warren t claim

Craptain's Log. Stardate 10/1/24. 1500 miles completed. Stop/Start has decided to work more often. Fuel economy is now 44.1mpg. Occasional EML and TSC moment that seems to cure itself over the course of a few miles without having to be plugged in. By now there should be a few things about it that would be niggling me but so far so good. The seat belt chime can be timed out in a minute for night shifts and doesn't reactivate when I get in or out of the car as long as I leave it running. I'm not going to say that this is the perfect private hire car because that vehicle doesn't exist. Also, I've yet to have to do a headlamp bulb change or replace a fuse. Other than the aforementioned parts availability it's very difficult to find a negative aspect to working the MG6 as a taxi.

Last night I picked up a couple of other driver's from the pub and the topic of conversation drifted towards nightmare passengers. One lad asked me if I'd ever taken the wheelchair guy from a pub in Heswall to his flat in Neston.I hadn't and the driver told me this tale. He gets despatched the job and picks the guy up and takes him home. When he gets there the fare clocks £8.40. The mong hands him £3.40 and says that when the driver wheels him in his missus will give him the other fiver, fair enough. Once wheeled in the driver is greeted to the sight of a woman with no neck, arms or legs propped up on the sofa! This woman is just a head on a torso!!! The punter asks Neston's answer to Boxing Helena for the other fiver and she then spits five Pound coins onto the table in front of her....

An interesting question is if this manages to live until its compulsory 10 year retirement date would anyone here be prepared to buy it?

Undertray, well the remains of it, has been removed. The rear had started to come adrift and by the end of the shift the MG had started to resemble a 1:1 Scalextric car with it rubbing on the tarmac. With it removed I've noticed the front suspension making a grinding noise river speed bumps. As the front end is basically Rover 75 I suppose this is the right place to ask if this is a common fault with those as well? Also, there's a rattle from the front end that doesn't sound like a drop link which I'll investigate when I have the time. I took the opportunity to do a fluids check as the washer bottle was empty. The gas struts for the bonnet are piss poor meaning I had to prop the bonnet up with my head. Well below the quality of those fitted to a 1978 Princess. I also encountered some patchy fog the other day which had me pondering over how to turn the fog lamps on. After pulling over I discovered that the driver has to turn the light switch from auto to dipped to be able to pull the switch out to turn them on. 87 year old OAP was delighted to have a ride in an MG last night. He was made up to see the MG threshold plate when he got in and told me that his late wife always said that he should buy an MG as his name is Maurice Green. He spent the journey telling me about buying an Austin 12 in Perth, Scotland and driving it back to Wirral in deep snow. Yes, I know that the first six days haven't been trouble free, but every issue so far isn't MG6 specific and could have happened if I was driving a Mondeo or Insignia. Zero "renter's remorse" so far.

EML made a short appearance tonight. In other news the stop/start decided to work for an hour this evening. Puncture number two this afternoon.

I can imagine the pissed off conversation he had with the Caddy dealer. Louis. Have you finished servicing my car yet? You've had the thing three fucking days now! Service Manager. Sorry. I thought that you had all the time in the world mate.

She later wrote a poem called I Wish I'd Looked After My B.

1000 mile economy report. 43.4 mpg on the trip computer. The E7 was at 44.6 mpg but those figures don't tell the whole story. With my E7 being a large 7 passenger vehicle, one of very few on our fleet that works nights, it was allocated plenty of distance jobs to the airport where it sat at 60 mph. The MG has done probably over 90% of its miles in urban conditions. I've yet to do an airport run in the MG because the night when I was despatched a take out to MAN was the night when I got the puncture and there's no way I'd do that job without a spare wheel. One thing that I've noticed about the MG is the very optimistic speedo. 100 on the clock reads 87 mph on the GPS. This may affect the data on the trip computer. An interesting observation is that the feedback from punters has been 100% positive. Even those who've heard of the MG6 are surprised at how much nicer it is in real life than what they've heard and read about it. Several times a day I'll be told by passengers that this is a nice car, what is it? Even online on here, TDW and on the local taxi FB page nobody has used the words Chineseium, Chinky Shit or Wongbridge. I'm still impressed at how much of a driver's car it is regarding the handling and road manners. It's light years ahead if the Ioniq and although not up to the levels of the 70 plate Focus I drive from time to time, it's certainly about 95% as competent. I'd go as far to say that if you put the MG6 against a 150 bhp diesel Focus in a race around a track the deciding factor on which car won would be the skill of the driver. Another positive point is the seat. I can hop out after a 15 hour shift with zero aches and pains. They also have superb lateral support, a point I noticed yesterday when I had to drive an early Mercedes SLK Kompressor. The driver's seat in the Merc had piss poor side bolsters compared to the MG. Mind you, if you're after some cheap open top speed I can highly recommend putting the SLK on your list. It's a shame that they didn't make a manual version. A good question to ask is why did the MG6 fail to sell? Modern MGs seem to be selling in decent numbers so it can't be down to badge snobbery. They offered a lot of well kitted car for not much money so had value on their side. Although they don't quite have the build quality of the prestige Kraut brands, their quality of interior plastics is vastly superior to those of a Mk4 Mondeo and even better that what you'd find in a 2007 Passat. I suppose that its nearest competitor is/was the Skoda Rabid, a car that I've never driven but I did take the Seat equivalent out for a long test drive and I'd rate the MG higher.

A very quiet Saturday night. Even so, I managed to break the 1000 mile mark today. Not bad for three and a half days work.

Are you sure? That's quite a large truck to be powered by a 1.85 diesel. I can't imagine it towing much.

It's a bus stop I'm afraid!

I expect a picture of an Invacare parked in front of a Soho clip joint in return.

Punter feedback has been pretty much all positive. My Ioniq was by far and away the car the most passengers asked me about but I'd say the MG is fighting for second place with the Omega Elite 3.0 V6 I used to own.

I must admit that until recently I thought the MG5s were a punk band that had a hit with Kick Out The Jams Mutherfuckers!

When I got the puncture last night I had to phone the lad I'm renting it from to bring me a wheel brace as the one in the boot was for 17mm nuts, much bigger than those fitted to the MG. He owns three of them and told me that the 190000 white MG6 I mentioned earlier is the nicest driving one of the lot. That particular MG6 has been a taxi from the day it was first registered. He did tell me that although they're great cars, getting spares is somewhat challenging to say the least.

A bit of both. 90% urban miles.

All being well, this MG will have to survive 5000 hard and demanding miles in less than 4 weeks.

116000 on the clock. I've covered 850 miles in it since 7pm on the 2nd of January!

I've not had a chance to plug it in yet.

Even if I say so myself, that's deffo a strong contender for a 2025 calender pic!

Gone on my phone to retrieve a picture of an MG6 in front of a sex shop just for you. x

But I'm not on my phone!

Let's get this thread back on track. What quirks and faults have I noticed? The HVAC fan increases speed when reverse gear is selected. The undertray has become loose after driving through standing water. This may be down to a poor crash repair in the past. Occasionally it'll flash up an error message regarding the traction control and hill start assist, although strangely enough not the ABS. In the last couple of hours it's started to sound the seat belt chime even when the belts are clicked in. TPMS light on. Steering wheel wobble at certain speeds that I think might be a slightly buckled alloy. Only minor. I don't feel like Michael J Fox driving a Hillman Avenger. Reversing camera seems to be suffering from cataracts. Motor occasionally hunts between 800-1100 rpm. I never thought that I'd ever have a use case for having a car with a chilled centre console but as I'm suffering from the 100 Day Cough, keeping my cough linctus chilled has helped!

For 1/1/25 I will top this thread by getting a Wolverhampton taxi badge and plating a Tata Nano. Watch this space!

Not all of them are. My phone is low on memory so I've had to snip the pics from a WhatsApp Web thread. I shall hang my head in shame and fuck off in disgrace after my next beer!