The grumpy thread

[AnnoyingPentium]

3 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

HOW EFFING MUCH?! I'm 144g/km and was £170. 😬

Edit: Oh wait.

Update - some of us will be a tenner lighter, like myself.

[Soundwave]

So, turns out the fan heater I use for drying my washing indoors has developed a fault. Unfortunately the first symptom of faultiness was giving me a fucking electric shock big enough to set off the trip switch and knock me onto my arse. Got a hell of an arm/shoulder ache now. Just glad the trip switch kicked in TBH.

Aforementioned fan heater is now set to go in the bin, with the plug cut off and "DEFECTIVE" in sharpie on the front, so nobody "rescues" it from the bin and takes it home. I think I'll get one with a plastic outer casing next time...

[mitsisigma01]

On 1/10/2022 at 5:53 PM, Pieman said:

I like cleaning cars that are so fucking filthy you can barely see any of the interior or work out what colour they are supposed to be, and it's oddly satisfying to watch.

EDIT ; I might of slightly misquoted Pieman  but ...

Come on down , all mine need washing, cutting back ,polishing ,waxing , m.o.ting ... I draw the line at a damp sponge every few years whether they need it or not . Mug of tea and biscuits supplied 👍🏿

[paulplom]

19 hours ago, motorpunk said:

I am really, really getting the pip with local garages. 

Same here since my last garage man retired. Used him for twenty years and he'd usually drop everything to get my van back on the road. Cheap as fuck but it was family ran and I'd take them cakes and stuff in. Gutted when he packed in three years ago.

It's been a fucking minefield since. Totally shit service and a Can't be arsed attitude backed up with fucking lies. I got one to do the belts and water pump on my last saab for £450. Went to pick it up with all the fans running flat out. It sounded like a fucking jet fighter. Complained to the manager who brought the mechanic out. It was already doing than when you dropped it off. Bare faced lied to my face and called me a  fucking liar. I demanded he inspected it and found he hadn't plugged a temperature sensor in. No apologies or fuck all. Fucking wankers.

I found a decent one about a year ago and I've struck up a matey rapport with him. He's been sorting my stuff out and returning it quickly including fitting a new carb to my sons 1986 honda vision. I don't mind paying the price I just want honesty and service.

The problem is they're all so busy they don't give a fuck if they upset you and you don't go back. I've been in business 19 years come the 25th of this months and my work is 99.999% repeat business. It's very rare I work for a new customer. It's all about the customer service. Most customers don't even ask for a quote they just trust I'll do the job and not rip them off.

[horriblemercedes]

16 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

Mate just sent me the 2022/2023 VED rates.

Not good reading...

 

First year rates. The surcharge ones will only be the first year price and then drop over the next five years until the car reaches a lower rate where it remains for the rest of its life.

 

Basically on new cars that are expensive or produce higher amounts of CO2, tax is higher in the first five years. After that, it's lower.

 

 

[3VOM]

11 hours ago, Soundwave said:

So, turns out the fan heater I use for drying my washing indoors has developed a fault. Unfortunately the first symptom of faultiness was giving me a fucking electric shock big enough to set off the trip switch and knock me onto my arse. Got a hell of an arm/shoulder ache now. Just glad the trip switch kicked in TBH.

Aforementioned fan heater is now set to go in the bin, with the plug cut off and "DEFECTIVE" in sharpie on the front, so nobody "rescues" it from the bin and takes it home. I think I'll get one with a plastic outer casing next time...

That doesn't sound either good or correct. I thought the trip should work fast enough so you didn't notice any shock. Where are our electricians?

[Angrydicky]

14 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

HOW EFFING MUCH?! I'm 144g/km and was £170. 😬

Edit: Oh wait.

Update - some of us will be a tenner lighter, like myself.

Can’t believe I’m the first one to ask this, but what about pre 2001 car tax? I can’t find anything on it at all.

Not interested in these newfangled cars.

[AnnoyingPentium]

11 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Can’t believe I’m the first one to ask this, but what about pre 2001 car tax? I can’t find anything on it at all.

Off the Gov webpage...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-2021-overview-of-tax-legislation-and-rates-ootlar/annex-a-rates-and-allowances#indirect-tax

[Angrydicky]

Thanks. Robbing bastards!

[AnnoyingPentium]

3 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Thanks.

Glad to be of service.

3 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Robbing bastards!

Agreed. They're trying to rob us of our shite, the absolute bas- what do you mean this isn't the place to get political?!

[sierraman]

Does anyone else get nagged to death over running a banger. Had a bit of agg yesterday with our car, not the end of the world (I hope...) but it was incapacitated by a coolant leak, bit of a fucker but hopefully £120 of bits and it should be back on the road. Anyhow the comment of ‘simply get a new car on lease’ always comes round. It fucks me off for a variety of reasons that people assume I’ve got a spare £200 a month to rent a car with or like the idea the car I’ve got is within my budget and if I was out of work then I’d be owing to nobody. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

Does anyone else get nagged to death over running a banger.

Aye, but not from the other half I don't have but from my mates. Telling them they can "fucking walk" usually shuts them up.

[sierraman]

Just now, AnnoyingPentium said:

Aye, but not from the other half I don't have but from my mates. Telling them they can "fucking walk" usually shuts them up.

Funnily enough the wife doesn’t give a shit about cars so long as it gets us from a-b

[reb]

When I worked as a delivery driver people often asked why I didn't lease something "reliable" (usually when whatever snotter I was driving had given up for the day) and my usual answer was "because I'm £15000 in debt". This sometimes elicited a lecture on fiscal responsibility from someone who spent all of their disposable income on financed shit.

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, reb said:

When I worked as a delivery driver people often asked why I didn't lease something "reliable" (usually when whatever snotter I was driving had given up for the day) and my usual answer was "because I'm £15000 in debt". This sometimes elicited a lecture on fiscal responsibility from someone who spent all of their disposable income on financed shit.

‘Simply finance a new car...’ is the really helpful answer you get from behind the copy of the Daily Mail. 

[reb]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

‘Simply finance a new car...’ is the really helpful answer you get from behind the copy of the Daily Mail. 

Interestingly the one Daily Mail reader we had also drove old shitters so was the one person who never told me to finance something.

[Zelandeth]

Rookie error of the day.

Just been taking apart a key fob which had been taped up with a combination of electrical tape and duct tape.  Both of which have been on there long enough to start to decompose into the stickiest goo known to human kind.  Which is now all over my hands, desk, keyboard, phone, probably in my hair and on basically everything else within a 500 metre radius it feels like.

Now to play cleaning product bingo to find whatever dissolves it but not the thing I'm trying to clean. 

Knew I should have worn gloves.  Rookie mistake.

[Angrydicky]

WD-40. Seriously, best sticky stuff remover known to man.

[AnnoyingPentium]

I used Windolene but you can't get that on plastic with writing on it.

[Timewaster]

Another vote for WD40 here. 

 

Don't know how it dissolves glue without being a solvent, but it does. 

[High Jetter]

Ambersil label remover is pretty good stuff and doesn't damage much. Takes printer ink off those silver labels-on-a-sheet though. CPC are among the good stockists.

[Mr Pastry]

27 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

Another vote for WD40 here. 

 

Don't know how it dissolves glue without being a solvent, but it does. 

WD40 is only a mixture of light oil and white spirit.  White spirit is the solvent, so you could just use that.

[jakebullet]

I may* have made a mistake saying it's "bubbling pot of spite for tea today?"

The clue is in the name, SLOW cooker. They're not called "Stick it on at 2 pm on turbo mode". That would be silly when they could just call it "brown, inedible".

[Fumbler]

7 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Off the Gov webpage...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-2021-overview-of-tax-legislation-and-rates-ootlar/annex-a-rates-and-allowances#indirect-tax

+2 on the robbing bastids comment. That's £360 I won't see in any form ever again.

[Markeh]

The irony is I've got the opposite problem, I finance a new car and some of my friends are the ones who roast me about spending x amount of money on a car a month or taking the piss should something go wrong with it. Didn't get nearly the same amount of stick from them when I had the Megane. It's not as if they're into older cars either, the worst culprits have a financed (albeit much cheaper and bought second hand) 17 plate Sportage!

[Borsuq]

Shed withdrawal is definitely kicking in now. The FSO and Fiat, together with the CLK and Transit have been squirrelled away since November and I'm now really itching for a drive. It makes me a bit depressed that it's still probably going to be at least 3 more months before the weather is good enough to dig the Fiat and FSO out again.

The dangerous bit of that is, not being able to drive what I already have draws me in to the classifieds in search of more automotive shite. God help me if I end up with a Żuk or a Tavria by the end of winter. I've already come close once.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Peel here? Okay.

FUCKING PEEL HERE?! WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF IT?!

[Out Run]

17 hours ago, sierraman said:

Does anyone else get nagged to death over running a banger. Had a bit of agg yesterday with our car, not the end of the world (I hope...) but it was incapacitated by a coolant leak, bit of a fucker but hopefully £120 of bits and it should be back on the road. Anyhow the comment of ‘simply get a new car on lease’ always comes round. It fucks me off for a variety of reasons that people assume I’ve got a spare £200 a month to rent a car with or like the idea the car I’ve got is within my budget and if I was out of work then I’d be owing to nobody. 

The neighbour two doors up once asked me - unlike him and out of the blue - why I hadn't scrapped my 1992 Toyota, yet.

He seemed perplexed when I said it would be here long after his Outlander PHEV was reborn as a Zanussi.

It's mad how many people think it's the sane thing, to pay out for a car every month, until it is 'fkd m8'  and then repeat the process forever more.

[Borsuq]

17 hours ago, sierraman said:

Does anyone else get nagged to death over running a banger. Had a bit of agg yesterday with our car, not the end of the world (I hope...) but it was incapacitated by a coolant leak, bit of a fucker but hopefully £120 of bits and it should be back on the road. Anyhow the comment of ‘simply get a new car on lease’ always comes round. It fucks me off for a variety of reasons that people assume I’ve got a spare £200 a month to rent a car with or like the idea the car I’ve got is within my budget and if I was out of work then I’d be owing to nobody. 

When I first started driving the Navara to work our health and safety lady commented that she was glad I finally got rid of the silver POS (my CLK). Bit rude that. I still have the CLK and still drive it to work throughout the summer.

[Dead_E23]

If someone was cheeky enough to offer me advice of that type, I'd ask them whether they think it might be a better plan to use up their whole ISA allowance with stuff like index trackers before putting money into a diminishing asset like a car.