The new news 24 thread

[Fat_Pirate]

That bit of plastic on the rear door looks Mondeo.  It's a bit rubbish though, if I was the sort of young, arrogant wanker that ad appears to be aimed at I'd be very disappointed.  It's no surprise Abraham R Hussenbough III and his ilk preferred the German brands.

[Mally]

75 failed MOT this morning. Bottom front wishbone and front to rear brake pipes.

Could have been a lot worse.

Brake pipe was leaking so just in time.

Done the pipes now, pick a wishbone up in the morning.

[dollywobbler]

Washed the Honda again. Silverstone Classic and Simply Japanese at Beaulieu this weekend, so I probably wasted my time.

[MarvinsMom]

the rover 75 has had the handbrake sorted, 

 

it now works!!

 

and the car is tested till next year.......

 

yeay!!!

[worldofceri]

Picked this up yesterday.

 

I need to be able to take a trailer when I take the family camping in a couple of weeks, but I didn't fancy the expense and effort of sticking a towbar on the Gooner. So I've been scouting around for something already has the towage apparatus fitted. Man maths sez if [costofnewcar = valuofgooner + costoftowbarforgooner] I can't go wrong.

 

 

This came up locally on Ebay for £400 bin; the description was short but seemed honest and although the pictures weren't amazing, it looked pretty clean. So, egged on by couple of mates and with grudging approval from Mrs_WoC. I thought 'fuck it' and hit buy it now.

 

Rather than trouble anyone for for a lift up the road to sunny Nuneaton, I decided I'd take ye olde public transport. Two buses, a train, ten quid and two hours later, I was at the vendor's house. It would take about twenty minutes by car. No photos of mass-transit vehicles, soz.

 

The seller was actually the owner's son. Usual story of the old boy giving up driving. He'd owned the car since 2003 and not even got it to click over 100k miles. I got the seller to fire it up and lift the bonnet. It started keenly and idled quietly; there seemed to be enough of the right fluids in about the right places. Had a glance around the bodywork and, I have to say, the chap might be too ill to drive or something, but he's certainly not incompetent - there's not a scratch or giffer-dent on it anywhere.

 

I declared myself satisfied and expressed regret that market forces compel me to pay but a paltry sum for it. I handed over twenty pictures of the queen (in pink) and was presented with fifteen years worth of invoices from the local Vauxhall whisperers.

 

I told the fellow to tell his dad I'd do my best to look after it, thinking he might be a bit sentimental towards his old barge, and set off home. I was home in a jiffy compared with the outbound journey. This is only the second automatic I've owned, and it compares well with my old W124 Benz. It's the 2.5 V6 and goes very well indeed, particularly when one presses the sport button on the gear lever, which is easy to do by accident; for a couple of minutes I thought the amber 'S' light on the dash was a warning light. Well, I suppose it is: 'Caution, next pez station visit may be closer than it appears!' Which reminds me; it had nearly half a tank of fuel in it. Bonus! But no forecourt photo-op, soz.

 

So, I think I may have fallen on my feet with this one. It's low mileage, well maintained (found an invoice for the cam belt 5,000 miles ago), smooth, powerful and generally less fucked than most cars I buy. And it was cheap!

 

Anyone want to buy a Gooner?

[SiC]

Future Autoshite village bicycle material?

[worldofceri]

I plan to keep this one for a bit. Or did you mean the Laguna!?

[egg]

The guy I bought the Contour brochures from claims to have a quarter of a million sales brochures. If you want an obscure brochure from the other side of the pond, he might be your man...

 

http://paulpolitisautolit.com

[beko1987]

 

Poor Emma at work! Her last Punto shat it's auto box, her current citroen apparently did the same this morning

[SiC]

Towing it like that probably won't do much good to it either surely?

[beko1987]

Dunno, suppose if it's in neutral? Been messaging her anyway, she's at the garage now and it turns out her aux belt is not there! So I imagine it's snapped then fell off, she's not noticed any warning lights or similar, drove it until the battery died which caused the gearbag to shit itself in the way french ones do, I presume the gear shifter is electronic on those and not connected with bits of metal? I'll update if she says anything

 

I told her it could be worse, when my aux belt went it caught the cambelt. Didn't tell her that if that had happened to her it would be curtains rather than a weekend with a 13mm and 10mm socket and bits of 10mm threaded bar...

[dave21478]

If its a robotic manual "sensodrive" then it can be owed fine, its not a real auto, just a manual box with some servos knicked from a Tamiya kit to work the selector rods and clutch lever.

[beko1987]

I know it's got a badge on the boot proudly stating 'stop/start technology'. On an 06 plate it must be an early incarnation of the tech, and frankly im always amazed when she doesn't tell me it's broken!

[Guest Hooli]

I know it's got a badge on the boot proudly stating 'stop/start technology'. On an 06 plate it must be an early incarnation of the tech,

 

Hardly, my 1980s Polo Formel E had stop start built in. As quoted about halfway down http://www.polodriver.com/eco-polos/polo-formel-e-1983-1987/

[Ghosty]

The A4 can be disposed of it needs a couple of jobs doing but Old Man's come up with a realistic price in line with my expectations so I'll probably end up being charged with selling it, and ending up with the money from it.

This means more shite - however he wants me to sell the Rover but I don't want to because first car, and the mother is also reasonably attached to it. That's not happening - also he thinks two cars between the three of us is enough and it isn't.

The mother will get to work on that...

 

Wanted: pre-facelift Volvo 740 auto.

[Mally]

Fitted new bottom arm to 75.

Not the easiest job in the world. Retest Monday.

[beko1987]

Hardly, my 1980s Polo Formel E had stop start built in. As quoted about halfway down http://www.polodriver.com/eco-polos/polo-formel-e-1983-1987/

Sorry, early on a c4!

[Kiltox]

Start of another three hour coach journey

 

I love my job and my job loves me

[Asimo]

Had a brand new Contour rental for a month about 20 years ago.

It was a nice dark metallic green so I had to thrash it up and down the hills of San Francisco.

Beige interior, which I quickly soiled 'cause the cup holder didn't work on corners.

I preferred the Contour inside to a Mondeo, less oppresive somehow. And unlike all the Mondeos I rented, it wasn't Diesel.

[taxi paul]

My gay pug has been sold. Put it on gumtree . Hungarian gentleman and his wife message me and turn up half an hour later. Pug decides now would be a good time for the central locking not to work. Also not to let me open the boot. The quarter window that occasionally sticks went full on fuck you mode and refused to work. Nice Hungarian gent said he could fix all these things if the price was OK. So needless to say I got a few quid less than I wanted. But I can now insure the celica. So I drove it over to his for him ,only a 10 minute drive. When we gets there everything was working again. Hey ho.

[loserone]

Start of another three hour coach journey

 

They do say infosec contracting makes you greedy..

[bub2006]

Sorry, early on a c4!

Ahem,c3

[stuboy]

First drive of this... unexciting.

[taxi paul]

Got a Foster child coming this morning to stay till they find him somewhere suitable. Been told to make sure my valuables are locked away and if I could hide the sharp knives that would be great. This should be fun.

[dollywobbler]

Got a Foster child coming this morning to stay till they find him somewhere suitable. Been told to make sure my valuables are locked away and if I could hide the sharp knives that would be great. This should be fun.

 

Truly in awe of folk who do this. Some friends do fostering and it sounds bloody traumatic! Kids they have often fine, but it's the situation, and having to say goodbye to them again that seems to cause the anguish. 

 

Anyway, I'm about to drive over to Brackley ahead of Silverstone Classic. Any other Shiters over that way? After a day at the Classic tomorrow, I'm then off to Beaulieu for Simply Japanese. Incredibly, it'll be the first time I've been to Beaulieu. I'm already fed up with trying to remember how to spell it.

[3VOM]

Got a Foster child coming this morning to stay till they find him somewhere suitable. Been told to make sure my valuables tools and car keys are locked away and if I could hide the sharp knives that would be great. This should be fun.

EFA

[taxi paul]

Ha ha. All keys and shed keys get locked away. I have a safe and it all goes in there. I am still arguing about a £250.00 phone bill the last little darling left me with.

[Ghosty]

Rover might have to go because Old Man's being a cunt 'I don't want three cars', won't even let me SORN it. We have the space, ffs. I do want a bigger car, though.

Still, I get to buy what I do want at least, he's suggesting I get a sodding Concerto for some reason. It's exactly the same car I already have ffs.

[Tayne]

You need to move out, your old man's mental.

[Ghosty]

He bloody is, problem is I'm a different kind of mental and my choice is basically live well and have a car, or move out and have fuck all/bugger up my future. The mother is unfortunately another different kind of mental and won't put her foot down (basically a backstab from my perspective at this point), despite saying she's siding with me before, she won't go against my dad even though she has on matters before, and making out she would. She'll pursue really trivial matters but pansies out on anything remotely sizeable for some daft reason She just got put off by my dad's tone of voice and won't even try to convince him even though she said she would. It's properly daft and puts me in a really difficult position.

I'm really pissed off about the whole thing - problem is I've wanted a bigger car for quite a while, and I'm getting more and more disenamoured with the Rover.

My mum and I really don't want the A4 and we need a bigger/more comfortable car (that I might get some contribution towards but fuck knows what exactly), the problem is the parents won't put out too much (even though my mum has £150k in reserve to buy a fucking rental property), and Old Man is insisting I give up the Rover - something I'm not averse to but object to on principle - he can afford to keep a car as can I, so why should I be forced to share one with him just because he doesn't want one any more, and force his prejudiced choices on me?

I really don't know what to do.