Reversing kits?

Will they all have peculiar locking? Like the Megane my mate had last night? We couldn't work out how to open the frigging doors, and /we were ast inside/. Rory could open his driver's door, but us poor passengers had to wait until he'd turned the engine off.

It was only then, we noticed the button with two symbols on, by the ignition switch. And none of us were even stoned.

Personally, I won't be buying cars with that much automatic electronic stuff, I don't think it's necessary. I don't even think power steering is necessary, it's just a cog in the increasing features-arms-race - but I'd prefer an option to cut my costs and get a nice, basic car that is simple, without all the electronic tat. So I'll stick to the secondhand and classic market.

Cheers,

Where you will have to buy increasingly older cars as time goes on. You will also be seen to be ever more eccentric as you get older. I rather suspect that you too will go with the flow.

Huw

You reckon? None of those things seems like a bad thing to me, indeed it seems actually preferable to going with the flow. My daily transport is this:

And being thought eccentric is something of a compliment round these parts, it means you've not been brainwashed into being a Norm.

Cheers,

Are those Morris Marina door handles as fitted to late first series Range Rover? Those pop-up headlamps look to have the potential for failure to a greater extent than most power steering systems. Your attitude to technological advances is odd considering your profession. Or might it indeed be tempered by your profession. Luckily, in my experience, car systems, as opposed to the cars themselves, are prone to far less crashes than Windows. A wife and five or six children would soon get you into something more practical with power everything bristling with sensors.

Huw

Huw (hedydd[nospam]@tiscali.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

BMW iDrive.

It *is* Windows.

Indeed they are, and they also featured on the Allegro, and Lotus Esprit!!

Keep them lubed, and they're fine. Unless one of the diodes blows, and then they continuously raise-lower-raise-lower - out of phase, one up one down. Quite amusing, the first time.

Indeed it is - I got sick of beating my head against the bleeding edge last year, and told all my software vendors to go hang for a year while they stabilised their products.

I was thinking of a nice Rover P6b. Or an SD1 3500 :->

Cheers,

Oh My God.

What is this, Windows for Spivs?

Then it's not so much iDrive as theyDrive. Where do you want to go today?

"Accident and emergency, please".

Cheers,

The message from James Dore contains these words:

Sadly, it's hard to avoid. Wouldn't mind if it were reliable, but most car failure seem to be caused by the toys these days.

Depends who you are. I can do without by the wife finds driving without it almost impossible.

The message from "Huw" contains these words:

I'm already seen as eccentric. Doesn't bother me - I shall cherish my Montego for as long as I can.

The message from James Dore contains these words:

And even when they do die a bit of fettling will usually see them go again. Modern stuff is getting harder and harder for tinkerers like me to poke into life. While this may not matter to some people there are plenty out there - and probably a fair few in here who resent not being able to fix their own car.

Kept in good condition, it now qualifies to show and compete in vintage vehicle rallies as a classic car. There are not many left as daily drives and, having had the unfortunate experience of owning one, I am surprised that you find more modern cars so off putting. I had more trouble with one Montego than with the next fifteen cars put together. The Montego itself was of a generation that had power steering, central locking and electric windows fitted to the majority of models and electronic carbs or electronic fuel injection fitted to almost all of them. Nice to drive but a real pain in the wallet and arse to own. You may have a newer model than mine and by all accounts the hundreds of gremlins would have been sorted by then. If they were sorted before launch they would have been good cars indeed.

Huw

James Dore ( snipped-for-privacy@new.oxford.ac.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You not realise? It's embedded WinCE, IIRC...

Some are ok, but I'd agree with expensive. However, they are pretty easy for the beginner, so worth it for that alone. I've had a lot of pleasure out of DIY electronics, and anything which encourages others can only be a good thing, IMHO.

It is to pass current emission regs. Otherwise Rover would still be fitting SU carbs and Lucas point distributors.

To make even a small car without power steering that the likely new buyer could drive - and want to drive - would involve moving back to RWD and skinny gripless tyres. Might also be difficult to make it pass crash regs.

The message from "Huw" contains these words:

Apart from a couple of lazy door-locking motors it's all working very nicely. Very relaxed drive till you get the turbocharger wound up, which I guess I do perhaps once a month!

In article , Guy King writes

Is there any demand for the imperial (not metric) alloys? My brother seems to have an abundance, and a Montego Turbo to scrap.

The message from Jamie contains these words:

Ask here...

On the SD1 this is caused by voltage drop in the loom connectors. And unfortunately not just a question of cleaning them - it's between the cable and the crimped pins or sockets.

I got round it by feeding the system from the middle of the loom rather than one end, but it's a fairly major mod.

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

Mine's the brushes in the motors getting too short. There are tricks to extend 'em...

What I really need is a fuel-cap. I lost the sodding thing and of course breakers don't hold Montego/Maestros these days. They had one - a Maestro van and the fuel tank was missing - along with the cap of course.