craigowl

Firstly, salutations to John-M :salute: I will be close behind him, reaching 65 this June. :shrug: "Where does all the time go?" The year I passed my test - 1972 - (I was 26 - many of us didn’t need a car even by that age!), the British car industry was going down the tubes due to greed and complacency and the fact that workers in other countries like Japan and Germany were knocking their pans in whilst we went on strike and whinged. Japanese cars were only just appearing to have some quality, (Toyota Corolla coupe was good buy then) but, (and John will possibly confirm this) many of the older generation with cash would not buy Japanese on principal (Shocking WW2 POW stories were still appearing on the front page of the News of the World a few years earlier - can you believe that?) The German car industry had firmly re-established itself (with the help of the British army in 1945/6-ish!). The British have always secretly - or not so secretly - admired the Germans for their technical abilities. "Jerries? Do you a good pair of binoculars they will." – That quip was in a popular ITV comedy years ago – unforgettable! Personally, by 1971, my wife and I had given up hope on "British" - our Austin 1100 which my wife had bought new in 1967 having just rusted through wheel arches and sills after only THREE years. :brickwall: This pic from June 1972 shows a large proportion of typical cars - several of them German, including ours (Opel) - "looking on" at one of the aircraft that helped bring Nazi Germany to its knees having destroyed much of its heavy industry. The truth is stranger than fiction. PS - The first water-cooled VW - the K70 (cool name, eh?) was a rust bucket. Appeared about 1971ish IIRC. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneachda/4160180664/

Wow! Dude, if I need to chill out after four hours at Heathrow, those three are the stuff to bring my frustration down a notch! 8) :wink: It's a generation thang. I've told this before, but the singer/songwriter of Idlewild - is Roddy Woomble (I went to school with his parents). His grandmother - is an old school chum of my mother's ("class of '34" :eek: ). Both these ladies are about 91. Roddy's gran says (in Dundonian): "He disna sing - he roars." Anyway, even Roddy's mellowing out now - has got married bought a house on the Island of Mull and does folk stuff, too. :lol: It comes to us all. The roarers of our generation were John Lennon, Roger Daltrey, Paul Rodgers, Robert Plant, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Elvis, Little Richard.....cripes, I'll have to go and have a lie down. "Listen to the music" and enjoy, guys - it's a whole lot better than many things in this world of ours. :hitler: :cuckoo: PS - Let's not forget our favourite ex-gasfitter from Yorkshire....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQYDvQ1HH-E See, you can be butt ugly AND supercool!

I have always loved this song and the way it evolves - and her! :camp: That funky Fender chugging on Chic, Sister Sledge, etc. Still great. Any one else relate to it.

Anyone else listened to these? :eek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zD9W9SZj9w I have ordered CD.

I'll certainly look out for it, man. What a $hitty thing to happen. :censored:

Personally, I feel more uncomfortable with either of the following behind me: 1 - Fiat 2 - Clio 3 - Fiesta (Oops, theyve all gone up here!) 4 - Works van, particularly if driver has two bears sitting up front with him - one of whom is reading the Daily Star or the Sun and has his boots on the windscreen (the macho thing makes us guys drive like nutters :wink: )

Yes it worked OK on mine.

Thanks for that, Davidwort. Glad its not just me thinks this. I may be biased as we bought our first ever Toyota in June. It has had a breakdown due to a loose connection ("quality control issue?" I said on the next questionnaire from them :lol: ) but apart from that we think the car is great. The dealers - SDM of Falkirk - first everToyota dealers in the UK - and all their staff are the best i have ever had experience of in 40 years of running a car. That alone would make me never rule out Toyota around here. The "news" yesterday was not news, but stuff we had already had hammered home the day before. The missus and I thought the BBC seemed to have some kind of tedious and persistent gloat and schadenfreude (sp?) going. People who make snap decisions about Toyota on the basis of these recalls and the heavily negative reporting by the media are being rash, IMO.

While I'm here - anyone else find that youtube eats into your life? :lol: 1972 - A cool and intelligent mate of mine had the album Survivor by Grand Funk Railroad. The sniffy progrock critics of the time hated them! I still have their version of Gimme Shelter somewhere - love it. The piledriver bass was awesome on good speakers and the lead guitar is really fine.

Class never dies. Click on youtube links on my flickr site for Jimi Hendrix followed by something even older. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneachda/4 ... 059186166/ See/hear best version on Woodstock or JH at Woodstock - dead cheap on DVD now. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneachda/4 ... 059186166/

Some of you may recall, we got a new Yaris SR last June. Really a great car for what it is intended, but I had an electrical charging failure out on the road about 6 weeks ago. Battery was flat - car kept going, but power steering loss meant driving it was heavy on the arms. Fortunately I was only a few hundred yards from my drive by this time. Toyota's RAC man was very prompt and, after a while locating it, fixed a loose connection behind the battery. Says he was "surprised as these never give any trouble". Got a questionaire (about 4th since owning car!) from Toyota re how was this problem handled. I said I was disappointed and surprised, but still had good faith in the car and the Toyota people at the garage (SDM - Falkirk) who are among the best in my car owning experience. I ended the questionaire by saying "quality control issue??" I think the CE of the company mentioned this week that is a thing they would sharpen up on. :lol:

All in all, the switch is a crumby piece of "engineering." Not what the German auto industry likes to think it is associated with. If any of you with an older switch are using your undipped headlights just now (second position) have a feel of the switch - you will find that it runs quite hot to the touch. No wonder the flimsy plastic bits eventually turn to dried snot and the component let you down.

The exceptionally severe and prolonged cold spell is going to cost us millions in repairs to our roads and pavements. The increasing prevalence in the use of paving slabs means I am seeing dangerous damage to pavements and shopping precincts in our own town. The "frost heave" lifts the slabs as the soil/wet sand expands and the slabs will then develop a "rock" as people step on them again and again. Two pics taken in our town today and yesterday. I suspect I may not have seen conditions like this since the 1960s.

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PS - The photo shoot with the car - which was the photographer's at the time - was in London. He says in email to me "it was not very practical for getting about in London!" :lol:

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She's Amanda - probably English and the lucky guy who takes the great photos is on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/grantgb/se ... 598496066/

Yes, hoses have to be good. Watch that TOP one on the VR6! - if its the original (unlikely any still around by now?) REPLACE it now - it is bound to be on the point of going. A set of Samcos was one of the first upgrades I did.

Yes, nice shoes. Mostly she is stylishly understated. So what if she doesn't have a skinny figure. I like what I see.

Yep - had suspected as much. I wanna be a legend, too! :cry:

too hot said: The car looks like an old Zephyr(yeah I dont remember them either ,my dad told me ) ,but dont think it is due to the LHD No, not a Zephyr - I do remember them. Our cars tried hard to emulate the Yanks' with big fins, chrome, etc. At the end of the day they really looked pathetic and were too small anyway. Pictured car has to be an old US of A one.

Yep! Can't be doing with these bony, stick insect types.

:) Right, kev, will get to it! You are such a smarta$$, I bet you replaced all these things and more, years ago! :lol: :wink: :salute:

Cannot read/find the website either. This pic was on a car website. Is it just me being easily pleased as an old git, or is she really so gorgeous? Ok....OK....I know what you'll say!