The grumpy thread

[ShiteRider]

I find most new "prestige cars" have these xenon/HID jobbies that are so bright i'll be driving down the road into the shadow of my own car.

[HillmanImp]

I am really lazy but keep meaning to write to VOSA about the lights on cars. I am constantly dazzled/flashed at by those bright (xenon?)  headlights everytime they hit the slightest bump in the road (Mercs for example), when several types of cars brake when approaching a turn you cant see their rear indicator as the lights surrounding it are too bright (Mito for example), the front indicators are in the middle of the car rather than on the corner so are less visable to pedestians (cant think of an example ......Pug 308?)

 

Its crazy. How can the manufacturers get away with this? They are meant to be making these cars safer but if they make these cars have 'trendy' lights rather than functional.

 

VW did do a good job on the rear lights on the Golf though which was one of the first culprits of the stupid light syndrome by moving the rear indicators to a more sensible place (although I wonder if their front indicators are in the moddle of the car now......I cant remember).

   

As far as Daylight Running Lights are concerned, I dont think they are a bad idea. As long as they are not too bright and are simply a good indicator that the car is being driven its fine. They provide a function, they can be used for 'style'* purposes but I think they do a job.

 

 

*they do look cheap

[alf892]

Trouble with DRLs is most don't put any rear lights on but they do light the dash...........so more people will drive without 'proper' lights using the little bit from the DRLs and thinking they have lights on cos the speedo is lit.

 

It has been proven on here that some mongs do hold licences so this will happen.

 

And anyway once every car has them we will be back to square one.

 

And anyone who can't see a car just cos it hasn't got DRLs should have their licence torn up

 

And soon Halfords will be marketing a range of retrofit LED shit and then stupid mongs will have then too

 

And I don't like them. So there

[cort16]

I get flashed all the time in my Merc because of I've got those bi-xenon things. Folk thing I've got it on main beam but I haven't.

[overrun]

And soon Halfords will be marketing a range of retrofit LED shit and then stupid mongs will have then too

Worry not, for Ring Automotive have Halfords well and truly stocked to the gills already!

 

How else do you think every Viper striped mk1 Scenic acquired those lovely* clearly factory fitted** 'ice blue' mong beacons?

 

"You'll never forget the first time you saw the new Renault Clio". Too true.

Those grille mounted DRL have to be the worst out there. Just the right height to blind the seeing fuck out of you.

[Spiny Norman]

To add my 2p-worth to the brake light debate, I do it in the Merc because these things have such stupid parking brake arrangements. On a normal car where setting the handbrake is a two fingered lift then I'll use it, but setting and releasing a parking brake on most Mercs, some big BMWs and (I believe) Citroen XMs is such a faff that I just CBA.

If I dazzle someone behind me, tough titty.

Being a kind, considerate motorist for the best part of 30 years has got me nowhere in terms of other road users being kind & considerate back, so fuck 'em.

 

Didn't people moan about headlamps being too bright when they started usimg these new fangled halogen jobbies back in the 70s?

[overrun]

I often drive my dads W220 and it also has the stupid parking brake arrangement.

I can still put it in park easily enough though.

 

Horses for courses. I am sure the people I don't annoy whilst queuing in traffic will find other reasons to dislike me.

 

Sometimes it's just for owning and old car. We all experience that laughable predujice.

[chaseracer]

It's always a giggle slotting a Mills-o-Matic into P while you wait in traffic, because you have to go through R. And that scares the living shit out of the bloke behind.

 

Twice.

[overrun]

It's always a giggle slotting a Mills-o-Matic into P while you wait in traffic, because you have to go through R. And that scares the living shit out of the bloke behind.Twice.

A P38 Range Rover once monster trucked it's way over my mates K11 bonnet after matey got that one a bit wrong.

 

I thought I was going to be crushed. At least we weren't blinded by brake lights though.

[beko1987]

I've caught R before a week or so after getting the XM, caught it just as it started to lurch back. Fucked off embarrasedly before matey behing could do anything! Hence N (1 up from D) and footbrake, or N and nothing if its a flat road.

[garbaldy]

Sometimes it's just for owning and old car. We all experience that laughable predujice.

By the amount of times certrain makes get slaged of on here, Some members on this very forum also has a seriouse problem with audi bmw merc and now pickups what's the difference.

[cort16]

Those Merc handbrakes are bollocks and 10 times worse when you've got a manual gearboxed car. It's still better than an electric handbrake though.

[Wilko220]

Those Merc handbrakes are bollocks and 10 times worse when you've got a manual gearboxed car. It's still better than an electric handbrake though.

It mystifies me that manufacturers persist with all this rubbish. Who ever said that an ordinary handbrake was a flawed or un-user friendly piece of equipment?

[chaseracer]

By the amount of times certrain makes get slaged of on here, Some members on this very forum also has a seriouse problem with audi bmw merc and now pickups what's the difference.

 

The forum 'hive mind' just has a very odd sense of humour, sometimes.  Dinnae fash yersel... 

[cort16]

Everyone one here hates one manufacturer or another so all bases are pretty much covered. Except vauxhalls, which we all agree are shit.

[garbaldy]

The forum 'hive mind' just has a very odd sense of humour, sometimes.  Dinnae fash yersel... 

 

 

hahaha fash never heard that for yonks

[Spiny Norman]

It's always a giggle slotting a Mills-o-Matic into P while you wait in traffic, because you have to go through R. And that scares the living shit out of the bloke behind.

 

Twice.

 

THIS.

 

Which is why I don't use 'park' if I'm just stopping at the lights. I've had people toot and flash me when I used to do that years ago when I first got an auto and gave up on it as a bad idea.

I'm also a bit wary of having someone give the car a bump while the park mechanism is engaged, isn't it supposed to be really easy to damage the wee pawl that engages on the splines in the gearbox and bits can break off causing OMGGEARBOXKAOS!!?

 

As for the foot operated parking brake, I gather our transatlantic cousins prefer them so that's why BMW, Merc & Lexus fit them to their bigger cars. (Doesn't explain the XM though....)

It seems such a waste of money though, having to tool up for two completely different sets of mechanism for RHD & LHD markets when presumably the central handbrake between the seats is universal. I always used to think that about the old Volvo Amazon I had, which had the handbrake lever by the sill to the right of the driver's seat. Not only was it a PITA to use, it needed a different set of bits for the RHD market. Don't Porsche 924s have their handbrakes in the same place?

[garbaldy]

Everyone one here hates one manufacturer or another so all bases are pretty much covered. Except vauxhalls, which we all agree are shit.

 

yes but its all the time constant name calling aimed at one make or another, it just gets a bit irritating.

 

as a car nut I can safely say there are no makes of car I hate,

there are to many cars in this world and I have only driven a small percentage of them. 

[oman5]

I LIKE vauxhalls. at least they tried to inject a bit of excitement to the range with the monaro and vxr8. to my mind the astra is also quite an adventurous design, looks as if it WAS actually designed rather than a set of requirements simply fed into a computer.

[dollywobbler]

Not unless you have weak-ass tail light bulbs and no third brake light.

Otherwise, slip that sucker into P. Or N, your call.

 

Problem is, the gearboxes don't like it when you do that. I tried behaving that way with the Merc, but it just shunted about and sounded pissed off. The handbook actually states that you should use the footbrake to hold the car and leave it in D. And yes, the handbrake is a joke. Impossible to release smoothly (though I never tried the trick someone told me of keeping your left foot on the pedal to try and release it smoothly).

 

It drove me mad, because I HATE people who keep their foot on the brake, blinding you as you bask in much wattage from their rear lights - especially some of those LED ones. I'm sure a modern Merc once gave me a sun tan. I was taught to use the handbrake if stopping for more than a couple of seconds, so this is what I do. I'll hold my foot on the pedal if I'm last car in the queue, just to alert approaching cars.

[dollywobbler]

Aye. One-marque bores really piss me off. It turns into a football-esque "our side is the best" competition. Ignoring the fact that in any given season, only one football team is the best. That's kind of how it works. I can't say I'm really loving the Golf, but it's good to get away from Frenchies for a bit. I love my Citroens, but I don't go around thinking they're the best cars in the world. They happen to be designed very much to my tastes, that's all.

[Richard]

I sometimes go through reverse before setting off from a junction to make the driver behind think I have an automatic.

[chaseracer]

(Doesn't explain the XM though....)

Strangely, it does. The XM was supposed to spearhead the Double Chevron's brave return to the world's biggest car market, but they somehow forgot to make it comply with US Federal construction & use regs, a point made very clearly on a plate under the bonnet.

 

Good work, Pierre.

 

About 30 very shady grey imports dribbled across the Pond...

[Sigmund Fraud]

yes but its all the time constant name calling aimed at one make or another, it just gets a bit irritating.

 

as a car nut I can safely say there are no makes of car I hate,

there are to many cars in this world and I have only driven a small percentage of them. 

 

I think a fair bit of the 'name calling' is tongue-in-cheek, though this may not always be obvious.

 

You must remember that 'shitters are a group of individuals who are prepared to own and drive even the most abominable four-wheeled creations of this world. If that is not evidence of someone being a car nut, I don't know what is !

[dollywobbler]

Yet the CCC's G-Section chappy owns a Renault 16 and 18 and a Maxi! I'm still hoping to be convinced that the GS/GSA is the best car ever, just as soon as I can scrape some measly pounds together.

[chaseracer]

A decent GS is a thing of sublime beauty. And Chris Salter is a top bloke.

[Lord Sterling]

Fucking weather is relenting, wanker little kids outside making too much noise right into the night, and now there is this fucking wanker twat outside who has taken to shouting and screaming in the evening to make the stupid little girls in the street giggle. This is starting to royally piss me off, I'd like to shoot the little fucker. I seriously cannot wait to pack up and leave.

 

I feel very sorry for my next-door neighbours where the noisy bastard kids have taken to sitting on thier wall, shouting, screaming as if thier fucking deaf or something.

[beko1987]

I pulled a Vax Turboforce V006 off the side of the road last week, and despite stripping it, cleaning it, rebuilding it, spunking £15 of a new brushroll, belts and filters, it decided to shit one of its rear wheels and some surrounding casing out.

 

Fuck it, its gone back upstairs until I can be arsed to half strip it again and glue it back together. Shame, it worked very well

[Barry Cade]

Brother in law picked up his brand spanking Volvo V40 R design today, and I spent a good hour leafing though the handbook, pressing all the buttons and taking in that new car smell. I really really like it and now I feel unclean. Off for a shower and 50 lashes with a dogeared copy of jalopy.

 

Also found out today that my brother is no longer being allowed to drive for medical reasons- he spends most of his life touring in his big camper van, which is gonna have to go.. His Kia Soul is going back too. I feel bad enough for him, so feck knows how he is feeling.

[vulgalour]

I was a passenger in a new Polo.  That is not the grump.  While I was the passenger, I saw a two tone beige over brown Wartburg 353 Tourist on matching beige probably Ford alloys.  That is not the grump.  I did not have my camera or even my phone camera with me, that is very obviously the grump here.