Heated windscreens, custom cost.

Just read an article on the rebuild of a famous racing A40, in there they got Pilkington to make them a heated screen, 750 quid for two.

nice article, worth a read:

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Reply to
MrCheerful
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I must admit that is rather less than I would have thought. Admittedly, not cheap.

I vaguely recall that the price of a replacement from Autoglass for our Escort in 1983 was well over £100 (I checked even though the insurance company were paying). Ford were far cheaper but the local dealer made a mess of fitting it! I had a run of chipped/broken screens in a couple of months, they (the dealer) eventually mastered it!

Reply to
Brian Reay

Given the nature of the vehicle, I did not assume it was a commercial (ie profit-making) price, and that Pilkington would offer the same or similar if asked for, say, a heated windscreen for a courier's 2012 Caddy ;)

Reply to
Robin

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That sounds very good value indeed.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Given Rimmer charges over 500 quid for some versions of a non heated SD1 screen, I'd guess you are right. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Thank may explain it, if they got some publicity.

I never did ask my friend how much he paid for having heated screens fitted to his VW van.

Reply to
Brian Reay

Sweet.

We had two grey-green A40 'Countryman' and I can remember going everywhere in it (as a kid) and the family using it for a whole range of things (mostly boat related).

It's only when you see them at classic car shoes and museums do you realise how small they actually were (especially by today's standards).

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

I had one in the early 70's, marvellous little car to drive, but very rotten. Started with one pull of the handle, even in a hard winter, rest of the day the battery would do. Headlights were completely bonded in place with fibreglass. Actually happy memories!

Reply to
MrCheerful

The A40 was credited with being something of a trend setter - it was a forerunner of the hatch backs which came later. It wasn't really and estate car, which it resembled.

Just a pity the quality etc wasn't there.

Reply to
Brian Reay

My one had the two piece tailgate, so was quite practical, the ones with only a boot lid were much less useful. Dad had several A40s which were part of the hire fleet, and they were always out on hire, so were definitely popular with the general public. Mine was quite quick enough at the time and did 40mpg at best and over 30mpg all the time.

Reply to
MrCheerful

The quality was fairly par for the course for a small car of those days. Thing is many will only remember them as a very used car - probably neglected for ages. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

True. However, the point I was making was, rather like the Mini, 'we' set a trend but didn't capitalise on it. All the cars built here, at least the mass market ones, were poor. Had we licked the quality and specification problems we may still have had a motor industry.

Reply to
Brian Reay

The A40 was just basically a re-bodied A35. Which was an updated A30 - designed just after WW2.

Push rod engine, rigid rear axle on cart springs, part mechanical drum brakes etc were hardly trend setting even in the 1960s.

The construction quality was very little different to other small cars of the day from Ford and Vauxhall, etc.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

My best friend at school and university was the son of a police driver, and he had an A40. He used to take us both to college with all our stuff (and usually with his wife in the front passenger seat). It was small, but (like the Mini) you could use all the space. I do wonder if we will see smaller vehicles coming back, especially for urban use. I'd quite like to see a "size limit" for inner cities (having just followed a Smart car into Bath this evening).

Reply to
newshound

Agreed ... and when you compare it with a modern vehicle, how thin the doors were!

I think that may depend on them passing all the current safety requirements (side impact / crumple zones / passenger cell etc).

You may be able to have some sort of lightweight urban car as long as the speeds were limited to something reasonable. That said, a head-on between two vehicles doing 20 mph would still be fairly uncomfortable. ;-(

Maybe when all the crash prevention / driverless stuff comes in that will make such safer?

It's funny, our kitcar is based on a Mk2 Escort and is fairly 'slab sided' (Jeep stylee). You only realise how much narrower it is than most cars these days when you have two people sitting side by side (even in the front) or park behind something and compare widths. ;-)

It does make a big difference when driving in traffic (you can get though gaps that few others can (or will attempt)) and with the near taxi level of steering lock fiddle your way though the other obstacles. ;-)

The real issue would be the crash protection, especially against those only driving 'tanks' as a means of increasing *their* odds of survival. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

There's an original Fiat 500 that lives close to here. With a current one often parked beside - could be the same owner. Think the difference is even more marked, size wise, than between original and new Mini.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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