poprock wrote:

Feels like I’ve had a proper Bank Holiday Monday today. Spent the afternoon on the spanners.



Because TVR’s design is, to put it politely, mental, I couldn’t open the bonnet up properly without getting the car up on ramps first. A challenge when it won’t start.



The battery was beyond fucked. So now it has a new battery. And it starts. And it sounds glorious.



So I could drive it back down off the ramps. Much easier. Before that though, I got the British numberplates fitted. Which feels like a proper step towards getting it an MOT.

Simple but satisfying work.

Hurrah! My car is fixed under warranty!
I have missed my car.
Not a car guy, but I do love this big ol’ beast.

Honestly impressed with anyone who can work on a car. Filling up the water washer is my limit.

poprock wrote:

And is everything actually fixed? Double yay!

Seems to be. For now…

Aye. The local Council will be trying to grab money from your insurance company to repair the tarmac or something. You’ll be covered, your insurer will handle it, try not to worry about it at all.

Ah, right. That makes sense. I kept asking but she just wouldn't offer even a sensible maybe towards who the third party were. Left me a bit concerned. She did say it was all covered though.

That's fucking priceless. "Collided with the road." Would be nice to think they're going to use the money from claims like this to...um...actually fix the fucking roads!
Not holding my breath on that one.

I'll never get over the fact that I drove into the rear of some guy's car at about 2 miles per hour, and he put in a claim for whiplash. Because I didn't take a photo of the front of my car (there was literally nothing to take a photo of), they said it wasn't worth trying to try and contest his injury. So, that was a lesson learnt. If you get in any kind of accident, take as many pictures as you can, of everything. In terms of damage to his car, there was a tiny little abrasion.

I really don't think zmm adding a picture to his claim would help.

Yeah, there's some cool stuff at that motor show. Obviously though, given it is China, it is dominated by EVs.

Last week I had two tyres go with bloody great big nails. They couldn't repair them so I ended up paying out £350 for a whole new set of tyres.
Yesterday the car was very hard to get into gear. Last night it flat out refused to go into gear, suspect it's either a fucked clutch or the slave cylinder is gone.
If it's the clutch I'm quoted the best part of £700. I've also left messages with 5 different mobile mechanics and garages and nobody is returning my messages. (It is Sunday though).

If it's the clutch, that's over a grand on repairs to a shitty old 2014 Zafira that I paid £3k for just 2 years ago.

That's also after I paid a grand for a repair last year in which turned out to be a simple temperature sensor gone (that required 3 weeks worth of shuttling it between different garages as nobody could find out why it wasn't starting).

Oh and it needed quite a bit of work on its last MOT.

So fed up with this fucking car but I also do not have enough to replace it.

And I have an angry wife who keeps insisting that she can't go a week without the car.
Well tough shit.

Yes, we have a scheme through work that pays for it via salary sacrifice.
Zero deposit, money comes straight from your salary pre tax so you end up with a lower tax bill.
The costs include insurance, all road tax, all services, all MOTs, any repairs etc.

So it's a "one monthly payment" that covers everything and saves money in the long run.
Trouble is, I need a 7 seater with so many kids.
Those run about £500pm which I can't afford.

If I wanted a small easy reliable run around for the wife and I, it would only be about £250pm which is much more palatable.

Yes, we have a scheme through work that pays for it via salary sacrifice.
Zero deposit, money comes straight from your salary pre tax so you end up with a lower tax bill.
The costs include insurance, all road tax, all services, all MOTs, any repairs etc.

So it's a "one monthly payment" that covers everything and saves money in the long run.
Trouble is, I need a 7 seater with so many kids.
Those run about £500pm which I can't afford.

If I wanted a small easy reliable run around for the wife and I, it would only be about £250pm which is much more palatable.

tigersgogrrr wrote:

We're just about coping with 3 kids in a Ford Focus. We've paid if off now but the payments weren't mental. The wife has to go in the back which is another bonus.

Holes in the boot lid?