Be Excellent To Each Other

It suffers from big arse syndrome like most EVs but it's not ugly.

The side view of the GT above massively flatters it. At the risk of a titling I've seen them in the flesh and they look gross from behind.

They're not exactly pretty, but I'd hardly call it "gross":

It's not great, but less offensive than the X6

It's a disgrace compared with how good BMWs can look...

They're hardly comparable though, are they? The GT needs a raised arse, it's basically the car's raison d'être - that's always going to limit how you can make the car look.

Be alright once you get it slammed on 28"s.

I had decided that I was going to get one of those BMW GTs but the 3-series once mine has fallen off the road and hopefully they were in my cash buying price range. But now that myp says they're ugly I'm not sure what to do. I think I'd need to find out what Mali thinks before making a decision.

Is the 3-GT based on the 5-series platform, or is it a 3-series in more than just name? For the money I don't think it'd be possible to get better than a 5GT.

As long as you like it that's all that matters.

All recent 5s are 7s with a few inches chopped out of the middle aren't they? Swapped from being a stretched 3 four or five years ago or something.

No idea. That would be a bit weird though wouldn't it? What would the difference be?

The path to MaliCool is learning from others, then ripping with your own style.

Yeah, the F10 onwards are based on the 7 Series platform.

There's a huge difference in build quality between platforms. The 7 platform is also used in the 5 (and 5GT) and has much, much better build quality but they do cut back on some quality for the interior etc when it's used on the 5s.

The 3 series platform is another step down in build quality. Still a premium vehicle, but noticeably different.

Probably full of loads more expensive shite to go expensively wrong too though. I basically just want the car I have but with a hatchback. It's ten years old, faultlessly reliable and still doesn't rattle etc.

I quite like the X6, looks a bit like a chunky tough kids toy truck.

Stop body-shaming tough kids!

I'm aiming to get 200k out of mine. At 113k at the moment and *touches wood* ran brilliantly in the time I've had it.

If I win the lottery I'll get a 240z/280z as a weekend ride.

Got a new car last week - literally new, delivery miles only! It's a 2017 Golf GTD and I love it. I took a couple of Focus' for a test drive but Christ, they were awful. Even the ST was poor, relatively quick for the money but so plasticy and very light at the front end when accelerating hard.

My only request when I went to the salesman was "I want something bigger than a Fiesta or a Corsa, and it needs to be better than my five year old Hyundai i30". The ST was marginal in every department other than performance where it was obviously loads quicker and handled better, generally.

The Golf is streets ahead of the Focus', and wasn't really that much more expensive. It has loads of driver assistance stuff in it, which is pretty weird. I'm undecided about whether or not to turn most of it off yet, it's so strange having it stop/start and drive itself in traffic.

A mate of mine has the same car and the stop/start thing drove him nuts, you can have it permanently disabled if you want - some VAGCOM trickery IIRC. (Rather than manually disabling it each time you start the car.)

All the gizmos on it are indeed very swizzy though.

I trust you'll be stretching its legs a bit whilst the mountain is one way

Humour a novice for a second, would you please, oh blessed gearheads...

How easy is it to change your own brake pads and discs? My front passenger side brake is making a quite alarming grinding noise under brisk braking. Am I better just taking it to Kwik Fit, or can I do it myself with simple tools?

If it was a choice between Kwik Fit and an untrained chimp I'd choose the chimp. It shouldn't be that hard but if you're unsure just take it to a garage.

It's just that I've never done it before. This isn't a windscreen wiper blade or a hub cab

My car mainatainance has changed of late. Now, it is:

MrsA says I can try anything where the worst result is "grinding to a halt in the rain, the engine having lunched itself", and most likely result is "engine doesn't work". That way, I'm not messing about with stuff that is preventing them from ending up in an​ river.

However, that said, youtube guides are really useful, and a Haynes manual will sort you out, too. I bought disks and pads for big car, then MrsA got local garage to fit them as I was "too busy". My re collection was it seemed fairly straightforward, but watch the caliper doesn't snap shut.

Edit:

http://www.justanswer.com/car/1m0pk-cha ... casso.html

It's about 2 hours each side. And easy to mess up if you're a novice (like me!). It's brakes dude, take it to a reputable garage.

I've done a few sets myself without too much trouble. The only specialised item you are likely to need is a brake winding tool to push the calliper back in.

Much as I love to encourage doing your own maintenance on a car, I don't think you should do your brakes without some form of help the first time. If you can get a mate over who knows what [s]he is doing, then that would be perfect. Otherwise take it to a friendly local garage.

Stay the hell away from Kwik Fit.

All of

I thought about it myself and even tried to enlist an experienced friend, but he said he's not keen on doing brakes.

What's wrong with Kwik Fit?

Same question

Seriously?

They're PC World, but for cars.

Back before I knew better, I took my Civic Sport there for an MOT. They insisted I needed new brakes AND discs. The car wasn't two years old and had done under 10,000 miles. Of course being an idiot I paid up.

Last time I used them was because I was in a bind and my MOT had run out on the Clio and I hadn't noticed. I took it to the Kwik Fit over the road from my house and they said again I needed new brakes and discs. I had had the discs replaced only a month previously. I told them this and they looked at the discs again and said "ah yeah, actually the discs are ok". Fucking shysters.

Considering you don't need to MOT a car until it's three years old you really were an idiot!

I've never had any dealings with them myself, but MrsPaz had a service done there recently. Didn't get a scummy vibe from them.

Last time I used Kwik Fit I needed a battery in a hurry (I thought that even they wouldn't be able to fuck that up), they fitted one that was too small and then didn't secure it so unbeknownst to me it was sliding around and damaged the wiring loom. I don't know how they get away with it really, being so big and so shit I'm surprised they've not a had a few deaths on their hands by now.

Ah yeah, I was misremembering. It was its first MOT so must have been 3 years old. Still had only done about 15k miles though.

Not all Kwik Fits are shysters, the one nearest to me when I lived in Shrewsbury was awesome and was run by a bloke who really knew his stuff and made sure that his staff were not doing any of this upselling stuff, even when Head Office were pressuring them.

I had a "free brake check" done by National back before I knew better. They did the whole "you need new discs and pads" thing, and as it was a relatively old car for the time and I had no idea of it's history, I let them do it.

Paid up, drove off, and about 250 yards down the road there was a loud bump, the car jerked downwards and then I saw my front-left wheel go careening off down the road in front of me.

Got my money back for that, the twats.

You won't. They're a very slick operation. But they will sell you things you absolutely don't need.

Like Grim... says, imagine you went into PC World and they tried to sell you McAfee Antivirus for £100 or whatever - you'd laugh at them. This is what people who know about cars say about Kwik Fit.


I am not criticising the individual mechanics, but the company itself. By the fact their business model is based on upselling how can you trust them to tell you the truth about your car?

So if I've been to Kwik Fit each time I had my MOT and it all passes each time and everything's fine then nothing to worry about.

No, it will be safe to drive. But they may be telling you to replace parts unnecessarily. I would recommend a good local garage instead.

Finding one of those is not always easy either, though.

Absolutely not. It took me 12 years to find one I was happy with in Nottingham that wasn't a specialist miles away!

But it's much easier these days with internet rating sites etc.

I'm lucky in that my local garage owner is friends with the family.

My dad helped him out with some official paperwork when the garage sacked one of their workers. They didn't exactly follow protocol on that one until my dad stepped in.

At garage. The discs have really nice gouges in them. Full new set of front pads and discs needed. Ah well. They've done at least 20,000 miles while I've had the car, so it was a matter of time.

I've been burned so many times with the Celica that I absolutely only trust it with my friendly "local" specialist (98 miles away)

Mine is at the end of my road.

My beemer hasn't had new pads or discs in 30k miles/4 years. Dragging 2 tonnes to a standstill at all is no mean feat, never mind what I (*) make it do.

In fact it's only had rear pads in all that time. Could be less front-biased than I'd expect, I suppose. They're certainly big discs back there.

* Also people who cut me up. Three times yesterday, and the first was a bit of a clencher as they were doing about 40 to my 70-ish, downhill, when they did so without indicating or warning, with maybe two car lengths distance.

I've traded a car in at 80k miles still on original brakes all round.
I'm up to 43k so far and they aren't particularly worn.