Automotive bull5hit facts thread

[dozeydustman]

An economy German supermarket had 1:43 miniatures of American muscle and sports cars in the ‘crazy shit’ aisle including a rather blush coloured Stingray.

This became the inspiration for the well known song by The Artist formerly known as Prince, and the demo version was originally ‘Lidl Red Corvette’

[ProgRocker]

Dacia has announced that they will introduce a high performance version of it's 'Jogger' MPV/Estate car model. It will be called the 'Runner' .

There are also plans for a 'super economical' version that will achieve 85 miles per gallon when running on just one cylinder. That will be called the 'Marathon Runner' .

[dozeydustman]

In 1961 Elvis Presley visited AEC Southall as he wanted his own personal Routemaster. His fee was to name their new 2-axle 14tonner after his favourite scientist, Marie Curie. However due to his thick drawling accent, the resulting vehicle was misnamed ‘Mercury’.

[anonymous user]

1 hour ago, ProgRocker said:

Dacia has announced that they will introduce a high performance version of it's 'Jogger' MPV/Estate car model. It will be called the 'Runner' .

There are also plans for a 'super economical' version that will achieve 85 miles per gallon when running on just one cylinder. That will be called the 'Marathon Runner' .

They also are doing one with a wipe clean interior, the Dogger

[Noel Tidybeard]

29 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

They also are doing one with a wipe clean interior, the Dogger

ford used to refer to this as "taxi pack" for the 2.1d granada

[warren t claim]

As I mentioned earlier, Madonna didn't name her song Vogue after the fashion magazine or the posh Range Rover, it was called that because her father ran the largest Rootes franchise on the East Coast of America. What I didn't mention is that one of her dad's loyal customers was an aspiring politician called Joe Biden who was so impressed with the Hunter he bought that he named his son after the car.

[Metal Guru]

Since 2008, the government has been keeping all petrol station transaction  CCTV footage on their website and can be viewed by the public. 
www.gov.uk/fillingstation/cctv/fuel

However when perusing the top shelf, bear in mind ,there is also 

www.gov.uk/fillingstation/cctv/wankmag

[motorpunk]

The name Daewoo, from the now-defunct Korean car brand, roughly translates to "fuck, yeah!"

[rml2345]

The BMC A-Series was originally designed by a Tibetan monk in 1758 after too much tea. It was fiercely guarded by his descendants until a holidaying BMC engineer offered to swap a packet of custard creams for the opportunity to take a couple of photos. 

[dozeydustman]

SAAB is an acronym of the founder’s first names.

Sven, Agnetha, Aunty Mary and Bill

[Metal Guru]

All major car manufacturers have a naming department or consultant. Traditionally these are recruited from the Michigan State University’s Vehicle Nomenclature Degree course. Most sought after are masters graduates who have done the “Don’t let them know it’s the same car “ module. Most of these go to work for VAG or Renault / Nissan. Even less able students can get gainful employment if they have done the “Just stick an e in front” module.

 BMW and Peugeot use numbers only, so employ a retired maths teacher from Swansea called “Jones the number”.

However he has suffered a breakdown recently as evidenced by BMWs now sloppy numbering system compared to his impeccably logical work beforehand. 
Peugeot have suspended him and Carol Vorderman is doing it temporarily.

[martc]

Michigan State University Vehicle Nomenclature Degree graduates charged far too much for their services. There was a well known vehicle namer who hawked his services around several manufacturers and was considerably cheaper  - Cosmo Smallpeice.

Cosmo's first commison was for a Coventry engine maker - 'Climax'. At his peak he was responsible for 'Fiesta', 'Mayfair' and 'Forum' but when 'Penthouse' and 'Color Climax' were rejected by VAG Cosmo became disillusioned and moved into the food industry (Fish Fingers and Fingers of Fudge bear his mark).

When the reg number format needed re-vamping the DVLA persuaded Cosmo to come out of retirement for one last job - his swansong, and some say his finest work, was for devising the BJ mark for Birmingham.

[Metal Guru]

Ford coined the name Mustang, because early prototypes were so noisy, you had to shout and so ended up getting a little horse!

[AnnoyingPentium]

The term GTI is actually an acronym for git, contrary to the popular urban legend that it stands for Grand Touring Injection.

[Noel Tidybeard]

german cars are really reliable and don't rust😁

[sierraman]

Back in Black by Amy Winehouse was originally a piece created for the legendary plastic restorer Simoniz. So impressed was the singer with its performance on an Astra Mk3 Merit she approached Simoniz and the rest is history.

[Metal Guru]

The VW Beetle originally was originally front engined with the rear one as back up in case of breakdown. It was very rare that both engines would fail, so it was very reliable and founded the idea that German cars are ultra reliable. This myth perpetuated until the 90s even though the Beetle had only one engine since 1956, mainly helped by comparison with British and Italian cars of the same era.

The Japanese on the other hand, established their reputation for reliability by only importing cars so dull, they knew the people who bought them would never rev the engine above 2000 rpm or go out in a wet day.

[ProgRocker]

Craiiiiig David's first car was an automatic Fiat Uno.

[rml2345]

1 hour ago, ProgRocker said:

Craiiiiig David's first car was an automatic Fiat Uno.

Ironically, one of the proposed names for the new Fiat Uno was the Craiiiiig David.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, rml2345 said:

Ironically, one of the proposed names for the new Fiat Uno was the Craiiiiig David.

Did you know UNO  is pronounced as “oh no!” in Italian, as that is the general reaction of owners after a few months.

[Metal Guru]

5 hours ago, rml2345 said:

Ironically, one of the proposed names for the new Fiat Uno was the Craiiiiig David.

Actually it was originally named the ONO which John Lennon suggested to Fiat shortly before he was killed. Unfortunately in Italian it translates as “talentless Japanese gold digger “ ( as it does in English) , so  Fiat amended it.

[Dobloseven]

Trawling through their archives, looking to get rid of anything with Jimmy Savile in it,BBC executives discovered a never released episode of Last of the summer wine. A Christmas special, entitled Hark the Herald. In which Edie Pegden complains to husband Wesley about an annoying noise from the rear of her 13/60 convertible. Wesley sets about rebuilding the diff. with NOS crown wheel and pinion set plus bearings and gaskets from the Triumph Sports Six Club. However he gets it all apart and becomes confused as to how to get it back together. Foggy, Compo and Clegg find him outside his garage with his head in his hands and offer to help. It's soon back together but now has one forward gear and four reverse. Wesley manages to convince Edie he's made it easier to drive for her and she seems happy with a top speed of 15.8 mph at 5500rpm.Until she forgets and reverses at speed down a steep hill, through a hole in a dry stone wall and into a haystack with Howard and Marina in it. Turns out the diff was fine anyway. The noise was from the three old women she insisted on carrying round with her on the back seat. 

[Metal Guru]

In the early 90s, after the success of their 323 model, Mazda were looking to go a bit more upmarket and targeted footballers with the new 424 . However, this coincided with the start of the Premier  league  and with it the massive hike in footballer’s wages. A little known fact was that all EPL footballers had a clause in their contract, that they would not under any circumstances drive a car that cost less than £100k, so none ever bought the Mazda.

[martc]

Git Wizard David Blaine was inspired to sit in a glass box for far too long after seeing people gawping at the occupants of a FIAT Multipla.

[twosmoke300]

Plugging a car into diagnostic equipment takes but a minute , is free , and tells you exactly what part has failed. 

[quicksilver]

It's a well-known fact that Harris Mann has never been happy about getting the blame for the Austin Allegro's looks as it turned into something completely different from what he intended. What is lesser known is that, ever since George Turnbull left BL for Hyundai and showed them some of his former colleague's designs, the Koreans have had a deep admiration for Mr Mann's work. This culminated after they heard him moaning about the Allegro yet again, when Hyundai's design chief reached out to him and bought his original drawings for the Allegro to use as the basis for the Ioniq5's styling.

[Dobloseven]

In early episodes of The Professionals, the protagonists drove British Leyland cars. BL were approached by the producers to supply vehicles FOC in return for the prime time publicity it would generate. Dolomite Sprint and TR7 for Bodie and Doyle, with a Rover SD1 for Cowley, as befitted his senior status. However BL insisted that the cars were returned at the end of each days filming so as the crew couldn't use them for chip shop runs. And so that any repairs could be done. Sometimes, after a hard day of handbrake turns and driving through empty cardboard boxes, they would need completely rebuilding. If they couldn't be returned on time, it was written into the contract that BL could substitute other vehicles from the Press Fleet at their discretion. Things came to a head, with a change to Fords, when Bodie ended up with a Mini Clubman Estate, Doyle an Allegro 1.3 L and Cowley a Sherpa milk float. 

[cort16]

The VW Tiguan was named via a competition inside VW to name the car. A lot of the names suggested where a combination of animal names but the winner was Tiger and Iguana (the german for iguana being Leguan) making the Tiguan.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

In early episodes of The Professionals, the protagonists drove British Leyland cars. BL were approached by the producers to supply vehicles FOC in return for the prime time publicity it would generate. Dolomite Sprint and TR7 for Bodie and Doyle, with a Rover SD1 for Cowley, as befitted his senior status. However BL insisted that the cars were returned at the end of each days filming so as the crew couldn't use them for chip shop runs. And so that any repairs could be done. Sometimes, after a hard day of handbrake turns and driving through empty cardboard boxes, they would need completely rebuilding. If they couldn't be returned on time, it was written into the contract that BL could substitute other vehicles from the Press Fleet at their discretion. Things came to a head, with a change to Fords, when Bodie ended up with a Mini Clubman Estate, Doyle an Allegro 1.3 L and Cowley a Sherpa milk float. 

That’s actually not very far from the truth!

[Noel Tidybeard]

as Maxxo is about to report, Citreon XMs are possibly one of the easiest cars to fault find and work on compared to complex hectors like the Morry Soxford and Cord Fortina