Decision time

[marinabrian]

On the way back from a job this evening, the ZT made an awful clatter coupled with roughness fed back through the clutch pedal.

I'm now in two minds as to how to proceed.

This is the position.

The car has roughly eight weeks MOT remaining, all four tyres are due for replacement, it will most likely need upper rear arms, a couple of brake pipes and a pair of discs on the front.

So given that I've never particularly liked this car in comparison to my previous ZT, is now the time to pull it apart and save the nice bits for something else, or do I pull the box and confirm if the DMF has bought the farm

It has full sports leather memory seats without rips or damage, and everything else works as to be expected, apart from the rear blind, which sometimes sticks.

This car owes me nothing, but I feel no real affinity for the car, despite it being my daily for over four years.

I really am torn on this one.

Brian

[Arctic]

Hi Brian.
How long do we keep working on these cars once they get to a stage that they need quite a lot of work, there are a lot of late 54/05/06 cars coming to the market now.

I sold my tourer a few years ago and kept my MGZT mainly because I had taken to it more than the tourer, but a few months back I found that the sills have given way to the dreaded rust, belts are due January, compressor needs changing, I can not get all my tool boxes etc in it as good as I did the tourer so my decision as been made I will not be doing any more work on it, and like you it as very good leather memory seats, excellent wheels with 6.5mm tyres all same make, runs perfect I just feel I have spent enough on it over the last 7 years so the time as come to remove the good parts which I can use for my next one.

I am sure you yourself will make the right decision, and you have enough cars round you that it is not your only drive, at least if you do keep it you will not have to lie on the cold floor now with your new lift Arctic.

PS forgot ABS light as come on so a new bearing & back plates needed as well, treated for the time being, even though I have the back plates and the bearings

[P-Nut]

What would you use as your daily in its place?

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by P-Nut

What would you use as your daily in its place?

I've a nice 75 Firefrost 1800 petrol which has stood around looking pretty and not much else for the past two or three years, that would work for me

[trikey]

Originally Posted by marinabrian

I've a nice 75 Firefrost 1800 petrol which has stood around looking pretty and not much else for the past two or three years, that would work for me

mmm 1.8

[chris75]

There are still far too many on the road ; break it and keep all the good bits

[andymc]

A couple of months ago, I had a similar decision to make about my tourer - a year after acquisition it needed a couple of arms, shocks, springs, bushings & ball joints, brake discs & pads, plus a few other items. None of these on their own would have been much more than normal maintenance and/or wear & tear items, but to sort it all out in one go meant I would face a bill of some £600 once labour costs were included. Rather than try to sell it for essentially scrap money, I decided to just give it to someone who could carry out the work themselves and focus on continuing to resurrect another from my collection.

The decision was based partly on only having so much of a budget, and partly on the knowledge that the car would continue to be run and well maintained. But what probably made the biggest difference - and allowed me to make the decision quickly - was that this car hadn't really captured my imagination the way any of the others have, in spite of the lovely colour. I miss it a little, but nowhere near as much as I'd miss any of the others. You sound like you're in the same position.

(PS did you get my other message at the weekend?)

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by andymc

A couple of months ago, I had a similar decision to make about my tourer - a year after acquisition it needed a couple of arms, shocks, springs, bushings & ball joints, brake discs & pads, plus a few other items. None of these on their own would have been much more than normal maintenance and/or wear & tear items, but to sort it all out in one go meant I would face a bill of some £600 once labour costs were included. Rather than try to sell it for essentially scrap money, I decided to just give it to someone who could carry out the work themselves and focus on continuing to resurrect another from my collection.

The decision was based partly on only having so much of a budget, and partly on the knowledge that the car would continue to be run and well maintained. But what probably made the biggest difference - and allowed me to make the decision quickly - was that this car hadn't really captured my imagination the way any of the others have, in spite of the lovely colour. I miss it a little, but nowhere near as much as I'd miss any of the others. You sound like you're in the same position.

(PS did you get my other message at the weekend?)

I did Andy, now I need to find a set of cheap manual ZT seats for you

[andymc]

Not exactly for me, ultimately ... But cheers mate.

[P-Nut]

Get rid of it, no one will miss a oil burning ZT