Foogles
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Posts posted by Foogles
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Yeah, I think he thanked God in my one too
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I'm 31 and work for Lidl. I got my Gen 7 last year after 12 years of completely boring looking cars (early Micra, mid 90's Fiesta and a 98 Astra).
3 years ago we moved house and decided that we needed a second car to get the kids to school. At the time my wife was happy taking the Astra and I was pretty much certainly going to get an Alfa 147 and id have been happy with that as I liked how they look, especially compared to that big silver box on wheels that was the Vauxhall.
2 days before I went to buy one my wife decided that she didn't want the Astra and wanted the new car herself. I sulked for a bit, we ended up getting a Focus and agreed id swap my car next year.
The Focus served as a good family car so I decided I didn't have to be quite so practical with my car choice as long as I wasn't getting a two seater. I looked at quite a few cars (including a Gen 6 now I think back) but then I discovered that Gen 7's could be bought for around £1500. My mind was made up then. I looked at FTO's briefly and then Alfa GT's but I quickly reverted back to the Gen 7.
A year passed but we had decided to get married so I had to wait another year in the end but it was worth it
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I love my Gen 7. I've had it nearly a year now and I love driving it and I love looking at it, especially as I've changed a few cosmetic things to make it my own on a very small budget.
I did the wheels white for about £30. Painted the calipers orange for a fiver. Got some orange/white decals from Mook for under £20 to give the badges and wheel centre caps a fresh look to fit in with my theme. Painted the centre console orange for about a tenner and replaced the standard stereo with a Kenwood double din with the money I got from selling the stereo and cd changer. £50 on some HID's to make it look more modern and the same amount for a C-Scoop to make it look meaner.
My one extravagant spend was on a GT gear knob at £45 but even with that I'm still under £250 overall and I feel like I've done well for my money in regards to making the car feel my own.
And that brings me to the most mind blowing aspect of this car is that having bought it for just under a grand, I've added all these bits and stuck 4 new Rainsport 3 tyres on it and its only cost me a grand total of £1500.
There are few cars, if any, that can match the looks, power and price of a Celica in my eyes.
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Cool, thanks for the info guys
It doesn't seem too much work, especially as the brakes did get a good going over when I painted the calipers in May so I feel like I could do most of this myself. I figure keeping up a full dealership service history for a car I bought for less than a grand that's nearly 15 yrs old is pretty pointless so I may as well do it all myself.What's the lifespan of Spark Plugs? I know they were changed somewhere in the recent service history that came with the car...
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Since I got my Gen 7 in January I've been keen to learn as much as possible and do as much myself as possible with regards to maintaining cars. I still know very little but I want to carry out a full service on my car in the very near future as I've had it nearly a year now and apart from changing the oil (at the garage) and topping up the coolant I've not done anything to it.
So basically I'm after some advice really from people who do know as to what things are needed for a service?
Is there anything I couldn't do myself? My father in law was a mechanic years ago so helps as much as he can but are there things I would need a garage for?
Also any service-related parts that people could recommend would be very helpful. I'm happy with the 5w40 Shell Helix I put in it in March so ill probably stick with that with regards to oil but on everything else in open to suggestions...
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I've got those eBay ones in my Gen 7 and now also the Focus and I'm really happy with them
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Stick with the Celica. If you had to borrow money to buy it in the first place then I suspect you haven't the money to find/run something better/faster anyway. I had a similar budget to you when looking for mine and the Gen 7 for me is one of the best looking affordable cars out there, nothing else came close in that price range.
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My wife calls my car 'scallop' because the white wheels/orange calipers combo reminds her of a scallop
...it's grown on me
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What's the trick to getting these out without breaking them? Seems like I end up destroying one every time I want to check my coolant
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Duxback is the best stuff. Much better than rainX lasts a long time too.
What a brilliant name!
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The rain repellent coating that must have been on my windscreen when I got the car seems to have worn off and I miss having it. There seem to be alot of different ones out there, what ones are people using?
Ideally id like one that would be able to do 3 windows so I could do my windscreen and rear window plus the windscreen of my wife's Focus to keep her happy
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The interior is important and its why as much as I love Gen 5's I'll sadly probably never have one because the interior design reminds me of my 1990 Micra. For most people I think it's very hard to go back to sitting in an older car when you've gotten used to something newer.
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Id just like to say having driven many rain covered country roads over the past 2 days that my Rainsport 3's have been fantastic and literally cut through water like it isn't even there, even at 60mph. I'm well impressed
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So I've got my 5000k hids in and my white LED sightlights are now working wonderfully - but now my yellow full beam bulbs look silly. What has everyone else done to match them in?
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Ordered the HID kit I linked to earlier
Enter 'SOCIAL5' at checkout for 5% off at hids-direct.co.uk
Not a massive saving but it covers the postage fee
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One of my headlight bulbs went today so i can now justify getting some HID ones installed
What's the difference between these and the ones linked in the original post?
http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/new-premium-h7-hid-35w-xenon-conversion-kit-smart-canbus-system/
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Goodyear Eagle F1 or Uniroyal Rainsport 3.
Next.
This.
There's a few tyre threads in the Consumables forum, give them a read
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Not quite 6 months yet so no drastic changes so far as new tyres, paint for wheels, decals and new stereo have cost me over £400 so far.
Jan 2014
June 2014
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I got a GT knob last month and love it. Pricey though, its the only extravagant spend on my car since owning it
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How long will you be making the TRD skirts do you think? I definitely want them but they're way down my shopping list at the moment but i don't want to miss out....
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Not technically in the post but for my birthday - a nice selection of Inspired Automotive bits from the man himself
There were a few cloths and a sample i wasn't expecting also so many thanks!
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Must be. I had all my wheels off last week for painting and the tyres still look new looking at the tread. Infact, i spent a good while pulling out about a dozen wedges in stones such is the deepness of the tread still
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RS3s have pretty poor wear rate, one of the guys on the Yaris forum got 3k out out of a set!
On a Yaris ffs....I've done about 2k on mine and they still look practically new so I'm not sure what has gone on there.
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I'm hopefully doing my wheels on Monday weather permitting, it's been so moist in the air with all the fog for the past week or so that I've had to put it off.
I'm hoping to get all 4 done in a day (with help from my father in law) but I'm not going to rush as the kids are off school so I can use the wife's car if need be. Will post pics when they're done
Gen7 LED side light bulbs
in Consumable Parts
Posted
I got green tea too!