Be Excellent To Each Other

Don’t think this Renault 5 is going to struggle with hills…
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/electr ... 2027/49629

It looks kinda rad but I always hated the POV spec Renault 5s. I remember that Vanessa, one of the lasses in 6th form, had one and it was shit.

My A-reg Nissan Micra was also shit, but it had the elderly neighbour that I bought it off, for 50 quid, told me it had a replacement engine so it had a (relative, for a 1 litre POS) bit of pep. It was also very sun-faded on one side where it had spent years parked up against a fence, but that was balanced out by my addition of some 6x9s and two 10 inch subs.

Oddly enough, when my first wife eventually got rid of the aforementioned Renault 5, we replaced it with a 1996 Nissan Micra in apple green. It was significantly less shit, despite still being 1.0L.

The potato shaped Micra? They were cracking little cars.

Don't know about potato-shaped? This one:

Nicest looking ones those, I think.

Yep, that’s the beastie. I only drove one but it was a huge leap over the previous model.

I recall a Micra 'Life' edition from some point in the nineties.

The sticker on the back had 'life' written in red and blue bubble-writing.

Just been down a Micra K11 1.3 vs 1.4 wormhole…

I’d like a Nissan Pao as a weekend fun car.

Yeah, nice.

A woman I worked with at Tandy bought a Micra Vibe. The temptation to print and add a “rator” sticker was quite high.

Opportunity missed, I bet you are kicking yourself now, even if it would have led to trouble.

Back to normal.

I went to the lakes this weekend, the car needed a charge when we go there I was amazed how many chargers there were. Was easy to find one, they were all slowish chargers about 11kw. They were meant to be 23 but could not get them to deliver that. I might need to read up more.


I have to go to Farnbough and back this week, so will see what it is lie on a long run.

I am really impressed with the car. The head up display is awesome, makes me feel like top gun, with all the info displayed on the windscreen.
The magic cruise control, is great. You set it up, and the car adjusts your speed by reading road signs.

Be careful with that. I have that on my Kia (although it only adjusts speed automatically on motorways) and it is not reliable at all in terms of not misreading signs.

And by that, I mean, it will quite happily read a 20mph sign intended for the road next to the one I'm on, and think it applies to me.

I noticed it was not 100% accurate and always double checked. It helped with a relaxing drive back.

Note that there's an extra setting in the magic cruise control that will make it steer for you as well.

Press the button at the top left of the right-hand set on the steering wheel that looks like a car with four lines around it, then swipe the little spinny wheel up so it highlights "travel assist", and off you go. You'll know it's working because the HUD will draw green lines along the side of the road and underline cars it sees.

I will try that.

I have had the orange lines in the hud.

They're the "stop driving on the wrong side of the road" lines.

Stupid car doesn't understand the racing line.

or country lanes... I used to have to wrestle my Octavia..

I saw you driving through Bromsgrove towards a big traffic jam Kovacs.

You did. That was not a fun journey. I have to go to farnbough each week. Might look for. A different way back.

It’s not normally that bad. There had been someone on one of the motorway bridges threatening to jump, and although it had been resolved there was a huge traffic jam left over. It took us 45 minutes to get back from the cinema in Rubery instead of 15.

I hope that person is ok. Turned a 3 hour drive into a 4 hour drive. At least I cought up on podcasts.

Sounds like they came down voluntarily.

I hope that was consensual.

The best outcome..

Someone in town has a ute (not the traditional ute style, more the american pickup truck dual cab style) and it's got all the country-life accoutrements like giant CB radio antenna, massive rock-catcher style mudflaps at the back, bull bar, and the big 'longhorn' sticker in the back window. All of which are, individually, not that bad but putting it all together seems a bit like an overcompensation or something a bit too OTT considering they actually live in town.

But the most lamely annoying part is they have a stupid large-font sticker running the length of the cab, along the bottom of the doors, that says "Addicted to diesel"

It just seems really stupid.

In good news, they did not notice the faulty sensor. I did have to stump up the cost of a new tyre and paint scratch.

Suck it @kovacsC you fucking loser! In your face!

FFS I took the car in for a service and was presented with a list of things that really ought to be fixed and the car really shouldn't be driven around until it's done.

Quoted at around 4,000 dollars

Did you take it to Skoda?



I drive the nuts off mine and it still comes down to engine oil yearly, dsg and haldex oil every other because I choose to. It had new discs and pads because I didn't believe the OEM ones could be okay after 5 years (they were) and it hasn't even needed wiper blades after 7 (though a washer jet seems to have failed because I ran the tank dry, FFS).

That's going to a good independent though. Skoda want to do all the consumables constantly.

The single thing Skoda insisted didn't need doing, but did need doing, was the front strut mounts, which are the big fuxkup of the MQB, that are pennies to do at a good garage or millions at a vag franchise.

Someone was going to have an awkward conversation with the hire car company.

Can't park there, mate

When the page first loaded, the bottom of the image was off-screen so I spent way too long trying to figure out if the two cruise ships had collided or something

Well clearly he can, and has!

@gazChap or anyone else I guess - do you still use Quotax for the Celica, who I believe Safely Insured transferred modified car insurance to after Sky Insurance changed their name? I've done enough I need to start looking at a more specialist insurer.

No, Adrian Flux have been the cheapest for me for a while now — and that’s with agreed value insurance too.

The amusingly named Frank Pickles insurance were always good for modified cars.

The air con regen for Mrs Zs Tiguan was going to be between £60 -£130 depending on the gas it required. Fair enough, booked in.

Turns out the compressor was fucked so £580 (down from £660 they estimated). Cheers!

I think you need to have a word. Depriving you of synths rather than just opening the windows.

I view the situation more as ‘my next synth’s in the bag’.

Slowly catching up

Think I must have made mad performance gains today after putting my car through the car wash and loosing a few pounds of seagull shite and bumper bugs. See you at the lights folks

I saw a car yesterday, that I’d like some insight on.

So it had this hand spray-can paint job, which was all over the back number plate and lights. It was being driven by twenty-something man in that weird tracksuit bottoms and bling combo that makes no sense.

Actually, that’s what this is! It’s a tracksuit bottoms and bling car!? Is it?

In that it’s got random bits of different colour cars, it’s been hand spray painted by cans of paint you might find in Hobbycraft, but it’s also got stickers and a massive exhaust fitted, etc.

Is this all a style choice?

Basically, is it a right old banger with flashy bits added, or a good car made to look like a weird mash-up?

Subarau Imprezas can be very pricey to the right buyer. They were very popular in the late 90's early 00's as rally cars

I'm pretty sure that's a choice, sort of rat look aka "I can't afford a full respray".

Ah! Thats what I wondered. It looked kind of intentional, I think because money has been spent on other bits of the car.

Looked awful in real life, like.

My mate has a really good condition prodrive one in his back garden.