The grumpy thread

[Borsuq]

1 minute ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I wonder if making cars "safe" has led to drivers becoming "unsafe"

It's definitely lead to cars being impossible to see out of. Had a sitdown in a Tipo not too long ago, and was absolutely appalled at the visibility and amount and amount of window area in general. And then there's stuff like the Toyota C-HR. A lady driving one almost backed into me the other day because there's absolutely zero rear 3/4 visibility.

Cars are massive and impossible to see out of; what could go wrong, eh?

[gm]

My engine mounts have been sitting in the post office since I received the red card of doom on Friday. I finally managed to find to go collect them to discover they are only open a generous two hours a day

looks like an early start tomorrow then. Except they're not open at all tomorrow. Fucksakes. It will Friday by the time I can get them now, over two weeks since I ordered them and I can't get any work done on the kit until they come  

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, gm said:

My engine mounts have been sitting in the post office since I received the red card of doom on Friday. I finally managed to find to go collect them to discover they are only open a generous two hours a day

looks like an early start tomorrow then. ...

Yes, I had that when this whole thing kicked off. Local DO was very quick to cut its hours.

[mitsisigma01]

I had the red card and they redelivered the following day ??

[gm]

There is a hatch in the adjoining post office that previously dispensed parcels but they’ve closed that because Covid  

[155V6]

12 hours ago, beko1987 said:

My silver laguna did that to its rear windows. They got wedged up... The drivers one had done the same but been repaired before fairly bodgily, but it worked! 

Good luck getting them back up... 

Managed to get it up bit by bit,so not too bad ?

 

[High Jetter]

^^^ you can get pills to help with that.

[155V6]

On 7/21/2020 at 9:19 PM, 155V6 said:

Managed to get it up bit by bit,so not too bad ?

 

Dropped right down into the door on the way home ?

[High Jetter]

I hate when that happens coming back from the pub

[cobblers]

A while ago I bought a 2nd hand server cabinet thing off ebay. £80 I paid. Went to pick it up and the guy was fucking loaded - genuine loaded, not dodgy. A few porsches, an AMG Gwagen and such, I would say conservatively there was £400k of motors outside the place, he was shitting money out his arse. I was a bit bemused - I'm not a rich man by any stretch but I'd much rather skip something than invite "ebay" people to my house to collect it for £80 - I usually expect to turn up to some bombsite to collect that kind of stuff.

Anyway, I paid him £80 cash and took the cabinet off away in my van, down his driveway and rang him up to get him to open the gates to let me out again. 

Three weeks later he cancels the ebay transaction to get his £4 seller fees back! 

 

[Steve79]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

A while ago I bought a 2nd hand server cabinet thing off ebay. £80 I paid. Went to pick it up and the guy was fucking loaded - genuine loaded, not dodgy. A few porsches, an AMG Gwagen and such, I would say conservatively there was £400k of motors outside the place, he was shitting money out his arse. I was a bit bemused - I'm not a rich man by any stretch but I'd much rather skip something than invite "ebay" people to my house to collect it for £80 - I usually expect to turn up to some bombsite to collect that kind of stuff.

Anyway, I paid him £80 cash and took the cabinet off away in my van, down his driveway and rang him up to get him to open the gates to let me out again. 

Three weeks later he cancels the ebay transaction to get his £4 seller fees 

Myself and @rwd are very familiar with the guy in the link below having rented storage yards and units from him in the past.

 https://thebristolcable.org/2020/02/alan-dykes-violent-assault-ex-landlord-the-office-in-speedwell/ 

 

It not unusual to see him walking around with string holding his trousers up instead of a belt. Always drive round in a fucked mid 80's Suzuki Alto.

Guy who rented a unit next to me used to own a 2nd hand shop and had one of those commercial flip top bins out the back which all the unsellable stuff got chucked in.

The shop proximity alarm went off one Xmas eve, so he goes rushing down there expecting the worst only to find Alan upside down in the bin with his feet poking out looking for a cutlery set ???

The old Strachan & Henshaw site he used to own which burnt down was VERY sketchy. The whole upper car park level was one giant breakers yard and an absolute death trap. You could barely navigate around the site there were that many cars. Main breaker owner there was a beast of a guy known as "Fatty" Farthing who used to collect Dykes rent.

I always remember going into his office to buy parts and he'd have a massive mirror on the wall which his desk faced. He was so immobile that he couldn't be bothered to move and would chat to you in the mirror!

 

He definitely was not the best landlord and his properties were cheap for a reason but you knew what you were getting so you couldn't really grumble too much. 

Some did though!

http://theweekin.co.uk/news/landlord-is-jailed-for-health-and-safety-offences-at-premises-in-speedwell/

Even a spell in clink didn't change him.

Nice enough to talk to, total tight ass and  VERY VERY dodgy.

[New POD]

On 7/21/2020 at 9:28 AM, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I wonder if making cars "safe" has led to drivers becoming "unsafe"

Back in the early 90s when Lucas were starting to ramp up Anti-lock braking the insurance industry were thinking about increasing the premiums on those cars with ABS, as there was statistics showing that those types of people who choose it as an option, were the type of people who then assumed that because it was safer, they could drive faster.  It was obviously safer at the same speed as non Abs, but if you have zero friction between tyre and road, say on the ice or due to aqua planning, it wouldn't fix your accident. The number of accidents were therefore very marginally higher, but the speed involved, was significantly higher, causing more damage, to cars and people. 

[cort1977]

Risk compensation theory. Wasn't there a famous study of german taxi drivers showing the same thing?

[chodweaver]

Looks like it was documented in this:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rI4c24VTriEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22R.M.+Trimpop%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqvMWa6eXqAhVFolwKHURLB0kQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

which also has an interesting short history of risk assessment and insurance in the introduction. Earliest records showing its use date from 3200BC up to the fall of the Roman empire in 700AD, with it then not reappearing till the 12th century. Interest rates of 200% were common in Babylonia...

So, being fleeced for cover ain't a new thing

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Latest from Garage Dubois-Loizou: none of the new hoses, supplied by CX-Basis as being direct replacements, fit! Disastrous.

Going up there in the morning to see how deficient the new hoses are.

[Floatylight]

Latest from Garage Dubois-Loizou: none of the new hoses, supplied by CX-Basis as being direct replacements, fit! Disastrous.
Going up there in the morning to see how deficient the new hoses are.

It seems ridiculous to me that Garage Dubois-Loizou whom I assume promote themselves as somewhat of a specialist in old Hydroneumatic french cars don't have the required contacts to get the parts for them, making you do the donkey work and shrugging their shoulders when they can't put it together!

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[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

It seems ridiculous to me that Garage Dubois-Loizou whom I assume promote themselves as somewhat of a specialist in old Hydroneumatic french cars don't have the required contacts to get the parts for them, making you do the donkey work and shrugging their shoulders when they can't put it together!...
 

I think even if they had the contacts, the parts supplied would still have been wrong, because there is only one main supplier of new CX hoses.

[Aston Martin]

... I ordered ATS mot on cunton. After I ordered I discovered the hull branch doesn't do mots.

 

I live chat for a refund, we can offer you cunton credits. ?

I order an mot for the credit price from some back street garage, where the reviews state they don't do the mot. They take it somewhere else.

So for £18, this dude is making money...and cunton... and the bloke writing out the certificate.

 

Seems like a plan.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

18 hours ago, Floatylight said:

It seems ridiculous to me that Garage Dubois-Loizou whom I assume promote themselves as somewhat of a specialist in old Hydroneumatic french cars don't have the required contacts to get the parts for them, making you do the donkey work and shrugging their shoulders when they can't put it together!
 

Update: turns out they forgot to open the extra box of CX-Basis hoses. Have personally verified that this box of seven are in fact correct, so these will be fitted.

It was the earlier set of silicone hoses that were not.

 

[mitsisigma01]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Garage Dubois-Loizou whom I assume promote themselves as somewhat of a specialist in old Hydroneumatic

Did you have to open the second box for them....... ?????

[Tadhg Tiogar]

39 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Did you have to open the second box for them....... ?????

No. Seems one of their trainees had opened one box, seen the discrepancies in the silicon hoses, then assumed that the hoses in the other two boxes (which the trainee did not open) were equally deficient.

You couldn't make this up.

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

No. Seems one of their trainees had opened one box, seen the discrepancies in the silicon hoses, then assumed that the hoses in the other two boxes (which the trainee did not open) were equally deficient.

You couldn't make this up.

That's ridiculous of them to have done that- not a good service at all!

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Just now, Fumbler said:

That's ridiculous of them to have done that- not a good service at all!

Dunno.... It begins to look like a comedy of errors to me; Monsieur Dubois sez his trainee is trying to make him look a fool. Anyhow, we did establish that the CX-Basis hoses are a straight swap for the original expired set, and the alerte générale is over.

At least the head gasket and associated bits were done correctly and the engine runs, having been flushed several times with the help of dishwasher / washing machine cleaner.

 

[Fumbler]

5 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Dunno.... It begins to look like a comedy of errors to me; Monsieur Dubois sez his trainee is trying to make him look a fool.

Ah. I can see a lot of je ne sais quoi and profuse shrugging of shoulders happening in the office.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

13 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

Ah. I can see a lot of je ne sais quoi and profuse shrugging of shoulders happening in the office.

I offered him a pastis to cover the embarrassment

[Fumbler]

3 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I offered him a pastis to cover the embarrassment

Ah bon!

 

[Zelandeth]

Just discovered that some scumbag has wandered into our front garden at some point in the last couple of days and helped themselves to about 95% of our rose bushes, most of which were in bloom.  All the flowers have gone and the one nearest to the front door pretty much the whole bush has just been snipped off a couple of inches from the ground...WT-actual-F?!?

If I ever make a time machine first order of business will be going back to 2013 and kicking myself firmly up the backside for entertaining the idea of moving down here...I seriously cannot deal with any more nonsense like this. 

[beko1987]

Bucks Council resurfaced the main road to aylesbury a while ago through a little village called stone. 

Was worth it, it's really smooth now. Except it now floods... Came back with the kids earlier during a fucking massive rainstorm, and was surprised I didn't hydrolock the car in the 1st one, immediately around a sharp corner. A mile further up its single file through the middle of the road as both sides are properly deep... Seems they've fucked the gradients up as it never flooded before. 

Something else to be careful of. Also marks the first time I've actually driven in proper rain since pre covid... My windscreen is fucking clean now, all the bug splats have gone 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

44 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Bucks Council resurfaced the main road to aylesbury a while ago through a little village called stone. 

Was worth it, it's really smooth now. Except it now floods... Came back with the kids earlier during a fucking massive rainstorm, and was surprised I didn't hydrolock the car in the 1st one, immediately around a sharp corner. A mile further up its single file through the middle of the road as both sides are properly deep... Seems they've fucked the gradients up as it never flooded before. ... 

I wonder if they bothered restoring the camber when resurfacing. It shouldn't flood to that extent if they had done that properly. 

[Mally]

It's not fair!

I'm in Spain, wearing a mask full time, and when I get  home they are throwing my key away to protect you lot who whinge about having to wear one at all.

Apologies those who don't whinge.