What Shocked You Today

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What Shocked You Today

Get one of these: https://www.secondhandwavs.co.uk/ve...ordshire-c9ba031b-0349-461c-bfed-e379df899c89
7 seats, plus the wheelchair, its a bus. Useful for so many other things. Stick some Fiat badges on and pretend its a Ducato.
To be fair didn’t Birmingham council go bust and it was found that one company was charging them £700k a year to take one child to their special school once a day…. That looks like the perfect vehicle to give up your day job and live a life of luxury running a child to school once a day
 
To be fair didn’t Birmingham council go bust and it was found that one company was charging them £700k a year to take one child to their special school once a day…. That looks like the perfect vehicle to give up your day job and live a life of luxury running a child to school once a day
You'd probably have to go fetch them back again later though, doubling the workload.
There are a lot of minibuses around Swindon doing that sort of job. Usually with just one passenger in a 15/17 seat bus, plus the attendant. Occasionally, there might be up to three passengers. But a 7-seat Galaxy would not be able to use the bus lanes.
 
A solution for some:

eShopping Trolley

Like Class 2 & 3 vehicles they can be used on roads, footpaths, pedestrian area, and stores.

Trolley is same size as a standard large shopping trolley. Larger wheels with battery & motors in the lower chassis below the basket.

Also has a driver platform that you stand on and steer / control from. Your "Door 2 Door" transport solution with shopping/load capabilities.

Optional "Rain Cover" for goods and driver.

Can be parked anywhere for free. Used on roads (won't break the Wales 20mph limit), no road tax, not MOT, no compulsory insurance requirement. Sadly you can't use them in Bus Lanes.

When we get a few together we can legally do the truckers slow overtake holding up traffic. Best done in front of GOV/Parlimentry/Official vehicles :)
 
A solution for some:

eShopping Trolley

Like Class 2 & 3 vehicles they can be used on roads, footpaths, pedestrian area, and stores.

Trolley is same size as a standard large shopping trolley. Larger wheels with battery & motors in the lower chassis below the basket.

Also has a driver platform that you stand on and steer / control from. Your "Door 2 Door" transport solution with shopping/load capabilities.

Optional "Rain Cover" for goods and driver.

Can be parked anywhere for free. Used on roads (won't break the Wales 20mph limit), no road tax, not MOT, no compulsory insurance requirement. Sadly you can't use them in Bus Lanes.

When we get a few together we can legally do the truckers slow overtake holding up traffic. Best done in front of GOV/Parlimentry/Official vehicles :)
Or just a standard invalid scooter. Not restricted to disabled people, anyone can have one.
 
Or just a standard invalid scooter. Not restricted to disabled people, anyone can have one.
Yes they are available for all. I'm actually unable to walk far without pain or blisters an have a Blue Badge.

See: https://www.debra.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=d5f66648-8b9f-4dfd-ac81-74c017c9d6ec

MY Transport is my life-line and necessity as it is for many others with disabilities. My nearest bus stop is 1/2 a mile away so beyond reach.

Freedom of travel, transport, etc. is everybody's right yet "they" seem to want to curtail, damage, restrict, etc.

My real concern is that there is no "End To End" thinking going on. Most GOV actions in many areas (not all) are either knee jerk or ill founded.

Like the video /Telegraph reported re: EV parking fees "they" have stated and agreed that EVs are more damaging to the environment than ICE over the lifetime of the vehicle.

Drive any Welsh road at 20 mph and cars are all in lower gears, higher RPM, lower fuel efficency and ALSO braking, braking, braking just to keep at 20 and the traffic "sort of" flowing. BRAKE DUST, BRAKE DUST, .... when there was none!
 
I've never availed myself of a GOV motability "PIP" or "DLA" (though I could) as I feel there are others more worthy. Maybe I'm a mug (not milking the system).
When my partner had to lose a leg, we enquired about DLA/PIP. We were told, and I think it is on gov.uk website, if you can navigate the maze, that once retired, you can't get a new award. If you have a PIP before retirement, it continues, but if, like my partner, you become disabled after retirement, no extra benefits.

My brother has had an artificial leg all his life. Recently they reassessed PIP payments, and they took his away. Despite often having trouble walking far, some days he's ok. The assessment centre was on a main street, two disabled parking spaces outside, and about 200yds from the nearest car park. then you had to climb two floors of stairs. The parking spaces were full. Instead of waiting, and apologising for being late, he used the car park, walked back, climbed the stairs, whereupon they declared him fit.
 
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This has pitched up outside my house..
View attachment 436991

Not for the first time to be fair but had a thought...

It's 35 years old and it's still being used as a van...there cannot be many left when at a time they were everywhere.
Oh deers. Burglars casing the joint!
 
Not sure where this would go, as it's shocking but not really shocked any more with people on the road.
Passed a slower car on the motorway on way to work, doing about 45 on a motorway, you could see a queue as people getting past. His back wheel looked really odd on one side, as off at a 30° angle. The tyre had come off the rim and you can see the bare alloy on one side at the bottom. People were slowing and peeping their horn at him, me too, but he just waved people away without even looking at them.
 
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Not sure where this would go, as it's shocking but not really shocked any more with people on the road.
Pass a slower car on the motorway on way to work, dong about 45 on a motorway, you could see a queue as people getting past. His back wheel looked really odd on one side, as off at a 30° angle. The tyre had come off the rim and you can see the bare alloy on one side at the bottom. People were slowing and peeping their horn at him, me too, but he just waved people away without even looking at them.
Reminds me of an old customer, now sadly passed away. He had a 7.5 tonne Cherokee Sun Voyager complete with Renault 11GTL? on an A frame he used to take across Europe regularly. Leaving a campsite his friend didn't quite release the handbrake on the Renault fully, around 50 miles into the journey in the middle of the night my customer noticed showers of sparks from his rear view camera. On pulling over he found the Renault was on the brake back plates skidding along, no hubs, drums or wheels!!! He did get some s/h wheels and hubs so brought it back home and I put it to rights again.
Of course with such a massive vehicle and big American V8 Diesel the drag was not apparent or visible until too late.:(
 
Not sure where this would go, as it's shocking but not really shocked any more with people on the road.
Pass a slower car on the motorway on way to work, dong about 45 on a motorway, you could see a queue as people getting past. His back wheel looked really odd on one side, as off at a 30° angle. The tyre had come off the rim and you can see the bare alloy on one side at the bottom. People were slowing and peeping their horn at him, me too, but he just waved people away without even looking at them.
Aye, it's a weird one isn't it? As many will know I live near one of the busiest east/west roads in our city and often drive along it or walk beside it. From time to time, especially when walking, I'll hear the typical "crumply" noise of a vehicle being driven with a flat tyre. I've been taking walks along this road, because it's one of the ways I can get off onto the footpaths etc, for the last 40 something years and I realize, now I'm thinking about it, that I've been aware of people driving with a flat much more of late than previously. Could be simply that people just don't have a spare any more so are electing to drive to one of the several tyre stores in the area. Maybe also that people don't understand how to use the silly can of goo that most cars now come with instead of a spare - some are really not that simple to use. Also, of course, these cans of goo can only work if the puncture is a simple one, a large gash or tyre which has unseated from the rim and you're scuppered.

Then it occurred to me that very few people these days "tinker" with their cars any more. In our street there's only a couple of chaps who even seem to open their bonnet and do regular checks. There's on guy round the corner who built himself a Dutton years ago and seems to mess about with his cars in his driveway but, apart from the two of us there's noone else on our estate who do more than just drive their cars. 20 to 30 years ago it was very different. The guy who lived in the flats opposite had a Reliant Scimitar and another was restoring an old Lancia in his lockup. On a Saturday there would be Tam across the road from me tinkering with his privately owned black cab or his Mrs car and there were others, perhaps doing an oil change or fitting new wiper blades. All these people had considerably more knowledge of what made their cars "tick" than the people now living here and wouldn't have thought twice about changing a wheel. However, more disturbingly I think, is that they had a fair idea of basically how stuff on their cars worked and, more importantly, therefore a realistic idea of what could be safely asked of the vehicle. Today I think many drivers have no idea of the deeper implications of driving their vehicle when there is obviously something wrong with it. So they'll drive on flat tyres, with a spongy brake pedal, steering pulling to one side, etc, etc. Basically, for some people, as long as it'll move they'll drive it.

The lady who lives in the flats opposite personifies this lack of understanding perfectly. Nearly two years ago she came out in the morning to find a flat O/S front tyre on her car. She knocked on my door and asked what she should do about it. - I'm a sucker for helping people if I can and folk know this! Anyway, luckily her car is an older model and did actually have a spare so I just swapped it over for her and told her where she could go to get the puncture repaired at a reasonable price. Couple of days later I noticed the steel spare had been swapped out for the alloy - job done! Ever since there's been an occasional knock on my door and it's her. Jock, I think that tyre's going down again, could you just check it for me? There's seldom anything wrong with it, although it's been a few pounds down due to neglect on a couple of occasions. I've even intentionally let some air out of it to show her what it looks like when seriously down on pressure but she doesn't seem to understand. Then there's Steve across the road who's a computer man. He once asked me why I always have my car's bonnet open on a Saturday and was it particularly unreliable as he was thinking of buying a new car and wondered whether to avoid this make. He was astonished when I told him he should be regularly checking his fluid levels, although he did tell me his local garage topped up his washer fluid for him every month free of charge? Bet he was paying plenty for his services? I may be wrong, but cars are generally so reliable now a days that people no longer need to interest themselves in the "mucky bits" so they don't!
 
Reminds me of an old customer, now sadly passed away. He had a 7.5 tonne Cherokee Sun Voyager complete with Renault 11GTL? on an A frame he used to take across Europe regularly. Leaving a campsite his friend didn't quite release the handbrake on the Renault fully, around 50 miles into the journey in the middle of the night my customer noticed showers of sparks from his rear view camera. On pulling over he found the Renault was on the brake back plates skidding along, no hubs, drums or wheels!!! He did get some s/h wheels and hubs so brought it back home and I put it to rights again.
Of course with such a massive vehicle and big American V8 Diesel the drag was not apparent or visible until too late.:(
Not quite on the same subject but reminds me of a clutch change I did in a Morris Minor shortly after I went to work in the wee country BMC/BL dealership. The whole thing was "fried" - probably the worst heat damage I've ever seen in a clutch. I called the boss over and showed him the damage and he wasn't at all surprised. The elderly chap who owned the car had a big problem with his joints, arthritis I suppose? Anyway it hurt him to bend his knees. He only used second most of the time and third gear occasionally and would work the clutch with his leg straight but sliding his body around on the seat so as to operate it with his leg straight, slipping it until the car "caught up" and then again slipping it when he had to slow down below what the car could cope with in second. You could hear him coming, with the revs screaming away, long before the car came into sight. Came in for it's annual service and a clutch every year!
 
Not quite on the same subject but reminds me of a clutch change I did in a Morris Minor shortly after I went to work in the wee country BMC/BL dealership. The whole thing was "fried" - probably the worst heat damage I've ever seen in a clutch. I called the boss over and showed him the damage and he wasn't at all surprised. The elderly chap who owned the car had a big problem with his joints, arthritis I suppose? Anyway it hurt him to bend his knees. He only used second most of the time and third gear occasionally and would work the clutch with his leg straight but sliding his body around on the seat so as to operate it with his leg straight, slipping it until the car "caught up" and then again slipping it when he had to slow down below what the car could cope with in second. You could hear him coming, with the revs screaming away, long before the car came into sight. Came in for it's annual service and a clutch every year!
Re looking under the bonnet I think that with the advent of broken families, there are less fathers around to instruct their off spring on the finer arts of regular maintenance. Most of them think if something breaks and it is not readily available on "Google" they give up. With most academic courses from school on wards seems to be "dumbing down", to the point that they cannot even apply logic to a problem, throw in the stuff they smoke rots what is left of their brains and takes away the will to work then the downward trend is all there is!
Re the Morris Minor Jock, I think l I know the guy ;), as an apprentice we would hear him driving past the garage engine screaming in the wrong gear and clutch slipping, when queried about it, his reply in a accent more your side of the border than mine was "clutches are cheaper than gears" .:)
 
Most of my neighbours were great, knowing it was my trade to feed my children, but one builder type got me to do a load of work on the vehicle he needed for his business, then quibbled on the bill (which was fully itemised and scrupulously fair which he knew), he played the poverty card so much that in the end I reduced the bill to the point that I would have been better off leaving my tools in their box, which he begrudgingly paid.
Less than a week later he bought a house in France as a holiday home plus spending more money on extending his UK home.:mad:
 
I get paranoid at every different sound I hear on my cars, usually with the thought, "what do I have to fix now"
It's only paranoia if you're "imagining" or even better "hallucinating" the sounds.

Seems perfectly sensible to come out in a cold sweat whenever I hear a new scraping or banging lol.
 
Most of my neighbours were great, knowing it was my trade to feed my children, but one builder type got me to do a load of work on the vehicle he needed for his business, then quibbled on the bill (which was fully itemised and scrupulously fair which he knew), he played the poverty card so much that in the end I reduced the bill to the point that I would have been better off leaving my tools in their box, which he begrudgingly paid.
Less than a week later he bought a house in France as a holiday home plus spending more money on extending his UK home.:mad:
I hope it fell down on his head and burried the lot of them.
 
Phoned my local Fiat dealer today to order some bits for the Punto.

Really helpful guy at the dealership tells me one part is in stock the other part would need to be ordered from Italy…. Fair enough

First shock, you need to call the local Vauxhall dealership to get the parts as they have the one part that is in stock and they can order the other part and get it quicker than the Fiat dealership.

One of the parts was a clip that holds the injector on the fuel rail.

Second shock, £8.75 for this one clip and the Fiat dealer told me if I bought it through them I would have to buy a bag of 10 (£87.50) so will be going to the local Vauxhall dealer for all my Fiat parts now…. Which is nice as Vauxhall is just down the road where as Fiat is on the other side of the city from me
 
Phoned my local Fiat dealer today to order some bits for the Punto.

Really helpful guy at the dealership tells me one part is in stock the other part would need to be ordered from Italy…. Fair enough

First shock, you need to call the local Vauxhall dealership to get the parts as they have the one part that is in stock and they can order the other part and get it quicker than the Fiat dealership.

One of the parts was a clip that holds the injector on the fuel rail.

Second shock, £8.75 for this one clip and the Fiat dealer told me if I bought it through them I would have to buy a bag of 10 (£87.50) so will be going to the local Vauxhall dealer for all my Fiat parts now…. Which is nice as Vauxhall is just down the road where as Fiat is on the other side of the city from me

Who knew being part of an evil mega corporation would have benefits beyond not going bust? 🤣
 
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