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

Why?

Is it the exclusivity,as they were JDM and only available for a few years. So investment ISH? Ok you won't lose money and have something quirky.

That is the constant thing with some classic people. Are there still people that buy rotten cars and motorcycles as some period correct un available clips are worth more than the remains.

Nah they just look cute.
@jonny I mean....thats just poor schooling.

Nah, this was in reference to the DVLA points system that are meant to stop you Trigger's Brooming a car to keep an old registration. About half way down this page:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1957332&i=20

Ha. I hear you dude. They will go straight to hell.

Oh that, less DVLA know the better.

It is common for landies and ranges to end up being bitzas. New chassis or second hand chasis, then engine, gearboxes, diffs that break over time and then get replaced with second hand. At what point does it stop being that car?

No trip to Tuscany for obvious reasons so trying to get some use out of the winter tyres up North. Decent run to Alnwick today, lot of fog though and it seems almost everyone is unaware that their car has rear fog lights.

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Anyone got some quick legal/consumer advise?

I very rarely trust any garage or workshop with anything, many bad experiences in the past has taught me, do it yourself where possible, at least you can only blame yourself then!

Wife's car breaks springs quite regular (roads here are shite), the last full set (strut, top mount, all bolts, spring, a bunch of bushs) were replaced around 8-10 months prior. Broken road spring happened on a week I just couldn't' spare the time and car was very close to a local chain garage/tyre place. Haved used them for tyres + alignment before and thought they were fine.
Drop off car, get a call back, nah mate needs a spring (obviously), a top mount and a strut, apparently strut is blown. OK unlikely, but need it done, do it.
Get car back, drove it around 30 metres, took it back, made a racket when turning or moving at all TBH. They 'look at it' for a day, and give it back to me. Its exactly the same. 'It'll settle in' I'm told.
Get top mount + strut back, top mount yeah it has a tiny nick in the plastic, and TBF if your taking a strut out of a FWD car you might as well change it for the £30 it costs). The strut is fine, after 9 months or so of Scottish weather its not even really dirty yet. They say its blown, but actually its just not a gas topped strut, the compression damping on this particular car is kept minimal as it has tiny 165 tyres, all the other models in the range get a gas topped strut and 195-215 tyres.

A week later (next available minute I have), take it back and leave it, suggest maybe they've put the spring on upside down (as I can see the writing is upside down). Another day, get it back drenched in grease. They've' just used spray grease on the top mount.

Fast forward to now, the other road spring has broken (2 months) on the other side. So have just replaced that myself in all of the hour it takes to do. With the correct spring the correct way up. Works perfectly obviously.

Took other road wheel off (fucking job as 4 out of 5 bolts were in there well over the torque spec, nearly broke the locking wheel nut) to see if they defo have put it on upside down. Yup, writing is upside down, but you can see up in the strut top mount that spring doesn't sit right (one end of road spring is flat, the other end is on an angle, angle end is mean't to be in the metal cup of the strut, flat end in the top mount, which is pretty standard on regular FWD cars for the last 3 or 4 decades no?). And its making a right mess of the top mount seen as its not in right.

OK so, we are a few months later, do I have recourse? Do I start nice, and 'can you put the right spring in this (they physically look different to the other models in that car range so quite obvious), and also btw put my old/new totally fine strut back in it. And I want a refund for that strut you should have never fitted, but you can keep the money for the spring, mount and labour seen as you are actually gonna do the job right now? Do I just ask for a full refund and go elsewhere (do myself as I normally do!) as at this point they are gonna do dodgy shit, put rocks in the engine oil, screws in the tyres etc? Or do I go further and report them somehow seen as its pretty blatent. Also managed to get MOT station to note 'road spring fitted incorrectly, possibly also incorrect spring' last month.

Second car problem
MOT + new tyres recently. About a week after picking the car up noticed judder under moderate braking which has stayed the same for 2 month or so now. The garage admitted they broke a locking wheel nut and it was a pain to get out, they were sorry these things happen.

These things do happen, but what I discovered yesterday when went to rotate the tyres round (2k on them), that rear axle was tightened a bit more than I would like but broke free OK. Front axle, fuck me, 3/4" (300-400nm) impact wasn't taking them off, so had to resort to heat, hammer and a 4' breaker bar. Got both locking nuts out, just, both have visible distortion to the face from the forces involved in removing them. One regular bolt snapped in the hub. They are genuine volvo bolts and really do not break for no reason. Must have been tightened to around 180-200lb.ft (close to breaking point) when the spec is ~80-100lb.ft, maybe less, and then 2 months of corrosion + heat cycling = needs more in order to remove, i.e normal bolt behaviour.
Ok so have a broken bolt in the hub, and I'm fairly sure the hub flange is distorted, hence the brake issue, you can feel it by rotating wheel. Hub was an SKF bearing'd item, new not long ago (maybe 6-10 k on it) and I actually had to replace it because of the last time the wheel bolts where over tightened causing really noticeable brake rotor runout.
Same again, do I go and ask them in a reasonable fashion to sort this out, or are they gonna say 'tough, its 2 months+ later, you can't prove we did that'. In which case I'll be out £200 for a hub, 2-3 hours more of my time, £30-120 for an alignment, and 10 wheel nuts at £8.x each, possibly a brake rotor if its distorted that too. Or go straight to feet stomping. Never like to do that, but honestly I give up, why can't others do the job they were asked to do without monumentally fucking everything up.

their car has rear fog lights

They're just for switching on after dark on the motorway.

How did you pay for the first car? Also dampers and springs should be done on both sides. Did you get the old parts back? Can they do the work while you wait?

Second car once again how did you pay? can go and ask, be polite.

When you go to both record the conversation, as if the garage get confrontational you have a record to prove it.

Good luck.

There's a company offering to convert your 2CV to an EV for £16,900, inc labour. Is this encouraging? The range is only 65 miles though. https://2cev.co.uk/pricing/ Are there any other affordable (ha ha) EV kits for old cars?

P.S. They can fit bigger batteries in vans - max range is 140 miles.

Caught the end of a Fifth Gear programme yesterday. They had an EV Land Rover on it. Conversion cost was £90,000 and you have to supply the vehicle. A tad expensive I thought.

On a driving licence where category A is restricted to tricycles (worth a snigger there) I'm assuming that for a provisional motorcycle licence the DVLA would issue one with a "P" in column 12, row A?

Yes, I'm that old that I have forgotten whether or not I applied for said provisional over the years.

It appears I can just buy a 50cc scooter and ride that with no L plates, and no training, which is somewhat worrying but hey - what's the worst that could happen.

There seems to be a lot of that about - they're targetting the mortage free boomers I suppose. This 2CV is the only 'cheap' classic option I've seen. If you don't have a 2CV they're offering a 'new' Ev one for 30 grand. But a new small modern EV with twice the range is 20 grand.

50cc scooter and ride that with no L plate

My grandad didn't need a license to ride his Brough Superior.

You can ride a bike and drive a car, right? A bike license won't teach you anything you don't already know.

EV2CV would 100% be my loto win purchase for my dad. I thought a few years ago I saw a kit that was much less than that, so I'm sad the price has gone up.

Pretty sure you can (or used to be able to) buy new galvanised bodies from a seller on eBay.

Edit: website now looks to be broken http://www.everything-ev.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=384

I’m pretty sure you have a bike provisional by default if you have a car licence. The tricycle thing will have a caveat about having a physical disability (else you have to take a full motorbike test).

You will not enjoy a 50cc anything!

You will not enjoy a 50cc anything!

Disagree:

Or do you mean Dammit specifically? I which case, maybe you have a point. Not a great deal of torque.

I’m pretty sure you have a bike provisional by default if you have a car licence. The tricycle thing will have a caveat about having a physical disability (else you have to take a full motorbike test).

You will not enjoy a 50cc anything!

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https://www.gov.uk/driving-licence-categories

"Category A
You can drive:

motorbikes with a power output more than 35kW or a power to weight ratio more than 0.2kW/kg
motor tricycles with a power output more than 15kW
You can also drive motorbikes in categories A1 and A2."

https://www.gov.uk/driving-licence-codes

"79 - restricted to vehicles in conformity with the specifications stated in brackets on your licence
79 (2) - restricted to category AM vehicles of the 3-wheel or light quadricycle type
79 (3) - restricted to tricycles "

I can't spot a reference to disability on there, I'm wondering if it's the date I passed my test.

Could be, the DVLA is as clear as mud on it!

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https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/771244/how-to-get-a-motorcycle-licence.pdf

This is better.

I admit, the idea of a motorised tricycle isn't really my dream.