Bringin' On Back The Good Times!

[yes oui si]

On 23/03/2025 at 09:40, eddyramrod said:

Forgot to tell you about this on Friday....

I parked in town for a meeting.  When I came back to the car, there was some random oddball chap photographing Desmond!  He said he hadn't seen one in ages, I told him I think I've got the only one on the road in Barrow.  His Omega memories were of a light-gold estate.

Nice to be a celebrity!

Coincidentally, a friend has just got this:

[danthecapriman]

I wonder what became of the silver Omega Elite estate @dollywobbler had from my brother in laws dad, that was sat on the driveway with my Volvo? 
That was a nice car, even better after the leaky diesel pump was sorted out.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

I wonder what became of the silver Omega Elite estate @dollywobbler had from my brother in laws dad, that was sat on the driveway with my Volvo? 
That was a nice car, even better after the leaky diesel pump was sorted out.

Deaded in 2023 by the look of it...

[eddyramrod]

Was the Sprite Musketeer savable?

[danthecapriman]

3 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Was the Sprite Musketeer savable?

As far as I know, it went to the same person as the Wolseley to be restored too. I know the Wolseley has changed hands since and is absolutely mint now but no idea if the Sprite was ever done. I can’t imagine it’d be easy to find out either. 
When I saw it, it didn’t look particularly bad condition. Mostly just algae and moss but I don’t know for sure. Obviously if it’d leaked unseen then it might well have been a goner. Rotten floors and roofs are usually the killer.

[eddyramrod]

You know how I failed on one of the required elements?  Well here it is.

Since I collected this car, I only filled the tank once, and that was far enough after the collection mission that I forgot to do this.  So on Friday, preparing for my weekend away, I filled up again.  There y'go.

Also since I collected this, I haven't seen another one.  I'm pretty certain it's the only one in Barrow, certainly on the road.  Last week I actually caught someone photographing it in a car park!  We're not the only car-loonies out there.  So yesterday I drove down to Chester (130 miles) and again, failed to see another one.  Yesterday and today I've been driving around the Chester area, both within and without the city, and still not seen another one.  Today I also drove the 130 miles home, and again, the only Omega in sight was the one I was driving.  I'm beginning to suspect they're rarer than we might think.

[Dave_Q]

648 total taxed Omegas left if my quick count of all the variants is right.

Based on howmanyleft data so very unlikely to be 100% accurate 

[eddyramrod]

Another rival parked in my street yesterday...

Now I'm not entirely "up" on the various generations of Mercedes, but I do know this is a C220 because it says so on the back.  I also know it can't be any older than N-prefix, which is fine, the mk1 Omega was on the market by then, and I don't think it'll be much younger because I've already parked him with a younger Merc.  The only question really is, would a C or an E be a more likely rival?  I suppose I'll have to park by an E, if I can find one, to check!

[lesapandre]

Price-wise a C would have been more of a rival - the E's were comparatively more expensive by quite a bit.

It has non-standard wheels - possibly AMG copies.

[EyesWeldedShut]

On 30/03/2025 at 22:47, eddyramrod said:

Today I also drove the 130 miles home, and again, the only Omega in sight was the one I was driving.  I'm beginning to suspect they're rarer than we might think.

I had a gold, 2-litre auto estate on a T plate back in 2010 down in Devon. I don't recall seeing any others on the road even back then.
Since then I have only seen one 'in the wild' which was a very late V6 estate owned by a guy who worked next door to the local LPG place here - it was rather nice (all black, leather seats to die for etc etc) - and he ran it on LPG.

[eddyramrod]

I've just been on DVLA's site.  Desmond is now registered with E5 MBX, the plate I won in a Roffle some weeks ago.  Insurance notifed too.  Zero cost, and on a Bank Holiday!  Maybe there is something to this "Progress" shizzle after all...

 

So this afternoon's job is going to be plate-fitting

[FakeConcern]

7 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

So this afternoon's job is going to be plate-fitting

With pictures I hope!

[eddyramrod]

Naturally!

 

Patience, young Padwan, patience.  I'm going to have something to eat first, then go for a little drive to make it worthwhile starting the engine before I bring the car to the back gate for the actual work.

[eddyramrod]

As promised then...

^Before. 

^During.

^...and After.

[Split_Pin]

Love the short plates. I've always wanted those but invariably someone's been in and drilled holes right where there won't be any plate covering it any more!

I've not seen another Omaga in a long time either.

Looks great!

[eddyramrod]

TBF if you look closely, you can see the holes where the standard plates were fitted.  I'm just going to ignore them.

[eddyramrod]

Desmond was a wedding car yesterday!

And here he is with the Bride and Groom...

No charge, obvs, but I was invited to the evening do and surprisingly, had a great time.  That's so unusual for me!

The Groom is a friend from Andy's Man Club.

[eddyramrod]

Last night at Man Club, the Groom passed me a little thank-you present.

Desmond now has a Mini-Me that can go everywhere with him!

Also, today, he passed his MoT.  Lovely jubbly!

[eddyramrod]

I was on my way to Andy's Man Club when I spotted this...

I mean... had to be done, didn't it?  I went round the block to park up and get the pics.  That's the only Omega I've seen since mine arrived, and it isn't even a Vauxhall!

[Low ontime]

I don’t think there is many omegas about generally,  the banger racers do like them …

[eddyramrod]

On 31/03/2025 at 07:14, Dave_Q said:

648 total taxed Omegas left if my quick count of all the variants is right.

Based on howmanyleft data so very unlikely to be 100% accurate 

 

29 minutes ago, Low ontime said:

I don’t think there is many omegas about generally,  the banger racers do like them …

I agree, see above.  648 is nothing.  It's no wonder I haven't seen one yet in the four months I've had this one.

[danthecapriman]

I haven’t seen any of either generation since I’ve been here either. They just seem to have vanished.

Its strange actually, as you see more cars around that are considerably older then cars like this. It’s as if this generation of cars are being thrown away wholesale lately. 

[eddyramrod]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

you see more cars around that are considerably older then cars like this. 

That's easy for you to say, when you look out of your front window!

But yeah, you are right there.  It's like the only person who cares about 20-ish year old cars is, well... me!  Most people just want newer and newer; 40+ is officially classic; but since before Desmond was built I've been saying that someone needs to look after the 20 year old cars  so that in another 20 years there will be 40 year old cars to admire.

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

That's easy for you to say, when you look out of your front window!

But yeah, you are right there.  It's like the only person who cares about 20-ish year old cars is, well... me!  Most people just want newer and newer; 40+ is officially classic; but since before Desmond was built I've been saying that someone needs to look after the 20 year old cars  so that in another 20 years there will be 40 year old cars to admire.

Exactly that. I can see there being a real shortage of cars from the later 90’s and early 00’s in the not too distant future (even now actually!). People are just scrapping them. 
It’s actually becoming noticeable now how few cars you see around with old style number plates. Almost everything is post 2010 and even that’s considered old now.

 

[eddyramrod]

And so it is.  2010 is 15 years ago now!  Where's it all going??????

[eddyramrod]

You know how I've been saying I hadn't seen another Omega since I got this one?

On my way to Chumley on Saturday in all that rain, I dropped off the M6 and found this in Wigan!  First photo of the weekend!

Then I found a business park in Warrington that was clearly named after my car!  But wait, the weekend's barely started....

Going through Crewe to the motorway to come home, this was my last pic of the weekend, actually Monday morning!  I wonder if it means anything that both examples I found are dark-coloured V6 estates?

[eddyramrod]

Well now... all that drama over a little* bit of exhaust!  This is what was on the car...

You can see how bad the back-box was!  It must have been really marginal at the last MoT.  And then...

These are the middle sections, from the back-box end.  Rotted right to bits.  And yet, because it has those two hefty silencers upstream, it didn't sound nearly as rough as many exhaust failures I've experienced.  I could probably have driven it round until I got pulled, but that might be expensive.

Yesterday this arrived...

...the third section!  Today I took it and the car round the corner, and tomorrow I'll pick it up, nice and quiet again.

In other news, I've paid some electronic coin to DVLA today, which will mean I can put the old number plates back on soon.

They've been in the boot all this time.  It was always going to happen.

[eddyramrod]

And here's what all that new exhaust looks like, on the car...

Next job, because I've now done all the relevant admin, was to change the number plates back.

Any appetite for a pre-Christmas Roffle for E5 MBX?

[eddyramrod]

And it's over.  Desmond has gone back to his previous owner, who will be taking good care of him.  Some of you met Mike in September, at Chumley, to which he brought his low-mileage Rover 45 diesel.

I'm already missing this car, it's one of the nicest I've ever had.