The new news 24 thread

[SiC]

13 minutes ago, MrGTI6 said:

It turned out his state-of-the-art dual-clutch S-Tronic gearbox decided to completely lose drive and he has no breakdown cover. 

Not sure it's quite state of the art! Depending on the engine it's either a 7spd (lesser powered engines) released 16 years ago or the 6spd (higher powered) from 20 years ago (TT Mk1 was the first to have it).

[Ghosty]

12 hours ago, Joey spud said:

Bye,bye Honda.

For me it's always a sad day when you scrap a car.

This Accord had been in the family for ten years with me and then the father in law but had sat idle since the Summer. Its mot lapsed in September but still drove spot on and everything worked fine, I'm sure it would have walked another test as it's a Honda.

But the wheels needed a referb and the paint was tired and flaking in places, it's a thirsty thing too and tax is £30 a month so I took the £380 offered by Redcorn rather than faff about trying to sell it to Joe Public.

I did keep the front seats though.

 

WTF? You've shot yourself in the foot for four figures surely... tourer as well.

[Split_Pin]

33 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

WTF? You've shot yourself in the foot for four figures.

Would you have bought it?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

On 11/01/2023 at 22:52, SiC said:

Just found out Moss in Manchester has closed down permanently. Bit of a shame.

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/about-moss-manchester

 

I'm proper upset about this branch closing. They're close to my house and even though a few of the cars I've had were not officially supported by Moss, thanks to the BL parts bin they often had what I was looking for. The staff were wonderfully helpful every time I went in and put some random P6, Allegro or Marina part on the counter and said "do you have this?" they'd take the time to figure out what it was and they usually had it. Even when the Moss website said an item was out of stock, 9 times out of 10 they had it here.  Most recently I needed a bulb holder for the Marina tail lights, and they figured out what other car used it and five minutes later I walked out with one and fitted it in their car park.

I saved a fortune on postage collecting large items like body panels and windscreens here, and a physical location was also useful for the tiny stuff like when I somehow lost one wheel nut, I was able to get another one within the hour. 

 

[New POD]

On 12/01/2023 at 17:07, reb said:

Well that was quick.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC755183/officers

Amazing what information is available on free government websites 

[brownnova]

Good news!!!!

After a hiatus since 2019…. 

Chodmondermingerly is back!!!! 

[reb]

9 hours ago, New POD said:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC755183/officers

Amazing what information is available on free government websites 

Well aware, your point?

The only thing there that wasn't publically available already is the address. So I suppose some weirdo might turn up, but they wouldn't achieve much.

[Timewaster]

On 12/01/2023 at 14:05, lesapandre said:

The dream...and reality...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/halfords-shares-tumble-shortage-mechanics-profits

Investment advice: sell.

I have no evidence of it but I bet they don't pay and are ****'s to work for.

Properly managed this is probably a good business but I bet it's being run by the usual cheese-paring-mingebags.

£60M profit on an operation this big is pitiful:

"As of June 2021, Halfords has 404 stores, 3 Performance Cycling stores (trading as Tredz and Giant), 374 garages (trading as Halfords Autocentres, McConechys and Universal Tyres and Autocentres) and 143 mobile service vans (trading as Halfords Mobile Expert and Tyres on the Drive) and 192 Commercial vans."

So ignoring the commercial vans, that is 924 outlets.

£60m ÷ 924 is just under £65k pa. Or less than £1250  profit a week per outlet.

 

[Metal Guru]

47 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

So ignoring the commercial vans, that is 924 outlets.

£60m ÷ 924 is just under £65k pa. Or less than £1250  profit a week per outlet.

 

Most of that will go this year in higher energy bills.

[lesapandre]

2 hours ago, Timewaster said:

So ignoring the commercial vans, that is 924 outlets.

£60m ÷ 924 is just under £65k pa. Or less than £1250  profit a week per outlet.

 

Yea I did think of doing the calculations - but that just about sums it up. 

Or another way...I think (maths was never my strong point...but using 'freakanomics')

With 32 million-ish cars on the road and 924 outlets, each store (ignoring cycles and caravan etc), has about 35,000-ish customer cars to serve.

Dividing this 35,000 potential customer cars base-line by the annual store profit... this vast motoring combine is managing to take £1.86 per car spend per car in the UK marketplace per annum for parts and services.

Absolutely laughable... given Halfords store reach nationally, how a lot of local garages have closed down, the need for annual Mot's, the loss of most smaller car spares businesses and the online and warehouse retailing of cars which all require subsequent maintenance and servicing somewhere... etc etc.

It's a publicly quoted company - with a fairly gloomy trajectory. 

My hunch would be it would be bought by a private equity company in due course for a knockdown price.

[captain_70s]

Whenever I go to a Halfords it's deserted, and Amazon will ship most of the stuff they sell to your door for less money...

[Timewaster]

Where most remaining car spares shops are quite small and rammed with stuff in every corner, most Halfords have the same amount of stuff in a shop the size of Tesco's.

[lesapandre]

We've probably had this...

Pathetic IMHO. 

 

[richardmorris]

If you need to be told, then you probably should not be driving in the first place.

[RoverFolkUs]

The only thing Halfords are good for is their tools. 

I'm not sure what a Snap-on 10mm socket does that a Halfords Advanced one doesn't 🤷

[puddlethumper]

Further to my gearbox woes I got the van in the garage and it turns out to be a 4 speed not a 5. I did ask the seller what it came out of and he said he thought* it was out of a phase 2 van. Probably out of a phase 1 which had 4 speeds. Anyway, it works and I'm not so bothered about losing 5th. 4th is longer geared on a 4 speed so no big loss. It's the longest it's been off the road, 5 weeks, in the 22 years I've had it.

[ProgRocker]

Autoshite gold right here:

A dangerous and insecure load (Eastern Daily Press)

[wesacosa]

fun day in Berlin today . Second time driving a Trabant, shitter than I remembered.  Tempted with that one on eBay now

[sierraman]

Tools are good in Halfords and if you aren’t in a rush the parts on trade are cheap as anything. What I will say though is that with the exception of a few failed mechanics it’s full of kids these days that have no interest in it. 

In fact I’ll take back what I said about tools, a few years ago I went in for something or other and a couple were shopping for their son who had just got a series Land Rover. Someone clearly just out of school was showing them their bumper basic (metric!!!) toolkit. I waited while he nipped in the back and told them it was fucking shit and to get the proper socket set with 8 sides jobs. 

[JakeT]

Ooo, Trabi World! I was in Berlin just before Christmas, and visited too. I also saw this sad looking Sierra, In very AS fashion.

 

My weekend has started in a different manner to usual. My mum rang me to say she’s hit a pothole and it’s punctured her tyre. Off to rescue from me as she’d still be waiting for the fourth emergency service now.

In a double annoyance, it’s dented the wheel, and in spite of it going to the supplying fiat dealership every year since new, the sodding spare tyre had 7PSI in it. Better than flat, but not much better. Four miles back to home before it looked quite poorly. The correct 41 PSI are now in it.

 

Finally, she nipped off to a local tyre fitters for a pair of new front tyres. The saving grace is that both fronts were quite worn. She requested Michelins, and they said they had Continentals and Fulda all seasons. She for some reason agreed to the Fulda tyres, so has Fulda all seasons on the front and Michelins on the back. I am not super pleased with that, as the cost isn’t an issue, and it’s done well on Michelins from new. I suppose we’ll see how they go, though.

 

Finally to top it all off, one of my friends wife had gone to visit family, and my good lady was out watching the netball, so we were both at a loose end. Visited the Haynes Motor Museum. On the whole, enjoyable. But why no manuals!? My thoughts was that they should have some reprints of some old ones in the shop to buy, but alas. Nice day out though.

 

[Mally]

20 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Tools are good in Halfords and if you aren’t in a rush the parts on trade are cheap as anything. What I will say though is that with the exception of a few failed mechanics it’s full of kids these days that have no interest in it. 

In fact I’ll take back what I said about tools, a few years ago I went in for something or other and a couple were shopping for their son who had just got a series Land Rover. Someone clearly just out of school was showing them their bumper basic (metric!!!) toolkit. I waited while he nipped in the back and told them it was fucking shit and to get the proper socket set with 8 sides jobs. 

Apart from the fact they were metric there's nothing wrong with an Halford  socket. If there is you just take it back and get another.

You are obsessed with Octagons.

[lesapandre]

8 minutes ago, JakeT said:

Ooo, Trabi World! I was in Berlin just before Christmas, and visited too. I also saw this sad looking Sierra, In very AS fashion.

 

My weekend has started in a different manner to usual. My mum rang me to say she’s hit a pothole and it’s punctured her tyre. Off to rescue from me as she’d still be waiting for the fourth emergency service now.

In a double annoyance, it’s dented the wheel, and in spite of it going to the supplying fiat dealership every year since new, the sodding spare tyre had 7PSI in it. Better than flat, but not much better. Four miles back to home before it looked quite poorly. The correct 41 PSI are now in it.

 

Finally, she nipped off to a local tyre fitters for a pair of new front tyres. The saving grace is that both fronts were quite worn. She requested Michelins, and they said they had Continentals and Fulda all seasons. She for some reason agreed to the Fulda tyres, so has Fulda all seasons on the front and Michelins on the back. I am not super pleased with that, as the cost isn’t an issue, and it’s done well on Michelins from new. I suppose we’ll see how they go, though.

 

Finally to top it all off, one of my friends wife had gone to visit family, and my good lady was out watching the netball, so we were both at a loose end. Visited the Haynes Motor Museum. On the whole, enjoyable. But why no manuals!? My thoughts was that they should have some reprints of some old ones in the shop to buy, but alas. Nice day out though.

 

Haynes Motor Museum is a Registered Charity -  separate to Haynes Publishing Group owned by Infopro Digital, a technical data company. That's owned by Tower-Brook Capital Partners - US private equity co. 

December 2020 Haynes stopped any new repair manuals on paper - all content would be online only. Pre-existing titles remain available apparently - but I expect in dwindling numbers.

So there is maybe very little contact between the museum and publisher.

[sierraman]

24 minutes ago, Mally said:

Apart from the fact they were metric there's nothing wrong with an Halford  socket. If there is you just take it back and get another.

You are obsessed with Octagons.

They do a ‘basic’ range now, a bit like those 500 piece ones you used to get from Woolworths. 

[Kiltox]

51 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Tools are good in Halfords and if you aren’t in a rush the parts on trade are cheap as anything. What I will say though is that with the exception of a few failed mechanics it’s full of kids these days that have no interest in it. 

In fact I’ll take back what I said about tools, a few years ago I went in for something or other and a couple were shopping for their son who had just got a series Land Rover. Someone clearly just out of school was showing them their bumper basic (metric!!!) toolkit. I waited while he nipped in the back and told them it was fucking shit and to get the proper socket set with 8 sides jobs. 

Don’t the parts come from Euros? Isn’t it cheaper to shop direct with them?  (Very possible they have changed this!)

[sierraman]

Just now, Kiltox said:

Don’t the parts come from Euros? Isn’t it cheaper to shop direct with them? 

They come from Euro that’s right but they’re cheaper probably about 70% of the time. I got a rocker gasket a while back for £6.54, couldn’t find one for less than £14 anywhere else. 

[artdjones]

38 minutes ago, JakeT said:

Ooo, Trabi World! I was in Berlin just before Christmas, and visited too. I also saw this sad looking Sierra, In very AS fashion.

 

My weekend has started in a different manner to usual. My mum rang me to say she’s hit a pothole and it’s punctured her tyre. Off to rescue from me as she’d still be waiting for the fourth emergency service now.

In a double annoyance, it’s dented the wheel, and in spite of it going to the supplying fiat dealership every year since new, the sodding spare tyre had 7PSI in it. Better than flat, but not much better. Four miles back to home before it looked quite poorly. The correct 41 PSI are now in it.

 

Finally, she nipped off to a local tyre fitters for a pair of new front tyres. The saving grace is that both fronts were quite worn. She requested Michelins, and they said they had Continentals and Fulda all seasons. She for some reason agreed to the Fulda tyres, so has Fulda all seasons on the front and Michelins on the back. I am not super pleased with that, as the cost isn’t an issue, and it’s done well on Michelins from new. I suppose we’ll see how they go, though.

 

Finally to top it all off, one of my friends wife had gone to visit family, and my good lady was out watching the netball, so we were both at a loose end. Visited the Haynes Motor Museum. On the whole, enjoyable. But why no manuals!? My thoughts was that they should have some reprints of some old ones in the shop to buy, but alas. Nice day out though.

 

Fulda are good, just not very well known in the UK.

[Kiltox]

3 minutes ago, sierraman said:

They come from Euro that’s right but they’re cheaper probably about 70% of the time. I got a rocker gasket a while back for £6.54, couldn’t find one for less than £14 anywhere else. 

Oh wow really? With the Trade Card?

[SiC]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

proper socket set with 8 sides jobs

Why are you obsessed with 8 sided sockets?

[Dobloseven]

38 minutes ago, Mally said:

Apart from the fact they were metric there's nothing wrong with an Halford  socket. If there is you just take it back and get another.

You are obsessed with Octagons.

Series Landrovers used some Whitworth and BSF sized nuts and bolts, so doubtful they'd have anything suitable. This might do though. Note six sided drive. The things us old boys keep "just in case". 

[sierraman]

15 minutes ago, SiC said:

Why are you obsessed with 8 sided sockets?

Much better grip on rusty bolts. I can see how a 12 sided is easier to get on but it won’t transmit anything like the torque a six sided one will.