The grumpy thread

[jonathan_dyane]

Awwww, c'mon! 5 doors beats 3 every time!

[Asimo]

Noooo, four / five doors only works on large cars!

 

On something tiny like a Golf the rear doors are too short for adults and the drivers head is by the B pillar, or behind it if tall.

[M'coli]

That's because small cars of the past weren't designed to carry 5 adults, but 2 adults and their children.  If you had adult-sized offspring, you were meant to buy accordingly.  1980s journalists whinging about small cars not having enough room are to blame.

[sporty-shite]

Awwww, c'mon! 5 doors beats 3 every time!

No. No. No.

 

I just prefer three door hatches. And tbe other one was a small bumper, which I also prefer.

[cobblers]

Saw a Mk2 Golf GTI on R-R. Got pics sent from the seller and then waited for a bit to have a chat with our Maud, seeing as money is a bit tight at Sporty Towers. Anyway, decided to buy it, went on to reply, and it's sold. Bit gutted really, as I don't think I'll get another Mk2 without paying through the nose.

 

 

I wanted that too. Hey ho!

[Cavcraft]

Saw a Mk2 Golf GTI on R-R. Got pics sent from the seller and then waited for a bit to have a chat with our Maud, seeing as money is a bit tight at Sporty Towers. Anyway, decided to buy it, went on to reply, and it's sold. Bit gutted really, as I don't think I'll get another Mk2 without paying through the nose.

 

At least you can console yourself with the fact there are better cars out there. In fact, there can't be many worse!

[trigger]

Saw a Mk2 Golf GTI on R-R.

 

Is it James red one?.

 

1990 Volkswagen Golf GTi by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[HillmanImp]

I also saw that. However I currently have a MASSIVE ERECT PHALLUS for that 728i. Have just PM'd the guy about it if some dealer with a white room has not beaten me to it.

[Wilko220]

Rescue it and I'll have a bash at fixing it, meantime I'm sure I have some reasonable cd/mp3 players in stock, I seem to recall having enough to leave a fancy sony in my last C15, well I had to give Wilko something to swear at on his trip home!

It's a fancy JVC actually - but you're right about the swearing!

[ruffgeezer]

Fucker of a thing isn't it? I remember getting it with an Ax GT and wondering why anyone would leave that in there, and then spending several weeks with it in the van wondering why I'd bothered putting it in in the first place!

[cort16]

I also saw that. However I currently have a MASSIVE ERECT PHALLUS for that 728i. Have just PM'd the guy about it if some dealer with a white room has not beaten me to it.

Noooo that's my car even though I have no money to buy it .

[drum]

That Elmer Fudd guy on Chasing Classic Cars bugs me something rotten.

[lisbon_road]

I'm curious about this bus doing 5 mpg.  I have always wondered about these hybrid buses, which I have been told work ok in London but aren't really worthwhile anywhere else.  If you got 5 mpg 'on a run', what would it get in Central London?  Hardly likely to be better.  So if a hybrid bus saves a bit, I believe they talk about 20%, it is hardly likely to be better than 6 mpg.  I just wonder what a Routemaster used to get!

 

I realise that the idea of a hybrid bus sounds quite good - an ordinary bus in central London I believe goes so slow that the emissions aren't very good as they don't get warm or something.  But on the other hand I've read that years ago with stinky diesel engines the particulates were so big that they didn't get in your lungs where now they are far smaller and get right down in our lungs.

 

If anyone knows any more about this I'd be interested.

 

And can anyone beat my muddled, confused, mixed anecdotes and half facts?

[jonathan_dyane]

I was under the impression that old style diesel engines produced all the small particulates together with the big ones, were it to be the case that they didn't produce the small particles the best thing you could do for public health would be to ban electronic engine management for diesels and go back to inline pumps...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'm curious about this bus doing 5 mpg.  I have always wondered about these hybrid buses, which I have been told work ok in London but aren't really worthwhile anywhere else.  If you got 5 mpg 'on a run', what would it get in Central London?  Hardly likely to be better.  So if a hybrid bus saves a bit, I believe they talk about 20%, it is hardly likely to be better than 6 mpg.  I just wonder what a Routemaster used to get!

 

The prototype fleet of hybrid New Bus For Londons returned 6.7mpg with Transport For London expecting the ordinary production versions to return 1mpg more than that, bringing them to just under the 8mpg TfL's press office claimed^[pdf] the Routemaster was doing.

[lisbon_road]

That's interesting, thanks. 

 

I did like the 'new' Routemaster, very distinctive.  I do wonder why we don't simply have trolleybuses though.  Seems a much simpler solution to me.

[jonathan_dyane]

The prototype fleet of hybrid New Bus For Londons returned 6.7mpg with Transport For London expecting the ordinary production versions to return 1mpg more than that, bringing them to just under the 8mpg TfL's press office claimed^[pdf] the Routemaster was doing.

What an absolute fucking disgrace.

[Inspector Morose]

The problem is one of size. To achieve the emission standards, engines have to work harder to get the exhaust hotter to get tailpipe emmisions to drop. The only way to achieve this on a urban bus (they historically had very cool exhausts due to relatively long periods of idling at stops, traffic etc) is to use a comically small engine and work it to its maximum. The reduced torque produced by these engines is compensated by ever more complicated gearboxes with more gears and a lower final drive (the Volvo B5 hybrid has a 7 speed automated manual box - compare this to the 1975 MetroScania with two 'gears' torque converter and lockup) yet still are capable of 50mph maximum (for an average service bus). The modern hybrid bus is just an extra compensator, like the gearbox, allowing for an even smaller engine to be fitted for it to work even harder, increasing exhaust temperatures further up so after treatment can be made to work reliably most of the time. (After treatment for buses have always been a little hit and miss in the past due to the variable nature of the exhaust temperatures)

 

So we now have tiny engines working their tits off with resultant pathetic mpg. In days of old buses had large torquey engined and could be geared accordingly and could achieve pretty good mpg figures. There were instances of Gardner (10.45 litres) engined Bristol REs achieving 12 - 14 mpg in urban useage.

 

Now the company I work for uses service buses as an mobile exhibition space. This means very long periods of running up and down the motorway at maximum speed (50 mph for this one). We are now getting into using more modern buses as they are low floor and can be made LEZ friendly for London. The tiny engine is really working its knackers off now resulting in a huge great fuel bill.

 

Meanwhile, in more grumpy mode. After the exhibition is finished today in Motherwell, I've to drive to base in Birmingham. 284 miles. At 50mph. Did I get a good nights sleep last night? Did I balls.

[Lord Sterling]

Brilliant.

 

After much chasing, my job have decided not to renew my contract, so once again I'm out of work and back to where I tried to get away from. Back to square one again.

 

[320touring]

Brilliant.

After much chasing, my job have decided not to renew my contract, so once again I'm out of work and back to where I tried to get away from. Back to square one again.

No you're not..you're up an 800 coupe with mot and lpg.

 

That can be turned into cash for a flat deposit etc..just need to work out what you need and what you have that you can trade/sell etc to get where you need to be.

 

What work have you done? Qualifications etc post them up here and someone may no of a job going at their work.

 

Good luck!

[chaseracer]

Mo: if you enjoyed the job maybe it's worth cold-calling similar companies, either in the UK or in France.

[Lord Sterling]

No you're not..you're up an 800 coupe with mot and lpg.

That can be turned into cash for a flat deposit etc..just need to work out what you need and what you have that you can trade/sell etc to get where you need to be.

What work have you done? Qualifications etc post them up here and someone may no of a job going at their work.

Good luck!

Cheers fella! To be honest I'm not really highly educated unfortunately. I did some IT access course years back and attempted a Video Production course where the college then mysteriously lost my work. I decided then that education just wasn't for me.

 

Since then I've worked in various factories and warehouses until getting back into more office-based administration type work. All of my jobs in the UK have been agency work despite applying for many other jobs/attending a couple of interviews.

 

Before I left the UK, my last job was working for the probation service in the education department, then I got my role at Eurocamp and was sent to France. My job in France was again administration-based but also picking/sending uniform. I did this for 4 months up until the end of June, I re-applied for the job and seeing as it was getting nearer September I chased them a few times as promises for calls were not met. I then found out that one of the senior management of whom I was in contact with had left her job and the other recruitment lady had been off sick for a while, hence the delay in the response.

 

I did ask why I hadn't got the job to be given some sort of bullshit response about me being not very good at spreadsheets/computer work despite me having used them across a number of differing roles.

 

It's not be, but I guess at the same time I'm now in a better position for importing Lady_Sterling over here.

 

I've built up administration skills and that is really what I'm looking to continue in if I can.

[320touring]

Good stuff, you've identified where you are strong-admin skills opens up a wide range of options

 

A good starting point may be looking at council administration work

http://www.jobsgopublic.com/ and http://www.lgjobs.com/ spring to mind. Bear in mind almost every council depth has an administration function need.

 

get tore in and good luck include examples of things you have worked on in your cv and try to show any cost savings/monitoring you did in each role the public sector loves a bit of that:)

[Wilko220]

Yes, there's plenty out there LS. Just your contributions to here show that you can articulate a hell of a lot better than many of the people you'll be up against when going for jobs!

 

This new government-run job search site is supposed to be good - https://www.gov.uk/jobsearch

[chaseracer]

Maybe there's an admin job for you at the car auctions, Mo 

[cort16]

All this ice bucket challenge shit is doing my head in.

[Ghosty]

I wouldn't say you're back at square one either LS - you've got one more thing you can put on your CV!

[jonathan_dyane]

And you've had fun and found a girl!

[Junkman]

The prototype fleet of hybrid New Bus For Londons returned 6.7mpg with Transport For London expecting the ordinary production versions to return 1mpg more than that, bringing them to just under the 8mpg TfL's press office claimed^[pdf] the Routemaster was doing.

 

The old Routemasters are older than the newfangled tosh, hence they are better by default.

[Lord Sterling]

Cheers lads, yes I guess I've gone and had a good time.

 

Sadly I've just woke up and found that the noisy twats I complained about last year have made a return, so whilst I've gained some experience, found my Lady_Sterling, I still feel like I've been dragged back to the hell that is here in this street in Birmingham.

 

Of course my priority now is to get a job and try and get out of here again.