I just sucked it up and assumed I’d replace it when it failed.
Which is now.
Obviously.
Just after I’ve started buying bits for the Electric Minor Project. I’d sat down and spent money on a gearbox, axle and such that are suitable for an EV minor, but would be less than ideal on the engine I’ve got. It’d probably be adequately drivable but it certainly would be less than ideal gearing.
So then I came to the unhappy conclusion that we needed an alternative second mode of transport. Imey is very lovely but the journey to my mum’s is only possible in Imey on weekdays, in office hours, when we can guarantee that we can use the Nissan dealer’s charger.
Not ideal.
Options then were:
– Join a car sharing club
– Rent a car on days I want to do Agency work / visit my mum
– Buy a cheapish modern box and run it until it dies or the minor’s sorted
– Buy a(nother) classic
Second considerations were that Kathryn only drives Auto over here, so it should ideally have an Auto box.
Looking at the first one I realised that each trip to my mum would cost us around £300 which was a bit hideous.
Then the second, well, it sucks up the money so fast that doing agency shifts rapidly becomes not worth it, and again, we’re looking in the region of 150-200 quid to visit my mum. Not really reasonable.
The cheapish modern box looked good until I got an insurance quote for a smallish modern with an autobox. Good-god. It virtually doubled the cost of the car.
So I’ve been trawling the web looking for a classic car that falls into the £1000ish price category; and has an auto box. It’s been an unfun search – and the variety of cars I’ve ended up looking at have included some ones I really rather like (the Landcrab series of cars and the Hillman Super Minx series) most of which have been basket cases or heaps of some sort or another. Today I really had a concerted look and have on the potentials list:
– Tatty looking but alledgedly sound Landcrab (bit pricey and very far away), might not be an auto I forgot to ask.
– Non-runner with alledged electrical fault Landcrab (looks nice tho’), neither MOT nor Tax though
– An Austin 1300 (Rebecca may kill me)
– A very, very tatty looking Singer Vogue (complete, taxed and tested)
– Or an off-the-road but good looking Austin 1100
Unfortunately, with no car to take to go and see them, and no easy way to retrieve them if I don’t like them, the only other option is getting the train. And they’re all in far flung places. So, feh, is my general mood at the moment.
