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I hired a car in Faro about 7 or 8 years ago.  I usually use Air Auto but they were fully booked so I ended up reluctantly using one of the big brands.  I think it was Avis.

Anyway, I saw they had Dacia Sandero’s on their fleet and was hopeful of getting one of those.  I went to the desk and the girl got my paperwork.  I looked down nosily and noted I had been allocated a Megane.  Only when she saw I had my own insurance cover sorted, she excused herself and went into the back office with the paperwork.  She came back a minute or so later and the Megane had changed to a Sandero!!  They must have thought they were trying to punish me!

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Currently renting a 2020 Three pot turbo Clio in Poland. 

It's excellent, drives well, interior is ace and it's very refined too. Looks smart too.  You can only hear the engine if you thrash it, frequently driving about in 3rd gear at 3k rpm and I'm none the wiser as I cannot hear the engine. You actually need the rev counter to change gear as it's that well noise dampened. 

Big spread of torque. Gone are the days you'd thrash a 1l and only get more noise. 

Mrs Spurious is very enamoured and wants one. She's agreed to pay part for it as she's very frustrated at me turning up to pick her up in Shite. 

(Dont worry I won't get rid of it all the shite). 

 

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A few years ago I rented a van from a local firm. Not my usual go-to place, but this crowd were close to where I lived then, and I only needed it for a couple of days. When I arrived he took me out to the van, ordinary SWB transit, did the walk around, then tried to turn the ignition on. Nothing. Dead as a dodo. First offered to jump start it, then after protestations pointed to a medium wheelbase saying "I'll try that one instead". It started fine and I took it away.

On my return a couple of days later he proceeded to ask me for an excess payment "because you got a bigger van than you'd paid for". Needless to say, I was not forthcoming.

 

Oh, about 12 years ago I was with a friend who'd hired a Luton - the clutch was slipping wildly ("just rev the engine sir" went the rep). Protestations followed that we were about to fill the back with Stuff and then spend 5 days hurtling around various parts of the countryside, and that we didn't want to risk it giving out midway. "Well, it's not broken now sir so I can't replace it" goes the rep. 

Five minutes round the block later, and with an eye-watering smell of burning clutch, wouldn't you know but it's broken down and won't move at all (opposite a popular greasy spoon). The rep sighed heavily as he brought a replacement out (very quickly and from the yard, so it's not as if he didn't have one!)

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2 hours ago, Asimo said:

Not Manta, Cavalier Mk2:  I think the wreck has a transverse engine, and that front valence panel is very distinctively Mk2 Cavalier.
 

I just saw the bits where the lights went and made my assumption from there. It was definitely Vauxhall/Opel-esque regardless.

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8 hours ago, stuboy said:

After 2 slow starts I decided it was time to swap over to the new battery I've been carrying in passengers footwear for a while.. tried to see old the battery was but can't see any dates in it..

looked back at service history that came with the car and i just missed the 5year warranty date purchased in october 2016..

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39 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Currently renting a 2020 Three pot turbo Clio in Poland. 

It's excellent, drives well, interior is ace and it's very refined too. Looks smart too.  You can only hear the engine if you thrash it, frequently driving about in 3rd gear at 3k rpm and I'm none the wiser as I cannot hear the engine. You actually need the rev counter to change gear as it's that well noise dampened. 

Big spread of torque. Gone are the days you'd thrash a 1l and only get more noise. 

Mrs Spurious is very enamoured and wants one. She's agreed to pay part for it as she's very frustrated at me turning up to pick her up in Shite. 

(Dont worry I won't get rid of it all the shite). 

 

We have a Dacia Duster with that 1.0 three pot Turbo, even given the car's size, it's very quick. Excellent for motorway driving in our case. Our Sandero Stepway has the 90hp 0.9 TCe version which is also very quick.

Honestly, I prefer my NA 1.2 3-pot Fabia, but only on flat or downhill stretches. :D

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Fabia did okay on it's first day of active duty (commuting). I don't want to speak to soon though, I've still got a lack of power (I know it was slow anyway) so I'm thinking that either it's time for cylinder 1 or 3's coilpack to have the screaming abdabs. Good job I have a spare.

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1 hour ago, Spurious said:Currently renting a 2020 Three pot turbo Clio in Poland. 

It's excellent, drives well, interior is ace and it's very refined too. Looks smart too.  You can only hear the engine if you thrash it, frequently driving about in 3rd gear at 3k rpm and I'm none the wiser as I cannot hear the engine. You actually need the rev counter to change gear as it's that well noise dampened. 

Big spread of torque. Gone are the days you'd thrash a 1l and only get more noise. 

Mrs Spurious is very enamoured and wants one. She's agreed to pay part for it as she's very frustrated at me turning up to pick her up in Shite. 

(Dont worry I won't get rid of it all the shite). 

 

I have a 1 litre 3cyl  turbo in the new fiat. I don’t know if this is common to any others yet though.

I’m happy with it - good range of torque and quiet and 50mpg. It does tell you on the display when it would like you to change up. But this is purely economic and not for performance,  and you can get it to give up and stop telling you what to do if you are heavy footed.

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When I moved from South Wales to Ireland I hired a Luton from a company on Colchester Avenue in Cardiff, who had a load of nearly new VW LTs for hire. When I went to pick the van up they'd given me a Transit several years old and a foot shorter. And when we loaded it up one tyre on the twin wheel rear axle proved to be flat. They sent out a fitter who changed it double quick, but we got to the ferry  two minutes two minutes before they closed the doors. Luckily, this was many years before 9/11 so travel arrangements were much more flexible, and we were waved straight on.

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I picked up a couple of year old astra from Hertz at Dublin airport, I got stung for the all singing and dancing insurance as I didn't have a credit card. I said to the guy can we do a walk round before I leave and he said we "Don't need to as you're  covered for absolutely everything " so I asked was I covered to leave it in the town center unlocked with the keys in it? he replied " Please don't do that sir" :)  

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3 hours ago, N19 said:

A few years ago I rented a van from a local firm. Not my usual go-to place, but this crowd were close to where I lived then, and I only needed it for a couple of days. When I arrived he took me out to the van, ordinary SWB transit, did the walk around, then tried to turn the ignition on. Nothing. Dead as a dodo. First offered to jump start it, then after protestations pointed to a medium wheelbase saying "I'll try that one instead". It started fine and I took it away.

On my return a couple of days later he proceeded to ask me for an excess payment "because you got a bigger van than you'd paid for". Needless to say, I was not forthcoming.

 

Oh, about 12 years ago I was with a friend who'd hired a Luton - the clutch was slipping wildly ("just rev the engine sir" went the rep). Protestations followed that we were about to fill the back with Stuff and then spend 5 days hurtling around various parts of the countryside, and that we didn't want to risk it giving out midway. "Well, it's not broken now sir so I can't replace it" goes the rep. 

Five minutes round the block later, and with an eye-watering smell of burning clutch, wouldn't you know but it's broken down and won't move at all (opposite a popular greasy spoon). The rep sighed heavily as he brought a replacement out (very quickly and from the yard, so it's not as if he didn't have one!)

I returned a van to Enterprise once dropping it off in London on a one way from Glasgow.

The girl inspecting it found a tiny scratch low down on the side, which we had missed when picking it up. We argued about it but she insisted it go to the workshop to see how much they’d sting us for. ( XS was £500).

As she moved the van into the workshop , there was an almighty screech as she scraped the entire length of the van against the door frame. A few minutes later she returned and said “ we’ll let that one go”, pretending we hadn’t noticed what she’d done.

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11 hours ago, Spurious said:

Currently renting a 2020 Three pot turbo Clio in Poland. 

It's excellent, drives well, interior is ace and it's very refined too. Looks smart too.  You can only hear the engine if you thrash it, frequently driving about in 3rd gear at 3k rpm and I'm none the wiser as I cannot hear the engine. You actually need the rev counter to change gear as it's that well noise dampened. 

Big spread of torque. Gone are the days you'd thrash a 1l and only get more noise. 

Mrs Spurious is very enamoured and wants one. She's agreed to pay part for it as she's very frustrated at me turning up to pick her up in Shite. 

(Dont worry I won't get rid of it all the shite). 

 

I agree with what you say about the Clio, my daughter has just recently bought one and it's very nice and great to drive.

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I've had a lonely start to 2022, primarily due to the problematic Omicron variant which has been a burden on our health system here in Australia, so I've been stuck inside for most of the year so far. I haven't been out of the house for just over a week now, stuck inside amongst the boxes of stuff for our bathroom renovation which has been brought to a halt due to the covid situation. It's been a bit bleak at times, one of my New Year's resolutions was to start going to the gym, but of course those places are human incubators for covid so I'm annoyed and waiting for things to clear up, if they ever do. 

On some brighter news, these came in the mail today from eBay which has cheered me up a bit. Great chod in these, I've already posted some stuff from these on the Shite Magazine Scans thread:

IMG_7798.thumb.jpg.d3b80fe3468006084b5c96a47790bbf6.jpg

IMG_7801.thumb.jpg.fd40d9176b81303093f4f4a09b1e8df1.jpg

IMG_7799.thumb.jpg.28a8ac0a765321906b1065d4e5697772.jpg

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8 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Iyak yak yak

Rented a 08 micra from budget once

It looked like all the staff in the airports kids had jumped up and down on it on all panels

Guy didn't mention the insurance and when asked he said Shure no one will.come.near ya at twscos now don't worry about it :D

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Intended to rent a van when I moved into this place, as I was moving out of my folks it didn't make sense to hire proper movers as a large amount of my stuff was boxed up ready to go anyway. Figured an SWB and a few trips will be fine. Delays with exchange meant I had to book the van the day of completion for the next day. And that's how I ended up behind the wheel of a Luton Transit. Looking back it made life a lot easier (except for anyone I was with who was made to watch me reversing because I was petrified of hitting something)

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12 hours ago, Liggle said:

Listed my R53 for sale on Facebook, Jesus Christ I wasn't prepared for the mouthbreathers a £2.5k Mini attracts

I'm going to guess.....

"Would you take a grand for it?"

"What's the lowest you'll go?"

"Can I give you a grand now and 3 payments of £500 a month?"

"Does it have full BMWMini Service History?"

"If you replace the cambelt and clutch, I'll give you £2200"

"Will you put a full year's MOT on it? (Despite it having 10 months)"

 

And lots of

"If you'll take £1500, I'll be round in 20 minutes"

 

Just thank the Lord you haven't gone to eBay. At which point you get

"If I give you £5k for it, you give me £2.5k back and my brother will be round next week to collect it as I'm in Nigeria"

"Would you ship it to Spain?"

"I know I've bid £3k for it, but I don't have that much. Would you take £2k?"

"I'm not paying £2.5k for it. That tyre doesn't look perfectly round to me and there's a sweet wrapper in the ash tray"

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I have my second and final A+ exam in a couple of hours, I'm a bit nervous about it as I'm pretty sure the only reason I was passing the practice ones was because they kept using the same bloody questions. If I pass, I'm theoretically qualified to be an IT technician again. Having been variously employed at minimum wage or unemployed for the past 5 years it's quite an exciting prospect to have a meaningful job that pays well enough again. There's a fair chance it'll be a remote job too, which I have discovered suits me quite well (I left the remote job for reasons unrelated to it being remote). I just need to pass this damn exam.

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27 minutes ago, reb said:

I have my second and final A+ exam in a couple of hours, I'm a bit nervous about it as I'm pretty sure the only reason I was passing the practice ones was because they kept using the same bloody questions. If I pass, I'm theoretically qualified to be an IT technician again. Having been variously employed at minimum wage or unemployed for the past 5 years it's quite an exciting prospect to have a meaningful job that pays well enough again. There's a fair chance it'll be a remote job too, which I have discovered suits me quite well (I left the remote job for reasons unrelated to it being remote). I just need to pass this damn exam.

Having worked in IT for 26 years, the last 18 as a hiring manager, I've never once considered people not worthy because of an exam. Quite honestly, I tend to read people's CVs of what they can do rather than what they've passed.

If you tell me you can disassemble a laptop and put it back together without faults, rebuild an operating system or follow processes and procedures, keep customers happy etc., I'm more likely to hire you. If you lie about the above, you'll get found out pretty quickly and won't pass your probation.

I had a guy came in who said he had years of experience implementing a particular product when I was a product owner (actually, I am again now!). It was very clear that he didn't.

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8 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

Having worked in IT for 26 years, the last 18 as a hiring manager, I've never once considered people not worthy because of an exam. Quite honestly, I tend to read people's CVs of what they can do rather than what they've passed.

If you tell me you can disassemble a laptop and put it back together without faults, rebuild an operating system or follow processes and procedures, keep customers happy etc., I'm more likely to hire you. If you lie about the above, you'll get found out pretty quickly and won't pass your probation.

I had a guy came in who said he had years of experience implementing a particular product when I was a product owner (actually, I am again now!). It was very clear that he didn't.

I'm doing the exam as part of a course with a job guarantee, it seems to me to be the only way back into the industry for me right now with such a big gap in my experience. I'm capable of doing most things required, even if I need to refer to documentation sometimes, but I haven't done any of it in a professional setting since 2016. The course has been a bit shite if I'm honest, but I need to see it through in order to either get a job or my money back. Really I want to be a web developer, but I'm (slowly) working on that in my own time. I like to mess around with VMs to learn how stuff works in windows and Linux, my last two PCs have been way overspecced in the CPU and RAM area to facilitate that. I'm not sure how to put that on a CV though, my CV is supremely shite to be honest. I'm hoping this course and the exams serve as a foot in the door.

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I once got given a BMW 530d M Sport touring as a hire car… it was absolutely epic. My then BMW was in for repair (again), and as it was taking 4 weeks they said they would have to hire me a car (it was warranty work), it had to be BMW so I was expecting a Mini or some such. I have no idea how I landed such a nice car, but trust me I put some miles on it in the couple of weeks I had it!! 

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