The new news 24 thread

[richardmorris]

Had a chauffeur driven ride home in my colleague's new focus tonight. It's huge- far larger than my e class. Some nice touches inside, but not really my cup of tea. The dash seems enormous and the doors are ridiculously heavy- I needed help to open one as it was beyond my current capability. Doesn't ride as well as the Mercedes either and we nearly had to divert to casualty after I sneezed and screamed and tears came to my eyes ( see post on hernia op).

Driving myself tomorrow, I don't intend to sneeze then, but watch out for Sally traffic announcing carnage in the north Surrey rush hour.

[skattrd]

I have just been informed that the Tipo and blue Aerodeck now have MOT's ... excellent news as these are the cars I am planning to sell next, operation fleet reduction 2.0

 

Good news/bad news, the bad news is I don't have any time to do a few other bits of work for them to get them ready for sale at present. The reason is that I'm doing overtime at work, so I won't grumble as I'm getting paid whilst not having any time to fix them.

Once they're sold, and I'm taking up less space at the garage, I was planning to retrieve the Umm from Norfolk, it's currently residing at barmatt_towers, for various reasons, including me having no space.

[gordonbennet]

I had a Fumoto drain valve on the Hilux, made oil changing a suit and tie job if you so wished, needed on the Hilux mind otherwise where the bung was located on a normal change oil would piss straight onto the cross member and emerge from 47 bloody edges and stamped out holes.

For safety's sake i slipped a suitable Jubilee clip onto the body of the Fumoto, just above the closed lever, just in case (very unlikely but i know my rotten luck) summat got wrapped round the sodding lever and opened it up off the beaten track.

[gordonbennet]

Richardmorris i have every sympathy, i first got sciatica after the mother of all flu's over one Christmas about 15 years ago, 20 now i think about it, it was bloody agony and i staggered around bent and twisted for probably 6 months, course i got one fuckin cold after another and every sneeze felt like some bastard had run a red hot poker up me leg and into me right arse cheek.

 

I too got chauffered back in a new Focus when i dropped me lorry off at the MAN dealer for its increasingly regular visits (fuckin VW), underwhelmed covers Focus nicely, just as every other bloody modern Ford i've had the misfortune to travel in over the last few years driven or driving, cramped inside claustrophobic nearly, wouldn't give you a thankyou for one.

[Matt]

I had a Fumoto drain valve on the Hilux, made oil changing a suit and tie job if you so wished, needed on the Hilux mind otherwise where the bung was located on a normal change oil would piss straight onto the cross member and emerge from 47 bloody edges and stamped out holes.

For safety's sake i slipped a suitable Jubilee clip onto the body of the Fumoto just in case (very unlikely but i know my rotten luck) summat got wrapped round the sodding lever and opened it up off the beaten track.

 

Maybe they drained like that because Toyota didn't really intend for people to bother with such trivial matters.  I bet ISIS doesn't service any of theirs. I can imagine it being a stupid easy job on something with proper ground clearance like a Hilux. I did read some 'reviews' on forums before buying and quite a few people were worried about that but I don't remember ever coming across any first or second hand accounts. They sell these now anyway:

 

[Rusty_Rocket]

I love the idea of those drain valves but would be terrified of knocking the thing off and losing a sumpfull of oil at 60mph

[Angrydicky]

I had a free day today, so decided to go and fetch the Maestro from the garage and give it a bit of a run. I'm not really using it at the moment as it currently has no heater, so I hadn't run it in a week.

 

Opened up the garage, removed the steering lock then checked the oil and water before attempting to start it. I turned the key and nothing happened, no lights on the dashboard, nothing. The clock wasn't working, neither were the lights. It was like the battery was disconnected. A cursory look under the bonnet showed nothing amiss, so by now I'm thinking it's either a dead short, or a fuse issue. Either way, I needed to try a jump start first so had to walk back to the house to fetch the Somerset, which has the jump leads and all my tools in the boot.

 

 

It started up straight away with a jump and I THINK I left the interior light on when I used the car last week, which entirely drained the battery. Anyway, having got it running, I then took it for a 10 mile or so run in the country, before stopping off at a car wash as the last time I used the car, it had been raining and a combination of country lanes, winter and rain combine to make a filthy car! I went to get some petrol in it first, it probably doesn't look that dirty in this picture but it wasn't great!

 

 

I don't like leaving my cars dirty, so dropped in at a local hand car wash for a £6 special. Here it is having the finishing touches done along with some generic modern junk, it looked really out of place there! They did a decent job though, and it looks much better now.

 

 

As an aside, there was a beige, F reg Peugeot 305 GRD estate in the far corner of the Homebase car park where the car wash was. I wandered over and had a look at it while my car was being washed, it was a bit battered but very original with 165,000 miles on the clock and original local Peugeot dealer plates. I thought "I'll get a picture of the Maestro next to that" but inevitably, by the time I got back in my car it had gone! How the owner managed to sneak away without me hearing the clatter of that old diesel engine is beyond me.

[danthecapriman]

Had a chauffeur driven ride home in my colleague's new focus tonight. It's huge- far larger than my e class. Some nice touches inside, but not really my cup of tea. The dash seems enormous and the doors are ridiculously heavy- I needed help to open one as it was beyond my current capability. Doesn't ride as well as the Mercedes either and we nearly had to divert to casualty after I sneezed and screamed and tears came to my eyes ( see post on hernia op).

Driving myself tomorrow, I don't intend to sneeze then, but watch out for Sally traffic announcing carnage in the north Surrey rush hour.

I had a ride in my dads 60 reg Mondeo diesel estate last weekend, it's a nice looking car and it's packed with toys and luxuries (TitaniumX model). But I couldn't help comparing it to my mk2 Granada estate.

The Granada is way more comfortable, better ride, quiter, better seats, more spacious, faster, I could go on.

Given that they are essentially the same car but with 30 years worth of 'progress' in the Mondeo it's disappointing really that the old heap can easily out do the modern car! And the Granny has nearly 200k on the clock Vs the Mondeo's 30k!

It made me feel good about my choice of cars tbh.

[LC Torana]

IMG_19431.JPG

 

Calendar shot of the decade.

[trigger]

 

I meant to post this earlier, I came across this quote on facebook yesterday, it's a MOT quote from Halfords in Ipswich although I don't know what the car was, the price for the brake hoses is for each one and they wanted an extra £17 to retest the car again too! At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.

[panhard65]

The price of the cv gaiter is pretty eye watering to at £193. I bet someone will fall for it and pay those prices though.

[dome]

Someone's coming to look at the Merc today...

[Coprolalia]

Quoting for xtriples Bentley perhaps?

[cros]

I use the 'quality' Sunday newspapers to light the fire after someone else has chucked them out. Today I saw Guy Martin had road tested a Ford Mustang in the Sunday Times. He was standing in for Clarkeson.

 

Most entertaining reading about the car's huge long bonnet and reasonable fuel consumption. The steering wheel needs turning a bit much for Guy's liking and it would be a bit of a handful on a track day but the electronics would get you out of trouble. He forgot to mention that the controls fell readily to hand. Cunt.

[Matt]

Ugh.

 

People are the worst by MattLikesCars, on Flickr

[DodgyBastard]

 

I'm living the dream tonight anyway...

 

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[Matt]

Allow me to make you feel better about the forthcoming mirror bill (likely to be several tens of pounds).

 

A customer was in work yesterday in his Ferrari 458.

He'd recently had the mirror smacked in a similar fashion and had to foot the bill.

 

Instead of tens of pounds it was....

 

 

Mirror assembly £1085

Glass £50

Painting £200

Plus VAT.

 

And the quote to repair the 4mm chip in the door from the mirror hitting it was nearly £4k.

 

The money isn't really the point and like you say, just tens of pounds in my case. It's more that people do this sort of thing, shrug their shoulders and fuck off without stopping. Either that or it was my neighbour again.

[For Fiats Sake]

Two afternoons work on Henry has resulted in this

 

 

Turning into this

 

 

I may have to take another week off work at this rate!

 

[dollywobbler]

Just booked the XM in for another trip to France in August. Was thinking about taking the Dyane instead, but we've opted for Chunnel, so it'll be a 580-mile day. Sadly we've not got time to take it easy. Le Hoon!

[loserone]

You've committed to keeping the XM for that long?! crikey

[Asimo]

Jeremy Hunt has renewed my faith in rhyming slang.

[dollywobbler]

You've committed to keeping the XM for that long?! crikey

 

It's getting on for 16 months now. Quite extraordinary. Mind you, it's also getting on for 10 months since the 2CV was on the road.

[Pillock]

I don't know what 'rights' you may or may not have, but it seems perfectly reasonable that you are not liable for the cost of diagnosing his crummy alternator, so you might as well approach it from that position.

 

Call yourself an internet armchair lawyer? Christ man, everyone knows that in Dicklust vs Gibbon (2004), the correct resolution to this is a kick in the plums and setting fire to something.

[vulgalour]

I think you'll find Feckless vs Chumblebox of 1974 set the precedent with a resolution of loud shouting, misquoted legal obligations, threats of GBH and a good shoeing behind the local pub.   Of course, that was over a dynamo refurbishment where it was found the work undertaken was little more than a splash of chassis black and an extortionate invoice so some regard it as irrelevant in the case of crummy alternators, but it's essentially the same thing.

[andy18s]

Off to look at a Hyundai Getz for the daughter later.

04 plate with 11m mot and some history

Anything to look out for with these?

Must admit these have completely bypassed me as I have little interest in a little shopping car,but I guess is ideal for uptown Coventry motoring....

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[conkerman]

I have just been informed that the Tipo and blue Aerodeck now have MOT's ... excellent news as these are the cars I am planning to sell next, operation fleet reduction 2.0

 

Good news/bad news, the bad news is I don't have any time to do a few other bits of work for them to get them ready for sale at present. The reason is that I'm doing overtime at work, so I won't grumble as I'm getting paid whilst not having any time to fix them.

Once they're sold, and I'm taking up less space at the garage, I was planning to retrieve the Umm from Norfolk, it's currently residing at barmatt_towers, for various reasons, including me having no space.

Any details on the Aerodeck please. My old man had one and loves them.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Poundland Cannock have another batch of those good quality Russian models in ☺

[The Moog]

New backbox fitted for missus Moog civic... £80....

 

Christ .... I apologise...

That was boring...

 

ERM....

 

To win favour of my internet friends/weirdods I will regale you with the wisdom of the other apprentice fitter ..

 

"Ohh a rover 200 shaped civic... With proper engine... Not a kettle series... "

 

At this point I entered in to a discourse with the young gentleman around the exploits of Sir Bolloxs, Order of the Kampanion, to whit he recognised the error of his ways and resolved to get the words K Seriez iz Kool tattooed on his forehead*

 

*may have not taken place. Still £80 fitted wasn't bad

[skattrd]

Any details on the Aerodeck please. My old man had one and loves them.

 

Not for sale yet as it still needs a couple of bits fixorating before sale, but I think I paid too much for it and will be looking to get my money back (so don't expect it to be cheap) ... On the plus side it has working ALB & cruise control, plus SS exhaust, cambelt and waterpump done last year.

Oh, and the P.O. set up an FB page for it ... 

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/1980s-Honda-Accord-Aerodeck-513656685343301

 

Unless I decide to lend it to my sister, or sell the red one, or find somewhere else to hide more cars

[anonymous user]

I don't know what 'rights' you may or may not have, but it seems perfectly reasonable that you are not liable for the cost of diagnosing his crummy alternator, so you might as well approach it from that position.

Of course FOAD could always follow the trusted Adam Ant solution regarding alternators