January 2004
financial results published by BMW and Porsche in the last 7 days show new BMW-5-series and Porsche-Cayenne ugly designs are proving a big hit!
quote from BMW results dated 27 January 2004:
All brands achieve new record sales volume levels
The BMW Group again achieved new sales volume highs for all brands. As a result of product life-cycles factors, growth picked up sharply in the second half of 2003. This was attributable mainly to the launch of the new BMW 5 Series Limousine, which became available in July 2003. By the year-end, 70,522 units of this model had been sold. In total, 928,151 BMW cars were sold during the past year, 1.6% more than in the previous year (2002: 913,225 units).
quote from Porsche results dated 23 Janaury 2004
Profit after tax will be 118.0 million Euro and will thus exceed the previous year's figure (102.0 million Euro) by 15.7 percent. These details were released by Porsche's President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking at the company's Annual General Meeting held in Leipzig today.
Group turnover up by 27.8 percent compared with the first half of the previous fiscal year (2.21 billion Euro), to approximately 2.82 billion Euro. Sales are up by 31.1 percent to a total of 32.410 vehicles, comprising 10,250 Type 911 cars (down by 25.9 percent), 5,250 Boxsters (down by 44.2 percent) and 16,890 Cayennes (compared with 1,484 in the same period of the previous fiscal year). Total production is scheduled to reach 36,510 vehicles (an increase of 31.7 percent), including 18,950 Cayennes.
For the complete 2003/2004 fiscal year the company expects Group sales to reach approximately 75,000 vehicles (previous year: 66,803) and for there to be further growth in turnover and earnings.
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I have just seen a bog standard Astra, with drum rear brakes to which somebody has fitted anodised blue perforated aluminium 'discs'! They are in some way mounted ouside the drum but under the wheel so they look like real discs (not!) Another bit of posey nonsense is signs, occasionally seen in the rear of estate cars - "Caution - Show Dogs in Transit". If I see that what am I meant to do about it? Who wants to know what they have got in their car and who cares? Read more
I saw the ultimate sadmobile last night.
A corsa sized car with a blue neon light shining from UNDERNEATH the car!
Actually it looked quite cool - almost like it was on fire, but blue!
I wonder how many people try to flag him down to point out the "problem".
Hugo
can anyone help
the speedo on my mk3 gti has decided to give up - is this a common problem on these golfs ie frying the dash??
or is it just the speedo cable - everything else works on the dash
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Possibley a fractured cable (electrical) at the gearbox speed sensor or a faulty sensor check lead as I have repaired several of these and check the sensor is not open CCt. Do not mix that up with the reversing switch that will be open cct except in reverse. If that is ok then venture into the multi connector at the rear of the speedo to ensure it is seated OK. Good Luck Regards Peter
Hi BR's, I have a Mondeo, 1994 L, that has failed the MOT on headlight alignment due to the tester not being able to "get a pattern" from the headlight. I have never heard this before, I was told that this is caused by the headlight turning yellow inside, or condensation, or something wrong with the bulb.Can any of you more mechanically minded tell me if I am being fleeced or is this pukka?
Thanks in advance. Read more
Thanks everyone.
Received a fine this morning through the post for foregetting to renew a SORN declaration. The car is on private land and has not been moved for over a year. I haven't done anything wrong.
Is this a fine for forgetting or because they dont beleive the car is off road? Do I have to pay the money grabbing s..(oops got to be careful, the moderator will castigate me for using non swear words which are commonly used)
Its getting a bit too much all this getting the motorist to pay for.......everything. victim compensation/illegal asylum seeker legal fund/Yobs holidays in the Caribbean etc etc.
Regards,
Alf Read more
Hi All,
Have just been reading this thread and thought you might like to share in my experiences of SORN.
I currently run 3 motorcycles, 2 that are exclusively summer use and 1 that I use in the winter. This involves making my SORN declarations several times throughout the year. Three times over the last two years I have recieved letters demanding fines because I had supposedly failed to make the SORN declaration. (I would point out at that I tend to keep copies of all correspondence with govt depts just out of principle!) Suffice to say that when I queried their demand it was a case of ". . . so sorry, our mistake blah, blah, blah". I wonder how many times they are successful in extorting money in this way?
Am I the only one that likes to see an engine when I open my bonnet and not some techno-supercomputer ? I occasionally browse the technical section and all I ever seem to see are posts about electronic failures and malfunctioning sensors. Are second hand cars of the future going to be more trouble than they're worth ? Read more
Pete M - excellent post and good point about the capacitors, I've seen this problem on a PC motherboard which at only 2years old had leaky caps. Turns out there had been a large batch of poorly made caps produced in China which found their way into all sorts of products.
A2B - MPG isn't really an issue given the low miles that I do, and yes it still puts a smile on my face, especially when flooring it and getting the kickdown 'just right' e.g. 4th/3rd down to 2nd. Standing starts are a bit slow, but 40mph to 90mph acceleration is great and beats most modern cars. BMW drivers especially seem to hate being outdone by a 23year old £500 'banger'!
I'm curious to know how many of them are left on the road, does anyone know if it's possible to find out? E.g. would the DVLA help out?
I can only assume that the current Corsa advert on TV is aimed at the large number of Corsa-driving boy racers, with a view to encouraging them to drive like loons. Still, I suppose that the more Corsas that are written off then the more new ones will be sold as replacements ~ perhaps there's method in the apparent madness of the advertising execs after all!
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L'escargot by name, but not by nature. Read more
The "giveaway" with the Cool Flame game on the website for the forthcoming BMW 1 series is a recipe sheet for mixing cocktails! Not too sure who their target market is - but associating drinking with cars doesn't seem to be too clever
We were unfortunate enough to be run into the back of tonight by a young lad on a scooter. Fortunately he was basically ok, and insured properly. As far as I can see we now have two options regarding getting the damage repaired - getting a dent out of the tailgate and probably a respray of that and the rear bumper. Either sort it all out through the insurance, or an agreement to sort it out privately.
Any thoughts from the backroom on which is the best course of action. Will be getting a quote from dealer tomorrow hopefully regarding the cost, but can't see it being under £500 etc.
Cheers,
Steve Read more
Had a dispo in the car, unfortunately it was at night and not a flash version ....
There's always a lesson to be learnt !
Steve
Few things move me - this did. No apologies for copying from the BBC website.
On Sunday 28th September 2003 Rachel and Richie Turk were travelling along the A4130 (on Gangsdown Hill near Huntercombe) between Henley-on-Thames and Wallingford with Rachel?s children.
Rachel, Richie and one of the children were killed after a head-on collision with a Subaru Imprezza. A red mini, with either a white roof or wide white stripes, overtook the family?s car at a place where overtaking is prohibited. The Subaru took avoiding action which led to the head-on collision. Police are now looking for the red mini.
Incident Room for Thames Valley Police: 01993 886535
On Saturday 11th October 2003 at 12.30am, Martin McDonagh was travelling along the M40 westbound between Oxford Services (Junction 8a) and the Bicester (Junction 9). He stopped on the hard shoulder to inspect some damage. As he did so he was knocked down by another car and killed.
The driver didn?t stop. The vehicle left behind a wing mirror ? thought to be from a blue Nissan Urvan. Also left at the scene were glass from the headlight and indicator and a small amount of the trim.
Incident Room for Thames Valley Police: 01993 886535
Joe Cave and his girlfriend were travelling on a motorbike on the anti-clockwise carriageway of the M25 between Junction 6 at Godstone and the Clacket Lane area at approximately 5.05pm on Friday 27th June 2003.
Witnesses report that a car was trying to match Joe?s motorbike for speed, and moving towards the central lane, from the outside lane. Eventually Joe had to swerve out of the way. The collision happened when Joe?s red, white and blue Honda swerved from lane 2 into lane 1 of the motorway and collided with an oncoming van. Joe died at the scene. His girlfriend was taken to hospital with cuts and bruises and severe shock.
Incident Room for Surrey Police: 0845 125 2222 sue me later. Read more
This morning as I was getting ready to leave for work I looked out of my house to see the gritter rattling down the road spreading its trail of salt.
As I left for work about 45 minutes later, the road sweeper took the exact same route and cleaned up the mess the gritter had made.
Nice to see some careful planning going into how my taxes are being spent!
It did put a huge smile on my face which isn't easily done at that time of the morning!!!!!
Leon Read more
Full marks to the Ian. They were indeed butterbeans, although Professor Yaffle saw through their subterfuge.
Browse
OOh and I forgot really good residules (although not sure on the new one), their own lane on Motorways etc etc.....;-)