The grumpy thread

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Whilst I'm ranting about eBay I stated on the listing for my car 'Don't bother asking me how much I want, what's the lowest for cash, how much for cash toniht*, what's the reserve etc' as I won't answer you.'

 

anyone want to guess what the first question I was asked was?

 

'how much car now'

 

 

Well, he got his answer which I strongly suspect wasn't the one he wanted.

 

You should've answered "a lot of car for the money".

[Craig the Princess]

Black and sliver number plates on post '73 cars really winds me up, it's bad enough on cars '70-'73 which would have had the new-fangled White and Yellow plates, but fair enough it's your choice and it's legal.

 

It's almost as bad as Post 2001 lettering on old cars!

[boobydoo]

Black and sliver number plates on post '73 cars really winds me up,

 

Yeah and some people have black and white plates with post 2001 font. That's firing squad as far as i'm concerned.

[Negative Creep]

Does anywhere else on earth have age related vehicle plates? The whole thing is a joke anyway and just means new car sales peak 2 times a year.

 

Still, at least you can make your neighbours jealous when you park your 1.6 Astra in Avis Silver next to them

[Lord Sterling]

I have never seen a country of car enthusiasts more obsessed with the age and design of their number plates...... A lot of energy gets spent looking after British number plate authenticity.....

 

I think the reason is because although plates are supposed to be with a car from day of build to scrap, the plate design gets changed as the car goes through owners. Every now and again the Government of the day will come with some new idea about what style of font new number plates should carry and so on.

 

The rear plate on my Sterling for example has been changed to the new post-2001 Euro style plate, probably by its owner. Although strangely on the front, it retains its 1990 dealer spec plate.

 

Alot has been changed regarding number plate fonts/style over the years and many autoshiters here like a bit of originality. Getting proper style plates (As in a replica of the ones it would have come with) for the right era is just one of things us tea-drinking, bowler-hat wearers like to do here in this socialist paradise we call Britain.

 

Does anywhere else on earth have age related vehicle plates?

 

I think some other countries do, dont know which ones though.

 

Still, at least you can make your neighbours jealous when you park your 1.6 Astra in Avis Silver next to them

 

This is what its all about here, or at least this is what it has become about. I cant count the times I've heard people glee on about how they bought thier new car and had it registered just as the new 08/11 plate came out ect...

 

So what.

[eddyramrod]

Does anywhere else on earth have age related vehicle plates? The whole thing is a joke anyway and just means new car sales peak 2 times a year.

 

Still, at least you can make your neighbours jealous when you park your 1.6 Astra in Avis Silver next to them

 

Is there a car manufacturer left on the planet that issues a colour chart? Or do they all now simply say "you can have black, grey or silver, that's it." Come on guys, let's see some imagination going on!

 

As for "age-related" don't American plates have a stamp of the year of issue? Or perhaps a sticker these days...

[Cavcraft]

Black and sliver number plates on post '73 cars really winds me up, it's bad enough on cars '70-'73 which would have had the new-fangled White and Yellow plates, but fair enough it's your choice and it's legal.

 

It's almost as bad as Post 2001 lettering on old cars!

 

The bigger crime is white/yellow plates on pre-73 stuff imho. Especially when some nasty, modern (style) plate is attached to a 1950's car, and even especially-er when it's been plate raped. I actually cringe at such stuff.

[Guest]

Reflective plates were pretty much standard in the late 60s though, it's just that they weren't made mandatory until 1973. That's why in old TV shows things like MK1 Escorts and HC Vivas very rarely have black plates - they were entitled to have them, but if you were buying a new car it's doubtful the dealer would want to stick "old" style plates on it.

[Guest]

Metrolink ticket inspectors.

 

Yes, I realise fare dodgers are costing you a stack in lost income, and that the money for those new M5000 Trams and the link to Chorlton had to come from somewhere. I imagine the mayor didn't get his gold taps in his third house, or something like that.

A little tip : if you want to retain the customers you have at the current peak rate for travel (which is ball buggeringly expensive, incidentally), can you tell your ticket troglodytes to stop treating them all like they're riding on the tram for free? Currently they are far too aggressive.

A sample exchange I had today for your delectation:

 

[Le me gets on the tram, ticket in hand after nearly roundhousing the bastard as it spat my change out fitfully with the carriage filling up like a dishwasher full of shit. Le me goes to sit down].

 

TT: Ticket.

Me: Can I just sit down first mate?

TT: No. Ticket.

Me: Please, maybe?

TT: *tries to puff himself up, the scrawny little prick* Ticket.

Me [mutters 'fuck's sake' under my breath, and sits down slowly taking an age to get the ticket out of my wallet which of course has to be found and also takes a while, but still less time than the machine takes to churn change out] : There. (thrusts ticket in TT's direction).

TT: Ug. *walks off*

 

I take the tram into Uni because it drops me right outside MCUK (after a change at Cornbrook) and is cheaper and less stressful than battling through the morning traffic to Salford Quays. Today I was pitching for my practical in front of several industry controllers and two tutors. As you can imagine I was more than a bit worked up, and having a monosyllabic grunting untermensch demanding my ticket was not needed. You can only get 4 hours free parking at the Lowry if you eat in the food court, and this is impractical if I'm doing whole days at Uni, which I'm doing quite a lot of at the moment.

 

Note to Serco : Your staff need to learn some fucking manners pronto, because one of these days someone is going to lamp them. I for one won't be in the least surprised when I happens. I might even applaud. Who knows, it might even be me if I get 'spoken' to like that again. I'm sure a well aimed tripod in the back of the head could do quite a lot of damage......

[scaryoldcortina]

Norm, Serco is a private company who contract out semi-literate uniformed thugs to a variety of formerly government controlled industries. Including prisons.

[M'coli]

Norm, shut the fuck up.

[scaryoldcortina]

Actually, that's what I meant to say

[Guest]

Norm, Serco is a private company who contract out semi-literate uniformed thugs to a variety of formerly government controlled industries. Including prisons.

 

I won't even go into the two occasions their staff assaulted my friends. One got thrown on the floor for 'not paying for a ticket' when she had, and another got the shit kicked out of her in front of inspectors who did sod all to intervene but then pulled me off the chavs when I did.

 

Female chav bit me after smashing my mate's face repeatedly into the tram seat and I dragged her off in a headlock. She then kicked me several times in the shin, and I decided she was fair game and deserved a solid right hook in the face. At that point I was tackled hard to the deck and pinned while the little feral fuckers who attacked my mate got off the tram laughing and my mate was sobbing having had her nose bloodied and her glasses broken.

[autofive]

and thats why i dont use public transport

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

There is no such thing as "American" plates. We are a republic made of 50 states and a few territories. Each state and territory runs its own plate system, in whatever way it so chooses. There are 50+ different schemes, price charts, and policy sets. That way, we can change localities when a state begins to SUCK and yet still remain in America. Same for most other laws. The federalists want to amalgamate the states and force every state into conformity with a national standard. Thank god that hasn't h

 

Oh wow, 50 different "gummits".

 

That'll give you 50 times the moaning/whining/complaining.

 

And you'd probably have to pay 30 (being conservative, if not charitable, here) times the amount of people that a central government would require for carrying out simple administrative procedures such as setting out numberplate designs. GR2!

[RedSparrow]

*sighs*

 

The railways in the UK were privitised finishing about 10 years ago.

The government had to re-take control of the trains in my area because the private company had performed so badly.

In Czech republic they are still running 1970s Russian trains state owned on which you can travel for peanuts. Yes the trains are old but they are efficient, the staff are nice (even saluting trains as they pass) and they are well cheap.

My Czech lady was impressed by the look of the trains we have in the UK until she discovered the price, how small they ae inside and how late they run.

 

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

As for plates prices here. I have about 12 classics, all plated in perpetuity by the State of Ohio (once over 30 y-o) as "Historical" for around $35 - lifetime price, one-time payment. So in your "federalized" example, it would mean Idi Obumpass would do it for $1? Er, think not. In fact, he wants to ban the sale of fossil fuels, coal, gas, gasoline, and so forth, and force everyone onto bullet trains in the New Reich, modelled after successful places like France. (I'm, like you, being charitable.)

 

How long is a piece of string? With a small number of localised exceptions, the cost for anything over 25 years in "federalized", high-tax Spain is zero. And you don't even have to change your plates. Going by your own logic, this should prove that this federalizm thing is clever stuff!

 

The free market makes a lot of sense, but there is a time and place for it. You can't have 15 competing water companies digging your streets and filling them with pipes. As RedSparrow said, the market doesn't work when it comes to on-the-ground public transport (private boats and planes seem to work better, presumably because the infrastructure isn't that elaborate). It also doesn't work very well for healthcare, and, irrespective of its efficacy, is completely inappropriate when it starts touching things like policing, courts and prisons. Unless of course you're in the UAE where, from what I gather, Serco are doing some sterling work.

[RedSparrow]

grammer school.

 

*more sighs*

 

Did you make that picture yourself? Because it makes about as much sense as your posts.

Please give it a rest.

[outlaw118]

Fucking poxy piece-of-shit van broke down again last night.

(3 month old) alternator decided that it didn't want to be an alternator any more, and just wanted to be an ornament.

Cue massive FAIL on M25, resulting in me getting agonisingly close to home, (J29, home is 2 miles from J30), parked up waiting for the AA.

I told the bint on the phone where I was, and that it had run out of electricity, and it was likely to be the alternator, they sent another "approved" recovery garage out. 45 minutes later, matey turns up, jumps starts Mr Grumbly, says yes, alternator borked, I'll need to be recovered. Another hour wait.

Whilst waiting i get a cvall from recovery truck driver, apparently he's new to the area, and the AA had told him to go to junction 2 of the M25, not 29, and he was confused as the rest of the address was West Horndon.

Anyhoo, he turned up, and, I have to say, what a top bloke! GAve me a cup of coffee out of his flask, swore a lot, and recovered the van back home. SO, yesterday: Started work at 6.45am, drove to Huntingdon, had tedious meeting, left at 17.10. Broke down 18.30, home at 20.50. Bit of a long one.

Now i need to get the AA to organise recovery back to the depot and wait for a hire vehicle.

This is all doing wonders in helping me reduce my "unproductive" time....looks like i've failed this years target with 5 months left to run. GR1.94689.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

A LOT of cities contract out school bus routes BY THE ROUTE.

 

EPIC FAIL. Please look up the definition of 'public transport' and tell me where it mentions school buses.

 

It works GREAT in healthcare, the US is the gold-standard in medical research and innovation because it is a multi-vendor competitive market, that's why socialist leaders come here for their surgeries.

 

Do you really believe in this? The only current socialist leader with any sort of serious health problem is Chavez, and he went to Cuba. Unless, of course, you think your Saudi monarch pals are 'socialist'.

 

Who gets to define the "gold-standard" in medical research, and on what basis do they choose the US over Switzerland, a tiny country making a massive impact on the global pharmaceutical industry?

 

Lots prisons are successfully outsourced, as long as overseen by state officials why does that matter one little bit?

 

Because the arm's length oversight is much easier to circumvent/corrupt than an entire chain of command.

[morris_ital_lover]

The basic problem with a market driven government is profit Norm, whilst it works perfectly well in some sectors, many companies will get contracts then slash costs and most importantly services to maximise profit ... despite the fact that they were actually awarded the contract to provide the tax payer with a service and not to solely satisfy the interests amongst their shareholders.

 

Some areas, such as trains and public transport, need a hybrid system. My local trains in England are organised by the government and run by First Great Western. The only profitable routes are the commuter belt and long distance high speed lines, however we also get a decent local train service from FGW stretching all the way from the Southern tip of Cornwall to the depths of London and Berkshire that was thrown in the franchise along with the high speed lines. First still make a profit we get high speed and local trains that work. If they didn't do that there would be boogger all in the way of trains which would kill off half the west country.

 

Basically, profit is not and will not be the be all and end all of the way the world is run. Afterall aren't we in a massive financial pickle afer all of our profit seeking banks no longer found any profit out there?

 

m0rris

[Pete-M]

Indeed, governments shouldn't make profits (unless it's to pay off the billions that the bunch of idiots we've recently got rid of ran up as debt).

 

Public transport, hospitals, councils. police forces... they should not be privately run, profit making exercises. Taxes should pay for them and that's that. If the NHS and councils got rid of all their useless middle management this country would be a lot better off.

 

Also, stop the bloody public sector muppets complaining about everything. Awww, they're losing 15% of their pensions, tough shit, try working in the private sector instead of skinning the public for all you can get.

[RedSparrow]

What to do when you lose an argument:

1) Resort to insults

2) Try and back track your way out by contradicting youself 'I didn't really mean....'

3) Put in lots of emoticons 'lololo the jokes on you!!!11!! '

 

Please stop.

[Guest]

I promise never to mention Serco on any Autoshite thread ever again.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I promise never to mention Serco on any Autoshite thread ever again.

 

We LOVE serco!

[Cavcraft]

'Please stop'. Well said that man, the political debate's as well worn as the Astra/Focus one and incredibly boring.

[outlaw118]

Van-shit update.....

AA turned up at 9.50, so only 1 hour and 35 minutes after i rang them, however, the ETA originally was 10.30, so, there you go.

Boss rang for hire vehicle at 8.00am, was told it would be here BY 12.30. It's 13.05 now, still not here.

Thanks for that.

[tonedepear]

Diesel's fucking horrible. Filled up on my lunch and now have some in my eye and everything I touch smells or tastes of it. Urgh.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Diesel's fucking horrible. Filled up on my lunch and now have some in my eye and everything I touch smells or tastes of it. Urgh.

 

There's a reason why most petrol stations offer free disposable gloves!

With that said, personally I use them with any type of fuel because hundreds of people with all manner of shit on their hands touch the self-service pumps...and when was the last time you saw anyone cleaning them?

[tonedepear]

Diesel's fucking horrible. Filled up on my lunch and now have some in my eye and everything I touch smells or tastes of it. Urgh.

 

There's a reason why most petrol stations offer free disposable gloves!

With that said, personally I use them with any type of fuel because hundreds of people with all manner of shit on their hands touch the self-service pumps...and when was the last time you saw anyone cleaning them?

 

When was the last time you saw any gloves or paper towels at morrisons catcliffe?!