What's made you smile today?

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What's made you smile today?

Absolutely Mike. My Anglia was a base model in light grey with the small painted radiator grill. I always thought the base model when modified - lowered suspension with 5.5J rims etc just looked "right".
I'd have to agree, any old car with a painted grill always looks better than Chrome ones, I'm not a huge lover of chrome, I much prefer painted parts.
 
My dad told me that in his early driving days in the mid 80's he remembers every MK2 Mini he had or came across with the chrome grills always being rotten, his best mate had one which he got from his dad & he couldn't open the driver's door as the external hinges were that rotten the door would fall off 🤣
Are you just trying to rub my nose in how old I am.;););)
There are certainly less rusty cars around now, the scrapyards are full of cars that look OK but have expensive mechanical faults.
As an apprentice we often had MOT welding jobs to do.
 
Are you just trying to rub my nose in how old I am.;););)
There are certainly less rusty cars around now, the scrapyards are full of cars that look OK but have expensive mechanical faults.
As an apprentice we often had MOT welding jobs to do.
Hahaha 😂 my dad usually says something similar to me & when someone asks him how old he is the answers always 21 😂. I've known people though to scrap cars even with minor faults, my sister scrapped a 9 year old Clio due to a broken gearbox, the scrap man fixed it & sold it on. The only car I've ever scrapped is the Bravo I had as it needed loads for an MOT & 3 weeks before the MOT was up the diff went bang & blew a hole in the gearbox dumping the oil everywhere, also the floor was rotten. I never really liked that car it was just so dull to drive but when I took it down the scrapyard as it still drove with a blown gearbox for another 3 weeks 😂 I was walking away with the £70 scrap value cash in my hand & I turned around to the Bravo just sitting there waiting for it's date with the crusher & I felt some sort of guilt as I'd had it for 2 years in which I used & abused it yet it still started every morning & took any abuse I threw at it which was a lot 🤣.
 
Hahaha 😂 my dad usually says something similar to me & when someone asks him how old he is the answers always 21 😂. I've known people though to scrap cars even with minor faults, my sister scrapped a 9 year old Clio due to a broken gearbox, the scrap man fixed it & sold it on. The only car I've ever scrapped is the Bravo I had as it needed loads for an MOT & 3 weeks before the MOT was up the diff went bang & blew a hole in the gearbox dumping the oil everywhere, also the floor was rotten. I never really liked that car it was just so dull to drive but when I took it down the scrapyard as it still drove with a blown gearbox for another 3 weeks 😂 I was walking away with the £70 scrap value cash in my hand & I turned around to the Bravo just sitting there waiting for it's date with the crusher & I felt some sort of guilt as I'd had it for 2 years in which I used & abused it yet it still started every morning & took any abuse I threw at it which was a lot 🤣.
I sold one of my old cars to a scrap metal merchant, they gave me about £80 for it and I even got to see them lift it up with a big crane and plonk it somewhere to have the fuel and whatever else take off. I hadn't had the car long, but one of the pistons went at about 70k miles.

Can't currently remember what it was, will edit if i remember.

EDIT: OK i remembered what it was...a Nissan Tempest. The "Tem" had fallen off the badge so it read "Nissan pest" :)

It was a blocky piece of crud that rattled worse than any Fiat i've had :)
 
This makes me think of the Model T Ford - "any color, as long as its black".
Any car you want as long as it's an SUV or Electric car (quotas to meet!!).

Technically you can buy other things but in a lot of cases it seems the cuts they made to production of less profitable lines during Covid became business as usual.

As a result if you've turned up at a dealer with the expectation of a car that will turn up this year you may find your choices somewhat restricted also you'll not qualify for any of the incentives on stuff that just happens to be in stock.
 
Any car you want as long as it's an SUV or Electric car (quotas to meet!!).

Technically you can buy other things but in a lot of cases it seems the cuts they made to production of less profitable lines became business as usual.

As a result of you've turned up at a dealer with the expectation of a car that will turn up this year you may find your choices somewhat restricted also you'll not qualify for any of the incentives on stuff that just happens to be in stock.
Its hard to see why the Ford Fiesta has been discontinued, it was still popular, relatively cheap and no worse than a lot of other cars for reliability. Maybe it was just too cheap.
 
I sold one of my old cars to a scrap metal merchant, they gave me about £80 for it and I even got to see them lift it up with a big crane and plonk it somewhere to have the fuel and whatever else take off. I hadn't had the car long, but one of the pistons had gone.

Can't currently remember what it was, will edit if i remeber.
The best we did out of a scrapyard was my dad's MK1 Punto 55 SX which he got £130 scrap value, that car was a disaster from the very start but my dad needed a dirt cheap car at the time as funds weren't great, from memory it had sat for a while with a broken head gasket but he got it cheap. The head turned out to be too far gone as it was warped & cracked, with funds quite tight he fixed it with whatever old Fiat bits he had laying around so it ended up with a head of a Panda 1000, then someone had bodged the coil pack by instead of bolting it on properly they just slapped a load of black RTV to hold it on. That car's speciality was going wrong as it was just a dog 😂 in the end the head gasket went again & ended up frontwards in a ditch in which it was never right afterwards so it got scrapped.
 
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me. Aren't most of the sensors behind the safety tech usually Bosch? Fair play to them, ABS and many of the modern things definitely makes a real positive difference. Some of the radar level stuff though, I'm not so sure. I see more and more people in fancy new Skoda SUVs or the usual flashy brand big SUVs during rush hour blatantly on their phones, cars rolling forward seemingly just dependent on them to steer them. It's enabling horrific behaviour. I can't imagine back in the 90s people started braking later for fun because ABS would make it 'fine' haha
A bit like the only approved chair for computer stations was german. They know how to make things work for them.
 
Planning my day today...

It's the weekend before payday so don't really want to fill a car up if I can help it so checked the fuel level in Toyota. It's got half a tank in it, last time I filled it up was second of January.

It's not that it doesn't move, it does it's just that the majority of miles it's done are local recently so 2 miles here, 3 miles there it got a "longer" trip to the MetroCentre yesterday 14 mile round trip. Should probably give it a bit of a run up to temperature today and let it condition the battery.

Of course I have filled the Citroën up once, despite all the snow and ice it averaged nearly 44 to the Gallon because it only moves pretty much if it's going to be fully warmed through now. It seems to be enjoying life as commuter, given my commute is 30 miles and is mostly national and dual carriageway I'd bet I can get a lot closer to 50 mpg in summer once my wife is on maternity and in the Toyota full time.

Using conventional wisdom we're doing it wrong in that you use the small car for round the doors and the big one to do miles... except travelling alone in the big car is stupid when the small one is cheaper and more comfortable given it's basically a sofa and hand heart at dual carriageway cruise if I had to pick a quieter car it's probably the supermini. When I had the Volvo XC90 from work I was surprised by how noisy it was... perhaps actually the C3 is very quiet at the cruise. Freed of family duties it's a fun little car to commute in.

All is happy in the "fleet" at present which given I've been whackamoling faults and sorting maintenance issues or punctures every month for what feels like 2 years is good. Except a mildly squeaky belt on the Toyota at idle you can only hear with the window open. I should probably fix it...but if everything is fault free it can only go downhill from there and that's something totally I can live with for a bit.
 
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All is happy in the "fleet" at present which given I've been whackamoling faults for what feels like 2 years is good. Except a mildly squeaky belt on the Toyota at idle you can only hear with the window open. I should probably fix it...but if everything is fault free it can only go downhill from there and that's something totally I can live with for a bit.
All is happy in my fleet (2 puntos) at the moment. I'm looking to expand it with a Panda asap, i've never driven one so that'll be good. I'm reasonably happy to have found a car auction house that gives prospective buyers the keys to check the car over in the yard. That used to be common, but is a rarity these days.
 
All is happy in my fleet (2 puntos) at the moment. I'm looking to expand it with a Panda asap, i've never driven one so that'll be good. I'm reasonably happy to have found a car auction house that gives prospective buyers the keys to check the car over in the yard. That used to be common, but is a rarity these days.

I like the Panda, driven all of them except the twinair I think.

1.3 MJ was my favourite one just the mid range torque was a giggle in something so light though obviously not the most refined vehicle with a 4 cylinder diesel in it.
 
I like the Panda, driven all of them except the twinair I think.

1.3 MJ was my favourite one just the mid range torque was a giggle in something so light though obviously not the most refined vehicle with a 4 cylinder diesel in it.
I'm going lightweight Panda, just the 1.1 engine, for cheap insurance for my son. Just a little more performance costs a lot for a beginner driver.

I presume the drive is similar despite the engine? But that 1.1 engine has to be ...
 
I like the Panda, driven all of them except the twinair I think.

1.3 MJ was my favourite one just the mid range torque was a giggle in something so light though obviously not the most refined vehicle with a 4 cylinder diesel in it.
I have that engine in a 2014 Vauxhall Combo and I used to think my 2010 Doblo 1.6 Maxi van was a bit lacking in grunt but I should have remembered my daughters 06 Grande Punto 1.3MJ.:(
Still in a Panda less weight to carry, though still the cam chain side to consider.
1.1 Petrol sounds a good option.:)
 
I had the 1.1 many moons ago in a Punto 55s.

To me it was a bit limp in a panda with the additional weight and emissions gear (relative obviously!).

Very strong though, my Punto went everywhere at flat out and it never blew up.. although the piston slap at start up on a cold day at 95k miles was somewhat worrying.
 
So the 1.1 engine was in the Mk1 Punto, the Mk2 Punto and the Panda up until 2011? Or is that a different engine?

The Fire was in use for Decades, it's also the engine in some Seicentos (sporting) as well.

They are largely very similar although not sure if the one in the Panda had the early engines party piece of being none interference so you could lose a timing belt and do no damage think that ended with VVT for emissions but don't know if that ever changed on the 1.1.
 
The Fire was in use for Decades, it's also the engine in some Seicentos (sporting) as well.

They are largely very similar although not sure if the one in the Panda had the early engines party piece of being none interference so you could lose a timing belt and do no damage think that ended with VVT for emissions but don't know if that ever changed on the 1.1.
In Panda's they were non interference up until 2010 as far as I'm aware with the introduction of variable valve timing which is when the 1.1 was discontinued which never received VVT, in 500's they have been an interference from day one in 2007 as the 500 was the first FIRE engine to have variable valve timing.
 
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