metcars

I can see ‘stocking’ issues?

Chapman pulled a lot of strokes to keep his baby alive, even since the beginning in the ‘50s. Learching from one financial disaster to the next. And as recent history has shown, many other manufacturers have too (I’m looking at you VW!) and after all “let those without sin cast the first stone?”

Well, wasnt chapman a lifelong Tory donor and when he asked for help/subsidy to build huge factory in Norfolk got fucked over by thatcher for ‘charming’ delorean instead? not surprised chapman got his slice of the cake in the end. Was he dodgy, maybe? But you dont become a self made millionaire before you’re 40 without upsetting people.

Those early chapman Lotus were beautiful delicate machines that responded to a lot of constant love and attention. Just the same as any other high performance vehicle. Ferrari and Lamborghini were no less unreliable back in the ‘70s? Chapman was good at taking ‘ordinary’ components and putting them under a lot more stress, sometimes it was a thin line. And like all performance cars, eventually they attract used buyers that can only just afford the payments not the servicing and ‘love’ that they require. They are then patched up and bodged up to get through MOTuntil they are no longer roadworthy. And acquire an unfair reputation for unreliability because of that! My old +2S is in japan now, exported in the ‘80s. The last Elan I owned, and drove daily, was ‘71 FHC sprint in gold leaf. Tiny car, powerful, light, 30 mpg, independent suspension, 4 wheel disc brakes. Quite a thing back in the day. You’d have to work pretty hard in that E-Type to lose me on a winding road. And let’s be honest, the only E-Type that actually hit 150mph was the factory demonstrator!

I love an old Lotus. I’ve had loads, I used to daily drive a lotus elan +2S:/130 back in the day. Showing my age? PS: Lots of trouble usually serious. Not if you know what you’re doing!

Many, many years ago I sold a car through a Sotheby’s auction. Some really high-end stuff in the catalogue. But what amazed me was the ‘horse-trading’ afterwards? I think there’s an assumption that classic car auctions are mostly attended by ‘enthusiasts’/anoraks and mid-life crisis guys liberating cash from pensions. Whereas, the majority are dealers. So, there’s no saying how much a buyer is willing to give. Even ‘blue chip’ classics like E-types don’t always sell?

I’m guessing it’ll end up with an electric motor shoved up in it? Which seems to be the future for classics?

You Nailed it! Modern classics = overrated! And don’t tell the fan boys but those coveted RS2000/Mexico were really not that great unless heavily modified. But of course. You can make anything fast if you throw enough money at it?

You would think that the procedure for a correction would have to be through the MOT station. He would then have the opportunity to explain his error before a judgement was made?

This! We are not overpaying, the guides are out of date?

This, absolutely! And the cars sitting on the back of a recovery truck because he’s just mugged someone off and bought it for £100? Also, they like to use their girlfriends accounts. What’s that all about? But as BHM said, why can’t TS catch those guys?

Hi mate. I feel for you. I lost my mum from dementia in 2019. I have a dad in his 80s that was trying to care for her at home and it nearly broke him! Eventually she had to go into a care home, which he saw as a betrayal, and was/is racked with guilt about that still.

True. My daughter told me that her friends and her are “lock-downed out!”

Indeed!

There’s a lot at stake, infections, deaths, NHS on its knees! Most of this horror is unreported. Huge swathes if the population that believe it’s all a hoax and feel their personal liberty’s like not wearing a mask is more important than protecting the vulnerable! Another group that see covid protocols as an obstacle to be avoided or circumvented. But, Boris fell foul of opening up too soon before, so he’d be really stupid to open the flood gates too soon again? There again, it Boris? The experts reckon this virus ‘at low level’ could always be with us?

I thought they might be. Unless you’re on FB that is?

Just out of interest, are private car sales currently allowed?

...... a socially distanced cuppa I hope?

So, that’s £2k down and the balance on finance? Win!

There was a time when people like this were put in hospital, now that’s uneconomic and are left to self medicate in half way houses/care homes. Theres always been nutters, weirdos, chancers, grifters, conmen, and opportunists etc. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m saying that’s life! That’s how it’s always been? Nothing new? And I’d rather not have to carry a sword on my evening trip to the chicken shop unless I really have to! Unless its like the sword ‘Conan the Barbarian’ had. Then I could dispatch the oiks and ruffians when me and lady met take the night air?

Sounds like ‘care in the community’ isn’t working? Even the victorians, who had ‘brutal’ levels of judicial punishment (sending starving kids to Australia for stealing apples?) still had streets that you couldn’t walk at night without a sword? Look at the US, look at how highly populated death row is, the threat of capital punishment is not a deterrent?

What, even the Mercedes and Ferrari ones?

With that sort of sense of entitlement it could have been a “social media influencer?”

Did anyone read the item about the £7k Merc stolen from a dealership? I don’t mean to be unsympathetic, but they need a bigger lock on the key cabinet?

It’s interesting that they don’t see themselves as ‘money grabbing customers’?