There is no honour among thieves anymore

Can't say that i'm really that surprised, but then again i am in some way.

I'm very much the ultimate sceptic when it comes to other people and society in general, i adhere to the school of thought that...

'If you want a job done properly, do it yourself.'

obviously this has it natural boundaries, i not going to start doing my own brain surgery but basically i don't trust anybody apart from my immediate family and friends, I'd deliver my own post if i could.

And what brings on this rant, well let me tell you a story:

I'm currently looking for a 'new' car (new to me) so i'm scanning the second hand adverts online. I find just the car i want and not too far away, the advert has just come online and i am the first to ring about it. I have a chat with the seller about the car and he seems OK, I explain, (shall we just call him Mr. Idiot from here on in?) that i'll be there as soon as i can as i have to pick up from nursery blah, blah, blah and he is fine with this. Mr. Idiot isn't home until after 4 anyway so i arrange to see the car at 7:30.

So am i surprised to get a phone call from Mr. Idiot a couple of hours later saying the car is sold so i needn't bother coming over, erm.... yes i am.

Mr. Idiot proceeds to tell me that someone came with cash, (i'm assuming a second hand car trader, we are talking kr 100 000 here!) and took the car away there and then..... yeah and so?? He thinks this is OK?? Is it just me or have i missed out the moment in time when general courtesy and keeping your word was officially abolished?

In my mind, and this is probably where things need adjusting i guess, I phoned first, ergo, i have first dibs, end of. If this other guy was so eager then Mr. Idiot had a sale regardless of whether i buy the car after viewing it or not, he could have honoured our verbal agreement.

I did really want this car but i'm not going to tell him that i'll take it over the phone, without a test drive and a general inspection?, do i just have to trust what he says in the ad? Do i tell him i want it on the phone and then go to see it and decide i don't, then i become Mr. Idiot.

Bah - whatever, i'm claiming the moral high ground but i have no car, who's the schmuck here?

This shit depresses me - meh - the car i'm not so bothered about, another will come along (hopefully) but this kind of crap i can do without, buying a car might have to become an 'if you can't beat them join them' situation, and so society continues to slide down the slippery slope and i'm a part of.

*EDIT* having read this again i'm fully aware that this is nothing new, people don't give a monkeys about other people all the time, and has been this way since the start of time, still frustrating tho.

Re-sprung

Ahh. TFW, we were reunited and were happy until i realised that the MOT had run out and i had to get on with putting the new springs and dampers on. This was a whole days work, including i might add a 3 bus journey to, and a 3 bus journey from the mercedes tool hire shop, might have been shorter but i was working sans fitting instructions, and i faffed around a bit making a few stoopid errors on the way - the manuals say leave it to the dealerships - meh.

Glad i chose to hire 'the right tools for the job' have i been here before??
Wanna guess how much energy is stored in these springs when they are compressed like this, no me neither but a whole LOT i can be sure of that.

The grenade, ready to take your head off.
Lucky they were already broken, made them easier to wiggle out.

 

 

Grenade armed and ready to chuck in the car.

 

Wonder why these didn't pass inspection, I can't see anything wrong with them. :-/

 

Lower, sleeker, faster, cooler

It was a hard days work made more complicated by the fact of having to work through a matchbox sized hold to disconnect the hydraulics from the dampers... grrrrrr.

Before and after
Like the title says lower, sleeker, faster, cooler, TFW dropped a whole 3cm

The man from NAF he said yes :-)



Sadly for TFW it's days are probably numbered as my first choice of transport, circumstances, well no the weather and -14 temperatures, gave it a dose of the no go.
Don't get me wrong TFW itself was fine but the biodiesel that should have been flowing through its pipes went a bit solid, my fault really, normal diesel would have been OK. So it got left in the shed 120km from home where it left us stranded, to thaw out. Bah.

So what am i looking at to replace it, nothing new, obviously, besides the cost prohibiting it - i like older cars. £35000 for a new basic VW Passat estate anybody?? erm No.

Still ain't going to be cheap, for a 2001 VW Passat estate 1.6 i'll need the thick end of £8000, (yes that is eight thousand) how the hell do people afford cars in this country?? Ugggghhh.