Our trusty Carina went to auction at Blackbush today along with most of the fellow challengers. We couldn’t be there in person, but the Bangers4BEN guys were Tweeting the results and.. she only went for £190.
Yes, that is £90 more than we paid, but it was still disappointing. Even damaged Carinas are going for £300 or more on eBay so our expectations were higher. The limitation with auctions is that it all depends who is there on the day. Evidently there were no cabbies in the crowd at Blackbush for Carinas are a favourite of theirs and LINTO had another 100,000 late night, city centre miles in her.
The upside of the auction is no hassle having to wait for buyers to call, etc.. Still, £190 feels like a missed opportunity except for whoever bought it. They got a bargain.
All the money for the car, plus the £250 entry fee, went to BEN. With almost 30 teams, some of whom achieved four digit sale figures at auction today – the key thing is we raised some cash for a good cause and had some fun along the (very long) way.
Thanks for following our little adventure. There is already talk of a bigger and better Bangers4BEN in 2010. Despite today’s disappointment, I am sure we’ll be there.
Scott
We have to be honest; today was fairly dull.
Once we had woken everyone at the Travelodge up early – 7:30am – by setting off the Carina’s alarm (sorry! Now realise that unlocking the boot with the key does not disarm the system) we set off down the A1 to the A1M to the M1 to the M42 to the M40 to the M25… you get the picture.
It was dual carriageway or motorway for the whole 400 odd miles and the car just loves cruising along the motorway. It should be no surprise for it was designed and sold in the boom time of the UK company car/fleet market, its main purpose in life being to convey reps rapidly up and down the highways of Britain. Today, on familiar roads in broad daylight, our sole task became watching the hours and miles countdown to the finish at Brooklands.
We're here!! Its been a long 1436 miles but we've made it completely intact!
We think we were first to arrive for it was only after some time posing the car for some snaps on the famous banking that we spotted any of the others. There were no prizes for being first, this was emphatically not a race, but being early did allow us to have a wander around the museum before the formality of the closing laps and prize giving.
On the banking at Brooklands
I was happy to watch Christian drive the course, a mature, magnanimous gesture made less praiseworthy when I confess to using the opportunity to get myself a nice mug of tea.
LINTO laps for laughs
Parade laps over, we gathered to hear that fellow PR teams from Hyundai and Honda had won the prizes for best livery and Twittering during the event. Well deserved in both cases – the Honda guys even went swimming at John O’Groats – and once hands were shaken we made a swift exit to try and miss the worst of the rush hour traffic.
Of course, the real end of the story is next week when the cars go for auction. At just £100 purchase price our old Carina has a bit of a head start over some of the others in making a profit. Let’s see how it goes.
Cruise control is a great way to take some of the stress out of long motorway journeys, especially sections with road works and average speed cameras.
The A1M we are driving down this morning has a lot of seemingly endless road works. The Carina does not have cruise control.
Safe and sound and ready for the off
The two Toyota Avensis still going strong
We have not had much chance to chat to the other crews face to face (we banter on Twitter mostly) so it was only while hanging around the car park in John O’Groats that I learned that one of these Avensis used to be a taxi. The crew discovered this when they found a stack of taxi receipts in the door cubby hole!
Our nicely liveried Carina E rival run buy dealers, Pentagon Toyota
Bangers4BEN was instigated by Car Dealer Magazine editor, James Baggott, via his Twitter account. Little surprise, therefore,, that most of the teams are also keen Twitterers. Our rival for title of Best Carina is run by dealers, Pentagon Toyota and it was great to put faces to folk I had previously only known as @pentagontoyota.
To the Honda team behind us - the car in front is a Toyota
Friendly rivalry is one thing, but the Honda guys not only spend all day in costumed (60s racing drivers) they went swimming at John O’Groats. We were happy to watch from dry land.
Even on a wet Tuesday in November this is a beautiful country
Going south into the sunset
We have now covered over 1,000 miles on our charity rally so it is perhaps no surprise that, with so many hours on the road, we have seen an accident. It happened in front of us on the run down from John O’Groats and befell a fellow banger team whose aging Astra skidded on a wet bend, colliding with a Royal Mail van. Luckily there were no injuries and only metal was damaged, but it was a timely reminder that cars are not just about performance or comfort: Sometimes they have to save your life too.
On the subsequent long, but thankfully uneventful, run down from Inverness on the A9 we chatted about the relative merits of old vs. new with regard to safety. Whereas you can make a case for either in terms of comfort, cost efficiency and other practicalities, the old car is simply not as safe as a new one.
Using the comparison of the Carina E and the Prius (partly because both are family cars made by Toyota, partly because my wife has run a Prius Gen2 for the past six years and we know it well) the old car comes off a poor second in both passive and active safety.
State of the art in its day – the early 90s – the Carina nevertheless has no ABS brakes, nor any form of electronic traction or stability control (VSC). These features help prevent accidents by allowing the driver to remain in control in slippery or low grip conditions, avoiding what might otherwise be impacts. VSC and ABS are standard on entry level city cars today, unsung technological marvels saving countless thousands every day.
But even without the aid of electronics the modern car is better. It has stronger brakes and sharper, more assured steering. The first thing I noticed when driving the Carina E was the brakes, or lack of them compared to what I have become used to in new cars, and the lack of confidence inspiring feeling coming up from the front tyres to the steering wheel. The Carina’s brakes and steering work as they were designed to, but with smaller brake discs, older brake pad materials and less sophisticated suspension geometry the old car simply takes longer to slow down and feels less stable when doing it. It all adds up to give the driver a vague, uncertain feeling, especially on strange roads in the dark of a winter’s night.
As well as helping you avoid having an accident the modern car will also help you survive one if it happens with air bags and a strong passenger survival cell. These are standard features on all new cars on sale today whereas the Carina has no air bags, not even a little one in the centre of the steering wheel for the driver. Such things simply weren’t that common on cars like the Carina back then, which is to say only 15 years ago.
The body structure is also weaker, mostly because of the use of computer aided engineering and design. These powerful computer modelling programmes enable today’s engineers to minutely understand the loads involved in an impact and therefore how to design a structure that disperses those loads around the car’s body, not into yours. These details are mostly invisible, but tell-tale signs can be seen in the older car’s thinner A-pillars, thinner doors and less bulky dashboard. All betray weaker structures, designed more for everyday functionality and aesthetics than safety.
So while the old car – it feels increasingly unfair to call it a banger – has conveyed us around the country in broadly similar comfort as a new one would have, the stark truth is had we encountered an icy bend, a startled deer or just an on-coming car on the wrong side of the road then I’d rather be in the cocooning safety of a new car. At that point, the extra £19,900 would be money well spent.
Scott
In some ways it is amazing that I can sit in the car as we drive along, typing on the laptop and seconds later my words appear on the web for all to see from anywhere in the world. In other ways it is very frustrating.
The Highlands have many things, but good mobile phone network coverage is not one of them. It’s those pesky mountains I guess. Them and the relative lack of population making it impractical and expensive to put in the required infrastructure.
For me today, keen to get on here, it’s a hassle, but were I out walking in the hills I know I would be glad of the peace and quiet from external interuptions.
Despite a night in the cold and damp the Carina started on the first turn of the key. I shouldn’t be surprised, but little dependable touches like that feel reassuring when you are a long way from home.
- Rigs in the calm of the Cromarty Firth
The run up to John O’Groats is an easy one from a navigational point of view as there is only one road. The A9 unfolds along the eastern coastline, the North Sea always visible to the right as we drive. Oil rigs are just visible on the horizon, some burning off gas, the only spot of colour against the greyness. Smooth, flowing and in better condition than most roads around Surrey, the route offers some unique sights, not least deserted cottages (surely not remnants of the Highland Clearances?) and oil rigs moored up in the inlets, a few seemingly huddled together for warmth. The laws of physics dictate they will float, but it is still hard not to wonder at how such enormous steel, bar stool shaped things can sit on the surface.
- Nimrod!
As we near Wick, the last recognisable town this far north, we are treated to the sight of a RAF Nimrod taking off from the nearby Leuchars air base. It circles low and our last sight of it is almost head on, landing lights ablaze as it makes a pass over Wick. Built to detect incoming Cold War Soviet bombers, it predates all the cars on the Bangers4BEN run by decades. Old is a relative term even for machines.
When we reach John O’Groats the sense of anti-climax is unavoidable. A grey sky covers grey buildings surrounding an almost empty car park. Souvenir shops, visually indistinguishable from the (not free) toilet block are inviting only in contrast to the icy looking sea only yards away. Commercialisation means the once famous road sign is only brought out for a fee. No one here today is inclined to pay.
- The drab reality of John O’Groats
Weather transforms this place. In summer sun it has a rugged beauty, the nearby islands appearing to be much closer than they are: In heavy winds, the sea is whipped up to all sorts of drama. Today it is cloudy and still and dank, urging us to head south again as soon as possible. However, the needs of media hold us a while longer as the photographer tries to shepherd a bunch of over caffeinated car dealers into some sort of photogenic array.
Christian pleased to be in John O'Groats - and pleased to be leaving soon
Then it’s back the way we came, literally, and on down through the glens to skirt Edinburgh and on to England – just. We overnight in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
We arrived in Inverness almost exactly 12 hours after we left Ascot. Given that we stopped a few times and took the scenic route via central Glasgow (a mistake) and the Loch Lomond road (deliberate) that is not too bad a time to do 580 miles.
The choice to come the scenic route was mine based on years of previous experience of and liking for the roads. The run from Dumbarton to Inverness has got to be one of the best driving routes in the UK. Of course, daylight adds considerably to its charm, but sadly that had deserted the sky before we got through Glasgow. In my mind I could still picture the hills, glens, lochs and castles, but poor Christian had to make-do with my rather inadequate descriptions. I promise to bring him back in Summer sometime.
LINTO, our £100 Carina E cruised up the motorway as fast as we wanted and belted through the Highland roads with nothing to alarm except perhaps the fear of old suspension on budget tyres and damp roads. Compared to a modern car the headlights are a bit dimmer and the brakes less powerful, but in terms of comfort, quietness and pace we were little worse off than if we had been in my wife’s Prius.
Taking into account time spent getting to the start we were in the car for nearly 14 hours, but we both emerged feeling relatively unstressed and relaxed. The lack of tiredness can be gauged by the fact that only now, at gone 1.00am, have we returned to the room and remembered to do this blog post.
So, am I saying a 15 year old, 151,000 mile Carina is as good as a brand new, £20,000 Prius?
In some ways, yes it is. It has carried us several hundred miles safely and comfortably with barely a sniff of trouble. Of course the new car is better, more lavishly equipped with air con and in car entertainment for example, but if you could only afford a “banger” it is reassuring to know that in terms of basic functionality you are not much worse off than the driver of the new, more expensive car.
Of course, my view might change if we get a mechanical problem that strands us miles from anywhere in the wind and rain.
Scott
Blogging on the move and I don’t feel even the slightest bit car sick – I guess it’s just the Carina’s ‘luxury’ suspension coming into its own…
Blogging in the Carina
4 hours into the Bangers4BEN challenge and I’m pleased to say we’ve only had to resort to gaffer tape once! Not bad for a car that’s 15 years old with over 150,000 miles on the clock.
Nothing a bit of gaffer tape can't fix!
