garethj

I remember seeing those Smart cars when they were launched, I used to walk past their Knightsbridge showroom of a lunchtime, all LHD initially. I quite fancy the idea of a press-release MINI. They’re all Y registered, I think OBL is the local plate but all dealerships got one. There were a few hundred made and they crop up on eBay every so often.

I was looking at one of those Nissans as a family car a few years ago. They seemed to be horrifically rusty and not just on the chassis. Anything that’s 10 years newer than a Defender but more rusty is probably A Bad Thing, was my conclusion

It gets you out of the house for a morning and we’ve all learned a bit more about cars. That’s still a good result 👍

What are the multiple problems?

It’s a white car? Good luck and watch out for the ice on small roads!

Visibility is probably worse on the 3 door like mine, but I don't think it's worse than any other car of the same era. Sitting in a Peugeot 205 gives me a massive agoraphobia spell now

Yep, as long as it doesn't shit itself in an expensive way, that's pretty much ideal. Now got 156,000 on the clock and it hides those miles like an old Volvo. According to US websites there are plenty of these that sail past 200,000

The capacity is what governs the price, you can get bigger ones for doing rooms of a house and smaller ones to leave on all the time in cupboards. It’s worth cleaning inside first to minimise the amount of odour it has to zap

Update! The ozone generator worked well, I gave it another couple of zaps and the smell has almost completely gone. There’s still a faint whiff when you first open the door in the morning but my smell for fags is hypersensitive so I’m being quite critical. After 3 months I treated it to a service which got rid of the rattles; some drop links and securing the exhaust means it’s nice and quiet inside. The only other thing to note is the alarm went off at 2am the other week. I pressed the blipper wondering (deluding myself) that a bird had dropped a particularly weighty poo on it. A few nights later it did the same thing and 10 minutes later did it again. The weather was chilly and I’m hoping it’s just the battery being a bit low, however I don’t want to spend £80 on a new battery to find the problem is something else. With these, you can’t lock it on the key and disable the alarm; there’s no way of disabling it unless you disconnect the bonnet switch so the car thinks the bonnet is still open, then it won’t alarm itself. I disconnected the bonnet switch 👍 As a car it’s very good, it starts and drives ok, the brakes are excellent, steering is nice and I love the way it looks too. If anything it’s the driving experience that lets it down a bit. It’s competent and all that but it doesn’t feel special. Maybe because it’s not that special, actually? It’s just a nicely styled modern car.

It’s strange how some cars are so comfortable and others get it so wrong. A Volvo 740 was fantastic for me; the seat had great support and the armrest and steering wheel were in exactly the right place. There was someone working for Volvo in the ‘80s and he was exactly the same shape as me. Tell us about the Firebird?

Does it come with a starting handle?

Welcome, newbie. Read the forums and join in. If the content involves old cars, unloved cars or cars that are so forgotten about that normal people don’t even put them into a category, you’re in. Make it funny too, please👍

When you go to the dealers to buy a new Lexus, you don’t get any of this stuff. I for one think they’re missing a trick

If you have a neighbour you really hate, parking that outside should say all you want and more👍

When I had my Sprint I went to the dealers between Morriston and Swansea. They were so appalling that everyone else looked comparatively better. When the Toyota dealership turned up in Skewen with things like actually phoning you back, they must have cleaned up