The grumpy thread

[theorganist]

May be hard to defend your case when you drove into the back of him though, as that usually makes it automatically your fault in the eyes of many people, although from the pics there's obviously much more to it than that!

 

I suppose the fact that they pulled from a secondary road onto a main road would be in his favour. Surely the police report will provide evidence in his favour.

 

Looks a nasty one glad you are okay though and great shame about the car.

[M'coli]

May be hard to defend your case when you were driving an old car, as that usually makes it automatically your fault in the eyes of many people, although from the pics there's obviously much more to it than that!

EFA. "In a new car, he'd have been able to stop because it would have ABS and all sorts of other things that make you safe, innit". The driver was probably having an argument with his passenger and just pulled out...

[Negative Creep]

Thanks ashmicro, the dvd drive is brand new so hopefully ill have time to pop back to the place i got it from tomorrow. It still has a pci network adaptor with a broken antenna but i need to drill out the casing rivets to get it. Then theres the previous utterly useless software from the old wirless adaptor, which you need to be online to uninstall (great logic there). I can only get online now with my phone and xbox neither of which will download drivers.

 

 

 

The whole thing is the computing version of a "drive until the MOT runs out" car

[Lord Sterling]

Damn A5! Sorry to see that. Not nice being in an accident, I should know.

 

At least your Ok and everyone else was. Stick to your arguement, dont let the Megane lot win.

 

'OMG, THAT OLD CAR WILL BE CRAWLING ALONG, BETTER GET OUT IN FRONT OF IT...'

 

Sadly that seems to be the attitude of many drivers today, not just with old cars, but small cars too, if I take the K11 Micra out I can almost certainly guarantee someone will pull a seriously dangerous manouvre just to get in front of me, If they cant they usually try and bully me out of the way by flashing thier lights and tailgating me. Sign o' the times I'm afraid.

[maxpower]

they usually try and bully me out of the way by flashing thier lights and tailgating me. Sign o' the times I'm afraid.

 

that's why i have a pile of 1p coins in my car....it's amazing how they back off when the queens head is chipping at their paintwork

[autofive]

they usually try and bully me out of the way by flashing thier lights and tailgating me. Sign o' the times I'm afraid.

 

that's why i have a pile of 1p coins in my car....it's amazing how they back off when the queens head is chipping at their paintwork

 

 

great idea

 

Thanks for the concern everyone, but im okay and the Cortina only owes me around 400 quid, so im not damaged financially either - thats the beauty of running shite, instead of a 25K shiny car on the never-never

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm coming to this one late but I'm glad you're ok. Shame about the car though, I believe they're not making Cortinas any more.

 

The one that irritates me (on the subject of being overtaken in old cars) is when someone overtakes me when I'm driving at the 30 limit then proceeds to sit in front of me at 45 when the limit increases to 60. Why do that?

[autofive]

I'm coming to this one late but I'm glad you're ok. Shame about the car though, I believe they're not making Cortinas any more.

 

The one that irritates me (on the subject of being overtaken in old cars) is when someone overtakes me when I'm driving at the 30 limit then proceeds to sit in front of me at 45 when the limit increases to 60. Why do that?

 

ahh the taxi-habit - it seems all taxis like to travel everywhere at 50mph, in a 30mph zone, or a 60mph road.

whats more annoying when driving an old car is the number of times i pull out to overtake someone, get alongside and then they decide to speed up

[Cavcraft]

I'm coming to this one late but I'm glad you're ok. Shame about the car though, I believe they're not making Cortinas any more.

 

The one that irritates me (on the subject of being overtaken in old cars) is when someone overtakes me when I'm driving at the 30 limit then proceeds to sit in front of me at 45 when the limit increases to 60. Why do that?

 

I get this all the time, what is it with 45mph? Bugs the heck out of me when people do it.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I get this all the time, what is it with 45mph? Bugs the heck out of me when people do it.

 

I've been known to do this, although in a less pronounced fashion.

Example: 2-lane dual carriageway...Average speed camera with a 50 limit in roadworks. Both lanes moving at about 48mph. I flash a 3-4 people out of the way and stick my cruise at 56 (still pretty much within the margin of error, no chance of being caught "speeding", let alone by the average speed camera that has to account for things like lane changes and whatnot). 4 miles later, the roadworks finish and I still have my cruise set at 56 (in a 70), getting overtaken by confused and/or upset drivers.

[garethj]

May be hard to defend your case when you drove into the back of him though, as that usually makes it automatically your fault in the eyes of many people

I’m sure the highway code says something about pulling onto a major road only if you don’t make the oncoming car change speed or direction.

 

But who takes any notice of that nowadays?

 

Glad you're ok.

[barefoot]

The 'folk pulling out in front of you thing' is amazing when driving the VW T2 camper.

It's over six feet tall & bright ORANGE

& as everyone knows it will stop on a sixpence from its cruising/max speed of about 55mph

 

I sometimes wonder if the Cloaking Device is jammed on

[mk1_4dr]

May be hard to defend your case when you drove into the back of him though, as that usually makes it automatically your fault in the eyes of many people

I’m sure the highway code says something about pulling onto a major road only if you don’t make the oncoming car change speed or direction.

 

But who takes any notice of that nowadays?

 

 

No-one, judging by the drivers round here.

 

Im pretty sure Charlotte thinks Im crazy with the way I end up cursing and ranting at other drivers almost every single time we're out in the car.

 

Pulling out at junctions and not speeding up, not stopping and letting traffic flow when an obstruction is on their side of the road and not giving way to uphill traffic on narrow roads. All bad driving habits that really grip my knackers.

[CreepingJesus]

Sorry to hear about this A5, that's a real shame for the 'Tina, but at least you live to see another day.

 

I’m sure the highway code says something about pulling onto a major road only if you don’t make the oncoming car change speed or direction.

 

It will be in there, and it's definitely in the Roadcraft: I can't quote chapter and verse on them, but I will say this...

I failed my first car test on that point - pulling out of a junction too slowly. Because, as the tester explained, that is how these sort of accidents happen. In my HGV tests, the examiners actually went thro' a spiel about not causing anyone to 'modify their speed or direction of travel'.

If the Roadcraft's anything to go by, an accident resulting from a situation like this, could be classed as careless driving. Don't quote me tho'.

[Angrydicky]

 

Sadly that seems to be the attitude of many drivers today, not just with old cars, but small cars too, if I take the K11 Micra out I can almost certainly guarantee someone will pull a seriously dangerous manouvre just to get in front of me, If they cant they usually try and bully me out of the way by flashing thier lights and tailgating me. Sign o' the times I'm afraid.

 

That's exactly the problem I have when driving my Austin A35 (both small and old), I bet Wuvvum has similar problems when driving his Renault 6. OMG IT'S AN OLD CAR I MUST BE IN FRONT OF THAT. Yesterday I got it back on the road and took it for a nice long run, I'd got less than a mile before my rear view mirror was filled with an Audi Q7 driving far too close behind me, and about 10 minutes later I had to slam on the brakes as a muppet in a new 7 Series just ambled out in front of me from behind a car turning right from a one way street on the left. Really puts me off driving it to be honest

[wuvvum]

I bet Wuvvum has similar problems when driving his Renault 6.

Funny you should say that, I had that exact problem on the way up to the bubble car museum meet. Some bellend in a Sedona pulled out in front of me on the A17 while I was doing 60. Fortunately there was nothing coming the other way so I just pulled out and overtook. He then started flashing his lights and gesticulating at me. I made sure to pull up alongside him at the next roundabout and wound my window down to enquire as to what his issue was - I didn't get an answer, he just floored it and buggered off in a cloud of diesel smoke.

[trigger]

Oh shit, I'm only just caught up with your accident A5, Like the others have said I'm glad your ok, I wonder how you would be though if the cortina had a airbag?.

[meggersdog]

Yesterday an old drinking buddy phoned and asked if I'd look at his wife's car.It's a Ciitroen Pick arsehole and was spraying petrol all over the engine.I went round to see what the problem was.There was a locating clip sitting on top of the injector and not holding the fuel rail on like it should be doing.The pressure had dislodged the rubber sealing ring.

I had to remove the coil pack to get at it but after lifting the fuel rail off the sealing ring was fine and the clip wasn't broken.After refitting everything the car wouldn't start.Thinking I'd flooded it I removed the coil pack again and began taking the plugs out.Matey's wife turned up as I was removing the third sparkplug.She said it's probably out of petrol as her husband had only put half a gallon in to get the car home.(it was out of fuel).She also said the car had some MOT work done two weeks ago and the mechanic had replaced the 'plugs.They were indeed new,she peering into the engine bay and came to the only logical conclusion as to why the clip was off."so the mechanic dislodged the clip when he relaced the sparkplugs then" she said.

My grump is not the fact I missed out on the MOT job but the so called mechanic couldn't be bothered to check his work before handing the car back to the customer.There isn't a lot of room between the 'plugs and the fuel rail and I can imagine he caught the clip with his ratchet.Luckily there wasn't much fuel in it when leak started as it could quite easily have caught fire.

[CIH]

I did the pull out on someone thing last year. At the RR meet, noless. Just totally misjudgehow far away and how fast the other car was going. One of these things you can't imagine yourself ever doing, y'know ?

 

For what it's wroth I've paid the price being stuck in this awful little valley for 12 months with no way to get about and I've yet to see how much insurance will be for my Silvia....

[ashmicro]

Grump: my mate's just had to walk 6 miles home from work after a 12 hour shift because of cowardly bastards causing bombscares all over Belfast. I couldn't even give him a lift as both the motorway and main road between me and him were closed, the only 2 routes.

[autofive]

further cortina grump

 

scary pointed out today my steering wheel damage - i must have braced for impact, and now the wheel is bur'gered

 

[ashmicro]

^^ something similar happened to Stirling Moss, so you're in good company. Good to hear you're reasonably OK.

[trigger]

More classic cars have turned to ash

 

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/ ... ard_blaze/

[M'coli]

We currently have no working phone on the landline, but the internetz is alright - don't know how that can happen . That's not the grump, though. When I phoned the fault in, they ask you for the number of the line you're reporting, so I typed in my number. Then the automated system "says" it back to you and asks if it is correct - which of course it can't be, because the system says " Oh-one-nine-three..." etc., whereas my phone number is "Zero-one-nine-three...", or even "Naught-one-nine-three...", I did NOT type in an "oh".

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Dealing with callcentres tends to be a frustrating experience, plus they tend to record everything but get really nervous if you tell them that you're recording it.

Much easier to sit down with a cuppa and write an e-mail (extra points for including a couple of obscure words and/or thinly veiled insults).

[Guest]

Dealing with callcentres tends to be a frustrating experience, plus they tend to record everything but get really nervous if you tell them that you're recording it.

Much easier to sit down with a cuppa and write an e-mail (extra points for including a couple of obscure words and/or thinly veiled insults).

 

Most call centre staff deal with those as well. Been there, done that, shouted at the management. FWIW most of the monkeys there are restricted in their responses because of company policy. A third of them, admittedly are idiots.

 

When I worked on emails at work I failed an evaluation because my response was deemed to be 'too detailed'. There was also the sorry saga of my mate at o2 who speaks German fluently.

One day a dual language Austrian customer rang in, and because his English wasn't particularly strong my mate took the rest of the call in the customer's native tongue. You would think that being attentive to the customer's needs would have earned him Brownie points, but no. He got battered for 'call script deviation' [call not conducted in English], despite the fact he got the person in question to renew their contract at a time when he was considering binning it (because of poor customer service). o2 kept that customer on and saved the retention team a job, but the idiots behind the scenes (no doubt tugging one off into an Excel spreadsheet) decide to shoot Jack's head off because he poked it above the parapet.

 

Two weeks later he found a better job, and wrote them a resignation letter. In German.

 

I'm not trying to excuse call centres in any way - they truly are the satanic mills of the 21st century. Within their walls of pointless bureaucracy there are some who try, albeit in a minority. Well, until they leave or end up telling the management to ram it.

[Guest]

Also, commiserations to Autofive. It must be gut wrenching when some daft bastard pulls out in front of you. Sadly, most of Autoshite's featured Cortinas have a rather high attrition rate.

 

Loving the alien skull gear knob by the way.

 

I know you wouldn't (as you seem really clued up), but don't let this arsehole's insurance assessors under-value your car because it's 'old'. I worry what I'd get for the Amazon if some claart on a modern car policy wrote it off.

 

When some grunting meat head stuffed his C4 into SCTSH_ANDY'S 900 Carlsson, they tried for ages to fuck him over with a £400 payout, and wanted to write the car off completely 'because the wheelarches are rusty'

 

Eventually, after kicking up a massive stink [and discovering the shell was actually bent beyond economic repair] he got them to pay £2000 out and the car was written off, sadly. 'Sadly' because it was a rather wonderful car. At least the dick head who clouted him would have been battered with a massive premium increase.

[Alexg]

WHY THE FUCK IS TAYNE DELETING ALL HIS POSTS????!!!!!

[Cavcraft]

Ah bloody hell, another decent poster bits the dust. I thought things were getting better too

[Pete-M]

WTF can we do other than plod on?

 

It's getting ridiculous that the whole place is going to shit because of one or two people decided it didn't fit their idea of what it should be.