case study - my car & I
 

Hey Folks

Well I havent been on this forum much for the last 6 months due to the fact that I was planning on selling my car. but due to a turn of unfortunate events, i am reconsidering what i should do and would really like to hear your advice if u have an opinion.

my car - black 2000 astina 1.6ltr man 80,000km (16" shadow chromes, king springs, k&n panel, home job cai, iridium plugs, personalised plates + other stuff)

a few months back i reversed into an invisible concrete pylon and mashed my tailgate and bumper. yes i could not believe i didnt see it but it was a tricky blindside blendinwiththewall type thing....when i returned to the scene a month later, the owners had placed large plants in the area to draw attention to mr pylon. anyway, not wanting to claim insurance and loose a rating blah blah I got a quote on getting it fixed...low n behold a whole new tailgate and bumper is needed, plus to add to the pain a few days later the boot got stuck and i havent been able to open it since :roll: so i decided to sit on it until i had some cash together.

additionally, i need to repaint the roof as the f*ckwit that painted it probably used an acrylic primer that flexed differently with the 2pack....it has cracks resemble a drunken spider web.
btw history on the roof - had a branch fall out of tree on it while travelling at 60km/hr, got a mate to weld a new roof on and his spraypainter workmate did the refinish. consequently that dude has left, plus it was a "foreigner" anyhow so no warranty. :evil:

since then my poor luck has continued - a "parked car" accident involving a scratched front bumper and cracked headlight cover. and a few weeks back some kind of possum frenzy happened (i assume) resulting in a heavily scratched bonnet and further scratches on the front bumper.
note - the bonnet and bumper were replaced in january when the tree outside my house decided to have a sleep on my car after a heavy storm.

SO

i will shortly have $1900 to play with for which I'm going to claim the tailgate damage ($400 excess) and get the roof, bonnet and bumper repainted. After all this is done my car will look brand new again....do I really wanna sell it after going to all this trouble?? Seems like such a waste. :?: Then again everybody refers to it as the CURSED CAR like a black bloody cat.

I am very tempted to keep the car another few years as my insurance will obviously go up, and buying the cars I was considering now seem a bit out of reach (306 gti6, my99 wrx wagon or gtx). and if i keep it I thinking of doing some more mods to keep me happy like superlows & konis + the exhaust....but then again should I bother wasting the dough on a car thats described as (the dealer i bought it new from) a "pickin up the kids from school" car?

I've really loved this car and has been so reliable but seems like a bad omen is following me around :roll:
in summary
(a) keep it and do nothing more to it
(b) keep it and rice it up a bit
(c) fix it, then sell it

sorry for the big post, this has been playin on my mind for sometime.
cheers
mike

sounds like my luck mate

fix 'er up and do what your budget allows, rather than go planning it out, take it as it comes

ah, maan! my condolences, m8! :D
im sorry, but i couldnt help myselv havin a good laugh over the whole story.
reminds me of my black FBG! :?

i had someone back up into me, crushin my front spoiler. :evil:
someone back into me, crushing my rear spoiler. :evil:

of course, they both ran off, leavin me to pay the ****.
hit pothole, bending rim.
had cats in somekinda sadomachochistic orgy on my roof, resulting in new paintjob. :roll:
had a stone crushing my front windsheeld. :shock:

keep the spirits up there m8!
keep the car, and juice it up! it can get pretty cool! check out forum members rides! :D

grim

Sell it and get a bg! lol its your car do want u want with it

oh hey that aint all the bad karma...thats only this year, I even left some out like stolen numberplates..lol. grim thats rough! oh i didnt mention an ex of mine cracked my windshield with her fist a couple of years ago :shock: needless to say that was the end of an era!

a bg?...nah
my next car is not going to be another trolley racer :P but i've grown quite fond of mazdas, if only the mazdaspeed protege came out here!

i'm pretty keen on the pug but have yet to drive one. would hardly need to do any mods to that car as its already done.

i'm leaning towards option a, guess i'll b better off in the long run.

Not sure if this is the Pug you like, but you may find this interesting non-the-less...
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2192/article.html
If you want to keep the car, is 1.6 enough? I'm told they really lack the grunt that the 1.8s have... Then again this is the same for the 1.8 vs 2.0 debate aswell, but I tend to find the 1.8 really impressive for what it is.

yeah, ive driven a 1.6i auto 95 protege and that car didnt have any grunt! It was struggling to go with 4 people in the car. It was reving hard all the time which cant be good for the engine.

i dont no about a cursed car, but i would say thats a really bad run of luck. sorry for laughing.
personaly i'd go with fix it, then save your mula for the non trolley racer. a gti6 is a really nice car. but hey, its your car, your money, your decision.

ahah that article stirred alot of beef at the froggy forum! those autospeed guys can be pretty critical. but nah i'm not interested in a 206.


I laughed when the tree outside my house fell on it, it looked pretty funny, wish I had a camera handy. you gotta laugh i guess, otherwise probably lose the plot!
yeah so i've decided to fix it and save some $ for a while.
havent decided the gti6 or familia.. not sure if I wanna treck down the grey import road. any familia owners on this board or just astina owners with bpt conversions?

HI-RES,

My good friend, when I got my Astina, I hadn't even made the first repayment on it when I needed to get a front end done.

I put it to you like this, if you have had bad luck for a while, it will turn around and you should get good luck!

Fingers crossed for you anyway.

Personally, if you like the car, keep it! ahb11m has the same/similar car to you, so you aren't alone in copping the 1.6L stirring! :lol:

If you want something else, and it won't hurt your pocket any worse than you got now, then that is an option too.

Just consider carefully first, and never ever sign something on the first visit.
Always walk away and think about it.

BTW: Might have some more work for you soon!

Cheers and good luck!!!

If their is something I've learnt it is that when you think you are at your lowest someone is sure to turn up in the same circumstance, an optimistic view but missing a leg. Sometimes these things happen and open-up new opportunities. In May last year I was retrenched and it took over twelve months for me to find a job (I have extremely high skills but in products that are proprietary to my old employer) I eventually found a crappy low paying job (which I had to promise I would stick with for six months) eight weeks into it we were given notice that we would be out of a job within a month.
I spent a lot of time looking for something new and it wasn’t until the Wednesday before I was back down to Centre Link that I got an interview and was successful in getting a fantastic new job, the next step in my career.
Lesson is that I wouldn’t have found this new job without almost eighteen months of pain.

I had 450km on the clock of my car when a geriatric driving an A-class decided she had right of way turning into her driveway across me. Was not a happy camper, and the SJX number plates became "Scot's Jinx" got the car after a split up with the wife. So I thought it was going to be jinxed from then. Touch wood [bang, bang, bang] nothing has gone wrong since - although the bonnet does need to be resprayed soon.

Everyone has their tales of woe I guess.

last year, a crazy woman in the city just decided to change lane without checking her blind spot and she smashed my rear door, the driver door and mirror and a bit of the front quarter panel. I was so pissed off!! :evil:
My car stayed at the panel beaters for 2 weeks!

asterix has a 1.6 too...

i think thats the one...

thanks guys, I know we all reach our low points and we think it couldnt get any worse...but then it does!
cosmo i'm really sorry to hear that mate, I cant imagine how difficult that mustve been, at least my job security is something I dont have to worry about (for the moment anyhow).

kitty long time no speaka! as you know I planned to sell earlier this year.. before things started going haywire. I've had it over 4 years now, still my first car!
i will keep it till my finances are back on track. let me know if you need more decals !

i have 2 friends who own a 1.8, really theres not much difference except on the highway, but i have heard the auto 1.6 is sluggish (sorry ahb11m).

alright i would probably be pretty keen on this if i wasnt in such a large pile of poo right now----->
http://www.carsales.com.au/pls/carsa...h_distance=500
check out that engine bay :shock:

Cosmo: So does this mean you are coming for a visit? Unfortunatly I can't offer accomodation, but can still offer laughs and fun at Oktoberfest Festivities :)

HI-RES: I really am sorry to hear you are in such a funk, but it isn't the end of the world, I promise!
Things will eventually turn around for you, just keep that smile and great attitude to life, and you will be doing well in no time!

As for decals, apparently we already getting approx 200 decals for some ridiculous price like $50????? Don't ask me, I have no idea!!

A mini sized sticker the same as the last one would be great though, for my poor MX5, she needs a bit of luck and a lot of good lovin'

:wink:

50 bux bloody hell how big are the stickers?! yeah i think I still have some of that vinyl, will have a look.

thanks for the support, i'm doin fine really :) (emotionally anyway lol)

Kitty,
You know I'd enjoy a weekend at Oktoberfest but unfortunatly not this year :( but things are slowly getting back on track :)

i have a manuela..
i start my new job back in optics on monday the 11th
i got it last thursday

unfortunently i'm going through a lot of emotional rubbisj at the moment, i can't stay committed to much really, including my relationship...

thats ace news rod - congrats :D