Why drive a car that struggles to do 15 MPG and when, all thanks to the British Government, fuel costs over Ł3.40 A GALLON - that's over $4.50 PER US GALLON? Last time I was in the States the most expensive petrol I saw was $1.17 A US GALLON. Hmmmm. Good question... ...on the positive side... I've worked out that so far, this car has cost me an average of just over 40 pence per mile (that's about 63 US cents a mile). Now this may sound like a lot, but considering that if you bought a brand new Land Rover Discovery then you would be paying about 61 pence per mile average, plus of course the large initial outlay. Even a relatively humble new Seat Toledo is going to cost you in the region of 30 pence per mile. And I know what I would rather be driving... But I think the underlying message here is clear - Thanks to the British Government, motoring in this country is a rip-off, not just for old yanks, but for all cars. And the situation is getting worse with the imminent threats of road pricing tolls, increasing parking levies, above inflation increases in fuel duty, exponential increases in speeding fines, car licencing based on engine size - the list is endless... See the budget on the front page for more info on that.

If you're interested in buying an old yankee V8 the biggest expense you're gonna have, if you live in Europe anyway, is inevitably going to be the fuel consumption. Click on the Excel logo to see what kind of consumption I get out of my TA and how much it works out a week. (not for the faint hearted...) But remember, I do drive the car daily and use it to get to work in - seeing as the local public transport is a joke - so naturally I tend to get through quite a bit of gas... FUELECON2.XLS (Excel 5.0/95 document - 35k) Also, listed on here is all the repairs and maintainance I have had to perform since I bought the car back in July '99. And also I've included a pence per mile round up of every expense associated with ownership of my TA, which surprisingly doesn't work out too bad... Ahhh! I do like a happy ending!

Coming soon! 'A history of disaster' - The epic story of all the times I've been pulling my bloody hair out trying to fix the next thing that has gone wrong with this car... To be fair though, apart from the fuel tank and a few other bits and pieces I've sorted out the majority of problems with this car now and recently it has been as good as gold. Who said American cars were unreliable?...

Did I say as good as gold?... Well I had little problem with the camshaft... and then a little problem with a carburettor needing to be rebuilt... and then this caused the coil to go... but hey, nothing a thousand pounds couldn't fix... On the upside - since having all the work done, the car is now twice as fast as it ever was! I seriously nearly wept when I drove this car away from the garage! Woohoo! And now its being as good as gold again... except the radiator is on the way out... and I need to do the leafsprings... etc.