The grumpy thread

[RoverFolkUs]

50 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

#1stWorldproblem#

So, post COVID/WW3 incoming >> What has happened to the 'uber priced' £29.95 Microwave?

Joking, no, but.... Everything is £55 Best price

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304182235774?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=MdEKoPzTTki&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=0j0mh1UTRLi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 😮

You make a good point! I paid £27 for one of these, brand new, in store about 3 years ago, normal price was £40 at the time. 

Just looked and they're £70 now!? Are microwaves the new catalytic converters or something? 😂

[wuvvum]

Chip shortage innit m8.

[goosey]

5 hours ago, cobblers said:

It's probably stuck doing a DPF regen.

Surely dpf regen would hold x amount of revs for x amount of time rather than maximum revs in short bursts? 

[cobblers]

1 minute ago, goosey said:

Surely dpf regen would hold x amount of revs for x amount of time rather than maximum revs in short bursts? 

yes ordinarily

[cort16]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Chip shortage innit m8.

You wouldn't want to cook your chips in the microwave anyway. Has anyone ever had a good microwave chop?

[Zelandeth]

The undertray from the Caddy just ejected itself and was smashed into about a thousand pieces somewhere on the M1.

Yay.  No surprises that the last folks to touch it were a garage.

[beko1987]

6 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

#1stWorldproblem#

So, post COVID/WW3 incoming >> What has happened to the 'uber priced' £29.95 Microwave?

Joking, no, but.... Everything is £55 Best price

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304182235774?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=MdEKoPzTTki&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=0j0mh1UTRLi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 😮

My microwave was £0 from Facebook a few years ago. 

I mean there's a small drop of rust on the door frame and the fancy plastic chrome paint covering bright red plastic around the buttons is wearing a bit but it makes cold food warm. Out of its 73 buttons and modes I use the 1 minute, 10 seconds and start buttons exclusively 

[beko1987]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

The undertray from the Caddy just ejected itself and was smashed into about a thousand pieces somewhere on the M1.

Yay.  No surprises that the last folks to touch it were a garage.

It's probably been doing what I see alot of vag undertrays do when driving up and down the m40 and wobbling around like crazy barely a mm from the tarmac without you being aware for a short while too. 

 

[twosmoke300]

8 hours ago, cobblers said:

It's probably stuck doing a DPF regen.

That’s what I was about to say 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

It's probably been doing what I see alot of vag undertrays do when driving up and down the m40 and wobbling around like crazy barely a mm from the tarmac without you being aware for a short while too. 

 

It was definitely secure prior to last week as it was something I checked when I was under there a few weeks ago when the tracking was being done.

If it was flapping about like that I'd be very surprised if I hadn't heard it or detected vibration from it...

[beko1987]

26 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

It was definitely secure prior to last week as it was something I checked when I was under there a few weeks ago when the tracking was being done.

If it was flapping about like that I'd be very surprised if I hadn't heard it or detected vibration from it...

I think the same every time I see it TBH, but then remembering the average IQ of a modern car driver it's not surprising... The fact that it's you makes me sugest it probably did just go instantly as you're usually shit hot on that sort of thing

Is there any of it left? IE can you see where it's ripped off the fixings leaving bits of plastic and bolts in tact? If it's a clean break then I'd go with the bloody garage not doing it properly. It's a good 15 minute each way job on my car to get it on and off so I could see them skimping on it

[angle]

The key card for the Laguna has been a bit useless for the last week or so, which I filed away in the 'I need to do something about that soon' part of my brain. Went to use it today and its completely dead, to the extent I had to bust out the emergency blade for the first time. Fine, off to the supermarket for a battery. 

Get back to the car, and notice the 'this battery is baby proof' sticker. Which seems to mean that its now completely encased in plastic, and you can't just peel off the card backing. Great if you have scissors, less so in sainsburys car park. Fine, I'll use my teeth. 

*starts attacking surprisingly robust packaging*

Hmm, I wonder what that other sticker say-OHJESUSCHRISTFUCKFUCKWHATISTHAT?

According to Duracell that is Bitrex, 'the bitterest substance in the world'. Yay. I had* to go and buy a multi pack of Mars bars to try and counter the taste. 

Given that this is the access to the battery that's now in the key card:

Please feel free to quote this post when I come back to this thread in 12 months having tried to remove the now dead battery with my teeth. 

[Wack]

 these parking machines have appeared in widnes adjacent to morrisons ,I took this picture last week, they're working today , only pensioners were really confused by them , the keyboard is at waist height instead of eyeline and the letters are not much different in colour to the background keys 

 

Its designed to catch you out , put a wrong digit in and it's a £100 fine instead of £1 , what's wrong with black keys on a silver background.

[chodweaver]

Not only that, it doesn't help the 'cost of living' in any meaningful way.  The price of an MOT is fixed at about £55.  Any additional cost is due to an MOT failure - so what the government are in fact saying here is that they're happy for cars that would otherwise fail an MOT to be on the road.

If it's appropriate to associate 'strategy' or indeed 'thinking' with the policy makers, I'm guessing with a biannual test and two years for advisories to turn into reasons for failure, they expect a rise in MOT failures with a verdict of 'uneconomic to repair' and yay! another modern can be cubed, and another driver is pushed towards the PCP market because they need a car and sharpish.

As for the obviously longer periods that a vehicle may be unroadworthy, fuck it, we're only the plebs that drive or get hit by the deathtraps. The policy makers will be safe on their yachts.

#commierant

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, chodweaver said:

 

 

If it's appropriate to associate 'strategy' or indeed 'thinking' with the policy makers, I'm guessing with a biannual test and two years for advisories to turn into reasons for failure, they expect a rise in MOT failures with a verdict of 'uneconomic to repair' and yay! another modern can be cubed, and another driver is pushed towards the PCP market because they need a car and sharpish.

As for the obviously longer periods that a vehicle may be unroadworthy, fuck it, we're only the plebs that drive or get hit by the deathtraps. The policy makers will be safe on their yachts.

#commierant

 

More dodgy cars on the road won’t go down well with the insurance industry. Up go premiums by at least twice what you’ve saved on the MOT.

[beko1987]

7 hours ago, Wack said:

 these parking machines have appeared in widnes adjacent to morrisons ,I took this picture last week, they're working today , only pensioners were really confused by them , the keyboard is at waist height instead of eyeline and the letters are not much different in colour to the background keys 

 

Its designed to catch you out , put a wrong digit in and it's a £100 fine instead of £1 , what's wrong with black keys on a silver background.

Is the keyboard in ABCD layout rather than Qwerty too? The ones in Thame are like that and it always pisses me off whenever I use them. Someone had the choice to do it normally but decided to make it different just to be twats

[artdjones]

7 hours ago, chodweaver said:

 

 

If it's appropriate to associate 'strategy' or indeed 'thinking' with the policy makers, I'm guessing with a biannual test and two years for advisories to turn into reasons for failure, they expect a rise in MOT failures with a verdict of 'uneconomic to repair' and yay! another modern can be cubed, and another driver is pushed towards the PCP market because they need a car and sharpish.

As for the obviously longer periods that a vehicle may be unroadworthy, fuck it, we're only the plebs that drive or get hit by the deathtraps. The policy makers will be safe on their yachts.

#commierant

 

The Tüv in Germany is two years without mayhem ensuing.

[Dyslexic Viking]

43 minutes ago, artdjones said:

The Tüv in Germany is two years without mayhem ensuing.

What we have Similar to MOT and TUV in Norway are 2 years also. And works just fine and read a while ago that very few of the accidents here are caused by faults on cars. Having to take the car to MOT every year would be very annoying.

[Supernaut]

I get the impression that insurance companies in Germany and Norway are less of a bunch of absolute cunts who seem to have free reign to come up with reasons to print money, though.

[beko1987]

Our local green environmental group seems to have got the town council to make 98% of roads in my rural town 20mph. Gr9... 

I can see the argument for maybe 40% of the roads but nope, the entire town and surrounding areas. My opinion of maybe they should repaint all the fucked white lines on the road and clean and uncover the road signage that gets buried in overgrowth, and cut back the verges and junctions that grow tall every year 'so the bees have somewhere to go' would probably see more of an improvement in road safety got gaslit down by the electric car brigade. 

I'll be in 2nd gear at 20 then, maybe even dropping to 1st if I'm in a particularly pissed off mood. 

[RoverFolkUs]

1 minute ago, beko1987 said:

Our local green environmental group seems to have got the town council to make 98% of roads in my rural town 20mph. Gr9... 

I can see the argument for maybe 40% of the roads but nope, the entire town and surrounding areas. My opinion of maybe they should repaint all the fucked white lines on the road and clean and uncover the road signage that gets buried in overgrowth, and cut back the verges and junctions that grow tall every year 'so the bees have somewhere to go' would probably see more of an improvement in road safety got gaslit down by the electric car brigade. 

I'll be in 2nd gear at 20 then, maybe even dropping to 1st if I'm in a particularly pissed off mood. 

Brighton is a nightmare and sounds just as bad, you've got roads like they have in America coming off the A23-A27 heading towards town and they're all 20mph too!

[sierraman]

23 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Biannual MOTs...

What an utterly fucking ridiculous idea

I see plenty of cars coming in as absolute deathtraps after just one year

"will ease the cost of living"

How? The advisories system would have to be far more stringent when the problem is likely to be ignored for 2 years instead of 1... 

I maybe in favour of an MOT after 3 years, then biannually from thereonwards until the car reaches X number of years old then back to annual tests. 

They toyed the idea of increasing first tests to 4 years, that idea soon fizzled out

Crazy idea this. If you can’t afford £40 for the test get off the road.

[Agila]

12 hours ago, angle said:

I'll use my teeth.

 

12 hours ago, angle said:

Bitrex

It's people like you why warnings ⚠️ like this exist😄😄😄

On a serious note, why is the warning hidden behind where the battery would be and not on the front of the packaging.

They are a proper bastard to get in though and bloody expensive. My slk takes two of the bastards per fob.

[junkyarddog]

Here in Ireland the first roadworthyness test is done at four years old,then every two years until the car is ten years old.Then it's tested every year.

If a car is lucky enough to survive to thirty years old then the test becomes every two years again,when the car reaches its fortieth it's exempt from test.

 

[sierraman]

3 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Here in Ireland the first roadworthyness test is done at four years old,then every two years until the car is ten years old.Then it's tested every year.

If a car is lucky enough to survive to thirty years old then the test becomes every two years again,when the car reaches its fortieth it's exempt from test.

 

I don’t know about Ireland but in the U.K. there’s loads of cars knocking about 2-3 years old on bald tyres. There’s no excuse in my opinion, if you haven’t got the money to run the car legally then you need taking off the road.

[5speedracer]

2 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

What we have Similar to MOT and TUV in Norway are 2 years also. And works just fine and read a while ago that very few of the accidents here are caused by faults on cars. Having to take the car to MOT every year would be very annoying.

I suspect the average Norwegian or German might have a different perception of car maintenance than the average Brit though!

[Rust Collector]

They have bi-annual tests in Slovakia as well, and to be fair even in the rural places in the East that I've stayed you don't tend to see motors that are properly hanging in daily use anymore, it's mostly a sea of moderns out there. I'm not sure where you could gather data from, but it would be interesting to see figures on collisions due to mechanical failure in the countries that do have bi-annual test versus annual test, and also would be interesting to see the average mileage covered annually in those countries, plus the average age of car. Maybe even data for inspection failure rates too if you're going all out. You'd hope that some kind of exercise along those lines is guiding the govt decision...

I don't think there's a perfect solution really, as pointed out above it's perfectly achievable to make a new car un-roadworthy within the 3 year initial grace period so our system already has gaps. Testing standards are another point to consider - I've previously imported cars from Japan that were being sold having failed the test there, which then passed an MOT here once landed after having a fog lamp chucked on. Perhaps the 2 year tests are more stringent than the annual tests?

From a purely selfish point of view I wouldn't mind a 2 year test and keep the extra multiples of £50 a year in the beer fund, but it's unusual for me to do more than 1500 miles a year in any one car bar the Insight so a system that suits me probably isn't going to be reflective of the average car user...

[BorniteIdentity]

How many nuns and kittens died due to the extended MOT grace period during COVID? 

My feeling is those who look after their cars will continue to do so, and those who don’t won’t. I know plenty of folk who will skim around on balder tyres, but more who will continue to correctly maintain. More of interest - to me - is whether the great unwashed will now adopt a bi-annual service scheme too, as lots do a service and test at the same time. 

[sierraman]

The point is that we should be making life more difficult for people who won’t reach the minimum standards, the way of enforcing that is ensuring an annual check.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Just now, sierraman said:

The point is that we should be making life more difficult for people who won’t reach the minimum standards, the way of enforcing that is ensuring an annual check.

<two pence>

I agree. The amount of absolutely hinging cars gives me the fear. Certainly no 'nuns or kittens' were injured, but how long does it have to be before someone is because some mechanical sadist fuckwit is driving around in some shed that's bordering on lethal. As yon thread about the police complaint highlighted, it's less likely for the police to tend to these things as it once was.

If you're choosing not to keep a car meeting the bare minimum of roadworthiness then don't participate. Simples.

</two pence>