BLOGGS - Tell us what you got up to etc..

[waynne]

When I went to France our hire car was a Pug 207 TD they ask you if you want extra insurance, extra drivers, CDW, LBW, VAT, CAT, DOG Fuel (course we need fuel we're not going to sit in the car park all holiday) etc nearly doubling the price. I must say when you think about the name HERTZ it is really appropriate when you get the final bill

Like most hire cars it handled like a drunk dog on roller skates it was bouncy and the gearstick was on the wrong side and all I could get on the radio was French stations The car had only done 1500km - the speedo didn't even have good old MPH on it so it was a bit of a guess what speed we should be doing and whats with all the other drivers being on the RIGHT side of the road - we had so many near misses it was incredible.

To make it a better drive I removed the air filter housing and fabricated a cold air feed from a drainpipe and duct tape - this made the car drive better - more like a drunk dog on roller skates with a rocket up its bum. If I had my hacksaw with me I could have lowered the suspension and improved the handling.

[Freddie]

Lol @ makeshift RAM induction and chopping springs!

Reminds me so much of my mates old Nova..

[waynne]

If you want to improve you sometimes need to improvise!

Desparate times call for desparate measures but when you do this to your main car - you clearly have no money and do not care what happens to the engine 1000 miles down the line!

[waynne]

Polished the Audi at the weekend. My shoulder still hurts - the pain is incredible I wish I'd invested in one of those electric buffers. (Might even buy one of those really fluffy cats and cover the car in fish paste - that would fix the washing and waxin!) Why is it that you always find a new dent or scratch when your car needs to look it's best. Bird turd seems to eat into the paintwork (are they eating acid now) and I had to use a VERY VERY mild cutting paste on a couple of areas. The birds are pretty careful to drop a colour which shows up - white cars get black or purple turd and my purple car gets white turd. Your'e not telling me there isn't a greater intelligence at work here.

Before you ask IT WAS a special occasion - we went to a reunion ball and I could have died - loads of the guys were wearing the same outfit as me?!!??! (It was a black tie event though but no-one warned me there would be so many 'penguin outfits' there.)

A quick word of warning - when you put polish on the glass you will not see out because of a smeary mist appearing which even the wipers do not clear so I had to drive home in my Tux with my head out of the window at 2AM! Got home and washed the flies out of my mouth. My wife used glitter everything - glitter hairspray, glitter nail varnish and I got covered in the stuff - the car interior looks like a Christmas decoration and I'd swear the glitter had got into my mouth!

[Freddie]

Argh sounds like a disaster all round!

You are right though, you always notice those scrathes and dents when you clean it. Glass can be a pain to clean, I try to only use water and newspaper, but inevitably some product/chemical you use somewhere on the car will end up leaving smears or stains on your glass which you don't notice till after you've put away your cleaning equipment and driven somewhere.

Why is it that women don't seem to understand that fluffy/glittery materials don't go great with our nice clean interiors. They wouldn't be happy if they'd just cleaned a gress and we rubbed engine oil all over it!

Bird poop can actually be really dangerous if left on your paintwork.. The acid can eat away right back down to the metal! Yuk!

[waynne]

Still finding the glitter in the car. I actually had to clean out the inside of the car when it gets to the point I can't find the gearstick I start to get serious . Just removing the mats and running the Vacuum over them did a great job - I also vacuumed the inside of the car and am really impressed with how clean it has come up. All internal surfaces were wiped over with a damp cloth. We regularly give my mother in law a lift and she is really taking the toll on our car. She has a ton of diamond rings which get brushed against the paintwork, along with the 300 keys dangling off a keyring ! The door is frequently shoved open to collide with a wall and the amount of times the door has been scraped along a high kerb I just hate to recount. I thought of wrapping her in cling film and loading her into the boot but she wasn't to happy about this. I suppose I could cover the car with cling film instead? I am seriously thinking about putting on the child locks so I have to open the door for her - but when It's raining I just don't think I want the hassle . Next car for giving lifts in will be a hummer or a landrover I think!

[trooper]

Cheaper alternative, do what i do....the Trooper is my car and no-one ever asks for a lift, cause i have dog cages up in the back, so the back seat is folded and i refuse to take the cages out, i have also started to put a cage in the front seat, so it only leaves 1 seat for lil ole me!!!!!
You dont need to get dogs, just the cages......lol

[waynne]

Do they do inlaw sized cages? - that would be perfect!

[waynne]

This weekend I found myself in one of those cheaply run greasy spoon roadside cafes ! The table cloths were plastic. The knife and forks had more fingerprints than a pub door knob! Interestingly the menu listed espresso as a drink which I thought I would order while waiting for my coffee. The waitress returned with a small cup of strong filter coffee and a little cream pot! She then confessed that she didn't know what espresso was!?!?!

I must say that when the food arrived there was plenty of it and it tasted good so I was pleasantly surprised. (Steak and Kidney pie, chips and peas!) It was actually better value and tasted nicer than these national motorways service station corporations - you know the ones (they charge £3 for a drink and you pay extra for salt and Kechup!)

So the moral of this story is (I suppose) - don't overlook the small local business when it comes to roadside food. Even the burger bars parked at the side of the road provide a good value meal squeezing so much meat between the rolls that you have trouble carrying it !