August 2008

sydney the oz

Got a car on SORN ready to go back on the road, not worth a busting lot so only need 3rd party cover, but do need to tax it at the start of next month. I can drive it legally on my everyday car policy 3rd party clause (as this car is not registered to me) but have I got to insure it separately just to buy a tax disc? Or can I take my main policy to the PO and be allowed to buy my expensive little circular beermat (aka tax disc)?
And if I do need another insurance, where can I get a cheap short term insurance good enough to tax with? Read more

Fullchat

DOV will not cover you to tax it. Owner and registered keeper are not necessarily the same. If you have some title over the vehicle then you are the owner and are not covered under DOV. Is in the smallprint.

Not so long ago insurance certificates only had the name of the Policyholder on it, no registration numbers. Open to abuse! Similarly eveything is on a database now and checks can be easily made by th PO.

Alby Back

While it remains legal to use our cars for pleasure, some of us will continue to do that.

;-)

We "discovered" West Kirby today on the Wirral. Lovely clean beach and pleasant wee town. Free parking on the prom. Tide was way out and we were able to walk over the sands to the "Eye" islands. Could have continued on to Hilbre Island but decided to return to the town beach for our picnic and a spot of kite flying. The marine lake was staging a dinghy race and some impressive windsurfers. The Wirral country park a short distance away looked like it was worth a visit some time especially if we bring the bikes next time to explore the coastal trail.

Chidhood memories of walking barefoot for miles on wet clean sand seaching for shells and stuff were reawakened today and we can honestly say we have not felt so refreshed for quite a while.

Highly recommended for anyone within reach tomorrow.

Where have others been this weekend or are planning to go to tomorrow to celebrate the end of our great British um....."Summer" ? Read more

DP

Stayed local. Doing 2000+ miles down to northern Italy and back in a couple of weeks, so sparing the driving at the moment! :-)


Pugugly


***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 19 *****


***** This thread follows on from VOLUME 17 *****

Another thread for commenting on rare, unusual, old or just plain daft cars etc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Read more

ifithelps

Mini Clubman estate, R-reg, bowling along quite happily at about 55mph on the A690 dua carriageway near Durham City.

It had two rear side-hinged doors - now there's an innovation someone might like to copy.

ifithelps

Brother is looking closely at buying a brand new Honda Civic 1.8 I-shift EX - plenty of toys, but is it any good?

i Read more

disbeliever

I would not touch a Honda Civic with a barge pole. The front roof line is too low and it is very difficult to enter the car without banging your head if you are over 5ft 9" the dash is awful like a out of date space ship and the rear view is verr poor. In my opinion the design is total rubbish

Screwloose

neil

The only effective way to start is to get the codes read; it could be an injector issue - or many other things. Read more

Screwloose

smed

Ahh; the old "contaminated fuel" excuse. That's what they all say.....

Do a search for "TDCi" and you will see that you are far from the first.

Lbdan

Hi all

the car im looking to buy is a 2001 `y` and hasnt had a belt change , the seller is saying she thinks it needs doing at 100k , im dubious , can anyone confirm ??

Thanks

Dan Read more

Screwloose

Dan

In normal driving conditions; Pug say 80,000.

Jane

Hi!

I've spent the last 2 years in Australia and have 1 more year to go. In this time I have not owned a car. I was previously insured with Direct Line and, as long as I re-insure with them I will keep my 12 years no claims that i had accumulated as they 'hold' your no claims for 3 years.

The problem is that the 3 years runs out in March 2009. I won't be back in the country and the owner of a car again (can't wait!) until August 2009. As far as I can see I have 3 options:

1) Lose the no claims bonus.
2) Get dad to organise the purchase and insurance of a car on my behalf before the 3 years is up and have it sitting in my parents driveway (with a SORN?) for 5 months before i come home and start using it.
3) Buy a complete bomb, insure that and have it sitting in my parents driveway (with a SORN?) for 5 months . When I get home, sell the bomb and buy a decent car.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? What difference does 12 years no claims make when insuring a car...do you get much money off your insurance?

All suggestions/advice greatly received!

Cheers!
Read more

Bill Payer

I'd disagree BP depends what sort of car Jane is likely to buy upon her
return


Of course there are a few variables, but my 21yr old daughter got 50% discount on her first insurance from several comapnies and ended up paying £500 for her new Colt.

With 12 yrs NCB the OP is obviously a little over 21 :-) so on any reasonable car, in a reasonable area, the insurance should be relatively trivial compared to the hassle and cost of finding, insuring, storing and then disposing of a vehicle.

Who knows what the next 12mths will bring - Jane might decide to stay in Oz!
motorprop

I run a 1986 Ford USA F250 truck with a 6.9 Diesel V8. The truck already has 2 separate diesel tanks and is not of course common rail. It is therefore suitable for a Veg Oil ' conversion ' , however had a company doing these telling me that I cannot convert whilst on the factory issue ' Stanadyne ' Injection Pump , I would need another make like a Bosch or others .

My question is : How can I find a compatible injection pump , where to start looking ? I have free veg oil and space to filter it .

Any ideas out there ?

slt to include model details - is this a tech question ?

Read more

Bernard Fenley

Try using raptor high pressure vegetable oil pump with 150gph flow rate. That works really well in my ford excursion 7.3L. Or you might as well try the 100gph flow rate if the former isn't compatible working for your fleet.

Valves and VO Fuel Pumps

halfpint

Hi folks, On trying my soft top it would not open fully, it got stuck 1/4
to 1/2 way, and wouldn't then close by the switch, had to use the release key to close, it's never happened before, but has not been used for a few months due to our rubbish weather. any ideas, does it need some lubrication somewhere, don't fancy an Audi garage ripping me off. Read more

halfpint

Thanks for that, looks like a visit to the garage, to many electronic glitches for my liking!

Lud

No cars outside today, just the occasional crawling and bedecked pantechnicon or double-decker, but plenty of peds and more noise than usual shaking the windows and doors in their frames.

In the last hour I have seen a man in a 12ft wide crinoline with, strapped to his chest, the front end of a wickerwork galleon complete with foremast, fore-topmast and fore-topgallant mast, with furled sails on their yards, and what looks like a New York fireman in silver glitter strapped to the masthead, and a crowd of 100 or so nippers bopping past with a forest of tall feathers shaking above them.

Yes, it's that time of year again. But my mind is much on the death in Baghdad two days ago of a friend, the brother of a close friend, a very brave and dedicated human being who had chosen to go and help his country out of its dark night of the intellect by bringing a bit of reason to the upper reaches of the civil service, not for ground-floor opportunist big American money but a bit later, out of principle, for peanuts. Big, big bummer. I don't know yet whether that child of the Enlightenment, educated in an advanced, progressive and almost democratic pre-Saddam Iraq, and in voluntary political exile in Europe for much of the time since then, was targeted or just the random victim of one of the big bangs beloved of the obscurantist forces. Whatever the circumstances he is a loss to humanity. Saw him a couple of months ago and he said things were looking up a bit in Baghdad, he was optimistic. Read more

Lud

Whatever the circumstances

I know what they were now. His car was stopped on a bridge by three carloads of people who shot him dead with automatic weapons gangland style. His ministry driver, who would have been armed - he had no other bodyguard that day -, is in hospital with three or four bullet wounds, and has been receiving threatening letters and messages. I am told 'the Americans' had recently issued a warning that death squads trained in Iran were prowling around with lists of intellectuals to kill on behalf of major Shia Islamist organisations, the biggest coherent political forces in Iraq.

His brother told me he had known for four years that this would happen one day. Of course the real possibility was lost on no one, and many ingenious reasons for hanging about in Europe had been advanced over the years, to no avail.

To go from the sinister and horrible to something else you may not see in the papers, but that is altogether more ridiculous, bottles and other dangerous missiles were hurled at police in riot gear in my block last night in the closing stages of Carnival, and the road was taped off for half a mile for a good couple of hours. Plod had been making an officious nuisance of himself en masse all day, and in the end got his comeuppance, although not on a very impressive scale. They need to purge the twit in charge of carnival plod for the last couple of years. Haven't seen brickbats being hurled since the early eighties, but the sensible commanders who ran carnival for the subsequent decade and a half have obviously retired and there are pompous hostile ignorant twits in their place. Of course I don't blame the front-line plodlet, overtime or no, because he has the grace sometimes to quite like carnival and sometimes to look ashamed when he has been used stupidly.