August 2003
Does anyone have a good link to similar motorcycle sites. I have a triumph sprint RS with poor lights, and want to upgrade them?
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After a previous posting I've decided on buying a Mitsubishi Galant estate. I looked on Autotrader site for prices and found the above company offering a 2001X Galant with 49000miles for £5000. This is considerably cheaper than other dealers but they claim low overheads and big turnover allow them to seriously undercut rivals. All cars are RAC inspected and this one would have remains of makers warranty. I know the saying " if it's too good to be true it probably is", but am I being too suspicious of this price, or does anyone have any experience of this company? (They're just to west of London) Read more
No, £5000 is the price for that car, although there is an "admin fee" of £138 on top. I rang them this morning to check.
Can anyone recommend a car for a 6'2" tall 17 yr old boy. Cheap to insure, up to £6K to spend. Minis etc obviously out and he won't hear of a fiesta (or skoda!). Any ideas - what was/is your first car, what insurance group is it etc, etc?? Read more
Good call twarde,
I just got my first car at the age of 20, a 306 D Turbo (same as twarde's son but with sporty bits for no extra insurance), upgrading from my mums fiesta.
It looks great, goes faster than all my mates cars and is only group 5 to insure - less than astras, escorts, golfs etc.
The only problem is bits have a habit of falling off occasionally, but so far its all accesory related rather then engine related, such as the electric window clip breaking etc, and even then, these non-crucial bits provide a good start to DIY car maintenence, my Haynes manual is well and truly covered in grease already!
Just come back from my first (proper) holiday in France and as mentioned in an earlier thread was amazed at the superb quality of the roads, courteous drivers, lack of traffic...all in all a great driving experience.
But the reason for this post was my surprise at the high cost of secondhand cars in France. During one of those idle evenings with a bottle of superb plonk and a local newspaper I started looking through the local paper. Here's a few examples of what the classifieds had:
Renault 21 GTD 1994 140K miles £2200
Renault 21 GTD 1989 200K miles £900
Renault 25 TD 1989 210K miles £850
Renault 11 1.6D 1988 no mileage £1760
Renault Safrane 2.5L 1995 no mileage £4200
Opel Corsa Diesel 1990 120K miles £1200
VW Golf TDI 2001 50K miles £12000
I've used 1 pound = 1.4 Euros and these were private ads
German and Japanese cars seemed to be a similar price to the UK but the French vehicles seemed way over the top. So if there are any LHD French makes lurking in the UK and subject to trade restrictions it's almost tempting to see if there's an opportunity to make a few pennies.
Paul Read more
Four main reasons why French cars depreciate less spring to mind. One is that France is not an island, and therefore most of it isn't as exposed to salt (and thus corrosion) as the UK. Even on the coasts, rainfall is lower, and there is a plentiful supply of cars from further inland if necessary.
Secondly, the cost of labour is lower, with most small towns having a friendly garagiste, often associated with a major manufacturer, who charges reasonable rates out of a small workshop.
Thirdly, the contrôle techique is, I think, significantly less stringent than the MoT, so a car can pass with a lower standard of maintenance.
Fourthly, there are fewer fleets uniformly dumping their cars at three years old to depress values. Even Peugeot 607s are privately owned....
Also, it wouldn't surprise me if the average cost of insurance, particularly for young drivers, was slightly lower in France. Certainly diesel fuel is cheaper, and given that people's overall level of wealth is broadly similar, the amount they're willing to spend on motoring has to go somewhere.
As for the economics of importing LHD cars into France... it works reasonably well with certain models from Germany, but from the UK it would be a nightmare, not because of any taxation or legal reasons, but because the UK market for LHD cars is specialised, owners tend to be foreign or foreign based and have connections over there when they want to dispose of their cars, and those cars that do sell tend to go to a specialised market where there is little competition and so, depsite the fact they are less desirable to most people, they actually sell at a premium over a right hooker.
This message is to remind you all that there are two threads that are available for speeding discussions.
One for speed camera discussions.
The other for speeding, mostly excluding cameras.
Mark and I would be grateful if you use these threads, rather than starting new ones each time. That is the reason why they are there.
--
Dynamic Dave
Back Room Moderator
mailto:dave_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk Read more
And again.
Been out shopping tonight with a friend to get some pet stuff.
Now I live on a cul-de-sac, on the last bend before said dead end.
Tonight, I do my usual on return. I drive to end of road, do a U-Turn, drive past my house and reverse in.
At least I tried to.
However, as I was approaching my drive on the correct side of the road (doing no more than 10mph), some blonde bimbo in a black R reg Punto comes tearing up the road at a completely inappropriate speed and stops in such a way as to block my way, indeed she nearly crashed into me, trying to cut the corner. She indicated to me to reverse so she could pass. I would have had to reverse 30 yards due to skips in the road. I indicated for her to reverse 5 yards so I could get past my drive to reverse back. She refused. The gob on her was a picture.
So we just sat in the car and waved at her to reverse, and crossed our arms.
She lost her temper and reversed the few feet necessary. Skidding her car and nearly reversed into a wall. Pity was \"nearly\" as that would have served the silly moo right.
(Had she not moved, I would have just parked the car where it was, seeing as the reverse manoeuvre I would have had to do was next to impossible!)
I was then able to reverse on my drive. She screeched past. Skidded away. In a residential area.
My friend said \"was there any need for that attitude, time of the month probably\".
Now I just want to move, the area has obviously gone downhill, with the riff raff moving in. Decent people don\'t behave like that. Read more
That's all very well, DVD, but does the fact that its an 'offensive weapon' actually mean anything? Would the police be interested if I reported it being used in a threatening way? I think not.
...and I really wish I could find it somewhere.
I get to try a fair few cars via business, but I'm getting increasingly bored with the blandness of them.
No matter what the badge, you can spot a VAG product a mile off, Mercs are Mercs, BMWs are BMWs, Hondas are top-endy, Toyotas are soullessly efficient...I could go on. Worse still, even a lot of the Italian and French stuff - a byword for individuality years ago - suffers from a bad case of 'me too' disease.
Just where are the interesting, different, quirky machines these days (even if they are less than 100% dependable).
Top marks to anyone who can flag up a modern day equivalent of the likes of an Alfasud/GTV, Citroen DS/CX etc.
Where have all these 'stuff conformity' heroes gone? Read more
Thank you, EMM. Might have known it was on here somewhere... :-)
A piece in the local newspaper I thought interesting.
20 year old lad, gets stopped for doing 93mph in a 60mph limit after trying to outrun a marked police car. He admits that not only does he have no insurance, he does not even have a driving licence.
What do you think he got when it ended up in court? Read more
As this nice young man obviously had one or two prior convictions, it is a shame the magistrates did not decline jurisdiction in this case. One of my more irascible colleagues might have taken a dimmer view of his offences. On the other hand, some of my colleagues are very liberal and may well have merely slapped his wrist. Now you know why I remain anonymous!
To try and make amends to folks I have criticised (their cars, anyway) please accept this token from HF, Volvoman, eMBe, Renault Family and all the rest. It's not awards night but I know I can be abrasive.These are good posters who have helped me.
www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/eng/papercraft
This is a site your kids will love.
You should use high quality paper and ink, but if you don't you can glue the shapes to card and paint over the colours.
I blame BL/ Triumph for this. They did a cardboard cutout of the Triumph Acclaim in the 80's and I was hooked.
Thanks for putting up with me.
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Keeping to a motoring theme
www.tinyurl.com/k9im
DVD
Well these two certainly were. The Great Trade Centre is well known for shifting highish mileage, mainstream cars from 1 to 4 years old. Anything else and it doesn't really know what to do with them.
So what was it doing with these in stock:
A 96P Polo 1.4 Harlequin (the one with the body panels in different colours) with 6,600 miles on the clock (!) and, to judge from the plate, direct from Volkswagen UK
and
A 00X Ford Falcon 4.0 Ute (car dervied pickup, about the size of an Omega) from Australia with 26k that looked like it had been worked quite hard.
Amyone care to guess at the prices? Read more
When I found it, it was up at £3k, so did someone get a bargain - I have to say, IMO, no.
Browse
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Thomo try Ronnie Cramer's site: sepnet.com/cycle/ that should give you some ideas. Especially the cult film section, although that may not help you with your bike's lights.
Incidentally I find US bike dealers far more switched and tuned in to bikers than UK ones. For the most part they do try harder. And these days with FedEx and DHL (my old outfit) shipment is a piece of you know what. My bike community is a pretty diverse lot make-wise and we get eeeevrything from the US, quick, simple, well-priced, pay on the Net, delivered to your door, all that, people who understand what you want and are nice to you.
UK seems to lack the latter in everything from banks to airlines.
Wondered for a minute if we were going to get a son of BR for mad hairy bikers with tattoos. Ah well Big G dream on.
What me, start one? It would look like www.motorcyclephilippines.com : nice biker babe pix by the way.