The new news 24 thread

[garycox]

Almost bought a Porsche 924 but didn't.

 

2 less exciting vehicles on the 'probably buying at the weekend' list though!

[HMC]

^ Are the other 2 coupes too?

[garycox]

No, dull hatchbacks unfortunately. Cheap though!

[garycox]

Right, this is as 'arranged' as it's gonna get... First will be a K10 Micra then possibly a Mk4 Escort. Grim.

[Craig the Princess]

Picking up a manual 2200 Princess tomorrow (housemate purchace) which has been off the road since 1997 IIRC. Pictures to follow.

 

Also need to fit the new manifold to the AX so I can return the loan Rover 420 before Christmas.

[rml2345]

Sent the Volvo to my favourite local garage who have declared the 11 month old NSF caliper to have blown piston seals. The disappointingly short lifespan is made worse by the fact that I can't find the bastard reciept.

On the plus side they'll supply and fit a new one for a decent price.

[The Moog]

Finally got a car that pleases SWMBO.

 

 

2.oh Badermatic. Fsh with cash been chucked at it including colour coder wing mirrors 6months ago and 2 new tyres plus tracking at same time. All for 400 quid.

 

Downsides are it is very quick to mist up as damp inside. EML is on so need to get it read and reset. Any suggestions for cheap reader I can go and physically buy rather than bay?

 

According to computer did 35 mpg over 60 miles on way home doing average 57 mph. Pulls well enough and makes the xantia feel glacially slow.

[dollywobbler]

Sirion has had fresh gearbox oil. This seems to have made little difference but the old stuff was apparently very cloudy. Feel happier about thrashing it up to northern Scotland next week now at least. 

 

In other news, my wife has been trying to outdo me in the hideous thumb injury stakes by managing to stick a piece of bracken right through her right thumb. Not sure if this is more or less gruesome than me chopping the end of my left thumb off, but I can at least sympathise!

[vulgalour]

A Princess dash binnacle complete with clocks and radio weighs nearly a stone.  That's my factoid for today.

[hairnet]

Right, this is as 'arranged' as it's gonna get... First will be a K10 Micra then possibly a Mk4 Escort. Grim.

k10 all day speak to ryan on the blue about making it not be a danger to cyclists and mobility scootahs

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Not exactly news, but we had a health visitor visit to check over brookjm_jr and she came in this bloater...

 

Someone on Pistonheads posted this image. Look at the wheels!

 

[Lord Sterling]

Shit me. Says it all really. ^^^^

 

Like people, cars seem to have got fatter the more the years go on. In the 70s there seemed to be tonnes of stick thin, mustachio'd blokes with FAT sideboards going about with equally thin and tall be-skirted Blonde and Brunette 'birds' and complaining about their work "rights". Often they were quietly spoken people who were often shy of going on TV. So I guess cars were made for those kind of people of that era.

 

Now we have OVERBLOATED blobs on wheels for OVERBLOATED loud blobs of people.

[vulgalour]

It's  a nice theory, but it doesn't hold water.  There's often less space inside a modern to stuff a bloater into than there is in a much more diminutive elderly motor.  Even so, it's still shocking how steroidally massive cars seem to have become over the last 20 years.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

To be fair theres something like 40 years of progress there. 40 years! I feel old.

[Anglevan]

Jeez the mondeo looks huge. Earlier this year when i took my capri for a run out a bini parked next to my capri and capri did look small. And I always thought the capri was a big car.

[barefoot]

I didnt know that was a Mondeo,

Audi q7 was rattling around my head.

[phil_lihp]

It's an eye-opening comparison but then again, if you parked the Capri nose-on to an Anglia, you'd probably see a similar discrepancy.  

[phil_lihp]

I'm liking having a scruffy old car I don't need to worry about.  It means I can cart grubby things around and not bother about a few marks on the upholstery.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2edf0BrKfrZHAwZHZkN29pQW8/edit?usp=sharing

 

She's not mine sadly, lives at the local Dogs Trust and just out for a walk but she's obviously a Rover fan.

 

I'm clocking up the miles in the Rover and have yet to do anything about the water pump, I'm so used to topping it up now I almost don't notice any more.  With a fully charged battery it's now perfectly happy to sit unused in a damp garage for days on end and still start first time - unfortunately I had no idea just how damp until I opened the door after 2 weeks yesterday and the car looked like it had been rained on, looks like the roof has given up.  Might as well leave the car outside to be honest, it'd save me £40 a month!

[worldofceri]

Took the Volvo to the garage yesterday to have the rear suspension looked at.  I've been putting it off a while despite a suspicion that something was awry.  I've had the wheels off and had a butchers myself, but couldn't see anything obviously broken, however, both rear tyres have now worn almost bald on the outer edges.

 

On dropping the o/s trailing arm the garage found that the round hole they were expecting to insert fresh bushes into is, in fact, OVAL.  I.e. the trailing arm is MULLERED!

 

Not sure what to do now.  A new part from Volvo is £280 + vat, so that's prohibitive.  There's plenty of S40s in breakers so I guess there's a good chance of scoring a s/h suspension ass'y cheapish, so that's a possibility.

 

Problem is now, we only have a ropey '72 Beetle for all our festive perambulations, including the 310 mile round trip to the inlaws.  Mrs. WoC reckons now is the time to realise our dream of a 7-seat estate, so...

 

Anyone got/know of a 7 seater Volvo estate for £cheap?  Would consider Merc/Audi, but no pe*ple c*rri*rs please!

 

Thx in advns.

[barefoot]

Accused of being an internet bully, by some new bloke on the 'late bay' forum.

Swearing is not allowed, so you type fuck and it comes out ****.

 

New chap cleverly calls me, me?

(The nicest virtual person you could hope to virtually encounter )

 

A c,,,,unt and is promptly moderated to oblivion.

It's not that difficult is it?

 

I daren't go to any vw shows this year in case he turns out to be real,

I may inexplicably hang myself over Christmas on account of being stalked....

...or something else...

[Lacquer Peel]

 

Here's a comparison for you.

[MrDuke]

As said, there's no more (in most cases less) space inside moderns compared to the older cars that they dwarf by comparison. I believe most of the apparent bloat is due to designed-in 'safety' features, which leads to a vicious circle: the heavier vehicles become, the more damage they do to each other, so you add more impact protection, which increases the vehicle weight, etc etc etc.....  maybe that's over-simplifying a bit, but there's the principle. In the UK (or anywhere in Europe) there's no advantage whatsoever in increasing vehicle size for its own sake - road lanes, parking spaces and garages will remain roughly the same size, after all.

I don't remember the exact wording, but when Issigonis was asked what safety features the Mini offered in the event of a crash, he replied that the design would enable any competent driver to avoid crashing in the first place. Yay for progress.

[HMC]

^ Basically the difference in active versus passive safety. Issy and others being of the old school where your wits were supposed to save you rather than, say an airbag.

 

The irony is that all the passive safety stuff and the way NCAP encourages design means its harder than ever to see hazards from the wheel.

[barefoot]

Isn't this like Ralph Nader said all those years ago?

It's the 3rd impact that kills"

 

The 1st is the two cars colliding

The 2nd is your body hitting the interior of the car

And the 3rd is all your internal organs smashing up together inside your torso

 

Given that,

Nothing changes, laws of physics etc

Cars either need to get monstrously bigger or superlightweighttiny.

[dollywobbler]

As said, there's no more (in most cases less) space inside moderns compared to the older cars that they dwarf by comparison. 

 

This is not entirely true. Having had the chance to compare a Mk2 Golf with my sister's Mk6, I was astounded at the amount of room in the back. The Mk2 isn't bad, but the Mk6 feels like a limousine by comparison. My legs were nowhere near the back of the front seats, and my bro-in-law is not what you'd call short.

[The Moog]

Ordered a code reader from ebay and paid the 4 quid extra for fast delivery. ordered3pm yesterday delievered 10am today. mega impressed with post office.

Plugged xsara in and only code was intermittent misfire. Clearedit and fingers crossed it will be nothing.

[wackywacerwill]

The Moog is a witch practicing dark arts, burn him!

[dollywobbler]

The 2CV appears to now have a leaky roof on top of a leaky body. Took her for a quick blast but have now stashed her in the garage, where she can remain until the weather stops being quite so ridiculous. No 2CVing until next year by the look of it then! Perhaps now is the time to cash the tax in and properly take her off the road. 

[The Moog]

The Moog is a witch practicing dark arts, burn him!

 

To balance it up I took off the alloys put steels with mistmatched budget tyres and three different cracked poundland trimz on* for winnahs.

 

*may not be true.

[daveb47]

Ordered a code reader from ebay and paid the 4 quid extra for fast delivery. ordered3pm yesterday delievered 10am today. mega impressed with post office. Plugged xsara in and only code was intermittent misfire. Clearedit and fingers crossed it will be nothing.

What one did you get,looking for one myself preferably with windows software