Toyota Rav4 Archives - Classicaraddict

Classified Classic Car Hunting

Classified Hunting.

Late night classified add looking is never a good thing.
Hunting that bargain, odd wording, fuzzy pictures or lack whereof spark the interest.

Requirements

As I’ve already mentioned, the car to replace Bel would have to be an historic one, tax and mot free with cheap insurance. Also, the parts would have to be plentiful and cheap. That immediately discounts anything with a VW badge, as yes there lots about but you pay a premium. http://www.classicaraddict.com/mx5-goodbye/

My requirements meant an older British car, ideally an MG MGB GT, but they are little expensive. To be honest I’m horrified how much once cheap cars are now worth, Ford Capris as an example, a few years ago bangers now anything is worth thousands. After this shock I found myself looking at adds and this is when living in Cornwall is an issue, for many Bristol is the far southwest, Exeter might as well be France and Cornwall Outer Mongolia. Combined with the amount of salt in the air here, especially near the North Coast we have to travel. 18 months ago I found a MK1 Toyota Rave 4 Auto for a friend at Honiton and felt I’d got away lightly. Finding a Unicorn Car for a Friend.

What To Look For In An Add.

After looking on Facebook Market Place and eBay I tried Gumtree. Lots of adds full of clear pictures and well written and with each one my heart sank a little lower. Then one stood out, a single fuzzy picture not too far away by our standards as only 100 miles, well 96 away. After getting used to how gumtree works I contacted the seller and asked if we could have a look at the weekend. It would have to be Sunday as I was towing a car back from Plymouth for a friend on the Saturday. https://www.gumtree.com/

Initial Contact With The Seller.

We agreed a time, this was Thursday evening, on Saturday I confirmed that we would be aiming to be there at midday and if we came to an agreement £200 pounds would be a suitable deposit. Just before we left on Sunday morning in Bel my soon to be sold MX5 I messaged to let the seller know we were on our way.

Arriving / Initial Impressions.

Aiming for midday I rang 2 minutes passed to let him know we were outside. As he opened the gate, the seller said, “the price is not fixed.” Not the thing to say to a buyer… The seller is a true gent and to see his lifetime collection of pushbikes, cars, and paraphernal was amazing. He showed us his much loved 1925 Citroen Cloverleaf looking just like Brum the children television series and not that much bigger.

Three generations of petrolheads together all sharing the same passion. The seller, myself and my mate Jess in his early 20’s. Those who know Jess would have guessed the car now. For those who don’t, Jess has two cars on the road, one 1956 2dr rat rod and the other a very original 1966 4dr and this was the reason he was with me. Both Jess’s cars are Morris Minors and the car was a one, except it was a little rarer than many. http://www.classicaraddict.com/importance-of-gut-instinct/

A Morris Minor, But what Type?

I’d found a 1952 split screen 2dr Minor, listed as a series two and needing a lot of work. She had been stood standing for over 10 years the seller having rescued it from a possible destruction a few years back. Yet not having the welding skills, he never managed to get her on the road. With the arrival of the Citroen it was time to let her go.
To be honest my first impression was oh bugger as the interior was stripped out and clearly both sills and lot more needed doing. Yet as Jess clambered all over her, and we managed to make her fire up she spoke to me. Running enough to let me know she wanted to live. http://www.classicaraddict.com/33/

This is the first of a whole series of posts, and yes there is little hint there…

Classicaraddict on Tour…

Classicaraddict on tour?…

I’m sitting surrounded by tech I barely understand. At the suggestion of a friend, soon Classicaraddict will have a YouTube channel. Well, that is already there, as yet it has no content.

What does this mean to the Classicaraddict blog?

This will mean that Classicaraddict will become smoother and easier to negotiate. There will be more content as I intend to extend the range of what I’ll be covering. For instance, now when I’m working on something, I’ll make sure I set the camera up first, and try to capture some of the essence of the experience. I’m no mechanic, but hopefully, people will find it interesting.

First and foremost, I’m a writer, admittedly a dyslexic one, but that is what I do. The blog site is going to get tweaked later this week by my friend Esther Nagle. This remarkable lady has written on how yoga has turned her life around. She can be found at Space to Breathe Academy

Having read my English with Creative Degree with Falmouth University a few years ago there will be some automotive fiction and poetic prose. Not just mine but also others. Which nicely leads into reviewing books, films, some television. At first, I’ll be covering the ones that I like. Later, and I might come to regret this… The ones I don’t… Like any of the Fast and Furious franchise.

The Vlog… Oh, I already have about 6 cars lined up to review, the first will be Andy’s Toyota Rav’4. Luckily, living in Cornwall we are surrounded by beautiful scenery. This will provide a style to the content that will help showcase both the cars and county. I’ll also be doing vlogs as I drive, this more informal style will allow me to talk about ideas in a relaxed manner. To an extent, much like the Classicaraddict, I’ll do a few. See what works… And then take it from there.

Now for the Tour part… Classicaraddict is going to the MX5 Owners Club meet at Elvington on the 28^th of April. On the way up, as already mentioned, Esther will work her magic touch on the blog site when I stop in South Wales. On the way back I’m meeting another friend at Exeter and having a look at the new Suzuki Jimny … Bel and I are on tour…

See you at Elvington.

Classicaraddict, AKA Alex Small.

Link to the MX-Owners Club.

www.mx5oc.co.uk

Finding a Unicorn Car for a Friend.

I’d put it off for far too long. Early January and my friend wanted to replace his very high mileage Toyota Yaris with something a little better. To be fair, we found him the Yaris about 5 years before and it had provided amazing service yet now at almost 200000 miles, the end was nigh. That amazing little engine had developed a death rattle…

Over the last year or so my friend had mentioned how he would like a 4×4. Now I’ve had Tug, my little Suzuki Vitara at that point for 18 months. So, I do feel that I can comment. The trade off for 4×4’s is the extra weight of the internals, extra driveshafts etc… That some have separate chassis, the fuel consumption is bad. They handle worse on road. Now if you have a use for one, like I do, they are amazing… But.

I’d already talked him out of a Jeep Cherokee… Too big, expensive to run, and Jeep reliability.So not ideal.

At this point. I thought I’d put him off the idea… Yet, once again here he was asking me to help. We are good friends, what could I do? The gardening doesn’t really start until the first full week in the new year. So first it was research time. The only choice that really covered the bases was another Toyota, this time the Rav4. Oh, and just to make life a little more interesting, my friend wanted an automatic.

Why a Rav4? Simply because Toyota made its best cars from the 1990s to the middle of the first decade of this century and they were the most reliable in the world.

We both live in Cornwall, which means that once you find a car, the chances are that it will be at least 2 to 3 hours away… I found a couple of auto MK2 Rav4’s listed, one near Taunton, the other near Bristol. The closer one had just been sold, the seller in Bristol didn’t get back to me… Facing a dilemma… Then I found an MK1 Auto Rav4 at a dealer in Honiton, in the pics it looked really clean… My friend now was in a meeting for a couple of hours… So I rang the garage, explained the situation. They said they would hold it until 1 pm.

We left at 1.30 in Bel, my little MX5, roof down, of course.

The garage was a Rav4 specialist with mostly MK2 models. There in the furthest corner, she sat. Clearly had not been moved since before Christmas. Her body looked clean, and underneath, for her age, she was amazingly tidy. The salesman came out and was about to start her, but I got him to open the bonnet. First, I placed my had on her engine, it was stone cold. Then a quick check of her fluids, all looked good… As I was doing this, I explained what I was looking for and why. The salesman made a joke about dodgy second-hand car dealers. Then he turned her key and she burst into life. No smoke, no hassles.

I jumped in and we set off on a quick test drive that included a blast down the nearby A30. She ran like a dream, at first the brakes ground a little, but that was just the surface rust coming off. We then swapped seat and my friend had a little drive.

Thumbs up…

We left with the car an hour later. I fear my I might have inflicted my friend with the classic car bug. We drove home in convoy, Bel in front and the Rav4 that now had been named Phoebe following. Inside I felt a sense of relief. I’d pulled another out of the bag.