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Author Topic: Introduction (Part 1 - in 2 parts)  (Read 1656 times)
WessexElectricNutter
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« on: June 13, 2014, 09:33:39 pm »

Welcome to my blog, I thought I'll use this section to describe my cars and myself.

Well, I'm WEN, I'm more often seen at the time of writing at Guildford Railway station in the UK or sometimes Woking, depends what the company I work for sends me to or accept what work I do. I live on the south coast of the UK and I work for South West Trains. My main interests is trains, but I ended up taking an interest in the Espaces since I was the age of about 11. It all started when my dad brought a V6 Mk2 model, if I remember, it was a N reg one (as for those who don't know the UK way of registration numbers or the old way, pre 2001, we had letters for the years, N became August 1995 to June 1996) which I liked very much, especially the space, performance, etc and it went pretty much everywhere in the country, while sucking fuel up. It sadly developed a gearbox fault and was entrusted with our local dealer at the time, "Swan Renault" - the less said, the better about them.
The gearbox fault continued a long way into ownership but my dad was looking at a brand new one and I just happened to find a brochure to one and instantly loved it and thought "I'd love to own one, particulary the grand version" as back then the styling was something unremarkable as well as being futuristic and still is quite something see today.
But, then my dad sold the car in 1999 with an S reg Vauxhall Omega, which he still has(!) and admits missing the espace. My mum went through a phase of having lots of cars but I personally didn't drive for a long time. I went through school, college (2 of them) then University and it wasn't until 2007 at the age of 21 when I had to reconsider my driving position, in that not being able to drive caused a few problems when public transport was unavailable and this became more and more of a problem as I got older and older. Yes, fair enough, most of the time, I could pay the rail fare and go to Chichester (I live just outside Chichester) or Portsmouth, but I was not one to take the buses, well not very often anyway.

So, I took the plunge and started driving around about January 2008 and got some lessons, I learnt in 5 different Vauxhall Corsa Ds and a Hyundai Ghez but the only one had some sort of slight appeal to me was the Corsa, however, can you guess what I wanted when I passed?
A MkIII espace! A 2.0L variant, but being on benefits and without a job at the time, I didn't really have the money to buy one as most were out of my reach plus I passed my test (first time) in May 2009. My older sister in October 2009 then brought a 1.2L clio but she didn't have it long and then talked about selling it to me, so I brought it for £350 and since I was at university, the amount of use it got was... very little. But I insured it, moted it and drove it for 2 years as my only car. I also started modifying little bits of it at a time, like replacing the speakers, replacing the radio, etc and my first tinkering with cars just took off from there.

The Clio of which I still have and still drive, became my only car for 2 years and also allowed me to get my first job in 2010. I also went on long trips in it, about 100 miles at a time after the first 2 months of owning it. But it also broke a lot and I fixed it alot. I was also very reluctant to drive it due to the fact that I didn't know when the cambelt was changed so I waited until I got a rebate on my benefits and changed it there and then. Great! I've now done 30,000+ miles in it.
In 2012, my sister wanted to scrap her Corsa (C) after getting sugar and lemonade in the tank, but I brought it off her for £120 and fixed it, until it failed its MOT in 2013 and its been on the drive since. Then I brought another Corsa (B) for her to drive and I was going to look after it and eventually give it to a museum as it was nearly 20 years old when I brought it and still in original - apart from the radio - condition. Unfortunately, it got used, abused, worn down and was pretty much knackered when I got it back as her boyfriend at the time and her really did slam it into the ground metaphorically speaking, in November 2013. I found problem after problem and it sat on the drive for 2 months while I tried to repair it and get it started. I paid £225 for it and spent very little on it and still eventually it worked. (I did also see her boyfriend reach 80mph in a 60mph zone at one point on illegal tyres and I was not happy about it afterwards.)
Logged

Renault Clio Mk1 1.4 (Automatic) (1996)
Renault Clio Mk1 1.4 (manual) was 1.2 (1997) - under repair
Renault Espace III 2.2 DCi Privilege (2001) - NIRU
Renault Espace III 3.0 V6 Privilege (2001) - NIRU
Vauxhall Omega 2.5L V6 Elite (1998) - under repair
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