wuvvum

As someone who works in a related industry I can assure you that it's been going on for a long time - the main change as I see it has been that ships (especially container ships) have been rapidly getting ever more massive over the last few years, so when they do hit something the damage tends to be catastrophic. Here's a similar incident in Korea from a few years back:

Ooof! But also HFM???

I wonder how they got that Volvo 740 dash to fit in that Mk3 Escort?

I had one identical to this (other than being on a Y plate). Given (seriously!) to me by Baz formerly of this parish. Apart from the usual unpleasant Renault gearchange they are a nice thing to drive, if not the most exciting vehicle Renault ever made. I probably should have kept it longer but I had a 9 Turbo as well at the time and the choice between the two was a bit of a no brainer, so I ended up swapping it for a Škoda Favorit. Fun times.

Having been with both in the past I can confirm that the AA are considerably less shit than the RAC.

Quite so. The answer to this type of situation is always to buy more cars.

Probably - I was going to say my 164 has a 6-digit odo.

There are reasons they're relatively cheap. Most small-engined pre-war cars will be pretty dire to drive in modern traffic, and there's no nostalgia tax on cars this age as everyone who remembers them from their youth has died of old age.

I've been getting a similar error this morning, only with "too many connections" instead of "connection refused".

Four-wheel-drifting a mid-engined car is not something I would feel confident doing. It ain't no MX-5.

@SEATMad

However shit the world might be at the moment, it has been made slightly better by the fact that there exists such a thing as an inflatable Vulcan bomber.

Tagging @warren t claim as I know he's a big fan of these.

I don't think that's a particularly unpopular opinion...

And a stock HB Viva pisses all over a stock Mk1 Escort.

I had one in metallic beige some years ago - 5-speed manual but otherwise a similar spec to yours. I was actually quite tempted by your one but I had a 1.5 auto of the next generation after that and it was dreadful on fuel so I decided to give it a miss - glad it's joined the fold anyway. Can't currently find a picture of it, but here's my Mk1. And here's the Mk3 which was shit on fuel. Edit: Found it.

Round a mate's last night, talking to his daughter (late 20s, hairdresser). She was telling me that she'd spent several hours that day replacing a front lower arm on her Audi (2003 A4 Avant) in advance of its upcoming MOT, and she was complaining about what an utter bastard the front suspension is to work on on those cars. She also replaced a rear arm which was a piece of piss by comparison, although she did say the bush on the old one fell to bits as she took it off. There's still hope for the next generation I reckon.

Compared to some of the rigs AS has seen in the past that looks positively professional.

The Zafira failed its MOT today. I was expecting it to fail, and most of the stuff it failed on was either stuff I was already aware of or relatively minor and easily fixable. It did however fail the emissions test quite spectacularly - CO was off the chart and it also had an advisory for blue smoke, which I hadn't noticed before. Lambda was also way off so the garage reckoned it might be effectively running in cold start mode all the time, which might explain the smoke. So I'm going to fit a new Lambda sensor and take it back in so they can stick it on the emissions before I buy any of the other bits - if the engine is actually shagged then it'll be going for scrap. Then driving to a hospital appointment this afternoon a bit fell off the Rover 75 on the bypass. Turned out it was only the headlight inspection hatch, which I evidently hadn't refitted properly after my MOT-related fiddling a few weeks back, but it made quite a bang as it hit the front wheel and then got chucked under the car. No realistic way to retrieve it as there's nowhere to stop along that section of the bypass but a replacement is only about 15 quid off eBay so not the end of the world.

I rather liked the 33 I had. Sounded a bit like a 2CV but more raspy. Surprisingly nippy around town as well for only 33bhp.

Someone appears to have fitted a straight 6 out of an AC Ace to it as well. Bet that shifts!

Those things do have an appalling turning circle for such a tiny car.

The only Montego that could possibly be worth close to seven bags is a nice MG Turbo. A base spec diesel saloon, especially an early one with the silly diff ratio, isn't worth anything close to that however nice it is.

I bought some upgraded LED stop / tail light bulbs off eBay for the Getz. I think they might be a bit too upgraded...

Electric Daihatsu Hijet van - batteries not included.