• Looking for a smarter way to manage your heating this winter? We’ve been testing the new Aqara Radiator Thermostat W600 to see how quiet, accurate and easy it is to use around the home. Click here read our review.

I've got a complaint with my new motor already!

Unfortunately, contrary to what we're told, this new tech isn't exactly flying off the shelves. Hence more financial bribes with taxpayers' money for the punters.

Ever since I can remember, car manufacturers have kept buffer stocks in fields. A "new" car could be (in extreme cases), up to 18 months old.
 
There’s a date written on the plastic stock/dealer key tag. April 2025.
 
I did some work on a very tragic fatal accident where the same thing had happened. Old guy changed cars. New one had a very different pedal offset to his previous car. Came up to a T junction, pushed the brake pedal to the floor, thinking it was the clutch, and an artic went into the back of him. :cry:
I think that scenario (apart from the fatal part) happens more than is assumed.

A lot of (usually elderly) people swapping from manual to automatics now, and press the clutch to change gear, except it's the brake. They have had years of muscle memory and it doesn't change overnight.
 
I think that scenario (apart from the fatal part) happens more than is assumed.

A lot of (usually elderly) people swapping from manual to automatics now, and press the clutch to change gear, except it's the brake. They have had years of muscle memory and it doesn't change overnight.
I did that more than once when we got our first auto (late 90s)

amazingly, and I don't truly understand this - I never make the mistake of knowing whether I'm in an auto or manual now, and I often drive both most days
and the bit that puzzles me is - i have great difficulty with things like lights, windscreen wipers, even winding the windows up and down, wifes car has stupid electric windows
 
Expressed as a percentage of the total mileage some of today's junk is expected to last I guess 46miles is about right for the running-in period ;)

"Today's junk" has an extra digit on the odometer compared to cars from the '70s and early '80s - because it routinely "goes round the clock" more than once! I think we have a very rose-tinted view of the past. When I started driving, warranties were 12 months or 12,000 miles. Now they're 3 years or more, and often 60,000 miles!

"Round the clock" and 10 years, was considered a good innings for a car of the '60s or '70s. Now we're seeing Skoda Octavias that have been used as taxis, coming in as trade-ins with 300,000 miles on them!

1756921209980.png
 
Expressed as a percentage of the total mileage some of today's junk is expected to last I guess 46miles is about right for the running-in period ;)
I have a soft spot for many older cars, different to the modern stuff, of which most just strikes me as characterless.

But getting back into older vehicles and driving them around in todays conditions, highlights the differences. Not every new idea is good, but overall the trend has been to get better.

Let's try details? Ignition systems. Brakes. Safety. Mileage capability. Reliability. etc
 
"Today's junk" has an extra digit on the odometer compared to cars from the '70s and early '80s - because it routinely "goes round the clock" more than once! I think we have a very rose-tinted view of the past. When I started driving, warranties were 12 months or 12,000 miles. Now they're 3 years or more, and often 60,000 miles!

"Round the clock" and 10 years, was considered a good innings for a car of the '60s or '70s. Now we're seeing Skoda Octavias that have been used as taxis, coming in as trade-ins with 300,000 miles on them!

View attachment 391664
may be that is a reflection of how desirable a new car is - once a new car was something welcome, now its ' i wonder how much unwanted crap they have added to it"
I loathe the whole concept of new anything now

or may be it is just a reflection on the dire state of our country, look at that dip around 05 / 06 when house prices were going bilistic and everyone felt rich
now after successive crap governments and brexit half the country is going down the pan
by the time rachel and twoTier are finished people will be lucky to afford a car
 
Last edited:
may be that is a reflection of how desirable a new car is - once a new car was something welcome, now its ' i wonder how much unwanted crap they have added to it"
I loathe the whole concept of new anything now

or may be it is just a reflection on the dire state of our country, look at that dip around 05 / 06 when house prices were going bilistic and everyone felt rich
now after successive crap governments and brexit half the country is going down the pan
by the time rachel and twoTier are finished people will be lucky to afford a car
It's been going downhill a lot longer than since Labour have held the chalice.

There's a lot more to go through before things get better.
 
Bloody thing wouldn’t recognise the fobs last night for a couple of hours. Might have had something to do with the over the air update it was performing……
I would be asking why it wasn't updated before you had it.

I can't believe it does a random update at any time, you could have been stuck in bad area/situation. Updates maybe, but not at a time that suits them, it has to suit you too.

Sounds more like a supplier issue than car issue to me.
 
It's been going downhill a lot longer than since Labour have held the chalice.

There's a lot more to go through before things get better.
as i said' "successive governments" - difficult to believe the current gov are worse than Boris, but they are, and rachel is maybe worse than the lettuce
and when ( or if) they ever phase out ICE, average car age will go up by years,
 
as i said' "successive governments" - difficult to believe the current gov are worse than Boris, but they are, and rachel is maybe worse than the lettuce
You must have a very short memory.

Given the choice between what we have now and going back to Boris , May, truss et al, no thanks. We are still in the early stages where they do all the dirty tough stuff. As every change of Government does. This time next year would be a better time to judge.
and when ( or if) they ever phase out ICE, average car age will go up by years,
It's been going up steadily for years.
 
may be that is a reflection of how desirable a new car is - once a new car was something welcome, now its ' i wonder how much unwanted crap they have added to it"
I loathe the whole concept of new anything now

Of course, it might not be the cars, it might be you! Or as Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame so aptly put it:

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:​

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.​

2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.​

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”​


or may be it is just a reflection on the dire state of our country, look at that dip around 05 / 06 when house prices were going bilistic and everyone felt rich
now after successive crap governments and brexit half the country is going down the pan
by the time rachel and twoTier are finished people will be lucky to afford a car

Yes indeed. Brexit has been very damaging and will continue to do so. We've also had 16 years of chronic financial mismanagement by the Tories and so far, Labour don't seem to be doing much better, but they have a hell of a basket case to try and turn around. Unfortunately, regardless which government gets into power, we have some unpleasant life lessons coming our way, here in the West. For to long, we've been living beyond our means. Developing countries have...well... "developed" and are in the ascendency. There aren't any jobs that are beneath them and they don't have the same sense of entitlement that we did, having not long had a large empire. My rather depressing take on it, i that for the new few decades, the only way is "down" for the West...
 
Back
Top