Car (or bike) Chat!

[Marco]

Greta Thunberg. Where have you been hiding?

Soz, what's that got to do with Geoff's post below:

I'm quite happy to keep burning petrol. I might even look around for another diesel.

Marco.

[Marco]

Not got the remotest scooby-doo what the above is in reference to!



Marco.

[struth]

Re polluting planet by burning fossil fuels I guess, not that I really know who she is but she looks the type

[Marco]

Never heard of her... I don't pay much attention to that pish.

Marco.

[Beobloke]

Main dealers you say? Funnily enough I posted this on another forum only today...

Mrs. B used to take her old Golf to the main dealer that she bought it from for servicing, and all was fine until the time it started hesitating when she pulled away - the hesitation got longer and longer and was becoming dangerous.

We duly took it to the dealer who plugged it into their technical whizzbangery which announced half the ignition system needed replacing - we duly complied and, £500 later, took the car home - on the short drive home, it seemed OK. Next day my wife came home from her 40 mile motorway-based round trip to work to report the car was running even worse and wouldn't go above 60mph, so we duly booked it back in for the follwoing Monday.

Monday came and the thing would just about start but the engine wouldn't stay running - we rang the garage to come and get it and they said they would but it would cost us £80! After some argument I gave up and walked round the corner to the local village garage (where I generally had my car serviced) to ask for their help. Initially they were reluctant to get involved but finally came round and towed the car away.

It came back 45 minutes later, running better than it had for months. And their miraculous solution reached by mechnical know-how with no help from a computer? They went right back to basics and checked air, fuel and spark, to find that the spark plugs were in an appalling state (one had virtually no terminals left!), and so changed them.

I've not been back to a main dealer since. I still use either that local garage, who employ proper trained mechanics and not button-pushers, or independent specialists.

And as for Greta Thunberg, I follow a friends advice - whenever I hear her name mentioned, I go for a drive in the car, come back and have a sausage sandwich and then burn something in the garden. Then I feel better,

[dave2010]

Marco [no electric car will ever darken our door].

You must have a big house if you keep your cars inside!

[Pigmy Pony]

Main dealers you say? Funnily enough I posted this on another forum only today...

Mrs. B used to take her old Golf to the main dealer that she bought it from for servicing, and all was fine until the time it started hesitating when she pulled away - the hesitation got longer and longer and was becoming dangerous.

We duly took it to the dealer who plugged it into their technical whizzbangery which announced half the ignition system needed replacing - we duly complied and, £500 later, took the car home - on the short drive home, it seemed OK. Next day my wife came home from her 40 mile motorway-based round trip to work to report the car was running even worse and wouldn't go above 60mph, so we duly booked it back in for the follwoing Monday.

Monday came and the thing would just about start but the engine wouldn't stay running - we rang the garage to come and get it and they said they would but it would cost us £80! After some argument I gave up and walked round the corner to the local village garage (where I generally had my car serviced) to ask for their help. Initially they were reluctant to get involved but finally came round and towed the car away.

It came back 45 minutes later, running better than it had for months. And their miraculous solution reached by mechnical know-how with no help from a computer? They went right back to basics and checked air, fuel and spark, to find that the spark plugs were in an appalling state (one had virtually no terminals left!), and so changed them.

I've not been back to a main dealer since. I still use either that local garage, who employ proper trained mechanics and not button-pushers, or independent specialists.

And as for Greta Thunberg, I follow a friends advice - whenever I hear her name mentioned, I go for a drive in the car, come back and have a sausage sandwich and then burn something in the garden. Then I feel better,

Too much reliance on their state-of-the-art diagnostics gadgetry methinks - the newly qualified quantum mechanics at your main dealers (presumably to justify the cost of the training and equipment), are too quick to assume those hoofbeats must be zebras.

Even in this age where we have computers to do our thinking for us, there's still room for a bit of common sense

[dave2010]

Too much reliance on their state-of-the-art diagnostics gadgetry methinks - the newly qualified quantum mechanics at your main dealers (presumably to justify the cost of the training and equipment), are too quick to assume those hoofbeats must be zebras.

Even in this age where we have computers to do our thinking for us, there's still room for a bit of common sense

Our Peugeot 207cc had a problem earlier on in the year. Warning lights came on, and one of the fans (is there only one?) went berserk and the engine seemed to run hot. Not really driveable like that - not for any distance over a mile or so, anyway.

Tried to book it into the main dealer. Then found a small back street garage, which could do the computer diagnostics. I watched as the guy plugged his computer in, and then the tests running - and noted how it wasn't really that helpful at all. In the end we left the car overnight, and next day the car was fixed. I think in the end he gave up on the diagnostics, and did all the usual sensible things - take plugs out, clean, do compression test etc. He did say that he ran the diagnostics again at the end, and the detected faults had disappeared, but it didn't look as though the diagnostics really helped much. The fault might have been a dirty sensor.

£80 versus over £100 just to have the main dealer hook the car up to their system, then a similar amount per hour! I think our guy charged £40 for the computer hook up, and I'm sure he spent more than another hour on the problem, but he billed the extra time as £40. Great service.

[Marco]

Some good discussion here chaps, especially on main dealers, which I'll get to later, however just to address this, from Piggurs:

Too much reliance on their state-of-the-art diagnostics gadgetry methinks...

Even in this age where we have computers to do our thinking for us, there's still room for a bit of common sense

I don't think you realise how serious a point that is... Employing the use of computers in that way is simply yet another example (outside of smartphones) of 'big brother' brainwashing and controlling us, as the less we're able to fix things ourselves or make our own choices, as to how that process should be done, the *more* the powers that be are able to manipulate and control US.

Ultimately, it's all about limiting our choices, removing our ability to make decisions/*think for ourselves*, and forcing us down the path that 'they' want us to go....

In that respect, in the not too distant future, don't be surprised when it reaches the stage of fully computerised, driver-less electric cars, programmed and controlled from a central hub by 'the powers that be', and where only pre-authorised destinations will be allowed, only at certain times, and only so often, with all journeys tracked and monitored via the central hub, and financial penalties (and more) administered for any evidence of non-compliance...

I kid you not.

That's why it pays to be 'off grid' (in this case, where possible driving non-electric cars fitted with older technology, the control of which thus isn't as easily manipulated), and we should refuse, as far as possible, to be part of the system, rebel against it, and stay in control of our lives for as long as possible, rather than simply bending over and having our asses fucked, like compliant, subservient sheep!

And like it or not, admit it or not, that's the unpalatable truth, and exactly what you're doing when buying an electric car, and in turn creating the kind of world, which I've just outlined, for our future generations.

Marco [forever a driver of cars with combustion engines, and the least amount of computerisation as possible].

[dave2010]

That's why it pays to be 'off grid' (in this case, where possible driving non-electric cars fitted with older technology, the control of which thus isn't as easily manipulated), and we should refuse, as far as possible, to be part of the system, rebel against it, and stay in control of our lives for as long as possible, rather than simply bending over and having our asses fucked, like compliant, subservient sheep!

That's a bit of a rant isn't it?

What kind of turntable do you use? Maybe a flat millstone, driven by water power, or a passing dinosaur!