Be Excellent To Each Other

Off road. In the garage, if I can compress the junk that's already in there. I'm blessed with lots of driveway.

Let me reiterate that most if not all of the multicar policies let you start with one car and add others as their renewals come around. Admiral even give you the discount from the off.

So check that.

Its a 2LT TDI registered in December 2012

Car Salesmen are such dicks, what amazes me is how little they know about the thing they sell.

I could have sworn they were only six speed with the 2.0.
I know what you mean about the sales staff though. At a car supermarket you can't expect them to know every single detail but at a main dealer with only a handful of models... I usually end up telling them about the cars.

We once moved from a rented flat to one we owned in the same building, which was identical to ours (but laid out backward).

Anyway, the estate agent could stop himself from telling us about it when we took a look at it. He said he knew he was doing it, he just couldn't stop himself.

He was surprised when we pointed out it had a "shed", though.

Waved a sad farewell to the Boxster today and am now (temporarily) Porscheless.

What an amazing machine that was; never put a wheel wrong in 50k miles, always put a smile on my face and was the best drive ever, at least to me. Best car I've ever had. Thanks babes, you'll be missed.

Why are you parting with it her?

Too right mate, all cars (and especially motorbikes) are girls.
She was leased, and I spurned her for a younger model (the Cayman)

Tut, tut. Fickle men, eh?

It smells of old people.

I actually feel guilty, which is weird. I think I need to have a word with myself on this.

Damn straight mate, that's how I roll.

Cruising for Grannies?

I think Zarz was talking about me lol

Nooo. My Tomcat's a boy, and so are any Rovers.

I was looking at a Cayman the other day because they are dead pretty and that but really I need to go for a decent MPG diesel.

But then a golf GTD is the same price as a decent second hand Cayman.

But tyres and insurance and MPG.

But Porsche.

AAARGH

Yeah I know mate, tell me about it! It's that age-old problem, heart vs. head.
Heart *always* knows best.

I'm glad I have a cheap bastard heart.

Yes you are right its a 6 speed DSG, picked it up today and I really like it, a nice family cruising car but still ok on the back roads.

After driving the wife's 53 Micra 1.0 for the last year the size of the new one is taking some getting used to!!

Bye bye Mondeo, hello Fusion. Mr Clarkson said it's an old man's car..... Well that's alright, I'm an old man. £30 tax! And 1.4 diesel for the fool consumption. Actually, I'd have kept the Mondeo if the engine wasn't fucked .... And then there's that squeaky noise from somewhere at the back that the garage were unable to explain but sounds like something horribly wrong with the suspension. Time to move on.

Helen seems to have decided that when the 2 year finance deal is up on the focus she fancies taking the money instead of keeping it - and getting a fiat 500.

There was a matte black abarth outside a dealer we drove past today, it looked gert lush. She might just mean a normal 500 though.

Partly this conclusion has hinged on me getting the land-whale, erasing the 'a focus has a better boot than a micra and an m3 convetible', so that's nice.

I got insured! Clear the roads!

So, I have developed a rattle, (well it has been there a while, but seems to be getting louder). It seems to be coming from the rear f the car (ford ka) and occurs on bumps (not all) and occasionally on acceleration. So I looked under the car on Sunday, and the exhaust seems to move around a lot. Should it? I can't see anywhere where it should be and isn't attached, but I don't have a lot of space to get under it so can't look too much. There appears to be a (pretty badly rusted) arm coming from the main exhaust bit near thew back which goes to a rubber square which is attached to the chassis, implying there should be some movement, but it is something I have never looked at before!

It should move a bit but not too much. Helpful huh? If you can waffle it about sufficiently by hand that it clatters against something then its probably that. Also try pushing on roof with door open to make car rock and listen for donkdonk noise.

It it a tinny rattle, or more of a thonk?

Somewhere in between. Metallic, fairly solid, but it isn't a knock, it is a rattle.

I can move the exhaust, but can't make it make the same noise, but obviously I am outside the car when doing it, so ... . It appears to still be attached to this square rubber shock thingy, so it doesn't look like it is wanging about too much.

Sometimes exhaust rattles only appear when torque is applied. You can try sitting with the hand brake firmly on and make with the clutch as if to move off, this will twist the engine on its mounts and might bring the exhaust into contact with stuff. Also you can open the bonnet and shove the engine about, if it rocks forward and backwards then that too would indicate worn engine mounts. The square hanger thing at tge back is notorious for delaminating from the alluminium cage and allowing the peg to bounce off it.

This may sound odd, but you could do worse than finding a cheap MOT place and booking it in to see what they say.

You should be able to find a place that does it for around 25 quid.

Have you tried turning the radio up to drown it out?

Mrs B just bought a new car; a Ford Fiesta.

During our first journey I was tasked with sorting out the audio side of things and the manual had a whole section about syncing your phone with the car which would've sorted all that out. Half an hour of buggering about and a YouTube video later I come to the conclusion that the exact model she's bought doesn't have such functionality. So why in fuck's name give us a manual with loads of chat about it then you twats? I can almost sort of understand that the main manual talks about it because obviously they want to just print a single manual and shove it into every car without making it specific (although that's far from customer friendly either mind you) but it's the fact that there's a whole separate booklet about the syncing stuff shoved in as well that they could've just not put in at all.

Though it strikes me as I type this that it could be the dealer giving us the wrong set of manuals that's the problem but still. When you're spending thousands of pounds is it really too much to ask to get a set of instructions that actually apply to what you've just bought?

I hate that. Along with the millions of pictures of possible dashboard combinations you don't have.

Manual?

I am currently driving a Ford Kuga. The menu system did make sense. Normally I can pick the odd German word out and put it into English easily. I have to Google it.

It was the menu on the steering wheel not the dashboard one.

I just press buttons and turn dials until I'm bored. Seems to work alright. I was reminded that changing the clock on my car is the easiest thing in the world the other week; to me that's more of a marvel than being able to connect to my phone at the press of a button or whatever else!

The BMW is the only possession I have that doesn't have a clock that auto-updates for DST, and it really smegs me off.

Sorry meant to say, it has only just passed its MOT, and had a service ~3 months ago (this rattle was present at that time).

Nor does my Golf

My Phaeton used to auto update the next time you started her after the clocks changed. It was a six monthly treat to get in and watch the hands swoop around the analogue clock.
Simple pleasures

Anyone got any thoughts on the new M3? Looks pretty much like the last one, at least to my eyes (that is to say, good), but there is a huge, huge difference: downsized engine with twin turbo power.

Personally speaking, I think it's sacrilege that an M3 is fitted with turbo(s); to my mind that's a bit like fitting an auto gearbox to a motorbike - it's just not done. Sure enough, the new mill tops out at around 7200RPM - a good 1000RPM shy of the NA V8's electrifying 8500RPM redline - and offers great dollops of torque right across the rev range, which will entirely change the whole character of the car, and how to drive it fast.

The yoghurt-weaving brigade will doubtless be pleased with the reduced emissions/increased economy (well, at least less annoyed at any rate), but me? Call me old fashioned, which I certainly am of course, but I'll miss that popping, banging, ill-behaved screamer of an E46 NA six, still surely one of the best engines ever to grace the bonnet of a "normal" car.

Progress, huh. Still, it goes like stink, sure enough, and will show even my Cayman a clean set of tyres, at least on the straights.

Ahem...

http://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2013-ho ... tc-review/

Oh sure, I know it's been done mate, in fact I can just about remember the old "HondaMatic" CB-400N Superdreams of the '70s.

Needless to say though, not my cup of tea!

The e36 m3 was brilliant to wind up to 8k.

the land-whale is brilliant to wind up to 5k.

I imagine putting the two turbos from one on the motor from the other would be a fucking riot.

The S54 (?) engine in the E46 M3 is a fucking peach, one of the greatest engines I've ever experienced. I was torn between the E61 M5 I ended up buying, and a Z4 M Coupe with the S54 engine in it.

That said, I'm not opposed to turbo M-cars. Motorsport in general isn't exactly a stranger to using turbochargers after all.

My parcel shelf has retractable cords!

So you can just reel out a new pair whenever you shit your pants? I like it.

One cannot say this often enough; WHAT AN ENGINE, A MASTERPIECE!



Hmm, well, I'm not denying turbos are effective, and much more efficient. Motorsport is all about going faster than the next guy, so turbos will always be the way forward there. Still, if we're talking purely driver enjoyment/satisfaction, for me the screaming, free-revving, high redline of a *good* 6+pot, naturally aspirated engine, with instant, lag-free throttle response is hard to beat? I am a luddite though.

Shame they haven't done one big blower with the electric twin, like they've done on the 550d (two turbos and a spindle-mounted motor to get it going). That revs out to 5500, madly - I was surprised to see mine happily going as far as 5k.

But short runners, small turbos and hopefully twin scroll should it nicely, response-wise.

They do do turbo differently, the housing on the twin setup on the 535d is clever and unique (and suffers because of over-engineering obviously, I need the actuator replacing on mine). The v-mount on the x5 was revolutionary too.

Yeah, if turbo has to be there, I'd have expected assymetric twin units.
I supposed they were worried about too much of a throttle response penalty, though, and it's not as though the new car lacks for power (or torque).

(Totally unrelated, I've just pulled up a whole bunch of stinging nettles without gloves, which was a really, really bad idea. Zinging like a bitch; my left hand looks like a brake light... feckin things. Ouch).