dancefloorlandmine

Unfortunately, despite the garage's efforts, it turned out that the Cruiser's gearbox was past it as well, and with the car being seventeen years old, and parts becoming very hard to find, it was time to say goodbye to it. So the other week I took a large bag up to the garage, to remove my assorted belongings from the boot, the glovebox, the door pockets, ...

There has since been some research (online and via trusted friends), and a successor to MineCruisers 1 and 2 has been acquired. I am sad to say that common sense won out, to some extent, and the replacement is a sensible, economic, low-mileage car with a dealer warranty, and will allow me to drive inside the London ULEZ without paying a premium for the privilege.

But it is still black, and it still has a CD player. ¹

A full reveal will happen once I've managed to take some shiny photos of it. [grin]

¹ This was actually a lucky accident, it just happened that there was a low-mileage one at the nearest dealer, and that it was black.

Just heard a car alarm go off, and checking out of the window to see if it was mine, discovered that it was. Turns out it was also my next door neighbour's ...

The car parked between them, a track-modified-and-tuned imported MR2, owned by the mechanic neighbour on the other side, had just started up.

With a combination of the cold weather and the race exhausts, together with the advanced ignition timings, the start-up blart must have been just the right level of vibration to trip the sensors on our cars! He was rather apologetic. [grin]

Apparently, according to the advertising, the new Audi A5 Sportback should be thought of as "like a coupé with more doors". To me, that means "a large 5dr hatchback, like the old Mk1 Passat", but apparently that's not suitably forward-looking and advanced. Who knows?

Reminds me of working at $CompanyCarFirm and trying to explain to people that, just because BMW call the model "Touring", it's still coded on our vehicle database with an E for 'Estate'. Because that's what it is. (And, similarly, Audi call their estates cars "Avant". It's still an estate, mate.)

Those who've encountered monster truck 'racing' may have noticed their tendency to fit a normal car's bodyshell on top of the steroid-laced chassis of a monster truck. This is a tendency which crops up occasionally in the mainstream vehicle design world - resulting in such interesting machines as the Mitsubishi L400 Delica Space Gear, which is a Mitsubishi minivan on the chassis of a Pajero 4x4, resulting in a people-carrier which can go anywhere. (That model is on the theoretical list of "vehicles I wouldn't mind owning" - I happen to quite like the body shape - and having seen one that was painted all black, with full additional rally kit, it looked like a cyberpunk SWAT machine.)

However, BMW have now trumped this for 'specialness' - the new BMW X6. Which appears to be the body of a coupé, stretched over the chassis and drivetrain of the BMW X5 4x4 (with a second set of doors added). It's pretty sleek - or at least it would be, if it weren't for the vast chunkiness of the vehicle beneath the midline, to allow for the huge wheels. It also looks like something the villain would drive in a Tom Cruise near-future sci-fi movie.

However, having been driving behind one, there's one aspect which hasn't been thought of ... the rear aspect. With the rising line of the bodywork and the high tail, the boot lip is about a yard off the ground - not so handy for the shopping, unless you have a forklift. Still, other than that, it's fine. As long as you're going forwards. The boot lid is about five feet or more off the ground, and the rear window is pretty narrow, too. Expect an increasing number of bumpers dented by reversing into bollards - or of children flattened - unless it's got a whole new kind of reversing sensor.

Because technotom's selling one in Caspian Blue which appears to be in rather good condition, with full service history and original interior (including mats).

Genuine reason for sale: He needs to fund a replacement engine for his black Capri - he prefers the inline 4s to the bigger 6s ...

Here.