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Not really had a comparison on the Dolomega's fuelling as it ran in the garage (before E10 was the norm) well on old style E5. It seems to pull even better on stupidly expensive 99RON Esso and the consumption figures are about what I predicted during the build.
HOWEVER SWMBO's 06 Picasso 2.0 16v auto REALLY doesn't like E10, which it's been on exclusively since the fuel "crisis" for cost and availability reasons. Performance is down on the old E5 and average economy is down by 3-4mpg under all driving conditions according to the trip computer. I tend to have the trip running on long journeys on instant MPG readout (gives me something to look at/amuse myself with)and the cruise control engaged as much as possible and it's noticeably lower at any given point on a 130 mile journey I do often. Particularly on uphill sections of the M5. Also i've not reset the trip computer since buying the car in 2012 but 4 months of E10 has already had an impact on my long term average figure of just over 1 mpg and still falling. For most of my ownership the average mpg displayed has been 31.7 mpg +or- 0.1. It's currently 30.6. Since that's 4 months out of 10 years and 30,000 miles YOU do the math!
Steve
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Jan 27, 2022 23:23:36 GMT
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With an outlook on life like that, it's you that's going to need the luck! I wish you well with it We are well off topic here but you actually think no one ever in the history of the world is gonna try & stiff you? When you get a email from a Nigerian Prince, it’s not real you know. That’s a bad man trying to dupe you. It will happen in every walk of life & to be honest the motor trade is probably one of the very worst out there & if you don’t see that then you are being very naive Having been in the motor trade for better than 50 years and run my own garage for 30 of those, I find that deeply insulting. I always have and always will deal honestly with all my customers. I know that not all my "colleagues" have as many scruples as I have, but I prefer to sleep at night. I'm quite sure there are many more like me than there are bad-uns!
That too is my final word on this.
Steve
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Jan 26, 2022 21:38:37 GMT
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There is a bit of nonsense in this thread when it comes to comments like ‘vosa take a dim view’, ‘you can’t do this that or the other, cos the computer says not’ & ‘it’s not worth failing a car, cos this will happen’. Let’s get real here, it’s illegal to sell drugs, does it happen? You shouldn’t engage in insider trading, do people? It’s not on for the people who run the country to tell you one thing & do another. Do they do it? If someone can feather their own nest at the expense of others, it WILL happen. They won’t all do, plenty will though, so let’s not pretend they are all squeaky clean Jeez, and I thought I was cynical!
Steve
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Jan 25, 2022 21:23:47 GMT
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Depending on geographical location (in the UK) and the size and scale of the garage, the MOT test can be anywhere from slightly more than a garages hourly rate, to considerably less. The garage has to buy all the expensive testing equipment themselves (and more, and more expensive stuff every year, seems like) and pay the tester too! The rules stipulate that a test must take at least 45 minutes so a tester can't perform more than 10 tests in a typical 8 hour day. Most garages only do 8 a day to allow time for retests etc. You can't buck the system any more! I's not been a licence to print money in and of itself for many years. The only financial gain from having a testing station is the spin-off work from failures. This used to be a thing back in the bad old days where unscrupulous garages would fail EVERYTHING on spurious faults and charge silly money for "fixing" them. These days it can't happen, the computer at DVSA checks your stats and if your average fail rate climbs above a fixed percentage you get a visit to find out why and probably a good kick up the a**e! It's not a problem for me anyway, being trade, the tester KNOWS he won't get any work from failures so has no reason to make up fails or nitpick. Not that he would anyway. I pay a trade price of £30 (no retest fee) for every test, it hasn't gone up in more than 5 years. All the staff are classic car nuts, even the gaffer has a DB6 Aston and 3 E types, his son (the painter) has an MGBGTV8 and the main tester has several Rovers, a couple of MGs and a Spitfire. I worked (and tested) there myself when I first moved to the area. So we have a great relationship. They know their job inside out and back to front and classic owners from miles around flock there. It's a shame all testing stations aren't like that one!
There are always stories about mechanics arguing with testers over fails, some of them are even true! My personal favourite concerns a 72 Aussie Ford Fairmont XY station wagon that I found myself in possession of, back in the 80s Not a car I myself was familiar with, so the tester could, to a degree, be forgiven for the initial fail on excessive movement in both front upper balljoints. He showed me the play, it was there! So I parted with the massive sum of £196 (almost 2 weeks wages back then) for 2 new balljoints from Ford PIE. Fitted them and re-presented the car for retest. Only to find the new ones were exactly the same! He failed it again, despite my protests and the obvious brand new state of the balljoints. I had to trundle back to Ford PIE and buy a shop manual (another £40) which clearly stated that the balljoints are built with a massive 1/4" of vertical play in them! There was nothing wrong with the original ones! Even when shown the manual, the tester didn't want to pass it, I had to go over his head to the manager to get my ticket!
Steve
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Last Edit: Jan 25, 2022 21:50:57 GMT by carledo
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Jan 22, 2022 19:51:02 GMT
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A few years ago, before exemption, I used to MOT cars prepared by a local restoration company. NOT a 2 bit operation, but one selling prestige ground up restos that cost £45k+ a pop when sold. I'd quite often find pinched or weeping metal brake pipes. All brand new but needing an extra tweak on the unions or not correctly bent. Other small faults as well These cars had already BEEN road tested and checked over. Think their QC guy had a white stick!
But the point is, we're all human and humans make the odd mistake.If, like me, you exploit the extra power you have lovingly added to your classic, surely it's not too much trouble to have it MOT'd? Also, it's one thing to have an accident that's clearly not your fault and your insurance company not worry about the exemption and lack of ticket. It's not their money! Have one that (heaven forbid) IS your fault and watch their tune change!
I've been on the spanners for over 50 years, had my own garage for more than 30 and built dozens of souped up cars for myself and customers. I STILL get ALL my cars tested, not just the restomods that are not exempt, the stock classics as well. I do have a classic friendly tester, but he doesn't let me get away with anything dangerous, nor would I want him to! I know as well as most and better than many that the MOT isn't isn't worth the paper it's written on as soon as you drive off the forecourt and that testers are (amongst other failings in the MOT) strictly prohibited from dismantling ANYTHING on an MOT. Yes the test is flawed, but it's what we have.It's a lot better than nothing!
Steve
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Dec 20, 2021 20:55:01 GMT
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Far too many to count, but a few examples. Circa 1972, Returning to England in an ancient Hillman Minx the brakes failed entirely in mid France. we had virtually no money and no spares (and no recovery) A Gendarme pulled up on a motorbike. My French is rubbish and he didn't speak English, but we explained, sort of, what had happened. He enquired with gestures and noises if the horn worked (WTF moment) I demonstrated, wherupon he instructed us to continue, using the horn for brakes. So we did. Once back on British soil, a Dover factors visit got us a wheel cylinder kit and a pint of brake fluid for a couple of quid. But we'd done over 250 miles in France with only handbrake and horn!
Several times have had partial or total brake failure on the rollers at MOT (not on my own cars) and still driven home 8 miles.
Did 35 miles on the M4 in pouring rain in SWMBO's first Herald with one arm out the window working a hand held wiper arm and blade.
Drove customer Alfasud Sprint 5 miles to the scrappy, the car was so rotten, the only thing holding the OSF topmount in was the bonnet catch.
My second car, a 63 FB Victor, was so lacking in sills and general structural integrity, that if you opened all 4 doors at once, you had to jack the middle of the car up to shut them again.
I could write a book!
Steve
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Dec 17, 2021 15:23:10 GMT
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It is not possible to have too many spare parts. Although as I have said several times before, I can never find the part I already have, and usually end up buying another, or another car, to get the same bit because it's easier than spending a week sorting through stuff 🙄 I can sympathize with this - a bit! I muddled along in similar fashion for better than 20 years, I had a large workshop with a 4 poster ramp, a big refrigerated truck body stuffed to the roof with parts and a yard that would comfortably hold an additional 16 cars. Plus a double garage, a 10'x8' shed, a greenhouse tunnel and off street parking for another 10 cars at home.
Even so, junk invariable expands to fill available space (+10%) so I was often forced to junk a car or 2, purely to make space for the latest aquisition. I doubtless dumped things I should have kept in my rush! But mostly, I didn't worry about space.
Then, in late 2019, the landlord of my yard died suddenly and his widow had me and other tenants on 2 months notice to leave before the poor old sod was cold! I was due to retire in May of 2020 anyway, so I just quit a bit early and spent the entire 2 months tidying and sorting both home and rented yard/shop. Trying to fit the proverbial quart (more like a gallon) into the pint pot at home.
Believe it or not, I threw very little away! but I managed (just) to vacate in time and get everything tucked away at at home. The bonus was, unsurprisingly, that I found a ton of stuff, sometimes with several duplicates, that i'd lost or forgotten I had. The very act of concentrating all this stuff in a much smaller space meant I not only found the stuff, I also got the chance to catalogue it and store like items together. Barring an earthquake, I now actually know what i've got and can now find anything I need to in minimal time.
An unexpected upshot is that I have successfully sold quite a lot of the duplicate stock, so i'm better off financially too.
I suggest you do something similar, I was forced by events, but I reckon it would be worth treating it like a project. If I can do it (and i'm not a naturally tidy person, far from it!) i'm sure you can too!
Steve
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Dec 16, 2021 20:41:34 GMT
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∆∆∆∆absolutely this carledo , couldn't agree more 👍 I have been known to buy a complete car just to get a part which o need for one I already own, so in effect I'm buying one part which comes with a load of free stuff, and a v5 I bought a GT6 from a scrapyard (back in 1982 when there WERE Gt6s in scrapyards) just to get the front bumper for a customer car I was restoring. Then threw a Spit 1500 tub on the Gt6 chassis and mechanicals and drove it for about 5 years! Unfortunately the only pix I have are prints and my scanner is playing up. Will post some when I can!
Below is my Dolomite Sprint as bought (in 2012) and now. It has the engine and trans from an X reg Omega 2.2. Guess who bought a complete, street legal Omega to do the swap?
The Sprint, not running, a bit rusty and not taxed since 1994 cost me £375. I made that back by selling the original engine and trans which I got running. The Omega cost £395, taxed and tested for 5 months in 2013. I drove it around till the tax ran out. After I pulled the motor, trans, prop and every scrap of electrical equipment and wiring, I sold the alloy wheels for £100 and the shell and leftovers for £150!
I thought I needed a Carlton gearbox for the Carledo. Rather than buy a gearbox for £200, I bought a complete Carlton for £180 and drove it home. As it happened all I needed was the Carlton flywheel so I sold the gearbox for £200, kept the engine and all ancillaries and weighed the shell (which was pretty rough) in for £100. That's what I call proper bangernomics!
Steve
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Last Edit: Dec 16, 2021 20:53:34 GMT by carledo
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Dec 15, 2021 21:57:46 GMT
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My money will go on the car that was rep thrashed from day one! These cars are well maintained (cos the driver isn't paying) a bad one will blow up in short order and any left after that will go like a bat outta hell forever! Forget your "one little old lady, only used it to go to church on Sundays" I knew one of those, Greek she was and drove her beat up and souped up 997 Mini Cooper flat out everywhere! Steve
I did 30 + years of getting new work vans, driving the t*ts off of them and, aside from scheduled maintenance, have them in for issues only as a last resort. That is how many many commercial vehicles are used and I don't assume that company cars are going to be any different. Both used as tools of the job, driven by people that are not paying much towards them, for them or the upkeep of them so don't really care if they hand the things back after three years with the engines hanging off the chassis frames. If you buy second hand you may as well by something that is 20 years old rather than three purely on the basis that for it to still be around after 20 years it must have had a metric sh*t ton of looking after in its recent history. I knew someone in the motor trade, a wide boy that sold 3 year and a bit older cars out of his successful dealership and most were s**t heaps, ragged to death and bought cheap at auction. It is a minefield and why so many people do PCP deals on new cars, many have been bitten once but never again. It alll depends on what suits the individual anyway. There's a world of difference between fleet vans and fleet cars. Fleet vans DO get abused, there's always the "time is money" factor and employers encourage their drivers to spend as little time off road as possible. But even that attitude is changing as they can be held responsible for mishaps that they have contributed to. Cars have always been easier, leased cars invariably provide a loaner if the main car is in for repairs and most firms with 5 cars or more have a backup or "pool" car for similar purposes. So it's no skin off the driver's nose to get them serviced or sorted, as you rightly pointed out, they aren't paying! Since the 70s i've had experience of how company cars get treated, from the garages point of view and my opinion holds. Rep thashed from day 1 makes a good buy and always performs well.
From a purely personal viewpoint, i'm a great fan of "bangernonics", I tend to buy cars at absolute rock bottom, rarely spending more than £500 per car and often a lot less. But i'm in a position to fix almost anything, know which cars are most reliable to start with and also buy a lot of junker project type cars where a collection of rusty panels and a V5 is what I actually buy, the investment comes later!
Steve
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Dec 12, 2021 15:51:03 GMT
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^^^^ This! I put nearly 100K on my Amazon (it already had more than 200K on it to begin with) over 14 years of everyday use and during that time it went on the back of a recovery truck once due to breakdown (caused by the failure of a poor quality replacement part). It was driven all year round, including in snow. Think the Amazon must be a candidate for most relable classic of all time. I had one the visual twin of yours, Estate, same colour and all. Mine was a LHD French market 122S twin carb and O/D example (a model not available in the UK, but easy enough to convert) and came to me with 129,000 km on the clock and a bill showing the original speedo was replaced at 64,000 km. So something like 120, 000 miles before I even got my hands on it. I owned it 29 years and another 100k +miles and still regret selling it to this day. I used it as a mobile workshop for more than 15 years, towed twice it's own weight all over the country on several occasions and brought both my kids home from the hospital in it after they were born. On one memorable day, it got me home towing a trailer full of tools, engine crane and a 6 cylinder iron engine with NO lining on one side of the clutch disc and a wafer thin 1/4 of the lining on the other! The thing was completely and utterly indestructible, never EVER failed to get me home. It's also the best 2wd drive vehicle i've ever owned as far as snow is concerned, especially with a big box of tools in the boot!
Why did I ever part with it? (Sob )
Steve
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Last Edit: Dec 12, 2021 15:56:12 GMT by carledo
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Dec 10, 2021 22:40:22 GMT
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I understand your logic however, worth bearing in mind if seeking the ultimate reliability, is that the most likely time for a car to break down during the whole of its service life is in the first twelve months. Buying cars at 12 - 24 months, then looking after them, gives you the best chance of not being stranded at the roadside, and typically saves 30% of the new cost. The reason I don't buy a 12 to 24 month old car is that I have no idea who the original owner was. Company car? Thrashed and driven like a race car? Privately owned? Ditto or a little old lady that did 20mph everywhere and laboured the engine in inappropriate gears? I can swallow the cost of a new car quite happily. I mean, does the new owner of my old Kodiaq know that I had it up to 120mph, on the autobahn, and made it go around corners without it tipping over? I do get what you say though, fair points. My money will go on the car that was rep thrashed from day one! These cars are well maintained (cos the driver isn't paying) a bad one will blow up in short order and any left after that will go like a bat outta hell forever!
Forget your "one little old lady, only used it to go to church on Sundays" I knew one of those, Greek she was and drove her beat up and souped up 997 Mini Cooper flat out everywhere!
Steve
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Dec 10, 2021 22:05:26 GMT
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Sometime in the early 90s I bought the last car through an auction 40 miles from home as I needed something to get home in!
Crossing the block, it didn't look too bad, a Pageant Blue 79 Maxi 1750, not too many miles, new tyres all round and an MOT written out that morning. I parted with £250 and wandered round to the car park to collect it.
Unlocked the door, sat down and the drivers seat back collapsed. Then the battery was flat. A jumpstart from the auction staff sorted that, though it sounded a bit growly at the bottom end. The handbrake lever did nothing much as the floor was split all round it. So much for a fresh MOT. The tyres were all cheap remoulds but at least had air in them.
It didn't seem to have much power to start with, by the time I was halfway home it was losing power badly and struggling on the many hills. The N/S/F wheel bearing was louder than the (knocking) engine. About 10 miles from home it gave up the ghost and threw a rod out the side. I rousted a mate from the pub and he dragged me in the rest of the way to my workshop. The next couple of weeks saw it get a second hand engine, gearbox, battery, N/S driveshaft and hub/bearing, O/S CV joint, drivers seat, plus new brakes all round and welding repair to the tunnel for the handbrake. The following weekend I was due to go south 100 miles or so for a busman's holiday/working weekend on a friends Triumphs. On the Friday afternoon I filled the tank and flooded the forecourt cos the tank leaked! this was the final straw, I used my Firenza for the weekend and when I got back, I put another tank in it and put it in the paper, sold it before anything else broke!
Think it would have been cheaper to get a taxi back from that auction!
Steve
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Last Edit: Dec 10, 2021 22:18:24 GMT by carledo
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RAC and AA have this "unbreakable" rule. They MUST send a patrol vehicle to diagnose the problem before dispatching a recovery type to pull it in. Flipping Jobsworths! They won't trust ANYONE to tell them what's wrong with their car! No matter that I am 50 years more experienced than the spotty youth they send! This is exactly what happened with the Metro all those years ago. I TOLD the AA on the motorway phone that the engine was seized solid and the car would need to be dragged in, it made not a scrap of difference. After a more than 90 minute wait in freezing conditions, unable to run the engine to use the heater, a patrol turned up dragged me off the motorway to a transport cafe car park at the next exit. This was little better as I didn't even have the price of a cup of tea on me! And there I sat for another 3 frozen hours till the transporter showed up to drag the the thing in. A lot of the "new breed" of recovery services like Green Flag now equip their vans with collapsible towing rigs (love the mechanical ballet as they unfold them from a tiny space) and the AA are beginning to get the message. But they are still only good for getting the vehicle to a safer spot, they still want to transfer to a proper flatbed truck to go more than a handful of miles. I can't see a solution, especially as modern cars often stop because of a failed sensor rather than anything actually mechanically wrong! Steve PS Britannia rescue is brilliant, I used to be with them years ago somehow let it lapse and thought they had gone out of business. They would also offer recovery only for a fair price, rather than as a cost option on top of the normal service, which suits me. Anything that CAN be fixed at the roadside, I can do myself, I only need the recovery part for catastrophic failures that CAN't be fixed in 20 minutes! It is very frustrating & I’ve had it myself but can you imagine how many flatbed recovery trucks they’d send out unnecessarily if they listened to every total nut job that rings up saying ‘it definitely needs towing in’ ? You literally would be out of business The thing is, that nowadays they'd need (as someone else has pointed out) a truckload of spare parts to carry enough stock of sensors to deal with every failure, Which is blatantly impossible. The very diversity of problems modern cars stop for means it's more likely than ever to need a transporter, even for something that won't even stop an older car, or is at worst a 5 minute fix. Maybe this is why the low loader is taking longer and longer to arrive, they need to buy more of them to cope with changing demand!
Also, from other comments, why does a failed alternator mean a lengthy recovery? I've had numerous alternators fail and kept on driving, I had one on my old GT6 that was overcharging and nearly melted the battery near Oxford on a weekend trip from Shropshire to Berkshire and back. Once the battery cooled down the car restarted, I disconected the alternator and finished the outward leg, charged the battery overnight and drove home! only then did I change the alternator! Some years after, I BOUGHT a Cavalier on ebay with a failed alternator and flat battery. I din't take an alternator with me to collect it, just a charged battery. Drove it home to Shropshire from south of Reading, no bother at all! Turned out to be one of the best Cavs i've ever owned!
Steve
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I was able to determine the cause easily enough at the roadside, the fuel pump relay had failed. I didn't have one with me (always carried one thereafter) so I called a mate who dragged it in. Could you bypass the relay with a jumper wire? Well possibly! I know where the relay is and could work out easily enough which of the 9 pins to cross connect. But you've obviously never owned a MkIII Cavalier, the darned things are so impeccably reliable that I never carried any tools or spares in them, let alone a stray 6" piece of wire! A jack and wheelbrace is all they ever needed!
Of course, since then I've carried a spare relay, check in the glovebox of either of my current pair and you'll find one. Equally of course, i've never had one fail since!
Steve
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Last Edit: Dec 7, 2021 20:37:20 GMT by carledo
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RAC and AA have this "unbreakable" rule. They MUST send a patrol vehicle to diagnose the problem before dispatching a recovery type to pull it in. Flipping Jobsworths! They won't trust ANYONE to tell them what's wrong with their car! No matter that I am 50 years more experienced than the spotty youth they send!
This is exactly what happened with the Metro all those years ago. I TOLD the AA on the motorway phone that the engine was seized solid and the car would need to be dragged in, it made not a scrap of difference. After a more than 90 minute wait in freezing conditions, unable to run the engine to use the heater, a patrol turned up dragged me off the motorway to a transport cafe car park at the next exit. This was little better as I didn't even have the price of a cup of tea on me! And there I sat for another 3 frozen hours till the transporter showed up to drag the the thing in.
A lot of the "new breed" of recovery services like Green Flag now equip their vans with collapsible towing rigs (love the mechanical ballet as they unfold them from a tiny space) and the AA are beginning to get the message. But they are still only good for getting the vehicle to a safer spot, they still want to transfer to a proper flatbed truck to go more than a handful of miles. I can't see a solution, especially as modern cars often stop because of a failed sensor rather than anything actually mechanically wrong!
Steve
PS Britannia rescue is brilliant, I used to be with them years ago somehow let it lapse and thought they had gone out of business. They would also offer recovery only for a fair price, rather than as a cost option on top of the normal service, which suits me. Anything that CAN be fixed at the roadside, I can do myself, I only need the recovery part for catastrophic failures that CAN't be fixed in 20 minutes!
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In a long career on the spanners, i've only needed to be recovered 3 times. the first, in 1978 was a brand new Cavalier MkI 2 litre which lost all it's brakes during the PDI road test. I was only a couple of miles from the garage, I walked back and got the wrecker! Next, around 1985 was an MG Metro with less than 400 miles on the clock (A lex Mead owned company car) which snapped it's crank on the M25 near Harefield, that took the AA 6 hours to recover 20 odd miles to Maidenhead under "Supercover". Nothing super about it, it was November and freezing! Finally, about 15 years ago one of my dozen or more Cavaliers failed to proceed after I switched off to go to shop for fags. I was able to determine the cause easily enough at the roadside, the fuel pump relay had failed. I didn't have one with me (always carried one thereafter) so I called a mate who dragged it in. So, as far as i'm concerned, i'm twice as likely to break down in a new car as I am in an old one!
I don't think twice about undertaking long runs with very little preparation in my old Triumphs and have done the Club Triumph Round Britain Reliabilty Run (2000 miles in 48 hours) twice in recent years. TBH the 70s car stands it better than my mid 50s body does!
Steve
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Last Edit: Dec 5, 2021 0:23:23 GMT by carledo
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Nov 26, 2021 20:52:39 GMT
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Many of the cars I used to own come up unlisted on DVLA (i've checked, I remember the reg of every car i've ever owned, over 200 cars!) so i guess they got officially scrapped. Others still exist, on paper (or computer) at least, including one I know has been exported to Germany and many dozens that I know have been broken up.
There was a time when this official scrapping process was easy, you just effectively ticked a box and sent the V5 off. Then they brought in this rubbish thing of having a "certificate of destruction" before it got made official. Since then, i've not offially scrapped a car as most I deal with are only a few rotten bits by the time they reach the scrap merchants. I think many others think the same way, or simply can't be arsed to go through the rigmarole. Including the vast bulk of scrap merchants!
The other thing I should mention here is that VOSA, or DVSA or whatever they call themselves this week, have only been keeping computerised MOT records since 2014 or thereabouts, anything that fell into disuse before then will not exist as far as they are concerned. It should also be noted that although it would be easy to do, VOSA/DVSA and DVLA do not communicate on any meaningfull level!
My first port of call would be to put the reg into the DVLAs VED status checker the records go back much further and might tell you something.
Steve
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Nov 25, 2021 22:30:10 GMT
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Could be on a cherished plate, but far more likely is that it has been officially scrapped. If that happens, the number is removed from the records and it is not allowed to be re-issued.
Steve
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Oct 31, 2021 23:14:36 GMT
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It was whole (IMO unbelievably stupid) business of "Rolling Coal" that triggered the US clampdown on modded ECUs etc. Before that, nobody realy cared enough to enforce the laws. While folk were only tuning for performance it wasn't worth the bother. Rolling coal is a blatant "UP YOURS" to the powers that be and is ONLY done for effect. It's DELIBERATE pollution and as such, merits being outlawed. It's just unfortunate that the rules aren't selective enough and a lot of innocent people have been caught in the crossfire.
Yes it's true that CAT and DPF deletes have long been illegal here and it's down to MOT testers to enforce this. But I don't agree that it's "above their pay grade" as Dez said above. If it doesn't meet the cat regs on MOT it will FAIL that MOT. Of course a smart person with a car that needs a cat will replace it for the MOT, then rip it off again afterwards, that's not the tester's problem then. Other thing like EGR bypass modules and delete kits are also illegal in the UK but I had no trouble getting one from eastern Europe via ebay! Cars fitted with such may well still pass an MOT, then it probably is a "paygrade" matter. In my case, the car the EGR equipped engine was fitted to was pre 75 so didn't need any emission control equipment at all, MY EGR delete was perfectly acceptable.
I also agree that the idea of makng software mods illegal is a bad joke. No one will ever stop computer geeks from messing with computers, they've been trying since computers were invented with zero success so far!
Steve
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Oct 31, 2021 22:04:26 GMT
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This sounds very like the legislation that has existed unenforced in the US for many years. Just lately, they've started enforcing it to the extreme consternation of modders and tuners. It's mainly related to emission control equipment but strays into the fields of remapping ECUs and the like too. It's not really aimed, nor does it largely apply to classics that don't have either emission control equipment or ECUs to mess (tamper) with. But in the states (not all of them) where it HAS been enforced, it's led to a number of tuning shops being fined large sums for selling aftermarket ECUs and other tuning parts. There is, however, a large and growing backlash movement to have the regs removed or reformed as the effect on businesses there is also HUGE. I think we should ALL be at least concerned about this, but it's not time to panic - YET! Since we don't have any such enenforced laws on British statute books, I have a feeling that anything they bring in will not be in any way retrospective and these new rules, if they ever come into force, will only apply to vehicles built after they are introduced, so from say 2024 models onwards - and I really couldn't care less about those! The only reason the American regs are being applied "retrospectively" is because they've been laying in the statute books unenforced for decades, so the Govt can say "well the rules were there, and you broke them" Steve
PS, i've just read all the proposals THOROUGHLY. It's certainly all about NEW vehicles particulaly automated ones. I think, reading between the lines, the "tampering" thing is mainly to stop things like the VW-gate emission fraud ever happening again. It's all about emissions and environmental performance. The British government really doesn't care what a couple of hundred thousand classic owners and an even smaller number of tuners and modders is doing with old tin. The exemption from LEZs granted to historic registered cars is proof of that. Plus the value to the economy of the whole classic movement is too big to give away. Think of it like smoking, the government COULD ban it entirely and save billions on the NHS bill, but they'd lose all the tax revenue and have to pay out billions more in pensions as people live longer! So they leave it alone and just tax smokers to the hilt! Somebody somewhere has done the sums on this too, you can bet on that that! I just hope it wasn't Dianne Abbott!
I've little doubt that the endgame here is to wipe privately owned powered transportation out entirely. And probably the idea of human controlled vehicles as well. But I doubt it will happen in my lifetime, so I refuse to worry about it. It's an Orwellian nightmare that i'll be glad to miss out on!
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Last Edit: Oct 31, 2021 22:37:58 GMT by carledo
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