Flat4

Why do I like that Standard Companion 10 thing? I know nothing about them, if anyone would care to fill me in? Also like the Granada. I need one of those one day as my grandad used to have one. I'm already working on the 7th sadly. Would anyone going be able to pick up the Scalelectrix stuff on our behalf? Assuming it doesn't go for silly money....

Volvo has now revived the fun bus Started straight away with a very quick jump off the Volvo's battery. Done a nice wee 100 mile round trip today with a few stops and starts without any hint of a problem. It's a good old barge

Spoke too soon - battery has gone flat on the fun bus 😕 It's not really been used since Al was signed off sick. He was using it for local work runs so hopefully the battery is just a case of lack of use as it's a bloody huge battery to replace and I'd just done one of those on the Beemer before it left.... Will get it going and probably use it for Monday's 100 mile round trip to the exotic vet, see how it responds to a shake down. I'm gonna have to draw up a rota for what gets used when to stop hissy fits like this. It's mainly been the Volvo lately as it's the cheapest to run, the easiest to get started and surprisingly easy to reverse park! Nice problem to have tho

Mk2 Mondeo about 5 months after I passed my test. Idiot failed to give way at a junction and drove straight into the side of me. T-boned. Had genuine whiplash for about 5 weeks. Of course, she tried to claim it was my fault....

Thank you! I am hoping they are making idiot neighbour jealous. She asked why we kept buying "old cars" and why don't we sell the fleet and buy one good one. So we sold the Beemer and bought 2 even better ones - one that's the same age as hers and the other which is newer

So the fleet currently looks like this Not often I get them all lined up in a row Touch wood, all working, all road legal which is a very reassuring position to be in Al has also decided to keep the Almera as a spare car for the time being as it's really too reliable to sell. It's the one that's kept going when everything else has fallen to bits! In other news, first run in the Fozzie with me driving has returned just over 28 mpg, which I'm actually very pleased with, as my last Legacy GTB struggled to get 26 even on a run. I am also suspecting a duff coil pack as the cause of the misfire, which actually shouldn't be too expensive to sort out. It's worse now it's wet which suggests, I think, that it's something electrical rather than mechanical, which was my biggest concern. It also doesn't misfire when cold and Scoobies in general are prone to cracking and delaminating coil packs. Hoping tame mechanic can look at it next week to tell me if I'm right.

My last Legacy came with those Hankooks when I bought it and they were alright. I only changed to Cross Climates as I didn't have a summer set ready that year but I ended up having to use them all year round when the winter tyres got a puncture and I couldn't afford to replace the whole set. Didn't feel the need to change back and forth once I'd actually tried them. I've got 1 pair of summer tyres which will fit the Volvo that we should hopefully be getting into the better weather, next month, for me to fit them and I've found some Cross Climates in the right size for the other axle for £57 a corner, which is an absolute no-brainer! I will eventually replace all 4 at that price I think! I can't understand why the Pirelli and Continental all season versions are so much more expensive tho? At least £100 a corner.

If anyone can get them down to Linlithgow area I can get them from there.

West coast in Ayrshire, so will either be coming down the M74 or down the A76 through Dumfries. Am regularly over to Linlithgow atm too so could potentially collect stuff centrally in advance for onward travel, or vice versa.

Came across what I think is rather interesting test on seasonal tyres, whilst researching what new boots to buy for the Volvo. About 2 years ago now I bought a set of Cross Climates for the Legacy at the time as there was a load of hype about how good they were and how you didn't need to swap from summer to winter with them. My previous understanding of all season tyres was that they didn't particularly excel in being either summer or winter conditions and were therefore a poor compromise. So I did used to run 2 sets of alloys on my Legacies, 1 with winter and 1 with a summer set of tyres. But the most recent inception of all season tyres like the Cross Climate, the Pirelli Cinturato all season and the Continental All Season Contact seems to have changed all that. I have to say I didn't find the Cross Climates a particularly inspiring drive but it will be interesting to try them on the Fozzie and see how they compare to the Michelin Latitudes it is currently wearing. Those appear to be quite sticky indeed! Anyone tried the Cinturato all season or Continental version yet?

I would bloody love a shot of that MX5 but sadly already working this weekend Are there any pre-requisites to bring your own car to these? How did the yellow Impreza get on, the one in some of the pics further up?

Shitely offered Scotland to Nottingham and back again, first week in March most likely. Can take anything that will fit in the boot of the V70.

Tame mechanic has confirmed he can read the codes off it so will be interesting to find out what's bugging it, if it's related to the misfire or not.

This is what a 2nd job, hard graft and many, many early mornings looks like. 2005 Subaru Forester 2.5 XT, single turbo, manual gearbox. I believe this has the slightly later engine which has 227 bhp compared to 206. It's my almost perfect car (I wanted a light coloured one and no tow bar - yet!) that I have wanted for over a year, the most modern I have ever owned and in the best condition I have ever had! It has a full stamped service history book up to 2015 and a whole folder full of expensive receipts since then, dating back to 2007 as well. It came with a genuine Subaru dog guard fitted, it has had most common failure points already replaced and my word it shows! The engine was rebuilt at a Subaru dealer, including a new clutch, at a cost of £3500. Dealer also replaced the rear shocks about 40,000 miles ago with genuine self-levelling ones and the cam belt was done 2 years ago. It PULLS like a TANK, it outguns BMW 7-series drivers who fancy their chances The oil is ridiculously clean, it has 4 matching Michelin tyres and defies the laws of physics - something this tall with this much arch gap should not be able to corner as flat and level as it does! There is zero body roll and even for a Scooby, the grip is unbelievable! It does have a few niggles to be sorted but is very much useable in the meantime. It was sold as spares or repairs as the only key fob has failed and you need to manually over ride the immobilser by typing a code into a pad under the dash. I am wondering if this might be a simple fix of replacing the battery in the key fob but even if it's not, the immobilser can be turned off if the pin pad gets too annoying... It also had a check engine light illuminated and the seller advised it be trailered away... Thanks to the amazing kindness and determination of @Stanky collecting from a rather tricky seller [email protected] loosing 4 days of his life to deliver it home, it promptly drove 475 miles, another 100 ish miles with me this week and the disco lights have gone out! Which means the engine isn't detecting any current faults but I will get the stored codes read to see what it wasn't happy about. It does need 2 back tyres replaced as they are on the limit for age but I have a couple of sets of Subaru wheels I am going to try on to see which will clear the brakes first. Those will be getting upgraded at some point as they can be described as just about adequate... 4 pots or better definitely needed! It has developed a very slight misfire at idle and occasionally at low revs which is a concern as it had new plugs and leads last year so what ever is up might be expensive, but I'm hoping not serious given the epic mileage it's just done. It does have a couple of receipts for injectors for previous misfire issues so I'm thinking the first mod, after the tow bar fitting, will be to upgrade the injectors to those off an Impreza STI

Correction - we have 1 pair of tyres which will fit the Ovlov and a full matching set of 4 which might. It's currently wearing 3 different brands of budget tyres which I just can't have, especially on an AWD, so that'll be the first thing to be changed. Then we just need to kit it out with a full size spare and it will likely be on towing duties at the end of the month That's all I can see it needing so far, which is amazing. Touch wood, gearbox is behaving itself even around town. Will likely get the cam belt and water pump done as preventative maintenance but I am impressed with our first Volvo! You can feel the quality in it and it's a lovely smooth, comfortable drive.