The new news 24 thread

[taxi paul]

So far I have someone who will give me 200 for the cat. Swap for a load of fireworks. Or 200 now and 150 next week.  I can see the vectra being scrapped. Cant be arsed with dickheads. 

[brownnova]

Worth popping a for sale thread on here? 

[taxi paul]

13 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Worth popping a for sale thread on here? 

Already one on here thanks. Anyone would think all Vauxhall's are shite. Hang on. 

[Shep Shepherd]

Interesting day today. Went to my local A&E department with a painfully swollen left foot just before dawn and ended up being operated on in the afternoon under general anaesthetic in order to drain and clean a nasty abscess which had been caused by goodness knows what.

Hopefully, I'll be discharged tomorrow. 

[egg]

jeez, take it easy man, hope you get home tomorrow.

[wuvvum]

Bit of a mixed bag on the vehicular front today.  The Maxus passed its MOT retest, but then when I went to pick it up it wouldn't start - the battery has been on the feeble side for a while but has now completely shat itself - even after a 10-mile drive there isn't enough in it to restart the van.  Fortunately I had gone up in the Volvo, rather than getting the train as originally planned, so I was able to pull in next to it and jump start it.  So that's going to be at least 70 quid for a new battery.  Still, I shouldn't whinge - it's a <£500 van and all it needed for the test was a couple of part worns and a split CV boot - total cost <£150 including the test fee.  I've had far more expensive vans fare much worse than that.

Left the Volvo there and drove home in the van, as I knew that if I switched the van off it wouldn't restart.  Went back up later to fetch the Volvo, and on the way back the rear silencer fell off, on a particularly twisty stretch of unlit A-road.  Cue a rapid U-turn at the first junction and a hoon back up the road to try and get to the silencer before someone hit it.  Which I did, although I caused a minor traffic jam whilst retrieving it and putting it in the boot.  I'm going to see if I can get it welded up as V70 T5 exhausts are surprisingly expensive.

I did have some fun in the V70 this morning though.  On the way in to work, in a long queue of traffic rolling along at 50.  Some tit in a 19-plate 3-series koop (or are the koops 4-serieses these days?  I dunno - it was debadged apart from the inevitable M-Sport badge) was doing the usual thing of blasting past a couple of cars at a time whenever there was a gap in the oncoming traffic.  Completely pointless when the 50-mph convoy stretches as far as the eye can see, but there you go.  He managed to get to 2 cars in front of me, then there were no more gaps.  Got to the roundabout for the bypass and the two cars in front of me turned right, so I was back behind the BM turning left.  He nailed it, so did I, and I was right up his jacksie all the way to the next roundabout.  He went straight on there and I turned right - I glanced over as I passed him and his face was a picture.  I think I'm going to like this car.

Oh yeah, and it sounds proper horny with a missing back box.  I do love a 5-pot. 

[robinmasters]

Today I met the man who invented the material base-model unpainted bumpers are made of. 

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, robinmasters said:

Today I met the man who invented the material base-model unpainted bumpers are made of. 

peanut butter salesman?

[tommotech]

I’ve been working on Isle of Man this week with their transport authority. I never realised how strict their roadworthiness test was, but conversely how lax it is once the test is passed where it doesn’t need presenting again (if the vehicle is taxed within two years). 

I had to look at some Diesel engines fitted to shunters and had a personal guided tour of the steam workshops in Douglas, I know there are people that appreciate them here so have a couple of pics;

[taxi paul]

More lovely messages through the night from people who don't understand no swaps or px for my vectra. Never mind spare a thought for my neighbour.  About a month ago she had her modern set fire to on the drive. Total write off. It was two years old and she had paid £17,000 on finance for it, no gap insurance. Apparently insurance have offered her around £14,000 . So she still owes the finance around £7,000 she was saying. Ouch. 

[tooSavvy]

46 minutes ago, tommotech said:

I’ve been working on Isle of Man this week with their transport authority. I never realised how strict their roadworthiness test was, but conversely how lax it is once the test is passed where it doesn’t need presenting again (if the vehicle is taxed within two years). 

I had to look at some Diesel engines fitted to shunters and had a personal guided tour of the steam workshops in Douglas, I know there are people that appreciate them here so have a couple of pics;

Doesn't Fred Dibnahs son do 'steam things' on the island.....

[richardmorris]

2hours 45 mins it took to do 100miles up the m20, 26 and 25 last night from the tunnel.  

Anyway, I have done my best with the European wine lake.  Not a bad sized boot for a coupe (18 cases) and it doesn’t look too low either. You can feel the weight in the tail round roundabouts though.

 

[richardmorris]

on the way back the scenic way in France, I stopped at a British cemetery I’ve been passing for years but not visited before.

Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, Haucourt

Beautifully kept, as they all are. But really, truly desperately sad. Especially as most of them were just “ a soldier of the Great War, known unto god”. 19, 20 years of age, some identified by regiment and rank only. It’s bringing tears now. 

 

From wiki Located in the cemetery is the Vis-en-Artois Memorial which lists the names of 9813 men (9806 British and 16 South African) who fell from 8 August 1918 to the Armistice and who have no known grave. The memorial has a screen walls in three parts on which is carved the names of the missing listed by regiment.^[2]The memorial was designed by British sculptor Ernest Gillick.

[Supernaut]

53 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

That's you sorted until Guy Fawkes night, but then what are you going to do after that?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

2hours 45 mins it took to do 100miles up the m20, 26 and 25 last night from the tunnel.  

Anyway, I have done my best with the European wine lake.  Not a bad sized boot for a coupe (18 cases) and it doesn’t look too low either. You can feel the weight in the tail round roundabouts though.

 

No Mouton Rothschild? After all that?

[richardmorris]

23 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

No Mouton Rothschild? After all that?

Non.

i was tempted with a nice chateau Neuf du pape, but a single case was going to cost more than the hotel bill!

 

Witness, the serried ranks....

[Tadhg Tiogar]

15 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Non.

i was tempted with a nice chateau Neuf du pape, but a single case was going to cost more than the hotel bill!

 

Witness, the serried ranks....

I'm very jealous.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I'm very jealous.

It’s my kind of stockpiling:-)

 

edit, the grey thing in the background is the passenger carpet from the Mercedes.  Drying out, because the car leaks like a sieve. 

[richardmorris]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

That's you sorted until Guy Fawkes night, but then what are you going to do after that?

In all fairness, two dozen are for my parents ( the greedy swines).

[richardmorris]

And in car news. The Mercedes reached 123456miles  last night. But I was too busy driving to photograph the moment. That’s 50,000miles I’ve done in 7.5 years.

[xtriple]

I parked up at the Daddyhole carpark and I was next to a red 5 series BMW - 69 reg. It looked okay to be honest. Then I noticed that some twat had put Alfa Romeo centre caps on the wheels  

Then I noticed that it was an Alfa Romeo Guilia Voloce and it looked really nice - much nicer than it had 10 seconds before when it was a BMW!

Seriously though, cars these days all look the bloody same and this from a man whose proudest boast was that I could tell any car, what spec it was and when it was made just from a glance.

[Cavcraft]

Despite an earlier warning a couple of week ago (by which it dumped fuel all over the place after I tried the petrol tap for the first time), and the odd bit of clutch slip, the Lambretta has been surprisingly un-Lambretta. Until Tuesday, that is, where it went a bit  Lambretta-y by coughing and farting and only holding high revs. Luckily I was quite local and coaxed it home. Checked a couple of days later and the fuel's leaking again, this time without prompting from moving the petrol tap. Lobbed it into the van and dropped it off a scooter place that's opened fairly recently and left it with them. Had to prise myself away as they had a couple of really nice looking Vespa T5 square tails for sale. Anyhow, waiting for a quote for clutch plates, re-cable and a look at/strip down of the carb. Had already ordered and received a new air box rubber from eBay, hopefully that'll help it further. Prior to it coughing on Tuesday though it's been running great.

 

This afternoon though, perhaps coming out in sympathy, my daughter's (modern) 500 threw a 'yellow or orange light that looks a bit like an engine' up and went it to limp mode on the A55. She got into a lay-by, the light went off after she re-started the car, so I went down and followed her home through town. Mrs CV says Miss CV now wants a new/er car.   

[Six-cylinder]

I have just been reading about the new Audi RS7 being a vastly improved car, 591 bhp with great grip and dynamics, but where do you use such a beast? I have been out today in the 190 bhp Alfa 156 and managed a very satisfying overtake of a car doing 45 mph in a 60 mph with plenty of shove and a great sound track, but not long and I was stuck behind the next one with solid oncoming traffic.

[Shep Shepherd]

Discharged from hospital at 1500. Signed off sick for two weeks from today. Fun times.

I'm glad that I have The Volvo handy, as I have no real desire to operate a clutch pedal for at least a few days.

[Spurious]

Getting out of the Jimny and straight into a Hydropneumatic Citroen after a long drive is something else. The level of waaaaaft and velour is just right

[wuvvum]

I bought a car off Gumtree today.  This is a rare occurrence for me, as Gumtree sellers don't seem to average much higher in the IQ stakes than Gumtree buyers, but this advert was well worded and the replies I got to my messages were intelligible and written in full sentences.  So I went round to have a look this evening.  Seller turned out to be a nice, well-spoken (and, if I'm honest, not entirely unattractive) lass in her 20s.  Her boyfriend was a bit of a lad but seemed decent enough.  Most importantly the car was as described (far from perfect, but cheap for a car with 10 months' test).  So I left a deposit, and I'm going back to pick it up tomorrow.

Also, the Renault 6 now has a working heater.

[clayts450]

Was the deposit an Xbox360 2nite m9 ?

[wuvvum]

Believe it or not it was actual cold hard cash.  That's how unusual this whole transaction is.

[Skizzer]

Some smutty-minded child will be along in a moment making an off-colour remark connecting ‘not unattractive’ with ‘left a deposit’.

But not me. Oh no.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

On 10/11/2019 at 5:38 PM, Cavcraft said:

....my daughter's (modern) 500 threw a 'yellow or orange light that looks a bit like an engine' up and went it to limp mode on the A55. She got into a lay-by, the light went off after she re-started the car, so I went down and followed her home through town. Mrs CV says Miss CV now wants a new/er car.   

Might be one of the fuses. Similar thing happened to a friend who also runs a 500. Turned out to be fuse 37, which cost all of 20p to fix.