What Shocked You Today

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What Shocked You Today

AndyRKett

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We have what made you smile, what made you grumpy and a completely non-sensical "What's made you not grumpy but not smile either" thread, But today something surprised me that I thought would be an interesting talking point, and I am sure most people come across things like this every day that surprise them.

Due to recent posts on here about old cars I was watching this very old video from very old TopGear

And no it wasn't the tan suit jacket Jeans combo, it was the realization that the Mondeo (Of which I owned a couple, including one of the first a March 1993 1.8 and a later 1996 4x4 Ghia) was first shown to the public 30 years ago !!

What's even more depressing was when I bought mine it was only 8 years old. which in today's money would be a 14 or 64 plate car.

I have included a picture of my heavily modified (though it doesn't look it) Mondeo that was scrapped in 2006 after it hit a very sizable deer on Halloween.
 

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We have what made you smile, what made you grumpy and a completely non-sensical "What's made you not grumpy but not smile either" thread, But today something surprised me that I thought would be an interesting talking point, and I am sure most people come across things like this every day that surprise them.

Due to recent posts on here about old cars I was watching this very old video from very old TopGear

And no it wasn't the tan suit jacket Jeans combo, it was the realization that the Mondeo (Of which I owned a couple, including one of the first a March 1993 1.8 and a later 1996 4x4 Ghia) was first shown to the public 30 years ago !!

What's even more depressing was when I bought mine it was only 8 years old. which in today's money would be a 14 or 64 plate car.

I have included a picture of my heavily modified (though it doesn't look it) Mondeo that was scrapped in 2006 after it hit a very sizable deer on Halloween.

Quite an unappreciated vehicle.
I only ever owned one, if I remember correctly it was an early 1990s version, it was a 1.8 turbo diesel ex taxi I bought from an auction total cost £130, it proved very reliable and economical for it's day. Allegedly ;) it would reach 110mph and 42mpg on the same journey. When the clutch started to fail at 199,000 miles,rather than repair it I loaded it up with scrap metal, drove it to the scrapyard and weighed it in for £133. So I consider that excellent value for money.
 
Everybody's dad had one of these at some point....

A friend of mine was given a TD when he was 17...he immediately fitted 17s to it and shortly after applied it to a hedgerow/field.

Good going given for a car with 88 whole horsepower when it was new.

The one for me has to be the Clio 2 (which strangely he replaced the mondy with). There's still a load of them running round as dailies...but most of them are 20 plus and they don't seem to rust significantly so other than body damage tend to look tidyish.

My cousins had a matching pair of blue ones as well.
 
We have what made you smile, what made you grumpy and a completely non-sensical "What's made you not grumpy but not smile either" thread, But today something surprised me that I thought would be an interesting talking point, and I am sure most people come across things like this every day that surprise them.

Due to recent posts on here about old cars I was watching this very old video from very old TopGear

And no it wasn't the tan suit jacket Jeans combo, it was the realization that the Mondeo (Of which I owned a couple, including one of the first a March 1993 1.8 and a later 1996 4x4 Ghia) was first shown to the public 30 years ago !!

What's even more depressing was when I bought mine it was only 8 years old. which in today's money would be a 14 or 64 plate car.

I have included a picture of my heavily modified (though it doesn't look it) Mondeo that was scrapped in 2006 after it hit a very sizable deer on Halloween.

Slow you down boy and then you wouldnt be spoiling the venison!
 
Everybody's dad had one of these at some point....

A friend of mine was given a TD when he was 17...he immediately fitted 17s to it and shortly after applied it to a hedgerow/field.

Good going given for a car with 88 whole horsepower when it was new.

The one for me has to be the Clio 2 (which strangely he replaced the mondy with). There's still a load of them running round as dailies...but most of them are 20 plus and they don't seem to rust significantly so other than body damage tend to look tidyish.

My cousins had a matching pair of blue ones as well.
For me , if the price is right it beats walking, I had a customer sell me his Toyota Hiace for 1d once just so we could put something on the invoice;)
Mind you I once sold a 1965 Chrysler Valiant for £20 with a dodgy gearbox little realising 332** reg was worth anything, it turned out the two letters were the initials of the night club owner he sold the Reg. to for much more :oops:.
What really annoyed me was my best mate worked at a Jensen Interceptor Dealership, Jensen V8 used the same Torqueflite autobox and he could have got it repaired for me but it didn't occur to him.:(
 
Damned fine car the Mondeo. Capable of covering huge distance at huge spped with no fuss and without using too much fuel. Just make sure the back tyres are properly inflated or things got a bit lively. I used to tow my caravan to Cornwall when working there as I preferred ot to hotels and it was cheaper for the company. It could go nearly as well with 1200kg of caravan on the hook! That was 19 years ago now.
 
The one for me has to be the Clio 2 (which strangely he replaced the mondy with). There's still a load of them running round as dailies...but most of them are 20 plus and they don't seem to rust significantly so other than body damage tend to look tidyish.
I believe it’s because big chunks of the body work are plastic, the front wings specifically where plastic, not sure if other bits were? Made for so e interesting damage and the plastic would explode rather than dent
 
I believe it’s because big chunks of the body work are plastic, the front wings specifically where plastic, not sure if other bits were? Made for so e interesting damage and the plastic would explode rather than dent
Was just the wings.

No idea if they are hardier than average or if they just sold a load of them so the percentage still on the road is tiny but the starting number was huge. See at least 3 daily in a small area. There's a black 51 plate I walk past on the school run most mornings nothing special in any way except that when you think about it it's equivalent to someone daily driving an Anglia in the late 80s.

My uncle had one from new...it ate front arms and the waterpump was engine out for "reasons" but it only lived to 15 as it was gifted to my cousin in its dotage and they ran it until the timing belt popped.
 
Was just the wings.

No idea if they are hardier than average or if they just sold a load of them so the percentage still on the road is tiny but the starting number was huge. See at least 3 daily in a small area. There's a black 51 plate I walk past on the school run most mornings nothing special in any way except that when you think about it it's equivalent to someone daily driving an Anglia in the late 80s.

My uncle had one from new...it ate front arms and the waterpump was engine out for "reasons" but it only lived to 15 as it was gifted to my cousin in its dotage and they ran it until the timing belt popped.
I didn't know deer had wings;)
 
It flew After being hit at 50 I’ll tell you that 😑

@StevenRB45 I very nearly bought a 51 plate Clio, they were very nice for the time, certainly better built than the punto dare I say. They were also very popular so there where Loads of them about, in that 2000’s turn of the millennium era small cars like the Clio and punto seemed to be extremely popular, I remember the Clio being about £8000 on a PCP, deal. And to be fare the design and interior has aged quite well, so maybe thats why there are still a fare few on the road, they don‘t ‘feel’ like an old car.

I remember a lot of Renaults from that period used the cam belt driven water pump and while the belts were pretty good, the water pumps used to seize up and burn through the belt. The company I worked for in 2004 would change the cam belt if it needed replacing but not the pump which resulted in quite A few unhappy customers of Clio’s and Megans.
 
I can believe it’s not butter but…
That I can’t get hold of panda cross bumper end trims anywhere in the country but i can get them from the EU at half the price INCLUDING delivery
 
Doubt it’s percentages for the Clio otherw we’d be overrun by fiestas and corsas of the period and there’s bugger all of them round here
 
It flew After being hit at 50 I’ll tell you that 😑

@StevenRB45 I very nearly bought a 51 plate Clio, they were very nice for the time, certainly better built than the punto dare I say. They were also very popular so there where Loads of them about, in that 2000’s turn of the millennium era small cars like the Clio and punto seemed to be extremely popular, I remember the Clio being about £8000 on a PCP, deal. And to be fare the design and interior has aged quite well, so maybe thats why there are still a fare few on the road, they don‘t ‘feel’ like an old car.

I remember a lot of Renaults from that period used the cam belt driven water pump and while the belts were pretty good, the water pumps used to seize up and burn through the belt. The company I worked for in 2004 would change the cam belt if it needed replacing but not the pump which resulted in quite A few unhappy customers of Clio’s and Megans.

My dad had both a 19 and Mégane.. and the pump failed on the Mégane.

It didn't kill it though they put a new one on and all was well for another 2 years until it got traded in for a *dramatic pause* Peugeot 307..which the internet tells me was an absolute freak as it never failed to proceed or caught fire or anything but it wasn't a diesel which most were again you see SWs still running around and they'll be getting on for 20 as well.

I also looked at getting a 1.4 Clio 3 door when I was young and wanted something fastish but insurable. Unfortunately turned up to view a car that had clearly hit something hard and then been mildly straightened on a budget. The mantra of the bloke fixing it was "it can't be broken if its not there"...so the best way to describe this thing forward of the front wheels was a Clio superleggera. Every single piece of dress up plastic was missing except the bumper itself.

Final observation of Renaults of this era..they had the oddest exhaust note 99% ancillary whine unless it was an RS but even those were 75% standard. Mate of mine killed 2 Clio 172s personally one by wrapping a minty cup into a tree and nearly killing himself and the bloke who was best man at my wedding and the other by putting 120k on it and spending 30p on repairs but that one was a dog he'd bought with the insurance pay out from the 1st one however with a full carbon intake it did at least sound like a fast car.

Thinking about it they must have been everywhere, my uncle had one...my cousins had 2, I looked at buying a few...and a friend ended a further 2 and another mate had a 1.2..that's 6 within my 6 degrees of separation.

Still impressive people are dailying them now though as you know they've been one big bill away from the scrapyard for about a decade.
 
It flew After being hit at 50 I’ll tell you that 😑

@StevenRB45 I very nearly bought a 51 plate Clio, they were very nice for the time, certainly better built than the punto dare I say. They were also very popular so there where Loads of them about, in that 2000’s turn of the millennium era small cars like the Clio and punto seemed to be extremely popular, I remember the Clio being about £8000 on a PCP, deal. And to be fare the design and interior has aged quite well, so maybe thats why there are still a fare few on the road, they don‘t ‘feel’ like an old car.

I remember a lot of Renaults from that period used the cam belt driven water pump and while the belts were pretty good, the water pumps used to seize up and burn through the belt. The company I worked for in 2004 would change the cam belt if it needed replacing but not the pump which resulted in quite A few unhappy customers of Clio’s and Megans.
If I remember correctly one of my son in laws worked for a Renault/Peugeot dealer around that time and after heavy rain there used to be a large dip near where the old gas works used to be and some models of Clio had the air intake low down resulting in nearly new cars inhaling water and hydraulic locking resulting in a £2000 engine job. Most cars now days seem to fit the intake higher.
 
My dad had both a 19 and Mégane.. and the pump failed on the Mégane.

It didn't kill it though they put a new one on and all was well for another 2 years until it got traded in for a *dramatic pause* Peugeot 307..which the internet tells me was an absolute freak as it never failed to proceed or caught fire or anything but it wasn't a diesel which most were again you see SWs still running around and they'll be getting on for 20 as well.

I also looked at getting a 1.4 Clio 3 door when I was young and wanted something fastish but insurable. Unfortunately turned up to view a car that had clearly hit something hard and then been mildly straightened on a budget. The mantra of the bloke fixing it was "it can't be broken if its not there"...so the best way to describe this thing forward of the front wheels was a Clio superleggera. Every single piece of dress up plastic was missing except the bumper itself.

Final observation of Renaults of this era..they had the oddest exhaust note 99% ancillary whine unless it was an RS but even those were 75% standard. Mate of mine killed 2 Clio 172s personally one by wrapping a minty cup into a tree and nearly killing himself and the bloke who was best man at my wedding and the other by putting 120k on it and spending 30p on repairs but that one was a dog he'd bought with the insurance pay out from the 1st one however with a full carbon intake it did at least sound like a fast car.

Thinking about it they must have been everywhere, my uncle had one...my cousins had 2, I looked at buying a few...and a friend ended a further 2 and another mate had a 1.2..that's 6 within my 6 degrees of separation.

Still impressive people are dailying them now though as you know they've been one big bill away from the scrapyard for about a decade.
Another quirk with the hotter Clio was that it would lift the inside back wheel when pushed a bit. In my younger days I gave a Clio cup an extensive test around a quiet roundabout. It went quite well on three legs.
 
Another quirk with the hotter Clio was that it would lift the inside back wheel when pushed a bit. In my younger days I gave a Clio cup an extensive test around a quiet roundabout. It went quite well on three legs.
This was what caught my friend out..he entered a left hand bend at 80..then lifted and turned right.

No ESP on the Cup or ABS...or side airbags. Luckily there was no one in the back seat as after rotating it was pretty much bifurcated up the middle to the back seat by a hefty tree.
 
This was what caught my friend out..he entered a left hand bend at 80..then lifted and turned right.

No ESP on the Cup or ABS...or side airbags. Luckily there was no one in the back seat as after rotating it was pretty much bifurcated up the middle to the back seat by a hefty tree.

Keeping to the woodland theme, a friend of mine wrote off a nearly new BMW M3 when leaving a piece of freshly laid tarmac in preference for a trip in the woods.
You could say his car had been truncated. —-Sorry!
 
Keeping to the woodland theme, a friend of mine wrote off a nearly new BMW M3 when leaving a piece of freshly laid tarmac in preference for a trip in the woods.
You could say his car had been truncated. —-Sorry!
When I was an apprentice the garage was on a 70 Mph twisty A road with several hump backs, at least twice cars landed on the roofs of bungalows.
Local knowledge helped as speed could be maintained, as long as a little right hand lock as you went light (air born?) kept you on the black bit. This was in the days of cross ply tyres;)
We had a Series one Land Rover with a Harvey Frost crane for recovery and at one time you could be sure of needing it at least once a week.
There was also some tight single lane country roads with high banks, one call out was for a lady whose business was Pyrenean Mountain show dogs, one morning she managed to catch the bank after a sharp bend, ride up it and flip a Vauxhall estate on it's roof with six of those dogs in it. We had to drag the car up the road on it's roof to a point where several men could right it, I believe the occupants had got out via a window somehow:)
 
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