What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[vulgalour]

The guy sounds like a fuggin catastrophe waiting to happen, what other bodges has he got on his Triumph? Anyone who thinks it is OK to hardwire a electric fuel pump to the battery without even using a switch, should not be allowed to touch a spanner.

 

I should clarify, this is an emergency bodge to get him home and it was my brother that did it with clear warnings of the shortcomings. We had to use what was to hand. It would have been proper fixed had we not had a replacement pump break and a replacement diaphragm arrive with a bent shaft. Oh, and wired to be perma-on is how it was done on the Princess so we just copied a previous bodge.

[mattblack]

Mikeknight has a temporary electric fuel pump on his Triumph which used to be on the Princess. Said pump is a bit rubbish, but so, apparently, are the seals on his carburettors. When the car is put away for the day, you have to disconnect the pump or it keeps pumping petrol until it comes out of the air filter when the engine is cold. This is not a problem, but when you reconnect the pump it involves directly connecting the negative wire to the battery terminal, which sometimes makes visible sparkiness.

 

Mikeknight didn't want to leak petrol all over the garage forecourt when filling up and asked if he should disconnect the pump. I said "sparks + petrol vapour = bad" and he said "oh yeah." It made me chuckle.

 

The guy sounds like a fuggin catastrophe waiting to happen, what other bodges has he got on his Triumph? Anyone who thinks it is OK to hardwire a electric fuel pump to the battery without even using a switch, should not be allowed to touch a spanner.

 

As long as it's not got cut springs and stretched tyres it'll be perfectly safe.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

This.

[Cavcraft]

My lad has just passed his driving test at the first attempt! Think I was more nervous than him this morning.

[Spiny Norman]

My lad has just passed his driving test at the first attempt! Think I was more nervous than him this morning.

 

Nice one.

Expect to hear some grumping about insurance costs for kids in the GOM thread son....

[Cavcraft]

First quotes range from £2,378.70 (with one of those tracker box things) to a slightly* out of our range £13,571.18. For a 1.0 Corsa.

[ashmicro]

Well done Cav junior.

 

Making me grin - my new BB arrived, and this time it wasn't smashed to bits by Royal Fail.

 

 

Good camera, so GR32 for shitespotting.

[Spiny Norman]

First quotes range from £2,378.70 (with one of those tracker box things) to a slightly* out of our range £13,571.18. For a 1.0 Corsa.

 

Believe it or not, £2,400 ain't bad for a teenage lad.

[skattrd]

Corsa 1.0 maybe quite low on the insurance scale, but surely theres lower ... and more miserable first cars

Marbella /Panda 750cc - Daihatsu Cuore/Perodua Nippa 850cc etc.

 

Well done to mini Cav, and good luck sorting out insurance etc.

[RedSparrow]

Shitting nora is that what prices for teenagers are now?!

Well done to Cav JR anyway.

[sporty-shite]

Billy, I was talking to someone who said that they'd been quoted "only" £1000 to insure a Lupo for a newly passed 17 year old. I believe Polos are similar.

 

I know it's a V*olksw*g*n, but maybe Cav jr should change his sights until he gets his first year's no-claims.

 

 

*Dons flameproof hat*

 

Oh, congrats, by the way.

[cms206]

Well done Cav Jr, top work.

 

As a sideways point and purely out of interest, how do elderly Volvo estates stack up? I could get insured much cheaper on a 745 than anything else when I was seventeen, but then ended up with a Motability Focus Millsomatic due to my mother being disabled.

[ashmicro]

IIRC Daihatsus have always been inexplicably high up in insurance.

[Pete-M]

Well done to Cav Jr.

 

Polos are meant to be cheap to insewer, Lupos more so. Lad who comes into work has a Y plate Lupo TDi which he bought because it was the 'least horrific insurance I could find". He's had it for three or four years now, his insurance has been triple figures for the last couple of years. He lives in St. Helens, so I imagine it's similar loadings to your neck of the woods.

[skattrd]

 

The Volvo allegedly making over 50mpg ... and the odo.

I should have reset the trip so it was 789 ... If I'd thought of it sooner I would have - yes I am that sad

[willswitchengage]

a) There's a really pretty sunset outside and

 

Sometimes I wonder if somebody more amazing than me could have been born. Discovered earlier the Justy had no fuel filler cap. A few minutes head scratching and small hole drilling later, and it has a new replacement, although there is no longer a plug for our kitchen sink.

[Cavcraft]

Thanks folks.

 

We've managed to get it down to something like £1,947 by contacting one company direct rather then go through one of those comparison sites. That's with the box fitted (which I think is a good idea tbh), the car not being garaged and a high (£1,000) excess. I told my lad it wasn't worth claiming if he smashed the car up as future insurance costs would be unreal so a high excess seems to make sense.

God knows why, but valuing the car at a higher amount (i.e £1,200 instead of £800) knocked it down a bit too. I think we'll go for that to be honest, if Merc buyer turns up when he says he will I'll use half the money for the deposit on the insurance and pay the monthly charges though my wages. He's now even more actively seeking work as not having a licence would have meant a temporary career change and he says he'll pay me back for the insurance. That's probably about as likely as seeing some really fit naked nuns skateboarding in the park whilst swigging cans of Stella and extolling the virtues of Class A drugs.

[dollywobbler]

New owner of the BX is already cracking on with it. He's so far fixed the broken headlight switch and got the hazard lights working WITHOUT the ignition! Apparently mucking about with the bulb holder in the switch sorted this. Bloody French electrics. This is exactly why I sold it - it needs a fresh bout of enthusiasm. There's a plan forming to take it to a big BX gathering in France to celebrate 30 years of straight-edged Citroen design. I might well be going along too!

[Spiny Norman]

May not be relevant, but a few years ago the lad at my work got insurance for a 1.6 Laguna cheaper than the 1.2 Clio he'd been thinking of.

 

Car insurance seems to be about 10% relevant facts & figures, 40% 'think of a number' and 50% downright witchcraft, it never fails to amaze me how some cars can be so much dearer than others.

My E320 Merc costs me less than a Rover 75 1.8 would have. I could insure a Lamborghini Murcielago using the exact same criteria I use for my everyday car for half what young Cavette is getting charged for a 1.0 Corsa.

[vulgalour]

Congrats to mini Cav and on the insurance side of things, the reason for a policy being lower if the car is valued higher is that it displays the desire of the owner to look after his car. This is, of course, complete bull poop, but this is what I have been told by a man on the inside of the system. Valuing the car at about £2,000 seems to be the magic number, regardless of the car and a limited mileage policy of 4,000 per annum is likewise magical. Certain colours are more expensive to insure, particularly black and red while others are cheaper such as beige and yellow. Saloons and estates are usually cheaper than hatchbacks too, the assumption being that a teenager with a hatchback will always lie about modifications so the insurer assumes the car is modified even if no mods are declared.

 

Most important of all: Insurance group numbers mean diddly squat.

[wuvvum]

Got overtaken by a Honda NSX on the A47 this evening. Bugger me those things sound nice for a V6. Proper snarly.

[triumph1300]

How exactly can the colour of a car affect insurance premium???? Its never come up when insuring the large number of cars I have had..

[vulgalour]

It can and it does. Metallic paint costs more to insure than flat paint too, I know this because it came up when getting quotes for the Polo. Leather interior costs more than cloth/vinyl, just so you know.

[triumph1300]

how do the insurance companies know this? i got quotes for 2 different volvo estates, both different specs and colours, both came back at £180.43...

[trigger]

In 15 years of driving I've never been asked if my car had metallic paint or leather seats and it's never been listed on my policy, even my wife who used to do motor insurance for the CIS says it makes no difference.

 

Unless your telling them cars been modified in which case your paying more for a modification, not because it's metallic.

[vulgalour]

I can only pass on what I was told by insurers, metallic paint and leather interior put the premium up, but if it were flat and cloth it didn't. I don't understand it either. But then, the road to getting insured has been a bumpy one for me so I probably had my name pulled out of the insurance hat to be That One Person We Don't Like.

[Tayne]

how do the insurance companies know this? i got quotes for 2 different volvo estates, both different specs and colours, both came back at £180.43...

 

Well if you gave the registration numbers for those cars...

 

Statistically red cars have more accidents.

Not sure if this still holds true (given the amount of silver and grey) but once upon a time most sporty cars were red, driven harder and more likely to go through a hedge backwards.

Now if you have the red GLX the insurers will think you bought it because it looks like the GTI because its red, you'll drive it harder and will be more likely to go through a hedge backwards.

 

Now the sensible amongst us will buy a used car on condition and spec not colour, so insurer logic should only apply to people who buy new cars?

Not so, I know one woman who was faced with the choice of two used Subarus. There was an N/A model with a low-box less miles and comparable spec that was six months newer than the turbo yet only £250 more.

The low box and sensible wheel tyre combo would have suited her better, been more economical and both were in budget.

She chose the turbo model because it was green.

 

I would question the leather interior aspect. I don't disbelieve that it makes the car more attractive to thieves looking to strip a car and sell the parts but the last four cars I've owned have had it as an available option (two with and two without) but I've never been asked about it by an insurer.

[Spiny Norman]

Statistically red cars have more accidents.

 

That's because red cars go faster, common knowledge, innit?

[Tayne]

Statistically red cars have more accidents.

 

That's because red cars go faster, common knowledge, innit?

 

Absolutely.

40% of my cars have been red.

My only accident happened when I was driving a blue car.

[willswitchengage]

Absolutely.

40% of my cars have been red.

My only accident happened when I was driving a blue car.

 

QED

 

Good news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19329200

 

Interesting news, according to the paper, the average horsepower sold in EU cars is now 138hp - a record high.