What bemused you today?

[jinky]

Car insurance - do they just make it up?
10 days ago I did my renewal and after extensive comparison quotes managed to get my insureer to beat the lowest - reasonably happy if paying too much for an Aygo through having a 22 year old on my policy.
This week I have a few issues with the car and I am prompted to get a good deal on a trade in for a new car faced with needing a new cat, leaking boot, dodgy windows and a mysterious squeaking. The garage predict an insurance reduction , I say a slight increase as it is a bigger engine. The result they want another £350 on top of the £574 paid 10 days ago. They agree that it is extortionate and say go online with us / comparison websites and we`ll probably match the lowest. I go online 10 ndays after the original quote looked the best I could get, same answers and this time - quotes on compare for £424 and with my own insurer for £399 only this time with no voluntary excess so even better deal. I ring them back for explanation and they say rates must have changed - change daily! So now it seems I can cancel my renewed policy, get mos of it back par pro rata cover for 10 days and start a new insurance policy for a bigger engined car for £200 less than I was paying. They`ll deem it continouse cover so my daughter doesn`t lose no claims build up that they offer to named drivers and they are giving me £10 back for spending so long on the phone! Crazy.

Before you ask it`s a Hyundai i10 and no it`s not a cool car but its great as a second car runaround for my daughter to use too. cars are for A-B to me and I have no interest in flashy motors.

[Hinfrance]

The i10 is a nice car. That insurance tale is weird though. Probably not as weird as here though.

We decided to semi retire our long serving Octavia and get a 'new' main car. So we bought a 6 year old Mondeo Ghia, which we both really like (another story). Anyway, this left us with the question of what to do with the little Mercedes A Class, now 12 years old, with a number of persistent warning lights on the dashboard and an ECU that refuses to talk to any diagnostic tools. Well we thought, we'll just take it off road and stick it in the space behind the garage because we clearly couldn't sell it in that state and it was a) worth very little anyway, and b) not worth spending any more money on.

Ah, but here's the rub: in France there is no equivalent of SORN. So if you still own the car, you have to continue to insure it, and that insurance must cover it for use on the highway. So the useless pile of tin would cost us just to sit rotting in the garden. The local scrap dealer is a bit choosy and won't take cars more than 10 years old. So we did the only thing we could do, and gave it away. The new owner is as happy as Larry with it. But the lights are still glowing on the dashboard . . .

[jinky]

Strange isn`t it! Re: SORN / insurance off the road I`m currently waiting for the garage to ring back for me to ask them if I can give them my car 2 days early so they can have responsibility for it on their premises until Sat am. This will enable me to cancel my existng insurance within  the 14 days cool off (by 28th June), cancel my insurance and take out a new policy with my same insurers for £510 less than they wanted to charge me before!!!!
All done now. Car in their compound on Hyundai insurance and my policy cancelled and new one for the Hyundai starting Saturday. Total saving over what I was initially quoted - £616.40 and now got a policy with no excess - crazy!!!

[Hinfrance]

Changing the front disks and pads on the Mondeo - two bits in the Haynes manual: 1) undo the caliper guide bolts, not mentioning that you need if not a special tool then at least one that is not normally found in a socket set, and 2) the apparently simple instruction 'withdraw the disk from the hub'. I've been hitting the nearside disk with a lump hammer for over an hour and it has moved maybe half a centimetre so far. Argh!

[Paul Montgomery]

The good old HBOL (Haynes Book Of Lies) - I really think they've gone downhill since the old days...
I bet the carrier comes off dead easy if its:
a) pulled perfectly straight with a mechanical puller
b) soaked in lube
c) brand spanking new and not coked in umpteen thousand miles of road-crud...

[Beaux Reflets]

Changing the front disks and pads on the Mondeo - two bits in the Haynes manual: 1) undo the caliper guide bolts, not mentioning that you need if not a special tool then at least one that is not normally found in a socket set, and 2) the apparently simple instruction 'withdraw the disk from the hub'. I've been hitting the nearside disk with a lump hammer for over an hour and it has moved maybe half a centimetre so far. Argh!

Try using a wee pin hammer Howard. You often get better results with a small sharp shock than a heavy blow 

But mind your thumbs and string stoppers

[Mick]

The good old HBOL (Haynes Book Of Lies) - I really think they've gone downhill since the old days...

Agreed. Mind you, hasn't everything gone downhill these days.    Most of the stuff you buy now wouldn't have got BS approved a few years ago. Country has lost the plot IMO.

H, get some penetrating fluid behind it, bash it back on, clean up the hub, wire brush / emery cloth etc. tap it back off again. Swear a lot. Repeat as necessary.   

[Hinfrance]

New disks and pads now on. The first one was the hardest, natch. The old disks were simply corroded onto the hubs. Easing oil and violence was the solution. Put the new ones on with copperslide in the probably forlorn hope that changing them after the next 50k miles will be a bit easier. My shoulder is killing me 

Wasn't like this when I changed the disks on the Corvette, they almost fell off.

My favourite phrase in the Haynes manuals is 'with the engine on the bench' . . . 

[Beaux Reflets]

Cars - who'd have one !!

I just hate the computerisation brought in to make cars so much better ?  . Four separate faults registering as a fifth  (more expensive one which I hope I do not have to get put right as well) 

Radiator fan replacement my next job  and hopefully the car may run once more.

[spinner]

Cars - who'd have one !!

I just hate the computerisation brought in to make cars so much better ?  . Four separate faults registering as a fifth  (more expensive one which I hope I do not have to get put right as well) 


Radiator fan replacement my next job  and hopefully the car may run once more.

I had a problem with my old jeep a few years back, turned out I needed to replace the whole computer, damn think cost near what the jeep was worth. I'd forgotten they were using computers back then, 1994. What was even more galling, the part had to come from Vancouver and was going to take a week.  Why galling? Because both I and the mechanic could walk to Chrysler's main parts warehouse, literally on the other side of the railroad tracks from my mechanic's shop.

[donoreo]

Have you noticed in "post-apocalyptic" movies they always use old cars for the few working?  Yes, one is practical because they can get them cheap for the movie.  Another reason is if they are trying to be "realistic", it will be old pre-computer controlled cars that will be fixable.   

[Paul Montgomery]

I know of a few people who've used these when a car computer has packed up:
http://www.megasquirt.info

OK its not the easiest solution, but it could be fun if you like a challenge and it beats paying dealer prices for a box of tricks...

[spinner]

I ordered Photoshop Elements 11 From Amazon Canada (9 wouldn't install on Lion). It's going to take 4 days by post to reach me. I live about a mile and a half from their warehouse. (it's across the tracks from the Chrysler warehouse I mentioned in a recent post)

[donoreo]

That is odd.  I have ordered a lot of things from Amazon and mostly their third party vendors.  The 3-4 days regular shipping never has been, especially from Amazon themselves. 

[spinner]

That is odd.  I have ordered a lot of things from Amazon and mostly their third party vendors.  The 3-4 days regular shipping never has been, especially from Amazon themselves.

Better or worse? When I went to pay for the software I discovered my Credit Card on file had expired back in 2007. So I don't remember how it went the last time.