robinmasters

Collection collected.

This car came with rear discs and pads, the previous owner hasn't had time to fit. When the MOT rolled around last November, I had a go at fitting them; turns out someone had rounded off the bolts holding the rear calipers, so I gave up rather than making them worse as access was terrible-i couldn't have done it myself in the road. Funds etc being in a before Christmas state meant I only took it for an MOT today; obviously it failed (there were also ABS and airbag lights on, the seller had told me about these). In addition to these known faults, it turns out someone has "repaired" the rest suspension mounts at some point, but the repair wasn't even MOT standard, and the garage quoted me £1,500 in total. I had expected £500-£600 for the bits I knew about but couldn't or hadn't fixed myself, but the additional £1k for the welding (obviously subject to further issues being discovered when the previous patches came off) means this just isn't viable for me. Is be lucky to get £1,200 for the car, once repaired. So I've taken James Brown's advice.

Apparently the current surfacing on the A303 was designed specifically for Jaguar XJ220 drivers.

Blade.

I was on the A2 a while ago, in lane two, overtaking. A grey van closed very quickly on me, really aggressively tailgating. When I was past the traffic I had been overtaking I moved back into lane one, and gave the van driver the Gareth Hunt hand gesture. Only then did the (unmarked) van put their blue lights on. There's a police vehicle compound at Nackington.

I split daily duties between a 2000 Xantia and a 2002 Rover 75, the former being relatively modern and the latter the sensible, reliable, safe modern, but both normally the oldest car in the car park at work. Pretty much anything from the nineties onwards can be treated as an car and as long as normal maintenance is kept up it'll be fine. Anything before that, as long as you avoid rust, can get parts, and know how maintenance differs from a modern, will also be fine. Also, run two cars, on the proviso that as soon as one breaks, fix it.

As they were paraphrasing Super Hans I think you can get away without crediting them. I've had a Citroen 'Desire', an 'Aura', and my wife currently has a 'Flair'. The whole concept of giving cars, or any other product, a name is daft. Give it an alphanumeric code or a factual description. Anything else is marketing, which Shirley no-one with an IQ higher than single figures falls for?

I was a bit concerned that LED sidelights might look a bit Halfords, but the 'candles in a jam jar' sidelights had to go, especially next to the projector headlights. Gave it a good hoover and glued up the flappy grill bit too. Little wins.

In other news, the Berlingo van is for sale. Thread in the appropriate forum.

Busy busy busy at the moment, so a full introduction to the 75 won't be here for a while. Suffice to say it's lovely; took over five hours to drive back from Colin's, only stopped once (near Grantham, for a pasty, see above), and thoroughly enjoyed the whole drive including M25 misery, biblical rain, and much tiredness. I've had a quick look at it this morning, cleaned out some rubbish, and discovered a load of parts in the spare wheel well. For those that didn't know, the boot floor in these has a hydraulic strut and a light; LUXURY. Sightly improved the cloudy headlights. It needs a thorough clean, the headlining is drooping, and it's got ABS and airbag lights on. Other than that, it's flippin' lovely.

No pez shot, the pay at pump thing messed me about for ages and I forgot. Have a pasty shot instead:

Destination reached (well some time ago actually).

Incoming car. As is often the case, collection involves an epic train journey. A long, unexciting train journey. More interesting updates to follow, or possibly not as I'm bored of this already.

I've done literally hundreds of school runs, but have never blocked someone's drive or otherwise parked cuntily. I don't understand any of the comments trying to blame @Zelandeth for this; if he was grizzling about the amount of traffic at 08:30, the criticism might be justified, but these people are actively being twats.

Obviously I don't condone driving around without road fund licence, but on the other hand...

Well if we're posting pictures of Mr Baxter...

He's done better than Alan. Cashback!

Those little transparent plastic clips on the edge of the windscreen for holding your car park ticket are flippin' amazing. Electrically adjustable passenger side mirrors are also pretty handy. The only really modern feature I'm currently lusting after is a 360 degree camera on our work vans.

"D'ya fancy folding all the seats down love?"

/thread

https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2020/02/03/fords-lending-arm-generating-profit-ever/41133523/

I haven't watched Wheeler Dealers for ages, I didn't even realise Ant had gone and been replaced by Elvis (ELVIS? Really?). Just saw the Shogun one; loads of time and effort put into fabricating a new front bumper, so as to close the gap caused by the body lift. The end result looked like something off a Judge Dredd prop, on an otherwise fairly standard looking car. And the standard rear bumper was left as is, leaving the 2" gap it was so important to close on the front. Absolute shitehawks.

What is wrong with these people?

Blimey, they don't drive that carefully now!