mk2_craig

Slightly tenuous Eddy but the current version of the Piaggio Porter: Is currently obtainable in the UK: https://piaggiocommercialuk.com/range/porter-range/porter-van/ My employer has one in pickup flavour, though it's left hand drive and I can't actually confirm whether RHD is offered.

Seems like there is at least a small following for these, All done well to survive given the image and parts support situation.

We have a whole load of these at work. I think most of them are 4x4. Low-geared, aren’t they?

You haven't experienced a shite convertible until you've lived with a Vibrant Orange MG TF. This actual one in fact, though the Guernsey plates indicate that this photo was taken some time after my wife sold it, and before it went onto a UK registration. Number 21 of the LE500 run when MG restarted production in 2008, but apparently only 75 in the colour. The paint was comically bad at staying on the panels (I fitted the mudflaps to try and preserve the sills from stone rash) and the cheap shit rear light seals let water into the boot, just like her previous and ten years older MGF had done. Screenwash pump worked when it felt like it, hardtop fit was terrible and every unpainted bolt on the car was totally brown at three years of age. Verdict: total pile of crap. I loved it! Would quite like to know where it is now, either been exported yet again or encountered a further plate change.

Said I'd never sell the XR2. But I woke up one day and decided I was fed up of it cluttering up the garage, plus I had a willing buyer in the form of a colleague who has subsequently sorted out the bodywork. My wife cried when I sold it, which is daft because I know she never liked it but maybe it was just the thought of getting rid of the toys to fund other stuff (the twenty seven hundred quid I earned from selling the Fiesta was sunk straight into home improvement work) and now there's no chance of owning another, unless I get my hands on a basket case which no doubt would never get properly fixed up - that was part of the problem in the first place. Sometimes you just have to do these things.

Not strictly automotive related, but it does involve some nice grot in a strange parallel with the @Datsuncog Subaru experience. The now Mrs_Craig bought this table from Q&Q many years ago. It has spent well over a decade outside in all weathers. Looks OK still, doesn't it? However it's going to need some attention to the underside for its next MoT. That's supposed to be a continuous square frame supporting the opaque toughened glass panel. Aye, that's humped. No chance of welding that up!

At the risk of jinxing it, at least it hasnt suffered a matt black rattle can respray. Plus it still exists, so potentially able to be returned to 1984 junior photocopier sales rep condition.

Sad times. Given that there’s a couple of middlemen involved, I wonder what you’d have got direct from the metals yard if you’d driven it there and bridged it yourself?

If you can get over the border to Italy why not give this bloke a shout, https://www.dgclassiccars.com No language barriers and he might be able to point you in the direction of some interesting worthless old toss that still functions OK. I make no observations about whether the admin side of things is worse or much worse than obtaining/importing a French vehicle however.

Probably not in the spirit of the question, as U.K. imports ceased mid nineties, but the original shape Panda continued up until about twenty years ago in euro markets, was that still available with the 4 speed at the end of the production run?

Lucky outcome! Looks like the donor vehicle had been sitting there for some* time - was there anything else worth having off it?

That’s a weird one, it was first successfully MOTd years before being U.K. registered in 2015, with mileage going from 34k to 86k between 2009 and 2018. Could have left the country for a bit before eventual registration I suppose, or maybe a change of instruments/odometer. Perhaps there’s a slim chance that it was genuinely first put on the road in 2002, if it had sat unregistered somewhere for three decades?

Fair play to the lad for wanting to have a crack at that, it looks absolutely CATTLED. If he takes his time then the market will probably have risen enough to result in a tasty profit margin. Is the plan to go back to original condition, or modify/upgrade?

Great terrible car!! It needs one of those Scrappage Scheme Survivor stickers. The wheels look like they've come off a later model 19 16v, or maybe a Clio? They're possibly worth a bit, though a set of centre caps will no doubt be a tricky thing to source.

GR8 4 SPEAR PARTS. Spotted this morning while engaging in a bit of harmless trespassing