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

Someone is winning at life

Can anyone recommend a paintless dent removal person in or around East London?

Some muppet’s dented the rear quarter of my XC70…

I picked up one of these soft roof boxes
NABIYE Car Roof Bag Waterproof, Car Roof Box with Anti-Slip Mat and 6 Heavy-Duty Straps, Roof Bag Suitable for All Vehicle with/ Without Rack ( 15 Cubic feet/425 Liters ) https://amzn.eu/d/eXtWGoV

I don't have fixed roof bars - just the Clamp-on ones like this:

Is there any benefit to using roof bars and the soft box? My only thought is it could be more secure and depending on the base could take the weight off the roof.

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From the way it folds up it doesn’t look like it has a self supporting rigid base, so I think the bars wouldn’t work. Unless you perhaps put the bag on the roof between the bars - but I’m not sure that would actually add much stability.

I’ve never seen those before, are they motorway safe? Do they strap in through the doors eg on the polo above if it has no bars? A soft surfboard carrier has made the inside of my car wet on multiple occasions when it rained and leeched through. If you had perpendicular roof rails this would be great, but without roof rails I think the car will get wet inside when it rains?

Yeah it has those surf board style straps. Haven't tried it out yet.

My roof bars are the same as the red golf in my op.

You echo most of my thoughts. The only thing I wondered was whether using the bars would remove any issue of potential water ingress, plus not having straps inside the car for my kids to fuck about with.

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Don’t see why not. You’d be rotating the bag 90° I suppose, unless the straps are removeable and you can rotate only the straps [I read you should keep the zip at the back for waterproof reasons]

Been loving what comes up on this channel.

https://youtu.be/ykhc7ha5A-E

https://youtu.be/cfRi39xNH28

The other end of the scale. Mechatronik. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK5ITvsexTc

MIL came to stay last night to look after our kid as wife about to go into labour, promptly had her 500 Abarth nicked from down the road. Just great.

Shit, sorry to hear. How? Keyless entry radio clone? Flatbed?

No idea. Doubt flatbed as that would have caused a lot of commotion as it’s a busy road.

Most of the Fiat 500 thefts are keyless entry clones is my understanding, relatively easy unfortunately. Lots of similar stories on the Abarth owner forums.

You say that, but when a neighbour's Lotus Esprit was stolen by two men with a flatbed, everyone in the road just assumed it had broken down again and let them get on with it!

Brazen confidence goes a long way!

The whole thing is just very embarrassing. MIL very pragmatic about the whole thing, thankfully.

Is there anything you can do as an owner to prevent this? Aftermarket immobiliser?

That an a Thatcham steering lock. Faraday cage for key, lol. God knows if someone managed to scan and clone this key, seems wildly opportunistic as it was parked mpre than 100m from the house. Guessing there’s some generic clone that can be downloaded

https://flipperzero.one/

The other theft method is to plug in directly to the OBD port, so people use dummy or OBD locks for this. Like has been said, all the standard anti theft gear, steering locks, alarm, immobilisers. Even the Abarths came with no more than door locks as standard.

"Fuck you, dolphin!"

Think that’s probably what happened. Soft top so just cut in and did that. Suppose these scum are just cruising all over town looking for likely candidates to steal.

Anybody got an idea what this might be worth?

Y reg, 2001, Golf 2.0 GTi, 39,000 miles. MOT until July.
Always kept in his garage and in much better nick than mine. In fact, it almost looks new?
one owner and fsh at vw

My personal opinion, at the moment not a huge amount - maybe £4k?. Keep it another 10 years and it will go up in value. If you really need to sell stick it on Volkszone for say double the book price and see if anyone is interested.

EDIT - an 03 here with 41k miles for close to £6k so maybe I was a bit conservative

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210130712206?advertising-location=at_cars&year-to=2003&make=Volkswagen&radius=1501&include-delivery-option=on&model=Golf&aggregatedTrim=GTI&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&postcode=hp143bn&year-from=2001&sort=relevance&page=1

Any T4 owners/fanatics on here?

Back story: Sold my 325i and wife’s corsa earlier this year when baby arrived and got a 3 year old dull but amazingly useful touran from the local vw dealer. It’s been an absolute workhorse, and clocked up 20k kms since April, including a drive to south France and back. It has been great being a single car family, but we’ve been caught out with a need for a second car a handful of times recently, and have an increasing need for one now that baby is a year old and doing more activities.

I was thinking of getting something small and fun, but I also want something that’ll take a bike/tri gear for racing. I also want to buy something local enough and save myself the grief of a 7 hour round trip to Dublin.

With that, this t4 caravelle popped up for sale on my road earlier this week so I wandered up for a look. Lovely family, bought it in 2006 when they were expecting baby number 6, well used but meticulously maintained. Arches are a bit bubbly and crusty on the outside, but solid on the inside. Sills solid. Under windscreen and bulkhead solid. Drove tight as a nut, was very surprised by how tight it drove with no rattles or knocks. 2.5 5cyl intercooled tdi, belts last done about 50k miles/5 years ago, so needs changing imminently.

My intention would be to remove the rear bench, keeping it a 5 seater, but with a fork clamp style bike rack, and storage for wetsuit etc. tinted rear windows etc.

Anything I should be looking out for? Does the asking price seem reasonable or do I have a leg to stand on asking for money off to cover timing belt replacement?

Thanks. I’m amazed that these only have 115bhp - not really hot hatches. I’ve said put it as a classified ad on eBay for £5995

My car has been stolen from south east london two Saturdays ago. Any sightings would be appreciated. Porsche 1960’s left hand drive, silver. steel wheels. Front wing and light damaged where someone reversed into it and drove off. Door dented. Many thanks

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