The grumpy thread

[Split_Pin]

How on earth are you 4 figures? I have found all my 75s to be slightly more expensive to insurers but by that I mean about £250 a year. 

[Metal Guru]

4 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

How on earth are you 4 figures? I have found all my 75s to be slightly more expensive to insurers but by that I mean about £250 a year. 

I still get quotes for my Impreza upto £3k even though I’ve actually paid under £200 this year.

When my son was 17,we tried to add him to the policy on comparison sites ( for a laugh really), and got one for £34k.

[Spiny Norman]

Getting random insurance quotes for things is a great game when you're bored. Apparently I could insure a Lamborghini Aventador on my current details (daily driver, parked outside in an area of Glasgow that's often on fire) for about £1000. The only added stipulation being they'd want a tracker on it. I always enjoy telling teenagers this when they get quotes for three grand for some manky old Corsa.

Talking about home insurance, our buildings insurance is taken care of by the factor so all I have to arrange is contents cover which for the last 20 years has been hovering around the £50-60 mark. This year I get the renewal letter through with a quote for £150, along with a long winded letter about how the rules have changed and they're not allowed to offer cheaper quotes to new customers than to existing policyholders and how that makes the system fairer which sounded like complete bollox to me.
And so it turned out, went on the meerkat site and got a quote for £48 from the same company.

Insurance premiums are seemingly calculated along the lines of 'think of a number, chuck some runes in the air then ask the cat'.

[Split_Pin]

I tried to change my auto-renewal preference online (to 'no') for esure but I was pushed to a phone call. So they've pissed me off again. I'm also fairly sure that's now illegal.

When I finally got through to someone who had given up pretending they weren't reading straight from the same script they had done for the past 5 years, they then said they could offer me a more competitive quote. 

Why could they not have made me a more competitive offer in the first place? I know why, because they're hoping many customers will just take the path of least resistance and accept.

There was no way they were going to be able to knock almost £100 off the renewal quote and beat what I had found on gocompare so I declined. 

A shower of bastards.

[Mally]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

How on earth are you 4 figures? I have found all my 75s to be slightly more expensive to insurers but by that I mean about £250 a year. 

I insured my last one as a classic, 3,000 miles, with Peter Best. Around £300, but 4? years ago. That was '02 reg.

This one is '04 so I expected a bit higher due to inflation.  Forget the actual P B quote, but iro £1,350.

Couple of other specialists refused to quote.

Tried a classic comparison place, Came up with Flux at £1,237. Massively undercutting some of the others. I'm 77, it may not help.

Checked with our in house Flux man, who to his credit reduced the Flux figure by almost £500!

Seems the underwriters or whoever are sticking to age on Classics (or maybe just 75's?) more that they used to. Mine is less than 19 years old.

I think if you  started in the past, your premium will rise, but I'd get a firm price elsewhere before I turned a reasonable price down.

Anyway, my Ka is with the AA, full ncb, £380 ish. They will swap me to the Rover FOC. So that's my only option, and it's done now. 

[sierraman]

Some providers just quote mad money tbh, there’s only a few on any car for me that will quote anything like a reasonable price. Some I could get a quote on a Invacar and it would be four figures.

[Metal Guru]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

Some providers just quote mad money tbh, there’s only a few on any car for me that will quote anything like a reasonable price. Some I could get a quote on a Invacar and it would be four figures.

They quote silly prices because they don’t want your business for whatever reason. They do it that way so you don’t have to say you’ve had insurance declined on future proposal forms which really does make your insurance expensive.

[Ged]

£800 to insure Xantia, £380 to insure Xantia engine swapped 305 with all modifications declared mmok. I was shocked how cheap it was for the 305 with mods being 21 I was expecting to get absolutely rinsed.

[sierraman]

3 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

They quote silly prices because they don’t want your business for whatever reason. They do it that way so you don’t have to say you’ve had insurance declined on future proposal forms which really does make your insurance expensive.

I have had insurance companies refuse to quote... Direct Line won’t. 

[Split_Pin]

48 minutes ago, Mally said:

I insured my last one as a classic, 3,000 miles, with Peter Best. Around £300, but 4? years ago. That was '02 reg.

This one is '04 so I expected a bit higher due to inflation.  Forget the actual P B quote, but iro £1,350.

Couple of other specialists refused to quote.

Tried a classic comparison place, Came up with Flux at £1,237. Massively undercutting some of the others. I'm 77, it may not help.

Checked with our in house Flux man, who to his credit reduced the Flux figure by almost £500!

Seems the underwriters or whoever are sticking to age on Classics (or maybe just 75's?) more that they used to. Mine is less than 19 years old.

That's mad, at least you have insurance sorted now.

I'm £80 a year on a classic policy with my Cavalier. I'm going to ask my dad, who is 75, how much his Volvo V40 costs him. 

[Mally]

My AA insurers have a £25 administration fee. As they do.

They didn't charge me anything at all. I was on the phone almost half an hour. Do they make money on the phone calls?

[Zelandeth]

21 minutes ago, Ged said:

£800 to insure Xantia, £380 to insure Xantia engine swapped 305 with all modifications declared mmok. I was shocked how cheap it was for the 305 with mods being 21 I was expecting to get absolutely rinsed.

Xantias as just fscking expensive for insurance I found, both the Activa and the low spec TD were more than double pretty much anything else I'd had on fleet around the same time.

 

Of course I wanted to be dismantling this door again in the fading light when I should be cooking dinner.

Window decided to not wind back up.

[Pieman]

To the fucking stupid woman I encountered this afternoon whose method of crossing a busy 40mph road was to suddenly walk out into the middle of it and make the traffic stop for her, then somewhat sarcastically wave a "thanks" at me when I'd braked to a halt to avoid her, I hope next time you try that you get a smacked arse from someone's mirror.

[ruffgeezer]

Clipped a pothole this morning at 5am,  seemingly burst a 2 week old tyre and broke the rear shock top mount too.

That's going to be an expensive shift.

Got the spare swapped on grazing my knuckles with the widow maker jack and still got in to work on time.

[mitsisigma01]

Eufy robotic 30c won't connect to WiFi or Bluetooth... Any ideas please 😕

[loserone]

16 hours ago, Ged said:

£800 to insure Xantia, £380 to insure Xantia engine swapped 305 with all modifications declared mmok. I was shocked how cheap it was for the 305 with mods being 21 I was expecting to get absolutely rinsed.

I found most of my quotes on the Xantia were four figures except Sheila's Wheels who were £300.

I'm 38, married with kids.  Mental.

[Rust Collector]

The worst part is I have a slide hammer, I just don’t have an adapter to take it to M8 thread.

[Remspoor]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:12 AM, mitsisigma01 said:

Eufy robotic 30c won't connect to WiFi or Bluetooth... Any ideas please 😕

Reboot everything.

Ensure you are using the correct GHz.

Ensure all the software is up to date.

read this https://www.eufylife.com/support/5507/robovac-30c

Maybe the machine is damaged. If so just get a normal vacuum clear it is more likely to work without connectivity issues.

 

 

[richardmorris]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:19 AM, loserone said:

I found most of my quotes on the Xantia were four figures except Sheila's Wheels who were £300.

I'm 38, married with kids.  Mental.

I think it’s availability of body parts from Citroen. Ie none.

[cobblers]

5 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

The worst part is I have a slide hammer, I just don’t have an adapter to take it to M8 thread.

What's it on? On a 106 it was always a running joke that you could ever just pull a torsion bar out, even 15 years ago. We always had to beast them out of the other side with a drift and a full on sledgehammer, and even then we've nearly knocked cars off axle stands with the sheer force required.

[Talbot]

If it is a 106/306/AX/Spaxo/any other PSA nonsense with torsion bar rear suspension, the trick is to have absolutely no load on the splines of the bar, which usually means removing the trailing arm from the bar in question.  The slightest hint of load/torque on the splines and they lock solid.  Useful, as that's the only thing really stopping the trailing arm from coming off, but it does work REALLY well.

TBH I would be welding something up so you can use your slide hammer.  Or do as Cobblers suggests above and get the big guns out...

[Metal Guru]

WBAC have achieved the impossible. New ads with the “I sold my car…” dances even more irritating than Philip Schofield.

OK ad men have achieved their aim, I’m easily remembering it and the brand but these days they rarely do it with clever amusing ads,  they just set out to annoy you. 

[Vantman]

My car insurance started to get expensive when i turned 70, then even more expensive when i turned 75 and then my insurer said 'just wait until you are 80!  To be fair £400 for my V70 is bearable considering i am a stroke survivor☺️.

[Rust Collector]

10 hours ago, cobblers said:

What's it on? On a 106 it was always a running joke that you could ever just pull a torsion bar out, even 15 years ago. We always had to beast them out of the other side with a drift and a full on sledgehammer, and even then we've nearly knocked cars off axle stands with the sheer force required.

 

10 hours ago, Talbot said:

If it is a 106/306/AX/Spaxo/any other PSA nonsense with torsion bar rear suspension, the trick is to have absolutely no load on the splines of the bar, which usually means removing the trailing arm from the bar in question.  The slightest hint of load/torque on the splines and they lock solid.  Useful, as that's the only thing really stopping the trailing arm from coming off, but it does work REALLY well.

TBH I would be welding something up so you can use your slide hammer.  Or do as Cobblers suggests above and get the big guns out...

Yeah it's a ZX so PSA nonsense. The trailing arms need to come off and go on the new beam so pulling the arm isn't an issue in so much as it needs to be done anyway. There's some suitable threaded bar lying around so welding up an adaptor from that and a bolt was on the 'escalations' list, I was just trying to cheese it with the least effort possible. I did get to watch the spectacle of a spanner bouncing off both walls of the garage and somehow not go through the single glazed window/my face after I gave it an ill advised croquet swing in frustration. Going ham and cheese from the other end with a drift and sledge hammer sounds like a good shout, I'll revisit the situation this evening.

[cobblers]

2 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

 

There's some suitable threaded bar lying around so welding up an adaptor from that and a bolt was on the 'escalations' list,

Don't waste your time with threaded rod, it's always cheese grade super soft stuff (4.8 grade) and will stretch and pull the threads out of the torsion bar. You need a proper 12.9 hard bolt to have half a chance!

[Rust Collector]

4 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Don't waste your time with threaded rod, it's always cheese grade super soft stuff (4.8 grade) and will stretch and pull the threads out of the torsion bar. You need a proper 12.9 hard bolt to have half a chance!

I'll have a look around for one that isn't now a banana 😅

[myglaren]

1 hour ago, Vantman said:

My car insurance started to get expensive when i turned 70, then even more expensive when i turned 75 and then my insurer said 'just wait until you are 80!  To be fair £400 for my V70 is bearable considering i am a stroke survivor☺️.

Oddly enough, mine got cheaper year on year.  Perhaps as my son is on it too.

My grandson's reduced considerably when he put me on his insurance.

[motorpunk]

Bloody insurers increased my renewal by 100 and took the money despite me having not ticked 'auto renew'. On hold forever. Finally they agree to refund the money in full, can't match the price that everyone else has quoted me (100 less than them, and the same price I paid last year), so I pick the cheapest meercat, pay in full, then have to create a bastard account online to "chat" with them to remove the auto-renew function, and I am 23 in a queue. 23 in a fucking queue to talk to a bot. My custom is worth so little?

Also, BMW is twice the price to insure as my Elise, why?!!!!

[JMotor]

2 hours ago, motorpunk said:

Also, BMW is twice the price to insure as my Elise, why?!!!!

Some insurers won't touch BMW's at all. 

Think because they are viewed as higher risk now?

Was quoted more on my Altezza, because it was my first "high performance" rear wheel drive car. Sucked it up and paid up the extra. Because the company I was using to insure my last hot hatch  with wouldn't entertain the replacement for the same reason. Got a refunded the left over policy term and they wavered the cancellation fee because they couldn't insure it.

[Ghosty]

Our dentist's chucked my family out and cancelled any future appointments as they're going private only. Could have seen it coming really as they kept trying to sell people on cosmetic procedures, and once gave me the somewhat baffling advice that using mouthwash is pointless.

This is after having to find another dentist when our original one retired, and sold all the patients to a practise in a converted council house in the middle of Hattersley, who proceeded to fleece everyone with expensive, over-frequent checkups.

I think my new work offer something on dentistry though so I'll have to look into that.