Stroller133

On 21/03/2024 at 21:33, 2flags said:

Why couldn't Rover had done this ten, fifteen years sooner? I know they had little money available at the time, but a bit more on development, with better quality control and who knows, maybe they would still be with us today. 

Sierraman apparently. 
 

On 21/03/2024 at 20:43, sierraman said:

The rot set in decades before that, they should have pulled the rug on them in the 70’s and invested the money in providing some employment in the area that actually had some legs.

I had a mk2 Golf GTi well off the clock - it was not working correctly, obviously.  resetting the trip/mpg data showed an average speed of around 115, which seems possible. 

15 minutes ago, loserone said:

No, that's not a decline.  Just ask them for your proof of NCB and move on to elsewhere.

 

What's the place offering comp cover on other cars?

Aviva. 

Thread resurrection! Following this post I handed back the company car, and now we both have 10 years plus NCD. 
 

This years issue is my current insurer instead of a renewal have sent a letter saying they won't renew my policy:

Regrettably, your current insurer, xxxxx, is unable to continue cover for the above policy due to the risks presented and the insurers ability to cover these risks.

My concern is whether I now need to declare I've had insurance declined. I might argue I never asked them to quote for next years cover, so how can they have declined?

Interestingly the company that I'm planning to use are offering a premium level with better belongings cover, hire cars and personal injury etc, but the feature that's caught my eye is driving other cars with comp cover? You have to log on and register the car for 5 days at a time, otherwise you still have TPO cover. Might be of interest to some on here who often borrow cars. The other car must be worth less than £50k. 

On 04/05/2023 at 23:07, junkyarddog said:

This has come up on a Facebook group. There are a lot of comments asking why isn't he sleeping on the back seat. Am I the only one who thinks it's not his car and he's found the boot unlocked?  

Has 7 seater demand really fallen away? I'm happy with my Tourneo Custom, but many drivers won't have one due to basically being a van. 

In Tamworth there were a few dealers that are no longer around. One of the most prominent was Bolebridge Garage,  was a Rover dealer, but not sure what  BL brands it sold in earlier years. It was demolished in about 2008 and there is a LIdl and Travelodge on the site, with the modern Ford dealer located behind it.  I can't find a picture of it in the 80s/90s I remember, but did find an earlier one showing it in a street scene, where in my living memory it was in a more open, slightly out of town setting, that probably meant then business remained more access in its later years.

I remember going into the parts shop with a mate who was looking for some bits for a Mini, and we'd barely walked in and he told us what we wanted was no longer available before we'd even asked. 

Used to pass The Clock Garage, Castle Bromwich on the way to visit relative in the 80/90s one of the first signs of being in Birmingham after leaving the M6. I can only really remember it being a Peugeot dealer, but I think it had previously been talbot/Rootes.  
 

It's been demolished and just a fuel station now. The new clock is a bit weaker as a local landmark!

It could have a DPF if the first owner was a fleet. Unbelievably they were a cost option, as the company car tax was discounted if it met the euro 4?

19 hours ago, grogee said:

Keep-fit windows? Fuck me, that is stingy. 

Did any 'original' (not K-series) Metros get leccy windows?

I think the facelift (84/85 onwards?) models had electric windows on the top spec and possibly central locking, key operated not remote. It was typical of the era though, I don't think any mk1 Fiesta had electric windows even the XR2 or Ghia, but I think both those models would have on mk2. A friend had a 1.4s Fiesta and I think that may have had keep fit windows.

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

What is that...thing?

A Proton? 

1 hour ago, Soundwave said:

In the current climate of weirdness, my modern is currently valued at £800 more than I paid (outright, not finance) for it 2 years ago...! Of course, I realise that this is a blip and this won't always be the case.

Also if the car cost say £10k, in 12 months time you might need £12k to hold the same buying power in cash terms your £10k was worth in 2019/20.

My Dad moved on from Robins when I was about 10, so I cant remember/didn't know exact figures, but I'd say his Mk1 Robins would have done more like 50mpg rather than 100mpg. 
Classic Mini 850, 998 or even 1098 engines could all achieve 50mpg driven lightly I'd say. I remember going from Tamworth to Minehead and back a long way round on a really hot summer day and getting around 50+mpg in my Mini Clubman. 

16 hours ago, lesapandre said:

When you drove up the A5 you used to go right past the factory. Demolished now of course and replaced by housing as have most of the Midlands car factories.

The A5 has also been bypassed since then. If I remember correctly the factory reduced in size before closing and south side became a factory called Probus? 
I have more memories of the Kettlebrook factory. I recall waiting in my Dad's Robin whilst he was at a motor factors called Car-Bar, you could see the Reliant sign of the factory from the car park. When I did my paper round in the 90s I often passed the factory on the Glascote side, but it was solely the Metrocab factory by then. 
There was a Reliant dealer on the Glascote Road, about half a mile from the Kettlebrook factory, S R Tomson & son. They later bacame a Proton dealer and perhaps  a Citroen dealer for a while. 

On 1/17/2022 at 7:39 PM, SiC said:

You realise, right, that most people in the UK aren't actually "working class"? As in those that are lower than average income.

Numbers from OECD. A little old but it's unlikely to have changed radically.

I'm not sure what you think that graph shows, but it doesnt prove we are all (or most of us are) middle class?

For starters it based on median, and by definition 50% of people are below this level and 50% above. How wealthy we are or our perceived social class will depend on the income of the median earner. I'll concede if the median (assume its individual) income was £80k a year then as a nation we may be relatively wealthy as that chart would show that 91% of us would earn over £40k ie greater than 50% of median.

I suspect the reality is far from the above scenario. I'd guess individual median earnings in 2016 was around £25k per year. 
The groupings of that chart are a bit misleading - your point seemed to be the majority earn around or above the average earnings and the chart backs this up at 58%. However this group of people have an income range of 125% of the median, whereas the 2 lower sections have ranges of 50% and 25%.

As it's a median figure we can work out that 20% have a income of 75-100% of median.  Therefore there are similar but slightly more people who have an income of 50-75% than 75-100%. 
 

Sorry for thread drift! 

On 11/21/2021 at 9:09 AM, UltraWomble said:

Went to see this guy live last night
Second time I've seen him live.
Bloody funny.
Even got to say hello afterwards back stage. Which was nice.

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk
 

Alfie Moore?

£17750 for our Tourneo Custom, which we will have had for 3 years next month.  I've just had a quick look on Autotrader and it seems that's what the same year example are currently selling for! 

On 2/3/2021 at 11:13 AM, HMC said:

One issue with gumtree is that auto filled message “hi is this still available?” Or something like that- I ended up with about 20 of those on a golf I had on there with nothing back after I said it was. I see on a few ads it says yes still available I’ll remove it when it isn’t- And I think I’ll post the same in future to avoid a load of pointless replies I had to make.

I'm genuinely not a troll and I've ever enquired about cars when I'm not looking to buy. However seeing those lines on  advert really makes me want to ask if it's still available. A bit like a red button with a do not press warning. 

I saw 1 ALE on a Land Rover Discovery. It was coming out of the Everards Brewery HQ car park near Leicester. 

1 minute ago, Ghosty said:

10/150, I was told. 

It's near enough a lifetime part really. 

On 5/7/2021 at 8:08 PM, Ghosty said:

if it comes back as belt roulette and this chap doesn't have it I'll just fuck it off to WBAC as nobody wants to buy it. Volvo serviced it up to about 60k so it might have passed a belt interval with them, unless the first owner sold it when the belt was due. 

I think these are 10 years/125k interval for the belt

Me and few mates we big into Minis in the late 90s. We would go at least half a dozen shows a year. I always liked the Mini 30s, probably would prefer the Red one, but think the interiors are probably one of the best of all standard Mini, except perhaps the Mini Cooper 35 LE.

I seem to recall that the 30s seemed to be rustier than even examples from the same year? They seemed to go around the scuttle panel more than other Minis? Unless for some reason the black ones fared better I wouldn't be surprised if the 2017 rebuild was its second.

I like the 1979 Mini 1100 Special. The only non Clubman Mini to have a factory 1098cc engine. It came with alloy wheels and a 1275GT instrument pack and a central console. Metallic paint with a vinyl roof.  I nearly bought one unseen about 8 years ago, but chickened out. Saw it later that year in Newquay on the Riviera Mini Run and instantly regretted not buying it. 

18 hours ago, stripped fred said:

Here you go, for anyone interested:

https://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/local-news/past-times-hailstorms-hit-hinckley-9557373

Wow! I remember that day well, can't believe it was over 8 years ago. I wasn't in Hinckley, but other random areas across Leicestershire also had it, my company Astra got hit, but it wasn't very noticeable.   A few colleagues with private cars had to claim on their insurance. 

Probably sidelights, especially with most recent cars with drl and auto lights.