Lazy spotters thread

[N19]

11 hours ago, Yoss said:

I remember grudgingly losing my Y reg LDV Pilot (Y833 TDA) to a new Transit (LC55 GOX) so that might have been just about six years old.

 

Oddly, I remember that someone round the corner from me owned LC55GOU - an ex Royal Mail red transit a couple further down the sequence. Builders van, ended up utterly knackered.

[Yoss]

13 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

It’s funny you say that, I was chatting to our postie the other day and her vans a 64 plate Peugeot or something and it’s absolutely awful condition. I was down the road when I first waved and said hi, then as I walked in the driveway she stopped outside to deliver next door and I jokingly said ‘you could have given me a lift home!’ She laughed and said ‘you don’t want to go in that death trap!’ Apparently it’s falling apart and they won’t do anything to fix it or replace it.

I see loads of them around here though, filthy and covered in dents and scratches and it makes the company look really bad! Branded vehicles are a big advertising bill board for their company and when they look so bad so does the company. If they don’t care about what you can see like that imagine how bad things are you can’t see!

When I worked for SSE I looked after my Sprinter’s and Transit’s. Not many other people did but it was a reflection on me so I took care of them and kept them clean, but the company would go ballistic if they found out you’d damaged a vehicle or weren’t keeping them clean. They replaced big vans at 10 years old originally but their value on resale was low by then, so the newer big vans (about 2010 onwards) were replaced at 5 years old instead so the resale value was higher.

So in the old days when they replaced the vans every three to five years they only bought a few new vans each year. I mean it was still a lot by most people's standards but not in the great scheme of things and it would be factored  in to the budget. But now the whole fleet need replacing at the same time and there's neither the will nor the budget to do that. 

We had one of the side sliding doors on one of our Pugs fall off completely. Fortunately for the company it fell off in the yard. They managed to lift it back in to the hole then locked it and covered the join in black and yellow hazard tape with a bit more round the handle for good measure. This was considered an adequate repair. 

Then there's the DPFs. Modern diesels are completely unsuitable for what we do. My last delivery was a mile and a half from the office and I only did six miles in about four hours. Most of it I would only move the van a couple of hundred yards every twenty minutes or so so it never warmed up at all.

When we first started doing this after we replaced the bikes they said if the DPF warning came up take it for a twenty mile blast up the motorway. But how are we supposed to fit that in to our duty especially as the nearest motorway is ten to fifteen minutes away. So we don't do it. You report it and are told to drive it until it breaks. Eventually they go in to limp mode which is actually no real problem when you're only doing six miles in four hours. 

I should add that we were recently(ish) told not to slag the company off on social media and this is the nearest I come to social media so I'd just like to add that none of the above ever happened, its just a figment of my deranged imagination. Great bunch of lads etc... 

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, N19 said:

Oddly, I remember that someone round the corner from me owned LC55GOU - an ex Royal Mail red transit a couple further down the sequence. Builders van, ended up utterly knackered.

That is very close but that one was never at our office. The vans were registered centrally and spread around the country seemingly at random. We only ever got two or three new vans at a time. Now we don't get any of course. 

[bramz7]

On that Royal Mail theme, I actually came across some new ones being delivered a few years ago, never did see them locally after so presumably they quickly went elsewhere. 

And have a phone dump of recent enough spots. I tend to take photos on my actual camera (as I'm sure you well know) but I don't take it to work. 

Maybe I should create a new spotting thread one day. 

[500tops]

[DavidB]

This has been parked here since at least 2004:

It was just interesting back then, but now these BMW E30 325i's are worth several thousands (not in this condition though). I wonder whose it is and why it was left here so long?

[DavidB]

Back in 2014:

[DavidB]

...

[500tops]

[J R Hartley]

[Nathan]

This Focus looked early on a 60 plate - it was registered February 2011 and the MK3 wasn’t launched until March.

On the same street I saw this lovely Porsche, and this very clean K11 Micra.

[500tops]

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, J R Hartley said:

I wonder what an 1800GT is. It's obviously a badge off something else but I don't know what. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

10 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I wonder what an 1800GT is. It's obviously a badge off something else but I don't know what. 

One of these most likely. Twin carbed, ADO16 - GT? Not sure but I did have one to punt around now and then in 1979/80 and I did think it nippy.
(Comparing it to a Triumph Herald, Toledo, 2000 or the Escort van/Datsun 100 estate I drove as odd job boy.

[Yoss]

22 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

One of these most likely. Twin carbed, ADO16 - GT? Not sure but I did have one to punt around now and then in 1979/80 and I did think it nippy.
(Comparing it to a Triumph Herald, Toledo, 2000 or the Escort van/Datsun 100 estate I drove as odd job boy.

Yes it does look like one of those doesn't it. It might even still say 1300, the resolution isn't great, or it could be subtly altered to read 1800. The twin carb 1800 was badged as a S and had stainless side strips in the same style as the 1300GT.

[EyesWeldedShut]

4 minutes ago, Yoss said:

stainless side strips

Oooooh. Them were the days, an extra carb and some stainless and we lapped it all up  
One guy I worked for had a Wolseley Six - that could shift (comparatively) and he went to trade it in against a new 'wedgie' but came back with a Pug 504 estate (?) No idea how he managed that but he was a wily farmer and new a deal when he saw one.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

I wonder what an 1800GT is. It's obviously a badge off something else but I don't know what. 

I don't think there were any 1800 GT's, just 1300's. My Triumph 1500TC left them for dust, back then.

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I don't think there were any 1800 GT's, just 1300's. My Triumph 1500TC left them for dust, back then.

No, I realise that, it was why I was questioning the badge. 

[iainrcz]

Accord coupe 

[St.Jude]

Definitely driven by a Reform voter.

 

[83C]

7 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Definitely driven by a Reform voter.

 

Is this what happens when teleportation of two objects to the same place goes wrong?

[St.Jude]

12 minutes ago, 83C said:

Is this what happens when teleportation of two objects to the same place goes wrong?

I drive past it all the time, but this was the first time I could take a pic as it was outside the polling station.

I still can’t work out why.

[goosey]

26 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Definitely driven by a Reform voter.

 

Stourbridge Park?

[St.Jude]

8 minutes ago, goosey said:

Stourbridge Park?

Yep. I see it more round Romany Way though.