The grumpy thread

[Jim Bell]

Was that via Clegg Gifford? I paid about that but I had a very recent total loss claim

 

Having trade plates makes no difference to premium and is VERY useful btw

Yup it was man. Yeah, I was just trying for the cheapest. He reckons its usually about another £250 for plates. Immaterial as I dont have 2 and a half grand lying about.

[cort16]

I paid 600 a year for my trade insurance.

[Lankytim]

Sold a lovely 56 reg Golf FSI 1.6 last week to a local guy, he brought it back the other day. The engine has developed a rattle, his local garage said it was fucked. I had a listen and it sounded like the timing chain shitting itself or similar so I refunded him. gutted, cleared my overdraft with that money too.

 

I thought that maybe changing the oil would help, maybe it has a hydraulic tensioner or the tappets were sticky or something. The rattle remains, although it's a bit quieter.

 

It's back on ebay as "needing work"

 

WTF is this noise??

 

[Ghosty]

The person that bought the R8 I wanted to bid on has appeared on the 200/400OC forum.

 

It was a good one.

 

Fuck sake, didn't need to know that.

The bugger bought it on a whim, is having the lower half resprayed and flipping it. 

Bastard.

[dozeydustman]

If you put your cat in someone else’s wheelie bin, surely that’s then your wheelie bin?

 

I had all this bin crap when I moved to Thurrock. I followed procedure, got my bin, carefully painted my number on it and the next day it had vanished.

 

Bloke up the road though, he had a nice new bin which appeared to have had my number scratched off and his crudely painted over the top. Problem is when I asked if he had my bin, I got the whole “you can’t prove nuffink mate, it ain’t yours izzit coz it’s got me nummer on it, fackorf”

 

Sure enough the Council delivered me a new one two weeks later, but it was a different smaller type. Luckily my neighbour adopted it as hers as she thought it was her new bin that she had ordered and refused to accept it was mine. Hers turned up the next day so I nicked it. Fair do’s.

 

 

Sounds like one of my exes was your neighbour. She was from Thurrock. She was a kwality* bird. Can't believe I wasted a year of my life on her

[Floatylight]

Roflcopter.

 

I was once loading the car up with cheap wine in the Cité Europe car park in Calais when I heard an almighty bang, and looked up to see a Brit-registered rental high-top Transit half-way through the goalpost height restriction. It turns out the high top on those was made of fibre glass: it had sliced the top clean off.

Last year on a tour of Europe had driven from northern France to Zurich, I think about 700k non stop, found hotel but food a rip off so tapped McD's in the sat Mac, back in the car, whizzing along to find it, it was only in the airport, before I new it I was up the entry ramp to a multistorey car park, C4GP with Roof Box and Boot Box on, stopped about a foot short of smashing the box in half then had to reverse back out with a lot of irate travellers flashing and beeping me, an experience I won't forget (and we all went to bed with out any tea...)

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[Jams]

You know when it prompts you to log in when you connect to the WiFi? So that they can charge you/make sure you’ve paid?

 

That’s a captive portal. Lots of devices won’t load it properly so you can’t connect them to public WiFi like that

Yeah it's great signs me straight in! Usually works a treat tbh

[Kiltox]

Yup it was man. Yeah, I was just trying for the cheapest. He reckons its usually about another £250 for plates. Immaterial as I dont have 2 and a half grand lying about.

Tradex / CG are fucking shite too. I only used them because my fault claim and age at the time were putting everyone else off.

 

Try Tradewise and Bollingtons

[panhard65]

Tradex / CG are fucking shite too. I only used them because my fault claim and age at the time were putting everyone else off.

 

Try Tradewise and Bollingtons

Yeap avoid Tradex they were a nightmare. However the lot I am with now aren't being too great. I don't update the MID very often as I don't change cars all the time maybe once or twice a year. 2 Weeks I have been waiting for new log in details so I can actually do what I am legally obliged to do. They will get another call on Monday chasing it up again. I paid about 1500 but that includes public and product liability as well as fully comp on all cars. A lot of trade policies now are third party only on anything over 25 years old. Luckily I didn't find out the hard way that my previous insurer had quietly dropped that one in over the years. I think the road risks was around 800, I didn't bother with trade plates as if you read the terms they are rather restrictive to use so not really worth it for me.

[DodgeRover]

Temporary speed restrictions on the motorway M25 last night, kept everybody down to 40 for 2 junctions with all 4 lanes open and clear with minimal traffic, obviously no sign of any roadworks either, automated cameras were flashing away making money.

 

M1 speed restrictions and 3 out of 4 lanes closed flashing up no reason again. Likewise cameras strobing

 

I sense a lot of money being made in fines and speed awareness courses.

[Pillock]

Sign says 40, you do 40. It's frustrating when you can't see the reason, but surely it's better to slow down than blezz through at 70 because you couldn't see any issues only to find there's pedestrians in the carriageway or something.

[DodgeRover]

Absolutely agree but signs saying 40 for no reason aren't helping. Concentrating is hard enough without braking to 40 from 70 on an clear motorway then trying not to get mown down by HGVs

They've spent a fortune upgrading to smart* motorways real time signage and automated enforcement I can see successful challenges happening against tickets.

[wuvvum]

Just don't register your car in your name.  Problem solved.

[madrat]

Just fitted new taps to the bath, why is there always a very sharp edge on everything just where you need to twist your knuckles past????

[panhard65]

Absolutely agree but signs saying 40 for no reason aren't helping. Concentrating is hard enough without braking to 40 from 70 on an clear motorway then trying not to get mown down by HGVs

They've spent a fortune upgrading to smart* motorways real time signage and automated enforcement I can see successful challenges happening against tickets.

We came round the 25 last bank holiday monday 50mph for miles due to "debris in the road". There was nothing and we nearly got taken out by a lorry due to sticking to the limit on a road with bugger all on it. The trouble with these signs is 99% of the time they are bollocks and some twat didn't turn them off after an incident. It is like crying wolf and if the cameras weren't there we would all drive to the conditions and no one would die and we could all get where we want to go without the stress of watching our speedos rather than what is actually happening on the road.

[panhard65]

Absolutely agree but signs saying 40 for no reason aren't helping. Concentrating is hard enough without braking to 40 from 70 on an clear motorway then trying not to get mown down by HGVs

They've spent a fortune upgrading to smart* motorways real time signage and automated enforcement I can see successful challenges happening against tickets.

We came round the 25 last bank holiday monday 50mph for miles due to "debris in the road". There was nothing and we nearly got taken out by a lorry due to sticking to the limit on a road with bugger all on it. The trouble with these signs is 99% of the time they are bollocks and some twat didn't turn them off after an incident. It is like crying wolf and if the cameras weren't there we would all drive to the conditions and no one would die and we could all get where we want to go without the stress of watching our speedos rather than what is actually happening on the road.

[panhard65]

Thats weird it said the post hadn't been posted because it had been posted too quickly. Then it posts it twice ? Maybe it is this laptop as that is twice it has posted twice for me today.

[chaseracer]

...I was up the entry ramp to a multistorey car park, C4GP with Roof Box and Boot Box on, stopped about a foot short of smashing the box in half then had to reverse back out...

 

You've got form here, Steve.  Pensions rally, Manchester, C8...?

 

 

[Captain Furious]

Had to sit an exam to recertify my Cisco quals on Friday, £240 bastid quid! When I did them the first time round they were £180. Hoping I can claim that on expenses..

 

They’ve also either made it a hell of a lot harder, or I’m not as smart as I was 3 years ago. Passed tho and that’s all that matters, good to go now until 2021.

[cobblers]

We came round the 25 last bank holiday monday 50mph for miles due to "debris in the road". There was nothing and we nearly got taken out by a lorry due to sticking to the limit on a road with bugger all on it. The trouble with these signs is 99% of the time they are bollocks and some twat didn't turn them off after an incident. It is like crying wolf and if the cameras weren't there we would all drive to the conditions and no one would die and we could all get where we want to go without the stress of watching our speedos rather than what is actually happening on the road.

 

In 15 years motoring, I've only ever once seen a matrix sign displaying something accurate. It said "caution fog", and I nearly missed it, because of the fog. They're ALWAYS total bollocks which is why most people don't pay attention.

[dollywobbler]

Absolutely agree but signs saying 40 for no reason aren't helping. Concentrating is hard enough without braking to 40 from 70 on an clear motorway then trying not to get mown down by HGVs

They've spent a fortune upgrading to smart* motorways real time signage and automated enforcement I can see successful challenges happening against tickets.

 

For a start, do they actually adjust the speed cameras to the posted speed? I didn't think they did. Certainly, enough people seem to ignore them to make me thing they don't.

 

Secondly, how do you know it's for no reason? The whole point of smart motorways is that they stop everyone rushing into the back of a jam at 70mph. When they work, they work well, and traffic flows in places it didn't used to before. Where it all tends to fall apart is where folk starting jumping across lanes to come on/off. That sets off a line of brake lights and everything jams up. If people actually had some lane discipline, I'm sure things would be a zillion times better, but no. Everyone has to dive in at the last minute and f*ck it all up for everyone else.

[Parky]

Not so much a grump, more confusion.

 

I sold some Nintendo games last month on eBay. No problems in particular, one guy badgered me for a lower price on one, agreed a figure, he then hassled me to send it ASAP and then sent loads of messages saying he had changed his mind. Bit weird but no harm done.

 

Anyway tonight another message from another buyer just saying “I don’t want it”. Nothing else, not “I don’t want it, give me my money back” or anything like that, just a simple I don’t want it.

 

So let me get this straight, you buy something in mid April for less than a fiver, and then send a message now saying you don’t want it. That’s not a question, it’s a comment.

 

Should I second guess what this prick does next or just wait until eBay take the money off me and let him keep it?

 

 

And oddly enough my account won’t let me list anything, apparently I am suspended for 24 hours but no reason given. WTF?

[barefoot]

How did you celebrate the Royal Weddy?

 

I left home at 09:00 this morning in the T2 to have a fridge fitted.

400 yards short of the blokes workshop, the bus died on a busy roundabout.

Phoned chap, he bobbed out and towed me in.

 

While he's fitting the fridge, I phoned the bloke who'd recently fitted me a new engine.

Rather helpfully I thought, he diagnosed that I'd run out of fuel - I've had a non functioning gauge for ten years.

I walked to Sainsburys to buy a gallon, had a row with the bloke on the till

'Is there fuel in that can? You can't bring it in here'.

'A sign on the door might be, like a big help then' I retorted.

Fuel in, no difference

 

I caught the bus home - we'll call this journey one.

 

After driving steadily through the country side and through every housing estate & industrial estate known to man, 

I finally got off the bus and walked home, it's about midday - I'm supposed to be photographing a VW show this afternoon,

Walking down my street, my phone rings - It's Zak the fridge fitter...

'Good news Dave, your van fired right up, the fuel must have taken a while to drain through!'

 

Nipped in home, embarassed because I'm led to believe that I've been a tit and run my bus out of fuel, I fessed up to the wife & a hurried lunch was consumed. The lovely, lovely woman that she is, offered to drive me over to collect bus - I iz happy innit.

 

Firing up the Jaguar, we made it as far as the traffic light in the village when I thought I ought to give Zak a bell...

Fuck me, he's in a different village having his hair cut.

'I'll collect you on the way back to my unit'

One mega U turn later and the Jag is parked up at home again.

 

A half hour later, I'm collected from the side of the road by a bright orange buggy built on a Defender - we'll call this journey two

 

Back to Zak's, a quick tour of the new fridge, the van fires first compression stroke

Straight off to the petrol station where I only manage to squeeze 26 odd litres into my supposedly empty tank.

I phoned my skilled mechanic

'Hey Up Mate, you calling to tell me you're safely home?'

 

I briefed him on the situation before driving about another three hundred yards before...

It died again.

I'd been suspecting a fucked coil all along, I've had one in the cupboard for the last five years, but took it out this morning so that new electricity can be added to the new fridge.

 

Auto Aid take a disappointing 70 minutes to send me a cheery bloke in a beaver tail - which we'll call journey three.

 

Arrived home, just before 17:00.

 

I am fucked, fucked off and have been drinking steadily.

Straw dogs on the telly later if I can be arsed.

 

Well done Harry, Megan, you're parents must be very proud...

 

 

[DodgeRover]

For a start, do they actually adjust the speed cameras to the posted speed? I didn't think they did. Certainly, enough people seem to ignore them to make me thing they don't.

 

Secondly, how do you know it's for no reason? The whole point of smart motorways is that they stop everyone rushing into the back of a jam at 70mph. When they work, they work well, and traffic flows in places it didn't used to before. Where it all tends to fall apart is where folk starting jumping across lanes to come on/off. That sets off a line of brake lights and everything jams up. If people actually had some lane discipline, I'm sure things would be a zillion times better, but no. Everyone has to dive in at the last minute and f*ck it all up for everyone else.

Yes cameras are definitely flashing at above the displayed limits on the M1 I was on cruise at an indicated 50 and was passed by another car doing maybe 60 (if that) and it was flashed. They've been linked to the variable speed limit on the M25 for years.

 

When you are driving along after midnight and all lanes are open and clear of traffic for the entire time that the signs are displayed I'm pretty sure they are on for no reason.

 

All the more reason to have a dashcam doing a constant recording as several times gantries were out or only displaying a speed limit in one seemingly random lane (where the one previously had it on all lanes) another gantry was out baring a NSL sign over the far left lane.

 

Apologies for rant but they just made a long journey into an unnecessarily hard one.

[cros]

This is the road 2 miles from my house. It is completely fucked.

It is not being fixed because it only goes to farms and a few houses and is seen as a low priority. It's mainly used by tractors and HGVs who collect corn, sugar beet etc. which gets processed into food for people to eat which in my book makes it important to be kept functioning.

My daughter recently fell arse over head when she caught her foot in a deep pothole as she unloaded heavy stuff from her car for work. Result, a badly injured ankle and no earnings for several days (self employed)

Meanwhile the road outside where that wedding took place today was as smooth as a billiard table, I'll be bound.

[Craig the Princess]

This is the road 2 miles from my house. It is completely fucked.

My daughter recently fell arse over head when she caught her foot in a deep pothole as she unloaded heavy stuff from her car for work. Result, a badly injured ankle and no earnings for several days (self employed)

 

Where there is blame there is a claim.

 

[AlabamaShrimp]

Not so much a grump, more confusion.

 

I sold some Nintendo games last month on eBay. No problems in particular, one guy badgered me for a lower price on one, agreed a figure, he then hassled me to send it ASAP and then sent loads of messages saying he had changed his mind. Bit weird but no harm done.

 

Anyway tonight another message from another buyer just saying “I don’t want it”. Nothing else, not “I don’t want it, give me my money back” or anything like that, just a simple I don’t want it.

 

So let me get this straight, you buy something in mid April for less than a fiver, and then send a message now saying you don’t want it. That’s not a question, it’s a comment.

 

Should I second guess what this prick does next or just wait until eBay take the money off me and let him keep it?

 

 

And oddly enough my account won’t let me list anything, apparently I am suspended for 24 hours but no reason given. WTF?

What games were they I might be interested.

[Pillock]

Yes, sometimes the lowered speed limits go on for a bit longer than the incident is happening but until you've passed all the way through, you don't know it was for no reason or they've cleared the road. The whole point of them is to stop you ploughing into something because you were going 70mph and didn't have time to react to an unlit car in Lane 3, pedestrians, a truck just stopped in the road (as happened TWICE to me this week) or a crashed UFO or whatever.

 

Actually, I'm due a rant and it's related to one of those trucks. M62, westbound between the M1 and Leeds Birstall. Blowout on an artic, front offside so the wheel rim has just mashed into the tarmac and bless him, he's tried to pull over from L2 to the hard shoulder but he's clearly lost all velocity and can imagine his transport manager giving him grief over the wrecked wheel so he's stopped with 90% of his truck in L2, but the front corner in L1.

 

L1 and L2 have red X above the lanes so everyone* is politely getting into L3 and 4 to get past. Apart from the FUCKING MORONS who are either remaining in L1 and missing the front corner of the truck by inches, or just swerving onto the hard shoulder and giving zero fucks in terms of slowing down by even a fraction. Keep it planted, kicking up all the shit and gravel from the hard shoulder, fuck you lorry driver I'm gonna be late getting to IKEA. Nearly got taken out by someone who even more inexplicably went past on the hard shoulder and then resumed their position sitting in L3 for the remainder of their journey - as I went past in L3 they just hooned it back across in case someone else (i.e. me) reclaimed their precious lane.

 

I know this is a weekly rant on here but seriously, common sense has just gone out the fucking window with motorway driving. I had to drive Leicester to Leeds - two cities that are pretty well linked by the M1 - and aside from having to use the M62 for a bit of it I quite happily drove up the A46 and A1 instead. More chilled, generally people just stick to one speed and you get there without wanting to pull someone over, drag them out of the car and throw them into a live lane.

 

Oh yeah, not sticking to a speed. I know Cruise Control and Speed Limiters are a luxury item, but a basic skill associated with driving is being able to tell if your car is getting faster or slower. Whether in roadworks or not, I'm sat on my limiter at the speed limit + 5% for speedo inaccuracy so tend to slowly catch people up when I'm doing an indicated 53mph in a 50 or 74 in a 70. So I signal, move out a lane and go to overtake. At which point they speed the fuck up and I'm left hanging in an overtaking lane. So I pull back in. And they now shit themselves because they've gone over the speed limit and they slow down. So now I'm catching them up. Repeat until the END OF FUCKING TIME.

[Floatylight]

You've got form here, Steve. Pensions rally, Manchester, C8...?

 

Oh yeah!

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[Captain Furious]

Oh yeah, not sticking to a speed. I know Cruise Control and Speed Limiters are a luxury item, but a basic skill associated with driving is being able to tell if your car is getting faster or slower. Whether in roadworks or not, I'm sat on my limiter at the speed limit + 5% for speedo inaccuracy so tend to slowly catch people up when I'm doing an indicated 53mph in a 50 or 74 in a 70. So I signal, move out a lane and go to overtake. At which point they speed the fuck up and I'm left hanging in an overtaking lane. So I pull back in. And they now shit themselves because they've gone over the speed limit and they slow down. So now I'm catching them up. Repeat until the END OF FUCKING TIME.

This times 1 billion

 

It’s my relatively new pet hate on the M69 - which has no roadworks or temporary speed limit imposed, yet is absolutely infested with what I call the 75mph club. What I mean by that is car after car travelling in the middle lane at 75mph, I want to do an indicated 80 (because I’m a rebel without a cause) so I pull into lane 3 to overtake. The minute I do they’re all of a sudden doing 85 and I have to do 90 to pass them.

 

Pick your speed and fucking stick to it. But mostly get the fuck out of the middle lane.