What's made you smile today?

[StevenRB45]

A friend of mine recently bought a brand new Corsa Griffin, and it's like they completely forgot to finish designing the interior in the back: the doorcards are solid plastic, no cloth trim at all; and the back seats don't split-fold!!

Corsa is an old beast though, and they are cutting costs pre-replacement.

The 3 was something else, tbf one I was in is a 25k car but padded stitched leather on all the doors, dash, seats. Proper milled metal door handles, speaker grilles and knobs. Even the gearknob was a metal ball with padded leather trim.

Also no drop in quality from front to back..kinda like an Audi A3 feel but less obvious penny pinching.

Was rather disappointed to get back into mine much as I love it this is just a different thing altogether.

 

[AndyRKett]

A friend of mine recently bought a brand new Corsa Griffin, and it's like they completely forgot to finish designing the interior in the back: the doorcards are solid plastic, no cloth trim at all; and the back seats don't split-fold!!

StevenRb beat me too it. The corsa is old now and the Griffin is like a lot of “fancy models” let’s use up all the optional extras we have in stock and clear out the parts bins before we bring in the new model.

Fiat did it to some extent with the punto mk2 you’ll find a few special models like the “chill” and “Xbox” offering something extra on a largely basic car towards the end of its run.

 

[DaveMcT]

Any car advert that makes a big play of "everything being standard" is telling you the car is crap so we've dressed it up with cheap baubles for the the hard of thinking.

 

[SB1500]

Any car advert that makes a big play of "everything being standard" is telling you the car is crap so we've dressed it up with cheap baubles for the the hard of thinking.

The other month I was about to go for one of the current shape Corsa's because of its low price, seemingly good shape and equipment.. CarPlay, heated seats, heated steering, heated windscreen, you name it it had nearly all of it fitted!

Unfortunately it turned out to have been damaged up the side and repaired again! Somebody must have parked it like it was a BMW..

But dodged it anyway! I did notice a tonne of Corsa's with good spec for not much money. It did feel a bit too good to be true. Nobody seems to want them? I can't work out why for those people who don't care too much about cars. Maybe the old engines and the 'feels like Corsa D still' aspect?

 

[SB1500]

Corsa is an old beast though, and they are cutting costs pre-replacement.

The 3 was something else, tbf one I was in is a 25k car but padded stitched leather on all the doors, dash, seats. Proper milled metal door handles, speaker grilles and knobs. Even the gearknob was a metal ball with padded leather trim.

Also no drop in quality from front to back..kinda like an Audi A3 feel but less obvious penny pinching.

Was rather disappointed to get back into mine much as I love it this is just a different thing altogether.

Mazda's are some of the best looking cars on the road at the minute, I think! The 6 and outgoing 3 are stunning. But I'm not sure if this will continue with the new shape 3, looks a bit odd off angle from the back! :bang:

 

[StevenRB45]

Any car advert that makes a big play of "everything being standard" is telling you the car is crap so we've dressed it up with cheap baubles for the the hard of thinking.

The run-out special has a long heritage it's also another way of saying "nothing optional" which is strategy quite a few Asian manufacturers use to reduce build costs.


If you take something like a Golf, it's got probably 3 or 4 different headlamps over the range, each one of those needs to be built, developed and certified. You need to build and maintain tooling for them keep a stock of spares e.t.c. All of that adds cost across the range, now multiply that by the multitude of options available across the range. VW makes it work because of huge amounts of component sharing for things you can't see and large volumes.

New 3 has the same LED headlamp across the range from top to bottom. Only one item to develop build and stock. Seems generous to the people with the bottom spec car..but saves the cost of having multiple units and options. Also because development costs are shared across all sales the more cars it gets fitted to effectively the cheaper it is.

In simple terms the less personalised a product is the lower the per unit manufacturing cost gets.

When my car was new, there was one option: colour and even that was no cost. Everything else was either standard, dealer fit option or unavailable. Handy if I ever need spares, if it came from the same model it'll fit. Even things like body control ECUs can just be swapped in and plug and play because all the cars are the same.

 

[SB1500]

The shine from this beauty

 

[AndyRKett]

Found a new game, take Facebook market place and look for the price of second had cars abroad, what here would be scrap some people are charging huge amounts for, just depending on where you look.

 

[SB1500]

puntofan01 You’ve gotta see this. 20 minutes and you’ll be starting the thread ‘what made you smile all day’. Interesting to learn the origins of the Punto! https://youtu.be/8ySCSyeYwaw

 

[puntofan01]

I've seen a few of his vids before, he's rather fond of Rovers, lol!

 

[puntofan01]

SB1500: a channel you might like is Hubnut. He test drives all sorts of old cars, and sees them for their own merit, rather than merely badge/reputation.

 

[jimboy]

Smiling because I have a new wee project on the go. I'm making myself a two tier tool trolley with wheels. I'm a bit of a tight git & if I can save a bit by doing things myself that makes me happy. I had a look on line & shops in my area. Either too expensive or too crappy for my needs. I bought some meccano type shelving some time back from Lidl & didn't use all of it, so I will assemble obviously & turn upside down so have sides. Wheels were the next thing & although I could've purchased cheaply, I came across an old shower chair with wheels in my garage.

Bit of a fiddle getting them off but my trusty hacksaw seen to that. New centre bolts & a good clean up, good as new. The shelving is galvanized so will look the part. Everything is prepared, so just to assemble, but it's too hot here at the moment, on holiday & all that, in lazy mood & I'm dog minding, I will assemble at a later date....

 

[s130]

Smiling because I have a new wee project on the go. I'm making myself a two tier tool trolley with wheels. I'm a bit of a tight git & if I can save a bit by doing things myself that makes me happy. I had a look on line & shops in my area. Either too expensive or too crappy for my needs. I bought some meccano type shelving some time back from Lidl & didn't use all of it, so I will assemble obviously & turn upside down so have sides. Wheels were the next thing & although I could've purchased cheaply, I came across an old shower chair with wheels in my garage.

Bit of a fiddle getting them off but my trusty hacksaw seen to that. New centre bolts & a good clean up, good as new. The shelving is galvanized so will look the part. Everything is prepared, so just to assemble, but it's too hot here at the moment, on holiday & all that, in lazy mood & I'm dog minding, I will assemble at a later date....

Well go do and good for you. Sometimes these little (some would call crappy) projects turn out to be fun and better still you end up with a great solution.

Tool storage, layout/access for use is often a very personal and challenging thing. A chuck it in the box solution is absolutely a disaster. A well lay out and organised tool chest of draws is 1000% better. And then there is to multiple tool roll solution. I'm a great fan of tool rolls as they are portable drawers and can be stuffed and packed into any unused space. You also get that mental layout of what is where so everything becomes quickly ready to hand.

With your custom tool trolley you can sort the layout to your liking.

 

[jimboy]

Yep, it's all down to the feel good factor & as you say, doing a wee project like this keeps me happy. I mean you could have millions in the bank, but if you aint got that feel good factor you aint got a lot, if you know what I mean.

 

[DaveMcT]

"Chuck it in the drawer" is a good 1/2 way option. One for screwdrivers another for pliers small ones for spanners with the rarely ever used special stuff in separate tool boxes.

Portable tables are great but the (at best) semi organised like me find the most often used tools end up permanently on the table.

Sockets storage is the biggest PIA. The plakky cases always fall apart and then you've got a major hassle.

 

[jimboy]

I'm assembling my tool trolley for the very reason so I can put the tools & stuff on & take to which ever car I'm working on, it saves me back & forth, it's simply a conveyance. It can obviously used for other things as well, moving things about.

 

[DaveMcT]

An excellent idea. I'm just saying that when I make one, it will spend its life covered in the tools I usually use.

 

[AndyRKett]

This interesting case made me smile.

While its not right that people should be driving and using their phone, this does open the flood gates for lots of cases to be overturned.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news...-high-court-ruling/ar-AAFmCEt?ocid=spartandhp

Also a big lesson why you should not get hung up on what the "Law" says.

In addition to this I may have got a bit over excited that you can now buy Rolls Royce wheel caps for VW models where the logo always stays the right way up.

 

[DaveMcT]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news...-high-court-ruling/ar-AAFmCEt?ocid=spartandhp

Also a big lesson why you should not get hung up on what the "Law" says.

This is long overdue because you "could" potentially be convicted for touching the sat nav screen on your mobile or even moving your phone off the passenger seat so it doesn't fall on the floor. Something that would be totally legal on an iPad or iPod. The law was unclear when it came out so this ruling is not a moment too soon.

 

[AndyRKett]

This is long overdue because you "could" potentially be convicted for touching the sat nav screen on your mobile or even moving your phone off the passenger seat so it doesn't fall on the floor. Something that would be totally legal on an iPad or iPod. The law was unclear when it came out so this ruling is not a moment too soon.

conversely you could sit playing a nintendo DS or similar but because its not a "hand held mobile phone" it didn't get covered under the law, so not illegal, yet like you say, just fishing your phone out of the gap between the seats would be illegal.

People are also very confused by the law as many people still think you are not allowed to touch a phone at all, even if its in a carrier or mount, and that's not the case, as its then not "hand held" therefore you can text people on your phone in a mount, again without it being against the law under this particular law.

Obviously if you do anything that makes you drive in a dangerous way or without due care, then that comes under a different law. But if you're sat in traffic with the hand brake on and not moving then brake out the games console freely, but don't pick up your phone for 2 seconds to ring your mum and tell her you'll be late as you'll inevitably crash and die.... stopped in traffic with the hand brake on as per the law suggests.