what new car ?
Yes
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a trabbie?
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Weapon
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you… traded a rover 800 , one of the finest cars to come out of the partnership with honda and the sucessor to the marvellous SD1 for that communistical, horrible, two stroke pile of east german cardboard?
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Sure appears that way
The 800s reputation was (rather deservedly) ruined when Honda stopped cooperating with Rover, wouldn’t exactly call a 1996 model “fine”, nor would I call the SD1 marvellous lmao. But I did love the car when it worked. Not everything has to be an upgrade, so to speak.
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No, it was a 2.0 Turbo. I think if a car isn’t built well it shouldn’t be called marvellous in the way that you’re saying it is. Good in theory doesn’t always mean good in practice, unfortunately, and this is coming from someone who tries their best to like these cars. Anyway, thread is derailing, pack it in.
Lmao 
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I don’t really come to this forum anymore unfortunately but since I’m in lockdown and need a distraction I thought I’d just give a little update to anyone who may still even know me here.
As above, I traded the Vitesse for a Trabant.
I daily drove the Trabant for a couple of months before insurance kinda shafted me on it and I stopped driving it, so it’s been parked up since about January. Such is life.
Sometime in February, I believe, I developed a serious want for a small econobox, and was strongly attracted to Fiat Cinq/Seicentos. I went to look at one and found that a few of its quirks put me off, and I was also, once again, shafted on buying one. While scrolling through Gumtree the same night I found a sorry looking Nissan Micra (not the one above) for sale a couple of hours away and decided I was interested in it. Solely because it was purple, really.
Long story short, ended up buying it and driving it all the way back with no issues even though it too had been sat, since about November. Since I bought that I had been daily driving it until just before the nationwide lockdown, where I parked it up to sort out its worn/sticking front brakes. Unfortunately, the lockdown started while it was parked up, and I had to leave it where it is and I took my Toyota Aygo home, so I’ve not seen the car in about 4 weeks. Really eager to work on it and get back behind the wheel of it. I’ve got plenty of ideas in my head for modifications, namely a larger 1.3 engine, coilovers, wheels, all the normal stuff. Might be waiting a while yet unfortunately.
Here she is with the red Micra seen previously, really proud of this photo:
Affectionately named “Hannah” as per the reg, much to the missus’ dismay 
Trabant photo album for anyone interested:
Trabant & Micra - Album on Imgur.
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The second-generation Micra was known for its reliability, and therefore proved to be quite popular among buyers when it was new. Small wonder, then, that you went out and bought one yourself - and I really like the purple exterior color, which makes it stand out in a sea of monochrome machinery.
Why not take it out for a long road trip after the lockdown has ended and you’ve made some choice mods for it? It should easily cope, as this story proves:
In my opinion, the second-generation March/Micra is still the peak of the series - it was truer to the cheap and cheerful philosophy than any generation that came before or after it.
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The K11 is just flat out one of Nissan’s greatest ever cars, even if it’s not got a massive engine, HICAS or ATESSA or any of that stuff. Nissan took the design specification for a cheap & cheerful supermini, met the specification and just kept on going. It’s a shame they, or really any other company, don’t make anything like it anymore.
I agree, for a small, no frills small eco box ithe k11 series Micra was a brilliant little car, it was and still is in my opinion, one of the best First cars. its a shame with the micra, civic and other japanese cars of the era is that people tend to make them look absolutely rediculous which makes people wince at the sight of them. its nice to see one that is (externally) unmolested and standard. that purple colour really suits the car.
North East masseeve - actually probably due to less Renault involvement but I’m sticking with it being the North Eastern influence on how to be a resilient little bastard.
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In fact, it’s unlikely any manufacturer will be able to repeat the K11 March/Micra’s trick of combining a high degree of affordability and simplicity with a decent dose of vivacity. Part of this is down to increasingly stringent regulations regarding emissions and safety - all that tech required for making a cleaner, safer car is bound to make it heavier and more expensive - but the post-2010 crossover boom has also played a part in killing off demand for basic, no-frills trims of superminis (and even some city cars) throughout Europe.
No this is not spam, it’s to make him feel guilty and post an update.
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Look, I’m trying not to get excited by this myself, can you piss off
What might the mystery car be? Dashboard crack for clue
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Behold, my latest purchase
A 1988 Austin Maestro 1.3L. For those not familiar with the Austin Rover cars of the eighties, this was their C segment car to fit between the smaller Austin Metro, and the larger Austin Montego. This is an “L” trim, which fits into the range just above the base spec, but it does gain quite a few handy features. It is powered by a 1275cc BMC A-Series engine (yes, the same engine they used in just about everything since the 1950s) that produces 68hp and 75 ft-lb of torque. This particular car has an optional 5-speed gearbox, which is always nice to have in the interest of economy etc.
This is going to be a bit of a rolling restoration. It shouldn’t take a lot to get the car road legal, but to get it looking presentable will take a lot more time and money. As it stands, I know the car needs some welding on both rear sills, as well as the brake system properly investigating. It does not hold any brake fluid, so it has no brakes. Originally this was thought to be a brake pipe or hose, but it may well be the servo after further investigation.
I may update the thread with more info and photos now and then. For now, please enjoy this album of poor-quality SLR shots. Yes, it has 34,363 original miles! Maestro - Album on Imgur
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