The new news 24 thread

[ruffgeezer]

Would it be entirely nobbish of me to ask a seller to hold a car until November so I don't have to pay a month's tax for the last week of October? That is, providing I place the winning bid tomorrow morning of course. Yes I am being a penny pinching miser, that's because I'm borrasic at the moment and every little helps.

 

Book MOT close to your house, drive it home, cancel MOT, no tax problem solved. Make sure you book and cancel the MOT days in advance so as not to inconvenience the MOT bloke. Or you could just drive it with no tax, it's unlikely to be a problem. Or, just tax it and stand the £15 loss?

 

Or send away for the tax disc online to start in November and drive home, tell them the tax is in the post.

[scaryoldcortina]

Would it be entirely nobbish of me to ask a seller to hold a car until November so I don't have to pay a month's tax for the last week of October? That is, providing I place the winning bid tomorrow morning of course. Yes I am being a penny pinching miser, that's because I'm borrasic at the moment and every little helps.

 

Book MOT close to your house, drive it home, cancel MOT, no tax problem solved. Make sure you book and cancel the MOT days in advance so as not to inconvenience the MOT bloke. Or you could just drive it with no tax, it's unlikely to be a problem. Or, just tax it and stand the £15 loss?

 

Or send away for the tax disc online to start in November and drive home, tell them the tax is in the post.

 

Neither of those will work! I'm assuming the car already has a valid MoT ruling out plan A, and as for the other plan firstly you can't get a disk starting next month until 2 days before the end of this one and secondly "they" can check what date your in-the-post tax disk is due to start.

 

Personally, I'd just send a message offering a deposit and asking to collect after the first (due to work commitments or something )

[vulgalour]

Looks like the Mayfair Maestro is a no-go after all. Suddenly, payment within 24 hours of auction end is demanded plus storage fees on a weekly basis or delivery fees should I want him to deliver the car to me. No thanks, that's not what I bid on at all, if those stipulations had been in the advert I wouldn't have bid. Instead, I'm looking at a Ledbury Maestro that I can afford to insure and the owner of which is serious Autoshite material so I have pointed him our way.

 

In additional news, I finally got a call from the insurer about the Princess: car valued at a paltry £500, repairs at a heady £2,500 because of the difficulty of obtaining parts (even though I can provide them all for much less) and cash-in-lieu suddenly withdrawn because of cost of repairs. If I make a claim it will be recorded as Cat B and must be scrapped because of the cost of repair. Instead, because they won't be paying out anywhere near enough, I'll cancel the claim and get the car delivered home at my expense (their suggestion) thus avoiding Cat B and getting the car repaired for a sensible figure by sensible people. Worst case scenario is that she sits in the garage for a while and then gets broken or sold further down the line, but I hope that doesn't happen. What a waste of time insurance was in this instance!

 

Not in a fantastic mood right now.

[catsinthewelder]

That's pretty shit behaviour on thier part VA

 

That said I'd never expect much better from any of the insurance companies and consider all my policies 3rd party only unless lucky. You'd think the least they could do is drop it back to you for free considering they insisted on picking it up.

[vulgalour]

Personally, I'd just send a message offering a deposit and asking to collect after the first (due to work commitments or something )

 

That's precisely what I did, actually, I thought a good deposit of a third of the car's selling price, plus the offer to collect in person, putting the tax on when I was down there, would have been sensible. Clearly, they wanted a super fast transaction and I wasn't able to do that in part because of actual, honest-to-goodness work commitments! However, I may have found something better, and the seller of the something better sounds like a top chap, a true Autoshiter, so I very much look forward to meeting him.

[dollywobbler]

Oh well. Just laugh when it's relisted and fails to sell next time...

 

Regarding your insurance, tell them horlicks. Never accept the first offer from an insurance company! I reckon 9 times out of 10, people don't argue about it and the insurance company has a nice laugh on the way to the bank. £500 seems low, even for a not-immaculate Prinny. Whatever they've offered you, ask for at least 30% more and then deal with the repairs yourself. I'm not surprised the book price for repairs easily outweighs the value of the car but they are taking the piss. I've had friends negotiate a Cat rating as well. B means pretty much beyond repair without major surgery, which your car clearly isn't.

[vulgalour]

I did argue with him, told him the repair quote was irrelevant thanks to the contacts and parts I could access and that the car was worth at least £800 in its present condition. He wouldn't budge an inch on it and I cba to argue it any further, I just want my car back.

[cort16]

I took the Puma to work today now that I've taken it into protective custody from the wife. My first impressions are that it's pretty great. I'm so used to driving lardy german diesel cars that driving something light with a revvy petrol engine is a nice change and I just can't believe how easily it changes direction.. 125bhp isn't that much but it always seems pretty eager to go whatever gear you're in and sounds pretty fruity over 4000 rpm. Unfortunately my one smells. The previous owner must have smoked like a russian power station and there's ash everywhere. There's also a big dent in the door and one arch is rotten. I'm thinking about doing the arch and sticking a new door on it as if I do that it'll be one of the tidier ones out there and there doesn't seem to be that many tidy ones left.

[Craig the Princess]

Took a trip to Trains, Planes and Automobiles at the Midlands Air Museum, Baginton Airport, Coventry. Really good day, entry to the Air Museum and the next door Electric Train Museum. Always good to see the cockpit of a Vulcan, Argosy (pictured) and the car of a 309 EMU. Allegros were parked under the Argosy, possibly the best plane name ever.

 

[DaveAspley]

Buick decided to blow its speakers one by one today. There I was happily listening to "Rock 107, north pa's rock authority" via t'3g when BOOOM CRACKLE FIIIIZ and the osf door speakers signed their resignation. Whipped into layby and un plugged them. A mile later the bloody rear one went! Upgrade time maybe.

In other news, in my trade as a pro motor fettler, I suggested to a bunch of narrowboat owners a while ago that I can change the filters in their boats for much less than £165 that the "specialist" charges. Now I've got a bloody 5.6 Fordson diesel with a leaking accelerator shaft seal to sort..

[Shep Shepherd]

Fitted a Richard Grant Mouldings 'Rearguard' rear bumper protector to TV2 today. Covers up the various marks that the top of the bumper picked up during the car's time with its original owner and looks like a proper Volvo accessory:

 

 

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I did argue with him, told him the repair quote was irrelevant thanks to the contacts and parts I could access and that the car was worth at least £800 in its present condition. He wouldn't budge an inch on it and I cba to argue it any further, I just want my car back.

 

You can always threaten them with small claims court action after you've had it sorted. They're more likely to pay up than spend money on professional lawyers travelling to argue and probably lose a case worth a few hundred quid. Just don't sign anything funny, or, if you do, mark it 'signed under protest' or something.

[CreepingJesus]

I could use one of those 'Rearguards' things too: the top of the bumper on mine is well scuffed. Sadly, skintitude precludes that purchase.

Oh well, I'll keep on explaining the scuffed bumper by relating, with an entirely straight face, how dragging bodies and spades in and out of the boot causes that.

[michael1703]

Fuck!

 

Did I really just win that on Ebay?

 

I wasn't even drunk,cheeky bid with 25 mins to go and I just looked in my emails and got a "Enjoy you ****** ** "

 

Will see how many thousands it costs to get it home in the morning

[trigger]

Go on then Mike, Spill the beans, I hope it's Russian and 4x4.

[barefoot]

Interesting experience yesterday.

Had a few noisy hydraulic tappets replaced on the 944 - at frightening expense.

Picked car up and it was absolutely as flat as a fart, felt like it had about 50bhp.

Ran as smooth as smooth thing but just completely gutless.

Cam timing out!

 

Sorted completely now, but it was totally bizarre.

[cort16]

New Fiesta Saloon looks shit shock horror.

 

[Cavcraft]

Fuck!

 

Did I really just win that on Ebay?

 

I wasn't even drunk,cheeky bid with 25 mins to go and I just looked in my emails and got a "Enjoy you ****** ** "

 

Will see how many thousands it costs to get it home in the morning

 

 

Well?

[Junkman]

Fitted a Richard Grant Mouldings 'Rearguard' rear bumper protector to TV2 today. Covers up the various marks that the top of the bumper picked up during the car's time with its original owner and looks like a proper Volvo accessory:

 

 

Fail. It doesn't look shite.

[Shep Shepherd]

Fitted a Richard Grant Mouldings 'Rearguard' rear bumper protector to TV2 today. Covers up the various marks that the top of the bumper picked up during the car's time with its original owner and looks like a proper Volvo accessory:

 

 

Fail. It doesn't look shite.

 

The car it's fitted to is, though - photos of TV2 make it look far better than it actually is

[Junkman]

Fail. It doesn't look shite.

 

The car it's fitted to is, though - photos of TV2 make it look far better than it actually is

 

OK, it's a pass then.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Got my new battery yesterday, fitted it without issue today. Checked tyre pressures after about a month with almost no driving, one of the tyres was down to 14, so I went to a local fast-fit mini-chain (Dexel) to see what's up with it. It was a slow puncture, and I am a bit miffed at the cost of sixteen quid for sorting it. It wasn't that long ago when you could have a puncture repaired for a fiver.

[Pillock]

I'd have spent 20p a month at the petrol station on the air machine instead, you wouldn't have hit £16 before the tyre wore out anyway

[dollywobbler]

Got my new battery yesterday, fitted it without issue today. Checked tyre pressures after about a month with almost no driving, one of the tyres was down to 14, so I went to a local fast-fit mini-chain (Dexel) to see what's up with it. It was a slow puncture, and I am a bit miffed at the cost of sixteen quid for sorting it. It wasn't that long ago when you could have a puncture repaired for a fiver.

 

My last leaky tyre repair cost me 'a drink.' Very pleased to have found a garage that works on my terms! (the trick is to send big jobs their way, then little stuff like this gets nicely discounted).

[ashmicro]

[quote name="dollywobbler

(the trick is to send big jobs their way' date=' then little stuff like this gets nicely discounted).[/quote]

 

This. I send a load of people every month to East Antrim Motor Factors. Consequently, when my mate Colleen's C Max needed a turbo, we got a bloody good deal.

[wuvvum]

Fuck!

 

Did I really just win that on Ebay?

 

I wasn't even drunk,cheeky bid with 25 mins to go and I just looked in my emails and got a "Enjoy you ****** ** "

 

Will see how many thousands it costs to get it home in the morning

This. Except I bid last night, then forgot about it until I got home from work.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I'd have spent 20p a month at the petrol station on the air machine instead, you wouldn't have hit £16 before the tyre wore out anyway

 

They didn't really quote a price- I was expecting them to tell me that my alloys are in need of refurbishment, then they came back and said 'we fixed it, that'll be £16'.

[skattrd]

Fuck!

 

Did I really just win that on Ebay?

 

I wasn't even drunk,cheeky bid with 25 mins to go and I just looked in my emails and got a "Enjoy you ****** ** "

 

Will see how many thousands it costs to get it home in the morning

This. Except I bid last night, then forgot about it until I got home from work.

 

Come on then, what have you guys bought?

[vulgalour]

On the way to work today, the Skattrd Maestro decided it didn't want to idle at road ends and even threatened to break down! I nursed it to work, left-foot-braking at road ends, and parked up waiting for my lunch break. On coming out, a G reg Pug had parked up next to me, a nice match to the G reg Maestro. Started up the car, got the idle advanced, the cutting out went away... only, I think I advanced the idle a bit too far as it's a little eager to keep moving all the time so I'll tweak it back again tomorrow. I'm not sure how it managed to reset itself, but I suspect the vacuum pipe isn't vacuuming properly as one end of it has a fresh looking split.

 

Still, the Maestro is doing sterling commuter service and using much less fuel this week. One of my work colleagues was delighted to see me leaving in the Maestro because he's been asking around the entire building to find out who came to work in it to no avail. He very nearly had a crisis when I explained just why I was using it to get to work and back, I think I went significantly further up in his estimation for driving about in a Princess and a Maestro.

 

Today has, overall, been a good car day and I enjoyed spannering in the work car park far more than having lunch in the canteen watching BBC news.

[philibusmo]

The Alfa is currently up in the air while I wait for a new ARB droplink to cure the clunking front suspension.

I gave the oil and filter a change which was a right mare. The old filter was old enough to be rusty and ceased to the oil filter housing. Even hammering a screw driver through it would not make it budge as levering the screwdriver just cut the rusty metal of the filter in half. Additionally putting a G-clamp on it and levering that just bent the G clamp in the end. Eventually I managed to get it off with a large welding clamp.

 

With this done and the light drizzle ruling out welding the Lancia, lack of funds meant there was nothing to do on the Rover and the Fiesta as always needs nothing I found myself bored.

I did something I never thought I would do and I expect shall never be repeated. I began to clean the engine bay. I only really managed the engine cover before I got too bored but I think its come up quite well. Cleaned with Turtle Wax Tar, Insect and Tree Sap Remover. What it can't do is remove tar, insects or tree sap but it does clean old oil and gunge off an engine cover very nicely.