Nicola H

A chap in the US on another forum had a Ferrari 550 in need of an alternator.
 
The dealer quoted him $5500 + sales tax for the alternator.
Needless to say, he didn't buy it.
 
An independent Ferrari parts specialist quoted him $1800 + sales tax for the alternator.
Needless to say, he didn't buy it.
 
He then took the alternator down to his local auto electrical supplies store and said to the older chap in the brown coat behind the counter "this alternator came off a kit car, I don't know what it came from originally but I need a new one can you help?"
Said chap had a rake in the parts book, a look on the computer and pulled out several alternators to compare.
It took about 15 minutes to find a alternator with the same body but a slightly different electrical connection (fixable) and a different mounting bracket (but the one from the 550 alternator could be swapped over).
The 550 owner asked the price and what vehicle it was for.
"89 dollars plus sales tax, its from a John Deere tractor"
Needless to say, he bought it. 

The RON rating is nothing to do with whether it's 'cheap supermarket petrol' or not, Tesco do a lovely 99 octane brew that my old Amazon loved. I was able to tweak the timing a bit when I was using it too, but if I had to run it on normal 95 octane unleaded it felt like knocked a good 20bhp off the engine.
 
I tried believing the 'ALLSUPERMARKETPEZIZSHIT' nonsense but after extensive tests on an Alfa 156 using petrol the company was paying for, I couldn't tell the difference between Asda's cheap stuff and Shell Optimax.
 
Other scientific results may vary.

Didn't mega old vans like Minors and A35's come in grey primer and were painted by the customer in whatever colour they wanted?
 
Maybe I dreamt it.

Oh, there are ways round it alright. I've discovered at least one, possibly two, loopholes in the 'it must be registered to you' bit. How long that will last I don't know, but it's there alright.
 
 
*Edit: Marty, can't you just go to PO with new keeper's bit?

Of course you do. If it's not registered as being insured, you won't get the tax for it.

Putting them all in the same envelope? You don't think there is actually someone there doing this do you? Its all done by a machine, prints the envelope onto the pre folded paper off a stack or roll and then inserted into the pre paid envelope for mailing?

That's Mumsnet you're talking about.

Did you not tick the optional Breadvan cover when you signed up for Autoshite?

Or......."We don't actually cover you for all the eventualities you might think we do.   Why not buy this piece of additional cover which, whilst it may actually prove of no value, you will be hesitant to turn down because now we have sown a seed of doubt in your mind?"

The only thing that would improve safety on the roads and reduce accidents is if people, regardless of age, would use their useless brains when they drive, and actually drive. And with drive, I mean driving - the fuck - ON.
The real issue here is, that the majority of people (of all ages) have completely lost the idea, what the car was initially invented for (first and foremost those total retards working in the car industry did that (one of the reasons why I switched career* 20 years ago)).
 
The idea of getting into a motorcar and actually DRIVE the fucking piece of shit from A to B got buried under ten tons of infotainment centre, mobile fucking phones, Twitter, Facebook, Radio Godknowswhomfor (despite there actually is Manchester Blues Radio, believe it or not), 217 DfuckingVD changer, i-Bullshit, Blue-and-fuck-knows-what-other-colours-tooth, 23 side airbags, ABS, ESR, going-for-a-shit-assistant, HUD, satisfactionguaranteed, parkingbloodyassistant, sensortronic, OMGMPG, OMGWEWILLFUCKINGDIEOFCO2HORSESHIT and I don't even want to know what else. The roads in Britain (and pretty much all other countries I know ) haven't changed in the past 30 years though, apart from being left to deteriorate (your tax ££££ very evidently not at work here, but that's a different subject), to 1991 Albanian standards.
 
The bottom line is, if people would just get into their cars, shut the fuck up, hold on, and DRIVE that thing using their BRAIN, like it was intended by God and Fred Duesenberg in the first place, and TEACH that mindset to their mortally obese offsprings, a lot less kittens would die.

Beige heavy arsed Skoda and a pale metallic green Proton doorstop?  Well, I think someone just won Autoshite this month.