The new news 24 thread

[SiC]

For me estates always have been a lot more expensive cars to insure. Our A4 was expensive and so is my wife's current Civic Estate. 

[beko1987]

52 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Collection mission time.

It's going to be a long one.

Hope that's not part of the poo count vocabulary later... 

[barefoot]

41 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Same for 75s, well for me anyway and compared to much faster cars.

My 2.5l 75 estate costs just £360 on the same multivehicle policy as my 944S and Scirocco. 

[wuvvum]

Train #2 is a bit* busy.

[Split_Pin]

I thought my 75 was dear but its only about £220 a year. The TT is about £180 or so.

[Shep Shepherd]

I fitted a new set of eBay-sourced rubber floor mats to The V70 today:

They're a great deal better than the set that they replaced as they fit properly and clip onto the pegs in the carpet, something which the previous Halfords specials never did.

I'm so impressed with them that I've just ordered a matching load space mat ^^

[wuvvum]

Just boarded train 5 of 6.

Brenda Line was rammed with people heading to the protest.  Bit more room on this one.  All on time so far, although the day is yet young. 

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, Shep Shepherd said:

I fitted a new set eBay-sourced rubber floor mats to The V70 today:

They're a great deal better than the set that they replaced as they fit properly and clip onto the pegs in the carpet, something which the previous Halfords specials never did.

I'm so impressed with them that I've just ordered a matching load space mat ^^

I got a set of those for my old 93. I liked them so much I kept them and the fronts fit my SLK perfectly. They smell great too!

[HillmanImp]

Oh fuck, I think I might be starting a project. 

I only spotted a bit of rust behind the wing......then a bit more under the bumper.... then some on..... and so on. 

Now I need a new bumper back in addition to the bonnet and front and rear o/s doors. 

Might actually be cheaper to pop over to France for the weekend and just buy fucking loads of bits. 

Any pointers as to where to look for French car spares? Can do ebay.fr but are there other places? 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

5 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Any pointers as to where to look for French car spares? Can do ebay.fr but are there other places? 

Der Franzose might have some bits, usually good service. https://www.franzose.de/en/Home/

[SiC]

24 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

I only spotted a bit of rust behind the wing......then a bit more under the bumper.... then some on..... and so on. 

Now I need a new bumper back in addition to the bonnet and front and rear o/s doors. 

As many know too well on here, I've been there too many times and know that feeling...! 🤣

[wuvvum]

Y tho?

[wuvvum]

Proper train.

Sadly not mine. 

[alcyonecorporation]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Y tho?

Depressed table space invader says: 

'I hope we don't meet a horse from the internet'.

[lesapandre]

Just got a copy of Raymond Baxter's autobiography - 'Tales of My Time'.  Baxter was in his time a well known journalist and TV presenter amongst other things:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Baxter

When I open the book  - a 'change of address card' for Baxter dropped out - postmarked 28 September 1968 addressed to BMC at Abingdon.  

Baxter was 1967-1968 Director of Motoring Publicity for the British Motor Corporation. 

Amazing what you find. Just a bit of euphemera but quite charming.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Proper train.

Sadly not mine. 

Those exact HSTs (and probably that exact one too) often is my train into work. The Hitachi HSE IET are slowly replacing them and getting more frequent but presumably these HSTs are filling in when the others inevitably break. 

They're still as comfy as the Hitachi and quieter thanks to the power cars being at each end rather than the drive motors under you. 

[83C]

5 minutes ago, SiC said:

Those exact HSTs (and probably that exact one too) often is my train into work. The Hitachi HSE are slowly replacing them and getting more frequent but presumably these HSTs are filling in when the others inevitably break. 

They're still as comfy as the Hitachi and quieter thanks to the power cars being at each end rather than the drive motors under you. 

Different acronym for the Hitachi trains - Super Hitachi Intercity Train.

[SiC]

3 minutes ago, 83C said:

Different acronym for the Hitachi trains - Super Hitachi Intercity Train.

Ah I always get it wrong as it's IET isn't it?

But yeah they do seem pretty SHIT and break all the time. If I'm ever using the toilet, I always run the basin water first as there is a good chance it'll be broken. 

Many of the seat bases have collapsed too. Highly uncomfortable when sitting on a bar with no foam. Thankfully I'm only a 15min ride so can put up with it if needed. 

I heard from a train manager that they're leased from Hitachi and when they break, Hitachi often ignore the requests and don't bother fixing them. Doesn't seem uncommon to have one running at reduced speed from a fault either.

[83C]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

Ah I always get it wrong as it's IET isn't it?

But yeah they do seem pretty SHIT and break all the time. If I'm ever using the toilet, I always run the basin water first as there is a good chance it'll be broken. 

Many of the seat bases have collapsed too. Highly uncomfortable when sitting on a bar with no foam. Thankfully I'm only a 15min ride so can put up with it if needed. 

I heard from a train manager that they're leased from Hitachi and when they break, Hitachi often ignore the requests and don't bother fixing them. Doesn't seem uncommon to have one running at reduced speed from a fault either.

Thank the Government/DfT for that. They agreed some very very generous terms with Agility Trains (the leasing company) that basically let Hitachi off the hook for pretty much anything. GWR were told ‘sign here or else’. 

[wuvvum]

Collectioned. 

[SiC]

5 minutes ago, 83C said:

Thank the Government/DfT for that. They agreed some very very generous terms with Agility Trains (the leasing company) that basically let Hitachi off the hook for pretty much anything. GWR were told ‘sign here or else’. 

Is the leasing company happened to be owned by an MPs mate too? I can't say I have much love for First Group either to be honest. 

[barefoot]

On 21/10/2023 at 17:07, HillmanImp said:

Glad to see its still going strong. 💪

And another one...

[Volksy]

Decided the Big needed a louder voice. 

I work in student land, and am so over the headphoned, screen staring eejets blindly walking out in front of me. 

So ..

 

[HillmanImp]

41 minutes ago, barefoot said:

And another one...

Well, you can say its got matching doors now. In the sense that they match each other, just not the rest of the car. 

[83C]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Is the leasing company happened to be owned by an MPs mate too? I can't say I have much love for First Group either to be honest. 

No idea, wouldn’t surprise me though.

I would say that most of the problems on the rail network stem from the DfT. The owners of the TOCs are just doing the DfT’s bidding, no matter how insane it might seem. Covid was the perfect excuse for the DfT/Gov to take complete control of the railway (without the faintest idea of how to actually run it) whilst maintaining the illusion that the private companies are responsible. I can pretty much guarantee any apparently stupid decision such as reducing capacity, redeploying rolling stock, whether enough staff are hired, what trains are used etc can all be traced back to Whitehall and their fundamental misunderstanding of the requirements of the rail network. 

You might ask (rightly) why the TOCs and their owning groups tolerate this shit state of affairs, and it’s simple. They’re guaranteed an income, in return for taking the blame. That whole business about closing ticket offices was instigated at the behest of the DfT, and despite the TOCs privately all saying it was a stupid idea. But when it got canned ministers were quick to take the credit for stopping the nasty private companies from their plans to close ticket offices. The DfT seem hellbent on running the railways down, despite passenger figures rising and there being a clear shortage of rolling stock.

[Cord Fourteener]

Oops, it's been a while since I posted! Blame life/ music practice/ day job/kids/ wife/scatter brain.

Not much to report, V70 is still rumbling along and approaching 360k miles.

740 is still trundling along, only thing 'wrong' is that my 4y/o lovingly 'fixed' a side light glass with a toy hammer. I'm going to have to fix it again, not pretend this time. 

Wifeshite Peugeot 307 petrol thing is still going. She moans about it and can now afford to buy herself a nice car (after a good promotion at work) but won't so it's staying for now and doing us well.

That's all

[stuboy]

Went too missus House after 8am xray on my knee, park up and look back like all happy drivers do and noticed I had a limp pipe... bloody rubber has dried out and split, only new under 6 months ago... bizarre

[High Jetter]

10 minutes ago, stuboy said:

 

I don't think heating it will help much!

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 10/11/2023 at 11:48, SiC said:

When stuff like this happens and I need to fall back to something solidly reliable, my frankly bizarrely crazy mind goes.

HONDA HONDA HONDA

Or TOOOOYOTA 

Sung to the tune of badger badger mushroom. (Scarily some on here will be too young to remember this first circulating the internet)

Just not one from the Scottish rust belt please.

no, no, no, no that's the rong choon

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

46 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Went too missus House after 8am xray on my knee, park up and look back like all happy drivers do and noticed I had a limp pipe... bloody rubber has dried out and split, only new under 6 months ago... bizarre

you wanna poly bush it m9😎