Be Excellent To Each Other

It now appears that both of my Skoda's are affected by the VW emissions issue

When this first hit the news I went on the Skoda website and entered both car VIN numbers and it said there was no issue.

Now they written to me twice (the fist letter was unopened as I thought it was just Spam about new car models etc) saying I have 189 engines and that they are working on something and will be in touch soon.

Not sure what the fix is or how I'm affected really. I have no issues with the cars, but did read in the US that they are tipping billions into this buying back the cars and also paying compensation. For the UK there appears to be nothing.

Don't feel I need compensation for the cars as they are fine, however I'm not sure if the value is affected? We are expecting kid number 2 next year so maybe a chance I will want to trade my wife's estate in against a people carrier.

Anyone have any ideas what the situation is with this?

Not a clue, my car is effected too

I'd definitely get one with fewer engines next.

I wouldn't bother.

There is no downside to not having it done - you won't be paying higher road tax, or have reliability issues, and if you later change your mind you can always opt back in.
If you do get it done, some people are reporting reduced performance and/or economy so you may suffer, and you can't roll it back.

On the 1.6 it's a software update and a little plastic filter in the air intake. For the others it's just a software fix.

You car has already been devalued by this, but VW aren't going to pay any compensation.

A piece of plasterboard fell out the back of a skip lorry yesterday and hit my bumper putting a scratch and a little hole in it, I stopped and watched the lorry driver put his brakes on, think better of it and drive off. Needless to say I executed a perfect J-turn and chased the fucker down (with pregnant wife in car, not amused) and he pulled over, got out admitted guilt and apologised. So we got home, phoned the skip company (Ramsay skip hire) to get them to sort it on their insurance. First they said they could look at it for us to see if we were telling the truth and I'm like nah bro, call your insurance and sort it. He then tells me I'm lying, I can fuck off and hangs up on me. Didn't really know what to do at that point so called the cops, in hindsight this is probably not something they deal with but at the time I thought someone damaged my property then told me to fuck off, it seemed policey. Unbelievably they suggested that a pregnant woman should go alone to the companies workshop, a skip hire company let's not forget it's not like they're a bodyshop or anything, and ask them to repair the damage... seriously. Since then we've called our insurance company who seem to be telling us that we'll probably have to pay for it anyway.

tl:dr if you damage someones car you can tell them to do one and there's apparently nothing they can do about it.

This can't be right can it?

I don't suppose there were any independent witnesses?

you know what the fedex guy was right behind me, I'll try and snag him to get his number

Fuckers. Hope you manage to get hold of the witness.

Seen this sort of thing with skip lorries loads of times. It's like they think it's not their fault when there's shit falling off everywhere because it was someone else who overloaded the skip.

Just heard from a different department at the insurance company saying they can pursue legal action so we've emailed (E-Mailed/electronic mailed/e-mailed/e'mailed) the pictures of the damage and where the board hit the road and so on to them. here's hoping...

It's absolutely something the police should deal with. Not only did the skip lorry driver fail to stop at the scene of an accident, but he failed to secure his load properly.

Law talking guy to the rescue!

Sue them. That is all.







Mind you, sounds like your insurance company is doing something about it now otherwise it'd be reet easy to pursue a small claim for the vehicle repairs.

Also: Hire a skip from them and shit in it.

The irony here being that I just had to drive home from my local bike repair shop, with my bike in the boot of the Leaf completely unsecured and with the boot half open, as I could not manhandle the damn thing in the boot (God knows how I did it before to drive it there) and I couldn't leave the bike there, nor the car. Hnngh.

Front passenger seat reclined all the way back, rear seats down and you can fit a tandem in a ka.

If you cannot remove wheels the loosen stem and turn handlebars ninety degrees

That is not irony

It's 10,000 spoons.

This is the winning solution. We're just waiting now to hear back from insurance, this better not put my premiums up! They really are a bunch of arse holes though and I feel better now other people have said it.

Gah, returned to my car in the NSC car park after badminton this evening and my rear passenger side tyre was as flat as a pancake.

Fortunately the chaps hadn't yet departed in their cars and one of them had some tyre weld. I have neither a spare tyre or tyre weld because that's how I roll*, but I do have an air compressor.

With the tyre weld and air compressor combo we got the tyre reinflated and a quick drive around the car park suggested it might hold alright for the 15 mile drive home, which indeed it did. (I kept my speed to a maximum of 50mph.)

So that'll be a trip to the tyre fitting place in the morning, and of course the tyre is fucked now as you can't repair them once they've had the gunk put in. In fact it'll probably be two new tyres as you're supposed to have matching tread on both sides I believe. And that's if they even have them in stock as the Merc uses a pretty unusual size and the speed rating is high.

How long can you drive on a tyre that's been repaired with tyre weld? Internet opinion seems to offer up everything from 'Oh yeah it'll be fine for the life of the tyre I've done it loads of times' to 'ZOMG EMERGENCY MEASURE ONLY GET THE TYRE CHANGED BEFORE YOUR CAR EXPLODES'.

I'm not sure what the damage to the tyre actually is, we had a look over what we could see with our phone torches (it was dark) but couldn't see anything obvious, I guess it will become clear at the tyre fitting place.

I think tyres aren't going to be cheap for this car though. Pffft.

* Deffo going to start keeping a can of tyre weld in the car, that shit is awesome.

If it doesn't go down I can't think of a reason not to drive on it forever. I certainly did a few thousand miles on the stuff back in the nineties.

Hate to break it to you dude, but this is the Internet too.

You're not *on* the internet, you *are* the internet.

... man.

If it's done fifteen, it'll probably do thirty. When it's done thirty, it'll probably do one hundred. Once it's done that, it'll probably do three hundred. After three hundred, you'll have forgotten.

£200 for a tyre!

And it won't be here until Tuesday.

The man said it 'should' be OK to drive the car around in the meantime but to 'keep an eye on the tyre'. It's got me into work alright at least. Limiting my speed to 55-60mph.

Can be got a bit cheaper online but for the convenience of having it fitted by the shop at the end of the lane I'll just pay the £200.

Amusingly as well as all the usual tyre gubbins, you know like 275/35 R18 these tyres also have an 'MO' on them, which is some sort of Mercedes profile. Opinion is divided on how desirable they are, but it makes sense to match the new tyre with the one on the other side I suppose.

Imagine the man who sells tyres telling you you need new tyres

You're not replacing the pair? Ok

Surprised he didn't insist on 2.

Fucking hell, 200 quid each?!

Will he fill them with air free or is that extra?

He said the other one was still pretty new (it's only done about 6500 miles) and didn't need replacing at the same time. The one he's ordered is exactly the same tyre, so it'll be a perfect match in terms of tread and compound and whatnot.

The car had four brand new tyres on it before being sold to me, all these fancy Continental MO things, the rears are in pretty good shape to be fair. Well, apart from one of them having a big hole in it somewhere that's been plugged with gunk.*

* Probably a title in there.

Air? Nitrogen in tyres, mate.

I use a mix that's about 80% Nitrogen and 20% Oxygen.

When I say air I mean the gasps I grab from the public when they see me rollin' in my whip.

Air is mostly nitrogen, mate.

Mostly schmostly.

(I'm not kidding, by the way, you can run with pure nitrogen gas in your tyres. Lorries often do. It improves fuel economy and decreases tyre wear. Not by a lot, but enough to be noticeable if you do a lot of miles. Racing cars use it, too).

Exciting Rover Update! Cylinder Two is misfiring!

Giving the plug a clean is job one. Make sure the lead is seated properly and have someone turn the engine over while the plug out of the cylinder so you can see if it's sparking.

Then lick it

I've asked for some driving lessons for my birthday/Christmas. Small thing for many, I'm sure, but a massive thing to even think of for me.

That is awesome... good luck Mimi

I think you mean good luck everyone else

Brilliant!

How much are driving lessons nowadays?

Mine we £12 per hour in 1995. I had six of them. Math fans can enjoy themselves by working out the overall total!

I had about 60 at £12 an hour and failed first test.

Yay, awesome! Just remember, if you can do a donut or a handbrake turn it's an automatic pass on your test, so concentrate on that first.

I think I maybe had 20 lessons in 2004. The first 10 were a present and I paid for 10 more in bulk at £19 and hour. Then 2 more additional hours as I needed to repeat the test.

Good luck Meems!


Remember, small ones are more juicy! Naturally!

I can't even remember either how many lessons I had or how much they cost.

If anyone should have a Nissan Figaro, it's Mimi.

They are my most favourite cars!