have to be one of lives most trying combinations.
Around Feb/March time i found a replacement Civic 2.0S for daughters previous identical model, this one a very well maintained one local owner jobbie with the right mileage.
Righto daughter says i, i need to have this car in for a full service and inspection so i know whats likely to be needed in the future...''it'll be alright dad''...you know how your heart sinks when they say that.
Several reminders throughout the year, no time, its fine etc etc.
We called on her today and the first thing glaring at me was a rear tyre right down to just legal....''i thought it was a bit slippery dad''...grrr.
So, now the weathers turning manky i've actually got the car next weekend for servicing...all those lovely hot summer days lost cos she's out having a good time.
Why why why do we do it, why despite them never doing the sensible thing do we still bend over backwards to sort things out for them.
Just to prove what an idiot i am Mr Softy Touch here has just ordered 4 new Rain Experts for it, she's got no money to spare as just bought her first gaff, so that'll be her Christmas pressy and lump it.
She's a smashing girl but not an ounce of car sense.
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>> She's a smashing girl but not an ounce of car sense.
>>
Not only girls, GB! Our son is 26, and he dithers about changing tyres, changing batteries etc. And he's just not practical, so doesn't do anything more complicated than checking tyre pressures. The simplest jobs are going to cost him ££££s over the years.....
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She'll have a go Mike but hasn't really got the aptitide for it.
To be fair if someone doesn't have the feel for doing things then its probably best they don't dabble, as you say though even the basics are going to cost big money over the years.
I never complain about helping them, or anyone, out, but my mild rant was really because i knew without fail the car wouldn't come to me until the weather broke, just wish it a bit easier to pin them down to actually getting it done at my convenience for once..:-)
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I had two daughters whose cars I maintained when allowed and repaired when necessary over a period of about ten years.
I still have the daughters, their cars are now their husbands problem. :-)
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>> I still have the daughters, their cars are now their husbands problem. :-)
>>
Nothing changed when my daughters got married - both son-in-laws are useless at anything mechanical.
One saw the service warning (spanner in the cluster) on his wife's car and for some reason thought that meant he should add oil to the engine! The other runs a car that miserably fails its MOT every year and gets patched up by his Dad's mate using second hand parts (including the tyres).
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Hi GB. Your posts always make me smile. Always so pertinent and so true. Now enough of the niceties
>>She's a smashing girl but not an ounce of car sense.
My Daughter is thinking of trying to gain a licence (again) and I really don't want to be a passenger no more. Tremble tremble shiver.....
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Have you, er, um, tried speaking to anyone, your GP maybe, just as a wild card suggestion, about this "tyre" thing of yours GB? Just asking, y'know, in the passing...none of my er, um....
;-)
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Like he is going to take advice from the green suited yellow booted man!
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Do keep up, that was last week. We're doing blue now...
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>> Do keep up, that was last week. We're doing blue now...
>> >> Like he is going to take advice from the green suited yellow booted rainbow man!
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>> >> Do keep up, that was last week. We're doing blue now...
>> >> >> Like he is going to take advice from the green suited yellow booted
>> rainbow man!
>>
I saw a tidy looking VW Polo Harlequin a few days ago. That would make an appropriate company car for a colourful salesman. :-)
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Just washed "her" car funnily enough. I was clearing out the roan pipes ( you know what I mean ON ! ) and had the hose out to blast them through and decided to wash her car while I was at it. I'd quite forgotten it was bright red with silver coloured wheels. I'd sort of got used to it being a shade of matt russet brown with black wheels !
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>> Just washed "her" car funnily enough. I was clearing out the roan pipes ( you
>> know what I mean ON ! )
Sure do. The Harlequin was in the Meadowbank shops car park, you will know where that is. :-)
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Certainly do, a guy I knew used to have a menswear store there. Not been that way for some years though so not sure if he's still there.
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Cleaned daughters car yesterday whilst she was visiting us.Hoover and polish.Checked the tyres oil level and screenwasher bottle. Iam insured to drive her car took it for a spin.Braking was fine steering ok.Daughter has car sense but no checking sense.>:)
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My OH has no sense what so ever when it comes to looking after cars. Diesel is never put in until the light has been on for at least 50 miles, oil isn't checked/added until the "CHECK OIL" warning has been flashing up on the display every time the car is started for a week, screenwash is never filled until it has run out & apparently tyre pressures do not need checking between 2 year/20,000 mile service intervals. I have lost count of how many tyres have been wrecked by being driven on nearly flat. It's appearance resembles a mobile rubbish skip, all the alloys are wrecked and despite having front and rear parking sensors all four corners are damaged as is the ns door sill and I noticed last weekend that there is now a scrape down both ns doors. I have given up saying anything and only drive it if I have to. I am the complete opposite when it comes to looking after my car so you can imagine how much it grates on me.
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>> Cleaned daughters car yesterday whilst she was visiting us.
>>Hoover and polish.Checked the tyres oil level and screenwasher bottle.
>> I am insured to drive her car took it for a spin.Braking was fine steering ok.
>>Daughter has car sense but no checking sense.>:)
>>
Similar situation in our household except I had to do the gardening first :-(
I had to remove the compost from the nooks and corners and then dispose of the build up of green algae by using a toothbrush.
The only polishing was the headlights, with wet n dry.
Litter picking was needed prior to hovering.
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It is strange though isn't it how different values can be attached to different things depending upon where they figure on your personal scales of importance.
For example, and purely due to my wife's efforts I must confess, the inside of our house is always as clean as the cleanest operating theatre. Not a speck of dust or a stray crumb is tolerated and everything is kept cleaned, tidy and polished. The dog is more or less followed around with a mop at all times in case he has a trace of dirt on his paws. We've learned not to let go of any mugs of coffee or tea until they are finished as laying them down on a surface leads to their immediate whisking away and being rinsed, dried and returned to a cupboard.
Her car though, now that's a different story, if I didn't go in and fumigate it a couple of times a year it would be in severe danger of becoming a bio-hazard.
I'm somewhere in between. I don't especially get precious over my cars ( they have to work for a living ) but I do muck them out fairly regularly, generally once a week on a Sunday night after we've been out with the bikes and got a bit of mud here and there. I'm less regularly attentive to the outside but I do like to have a reasonably clean and tidy interior to my cars.
Similarly, I'd not be so careful in the house, if it was sorted out once a week that'd do me but in our case it's kept squeaky clean at all times. I do sometimes wonder why the attitude to her car is so very opposite.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 19 Oct 13 at 10:03
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My ex (not to confused with the ex ex!) has 3 daughters. The interior of the middle & eldest always shone like a new pin. Everything in its place, stowed away, air fresheners etc. The interior of the younger was like a skip. Although that's a disservice to the skip.
My Sunday morning chore, after making blueberry pancakes, was to check all 3 cars, plus the ex's company car, and my own. They were clueless as to fluid levels & tyre pressures. Kerbing wheels and driving around with one worn tyre at 14psi was de rigeur. How can you not spot that the OSF is not almost flat? I would leave lists of 'action required' which I would pass on to Mum. Red ink for slow punctures and torn wiper blades indicating that remedial action was needed asap. One of them even went to a local garage saying that her washers no longer worked. She wasn't at all embarrassed to be told that the reservoir was empty. The house drive resembled Arthur Daleys. The most motley collection of tatty rust buckets you could think of. An N reg Clio, P reg KA and P reg Focus.
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He he, lots of us in the same boat.
Wouldn't mind but i seem to have been sorting cars out for ever.
My Dad, whom i still miss and will till i kick the bucket, didn't really have much car knowledge he was a countryman with the greenest of fingers and ran open gardens in private service for well heeled and/or titled persons....anyway from the age of 17 i was maintaining his car plus my own, now i'm doing the kids cars, plus kerbside cowboying and have the scars and burns to prove.
The lad does his own servicing but when it comes to serious brake work or heavier stuff like clutches etc he brings his cars round to our house and we do the jobs together, he's getting pretty good too, never been afraid to get his hands dirty.
Those tyres by the way...yes i do have a tyre fetish Runfer, its called keeping my daughter on the grey bit and out of the flaming ditch seeing as she drives like the devil himself..;)...anyway Uniroyal Rain Experts 195/65 x 15 (best tyre size ever) @ £38.90 each you really can't go wrong...how much for a BMW elastic band runflat?
What would our girls (mainly) do without us?.... as rightly said above, these modern blokes who they seem to find don't have clue in most cases.
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>> What would our girls (mainly) do without us?.... as rightly said above, these modern blokes
>> who they seem to find don't have clue in most cases.
>>
Why would they when they've got a cheap, conscientious mechanic at their beck and call ?
Obviously, you don't want to see them come to any harm but grown adults...time to get tough gb. If they want you to do the work then it's on your schedule. You'll soon get your mid-August (or whenever the sun puts in a appearance) service dates.
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We are lucky in that a policy decision for daughter not to complicate Uni by having a car has given us a three year breathing space from such matters. She will drive Mrs F's C3 though when visiting back here or on holiday to keep up practice.
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>> We are lucky in that a policy decision for daughter not to complicate Uni by having a car has
>> given us a three year breathing space from such matters.
I escaped the first time as it was not possible to have a car in inner London but there was a knackered but useable Uno that was deployed from home and used for a quite a while afterwards.
This was replaced by a Yaris which I kept an eye on. What I did do was on a few occasions was a one way ferry trip when I was concerned about her falling asleep at the wheel due to overwork.
All seemed settled with her living 10 minutes away but that only lasted 18 months and then it was back to Uni for three years plus but 60 miles away. Ferry trips have turned into round trips but I have peace of mind.
I do get to check the basics now and again and ensure it gets a good MoT.
Come the spring at the Yaris will be back near home.
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I think the difference is that we were introduced to cars when they could be fixed with a Haynes manual, hammer, screwdriver, and a spanner or three and if you didn't you walked. Now you need a computer, the right software, an oscilloscope, the knowledge to use them and then how to test sensors etc, and then the mechanical knowledge. When did anyone here do a decoke, grind in valves, or do other mechanical jobs, even adjust valve clearances on a modern car? Cars don't need the fettling to keep them running that they used to so the simple stuff like routine checks never gets learned either. I work to the "Catch a problem early, usually cheaper and easier to fix", philosophy.
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You're right ON, they don't need regular adjustment to keep them in tune any more. But you have to be more religious than ever with oil and filter changes. Most people forget the air filter which is important. And although the electronics don't usually need to be interfered with - just as well because not all of those ostensibly qualified know what they are doing - you still have to listen for mechanical wear.
My jalopy is sounding a bit tappetty for a bit too long when started from cold. Takes two or three minutes to stop instead of just a few revs. I think the seals on one or more hydraulic tappets have gone hard and are taking time to build up proper pressure before the thing smooths out. Expensive job to replace them. Car is just short of 100,000 miles.
You can't just bung in a gallon of special knackered-Mini Duckhams to take up the slop these days, now cars are all run on watch oil.
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>> Obviously, you don't want to see them come to any harm but grown adults...time to
>> get tough gb. If they want you to do the work then it's on your
>> schedule. You'll soon get your mid-August (or whenever the sun puts in a appearance) service
>> dates.
Good theory, unfortunately the subject thinks the car is fine and needs nothing doing and then car would just get neglected, i'm between a rock and hard place here.
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>>Uniroyal Rain Experts 195/65 x 15 (best tyre size ever) @ £38.90 each<<<
That was a good price if fitted/balanced! Who did you use?
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>> That was a good price if fitted/balanced! Who did you use?
>>
Good Lord no, thats supply only via Camskill.
, '''even adjust valve clearances on a modern car''
erm, did daughters previous Civic and will be doing this one next year (in the summer), VTEC has adjustable tappets, virtually bullet proof engine too.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 19 Oct 13 at 20:46
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>> erm, did daughters previous Civic and will be doing this one next year (in the
>> summer), VTEC has adjustable tappets, virtually bullet proof engine too.
>>
How did I guess that if anyone had been taking a modern engine to bits it would be you GB ? :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 19 Oct 13 at 21:27
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>> How did I guess
Yup, its a fair cop guv.:-)
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Most of the female friends I have are fairly useless with basic checks on their cars, for example checking oil or tyre pressures. Some of my male friends are not much better though, except one who is a car nut. There is one girl that I see quite regularly for tennis, she has a 2012 Clio, it is kept serviced at the dealer but she has no idea about checking coolant and oil levels or even tyre depths. She lives in a flat so it’s not possible to vacuum or clean the car but if she invites me over for dinner then I give the tyres, oil etc. a quick check. Often she will visit our home, the other day she called in since she was interested in my chainsaw that I had mentioned. While she was over I can gave her car a proper wash with a hose and brush to get underneath and along the sills and then vacuumed it out. Afterwards I showed her my Husqvarna chainsaw, showed her how to swap the chains over, clean the air filter, adjust the oil flow to the chain and check the inertia brake is operating correctly. A girl interested in boys' toys – always gets a big tick in my book. Have to get the angle grinder or power drill out next time! She likes all the same outdoor activities such as swimming, tennis and walking and is really attractive, shame she’s 26 :-(
Last edited by: MJW1994 on Mon 21 Oct 13 at 20:54
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Shame she's 26...what are you on, in 4 years time she enters the 30 best years of woman.
Not too sure about this chainsaw fetish mind, she been watching too many rubbish american films.
Top man, a gentleman looking after the ladies cars, you must stick out like a sore thumb among your contempories, you basing yourself on Captain Hastings, if so thats grand you could do far worse.
:-)
PS..Captain Hastings is Poirots associate, and a fine English Gentleman of the old school...i say.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Mon 21 Oct 13 at 21:04
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I'm only 19, she would eat me alive!
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>> But it would be fun !
>>
And then some, let me wonder for a whole 1/1000th of a second, 26 year old attractive solvent girl fancies me (quite obviously) and i'm 19 free and single...better fate than the one she might otherwise have planned involving a chain saw.
Ye Gods man in a few years time you'll look back and kick yourself halfway round the town if you don't.
:-))
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>> I'm only 19, she would eat me alive!
>>
And where's the problem?
When I was 18, I had a fling with a 26 year old divorcee.... Good days!
Oh... and when I was 45 another fling with another 26 year old - even better days! ;-)
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I read / heard somewhere that the ideal age equation for a man and a woman is when the woman's age is half that of the man's + 10 years.
So in other words, at age 20 a man's ideal partner is also 20, if he's 30 she should be 25, at his age 40 her age should be 30 and so on...
Have to say, the older I get the more I like this theory...
;-)
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When I was 19 I had a fling (bit more than that tbh) with a 35 yo Estate agent who ran a practice in West London. I always had the use of her company vehicle...............................................................
......................................................................
............................
A goldy coloured Mini estate! Was it called a Clubman perchance?
Happy, happy days...............
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>> I read / heard somewhere that the ideal age equation for a man and a
>> woman is when the woman's age is half that of the man's + 10 years.
>>
It's half + 7.
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I'd be content with +10 for now...................that gives me a 43 yr old !
Ted
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>> Top man, a gentleman looking after the ladies cars, you must stick out like a
>> sore thumb among your contempories,
gb, I really can't stand this attitude. Do you genuinely believe the majority of people MJW's age are feckless, selfish, obnoxious gits? I think it's nearer the truth to say that the majority are like MJW, but they're a silent majority and we don't hear much about these unremarkable souls. However, we hear much noise about the raucous, unpleasant minority, which exists in every generation, including yours, through our hysterical and shrill media.
Spending your life believing that most young people are out to get you must be a singularly unpleasant existence. I really think you've got this one backwards. All the youngsters I know in that age group are delightful. Nieces, their friends, babysitters we use, young lads who help out with our children's sporting clubs, the lot of them. From what I can see this current generation, if anything, are more studious, serious and conscientious than mine was. Good luck to them.
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I read his comment as TIC.
I will always help a lady, especially if they cook me dinner! She did lasagne tonight, proper homemade too, lovely.
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>> I read his comment as TIC.
>> I will always help a lady, especially if they cook me dinner! She did lasagne
>> tonight, proper homemade too, lovely.
>>
Any afters?
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>> Any afters?
She made my favorite blackberry & apple crumble, lovely with proper cream too. We picked the fruit at the w/e when we went walking with my dog. Oh it was so nice, really crunchy topping.
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>> She made my favorite blackberry & apple crumble, lovely with proper cream too. We picked
>> the fruit at the w/e when we went walking with my dog. Oh it was
>> so nice, really crunchy topping.
I claim my five pounds, you are Captain Hastings.
This reads like a walking out/courting ritual from previous generations, the makings of lifelong friendship bonding and if it stays just as pure friends it will still be marvellous.
The fine young woman in questions sounds similarly old fashioned, and none the worse for that.
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Had to look up who Captain Hastings was!
I am well aware at what the comment ‘any afters’ was really getting at :-)
Myself and this fine lass are just good friends at the moment, who knows what the future holds particularly when I have another couple of years to my age, it may not seem such an issue ages 21 to 28, we spend a lot of time together especially the last few months and have the same interests and hobbies, she is really kind and lovely all over, intelligent and a good job etc. makes me wonder why she has no man at the moment, she should be fighting them off with a stick! Maybe she does but I don’t see it…..
I have known her for about two years, we met at the tennis club. There was one evening when we were both the last to leave, I must have been 17 or 18 at that time. She came back into the building all in a stress because her car was dead, the lights had been left on. Neither of us had any jump leads and the building had to be locked up so we had to leave and wait in the car park. It was dark so I hung around with her for about an hour until the breakdown people turned up. It just seemed the natural thing to do, although she must have been impressed since the next time she saw me she gave me a big box of chocolates and a card, it just started from that.
And we both drive Renaults, great minds think alike :-)
Anyway back to Motoring...‘Mothers and their cars’ would be quite a good thread. My Mum’s is always filthy inside and out although being leased it does get properly maintained. It is a tool of her job though. I check the lights and tyres, oil etc. weekly for her and often wash and vacuum it once a month otherwise it wouldn’t get done!
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yer bought my daughter a pair of hankooks last xmas
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daughters and their cars - Mike H
