Richard_FM

Sounds interesting. I found the story of the Paykan intriguing, from the Shah's government wanting a people's car, Peugeot having to pull a lot of political strings to get production restarted after the Iranian revolution, to it's eventual demise, where the Iranian government had to more or less bride the makers to stop production, even though demand was still high.

A few larger British cars had the manual gear lever on the right hand side, the Morris Isis & some 1940s Rolls Royces come to mind. I'm not sure what the did with the LHD versions.

I think this was turned into a film, I remember seeing something where a GI boasts about been a hitman before the war & shoots a taxi driver through the back of his seat to show be wasn't bragging.

Supposedly a high proportion of Japanese estate cars are used as delivery vans, so this seems logical.

You can get a Mazda 2 hybrid which is more or less a Toyota Yaris rebadged.

Right, I wasn't sure if it was one of those odd badge engineered car that seemed to be common in some parts of the world.

I wonder what the story is behind that!?

Most my cars have been colourful, that helps to find them in a car park.

There is a pub I used to occasionally visit which had an early Mk1 Ford Focus in the same parking space each time. It took me a few visits to realised it might have been dumped there. I presume it took some legal wrangling to get it removed. It was that insipid yellow colour, & another in the same colour seemed to take up residence in the car park at my local Premier Inn around the same time.

I've seen it the other way round with a Mk2 with a Mk1 tailgate. Once I saw a Fiat Strada with a mixture of round & rectangular door handles. I can't remember which one was the proper design for the car.

I read knot wheels as knot weed, which can also be a pain to deal with.

My brother in law used to have A 2 door BMW 3 series, though the leg room was a bit tight for me on a long journey. 2 door saloons were popular with the German & Swedish manufacturers, but have been rare since the 1990s. Same with 3 door estates.

I had no loose changed for ages apart from a pound coin in my wallet, which I had to spend when I got a haircut for £11 & the barber only took cash. When I went to a Sainsbury's this week I deliberately used a note rather than my card so I could get some change.

I've heard to filling engines up with heavy oil to quieten a rattle, but often these are caused by things like water pumps & the heavy oil ends up putting too much strain on the engine. Supposedly a lot of Volvo 440s were scrapped because they ate their clutches after 10-15 years, & a replacement was an engine-out job that would normally write them off.

It's normally not a good idea to buy or sell a car to someone you know. When my cousin was selling his old car I did think of buying it, but I was persuaded not to because it was beginning to get a bit rough around the edges. It was probably a good idea in the end as a few months later I was made redundant & wouldn't have been able to afford to run it for most of the next 18 months!

Reminds me of the Micro Olympics computer game, which allowed you to throw discuses & hammers at the wrong times with amusing consequences.

When Penelope Keith was young & needed the money.

I've heard of Minis being ringed with pre-1973 VIN plates when that was the limit of the tax free age.

It's common for 1970s Ranger Rovers to have been reshelled with later bodywork.

This was on the road until 1988, maybe it had a stund double for scene like this, though not many people were really bothered about a 15 year old ADO16 in the mid 1980s.