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

God my car sounds good now

I took the plunge and bought a rather nice GTi Mk 5...

...man it's rapid.

Anyone want a cheap BMW 318ti with a few issues?

Excellent!

How does it go? Or is it just exhaust stuff so far?

Have you started on the crazy engine stuff yet, or still standard?

Still standard, the service manager did say that they found a speck of metal in the oil filter, so it maybe for the best that I am rebuilding it this winter. Planning on driving it over the summer.

Useless comment is useless without noise! We demand noise!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/08/sadiq-khan-unveils-plans-london-ultra-low-emission-zone-pollution

Guess I'm buying a 5dr MK6 Golf R in 2021

The cuttoff for this is currently Euro 4 / 2005, which my car just scrapes, and I live within that new zone.

Does this sound like the sort of thing that they'd push up to Euro 5 one day? I'll miss the cut if it goes up. That would suck.

My 5.4 litre AMG is fine, the 3.4 litre Porsche however gets to pay.

Did they know they would have it for a week? Could be a very small garage and they have no where to store a car for any period of time (even overnight some struggle to cram everything back inside), so they've 'used' to keep it away from the garage (because no storage).

Or maybe they are just arseholes.

Got one of mine back from MOT this week, first one through the new system, no advisories or anything. Three of the guys there came over to say 'man thats so clean underneath, you spend a lot on it?'. (its my misses bluemotion polo commuting car, but just had new everything following snapped spring and subsequant 'well all these bolts are rusty, i'll replace everything').
They and the alignment spot were suitably impressed with my liberal coatings of anti-seize on every bolt I'd had apart (new tensile bolts everywhere). "hardly anyone does that anymore, makes like so much easier in x years time!"

What kind of car, out of interest? (i.e. to think whether it was just taken to use, or taken to joyride...)

What absolute tossers though.

Euro 4 / 2005

It's Euro 4, but I thought 2006 was the year new cars were required to be Euro 4 compliant?

Still earlier cars may be compliant.

If I wanted a 5 door car for sub-£4k that was fairly sensible / practical, what would people suggest?

(other than a VW Golf)

I have no idea! Applying the filter to a EU based regulation does seem mis-guided though.

Will it still apply in 2021?

Anyone know someone that can paint a front wing for me, preferably East London and preferably ASAP? It can be a shit job, a shit job with a proper spray gun will be better than a shit job with a rattle can.

@Dammit thanks, they don’t seem open to a settlement

Having look into the garage a bit more I am leaning towards the arsehole theory especially following their claim they needed to
‘drive the car at high revs up the sidcup bypass to complete the carbon cleaning process’. My arse!

Still the fuzz have been rather helpful on next steps. Told to put a settlement offer in writing and if they don’t respond the fuzz will pick it up from there

What they say about the carbon cleaning process isn't far from wrong assuming your car is fitted with a DPF and a diesel, it is one way to force them into "regen"

200 miles seems rather a generous effort to try and clean up a DPF. And still doesn't account for the parking fine.

Yeah i did mean to add that the rest of what happened is a shocker and no real excuse, i just meant that that can be in some cases a way to regen a DPF.

It could also be a generic out of the box excuse they pull up in this scenario

Anyone on here got any experience/recommendations for car covers? Getting bored of cleaning sap off the windscreen every weekend.

Can I get away with a cheapy Amazon job without it blowing away or scratching the car? Any features worth looking out for?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Removable-Automatic-Car-Umbrella-sunshade-cover-with-Wireless-Remote-Controller/32762917009.html

I had a cheapo one for a while. It would have blown away without being strapped down across the bonnet. I can say I noticed any scratches, but it was on a badly painted / 'patina-ed' (ahem) Triumph, so not a good reference.

It would have been a ball ache to put on and off everyday though if you'll be doing that - especially if it was raining one night or in the wind etc.

You can't put them onto a wet car, does the car no good at all. You shouldn't put the cover on unless the car is spotless, really. I'd just wash it every week, personally.

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