The new news 24 thread

[castros_bro]

Every time someone posts a picture of a Honda Insight I want one.  You never see them up for grabs and you hardly ever see them on the road, never did when they were new for that matter.  I want one exactly like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 carpark behind 'spoons Godalming

 

[MrDuke]

I love the 70s French style wheels, but that's about it. It has the look of something which despite being made mostly of plastic, weighs around 6.5 tons.

[Lacquer Peel]

850kg, very light for a hybrid.

[Junkman]

Meanwhile in Germany:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

blimey.  That's a bit catastrophic.

[mrbenn]

Good grief....

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27776189

[twosmoke300]

The insight was a great little car . As mentioned it was very light with an alloy body , suspension parts and even rear drums . A hybrid designed to actually be good on fuel rather thn just sneak into the cheap tax bands

[Junkman]

It exactly hit the most densely populated area in Germany. It then continued North East from there, where thankfully one of Germany's least densely populated areas is, and missed Berlin to it's North by a few miles.

 

Weirdly news nowadays end at the national borders. I wonder what the devastation is like in Belgium/Holland, North Poland, and the Baltic countries?

[Asimo]

Every time someone posts a picture of a Honda Insight I want one.  You never see them up for grabs and you hardly ever see them on the road, never did when they were new for that matter.  I want one exactly like this.

 

I think they look amazing.

I have been vaguely looking for one of these to buy for some time but I first saw one just a couple of weeks ago in a B&Q car park.

Hung around for ages waiting for it to be driven but no luck. It was the Insight blue colour, like the Godalming one a few posts up.

I want one because I am interested in the technology, I covet the aluminium bodyshell, I like 3 cylinder engines, they look great and come in some good colours inside and out. But mostly I want one because they are that rare thing, car design that made it to the market  that was engineering exercise first, marketing spin second.

I need one to come up with a dealer but mostly they are private sales.  Mileages are almost always very high, Grey imports are mostly CVT which I don't want and as there are only a few hundred in Britain I wait on.

[dollywobbler]

They're three pot?! Now I really want one! I suspect the biggest problem with the Insight is that it's a two-seater. That's pretty pointless for a lot of people, in a car that still has a supermini sized footprint.

[oman5]

I suspect given their age that knackered battery packs are also going to be an issue. 

[spike60]

There's one on Ebay, 2001, 100k miles, 2012 Honda batteries, manual with new clutch,  Ã‚£2000 opening bid

[twosmoke300]

Honda lost 6 grand on every one they sold .

[HMC]

Rewind to 2004, and basically I was in a honda dealers weighing up a new civic type r or a new insight, both an identical price if you had the aircon option on the civic.

 

Being young and foolish and blinded by the immediate thrill of the former rather than the technical interest of the latter I bought the civic.

[beko1987]

I've looked at them before and like them, would make an ideal work beater. Then I look at the prices and look at old derv shite instead!

[320touring]

the battery packs can be rebuilt- several places in the states make rebuild kits.

 

personally, I reckon that they're a touch specialised for a general daily- they're really optimised for commuting!

 

Great idea, well executed, but ultimately not able to the variety of tasks that'd be reasonably expected of a single car. even if you only use it to meve a full boot of shite 1% of the time.

car buyers are fickle folks

[Skoze]

Pair of Spax adjustables for the rear of the Capri - needing new bushes but fully working. HOW MUCH I HEAR YOU CRY?!

£20 the pair to my door. Yes. 

[coalnotdole]

Finally Sorted a few photos of the Rebel Van on its recent midlands trip,

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

*runs to the calendar thread as fast as he can!*

[barefoot]

I have a T2, therefore I have a sticker bombed window. It's the law.

 

 

Thank fuck for that.

[michael t]

Went to the Mosney classic show over here on Sunday, great turnout as usual despite the almost constant heavy showers that kept passing through. Pictures to follow in my spotting thread 

[Jimcit]

Sister's BMW 318 Touring - petrol on a 53 plate, online done about 30-odd thousand miles, she's taken it to a garage this morning for a service and they've told her the head gasket has gone, the engine's on the point of seizing and they don't know how she drove it there.

 

They've said it's an 8 hour book job to put right and they don't think it's worth repairing.  It is a garage they trust, although my gut seems to think the diagnosis is a little far fetched.

 

It's a nice car, in black with the 'm' pack, so nice wheels and uncomfortable suspension, owned from 6 months old with a fairly easy life, except for a boot full of springer spaniels.

 

Wonder if the fact it did lots of sitting round and short journeys is what's killed it.

 

I remember them buying it as their posh new car and an 18 year old me being rather jealous of it, more to the point, I was hoping to buy it as a cheap dog carrier when they tired of it and it was worthless.

 

Oh well, RIP BMW! NEW CARS R SHIT

[beko1987]

Head gasket on a 316 isn't too bad, I helped my mate do his. Surely their the same wcpgw?

[mrbenn]

Sister's BMW 318 Touring - petrol on a 53 plate, online done about 30-odd thousand miles, she's taken it to a garage this morning for a service and they've told her the head gasket has gone, the engine's on the point of seizing and they don't know how she drove it there.

 

They've said it's an 8 hour book job to put right and they don't think it's worth repairing.  It is a garage they trust, although my gut seems to think the diagnosis is a little far fetched.

 

It's a nice car, in black with the 'm' pack, so nice wheels and uncomfortable suspension, owned from 6 months old with a fairly easy life, except for a boot full of springer spaniels.

 

Wonder if the fact it did lots of sitting round and short journeys is what's killed it.

 

I remember them buying it as their posh new car and an 18 year old me being rather jealous of it, more to the point, I was hoping to buy it as a cheap dog carrier when they tired of it and it was worthless.

 

Oh well, RIP BMW! NEW CARS R SHIT

 

Surely worth casting your eye over before it gets sent to the bridge?

 

My brother has an E46 with the 325 engine and does 7 miles each way to work. It'll happily display a fair bit of "mayonnaise" under the oil cap in cooler weather. Actually, a workmate of his with a 318 does 20 miles each way and that does the same.

 

What symptoms has it got? Not going against the garage, just wondering.

[dollywobbler]

Has the garage offered some amazing deal to buy it?

[Sloth in a bowl]

Could be a nice little earner for a dodgy garage.

Open oil filler cap, dribble in water, rev till mayo, bill for new headgasket.

Not that the BMW has gone to a bent garage but other signs should be obvious if the car is that fecked.

[Jimcit]

Just spoke to my sister, apparently there's lots more issues other than the headgasket, but she can't remember what exactly - something to do with the sump has gone wrong and oil is going into parts of the engine it shouldn't, something's moving that shouldn't and there's a big crack somewhere, she was a bit vague.

 

Think she just wants rid of it without the hassle, she's not really sure what to do with it, so she might put on ebay with a list of faults and see what happens.  Hopefully someone mechanically minded will take to it.

 

A casting of my eye would be worthless as I can just about spanner my way round a 2cv, even then I sometimes call for help.

[cort16]

The old 1.9 donk you get in 318i's is a pretty simple beast and tough. It likes to fizz oil out the filter housing but they're pretty hardy. It's not even 16v.

Something tells me that they switched to using a 16v one with vanos at some time in 2002, which will no doubt will be complex, horrible and leak oil from every orifice. If it is it takes it out the range of anything but the most determined home tinkerer.

 

If she took it in because it was playing up then fair enough but sounds a but sus if all was okay and they suddenly say it's totally broken.

Why do you not go in with her and get them to explain it to you?

[Jimcit]

They haven't offered to take it, it's a neighbouring business to where my sister is and they've done quite a lot of stuff for us in the past with no qualms.

 

But yes, it is a bit suspicious, especially as it drove their fine and they think it's undriveable now, she's nicked a pool car from work to get home.

 

Got to be worth taking it for a second opinion at the very least, it's the first time anything's actually gone wrong on it!

 

Her husband is happy as he'd been campaigning to replace it with a 4x4 for a while.  My sister's unhappy as she's been saving for a new patio.  My suggestion of paving the garden with pieces of BMW was unhelpful apparently.

[Luckythirteen]

Mine's going to Chez Thirteen for pa to do the head gasket while I'm away. I'd have thought the 60k + (intermittent speedo, so not sure) was more normal. Mind you, he'll be getting valve stem seals and a cambelt too.

Money well spent I think, I'm only annoyed I won't be joining in! Could do with moar lernings.

Bloody lucky he's still in one bit, after some fucking senile snowtop nearly hit me yesterday. She was sat in the left turn lane at a roundabout, indicating left, then when I moved she shot straight across. Stopped inches from the door, nearly collected a Vectra for good measure, then sat there staring at me like it was my fault.

Words were said...industrial in quantity and nature.