Be Excellent To Each Other

I like my Diesel Golf but then again it is only 8 months old...

Mondeo.

Paging Chinny...

Heater fixed! Got a used one from a scrappy on ebay in the end, £10 and 2 minutes to swap out

Arseholes!

The Micra came with no stereo, so I just got a cheapy one with aux in for the ipod. Needed an ISO adaptor, there are two possible connections in the Micra of that year, guess which adaptor I bought!
Off to ebay again. Good job they are only a couple of quid.

Just seen a convoy of 4 of those new baby Range Rovers come out of the factory with delivery plates. All left hand drive

I saw an 11 plate one yesterday. they look pretty good really.

Last night some idiot decided to resurface a road starting on the apex of a blind corner, helpfully putting a sign next to where it started telling me to go 20mph, because the road was coated in loose gravel. At a guess, I was going 70, and had about 25 yards to do something.
My ninja-brain came up with three decisions:
1) Drive it as normal, hope it holds on to the gravel like it would tarmac. I figured this would involve me hitting the trees and being dead.
2) Stand on the brakes and hope the back end doesn't drop out. I figured this would involve me hitting the trees backward and being dead.
3) Deliberately over-steer and go into the corner sideways, which should scrub off a load of speed and let me try and power through. I figured this would make me look manly and awesome, and keep me alive.

I chose option two. Turns out the Mundano's stability system is fucking epic.

Chicken.

To be honest, I was going for something between 2 and 3, but the car simply wouldn't let me do 3.
I felt the back end let go and then the brake pedal just went the the floor (causing me to squeeze a new button in the seat), but it kept braking, only more with the outside wheels then the inside ones, basically saying ("You just steer, I got this").
I fucking love that car - you can't call it a driver's car because it's simply too comfy, but it keeps impressing me. I will be most sad when I give it back in April.
I mean, it was on gravel, and while it had slowed down a fair bit it certainly wasn't going slowly, and it just went round the corner

[edit]Interestingly, it kept braking, even though I'd taken my foot off the brake. It only let up when I put my foot on the throttle again. Good job there was no-one behind me

Did you spill any beer?

No, but the sat-nav fell off the windscreen. Does that count?

Only if you said "I wish your voice was this gravely!" as you kicked it off the screen.

Such is my exciting life I have spent most of the day fitting a towbar

Which involves pretty much demolishing half the car, inside and out.

Anyway, it's done, with only one large aluminium chunk left over.

Fucking Hell. Why are the wheels off?

Yeah, quite. To get at the screws holding the bumper on!
The inside was the worst bit, all the carpeted side panel bits had to come out to get to the actual floor

Driving question, Beexers! When waiting at lights or at a junction, do you put it into neutral or sit there in gear but with the clutch down? Is there a "proper" way of doing it? Enquiring minds want to know!

I generally put it into neutral and put the handbrake on. It upsets me when I see people on a light slope bobbing backwards and forward burning their clutch out.

The proper way is to put it in neutral and apply the handbrake.

Nobody does. It used to matter, because if you kept the clutch depressed for minutes at a time the bronze release bushing would overheat and cause damage. These days, no concern.

edit: though don't hold it on a hill with the clutch for more than a few seconds, that's just silly. I must admit to holding the electric car on the go pedal sometimes, which looks like you're doing this.

Depends if I think I can take the car next to me.

I thought the other reason was that if someone hits the back of you then your foot will come off the clutch and brake and you'll go flying out into the junction or hit the car in front.

Unless I'm next to a cement mixer dragging an anchor, I just assume I can't.

When I stop at light, I'm in first, clutch right down and handbrake on. I can't remember what I was told in my driving lessons, but I passed my test so it can't be too wrong.

Oh, yeah, that's the "be safe" reason, for sure. Or your foot just slipping. I just meant technically.

See also: coasting in neutral / coasting with the engine off.

Yeah, really you should pop it in neutral and set your hand brake.

Then keeping your clutch down pop it into reverse and watch the drivers face behind you in your mirror.

17yr old Mr T, passenger in a car of friend.

Mr T's friend:
"if I pop the car into neutral going down the hills, I save petrol!"
"hang on, if I turn the engine off i'll save even more"
"look engine off, here are the keys!"
<click> <steering lock engages>
"OH SHIT!"

I heard a similar story to that but it was someone on the motorway who needed to retrieve something from a locked glovebox and then suddenly needed to change lanes.

I think I once read that most cars use more petrol in neutral if you are coasting, they need to use fuel to keep the engine from stalling.

Are steering locks purely for security? Are they easy to remove?

For security, yeah. I think they will just break if you rag the wheel around hard enough.

I bet it was the petrol companies who pushed for them then.

It's kinda true. Leaving it in gear, foot off the throttle means you get "fuel cut" - no fuel injected. But, the drag and pump losses in the engine slow the car down quite a lot, so unless the hill is reasonably steep you'd end up pressing the accellerator anyway, adding fuel. So it evens out, really.

Turning the engine off and coasting in neutral is definitely the way to save fuel, but you then might not have power steering, vacuum for the brakes, etc. So need to know what you're doing.

And taking the key out is clearly a bit silly!

I always use the clutch unless it's downhill. Fuck it, the car's a leaser.

What's with the cost of petrol?

Oil prices can decline for months and if you're lucky you get a fucking penny off a litre at the end of it. Oil prices go up and there's 3p more per litre at the forecourt to pay the next fucking day.

The Scooby is fucking ruinous with super unleaded at £1.49 per gallon, although I have managed to get amazingly close to 30mpg from a tank thanks to my driving in the style of a little old lady.

Are fuel prices the same there as on the mainland?

Nah we generally pay 6-7p more per litre than you do, and we don't have any supermarkets selling fuel either.

Well I think it's still about 6-7p more per litre anyway, what's super unleaded over there at the moment?

(The Scooby doesn't do regular unleaded so I never buy it.)

Front of the 306 is making creaking noises. Either steering or suspension. Good job I'm handing it over to Old Man Afterthought for a week or so, whilst I borrow his camper van.

Standing on the side of the road waiting on the aa ;-(

If you had to get a car quickly what's the best options - I assume local garage or one of those horrible car supermarket places - and do they let you rake the car away same day ?

You can drive away same day as long as you can arrange insurance on the spot, whether via the dealer or over the phone with anyone else.

Tesco momentum 99 is £1.39 round my way, Shell Super is £1.44

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/trooperlooper/500

Thanks - useful to know

AA came out - and it started and worked (of course it did have 90 minutes to 'cool down') nothing obviously wrong so now i'm stuck with either trying to replace it or trying to drive it into work tomorrow and see if it fails or not.

I had been driving along happily when the power just cut out and when it stopped at the side turning the engine on worked , when you revved the car it cut out.

As I thought it was the end of the car I took a picture of the mileage

Grrrrr.

Can't even get 99RON fuel over here, we did have Shell V-Power for a bit but there was some problem with the supplies so we're back on 98RON super unleaded now - at £1.4fucking9p per litre.

It genuinely makes a difference to the Scooby too, I gave it a tank of regular unleaded once out of curiosity and it was noticeably less psychotic.

Mind you, I really should get rid of it sooner or later, I think I'm getting too old for it, it's a right hooligan car. In fact, it's the sort of car I should have had in my twenties, except:

1) I couldn't have afforded it

and

2) I'd have killed myself in it.

I do like it though, and I think I'll just have to accept that I'll never own an appreciably faster or better handling car, so I may as well retire to a fucking Audi or something.

Well, they have to tax [I]something

Unless it overheated and seized or something, that does not sound worth replacing the car over. Could be as simple as the HT coil breaking down, something like that.

Temp gauge read normal and obviously when the AA man came out to check everything was 'normal' and it drove me the 40 odd miles i still had to go home without any problems (although that took a lot less time than the 20 odd miles i'd just done in rush hour.

I guess its more how much it would cost to get someone to look at it and possibly fix as i'm really not good with cars (computers yes / cars no)

Did it actually overheat?

Display said not (digital display just sitting in the middle as it always does) - and although i appreciate the advice Kalmar I think i am going to just cut my losses with this one now and see what i can pick up to replace it (something diesel and with a few less miles on the clock)

Myself and the new Lady Z were chatting about cars and stuff last night and she mentioned that her favourite of all the (actually pretty amazing) cars she's had in the past was a 2.2l Vauxhall Astra Bertone Coupe. I've since seen a 2002 model on Auto Trader nearby going for just over two grand, so more or less within my budget, with 99k on the clock but a full Vauxhall dealer service history and MOT until July 2012. It's a nice looking car and obviously has a bit more zing than the previous Ziomobile with that engine, so can anyone think of any reason for me not to call the guy after work tonight to see if he's still got it for sale?

The only thing I don't like about it are the slightly rubbish looking side skirts, but Lady Z is the manager of a Kwik Fit and assures me that were I to purchase said vehicle, it'd be straight in her garage having those replaced.

NO! Spending BAD!

I can't really go on driving my brother's car forever though man, he may want it back at some point before I kill it.

Also; 2.2? Thirsty, much....?