Short story, my clio has bankrupt me and i need to fix it before i sell it in order to sort out my finances. Damn i miss driving it though, this is the first time i've not driven it for more than 2 days since i got it 13k miles ago 
Long story:
I loved trophies when they were released but was unimpressed with the 182s that i drove when looking for new cars so passed on buying one.
I bought a nearly new fabia vRS as a daily driver for work which i didn't modify at all apart from ICE. I have always had at least 2 cars, one for daily one for track & weekend.
After my track car failed to make a trip to the ring, resulting in my getting towed home in it and taking the fabia to germany, i rented a clio 197 for two days and thoroughly enjoyed it although there were quite a few issues with the 197 that i didn't like. I did take the fabia out on track, but obviously it wasn't really quite the same.
Within a month of returning from germany i had decided to buy a trophy. Simpson on this forum had been out there with us and i loved his car as did everyone else.
I bought the remaining finance on the fabia on a credit card as a balance transfer which worked out well, in order to do a straight swap for no 427, which was a bad idea but i was set on it. I could have got at least a grand extra for it selling it privately!
Anyway my budget forecast only accounted for £100 of maintenance per month, more than enough for a modern car, or so i thought. But i found myself spending a lot more than that on keeping the clio tip top. As a result my social life has suffered as has my patience and love for the car.
I sold/broke a few of my spare cars to clear my parents driveway and store the clio there, and free up some cash but it doesn't seem to have worked, and i've been overspending on my 106 track car by about £200 a month too.
As a result i'm now left constantly living at the bottom of my overdraft with 3 cars insured, taxed and MOTd and paying £300 a month off my credit card for the clio.
I set aside money and time off work to get it fixed.
Had a buyer lined up for 427 and it was booked in for the work to sort it, but it turns out that the work required to make it as mint as i'd like it was more extensive and spanned outside my holiday period.
So now i'm stuck with the damn thing and have no motivation or time to fix it, but need to sell it and don't want to let it go stupidly cheap. And i love the trophy when it works perfectly so will be really sad to have to sell it when it's fixed.
To add to insult there's a 50/50 chance i'll be out of a job by the end of next week so won't be able to make my payments towards it and will have to try and rope my parents into lending me money which is a sore subject already!
I'm going to fit the new steering column next week after work one evening and if that doesn't fix it i don't know what i'll do Probably go and live in a cave somewhere away from reality #-o
So, my clio trophy ownership experience. It started off really well, but has been hugely painful both mentally and financially.
I shall stick to old peugeots and BMWs like i have done for the past 8 years i think...
Long story:
I loved trophies when they were released but was unimpressed with the 182s that i drove when looking for new cars so passed on buying one.
I bought a nearly new fabia vRS as a daily driver for work which i didn't modify at all apart from ICE. I have always had at least 2 cars, one for daily one for track & weekend.
After my track car failed to make a trip to the ring, resulting in my getting towed home in it and taking the fabia to germany, i rented a clio 197 for two days and thoroughly enjoyed it although there were quite a few issues with the 197 that i didn't like. I did take the fabia out on track, but obviously it wasn't really quite the same.
Within a month of returning from germany i had decided to buy a trophy. Simpson on this forum had been out there with us and i loved his car as did everyone else.
I bought the remaining finance on the fabia on a credit card as a balance transfer which worked out well, in order to do a straight swap for no 427, which was a bad idea but i was set on it. I could have got at least a grand extra for it selling it privately!
Anyway my budget forecast only accounted for £100 of maintenance per month, more than enough for a modern car, or so i thought. But i found myself spending a lot more than that on keeping the clio tip top. As a result my social life has suffered as has my patience and love for the car.
I sold/broke a few of my spare cars to clear my parents driveway and store the clio there, and free up some cash but it doesn't seem to have worked, and i've been overspending on my 106 track car by about £200 a month too.
As a result i'm now left constantly living at the bottom of my overdraft with 3 cars insured, taxed and MOTd and paying £300 a month off my credit card for the clio.
I set aside money and time off work to get it fixed.
Had a buyer lined up for 427 and it was booked in for the work to sort it, but it turns out that the work required to make it as mint as i'd like it was more extensive and spanned outside my holiday period.
So now i'm stuck with the damn thing and have no motivation or time to fix it, but need to sell it and don't want to let it go stupidly cheap. And i love the trophy when it works perfectly so will be really sad to have to sell it when it's fixed.
To add to insult there's a 50/50 chance i'll be out of a job by the end of next week so won't be able to make my payments towards it and will have to try and rope my parents into lending me money which is a sore subject already!
I'm going to fit the new steering column next week after work one evening and if that doesn't fix it i don't know what i'll do
Probably go and live in a cave somewhere away from reality #-o So, my clio trophy ownership experience. It started off really well, but has been hugely painful both mentally and financially.
I shall stick to old peugeots and BMWs like i have done for the past 8 years i think...
