Trouble is we are back to the "old saw" that manufacturers could easily make non rusting vehicles, but it is not in their best interests in supplying. So "built in obsolescence" is there business model
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What's made you grumpy today?
Ha,ha. I recall parking like that on some grass just off the road, it had been raining and when I went to pull away the Vauxhall HA Viva had no traction at all, so my non driving girlfriend at the time, ended up having to push the car free
That gave me a "flash back" to a question I was often faced with during my years as a trainer in light vehicle repair and maintenance. Typically a student would approach me, when attempting or having trouble with, a task where perhaps, access was particularly difficult, asking something along the lines of: Why did the manufacturer make this so damned difficult to do? Often the language would be much more colourful as they nursed their bleeding knuckles!
I remember thinking similar thoughts when I was just starting out in the trade and there are many possible replies but the one I most often deployed was: "Don't waste time thinking about it, there's nothing you can do about it. What you do need to do is learn how to overcome the problem and that's one of the reasons why I'm here"!
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Yep put them on a touch screen under the heading Control panel/ Interior/ dashboard/o/ controls/ on off switch etc etcb Media apps/ media/ radi
In the states they would be sued they should be challenged over this. Volvo seem to be the only responsible car9 maker!Trouble is we are back to the "old saw" that manufacturers could easily make non rusting vehicles, but it is not in their best interests in supplying "built in obsolescence"
D'you remember the scare stories regarding catalytic converters setting fire to dry grass if you stopped on a verge or in a field? That was when Cats were all mounted under the vehicle- like the Mk1 Jazz - so would be in contact with long grass? I heard people speaking about it on more than one occasion but never was aware of an actual incident.Ha,ha. I recall parking like that on some grass just off the road, it had been raining and when I went to pull away the Vauxhall HA Viva had no traction at all, so my non driving girlfriend at the time, ended up having to push the car free
A "sturdy" lass was she?Ha,ha. I recall parking like that on some grass just off the road, it had been raining and when I went to pull away the Vauxhall HA Viva had no traction at all, so my non driving girlfriend at the time, ended up having to push the car free
Vauxhall Viva HA? I have very painful memories of changing a front road spring on one of those. Independent front suspension but with a transverse leaf spring which was a bitch to get the bolts through the eye on the end of the spring. There was probably a knack to it, or a special tool to keep it compressed? but I had neither.
"sturdy" lass was she?"Ha,ha. I recall parking like that on some grass just off the road, it had been raining and when I went to pull away the Vauxhall HA Viva had no traction at all, so my non driving girlfriend at the time, ended up having to push the car free
No, quite trim when I knew her.
Just remembered the deep wheel marks were still in that area for months afterwards to remind me when I drove past.
That was the same Viva I mentioned before @Pugglt Auld Jock , that I sold to a friend who wrote it off and the first I knew was a "rubber neck" customer of the garage I was working for came over to me saying "Ha, ha, I see you wrote your car off!" Sad git used to listen to Police radio and drive out to watch, it was 50 years ago in a village, so that was light entertainment for him!
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Re the leaded petrol, being a "show" car it probably spends most of it's time on choke. I don't recall them being that bad back then, much like I have recently been behind some very clean old American cars that were chucking almost neat fuel from the tail pipe, a few new parts to replace worn and a bit of adjustment would soon improve them, I feel.
Mine in the early 70s was a 1966 Deluxe I think, or was it called the SL90 as it had Disc Brakes? I recall at that time they used to put a sticker on the back of the cars to warn of "quicker stopping due to disc brakes"???"
Mine was the usually mechanics "shed" that I paid around £20 and resprayed with about 13 aerosols of white paint from the garage, I liked that it had no bumpers and due to it being very square shape and rack and pinion steering you could quickly slot it into a very tight parking space, often when you got back there would be car drivers either side who couldn't get out, then watch in amazement as we would calmly jump in and drive straight out with no difficulty.
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We did have one that I recall, in the trade, but it was clear how it started, the guy had cut that perforated heat shield off because he was sick of it collecting stones and rattling…but one in thousands is hardly evidence of a cat issue
Re the leaded petrol, being a "show" car it probably spends most of it's time on choke. I don't recall them being that bad back then, much like I have recently been behind some very clean old American cars that were chucking almost neat fuel from the tail pipe, a few new parts to replace worn and a bit of adjustment would soon improve them, I feel.
Mine in the early 70s was a 1966 Deluxe I think, or was it called the SL90 as it had Disc Brakes? I recall at that time they used to put a sticker on the back of the cars to warn of "quicker stopping due to disc brakes"???"
Mine was the usually mechanics "shed" that I paid around £20 and resprayed with about 13 aerosols of white paint from the garage, I liked that it had no bumpers and due to it being very square shape and rack and pinion steering you could quickly slot it into a very tight parking space, often when you got back there would be car drivers either side who couldn't get out, then watch in amazement as we would calmly jump in and drive straight out with no difficulty.
One of the things modern emissions regs have done is reduce pollution from parked cars.
I'd imagine this was pre-charcoal canister era and pre the time fuel vapour was stored to be released into the inlet air once the engine was started.
So a car sitting in a glass box in the sun would probably reek of evaporating petrol, not as obvious in the old days when all cars smelt like that.
Same as if you follow a pre-catalyst car now there's a reasonable chance it'll have your eyes streaming because they are absolutely pungent but when all cars were without that's just how it was and you were used to it.
May well be right, though I can't help thinking some could do with adjustment, I bet if the plugs were pulled they wouldn't be a nice light brown as one in regular well serviced use in the 70s would have been.
No argument cars run a lot cleaner nowadays and more fuel efficient, in general most people were happy if a car averaged 30 mpg around town.
I had a Ford Zephyr V6 that I could easily get down to 12mpg, but at 35 pence for a gallon of 4 star it was less of an issue.
May well be right, though I can't help thinking some could do with adjustment, I bet if the plugs were pulled they wouldn't be a nice light brown as one in regular well serviced use in the 70s would have been.
No argument cars run a lot cleaner nowadays and more fuel efficient, in general most people were happy if a car averaged 30 mpg around town.
I had a Ford Zephyr V6 that I could easily get down to 12mpg, but at 35 pence for a gallon of 4 star it was less of an issue.
One of the reasons for this though carburettors are an incredibly bad way of dosing fuel.
They are clever in their way but again not capable of production of the clean burn in pretty much all conditions we're now used to.
You set it up and jet it in the middle of winter on a warm day it's gonna be rich, do it the other way and it'll barely run in winter without significant amounts of choke.
Not saying these cars were tuned to their absolute optimum but again even a basic fuel injected car from the 90s is capable of trimming its own fuel based on target lambda values and modern ones do far more than that.
I suppose the telling thing is it's nearly impossible to use car exhaust to commit suicide now. Between the 70s and now harmful emissions have dropped from car exhaust by over 95% so it's gone from being possibly lethal to spend too long backing into your garage to spending half an hour or so breathing it in giving you a headache.
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My Cherokee XJ does 18-22 on a good day, sat in traffic and booting it it hovers round the 12.4 mark, not that those on board gizmos are that accurate, but you can see the fuel gauge dwindlingMay well be right, though I can't help thinking some could do with adjustment, I bet if the plugs were pulled they wouldn't be a nice light brown as one in regular well serviced use in the 70s would have been.
No argument cars run a lot cleaner nowadays and more fuel efficient, in general most people were happy if a car averaged 30 mpg around town.
I had a Ford Zephyr V6 that I could easily get down to 12mpg, but at 35 pence for a gallon of 4 star it was less of an issue.
What did I do in a previous life to the god of tyres?
Of course I'm travelling 250 miles on Tuesday on the motorway.
Edit update..thought I would investigate as I don't want the wife driving round with this craic going on.
Here is the offending screw...if it was in the middle would have left it but it's hanging out the shoulder so rather take it out in "controlled" conditions.
Bottom 2 threads suspiciously clean..bum.
However no wild hissing as it was removed perhaps I got away with it.
That's a negative...but it is at least a slow so I'll keep an eye on it today, blow it up before my wife heads to work if needed and a replacement is booked for tomorrow (for which I'm paying over the odds due to short notice... whee although black circles is so uncompetitive these days it's still cheaper than them).
So bright side is I'm not jacking the car up 3 times on a widow maker to get the space saver wheel onto the rear.
I suppose at least due to it being a 205/55 R16 I can get a matched replacement tomorrow rather than needing to run around on the space saver waiting for one to come into stock.
Of course I'm travelling 250 miles on Tuesday on the motorway.
Edit update..thought I would investigate as I don't want the wife driving round with this craic going on.
Here is the offending screw...if it was in the middle would have left it but it's hanging out the shoulder so rather take it out in "controlled" conditions.
Bottom 2 threads suspiciously clean..bum.
However no wild hissing as it was removed perhaps I got away with it.
That's a negative...but it is at least a slow so I'll keep an eye on it today, blow it up before my wife heads to work if needed and a replacement is booked for tomorrow (for which I'm paying over the odds due to short notice... whee although black circles is so uncompetitive these days it's still cheaper than them).
So bright side is I'm not jacking the car up 3 times on a widow maker to get the space saver wheel onto the rear.
I suppose at least due to it being a 205/55 R16 I can get a matched replacement tomorrow rather than needing to run around on the space saver waiting for one to come into stock.
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They used to say to me "Don't worry, only the good die young, so you will be fine"
One of the, less important, things that pleased me about the Scala when I bought it. A wee bit of research showed that this is the most common size used today so choice aplenty and availability should be second to none.
The golf is 225/40/18 which I believe is a very common sized for a lot of Vag products.
So getting tires is pretty easy despite the larger size
There is more of an issue with getting “cheap” tires if you want them quickly, when I had two new tires recently and was quoted £200 per corner I said to the guy in the shop “would I be better off going on black circles then coming back here” he said “yes but I didn’t tell you that”
So getting tires is pretty easy despite the larger size
There is more of an issue with getting “cheap” tires if you want them quickly, when I had two new tires recently and was quoted £200 per corner I said to the guy in the shop “would I be better off going on black circles then coming back here” he said “yes but I didn’t tell you that”
It's a different place to Mazda that's for sure...could have them tomorrow if your didn't care about brand or speed and weight rating otherwise usually 2 or 3+ days if you wanted the exact ones.
We had a few wheel options when speccing this and went for the common/cheapest tyre size after being robbed/inconvenienced by the choices Mazda made for years.
2 minutes on the internet Sunday morning, fitted by Monday lunch and an exact swap for the ones on the car.
Could probably have left the slow for a while but I'd already ordered the replacement by the time I'd investigated how bad the other one was. Was fully expecting wild hissing once the screw was out...hence taking it out as knowing the other half she'd have mounted the kerb going past a car in the street and removed it forcefully.
There tends to be common dimensions in each diameter oddly enough usually around what VW group and Ford use (mysterious I know!).
Of course despite my best efforts the puncture alarm went off on the smart motorway today....at the bit where the M6, meets the M56 meets the M62 so all off ramps lead to other motorways for about 5 miles.
But false alarm caused by half a psi difference across the front and the diameter difference (brand new tyre Vs one that's been on the front for 12k) across the axle. Stressful few minutes...but behaved itself once checked and reset.
New tyre now has 500 miles on it...
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