Nice old Jap

[ChinaTom]

Despite the fact that even the homeless own at least 2 new cars each around these parts nowadays, every now and again an old banger appears. I have always liked these - this one badged up as a Maxima; sometimes they are 240K.

 

 

I live in the posh parts of this city and insist on biffing about in this despite the rather hurtful comments and the 3 written complaints we have received about it lowering the tone of the neighbourhood. Bloody nouveau riche.

 

[michiel]

Written complaints... in dog excrement on your windscreen?

[r.welfare]

Welcome back, ChinaTom!

[Spottedlaurel]

Good to hear from you again CT.'Your' Maxima/240K known as Cefiro in Japan. I like them, naturally, though the point of them alongside similar-sized Laurel and Skyline saloons is somewhat baffling.

[Guest]

Its been a while Tom!How old is that Nissan? Looks rather mid-90s to me, is there not much of more advanced years than that knocking about?

[ChinaTom]

Yes, it has been a while. My stint in the pseudo-Siberian wastelands was originally scheduled for 3 weeks, but became almost a year. Seriously cold and inhospitable during winter, and that goes on for most of the year. Just had a couple of months in the Norfolk countryside - excellent therapy. Now back in southern China, and the chance sopt of that Maxima reminded me to pay this site a visit again. Not much to report shite-wise really - my latest acquisition while scrappage-able is not interesting enough for this site, but here it is having a paddle.

 

 

Nice enough motor - 170k on the clock. The air suspension sucked up a load of twigs from the flood and decided to collapse the next day - inconveniently 30 miles from home. All fixed now.

 

 

A quick phone dump has revealed only these:

 

As I said, bloody bloody cold. Minus 38 cold

 

regular taxi rides into "town". This has 5 forward speeds (floor mounted) for its 125cc engine, and had electric windows!

 

26.5 litres - 1200 litre diesel tank good for about a morning's worth of work. Ridiculous.

 

A really good long screw.

[Spottedlaurel]

I did wonder if you might have been affected by the floods there, when the nearby crossroads gets messed up I have to find a different way into work.You should PM me and/or Wuvvum next time your back. Althought to be honest, I can see why you wan to make as much of your break as possible...I think Cefiro ran from 1989/90 up to 1994 or so. It was a RWD sporty saloon, but later on it became FWD and was what we knew as QX.

[VWPowered]

 

now thats some funny shit right there

[STUNO]

Welcome back. I had not seen one of those Maxima/Cefiro's for a while, saw this one this morning and then followed TWO on the road. They are all badged Cefiro here.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Woo hoo, ChinaTom! Welcome back! Great to hear you're still knockin about.

[ChinaTom]

Hi there Mr Bx - great to back too. I happened to be pootling along the A47 a few weeks ago and saw a rather splendid Prisma at Thorney Toll. Not sure whether it was yours or not - from the glimpse I got, it appeared to be on foreign plates.

 

Had an absolutely dreadful day in terms of shite spotting. Wifey dumped me in the street (she's too tight to pay the 5p parking charge for the scooter and makes me sit on it in on the roadside of every bank or shop she decides to go into. She doesn't even buy me a comic to read - even my mother used to buy me a Beano to read at the door of M&S). Anyway, perfect opportunity to snap the occasional Cedric, Crown etc while baking in the 40 degree temps. (There is an 80 degree variance in available temps in this country and I suffer each end of the extreme - hence Norfolk for semi-retirement I guess). But nothing. I can't bother you all with VW Santana's and stupid little booted Charades - they are way to common and I have put these up before. The Alfa 155 I used to see outside my old office has now become a Mazda 3; the old 2nd gen Bluebird is now a Nissan Teana etc etc. There are so many new cars on the road here, but I guess that is development for you. I have seen my house value increase by 145% in the last 12 months, and still there are queues at all the real estate offices. Anyway, the sad fact is that after 4 hours of frazzling with my camera phone ready, the oldest shitest car I could spot was a bloody Lexus.

 

 

I did manage to get a quick snap of the extra 2.5 inches on the Citroen Elise VIP (actually, after a very slow sales period, they slashed the price and flogged them in bulk to the taxi firms).

 

 

Here is a very poor shot of an Audi 200 (the badge at the back also boasted a 2.4 engine - must qualify as shite in a car that heavy! But they do a 1.4 Skoda Superb now - an interesting fifth gear sprint race from 50-70 in these!). Note the little "runaround" behind it - just a little shopping car for the wife / daughter / mistress.

 

 

Does this picture of my project car give a certain indication of the temps we were enduring?

 

 

Finally, after too many E200's, 530iL's and various VW's Hyundais etc etc, I gave up and turned my attention to shite hotels instead.

 

 

This is the 7-day sin hotel - laughing stock of all English speakers in China. I stayed in one in the north once and next door to me was a chap obviously getting all 7 days worth of sin into one sordid evening. Loud noisy cheap brothels for the not so discerning. Which is not why I was staying there - my cheapskate client set the budget.

 

That's all folks - try harder tomorrow.