Mr F, my car

wrote in message
...
Judith Latham wrote:
In article , Christina Websell
wrote:
well he failed his MoT test today :-( Everyone in the Uk has to have
this test done yearly if their car is over three years old.

Mr F rarely fails except for minor things, but today he did it in a
spectacular fashion. He needs some welding on his inner wings, those
things under the boot (hood) that cover the front wheels. There was a
tiny rust hole both sides, and I thought we might get away with it, but
as my mechanic said the MoT tester was allowed to attack the holes with
a plastic hammer we might not. We didn't. He also failed because the
rubber pedal thing had come off my brake pedal. That in itself is a
failure apparently.

Anyway I've decided to have him repaired for not too much money compared
with having to buy another car and hopefully will get him back
tomorrow. He's such a reliable car, starts first time and this is the
first time he's needed welding, I might review the situation next year
if he needs welding again. I spent a happy day with my aunt & uncle
today, because my mechanic lives near them and I used to use him when
I worked over in that direction. I can't expect him to collect my car
from 11 miles away. I had to take two buses to get home which took a
while, and the same back tomorrow, but as it now costs me zero, I don't
mind too much, even if there's a 20 minute walk at my end to get to
the bus stop and back.

Tweed


Mr F is doing well.

I dread the MOT and of course it always comes up around the time for the
car tax renewal which all adds to the stress about it. Our last car, a
black ford focus, was a great car and only failed it's MOT once and that
was for a damaged tyre we hadn't noticed. We had the car for 7 years and
only changed it because we thought at 9 years old it was likely to start
having problems. Our present car, a black ford focus, has not been a good
one. It failed it's first MOT and it's second (I can't remember what
for)but it did get through the third. This year it failed because a light
on the rear had faded and the orange colour wasn't strong enough. It only
cost us a couple of pounds for new ones but, it had failed again. We want
to get rid of it and so maybe next year we will have a different make.
Apart from one mini we had had ford escorts until the first focus. About
time for a change I think.

Judith

I think the Vauxhall Astra and the VW Golf are nice cars. I still have a
Ford Focus which I'll probably keep for a few more years.

--
Adrian

I think that whenever you have a car that is an especially good one, it is
logical to go for the same kind when you have to replace it. My current car
is my second Toyota. I don't expect to need another car, ever, but if I do,
it will be another Toyota. I had the first one for 14 years and 170,000
miles. I've had this one for 13 years and only put about 65,000 miles on
it.

Joy

"Joy" wrote in message ...

"MaryL" wrote in message
...


"jmcquown" wrote in message ...

On 9/27/2013 1:45 AM, Joy wrote:
"Bastette" wrote in message
Exactly. I think if you get into an accident because something
mechanical
in your car isn't working, you could be held responsible for any damages
or
injuries. But that doesn't exactly protect people on the road from
getting
injured in the first place, does it?

--
Joyce

No, it doesn't. Of course, you can be ticketed for things like having a
tail light out.

Joy

Brake lights are rather important. Regular taillights, I'm not so
sure about. Seems to me people should be given a warning for something
like that with an order to get it fixed within X days. Unless someone
told me, I wouldn't really know if the rear lights were out. I can turn
the lights on, sure. But brake lights? I'd have to have someone look
while I put my foot on the brake.

Jill

~~~~~~
I think both taillights and regular lights are very important. Regular
lights are especially important when visibility is low. Both of those are
among the annual safety checks that we are required to have (East Texas).
I think it is routine for police to give a warning ticket if they see a
vehicle with defective lights.

MaryL

It's never happened to me, but I believe here the police have the option of
giving you either a ticket or a warning. I suspect it depends partly on the
attitude of the driver, and partly on the mood of the police officer. ;-)

Joy

~~~~~~
Yes, I think attitude can be very important. Some years ago, I was taking
my parents to visit a friend of theirs. I was driving their car, and my
father was stretched out on the back seat with a body pillow. He was in ill
health, and it was obvious when looking at him. I was not used to their new
car, and I ended up going too fast. I knew what I had done as soon as I
heard the siren behind me. The officer saw my father lying on the back seat
and asked if I was taking him to the hospital. I was truthful--told him
"no," I was not used to the car and was not paying enough attention to
speed, etc. The officer was very nice and just told me to "be more
careful." He did call in my number to make sure there were no outstanding
warrants, but he did not even give me a speeding ticket. Someone who had
become aggressive probably would have gotten different results.

MaryL

wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote:
"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Heh. No use complaining to a European about our gas prices. However
much
we have to pay, guaranteed they have to pay a lot more.

When I put some petrol in Mr F on Wednesday, it was GBP 1.35 a litre (4.5
litres to the gallon)

I don't know what the exchange rate is $ to pounds, atm but it's a whole
of
money to fill a car up. I usually put ten quids worth in, that gets me
around for a while now I'm not crossing the country every day to go to
work.

I've done less than a thousand miles in Mr F since he had his last MoT
(it's
recorded on the certificate every time, presumably to stop unscrupulous
people turning the mileometer back when they sell a car)
I was surprised to find copies of Mr F's last two MoT's on my passenger
seat, so they are well up to checking his history at the MoT station,
which
is good.

Tweed

That's an imperial gallon, there's 3.785 litres to a US gallon.
--
Adrian

I was hoping you'd come in at this point as I know the USA gallon is
different, but nevertheless, it's whole lot of money here for petrol.
It affects everything, the price of food anything, that is moved by road.

As Mr F is only 954 cc, he gets me around for not a lot.of money in petrol.
He's not a fast car but I don't need a fast car.
It's enough to tootle around to the supermarket and my veggie plot and
occasionally to another town.
Which is apparently why his brakes have to be freed up every year since I
retired.
I'm not using him enough.

On 9/27/2013 7:43 PM, Joy wrote:

It's never happened to me, but I believe here the police have the option of
giving you either a ticket or a warning. I suspect it depends partly on the
attitude of the driver, and partly on the mood of the police officer. ;-)

Same here, I think.

Our required vehicle checks were eliminated quite some years ago now. A
while after there was a terrible case in which a vehicle had supposedly
been checked - it wasn't legally required, but was requested when the
vehicle was sold second-hand. A mechanic, who was later determined to be
negligent rather than merely careless, passed it as safe, and shortly
afterwards there was a fatal accident due to some kind of mechanical
failure.

It makes me wonder how many unsafe vehicles are on the streets.

--
Cheryl

On 9/27/2013 7:41 PM, Joy wrote:

Isn't that the way it always works? I once had a dead battery as a result
of a broken door handle on my car. The interior driver's door handle broke.
It didn't completely come off, but something was broken, and every time I
opened the door I thought it was going to finish breaking off. I took it to
my local dealer to have the car replaced. After that was done, I drove the
car home and put it in my garage. I didn't need it until two days later,
and when I did, the battery was completely dead.

Fortunately, the auto club came out and gave me a jump, and I wasn't very
late to where I was going. I had thought maybe the dead battery was the
result of a door not closing tightly. I'd had that happen on another car.
However, it turned out that either when the mechanics were replacing the
door handle, or when they washed the car, they had turned on the headlights.
I can't imagine why, since it was broad daylight. Because it was daylight
when I drove it home, I didn't notice the lights were on. I never thought
to check, because I never turn them on. They come on automatically about a
minute after I start the car. If I ever have that dealer do any work for me
in the future, I'll be sure to check the headlights.


A friend of mine had a mechanic disconnect the parking brake while doing
something else and neglecting to re-connect it. They said that it must
have been like that all along, but she knew it wasn't because it was a
standard, and she always put the parking brake on when she parked it -
and it was a hilly area. Fortunately, the first time she parked after
leaving the garage was on a gentle slope, so she noticed the problem
before she got out of the car and no damage was done.

--
Cheryl

On 9/27/2013 6:16 PM, Joy wrote:

I think that whenever you have a car that is an especially good one, it is
logical to go for the same kind when you have to replace it. My current car
is my second Toyota. I don't expect to need another car, ever, but if I do,
it will be another Toyota. I had the first one for 14 years and 170,000
miles. I've had this one for 13 years and only put about 65,000 miles on
it.

Joy

You'll laugh at me. I've had my Hyundai Accent for 10.5 years
(technically it is 11 years old, 2002 model year). The odometer just
hit the 25,000 mile mark a couple of weeks ago!

When I take the car to have routine servicing they always ask me, "Is
this the actual mileage?!" Yep.

That has nothing much to do with what car I'll buy the next time.
Except to say I've never had any trouble with this car. So I'll
probably buy a Hyundai the next time, too.

Before that, I did own Toyotas. I had a Corolla from 1982 until 1995 or
so. It was totalled in an accident, so I bought a Tercel. After close
to 10 years the AC died in the Tercel (a *must* in the southern states,
AFAIC). It would have cost almost as much to replace the AC as I paid
for the car. So I went looking for another new one. Toyota had
discontinued the line.

The guy tried to sell me a big boxy-looking Toyota (don't recall the
make). He said it was replacing the Tercel. "Uh, looks like a mini-van
to me, no thanks! I also specifically said I want a standard shift, not
an automatic."

I hate dealing with car salesmen. They all seem to think I don't know
what I want. This isn't my first rodeo. I know exactly what I want,
thank you. I took my business over to the Huyndai lot instead. They
didn't give me a lot of hype or try to sell me something I didn't want.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
On 9/27/2013 6:16 PM, Joy wrote:

I think that whenever you have a car that is an especially good one, it
is
logical to go for the same kind when you have to replace it. My current
car
is my second Toyota. I don't expect to need another car, ever, but if I
do,
it will be another Toyota. I had the first one for 14 years and 170,000
miles. I've had this one for 13 years and only put about 65,000 miles on
it.

Joy

You'll laugh at me. I've had my Hyundai Accent for 10.5 years
(technically it is 11 years old, 2002 model year). The odometer just hit
the 25,000 mile mark a couple of weeks ago!

When I take the car to have routine servicing they always ask me, "Is this
the actual mileage?!" Yep.

That has nothing much to do with what car I'll buy the next time. Except
to say I've never had any trouble with this car. So I'll probably buy a
Hyundai the next time, too.

Before that, I did own Toyotas. I had a Corolla from 1982 until 1995 or
so. It was totalled in an accident, so I bought a Tercel. After close to
10 years the AC died in the Tercel (a *must* in the southern states,
AFAIC). It would have cost almost as much to replace the AC as I paid for
the car. So I went looking for another new one. Toyota had discontinued
the line.

The guy tried to sell me a big boxy-looking Toyota (don't recall the
make). He said it was replacing the Tercel. "Uh, looks like a mini-van
to me, no thanks! I also specifically said I want a standard shift, not
an automatic."

I hate dealing with car salesmen. They all seem to think I don't know
what I want. This isn't my first rodeo. I know exactly what I want,
thank you. I took my business over to the Huyndai lot instead. They
didn't give me a lot of hype or try to sell me something I didn't want.

Jill

No, I won't laugh. If you don't need to drive any more than that, great.

I usually hate dealing with car salesmen too. However, one time it was
rather fun. Many years ago my husband saw an ad for a really good deal on a
used Dodge Dart. We went to the dealer where it was advertised, and
amazingly the car hadn't been sold yet, so they couldn't do a bait and
switch. We liked the car and went into the office to close the deal. He
did the calculations and told us what the monthly payments would be. That
was fine. Then he told us what the down payment would be. That was
considerably more than we had agreed on. We told him what we could afford
for a down payment. He did some more calculations and said we could finance
the down payment, which would increase the monthly payments, of course.

I said, "We already told you what monthly payments we could afford. That
would make the payments too high. We don't need a new car that badly." I
stood up and started to walk out of the office. Both the salesman and my
husband sat there stunned, but by the time I got to the door, the salesman
recovered and said, "Just a minute. Let me go talk to my boss."

We waited a few minutes. Then he came back and said, "I don't know how he
can do it, but he said it's okay." We got the car with the down payment we
had and the monthly payments we could afford.

Joy

On 9/28/2013 5:50 PM, lid wrote:
jmcquown wrote:
On 9/27/2013 6:16 PM, Joy wrote:

I think that whenever you have a car that is an especially good one, it is
logical to go for the same kind when you have to replace it. My current car
is my second Toyota. I don't expect to need another car, ever, but if I do,
it will be another Toyota. I had the first one for 14 years and 170,000
miles. I've had this one for 13 years and only put about 65,000 miles on
it.

Joy

You'll laugh at me. I've had my Hyundai Accent for 10.5 years
(technically it is 11 years old, 2002 model year). The odometer just hit
the 25,000 mile mark a couple of weeks ago!

When I take the car to have routine servicing they always ask me, "Is
this the actual mileage?!" Yep.

That has nothing much to do with what car I'll buy the next time. Except
to say I've never had any trouble with this car. So I'll probably buy a
Hyundai the next time, too.

Before that, I did own Toyotas. I had a Corolla from 1982 until 1995 or
so. It was totalled in an accident, so I bought a Tercel. After close
to 10 years the AC died in the Tercel (a *must* in the southern states,
AFAIC). It would have cost almost as much to replace the AC as I paid
for the car. So I went looking for another new one. Toyota had discontinued the line.

The guy tried to sell me a big boxy-looking Toyota (don't recall the
make). He said it was replacing the Tercel. "Uh, looks like a mini-van
to me, no thanks! I also specifically said I want a standard shift, not an automatic."

I hate dealing with car salesmen. They all seem to think I don't know
what I want. This isn't my first rodeo. I know exactly what I want,
thank you. I took my business over to the Huyndai lot instead. They
didn't give me a lot of hype or try to sell me something I didn't want.

Jill

Even though a/c is not essential here, I've got used to it and wouldn't
like to be without it.

When the average temperature is HOT, around here one would rather have
A/C. I did sleep with the windows open and a fan running last night.
The temperature was around 60F. Ooooh, nice and cool!

Jill

On 9/28/2013 2:13 PM, Joy wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

I hate dealing with car salesmen. They all seem to think I don't know
what I want. This isn't my first rodeo. I know exactly what I want,
thank you. I took my business over to the Huyndai lot instead. They
didn't give me a lot of hype or try to sell me something I didn't want.

Jill

No, I won't laugh. If you don't need to drive any more than that, great.

I usually hate dealing with car salesmen too. However, one time it was
rather fun. Many years ago my husband saw an ad for a really good deal on a
used Dodge Dart. We went to the dealer where it was advertised, and
amazingly the car hadn't been sold yet, so they couldn't do a bait and
switch. We liked the car and went into the office to close the deal. He
did the calculations and told us what the monthly payments would be. That
was fine. Then he told us what the down payment would be. That was
considerably more than we had agreed on. We told him what we could afford
for a down payment. He did some more calculations and said we could finance
the down payment, which would increase the monthly payments, of course.

I said, "We already told you what monthly payments we could afford. That
would make the payments too high. We don't need a new car that badly." I
stood up and started to walk out of the office. Both the salesman and my
husband sat there stunned, but by the time I got to the door, the salesman
recovered and said, "Just a minute. Let me go talk to my boss."

We waited a few minutes. Then he came back and said, "I don't know how he
can do it, but he said it's okay." We got the car with the down payment we
had and the monthly payments we could afford.

Joy


Good for you! To continue with car shopping "horror stories"...

I went with my mother to buy a new car. This was hmmmm, around 1978 or
79. We went to, hmmm, seems to me it was a Chevrolet dealership. Mom
picked out the car she wanted. We got to the office and she wrote a
check. The salesman said, "Uh, we'll have to call your husband to get
his approval." I said "What?!" as my mother stood up, snatched the
check out of his hand and said she'd take her business elsewhere.

We got home and Dad said, "Did you get a new car?" Mom and I told him
what happened. UH OH! He got on the phone with the manager. "My wife
doesn't need my PERMISSION to write a check!" Mom did get a new car a
couple of days later. Definitely not from that dealership!

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message ...


Good for you! To continue with car shopping "horror stories"...

I went with my mother to buy a new car. This was hmmmm, around 1978 or
79. We went to, hmmm, seems to me it was a Chevrolet dealership. Mom
picked out the car she wanted. We got to the office and she wrote a
check. The salesman said, "Uh, we'll have to call your husband to get
his approval." I said "What?!" as my mother stood up, snatched the
check out of his hand and said she'd take her business elsewhere.

We got home and Dad said, "Did you get a new car?" Mom and I told him
what happened. UH OH! He got on the phone with the manager. "My wife
doesn't need my PERMISSION to write a check!" Mom did get a new car a
couple of days later. Definitely not from that dealership!

Jill

~~~~~~
Good for your parents! Both of them.

MaryL