Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

North of here to the East of england

Flush fit rails or raised? If raised you can get really nice thin ones from Thule that slide between the rails.

Pumpkin like Joying are known cheap Chinese brands of Android double din head-units.
I nearly bought a Pumpkin myself but settled on this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-Android-8-1-Double-2-Din-Car-Stereo-Radio-MP5-Player-GPS-SAT-NAV-Rear-Camera/383040269431

It comes with all the cables and a rear view camera which is great (fitting it was fiddly but do-able). Getting the correct fascia that would fit the 2Din hu was the real headache.

The great thing with those 'no-name' pieces of kit is that they're fully open and you can then customise them with your own favourite apps.
I use the Agama Car Launcher, and another music player to give me the album artwork which I couldn't have out of the box.

it's where all the best people are heading

and bad motherfuckers obvs

@Bainbridge we are trying to find a new home for our '09 Fiat Punto Grande if you are at all interested. We were planning to take it to webuyanycar on Saturday just to get rid of it, but it definitely has a good few years of life in it yet. PM me if interested.

Thanks, that's useful. I guess in combination with this for the control stalk:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xtrons-Pumpkin-Car-Stereo-Stalk-Control-Adaptor-For-Ford-Fiesta-Transit-/372303103969

I should be good to go. It's quite intimidating - my car (56 Focus) was apparently on the cusp of standardisation of some of the stereo interfaces so not entirely sure what's needed.

Welcome to Cambridge...

Which part?

In water pump news the only pump I can get off the shelf is an airtex ones. Ok they are OE for some landrover stuff but....all others brands are at least two to three days no factor can guarantee that? Flip side is the pump is cheap at £18.

You'll need a Ford-specific ISO loom (~£10 from Halfords or ebay), and the right stalk adaptor for steering wheel controls. Sadly my h-u isn't compatible with those so I've lost that. However I've gained so much more that it doesn't bother me toooo much.

Yo, Chesterton (not the posh bit though)!

It has the proper raised rails.

I saw those Thule ones but they’re $550, which is a 6th of the value of the car 😂

It's where the very best people have been for years.

Nice! Near the river or closer to Milton?

We're in Royston now but i grew up in Cambridge hence why we're up here out of London...

$550! Sheesh! $390 over here, across the ditch. Forgot about the NZ dollar.
Maybe second hand is your friend. Also look for Kanu locking board straps. Little piece of mind if you have to stop somewhere with the board on the roof.

I'm currently looking for the Subaru OEM cross bars for roof rails as they're only $230 as far as i can tell.

I've been looking for 2nd hand on trade me but all the varieties of thule / prorack / wispbar are all $400+

Would these do?

They would but I am conscious that a lot of the universal / lower cost ones are bad for fuel consumption and noise in use.

Ah.. well, I do heartily recommend the soft-straps for the convenience. I've been debating biting the bullet and going for Volvo/Thule for ours.

Though I have been repeatedly tempted by the Seasucker Bars too.

Just off Milton Road, really looking forward to being a hop skip and jump away from open roads and some nice big skies

This: the Thule roof bars I have on the A4 are silent. Even with a 9'6 on the roof. It's definitely a consideration. Maybe get the stealthy bars: http://www.rhinorack.com.au/products/roof/roof-racks/vortex/vortex-stealthbar-black-2-bar-roof-rack_ja7976

Then when you sell the car you can recover most of the cost. As you say, they are still $400 second hand.

Yeah, maybe i'll have to get some FCS soft racks in the short term, at least they're like $95

Yeah, i might keep hunting for some second hand, and there's a real chance that if we change cars as long as the roof rails are proper ones like the suby has, I should be able to transfer them across as required.

Or buy a Ute.

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/spy-shots/alfa-romeo/gtv/

^liking that. never grew up being an alfa kind of guy but just think the giulias look ace