The new news 24 thread

[Christine]

11 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Nothing remotely exciting, but got four new tyres on the TIPO today. F1 auto centres at camberley were efficient and I now have Goodyear efficient grip performance all round after 29,000miles on the original falkens. Tread still legal but cracking was becoming noticeable and an advisory in Feb for the mot. 

dot codes are 1025 so quite recent.

 We're still  only at   05 25 .... ? 

[Dave_Q]

3 minutes ago, Christine said:

 We're still  only at   05 25 .... ? 

Week 10, not month 10

[Christine]

Oh yeah of course ! 

 

Edit  , anyway, zoom in .... its 09  25  !  ....

[Lord Sterling]

On 03/05/2025 at 18:03, bramz7 said:

Went to Brooklands today, as it was Auto Italia day....

Lots of memories of these cars for me

I've always loved the Quattroporte, they are, by far, my most favourite of Italian cars. Fast, classy and a saloon.

The first one reminds me of the James Bond 'Licence to Kill' bad guys' Quattroporte. Same colour too.

The second later Quattroporte reminds me of a late 90s/early 00s Syrian TV comedy series called "Four Seasons" the head of the family, a wealthy successful businessman drove one of these around quite extensively, his son initially had a Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo, but later that changed to a late 90s black Alfa Romeo Spider TS.

I remember the 156 estate that I collected from London from @purplebargeken and delivered to @Cavcraft. A really nice thing to cruise about in, it had a lovely 5-pot burble to it.

I used to to see a lot of Alfa 33s in Brussels. One thing I remember about them is that distinct acceleration sound they made, they sounded an awful lot like a 1.6 or 2.0 Montego.

I had an uncle who lived in London in the late 90s, he had an Alfa 164 and let me drive it one time when he came up to Birmingham.

I'd honestly considered one of these as one of my first cars (well, I wasn't going down the usual small car route)

The Lancia Kappa was something seen in Brussels/mainland Europe but rarely if ever seen on British roads.

Toyota Avensis - Last year I stuck up a pic of one of my uncles' latest acquisition; a Toyota Mirai:

Back in the day, his first brand-new car was a Toyota Avensis. 

Despite the lack of Italian cars in the UK, especially around the Midlands, the original Fiat Tipo wasn't a rare car around there.

Years ago in Telford, where I used to walk to school along a busy thoroughfare, there used to be Lancia Delta parked on the side of the road there. One day as I was passing, I remember seeing it had been smashed into.

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, Christine said:

Oh yeah of course ! 

 

Edit  , anyway, zoom in .... its 09  25  !  ....

I think there must be a mix of 09 and 10 then. Will check this evening - am in the 2CV today.

[Lord Sterling]

Well, today didn't quite go as planned. I'd loaded my old sofa into the car yesterday to take to a charity shop. Also, I wanted to get the nail on the tyre sorted. Both places were located on the same road which meant I could kill two birds with one stone. None, however worked out 🤨

The charity shop made excuses about my sofa not having the right label/batch number etc... so unfortunately off to the dump it went. I hated doing that as I felt it was still had life in it 😠

Then I went to my local tyre place, they were closed and no one was around.  FFS, really?

So off to the dump I went.

Got chatting to a nice chap at the skip who helped me dump the sofa into the container. We spoke about the Vectra and other 'cooking' models such as the SRi/GSi RS/ST Fords etc...

Then off to another local tyre place I went. They did the tyre and cost me more than I was expecting, but, better safe than sorry. All that because of fucking a nail sitting there in the road 😡

Still, got back and actually found a few parking spaces! So I spent a but of time tidied the boot. Hopefully it'll actually stay like this:

 

[richardmorris]

[IronStar]

26 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

 

 

I can highly recommend these for tidying up the boot

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkside-Ultimate-Speed-Boot-Compact/dp/B0CTTWPJN8

They cost a few quid equivalent in Lidl when available. Much tidier than random boxes, and have the velcro thingy to stick to the carpets.

How much is patching up the tyre over there? It's about a fiver-equivalent at a local non-chain shop here. 

[Lord Sterling]

 Cheers. They look nice those bags, there are/was some on eBay that also carried a manufacturer's logo if you wished. I will be considering them, but for now I like the random boxes.

19 minutes ago, IronStar said:

How much is patching up the tyre over there? It's about a fiver-equivalent at a local non-chain shop here. 

It depends where you go. The closed place I went to (if they were open) would patch up a tyre for £10. The place I went to charged £20. Both non-chains as there are many non-chain tyre suppliers here.

[chadders]

3 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Well, today didn't quite go as planned. I'd loaded my old sofa into the car yesterday to take to a charity shop. Also, I wanted to get the nail on the tyre sorted. Both places were located on the same road which meant I could kill two birds with one stone. None, however worked out 🤨

The charity shop made excuses about my sofa not having the right label/batch number etc... so unfortunately off to the dump it went. I hated doing that as I felt it was still had life in it 😠

Then I went to my local tyre place, they were closed and no one was around.  FFS, really?

So off to the dump I went.

Got chatting to a nice chap at the skip who helped me dump the sofa into the container. We spoke about the Vectra and other 'cooking' models such as the SRi/GSi RS/ST Fords etc...

Then off to another local tyre place I went. They did the tyre and cost me more than I was expecting, but, better safe than sorry. All that because of fucking a nail sitting there in the road 😡

Still, got back and actually found a few parking spaces! So I spent a but of time tidied the boot. Hopefully it'll actually stay like this:

 

"Charity shops cannot accept upholstered furniture for resale unless it has a valid fire safety label attached. This is a legal requirement under the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988."

We've scrapped a few suites because of this.

[richardmorris]

20 hours ago, richardmorris said:

2cv was because my mechanic was coming over after work as I thought the clutch was getting progressively noisier over the last few long journeys.  Good news- he doesn’t think it’s the clutch ( replaced 2007 30,000miles). Bad news, he thinks it’s the gearbox bearing. 
it’s growling in neutral, and particularly 4th gear. 
he’s meeting rick pembro next week at the 2cv racing so will talk to him about it.

 

[Lord Sterling]

On 05/05/2025 at 19:45, Dave_Q said:

In France scrolling through hotel room telly, happened on a show called Top Mechanic.

2 French mechanics are given a crash damaged car (Renault Scenic Vs Grand Picasso in this one) and they appear to be competing to fix them up in 5 days.

Frederic just lucked out finding the locking wheel nut key for his amongst the in car detritus, Christophe was stuck hammering a smaller socket onto his enabling Fred to get a head start going to Le U-Pull-It to find a Megane to rob the engine out of.

Brilliant viewing, way better than wheeler dealers or car SOS.

Je suis aussi en train de regarder un documentaire qui s'appelle "Arnaque Auto" or "Scam Autos". Je suis watching this on YouTube rather than terrestrial TV (I no longer watch) 

It's actually a long collection of French car/road documentaries put together (different voice overs) that looks at different aspects of motoring, such as illegal car race meets, badly repaired cars that are sold through the trade by unscrupulous people, dangerous roads and my most fave, street mechanics, in which a bunch of (mainly immigrant) clandestine car mechanics of whom have their own specialities (everything from changing brake pads to head gasket work and body work) are all done on the side of the road.

It is apparently illegal to punt out work like this on the street. (these documentaries were made around the mid 00s) I love the fact that they use public carparks and high-rise flats carparks and sometimes underground 'box' garages (or 'lock-ups' as we sometimes call them here) to punt their trade around. It's a bit like going to a prostitute. Go up to a mechanic, ask how much for whatever work is required, and as long as you can supply the bits (sometimes the mechanic will come with you to the shop if you don't know much about what you're looking for) they'll do the work for less than half of what it costs in a normal or even back-street garage who'll have overheads.

[stuboy]

Decided that I'd change the spark plugs on the V6, thought I'd start on the rear bank.... struggled to get it leads off on all bloody 6!!, stupidly after 30mins on no1 plug i remembered to unbolt the coil pack... ffs !! Easy after that.. this work was sponsored by prescription medication Zapain and gabapentin... lol

[SiC]

2 hours ago, stuboy said:

Decided that I'd change the spark plugs on the V6, thought I'd start on the rear bank.... struggled to get it leads off on all bloody 6!!, stupidly after 30mins on no1 plug i remembered to unbolt the coil pack... ffs !! Easy after that.. this work was sponsored by prescription medication Zapain and gabapentin... lol

At least it's not a inlet manifold job off like most traverse V6's. Saying that, it was only a half hour job at most to get my Laguna V6 manifold removed. 

[Six-cylinder]

I watched a review of the new Renault 4 electric yesterday and it came out pretty well. Then the price from £27,000, £4,000 more than even the Renault 5 Electric.

That started me thinking my 1983 Renault 4 GTL cost £3425 new, but the bank of England inflation calculator says adjusted to 2025 that is £11,472.

I know the new car is safer, quieter and faster but still how are they affordable basic transport?

[richardmorris]

On 06/05/2025 at 10:34, richardmorris said:

I think there must be a mix of 09 and 10 then. Will check this evening - am in the 2CV today.

More a case of not putting my glasses on it seems - all are 0925. Happy with them so far (18miles ). I used the Goodyears on the merc coupe for years. 

[richardmorris]

15 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I watched a review of the new Renault 4 electric yesterday and it came out pretty well. Then the price from £27,000, £4,000 more than even the Renault 5 Electric.

That started me thinking my 1983 Renault 4 GTL cost £3425 new, but the bank of England inflation calculator says adjust to 2025 that is £11,472.

I now the new car is safer, quieter and faster but still how are they affordable basic transport?

I like the look of the new renault 5, but the 4 is awkward. Both far too expensive though.

 

[loserone]

Have either of you looked at the price of other new cars recently?

 

Obviously the role of basic transport is filled by the spring not the 4..

[richardmorris]

5 minutes ago, loserone said:

Have either of you looked at the price of other new cars recently?

 

Obviously the role of basic transport is filled by the spring not the 4..

Yes, my TIPO was £24k new in March 2021 . I bought it in august 2021 for £15k at 5,000 miles. Now approaching 30,000miles it does what I need for a new car.

 

 

it 

[loserone]

Prices have gone up quite a bit since I bought a new car in 2022..

[stuboy]

wonder if it will happen...

[Lord Sterling]

Not really "news" worthy but couldn't find the "What are you watching" thread if ever there was one.

Currently watching '40 Minutes - The Great North Road (1988)' as told by the lovely Lady Lucinda Lambton. 

In 1988 she was driving a Subaru 4WD GL - B87 PWK. 

[stuboy]

4 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Not really "news" worthy but couldn't find the "What are you watching" thread if ever there was one.

Currently watching '40 Minutes - The Great North Road (1988)' as told by the lovely Lady Lucinda Lambton. 

In 1988 she was driving a Subaru 4WD GL - B87 PWK. 

blimey brought back a memory with the front lights and grill, i swapped all panels of a dead engined estate onto a very rusty estate( and vice versa ), but never swapped the light and kept them for years and years thinking i could fit them into something else,  then i binned them as moving in with the now ex-wife. memories eh.......

[GrumpiusMaximus]

My Golf ticked over 200K yesterday evening.  20 years old in April and I’ve owned it for 9 of those.  150K of those miles have been in my possession.  It’s just a great car.  Biggest expense in the last four years has been the exhaust.

The A/C still works for crying out loud! It looks like a crack den on wheels but it still feels solid…

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I watched a review of the new Renault 4 electric yesterday and it came out pretty well. Then the price from £27,000, £4,000 more than even the Renault 5 Electric.

That started me thinking my 1983 Renault 4 GTL cost £3425 new, but the bank of England inflation calculator says adjusted to 2025 that is £11,472.

I know the new car is safer, quieter and faster but still how are they affordable basic transport?

The car(s) you already own are the cheapest, usually.

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

wonder if it will happen...

I really really hope they manage to find partners/investors and it happens! I’m buying one, almost no questions asked if it does.

[stripped fred]

I mentioned about my S type recently. The insurance was due to run out on 5th May.

On that same day I decided to get a quote as the renewal was about £408 for 6k mikes and business use. I reduced the mileage to 3k. Managed to knock £100 off the quote so I'm keeping it. Had a lovely drive today and it was like a new car to me after nearly putting it to death. Just feels a bit special and has always been a good drive.

It still stops quickly if you need to but I plan to replace the brake master cylinder / booster, as I want them right.

I tagged it to a £3 Tesco walk today and pumped up the tyres. Two were around 16 psi which will need watching.

I'm even planning some bodywork.. If something comes along that's going to cost £1000, such as a new engine or gearbox, or new sills, then I might need to reconsider but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy driving it, and tinkering.

[Popsicle]

The stars seemed to align so that four of the fleet were all do a service at the same time. As I'm a fat, old lazy lump, I decided to be like a shite version of Kwik Fit and blitz it all in one afternoon.

Mannol's finest potions and various filters at the ready.

First up on the ramps the couriering Caddy for an oil change.

All done nice and easy. These PD engines are so pleasant to service, everything is so easy to get at.

That was the 26th service in my ownership!

Once that was done, time to move on to the vehicle I hate working on the most, daughter number ones Beetle.

This thing always fights me, the huge, heavy undertray is a twat to remove to get to the sump plug, the oil filter is awkward to get at and it ends up with its contents running down your arm, the air filter is a pig to swap as half of it sits under the wing due to the stupid shape and the inlet fannymould has to come off to get to the spark plugs.

It also has a mard on if it doesn't get genuine VW oil filters, bloody arsey thing.

Once I'd sworn at it for long enough and spilt a load of oil over me and the drive it was done for another a year though.

It's been on fleet for about 5 years now and I suppose is doing alright for the miles.

Next up was the little sewing machine, daughter number two's Swift.

We've had this for 9 years now, it has been brilliant, so easy to work on, the complete opposite of the Beetle. Bought it on 50k miles as daughter number ones first car, then bought it back off her when she got the Beetle and gave it to daughter number two. All it ever needs is a service every year, so little else has gone wrong with it.

I realised I'd not changed the pollen filter for a while!

With that done just the Qashqai left to do, it had a full service last May, so just an oil change due this time around.

I don't actually mind working on this, its pretty easy to service and the parts are bugger all, £4.55 for a Mann oil filter from GSF.

I don't think it will be on the fleet much longer, @beko1987 has got me worried about rot - I dare not look at the mo, ignorance is bliss - its miles are creeping up a bit and nobody has really claimed ownership of it, it just gets used by whoever fancies it - which is normally the daughters when their cars are out of fuel!

So with four cars serviced that's my good deeds done for the week, I'll be sore all over tomorrow, I've said it before, but I'll say it again, how you guys in the trade do this day in day out is beyond me, fair play to you all.

[Zelandeth]

Today on random things you can fit easily in the back of a big Volvo, somewhat to the surprise of the seller.

A couple of straps to secure it were deployed before I actually drove anywhere to make sure I didn't decapitated by a pinball table if I braked too sharply.

The way Volvo integrated the dog guard and made it just food up out of the way is such a nice feature.  I don't have the seats down very often, but not having to mess about taking that out and reinstalling it every time is really nice.  It also doesn't rattle - which puts it ahead of every third party guard I've come across.

[paulplom]

Owen serviced his C1 yesterday. Only advice I gave was to shift that coil pack bolt on the cam cover or he'll be having a really bad day.

He started it up and it bellowed out a rather large blue smoke screen. The silly fucker had put all of the five litres of oil in when the capacity is 3 iirc. Drained some out and normal service was resumed.

Look at the dafr mutt in front of the car.