Jim Bergerac

On 29/03/2024 at 19:54, horriblemercedes said:

I think the emissions thing was to do with producing less CO2 than the V6 (better fuel economy) so it meant cheaper company car tax and more fleet sales 

Yep, around that time there was a bit of a trend towards such turbo petrols for that reason, as well as the 75/ZT can remember them coming up with 2.0 turbo versions of the Vectra and Laguna. 

And then the company car market moved to diesels and they disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. 

I didn't realise you could still find these as going concerns: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166638961329

4 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

I would chuck 20 quid in to save it from the scrapper but only on condition it never darkens my doorstep, and most other people will be the same.

Aye. It's a lovely thing and I would love to see it saved, but I have no space or knowledge to offer, and that's not going to help St. Jude who has already been fucked around and just wants to see the back of the thing. 

Reckon that could have sat around a year or so. Last Tata importer here was part of MG Rover. 

50 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

That's just ignorant in my opinion, its pointless you being there, I ask that everyone has the cameras on in teams meetings and its not an unreasonable request, it shows the person is engaged and not wanking off.

I tend to use cameras in one to one meetings or if I am leading the meeting, a lot of the ones I have are for dozens of people where input isn't really required, Wednesday I've one which has about 100 people in it, no point everyone putting their camera on for that. 

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I imagine you could work from home 99% of the time with a job like that, although you might have to go to Swansea once a month or so for meetings - that should be fun*, nearly the entire length of the M4 in REV...

I'm sure for the right kind of guru meetings could be attended virtually. 

Most staff where I work WFH all the time. I don't even bother to put my camera on for most of my meetings. 

Oof, love this. I have a soft spot for these unloved 80s era yanks.

1 hour ago, chadders said:

Just as an additional point if data is being or has been manually entered then most data entry clerks won't give a damn about whether it's an invacare or whatever. If it fails validation they'll find a code that it will accept, often using one they've found to work in the past. In my experience this is very rarely found out as nobody can be bothered to check, it's not a matter of life or death. I've been guilty of this as I was one for a few months after leaving uni whilst I decided what to do.

Obviously it is important with some systems but certainly not this one in my opinion.

This. 

Having also worked in this area, sometimes you find people are even actively encouraged by management to use a nearest match rather than have a new code created or to use free text. 

I wonder if the DVLA know this and someone changes things for the LOLz.

An Invacare here, a keeper change there...

12 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Won't be a minute folks, I'm off to find out the top speed just for the LOLz

Coming to a smart motorway near you

You may jest, but a mate of mine was once absolutely baffled, as he was overtaken by a giant Creme Egg on the dual carriageway. 

This festered in his mind for 20 years, maybe the whole thing was a hallucination before he asked me about it. "Jim, you know about cars and chocolate... Is there such a thing as a giant motorised Creme Egg?" 

"Why yes, it was a Bedford Rascal underneath" 

He was in a lorry, so we can surmise that the top speed of a motorised Creme Egg is greater than 60mph. Despite terrible aerodynamics. 

4 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Folksfarken's I.D 4 which in term of aerodynamics looks slightly closer to the shape of a brick with some curves has a surprising result of 0.28. 

Lot of newer cars have aerodynamic tricks, things like those vents at the front of the car directing air under the wheel arches. Basically the culmination of decades of learning from where we were with the Calibra where the only idea was to have a slippery shape which means that housebrick shaped ID4s are not far off that. 

1 hour ago, chadders said:

 I still think a true 80 or 82mph is rubbish as even invacares can't break the laws of physics. 

41 minutes ago, Sheefag said:

Well, when it comes to poor decisions, look no further than Verity Lambert. She went from the groundbreaking Producers role in the Sweeney and ended up convincing the BBC to spunk shedloads on the awful and universally derided soap, Eldorado.

Without Eldorado we would never have had the seamless continuity of the closing scene of the series:

Within a few years Marcus Tandy, was of course, ragging around Docklands in a Jeep Cherokee with Craig "Mona" McLachlan in Bugs. 

11 minutes ago, chadders said:

Didn't Ford have a massive PR budget whereas BL were living hand to mouth at that time?

Yeah, Ford could afford to have a larger fleet of vehicles, so they could loan a couple of cars to Euston Films for the whole shoot. BL meanwhile would have to take cars back, and wouldn't have an identical back up car should there have been a failure to proceed.

1 hour ago, egg said:

Exactly this. Government built invalid carriages, to my mind, are all part of the post-war settlement where between 45-79 the State was an active participant in (attempting) to improve the lives of the people in an expanding number of ways. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a matter for the politics forum, but it is a historical fact.

Now we just dish out free MG HS on Motability.

Just read through this, a few crackers I remember from the time and good to see what you've had since when I dropped off here. 

I actually like those alloys, they're very off the time. It screams 1989.

Buy Kangoo, A Frame Invacar home with Kangoo. Problem solved!

So you think you will go ahead with the Kangoo? It does seem like a good move for you. 

This does seem to be the perfect solution, I can't imagine something that is effectively a Clio being difficult for parts or insurance either. 

On 12/01/2024 at 20:09, Sheefag said:

One misses the heady days of the Longbridge sales team, re-writing the rules of marketing with promotional pictures like this...

Those were the days. Can't believe nobody has mentioned Horsegate yet. 

Now: Either a Skoda Octavia VRS or the best Dacia Duster money could buy. 

In 1995 the biggest difficulty would be being spoiled for choice. Like others, if I was focused on longevity I would be after a Volvo, either an 850 or a 960. 

There's a garage near me that does the LPG TX4s. Somehow they even manage to sound a bit like the old diesel knackers. This garage also does conversions on used cabs. Quite a few on the ranks locally with tell tale second fuel fillers and LPG badges on the back. 

From a bit of Googling that seems to have been the original demo one, so wonder of they ever plated it and they might have just stuck that in when it went on the road in 93/94. They did do 12, some of which were operated:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asquith_London_taxi_(H4_OLD),_4_May_2008_(2).jpg

Bit of promotional blurb here, it's a Transit underneath so they went to a lot of trouble to get the turning circle and add air suspension!

I have a vague recollection about reading about those Asquith cabs. They met the requirements to run in London at the time. Cost the company a fortune to develop and was ultimately a factor in them folding. 

I adore the Solo, and I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of.

I also like the Kallista... Which is probably something to be ashamed of.