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I've just had a read of the Wikipedia for the Fiat Croma. This bit made me giggle:

" In February 2007, Fiat UK announced that the Croma would no longer be generally available in the United Kingdom, after less than 900 were sold in the whole of 2005"

It was a bloody Giugiaro design as well! Happen he was a bit blind by then? Apparently it was described by Fiat as a "Comfort Wagon".

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Now you know it's super rare, you can do the full white room palaver when you shift it on, about how Mr. Stanley Panini Bolognase, long time Italian car enthusiast, traded in his immaculate Fiat Seicento S in anticipation of his life's ambition of upgrading to Fiat's premier executive comfort wagon, the Croma. One of fewer than 900 to indulge themselves that year. and now just -23 remain, making this incredible proposition truly invaluable blah blahhhhhhhhhhh

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I've just been offered a drive of a freshly restored Jaaaaaaaaaaaaag XJR6 *manual* (just got its MOT). It urgently needs a MAF to make it go (which I can borrow from mine for a day). It needs to make it to a special Jag meet on the 18th. I helped out the guy by offering him advice on running problems and selling a couple of important spares (like a throttle body) and he amazingly has promised me a drive. I just need to make it from the East Riding down to Southend next weeknend so that we can get going on the morning of the 18th. Any shitters in the Southend area, able to host? It's a very impromptu potential trip and I don't have much cash to spare on accommodation (I can't get down early enough on Sunday so need to travel Saturday). Could be quite an adventure.

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i, or should i say, we have been fixing things again, cos my other half was involved too.

see this-

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the back window on a Rover estate, well so what? well now it has a working wiper, something its not had for a mo0nth or two.

today i have swapped the wiper motor in the tailgate for a second hand one off ebay, that has been floating about in the boot a "little while" which wasn't too much of a chew on to actually finish

seems part of the problem we had with the back wiper was the motor, see the brown, burin like marks on the old one, which also had a fragrant smoky smell to it

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the other part of the problem was that the back spindle, going through the back window was seized up solid, and taking the circlip, washer and "big nut" off just like the HBoL said didn't release the spindle thing off the window. which the book said it would, but, as we all know, the book lies.....

while trying to get that bit loose, much WD40 was used, and then with the help of a good sized spanner and some small screwdrivers, Kerry did manage to clean out a lot of sealant type crap out from around the wiper spindle and then get it to move, and move freely.

deciding that a moving wiper spindle was better than a broken window, we packed as much grease around the spindle as we could and then put it all back together. 

so that is something else on the Rover that we have encouraged back into life. now just for the parking sensor things, anyone know anything about them?

 

 

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Not much, snatched my galaxy back of the missus, she keep driving everywhere in her usual foot to the floor and 2 inchs from the car in front, now she can do it in her own dam car and scare my insurers...lol

 

And tonight lunch by the sea at littlestone, near where ww2 nonfloating harbour resides and site of operation pluto of ww2..

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10 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Was it in "the middle of Lidl" this week? 

Lidl's down here never seem to have fk all of the current promoted items ever in store and no way of checking where they are in stock... Their advertising gimp must be fkd out of his head on something ?

No, they were on a couple of months ago but Aldi also do them and they'll be back on again.

We are luck, our Lidl is also an "outlet" so a lot of things turn up from other stores that haven't sold. Sometimes get some really good bargins.

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thats the 4 wheel lift done on the car this morning , not much to report apart from a slightly loose heat shield , and 3 tyres that are still legal and 1 that is ok

and 3 empty rattle tins of black paint ... 

not bad for a 17 year old Ford Focus !

 

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On 22nd July I mentioned that the clutch in my Tipo was behaving strangely.  Apart from looking at it sternly, dropping a few beads of oil on to the bell housing clutch lever pivot and viewing the car with distrust for a week I have not given it much further thought.  Yesterday, in an effort to see if a garage visit might be worthwhile, I drove the car 70 miles.  The route included 70mph cruising on dual carriageways, country lanes and traffic jams in Buckingham.  It behaved perfectly.  Today I've used it for 30 miles or so and again no problems.  I dislike intermittent faults which self cure but in this case I'm going to assume it was a temporary hiccup and just continue to enjoy the car.  It is so much better on the lanes than my modern Mirage.  The Tipo actually has suspension travel and proper tyres whereas the modern thing occasionally gets caught out, giving an almighty thump which scares the living daylights out of me.  

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I'm in the process of transferring back to the store where I started my pizza slinging days as they're a more stable source of hours for me being in a student town rather than the post-apocalyptic newtown I've been working in for the past few months. I'm going to miss the razzing around on near-empty ring roads but money has to come first. Bonus points for now being run by the manager who basically mentored me when I was training as a manager, who missed out on the Assistant Manager of the year award on the count of being too successful and becoming the store manager by the time the awards ceremony rolled around. Top bloke.

Supposed to be a temporary move while I sort something better, but I said that 3 years ago when I went full time...

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After deciding to stop the house hunting in Kent, I spent well into the wee hours looking at my options online and, on balance, Lincolnshire (Grantham, Scunthorpe, and Horncastle) is looking favourable.  I'd be renting rather than buying but there's a surprisingly large amount of suitable affordable properties out there that would suit my needs.  It'd also put me much more central geographically speaking, and nearer my support network, and even close to a friend that can store one/both of my cars if that needs to happen.  It's not the perfect solution, but it is a solution, it'll just take time to get the money together for all the Stuff you have to do when moving house and of course I'm concerned about credit checks etc. what with me being self-employed so that could well make it a fairly frustrating endeavour.  We shall see what happens.  It won't happen until February/March next year at any rate and who knows, maybe a house in Kent will magically get bought between now and then.

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Finally worked out why the Clio's dashboard illumination and nearside tail light were inop. 

I figured that the tail light bulb must have blown and taken the fuse with it.

Thankfully the car still had its spare fuses and now the tail light, dashboard illumination and (didnt realise this was also not working before) the lights-on buzzer are all restored.

Better.

 

 

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On 8/6/2019 at 11:33 AM, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Been looking for a car for daughter no.3  for about 2 months , thing is she's impossible to please and doesn't know what she wants. Sold her Volvo C30 ( for a profit! Why doesn't that happen to me?) after loads of DPF problems , and either wanted a £200 or £5000 replacement.

Found a 57 plate Golf 1.4 on Guntree in Rugby ( about 35 miles away) and it was a piece of shit, repaired to pub and just put nearest cars under a grand  into Aoutotrader...

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This was the result 2.0 pez, leather, working a/c 90k miles , stereotype hIrdesser owner for last 5 years- gave £900 for it. That's either a shitload of money for a 16 year old VW or a bargain for what seems like a nice example of a desirable** car.

it only had 2 months test, so ran it in yesterday and it needed a bottle of Cataclean for the emissions, apart from that a clean sheet. So £960 for a reasonable mileage, high spec Beetle convertible- good/bad? I do t know, but she likes it 

Prices for these are all over the place. I bought my 53 plate  last year for £600 no MOT (passed 1st time when dropped to pre-booked) access is shit to do anything.  Mine throws an  EML  light for oxygen levels, having replaced pre and post Cat O2 sensors I think it's the Cat. Gearbox is comical on the 2.0,  3k in fifth so not so economic. Keep wanting to change up. They are cool though. 

Mine with older cousin!!! 

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3 hours ago, vulgalour said:

and, on balance, Lincolnshire (Grantham, Scunthorpe, and Horncastle) is looking favourable. 

I spent nearly 40 years living or working in Scunnie. It's not cheap, basically because the steel works paid people 20k a year plus shift bonus (add 30% minimum) just for pushing a sweeping brush around ( always pissed off managers (like me) with responsibilities that could see you locked up (if it went tits)) that technically  'unskilled' people in production areas were earning twice as much as I was with little or no come back if they fucked up.

Hopefully there will be a new owner for the steel plant, if there isn't, there's going to be major problems in that town, and the local BMW / car dealers will also be in deep shite.

 

 

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Yes, I noticed the gearing is a bit  old fashioned, almost Rover 600 levels of under gearing . I was also surprised that it didn't feel quicker, it is a 2.0 in a small car after all, I was expecting GTi type performance, must be the weight of the hood. Previous owner reckoned they changed the Cat on this one a couple of MOTs ago, don't know if they did or not , no lights but was readin 0.50 on co before Cataclean snake oil shit.

I notice you've still got the Ibizia we had off you 2 years ago and scrapped almost a year ago in your signature!

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So the roffle winning Merc passed its retest today, parts were just over £50, so no complaints.

Mrs BMH (who's car it is technically), allowed me to celebrate by driving her to one of her favourite pubs, (Edmunds Arms - a Sam Smith's pub, £2 a pint, no mobiles, no card payments etc), so she could consume several pints whilst I drank coke/pepsi etc.

Sure I'm making a mistake somewhere...

 

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