Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah. I had a mallet in the boot of my Renault 5 as sometimes it wouldn't start and I needed to hit the starter motor.

I'm quite surprised you don't seem to know that the 12-year-old cars of 30 years ago were a hell of a lot easier to work on with basic tools than the 12-year-old cars of today. I've changed gearboxes, replaced and tuned carbs and dizzy caps, swapped wheel bearings and brakes and batteries, polished valves, and swapped out cylinder heads -- all with little more than spanners, screwdrivers, a torquewrench, a timing light, feeler gauges, and an engine hoist. You can't get near modern cars without a suitcase full of Manufacturer's Proprietary Tools Numbers 1 Through 148 and an ECU programmer with OEM-specific software.

I'm really confused, are we despairing because the kids of today are buying cars or because they are not buying cars?

DocG schooling Cavey on cars. Now I've seen it all.

Hella Flush.

Like I said, I'm surprised he didn't know that.

I have:
3 socket sets (all incomplete)
Various screwdrivers
3 sets spare bulbs (incomplete)
Open ended spanners of various sizes
Hammer
Spare hammer
Battery charger
Spark plug tool
4 spark plugs
Spare HT lead
Extension lead
Diagnostic thing

This happened to a mate of mine. One day, it didn't work. He'd been pulled over for a "routine stop." And that's how he ended up getting a bump start from two coppers in uniform down the hard shoulder of the M6...

Wheel bearings and brakes are still basically the same on modern cars. Swap away!

/flashback

/shudder

No blanket or food? What do you do if you break down in the snow?

Ice Mode prevents this.

Also, for many kids these days, leasing a brand new car is actually cheaper than buying a car and then having to insure it for yourself.

Peugeot (and Renault I think) are/were doing offers for new cars that included insurance, servicing and tax - Peugeot called it their "Just Add Fuel" range.

The monthly fees were generally cheaper than buying a decent car outright, adding on tax, insurance (which might have been upwards of £2,000 depending on postcode just by itself) and all of the maintenance costs etc.

Hell, if you get the right lease deal at the right time of year you can get a brand new Skoda Citigo for £70 per month. In that case you do have to add insurance on top, but £70 per month - the car leasing market has basically turned cars into white goods and it's become much the same model as mobile phone upgrades etc.

I don't really understand why Brits have such a hard-on for German cars, either. Very few people that lust after a BMW/Mercedes will state that it's because it's "rear wheel drive", most people are interested in the number of buttons inside and whether it'll play music from their phone, and a staggering number of people will, if pressed, own up to it being because they want people to think they've "made it."

He licks his boom-boom down.

Porsche owners being the wurst by far.

True. But tweaking engine timing is a bit more complicated than loosening the dizzy cap's collar bolt and turning it a few degrees, though.

Re: sticky starter motors, I never had that. But my Calibra had a great thing where it would stall when the engine was warm if you let the revs get below 750 rpm or so. Not when it was cold or when it was hot -- only when it was warm. I assume the automatic choke was subtly fucked in some way I could never figure out. I had to blip the throttle when I was stopped at lights. The chap who owned the garage I used to get MOTs at euphemistically described it as "a car with a lot of character."

As I know far better than you lot what to splash the money on, motor-wise, this is what we're getting when I have the spare cash and the garage has been built (probably after Singapore, then):

I had to bash the starter motor with a more precise technique of hammer AND screwdriver on my Honda Concerto.

Ooooh, there's also the Horrific Tale Of What The Previous Owner Had Done To My Mini's Brakes. Most of you have probably heard that already over beers, though.

Not all of us

We'll have storytime at the Cottage.

Next beer is scheduled for Wednesday*. Turn up!

*although Gaywood isn't coming

Er, no one (except you) is saying anything about old cars being easier to work on, of course they are! Do you seriously think I don't know that? You said younger people in their early 20s didn't buy cars because they were "skint", but that's demonstrably rubbish given that living standards and levels of disposable income have inarguably improved since the early 80s.

I only mentioned all the dicking about I did on my old Capri back in the day precisely because I had no option due to acute lack of disposable cash and it was no different for any of my peers. The thought of leasing some brand spanking BMW or Mercedes, as is routinely done now, would've been absurd. I bloody wish lol.

What are we defining as kids? 17 year olds or 25 year olds who these days are still living at home because moving out is unaffordable? I think that makes a major difference.

Can you demonstrate that levels of disposable income for people in their 20s has grown in the last thirty years? Here's some hard data to the contrary, to get you started: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... n-y-income

It's ok, Cavey is just offering alternative facts.

Charcoal outline with chalk highlights.

I'm not a "kid" any more but honestly thinking of getting rid of my car. Feel like it's burning through cash (leaking coolant AGAIN) and 99% of the time I only use it to go to the gym, which is fucking ironic in itself.

I just need to learn to ride a bicycle without falling off...

Are we seriously arguing that normalised, mean wages haven't increased from the 1980s? I'm sat on a train right now but besides, I ain't your bitch, Gaywood. If you don't believe wages haven't gone up, accounting for inflation etc (that's what normalised means), well, that's your problem frankly.

Aside from the basic facts of the situation, you know I was actually there, right? So I can tell you first hand what it was like, not only for young people as I was, but also our parents and neighbours. Not one new car on our street, for instance; my old mum sewed and repaired all out clothes as kids, and we ate very basic home cooked food, and this despite both my parents working full time. I mean seriously, you haven't got a bloody scooby.

/cue lecture about how easy it was to repair clothes made in the 1970s

Hahaha! Anecdote = fact it seems.

They haven't, they've actually gone down a little. Compare them to the adjusted cost of a small car, and they've gone down even further. Compare them to a house and they don't exist.

I mean, I obviously I was alive too (as was Gaywood) and but I guess we must have lived on different streets, or something, because one guy on my street had a company car that was new.

Trolling again eh Myp? Bored are we?

Not at all. I'm genuinely amused.

I mean, you did just present an anecdote as a fact, with added swearing.

But yes, Myp is obviously trolling.

This is an amazing post. I might print it out and frame it. Bravo.

Could I get it signed, Cavey?

A lot of things have got much cheaper. TVs, clothes, cars, white goods etc. I think it's easy to see people with all these things and draw a conclusion without considering that owning a house is a distant dream for them.

Well, you obsess about everything I do anyway, Gaywood, so why not?
Every day a school day, glad to be of service.

It really was a good one

It's 'cause you're the gift that just keeps on giving, Cavey.

When you two finally fuck you're both going to come buckets.

Sorry, love. You'd think it being bright yellow would have clued me into it being a lemon.

In some areas up here, it is common to see a £40k car outside a £60k house. Usually an Audi.

Mate, if you think I'm the one with egg on my face here, I got bad news for you. Tell you what, when I'm off this train I'll post some stuff showing that the normalised, inflation adjusted average wage is higher now than in the early 1980s when I started driving, which no doubt you'll ignore or come back with totally irrelevant crap like you did before, "cars were easier to repair in the early 80s" no shit, Sherlock.

You feign amusement, Gaywood, but seething resentment and jealousy positively boils from your every post my old son, sorry.

When all is said and done, even if I am talking crap, I'm the one getting back into a £70k Porsche, so y'know, I'll get over it.

What the actual fuck?!

It's certainly building up to a very special Valentine's Day for them both this year.

I don't think the world has recovered from Myp and Bamba releasing their tension. It couldn't cope with this.

I doubt it but you never know...... I'm an 8 Pinter though

Cavey, it's arguable about how much wages have gone up versus cost of living etc, but cars are undoubtedly both more expensive, and, more importantly, more expensive to run. Part of that is the fact you literally can't do anything in a car yourself these days maintenance-wise unless you're a wizard, and even if you could, most young people are too lazy to bother to learn how to. This all combines to the lower rates of car ownership amongst the young, which is a fact, isn't it?

I'm not even sure what you're arguing about.

I can't help but feel you're reading him wrong if that's the conclusion you've come to...

It was just an amazing post, as others have already pointed out. I'm not sure how that is considered trolling.

Dry your eyes mate, doesn't matter if I'm right because I've got a £70k Porsche