Soundwave

Mirror fixed and reattached, car drop-kicked into MOT station this morning. Success! The tyres I knew about, been meaning to change them for something a bit grippier anyway. Time to start shopping around...

Having used the Saab and Rover sparingly over the winter, with the Skoda doing the lion's share of the work, I've SORNed the Saab for the time being. Just so I can have a crack at the bodywork, and also to reduce costs - as I'll be paying tax on the Mazda again from next month. Yes, the scruffy little MX5 has been overwintering in a lockup, and now Spring is ostensibly here it's time to wake it up! MOT is about due too, so let's start getting it ready... It rather grumpily fired into life, but soon settled down into a happy idle. The tappet noise on start-up was quite horrific, like the garage was suddenly haunted by the ghosts of a thousand 80s Talbots. An oil change soon settled them down, though. Checked all the fluids, the bulbs, the tyres... all looks good, MOT booked for Saturday. Ooh, the passenger side mirror is folded in. I'll just adjust it and... it's snapped off its mount and come off in my hand. Fucking terrific. Took the mount off the door and stripped it all down... also please excuse the state of the table, I was potting up some plants just prior to this. A known issue with these apparently, the bolt that holds the mounting ball joint together rusts and then breaks. I.e: this one: Fortunately, apparently almost any 50mm bolt of M4 or M5 diameter will suffice as a replacement, the flat bit is largely unnecessary. Got loads of odds, sods and bolts around the place, this shouldn't be too hard... except I've apparently got everything except the size I need. Great. Emergency run to Screwfix after work tonight, then...

Especially given that countless blokes in garden sheds apparently figured it out, as loads were subsequently home converted!

Or if you were unlucky, stale bread softened with reheated dripping.

Hyundai Atoz. In gold. Delightfully terrible.

It's bizarre. I'm STILL getting offers that are about half the current bid - and they make out that they're doing ME a favour. They really do seem to occupy an alternative reality.

Can't say much that hasn't already been said, absolutely heroic skills!

Selling some bicycle bits on ebay, haven't sold anything on ebay for a long time and now I remember why... auction hasn't been running for 5 hours yet and I've already had a gauntlet of chancers, lowballers and weirdos messaging me and making offers and being abusive when they're turned down. Such a hostile environment for selling things these days.

Pre-facelift Vectra finished in nursing home beige...

Yep, still in place and still a constant reminder that I need to do something with the C-pillar trims, which look inadequate in comparison,

Lovely! You wait ages for a P4 on AS, then two come along at once...

Checker Marathon cab, continuing the Yank theme?

Depends on the car. I always have my modern Skoda serviced annually, at a workshop, partly to help it keep its value and partly because I'd really rather it didn't go wrong due to its complexity and expense to repair. My older cars get serviced still, although it tends to be on a more "as and when required" basis since they don't do as many miles and I usually do the work myself.

Who remembers when Hyundai went through their weird, overly tall city car phase? Exhibit A: The Atoz... Exhibit B: The Amica # The similarities in design are intentional; in some markets they were both sold as the Atos, with the Atoz being the first generation the Amica being the second generation.

Continuing on the "literally almost everything Daihatsu ever did" theme... the Applause, a hatchback masquerading as a saloon. Just two still on the road according to HML.

I've mentioned Daihatsu before in this thread, but thinking about it, we might as well just say "Everything Daihatsu ever did apart from the Fourtrak and possibly the Copen". The Move, Grand Move and YRV illustrate the point well.

Sometimes, you've just got to say "YOLO", or whatever the non-yoof equivalent is. Good work. ... although as others have said, the all-blacked-out look does give off slight hints of "freelance pharmecutical distributor".

Hey, remember when Proton did a rakish*, sporty* coupe? No? Neither does anyone else.

Woops, missed that! Probably should have looked a bit harder, but I really wanted to wheel out the tired Tenacious D pun...

This is not the greatest car in the world, no. This is just a Tribute... As far as I can tell, there are no Mazda Tributes currently on eBay or Autotrader.

That shadow on the bonnet fooled me for a second, I thought someone had put some awful racing stripes on it!

MPVs really do seem to be a prime source of forgettable motors. All this talk of Space Wagons and Space Stars has reminded me of another "Space" MPV, this time from Toyota... the Space Cruiser. Lots of MPVs get accused of being vans with windows, but these things really were!

At least it had a semi-decent name over there, in Europe it was called the Space Wagon. Speaking of which, who remembers its little brother, the Space Star?

... alright, couldn't resist posting a bit more. Who remembers the Fullbore Mark 10? I remember seeing the ads for them in Top Gear magazine in the late 90s, but I don't think I've ever seen one in the metal. Basically a Hindustan Ambassador, imported by Fullbore Motors UK and tidied up a bit for the UK market with better paint/materials and a few mechanical tweaks etc. It cost £HFM.M8 at the time, and thus nobody bought them. Plus the improvements didn't include rustproofing, meaning the few that did sell disintegrated.