I just bought a French tractor
 

I have no idea why I'm posting this here, probably because this forum is the nearest thing to social media for me (if you don't count text messages on my phone).

Anyway, my current employer pays a generous car allowance and provides a fuel card so I have been in the fortunate position that I can drive my SVX daily and frequently on long road trips (for work) with all the fuel costs paid by someone else.
Regretfully that era has come to an end (as has my employment with that company) and as I move to self employment I face driving the same long distances but now paying for fuel out of my own pocket.

I gave serious consideration to installing an LPG conversion into my SVX, but at a cost of around $5000 it was going to be a longish payback, the LPG system would have limited resale if I ever removed it and there is a reasonable chance my car would have been damaged during the install process.

Possibly with deep regrets I have purchased the most passionless car known to mankind, a 2002 Peugeot 406. To top it off, it's grey in colour (I'm sure the Peugeot dealer would call it 'silver bullet', but it's still grey.

I drove it 250km yesterday and it goes ok, it's 80kw of power wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding but at least my SVX powered, 160 km/h overtaking escapades will come to an end and my drivers license will be less blemished.

I was rewarded with outstanding fuel economy. My SVX would typically get 550km from $140 of fuel. I filled my little French tractor with diesel at a cost of about $75, drove it 250km and the trip computer tells me there is still 800km of fuel sitting in the tank.
It is unbelievably cheap to run.
No doubt (being French), it will break, then it will break again, then it will blow up completely. But if it only lasts 2 years then I still would have saved the entire $3200 purchase price in fuel alone.
And to be fair, SVXs aren't renown for being cheap to maintain anyway.

So that's my story for the day. My SVX will be relocated to one of my tractor sheds and covered over. Won't be sold but probably won't be driven much either. It will be parked next to the mint 1985 MR2 and the 6 cylinder Vortex, neither of which are driven either.

If I see you around then you'll either be sniffing my tail pipe as I hold up traffic going up a hill or I wave to your tail lights as you overtake me on the straights.

Re: I just bought a French tractor
 

Shane,

will look out for you on the roads....I just spent the morning driving to Hamilton & back (270kms) - tank was full when I started & now is resting just over 1/2 full, not bad for around 160 minutes driving.....how are the AC controllers - still all working I hope.

Steve

Re: I just bought a French tractor
 

Ac controllers are running fine, thank you.
Do you still need to the cruise part ?
Could you send a photo showing where it is ?

Re: I just bought a French tractor
 

Shane got the cruise part from Gol - have measured mine at the 4 way connector & the resistances are way off, where as the one he has given me is within 3-5 ohms so should work great, will fit it next xmas when I can work in the sun.

Re: I just bought a French tractor
 

Good luck with your fuel economy special. I did the same thing a few years ago, buying a Honda Fit for all my long miles. Paid for itself in fuel savings alone.

I wish we still had the option of buying French tractors in the US. I had 2 505s and a 405 and enjoyed them all.

Re: I just bought a French tractor
 

you could do worse shane.ive just bought 2 volvo xc70 wagons,because of there safety reputation which is true,coz they are not used as they both have auto problems..allegros,marinas,avengers and other brit disasters have less problems...google volvo problems..your french tractors are better...carl ps i like stephens facebook pages especially the dog [animal] ones

Re: I just bought a French tractor
 

Thanks for loking at the FB pages - sorry it has been a while since I posted stuff on that - not really since my last trip to Nepal in 2010 ......

Pity there are now a lot of changes there - not for the better....