Yes, I know it’s been a while since I’ve added a new post but things became somewhat hectic during December and it was almost impossible to find a ’spare’ hour to share my musings. Still, having just returned from a little holiday in Europe, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to go again, despite the prospect of opening the doors as usual tomorrow after a 10 day closure. During my week’s holiday in the Black Forest, I managed to visit the amazing new Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart, more of which I’ll share with you in later posts. One remarkable thing is that I covered almost 1800 miles, visiting France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium and can only recall seeing 3 police cars during the whole trip. I’m also quite proud in that I successfully avoided any of the following scenarios: Read more…
Happy New Year from thegarageblog.co.uk
When D.I.Y. can spell divorce - the battle of the sexes continues.
Since the invention of the automobile, motoring has always been considered something of a masculine business. Admittedly, motorists in the early days had to be pretty adventurous sorts to master the numerous procedures involved in starting and driving one of the new-fangled automobiles. Just to start the engine involved a long-winded ritual of having to turn the petrol on, prime the carburettor, set the choke, throttle and timing advance/retard, switching on thebattery to power the ignition trembler coils and finally, a strong arm was needed to swing the starting handle until it chugged into life.
Once running, you’d constantly need to be adjusting things just to keep it from stalling. Driving the car was equally difficult in that gears would have no synchromesh (crunching inevitable), steering impossibly heavy and brakes requiring a heavy press to bring it to a halt. Naturally, the responsibility of driving and running the motor car fell to the man of the house. Likewise, if (and when) it broke down, it would be the man who had to try and fix it by the roadside, with the woman’s only involvement to perhaps donate her stockings to fashion a temporary fanbelt!
Of course, as soon as women became regular motorists, men would just have to accept that they were no longer so special and so began making jokes about ‘women drivers’ in order to make them feel better about themselves. With cars now more user-friendly, even a dainty little lass could easily operate the controls and with a handy choke knob on which to hang her handbag, and a little mirror on the visor to check makeup, the car became a truly feminine place.
Where have all the good part-exchanges gone? Blame the scrappage scheme!
As an occasional dealer in top-quality used cars, I used to enjoy the simple pleasure of picking up a nice ‘cheapy’ for a customer. Typically 9 or 10 years old, a little Fiesta, Polo or Clio would be taken in part-exchange by a garage against a newer car and I’d then buy it from the dealer at trade price. These cars would then provide another few years of cheap motoring for their next owner, typically a young driver. Lately though, cars like these have been getting almost impossible to find ‘in the trade’So, where did all the good ‘uns go? I’m pretty sure that the answer lies with the much publisced Scrappage Scheme. All those lovely T and V reg Polos, Micras, Fiestas and Clios are now nothing more than a 3′ x 3′ cube whilst their last keeper relishes in the delicious aroma of a new Hyundai Getz or Kia Picanto!
Sure, these new cars are a little more environmentally friendly than their 10 year old predacessor, but to me, the scrapping of a perfectly good car is a terrible waste. I can’t blame the dealers as they are legally obliged to provide a ‘Certificate of Destruction’ for the car in order to claim the government’s contribution to the £2000. I can’t blame the owners as the allure of a showroom fresh model, a healthy discount and not having the trauma of advertising their old car in Autotrader. I entirely blame the government for the needless scrapping of thousands of perfectly good cars and depriving the teenagers and students of today the chance of a bargain first car. Of course, some of the cars that’ve been scrapped haven’t been ’little’ ones. There are many stories of Jaguars, Porsches, Mercedes Benz and BMW’s been scrapped. An angry response to an article on Sky News about the scheme spoke of a ‘BMW M5 being swapped for a poxy Astra 1.4′ and that it was a waste of a good car. Even one of our customers traded a nice Audi A6, but with some large expenses looming, he certainly did the right thing. There was even an item on the local TV news last week about a very rare 1940’s Riley being saved from the crusher by an enthusiast who paid the £2000 himself to the owner!
Searching through the classified ads nowadays is much harder when looking for a little bargain as there are significantly fewer. A lot of the examples on sale are from owners that probably couldn’t afford to take advantage of the scheme and buy a new car, so they’re fairly likely to not be the best examples on the market.
Sure, it’s accounted for over 35000 sales and has kept the dealers (and the car-crushing machine) busy for the last 8 months but I can’t help but hope for the time when the government’s money runs out. Then, slowly but surely, there’ll hopefully be a few nice W and X reg cars filtering through the dealer part-exchange network and a generation of new drivers will be able to get their hands on a bargain again!
Think of a price, then double it - some truths about garage repair costs.
They say it always pays to ’shop around’ and in these days of misery and recession, the savvy consumer is haggling harder on anything and everything. Whether it’s a new sofa or a plasma TV, there’s deals to be had everywhere as retailers fight to squeeze any spare money out of you in the hope that Britain will spend its way out of recession. Whilst it’s a great feeling to bring home a huge cardboard box containing the latest Sony or Panasonic 52″ HD TV, the joy is usually fairly short-lived once the credit card statement pops through the letterbox. When it comes to parting with your hard-earned money in a giant electrical store such as Comet or Currys, it’s normally a fairly straightforward process. The televisions (or other appliances) are neatly lined up with big price tags on. Yes, you can have a 32″ LCD from a cheap brand for £199, right up to a 60″ to brand Plasma display for £4000 but the prices are all clearly marked and you know what you’ll be getting. With ‘goods’ it’s pretty easy, but ’services’ are another matter entirely. What you might think you’ll pay isn’t always what you’ll end-up paying! Read more…
