The new news 24 thread

[Honey Badger]

I've been ill with a virus the last few days and obviously not been feeling too good which may have coloured my recent thinking. I've been having a think about selling my 3 old cars and sinking my cash into a £2.5/3kk 10 year old a4/a6/Octavia/mondeo. I really don't have the time or expertise to keep repairing old cars so I'm a regular visitor to my local garage at the moment. My Peugeot only cost £200 but with a few jobs for the mot, new tyres, a strut top mount and aux belt will have cost me £700 all in so not that cheap in the end. My plan is to keep it for a bit then sell (for a loss) towards the newer car. Obviously this goes against all Autoshite principals especially as I am considering an Audi but I am open to opinion both positive and negative. The best all round car I had was a 2001 A4 I had for 6 years and never let me down and I had confidence in it. I want to recapture a bit of that. Of course, when I'm feeling more myself I may see the light but those are my thoughts at the moment.

 

Dunno why your expecting a £200 french car not to cost you money in parts/ maintenance, if your running a car ona budget then why get the strut top sorted, cambelt done and give it new tyres? Just run the fucker into the ground then punt it on or scrap it.

 

IT sounds like you need to modify the way you run a cheap car, and stop running 3 of them if cost is an issue, changing to an Audi that you will have to spend money to repair it as it's worth to much not to.

[cros]

∆∆∆∆ when everything wrong with a car is put right it won't let you down. So much. Nobody puts everything right and then sells it.

[tooSavvy]

There used to be a sit in bus cafe at Esh Winning of all places. Not sure if its still there

 

I'm certain I recently drove down a hill, full forest either side - near Leeds, travelling Northwards - and passed a red doubledecker bus, Cafe.

 

The bus is left hand side, going down hill. Not sure it was trading...??

 

Ahh Haa...

http://heycafes.co.uk/0166344/A64_Red_Bus_Cafe

 

 

TS

[stripped fred]

Dunno why your expecting a £200 french car not to cost you money in parts/ maintenance, if your running a car ona budget then why get the strut top sorted, cambelt done and give it new tyres? Just run the fucker into the ground then punt it on or scrap it.

 

IT sounds like you need to modify the way you run a cheap car, and stop running 3 of them if cost is an issue, changing to an Audi that you will have to spend money to repair it as it's worth to much not to.

I don't expect an old car to be problem free, far from it. Just that I've worked out how much it's cost to get sorted and it's over £1000, not including a cambelt. That would be another £550 at the garage so I won't be paying that but will try and do it myself.

 

I can afford to run 3 old cars but was just thinking that it might be better to put my money into one. I don't use my mr2 hardly at all and my Astra is a diesel estate the same as the 406 so that doesn't make much sense. I can perfectly see that a £2500/£3000 10 year old Audi could cost me a lot more again!

 

Probably the best option for me is to run the 406 for a while and see how it goes. It's not a bad old bus, cheap on diesel and so far reliable.

[Richard]

∆∆∆∆ when everything wrong with a car is put right it won't let you down. So much. Nobody puts everything right and then sells it.

 

They do on here. Mr Bo11ox in particular is a serial putter right and seller on.

[Richard]

There's one on the A96 too, a Duple Dominant IIRC. You can sit in it, but it gets less bus like every time I see it.

 

 

 

Local busitechture with bonus broken Dolomite + missing wheel trim action.

 

That's the one.

[dave21478]

Its 18 degrees, sunny and a beautiful day here. Not a one-off either, its been stunning weather for weeks and the forecast is for more of the same until the end of the month. Chilly mornings but clear skies and sunshine all day.

Kinda unusual for December.

The long range forecast is a bit vague but suggests more dry, bright weather throughout January and into February too. The local town is talking about drought and hosepipe bans. Next town along have had their water supply run dry and have to truck in tankers every day.

 

The old giffers round about are panicking because apparently the last time the weather was like this was in nineteen fiftywhatever when in February it suddenly changed and snowed so hard people had to dig tunnels to get around the village.

[MarvinsMom]

∆∆∆∆ when everything wrong with a car is put right it won't let you down. So much. Nobody puts everything right and then sells it.

 

 

yes they do....... (i'm guilty of this as well)

[HMC]

My love for Alfa's heroic lemons seems to be growing......

 

Just agreed a deal on a 155 2.0 twinspark. Due to collect this weekend!

[phil_lihp]

155?  Well found, not many of those about!

[red5]

A bit late (partly due to some complications at the time) but Mrs red5 and I (mostly me) would like to announce the arrival of red5 junior no.2 - Monday 7th December at 3.23am.

 

Sam  

[twosmoke300]

Woo hoo

[Pillock]

Smashing news, well done Family_red5!

[beko1987]

Congratulations!

 

Now face the crushing realisation of having to go through it all again for the next few years... Sleep, what's that?

[fordperv]

Congratulations red5 household, it makes me smile all this news of the next generation shiters coming into the world

[dome]

They do on here. Mr Bo11ox in particular is a serial putter right and seller on.

I'm guilty of that too. The Scim is up for sale already after me throwing a load of cash at it getting it right and I've already got a couple of folk interested in my 330d as I accumulate parts to sort it out.

[phil_lihp]

Ditto with the Prelude, in fact I am still spending money on it, it has to be right but the line will have to be drawn somewhere!

[RobT]

On the subject of spunking cash, I've been pricing up parts I need for the Daimler and projecting the labour costs, and I've now got a headache! It'll be worth it but I may have to curtail my shite purchases next year, and possibly even sell the Metro to provide funds.

[Bren]

Just watched not the nine o'clock news.

 

I had forgotten how attractive Pamela Stephenson was.

[cros]

yes they do....... (i'm guilty of this as well)

Point taken, but the with the proportion of cars that are sold by careful owners hugely outnumbered by the don't-give-a-fuck owners it would have been unhelpful of me to suggest relying on the seller being honest.

[Eddie Honda]

I had forgotten how attractive Pamela Stephenson was.

I hadn't

 

trucking.jpg by E Honda, on Flickr

[Clanger]

Just watched not the nine o'clock news.

 

I had forgotten how attractive Pamela Stephenson was.

Do you take American Express?

That'll do nicely sir, and would you like to rub my tits too?

[MarvinsMom]

I hadn't

 

trucking.jpg by E Honda, on Flickr

 

i like trucking,

i like trucking,

i like trucking and i like to truck,

[Bren]

i like trucking,

i like trucking,

i like trucking and i like to truck,

Funnily enough it was that actual edition - it had the courtroom sketch where Griff Rhys Jones could not pronounce "alibi" correctly.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Funnily enough it was that actual edition - it had the courtroom sketch where Griff Rhys Jones could not pronounce "alibi" correctly.

 

 

The TV channel Alibi is known as ah-lee-bee in our house

[panhard65]

We had the Le Jog classic rally come through the other week looks like some didn't make it. There was an SL Merc on German plates that went this morning and this poor GS. I don't know what happend to them and missed the Merc to get a pic but it is possible he T boned the GS as it had frontal damage and both have been with the recovery agent nextdoor

[darkfour]

Just had a new roof put on the convertible. It went from this with no rear window and duck tape covering the many holes...

 

 

...to this for the princely sum of $1800. Opted for the glass rear window too instead of vinyl. Strangely the rear window glass is slight concave curve in it. The installer noted that he'd never seen one like it before.

 

 

Collected it last night at 5:30pm and then had a FTP...the headlights weren't working, tail lights and dash lights yes but no headlights. There's no fuse on these just a circuit breaker in the headlight switch. With no tools to hand I had no option but to do this for the first time in nearly 30 years of driving.

 

 

Investigated it further this morning and turns out that the connector to the floor mounted dimmer switch had worked loose hence the no headlight. Plugged it back in and normal service is resumed.

 

Next up is to fix the heater and install the new floor pans.

[taxi paul]

I got my modern chevvy craptiva back last week. £1,200.00 repair bill. Dealer tells me " next time the change oil light comes on book it in for an oil change and we will reset the light" "how much says I" . "well with labour around £249.00". Says dealer. Today it got part exed and I drove away in my 2.0 petrol. Feck off DPF . My sister has had oil light reset and oil and filter done 3 times in eight months , but mobility so ok then. She has a mokka . So all GM motors are a bit wiffy. Or just GM DPF's are.

[Bear]

News 48 thread:

 

Thanks to Andrew, I've had 48 hours with a CX again. It has been 16 years since I drove one last. Falling for it all over again, I want to fix all the niggly bits and it's not mine! The Douvrin with twin-choke weber is nice, I still feel the OHV (and auto) combo is my preference but this isn't bad to stir along and isn't bad on fuel. Leather seats are nice. Some of the small tweaks are really neat, like the digital temp display.

 

Moment of joy when mastering double-declutch 2-3 - downshifts I'd got fine, up, I'd been block changing to 4.

 

The CX's loveliness is emphasised by the fact that the last 48 hours has been the first time in 21 years I've worked in an office with other people. It's been really nice. Apart from the commute.

 

Fly: SP30 in the Picasso. Bloody Nottingham. 40, with a tiny bit of 30 and a camera, apparently notorious for nabbing people. Hope I get SAC. CX has been driven accordingly paranoid-style.

 

And seriously, how in the hell have we not moved forward from the CX's interior and design language. I have never felt as at home in a car as I do in a CX. I really should get another, and it reminds me why I was so determined to have a C6 and so angry with the reality of that.

 

 

And some flashbacks:

Where it started...

 

 

Where it progressed...

 

 

 

 

 

And the last one I owned...

 

 

[richardmorris]

The only "design" issue I have with the cx s2 is the position of the radio. The s1 was a lot easier to live with ( at least the later ones). The seats in both are supremely comfortable, fingertip controls and good visability.