November 2009
It's me.
A lot of the roads I use don't have particularly clear markings at the edge - on some, you can't see where the road ends and the verge begins, because of the amount of mud and ordure (let's see what the swear filter makes of that) on them.
So I use my foglights to light up the edges.
Am I very very bad? Read more
In modern cars.
You just can`t get that feeling of `adventure` back, can you? in modern motoring, that is.
Those trips up to Scotland in the 60`s. Shap Fell in third gear, being happy that you could get up at 40mph. The little tribulations with points and the sticking piston in the SU carb.
No mobile phones for help and driving along those single track roads in the Western Highlands. Roads where you seldom met anyone else and the grass down the road centre wiped the sump clean of leaking oil.
As far as a test of machine goes - it`s gone. You could possibly drive around the world in some cars now without opening the bonnet. The adventure would all be external to the actual car.
But there was (at least in memory) a certain pleasure in the ultra fine detail of the car itself. You sat in the drivers seat and could visualize the oil flow, the blur of the tappets. Those little levers of Saturday morning adjustable delight...
The smell of oil and palm of hand thump - to loosen the cork gasket.......the tools now idle in the box. `Marking Time` as a First World War vet once told me, when , as a child, I asked without insight "what are you doing tomorrow"
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Here is a truncated mechanical adventure.
I took my low-mileage Skoda Estelle 130, mechanically quiet except for noisy half-shaft bearings, to Prague to get the half shafts done and see the place.
The parts weren't available but the car was given a service it didn't need. On the way back it started to misbehave. I got an idee fixe about exhaust valve seat recession - it did have some - and failed to remove the carburettor and blow out the blocked idle jet that was really causing the trouble. After nightmarish periods in a Paris underground garage and a Sussex barn that damn near killed me, the car was much worse with the cylinder head off another car. Then the engine cooked itself.
Damn!
Hello.
Bought my car(diesel) just over a year ago - have done 200 thousand miles last year (total mileage now about 180), changed exhaust, alternator, fuel pump, just passed my MOT & paid new tax.
Only issues I've really had are stupidly put in petrol late one night & drove it all the way home - got it cleaned out but since then it hasn't burnt fuel as well, and water leaking into boot (advice on this forum was bang on). So overall, considering it was really cheap, I've been pleased.
Since summer, I've noticed I've had to top up the water a lot more frequently - maybe every month, then every 3 or so weeks in the last couple of months - but not by much.
10 days ago sprained my ankle so it sat parked totally undriven (facing downhill, in case that's relevant). got in last night, coolant light on, had to top it up about 2 litres until light went off.
I know I'm asking you to speculate, but does this sound like a radiator just suddenly going or a leak? Reason is, I have to think about how much money I want to spend on a car I want to keep for another year or so but not more (going travelling).
Grateful for any advice.
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I assumed that he meant 20k
Hi there
I live near Perth in Scotland and have been aware for some time that a car with a windscreen price of say £5K in Glasgow/the central belt or even the north of England will usually be at least a grand more expensive here in Perth.
I noticed this today on a well known internet auction site:
tinyurl.com/yftybns
Okay, it's in good nick, but £5K for a car coming up for 12 years old, they have to be kidding!?
Has anyone noticed a similar phenomenon around where they live or equally, can anyone offer an explanation as to why these price differentials exist?
Needless to say, I don't buy my cars locally! Read more
Sorry I've never had an HPI check! Surely it should note something along the lines of
Build Date June 2006
Date reg in UK August 2009
demonstrating a 3 year gap in the history
Glass.. windscreens, side and rear windows - more expensive year by year.
Exposed there, to the elements - blasted by high speed grit in the outer lane, bombarded with fine sand from the Sahara and scraped... grit resting on parked wiper rubbers - just waiting.
Not Cinderallas glass slipper then - carressed by Prince Charming... (but before or after scraping off the pumpkins residue? and with what?)
Many of us will have seen the diamond ring marks on side windows in years gone by. But now?
There seems to have been a trace of certain trends in specific decades
1) Spraying de- icer
1960`s millions of spray cans dischaging into the atmosphere. De-icer, hairspray, deodorant, whole cars being sprayed with cans and little airless paint guns on the drive.
2) Mid 1980`s Scraping is `in`. Hard plastic scrapers grind grit remorselessly into frosted screens.
3) 1990`s Hot water for some and a few cracked screens, scraping for others - austerity rules. Spray cans are out.
Current day.
Everyone has memories of scratched screens and don`t want to repeat it. Cars sit on drives, the heater defrosts, because we know in our hearts, man made `global warming` is a con. And because to be honest we don`t care. What with the stuff put out by the undersea volcanic activity on the mid atlantic ridge, the factories in China and above all the heating of the airways by TV personalities `gone bad`. Trying to get us to give our money "before we die" to their sponsors, that are paying them tens of thousands.
Well... maybe none of that is true - but what are your impressions of any trends? Read more
`global warming` is
a con.
There can't be that much warming if cars are still getting ice on the windscreen!
This price new, offered for a 1.2 16V 75 Dynamique model under the scrappage scheme, for my daughter's clapped out small Pug, sounds very good. List is £12,035 and What Car? gives an "unscrapped" target price of £10,357. Is there likely to be a catch? I can see the dealer might be keen to unload stock, with the new 2009 model due or maybe already here. Read more
Thanks for the lead
where can i find the pollen filter in the synergie/806/ulysses Read more
Anyone know why roads are left closed for so long after a fatality?
I asked a policeman last night, following a fatality 3 hours previously, 1 child outside school & 1 car, his answer? "Well, wouldn't you want the road closed after your child was killed?".
So the road is closed as a sign of respect? Or to punish other road users?
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OP - if you do a forum search you'll find several weeks' worth of interesting reading on this Forum in relation to this topic - including comments from people that have actually dealt with fatal accidents (and not armchair speculators) - there is a very recent post from a serving Officer saying that the process is now subject of a review by ACPO and the IPCC and that a change is likely. So unless there's a compelling reason to keep this thread open (and in the absence of any new arguments) - thread is locked.
Came across this earlier:
wickfordwheels.blogspot.com/2009/11/lamborghini-fo...l
I was looking for more info about slicks for bikes when this caught my eye, its a reveiw of a lamborghini leggenda hybrid. From the post it seems that the lamborghini family retained the right to use the brand name and now make 'lifestyle products'.
So it got me thinking about what other car brands make other products. I've seen Porsche branded products a lot (I think they even made kettles at one point!) but not much from other makers.
So what next? A ferrari ironing board? A Bugatti vacuum cleaner? With car sales struggling at the moment (except for scrappage winners) I wonder if this is something will start to see a lot more. Read more
I'm wearing Jaguar spectacles and Bugatti trousers. Why ? They were heavily discounted by my optician and TKMaxx respectively.
I have also used our Bugatti pizza cutter on occasion.
just got a renault megane 1.6 rt sport alize..when i close the drivers door there seems to be a little bang coming from the passenger side,ive had the bonnet up and closed the drivers door and it seems to be coming from the passenger side. when im driving it theres no noise whatsoever...anybody else with a megane have this noise? Read more
thanks for that andy,it does sound like a flap clanging when any of the doors get closed. i wont be persuing it any further. but thanks for your reply.
Browse
Another Police tactic is to open the conversation with: 'You haven't got your rear fog lights on'. I can't think of a response from the driver that's going to help. Although for an officer to do this, when they have no intention of issuing petty penalties, and would appear to simply be indulging their sarcasm would be quite wrong...