Driving

[Robin Long]

Bob Williams wrote:

Ah, the joys of a rural public transport service.

I blame Beeching  :wacko:

I love Skeggy if I could move there, I would! I’m not rural enough to have to endure the public service fallout and living 500m from a railway stn doesn’t help either!

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[Bob Williams]

Skeggy has a Station Robin, but I actually prefer either Cleethorpes or Sutton on Sea. As we live near Louth, roughly equidistant from Cleethorpes and Skeggy, and Sutton is just down the road at about 11 miles, it’s whichever we feel like at the time. Sutton is more ‘genteel’ and quieter, miles of beach from Mablethorpe (ugh!) all the way down to Ingoldmells and Skeggy anyway. Wonderful out of season, miles of beach on a sunny winters day. Cleethorpes is actually where locals go and is friendlier.

Cleethorpes has the more Northern rail services (Pennine Rail) and Skeggy the East Midlands.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Robin Long]

I grew up in Nottingham and know most of the coast along there, Skeggy has always been a fav, but I just love the flatness of it, and watching the RAF do their thing. North Ayrshire is not known for being flat or dry, and as for a sunny winter’s day :negative:

 

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[Bob Williams]

I was born in Nottingham Robin, grew up in a pit village near Mansfield. Have a gt-nephew up past Aberdeen in a place called Rothienorman. Beautiful when it’s not raining or covered in snow! His deceased  dad my nephew (only 5 years younger than me) went to Aberdeen for the Oil business at 18, developed his own welding shop and had his first job welding the “legs & feet” onto rigs. He spent the rest of his life up there in Stonehaven, heart attack at 51 and was buried there. I went up a few times, his funeral was something else. My greeting at the pub I stayed for a few days was “Would you be related to oor mad wee pet Sassenach?”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Nothing good about Aberdeen, it’s windy, it’s cold, it’s rains and that eat fish.

For me the west coast is alot more hospitable weather wise. I grew quite partial of Devon when I was down south, never took to the east coast of Scotty-land. It was just miserable.

Every one say where they come from is boring, but they really have a good shout at being correct.

It actually a butterfull place, but God the weather is poor. All the time, or it seemed like it. At the time if I wasn’t in Scotland I was in Devon, and the weather seemed to be good alot.

 

I seen somthing last month, that Aberdeen, wasn’t really hit by the 2008 crash, but since opec started playing silly buggers with the oil and gas prices, over the last 2 years or so, it has had cripping effect on the erea.

[Robin Long]

Bob Williams wrote:

“Would you be related to oor mad wee pet Sassenach?”

lol not heard that word in a while. Pit village nr mansfield was that not every village till maggie used her axe? 🙁  I lived in various places around Mansfield but mostely grew up in Lambley nr. Calverton Aberdeen is a bit too far north for me and they speak a funny language! I had a navy friend moved up their when he left the mob, he’s now out of work thanks to the opec oil dance! some nice driving though up that way

 

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[Bob Williams]

Lol Robin yes every village indeed but please don’t get me on the Iron (Hearted) Lady. Did you know that she had a degree in Food Technology? And that she was the inventor of Soft (Mr Whippy/Mr Softee) ice cream? No, don’t laugh, it’s true. Only someone like Maggie T, would invent a technology which pumps air into a child’s favourite treat, in order to increase the volume of the product, whilst decreasing the actual volume of the necessary ingredients. She even held the patent, which may explain her rise in the Tory ranks. She was independently very wealthy, the only rewarding grace for me is that she had no idea what all her money was for, at the end. Or who she was, for that matter.

I knew Calverton quite well in my teenage years, one of my – er – female acqaintances was married to a guy there, divorced him a few years later and became a gf between leaving the Army and finding the current Mrs Bob. As a teenager and in my twenties, I used to frequent the Miners’ Welfare there.

I had friends in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverkeithing, which is where two of the greatest friends I ever made used to live. I met them in the Army and they supported me through a nasty breakup. I was godfather to their eldest, but I lost contact when they emigrated to Oz.

Steve my brother used to go up to his son’s place in Stonehaven on the East Coast, then the pair of them used to take off for an Adventure Break on the West Coast and the Islands. This adventure usually took the form of touring various distilleries and sampling the products “for research purposes”. I don’t think the weather really hampered their ‘research’ much…

:wacko:  :yahoo:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

I knew that about Maggie Bob.

I’m not much of a whiskey drinker, in my late teens early 20s I couldn’t stand the stuff. Apparently its a scotch fans dream.

[D-Dan]

Well, progress with my license. Got a letter asking for a new photo. Damn, my youthful good looks.

And, since the car will be stationary for a while, I’ve been turning it over and letting it warm up, which has been a tad boring since I couldn’t get the radio to work (everything said it was working apart from the eerie silence). Tonight I got it going. Seems it has rear speakers only and the previous owner had set it faded 100% to the front speakers.

At least I can sit and listen to some music, now 🙂

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Bob Williams]

Which Mazda model Dan?

My daughter and her partner love Mazdas. He has a 626 diesel (older model, can’t remember the Reg) and dd has a 2005 Mazda 2, which she has owned for about 5 years now and loves. His 626 has been nothing but trouble, currently has a fuel leak which could not be traced by 3 garages. I found it coming from the breather pipe and rearranged the pipe to feed back into the tank. It had cooling leaks which started with a new rad, then water pump and began overheating. I found the usual: garage had not bled the system properly. Took me about 15 minutes to rectify and refill with anti freeze. He went back and gave the garage hell – “If my disabled 71 yo FIL here, can rectify the fault you caused, how good are you?”

He was refunded some of the bill. My SIL listens to me more than SWMBO does. Come to think of it, so does everyone else… :negative:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

The Duke wrote:

I knew that about Maggie Bob. I’m not much of a whiskey drinker, in my late teens early 20s I couldn’t stand the stuff. Apparently its a scotch fans dream.

When I could ( 😥  ) drink alcohol Steve, I used to like Irish whisky, usually Jameson’s, it seems smoother to me, must be the Irish bog peat. SWMBO and I also liked to have the occasional Irish Coffee at home: I can make a really good Irish Coffee. There is a bottle of Jamesons in the cupboard, about ¼ full, been there over 2 years.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[D-Dan]

It’s an old (1999 – what can you expect for £100) 626, and in pretty good condition, though I guess the MOT will be the tell. Needs a decent valet, but apart from that, looks, sounds and runs well. 146k on the clock, which isn’t too bad for 18 years of service, and I’m pretty sure the same guy had it from new, and he’s looked after it mechanically. he used to use it for work, but 70YO now, and for the past 3 – 4 years it’s just been for pottering about in.

He lost his missus last month (they buried her last Thursday), and to be honest he’s not doing well at the moment. I think he’s just pleased it’s gone to someone who won’t kill it by overthrottling and riding the clutch until there’s smoke.

If I can get a couple more years out of it I can call it a real bargain. That shouldn’t be hard. I don’t intend to use it for even commute, so just A – B at weekends for me, too. It could maybe go another 10 years at that rate. I don’t reckon I’ll do more than 3000 miles per annum myself.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[The Duke]

I scrapped my last car for £100, the up and coming Mot may bite you in the arse. You should of sent it for an inspection, before you bothered with your licence and Inc.

I’d of said to the bloke selling, I’ll cover the mot inspection, if it come out favourably (whatever your willing to spend) then give I’m his £100.

With his sale price being its final scrap value, it would of raised alarms to me.

I’m about to enter into the used car hunt, at a level I’ve never been at, sub £1000 for a ka, for my girl, so I’m about to start looking at what should be looked out for on the origanal ka. I’m no michanic but ad the car isn’t mine, I have to get it write.

[PlaneMan]

Love the original Ka, proper little car. It’s the spiritual successor of the Mini. The MINI was just a marketing exercise by BMW.

Make sure you get either the Zetec or Duratec-e engine though, the original 1.3 engine was ancient.

[The Duke]

Yes the zetec engine in the ka was a little ripper. My Mum had a 1.3 zetec and got the 1.6 one with leather interior and electric windows, the engine added nothing, due to the added weight of a real interior.

It just wasn’t as good as the bar bones, cloth, metal manual windows. She never liked it as much as her old one.

The new (outgoing one) is terrible, the incoming 5 door is, to me, the successor to the fiesta, it’s no ka, too big, but give the fiesta is bigger than the the escort, I think this new ka, witch I think is built on the fiesta chassis, may be very good. But I bet they don’t offer the 1litre 3cylinder turbo, thst they put on the fiesta. Thst is A cracker of an engine. Vauxhall also has a 1L 3C engine that is just as good, but I for small cars. It knocks out about 120bhp. Will have e no gusts top end, but is ment to be a peach to thrash.

My main buying point is 2003 onwards, as that is where the they put an air bag on it. Plus I think abs too. But it may of always had that.

[Bob Williams]

Some very good reports on the ’99 626 Dan:     https://tinyurl.com/zbgl9qz

Sounds like a great bargain, had a few in my time but also had a couple of real lemons. A Viva estate comes to mind: priced at £125 in 1983, by a local police officer. I knocked him down to £100 due to no MOT and drove away pleased for the 4 miles before it shuddered to a halt. Fortunately I was able to get the lads from my garage to tow it in. The one Viva fault that I feared – the distributor drive shaft snapped at the lower end. It was a pita to fix, they always were. Then the summer came for a couple of days and I discovered that the officer had been a keen coarse – fisher. The car filled up with flies, hatched of maggot spillage under the boot carpet. Defo not a bird-magnet. Cleaned it out, gave it smellies, MOT’d it and sold it. For £125.

Then I bought a Chevette from an elderly lady who had it serviced by us and gave up driving. A very interesting spinster, she had actually worked with the Queen in the ATS during WWII. Her Maj was then Princess Elizabeth and the old girl said that HM had really mixed in with the others, oily hands, made the tea, did it all. As a spanner-swinger myself, that impressed me much more than the Royal bits. Respect, Your Maj! Now, what would you take for that second hand Bentley? :yahoo:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

The Ka+ is apparently based on the Indian market Figo.

Engines are meant to be a bit weedy and the interior looks a bit of a mess, only a 4.2″ touchscreen as well. :wacko:

Meant to be quite a fun car though and cheap. So more like the original Ka.

[Bob Williams]

The first Ka engine was the ancient 1299cc OHV engine, as used all the way back in Mk.I escorts, etc. However, the Escort was a good bit heavier than the Ka, which made it something of a roller skate. I have only ever been in one, my gdaughter’s first car, but it handled fairly well and was ideal for her first learner. Couldn’t drive it, as I have no usable clutch leg, but it was OK for her until the first MOT threw up bad corrosion. Now she drives a little Picanto and likes that, but would still love a Ka eventually.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[D-Dan]

@The Duke

 

I know my way around a car in an amateur kind of way, but have always been comfortable doing my own maintenance, servicing etc. My untrained eye says that it’s in pretty good condition, especially given it’s age, and I’m not anticipating any real problems with MOT.

Besides, as you say, if it does go pear shaped, I’ll probably recover my outlay in scrap value, so win win.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Ed P]

Back in the days when you could use socket spanners, feeler gauges and screwdrivers I was reasonably competent at maintaining my cars. Once ECM systems and a whole raft of specialist tools became necessary, I gave up.

Unfortunately the car and electronics industries have made it increasingly difficult for DIY maintenance/repairs. Some like Apple seem to deliberately make it extremely difficult even to get into their kit and not a year seems to go by without the need for a totally new ‘security’ screwdriver. I suspect that fears of over-regulated Health & Safety laws and litigation are the root causes.

[Author]

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