The Dark Wob

Ah yes, another Brexit advantage! We now have to stick a massive UK sticker on the back that never comes off cleanly or a magnetic one that fucks your paint up. Such progress.

SiC wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:44 pm Ah yes, another Brexit advantage! We now have to stick a massive UK sticker on the back that never comes off cleanly or a magnetic one that fucks your paint up. Such progress.

Hardly the end of the world though, everybody now thinks UK stands for Ukraine anyway.

DodgeRover wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:14 pm

SiC wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:44 pm Ah yes, another Brexit advantage! We now have to stick a massive UK sticker on the back that never comes off cleanly or a magnetic one that fucks your paint up. Such progress.

Hardly the end of the world though, everybody now thinks UK stands for Ukraine anyway.

Of course not. If it was the only negative of Brexit, it would be great. Except its not and joins the much greater catalogue of other post brexit additional red tape and bureaucracy to make everyones life more hassle.

Bollocks.

It was our own lot that thought up the UK shit. Another reason I won't bother voting for any of the cunts - to go along with the 13000 other reasons washed up on the beach so far this year.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:08 pm It was our own lot that thought up the UK shit. Another reason I won't bother voting for any of the cunts - to go along with the 13000 other reasons washed up on the beach so far this year.

A record I heard, certainly against pre Brexit and post Brexit number of crossings. This is despite apparently getting back our borders.

It's okay, the government will spend a fortune trying to send them to Rwanda. It'll then either be abandoned because it's illegal. Or it'll happen and then found illegal, ending up having the migrants getting paid settlement money (from tax payers pockets) in a few years time when the current government is long gone.

Let's get back to the story.

Today was its first full shift and it clocked up 400 miles since I collected it.

Firstly fuel economy. The Fiesta did about 33-36 mpg around the doors on a normal shift and the Astra seems to be about the same, 35-37 mpg, although I have noticed that the Astra is noticeably better on petrol at motorway speeds. One slight problem is a couple of times tonight I found myself cruising for a couple of miles at 40 mph on urban dual carriageways in third gear as the motor is so quiet.

How is it for work? Having four doors is making deliveries easier, I load the full bags onto the front passenger seat and after each drop put the empty bag on the rear seat behind me. The interior light is brighter than the Fiesta's which really does help. Oddment space is on a par with the Ford although I do miss having a cupholder. The Fiesta had a handy remote boot release which the Astra lacks but as the Astra has a button on the outside of the tailgate we'll call that a score draw. One black mark against the Astra, and all Vauxhalls of that era is the 12v cigarette lighter socket, it only works with the ignition on. This is causing my ancient Garmin to throw a shit fit whenever I turn the engine on and off. It thinks that it is connected to a computer for an update and goes through a full reboot sequence. I'll get around this by wiring another 12v aftermarket socket straight to the battery.

As a driving experience it's way ahead of the Fiesta but then again it should be as even though they're of a similar age the Astra was a much more expensive car when new. The steering is lighter and although it doesn't quite have the feedback and chuckability of the Richard Parry-Jones tweaked Fiesta it does cling on pretty well. The Ford did have a better gearchange though, the change in the Astra isn't bad although it is very Peugeot 306/406 like.

A few pages ago we had the debate of whether the aircon will or won't work so to answer the question I'll give you the honest answer of yes but only slightly. Both myself and Paul agreed that when it was switched on we noticed that the air blasting through the vents was a bit colder than the ambient temperature. It might be worth trying a Halfords DIY regass kit. Has anyone here bought one and had any success with it?

I know that the wheel trims are missing and it'd look 100% better with some but guess what isn't missing after twenty years? Believe it or not the golf tee tyre valve cap removing tool is still present and correct in its rightful place inside the fuel filler flap! Yes I was surprised too!

mercrocker wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:53 pm That's OK, it was Paul's AS membership tag. Just snap it off.

If it was an official AS EU number plate then one of the gold stars would be a teardrop.

LynehamHerc wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 6:58 pm Isn't having your wheels stolen a regular occurrence there?
Give it a couple of days and the insurance will be paying for replacements.

I can go further than that. One night I went to the pub in my Mk4 Cortina. Two planned pints turned into about eight so I left the car in the pub car park. The following day I returned and was happy to see it still there and not on bricks. I hop behind the wheel, start the engine and engage reverse only to find that despite plenty of revs the car refused to move. Being hungover and bewildered it took me a while to work out that during the night some cunt had stolen my propshaft!

Cupholder in door and fits a can of coke/lager perfect.