1000 post discussion

KarTuneMan wrote:

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I'm with KP all the way here,let's take this a stage further and end this silly thread because all of the last few entries are right in their own way

This gets my vote..... good God gentlemen.

That dead horse that people talk about beating....

Let him rest in peace. There is no more education possible in this thread..... (IMHO)

Just attitude and opinion.

Go ahead guys Im ready................. flame me!  I can take it!

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This thread must continue until I reach 1000 posts!

I looked earlier and this post was vanishing down the page! g****** it it's shifted (do you like the way I (clutch slipped) that in?) up the page again. I check my trannie oil every couple of weeks (1000 miles or so) because Mits are notorious for eating their gearboxes.

To Kar Tune Man:- I could have sworn you'd be smoking a Ford Lightening or a Ram with a V10! Honda Civic? That's what Jewish ladies in North West London drive around in!

Get real us Brits had to service the s**theaps every day when all we had were British Leyland come Austin/Rover come Rover  come Honda Rover come BMW Rover come Shanghai Motor Co.  otherwise they fell apart, I think it was a gal. of oil every 300 miles on a Mini, early 3.5 V8 Rovers used as much oil as petrol, TR5s, well you couldn't go below 1/4 tank cause the damned mechanical fuel injection system fouled up etc etc. Why do you think we now build more cars than ever in this country and they are Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans? I'm also sick of young Jewish  and (Asian) Indian housewives (those not in Civics*) looking down on me from their SUV's and people carriers whilst they have on board one small child? (Usually on a 1/2 mile school run and on the phone) I agree with Sarcomax there especially now we pay $10 a gallon; oh give me back my Focus turbo diesel, 130mph and 45mpg!

* You guys got to look on Honda UK website and see the differences, especially the interior between US and UK Civics and CRV's. Do you have the type R?

Why do british people drink warm beer?

Because their refrigerators have lucas electrics in them too...

I've had some good rides in GB, mostly Fords and a few Rovers. The feel for the road is much better than anything short of a bimmer we see in North America (and it's more than just shifting with my left hand that makes them smooth -- I'm left handed . I've noticed over the years that Europe is usually a full series ahead of anything we see stateside. That's applicable across most manufacturers; some models never reach the states.

FYI: My experience is with newish rental cars that may have fallen apart shortly after I returned them, but I've never had problems with my rentals in UK (often keeping the car for a month or two and crusing at 100 mph on the M4 or treading up Kirkstone Pass to the Roman ruins).

Yes, the TR5 was pretty much trash; when I lived in Canada, eh, they were practically giving them away to anyone who could afford the maintenance. The TR6 we had since new was great; cruised well from the Rockies to New York and eventually on to Montreal. I also liked the TR4A for it's innovation mechanics and the TR3 for pure style. (I'm not old enough to have first-hand experience with the TR2). But my favorite was my 1956 Austin Healey 100/6 -- that was a classy ride. I might even give up a couple of those certificates that I have to get it back today (sold it when I went back to school -- oh, what foolish things some of us do for an "education"?).

So why are we discussing this stuff when the thread is about the 'van trashed by a Viper' (oops, I started another round of "we didn't do it; your transmission self-destructed!") Because it's fun and it lowers my blood pressure. And because we have a long way to go before reaching 1000, but if we try and if we work together, we CAN do it!

More later about the court case and other subtopics when I have time and need to raise my blood pressure . . .

Cheers,

howie ll wrote:

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I looked earlier and this post was vanishing down the page! g****** it it's shifted (do you like the way I (clutch slipped) that in?) up the page again. I check my trannie oil every couple of weeks (1000 miles or so) because Mits are notorious for eating their gearboxes.

To Kar Tune Man:- I could have sworn you'd be smoking a Ford Lightening or a Ram with a V10! Honda Civic? That's what Jewish ladies in North West London drive around in!

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Howie.... I won't drive an American made car... period! Tried a VW, a few years back...sucked.  4 Honda's, and 1 Toyota Tacoma.

Well here we all are again, boy is this fun, Sarcomax let's talk about Hummers or full sized US cars in Europe with their lousy ride, cardboard interiors and poor handling, no lets not, incidentally in  the UK we build the best cars in the world*,  we actually export Nissans to Japan where UK Nissans are a cult item. As for Kar Tune Man, Gary a confession:- 2 x Maximas, Prelude, Mercedes, Integra, Ford Focus, Audi (what heavy steering and poor fuel system) Vauxhall Astra, and Mits Galant so who am I to praise British cars. The Focus incidentally apart from the shape, you are still on face lifted Mk1, while we get the Mk III in Jan 08.

You must realise that we are going the way of the turbocharged direct injected diesel in Europe, except one Focus has the lovely 2.5 5cylinder turbo (petrol) engine from Volvo.

*All the Grand Prix ,  Indianapolis and Le Mans type cars are built adjacent to a twenty mile stretch of highway South West of London, McLaren's place is like a heaven on earth for a workshop afficionado, oh I've got to fly Snap-on and Mac are after me.

First car was a 78 oldsmobile with a wooden bumper and a huge tazmanian devil painted on the hood. Then it went 85 sentra (totaled by an idiot in a ford that did not set his ebrake, left it in neutral and then it rolled down hill and hit my parked car), 86 vw cabriolet, 90 944s2 cab (totaled by an idiot in a ford that turned left across three lanes...it would have been four, but my drivers door got in the way.), 01 celica gts, 02 wrx wagon (totaled by a drunk driver in a dodge truck...head on over 100 mph combined speed) and now the wife drives a legacy gt and I have the suzuki sv650. The porsche set me back a grand anything went wrong with it. I had a head gasket issue that warped the head and a voltage regulator issue that popped up a couple other problems. The celica had a transmission problem that long story short caused my three four shift getting on the freeway into an oil pump exploding three two shift. Fixed under warranty.

I had a 90 something (92?) accord for a few months last winter, but I don't really count that one since most of the time it was parked until I had the time to replace the oil pan and alternator. I had it for five months and was able to drive it for three or so before I sold it to get the bike.

My dad used to work for snap on at the corperate office...Nothing quite like getting tested prototype tools for free.

So I guess my quest to 1,000 posts can continue!

I got worried when I did not see my last post...

So it is 6:10 am on thursday morning... I have been at work since 11:00am WEDNESDAY MORNING. If my store manager would just do things the proven way that they have worked for years, then we would have been done with our inventory 4 hours ago. but no, his way is best, and he wouldn't listen to you if you told him that his rotund buttocks were ablaze, and would purposefully not put the fire out just to spite you. I should mention that in california anything over 8 hours is time and a half. I wonder if the double time 12 hour rule has come back into play...

If anyone has some caffinated peppermints could you bring them by? I ran out about 5 hours ago, and they are not letting anyone leave anytime soon. The sodas and energy drinks were consumed about 8 hours ago, which shows the amount of time and effort that went into taking care of the staff of about 40 that are still here. /end rant

at least i get to come back at 5 am on friday to fix all of the mistakes that the crappy inventory service made!

Wow, that doesn't sound like much fun. 

Where I work now we arn't allowed to work more then 12 consecutive hours without 8 hours off for safety reasons.

howie ll wrote:

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*All the Grand Prix , Indianapolis and Le Mans type cars are built adjacent to a twenty mile stretch of highway South West of London, McLaren's place is like a heaven on earth for a workshop afficionado, oh I've got to fly Snap-on and Mac are after me.

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Concord. East bay. I am back doing inventory number two. the first 31 hours did not count. Poop.

"The person that causes the destruction of our society is currently on the phone behind the wheel of an SUV."

Not just there. I had a spotting last week in an office building. Got a trouble call for phone/computer problems.. the person with the problems called the main help desk, who relayed the information to me. I rolled, checked things out at the site and went to talk to the main help desk person personally.

me -  "What did they tell you on the phone?"

helpdesk - "They were having problems with the phones and computers."

me - 'Did they mention anything else?"

helpdesk - 'Nope'

me - "Not even that when they were having these problems, THE ENTIRE BUILDING HAD LOST POWER!!!!"

Jim

Living proof that nice guys finish last.

Like three weeks ago I took in a car that we normally do not do here. I should say, that I took in a car that we normally do not do here for the labor that was charged. I knew that the 740il would not just plug and play correctly with an aftermarket radio, I told the customer this up front, and he decided to go with a 50 dollar blau amp that we had discontinued, and add a powered sub. We spent all day doing deck, 2 amps, sub, and ipod connections. I left before everything was finished, so I did not know about the whine until the next morning. I also did not know about the keyless entry (factory) not working until he came in the next morning. We then spent another day...9 am until 7 pm... trying to get rid of the noise/ get his keyless working. We tried every trick for the noise including new equipment and every combination of filter that we have in the store, and finally got it to an agreeable level. He then came in two days ago wanting to know how to put his speakers in, and today he came in because he had connected his speakers up wrong and wanted us to fix it for free...did i mention that he put them in? He said that since his keyless still does not work that we owed him one. The installer that looked at it said that the speaker was hooked up to the factory crossover, and was out of phase. The factory crossover was also defective, and now there is a ton of noise coming from just that speaker.

To sum this up. Budget guy comes in, I work with budget knowing that if I don't my store manager will go off on me for not taking care of the customer, I get shafted either way...

I am going to lunch for a few hours now.