The new news 24 thread

[garbaldy]

Now i quite fancy a Leaf as im interested in how it works but i don't want to own one,now my idea is.Loan me one for 3-4 months.Why now i have driven petrol/diesel for 20+years but i would hate to px my trusty for new some what unproven  tech and maybe hate it.So Nissan loan me 1,leave me alone to get on with it,then have it back.Don't think it will catch on but you never know.

Now i quite fancy a Leaf as im interested in how it works but i don't want to own one,now my idea is.Loan me one for 3-4 months.Why now i have driven petrol/diesel for 20+years but i would hate to px my trusty for new some what unproven  tech and maybe hate it.So Nissan loan me 1,leave me alone to get on with it,then have it back.Don't think it will catch on but you never know.

 

I saw on the tv some campain where they where looking for satelite comunities through out the uk to run all electric cars to see what the impact would be on the grid.

[trigger]

Just think all of that extra coal that needs burning to generate the extra electricity, that's really saving the planet isn't it.

[Pillock]

Although I hate the idea of electric cars right now (come back to me when they're all Tesla-performance), I believe the idea is to shift energy production and therefore pollution generation to a central place, where it can then be changed in one go.

 

Yes, we currently burn a lot of coal to make sparks - but once electric cars are everywhere, we could swap to nuclear, water, wind, or the farts of a a million wasps. What you can't do is go round cleaning up every car individually.

 

To run an electric car, I'd need it to have a range of 300 miles, and it also needs to recharge in 8 hours or less. And to be rechargeable in the street without pikeys nicking my electricity. I'm not sure any can do this right now.

[cort16]

If you want to sell electric cars you need to lease them so there's no fear of loosing all your money if the battery fails or another technology makes it look obsolete.

In the USA you can lease a FIAT 500e for $199 a month. It's not the most advanced electric car but it's cute and has a bit of character.

 

http://www.fiatusa.com/en/2013/500e/

 

They also throw in 2 weeks free car hire for a normal pez motor for the term of the lease should you need to go anywhere this thing can't/

 

You can go to Nissan and get a LEAF for £299 a month but for some reason they don't promote it. You can also choose to buy the car and finance the batteries seperately although this causes huge problems when you come to sell it as the batteries don't technically belong to you even though they're in the car.

[Pillock]

That makes more sense, for most people.... the two weeks free car hire is a nice way of accepting the limitations and getting around them. I'd imagine it would fix the range issue for 80% of the population who only need to take the odd holiday rather than pound up and down motorways. In fact if Fiat UK would do a sensibly-priced equivalent (£179 a month or summat) I'd even consider leasing.

 

I like the acceleration they offer and I like the idea of them. It's just not a mature enough technology, perhaps this is what Mister Benz found when he was trying to prise people out of their horse-based transport. 

[beko1987]

Myself and a colleague were talking to a Portugese developer we work with about cars, and he casually mentioned the prices over in Portugal!

 

One thing led to another and we had the portugese auto trader open on one screen, with auto trader open on another. Things like £800 shabby disco's here going for €3,500, £500 Ford Cougar 2.5 v6's going for €4,000 etc.

 

Apparently you can drive there and back fairly easily. He is planing on riding his UK bike over there and bringing back his 2000 1.6 golf at christmas. We told him to buy a shitter and take a road trip instead!

[HillmanImp]

Got the GT6 running and turned around on the drive. Woooooo! Only one fuel leak to deal with. However as usual I did set off down the road forgetting to check if the wheels were done up. Turns out none of them were but thankfully none fell off. 

 

Muchas gracias to M'coli for lending me the welder bit again as I have lost the 2 that I ordered in the post at the beginning of summer. Shall return it in the next few days. 

 

There are 2 small bits of welding to do on the nearside tomorrow (that I know of - I have not looked properly yet), check the fluid level in the diff, get the number plate light working and then I need to sort out the door locks so that you can get in and out of the car. Then it will be worth a punt through the MOT I reckon to see what else is up with it. 2 weeks from then to get it sorted for the retest. 

 

I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

[HillmanImp]

Y'know, I have said all that but I have not put the door on the offside yet to see if it fits after putting on the new sill. It seemed to fit but when I was welding it on my own with the car jacked up I could not get it back on properly to check it was all okay. 

 

Hope I am not counting my chickens before they hatch by posting a picture of a pleased Peppard.

[Largactil]

The heady octane atmosphere at the Irish Festival of Speed led to me spunking €20 on a ticket to win this beauty*

 

 

The draw's on Sunday - Wish me luck!

[Mr Lobster]

I don't mind the concept of electric cars as in a typical weekday I'd do six or seven short (less than six mile) journeys but until technology advances to the point that they can be used as a 'normal' car and if I suddenly need to do more than 145 miles in one go then I won't bother thanks. 

[Mr Livered]

Good luck!

 

Pretty good fundraiser there; that's 20,000 euros if they sell all the tickets.

[trigger]

Apologies for boring you all with more car photos, I dropped my Cortina off at the in laws today who have been kind enough to allow me to store the car  over winter in their garage as the tax is almost out, It will be a shame not to be able to use it for a few months but it's handy that's it's out of my way now, I keep thinking about selling it but I do love the feeling you get whilst driving it, It's make you feel like a proper geezer!.

 

 

With the rear drive free I managed to pop the poorly running Civic out for a couple of photos this evening before it got too dark, I'm so chuffed with how good it looks now, the only thing letting it down is the O/S/F wing which is still dented after the bodyshop chose to ignore it, even though they had to respray it and I asked them to do the dent, I've told them it's coming back and that I expect it to be done properly but suspect that won't happen though.

 

 

[HillmanImp]

Apologies for boring you all with more car photos.

 

How very dare ya. What do you think this is a forum for people who like cars?

 

They are looking spiffing BTW. Hope it goes okay with the garage. Have they charged you for the work and not done it right? How big is the dent, it cant be much for them to sort especially in white.

[trigger]

Thanks! The garage fixed the rust along the top, rear edge and bottom but completely left the ripped front part of the wing which was badly repaired in the past and the obvious dent on the arch lip near the front edge, there's no way they should have missed them and it was agreed to do the repair originally, it cost £435 which was to fill the rust on both wings (they was mean't to cut it out and weld new metal in...), fix the dent and paint the offside door and quarter panels as the paint had polished through. I won't be using them again.

 

I've been back and told the owner that I'm not happy who's said to bring the car back but as it's "hunting" at the moment I haven't been able to take it back.

 

[Micrashed]

Just think all of that extra coal that needs burning to generate the extra electricity, that's really saving the planet isn't it.

Ive got Solar PV  booting out 2.7kWp when the sun shines brightly , its chopped a third off my gas and lecky bills so a EV would kind of make some sense to me if I could charge it at home during the day. But as I am usually at work during the day (for 9 ot of 10 weeks anyway) and would be charging it at night then its a bit of a PHAIL in that sense.

 

I believe you have to pay rental on the batteries too as well as buying the car in the first place.

[Mr Livered]

How very dare ya. What do you think this is a forum for people who like cars?

 

Quite so! Don't worry about that, Trig, because your taste in motor cars is excellent and your collection quite superb. The MOAR pictures and info, the merrier.

 

Good call on putting the Cortina into hibernation, it'll be like falling in love all over again in the spring...

[Barry Cade]

I've had 2 Leaf's (leaves?) on the back of my truck already, and by christ they're heavy. More drag up over the Forth Bridge than a BMW 7 series- hearing stories that 45 miles is safe distance for them and no one wants to drive them... Nissan has just raised the spec and dropped the price..

 

I spent a good half hour on the Tesla stand at Frankfurt, they do what they say on the tin and are awesome. These are the only cars so far that has made me turn my head and think it may be they way forward, everything else is just toss.

[hairnet]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-NISSAN-LEAF-BLACK-0-TAX-EMISSIONS-NO-CONGESTION-NO-RESERVE-ELECTRIC-/121181395306?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1c36f9596a

 

now thats cheap

 

saw them in the summer and cheapest one was 16k

 

as long as it wasnt a bad cat d

[HillmanImp]

 (they was mean't to cut it out and weld new metal in...)

 

I assume you only got a verbal quote too? I would have done as well, you just don't think of things like that at the time. Probably a heads up for people reading this to get a written quotation like you would for an insurance claim (or would have done back in 'nam). 

 

Sounds like a bit of a cowboy outfit really. You will know for next time though. TBH, for the time being it will be only you that notices and hopefully by the time it needs doing again, you will either have sold the car or it will be long enough in the future that the money spent now will be forgotten. *

 

 

*I think getting the GT6 running yesterday has given me an unusually upbeat aspect on life. Will see how long that lasts. 

[trigger]

The place specialises in insurance accident repairs and Vauxhall main dealer repairs which is a different standard of work to classic cars, annoyingly the chap I was going to use was fully booked for 8 weeks and I wanted the car ready for Brands Hatch or else I would have waited, the price was the same too.

 

You live and learn, and like you also say make sure you get a written quotation first too, unlike me!.

 

[Lukas]

Today, the long search is over! I signed the contract for my new daily-driver. It´s a 2007 Mazda 6 Sport Estate 2.0i with automatic transmission.
 

 

One owner from new, every repair at the same Mazda-dealer, very good condition and what´s the most important thing when it comes to Mazdas: It´s not that rusty! A bit of corrosion on the underside (will get done before salt arrives), otherwise very nice. I liked it a lot, it´s a beautiful, comfortable and relaxing car. I hope it serves me well the next years. I´m happy. Will go and get it at the end of next week, there are some things that need sorting until then.

 

I´m happy!

 

Lukas

[Micrashed]

Before...

 

After...

 

Result = Fresh MOT for 12 months.

 

The Micrashed lives on for another year!

[vulgalour]

This wooden steering wheel I'm restoring has surprised me at how well it's come up.  First coat of varnish went on tonight and you'd hardly know it was the same wheel I started with.  I'll get some pics up when it's finished, just got to build a few more coats of varnish and polish the spokes before I'm happy the job is done.  I shall probably transfer the same set of skills to restore the wooden insert on the HLS dashboard which is a walnut veneer or something.

[Shep Shepherd]

Just returned from a ten-day trip to New England, during which I drove a 2003 Volvo V40 around New Hampshire and was driven around Massachusetts in a 1996 Buick Park Avenue, which its owner bought for a Dollar  - really!

 

 

If I lived in the States, I'd definitely consider having one. I'm also seriously considering a V40 as my next car, due to the example I drove (the black one in the top right of the photo) being such a capable car, especially on I-93, where I got the turbo spinning nicely

[vulgalour]

That Buick is highly desirable.

[Cavcraft]

That Buick is highly desirable.

 

So's a cure for Chlamydia, and I know which I'd  rather have. One's an embarrassment that would stop you pulling a girl or ever having sex again, the other is an STD. 

 

 

In other world shattering news I have just bought another example of a perennial favourite on here. I'll just leave this here for all the H8RZ

 

corsa c to the maxi maximum mofosaaaaaaaaaa by Cavlover1, on Flickr

 

*It's shit it's headgasket in spectacular fashion.

[twosmoke300]

Is it a chain driven Cam one? I did a hg on one the other day, not a great experience and it shit a big end a week later.

[Cavcraft]

Chain yes and the engine, unsurprisingly, is quite noisy. It was dog bollock cheap though and even if the worse comes to the worse we'll just strip it and put the posh (it's an SXi) bits on my lad's standard model.

[phil_lihp]

Is that in order to balance out the genuinely excellent purchase that was the Transit?  Sort of shite karma?  

[twosmoke300]

We got a good used motor with 69k (haven't they all ) for 350 and it's a piece of cake to fit. Head set was 70 odd alone and special tools etc