bpg
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Posts: 2,812
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Post by bpg on Aug 11, 2021 16:07:37 GMT
Don't you start, I had quite enough of that growing up from my now departed mother.
She really disliked winter and she'd start around now, ah, the nights are cutting off she'd say, it's still freakin' August, I would reply.
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Post by Humph on Aug 11, 2021 17:10:05 GMT
Soon be Christmas...
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bpg
Full Member
Posts: 2,812
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Post by bpg on Aug 11, 2021 17:52:59 GMT
Aye, the management will start mid-October about getting the tree down out the attic. She usually wants the decorations up in November, doesn't get, doesn't stop the wanting and noise though.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 18, 2021 16:08:14 GMT
Some pestering is starting to happen. Boy1 and I have spent a couple of late evening hours in the last week practising parking manoeuvres in the spacious and well marked Tesco car park. This feels like a good use of time, as not only does it give him more repetitions that he’d get with his instructor, but it’s the thing that most requires close control of the pedals while really requiring attention outside the car.
And that seems to help; you wouldn’t call it smooth yet but he’s getting noticeably less bothered by the basics of getting the car moving and more able to judge his position relative to everything else.
We’ve found, sort of by accident (not that kind!) that the easiest way to learn to position for a parking space is to drive out of one and reverse back into it. If the car was squarely in the space before, and a simple straight-turn-straight manoeuvre has got it out, then you know it will go back in just as simply — which gives you the position in which to stop on the approach.
He’s pretty good at reversing in now. Going in nose first requires some more work, partly because the Aygo seems harder to turn tightly than either of our RWD cars, despite having a smaller turning circle — at least on paper. (All three’s are comfortably smaller than the S60.) Perhaps sitting relatively close to the front wheels reduces the sensation of the nose swinging rapidly away in front of me, but I find the CLS and (especially) the i3 easier to park wrong-end first.
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Post by Humph on Aug 18, 2021 16:57:28 GMT
By and large, I find most RWD cars easier to park than a FWD. Always found the really quite long E Classes a doddle to park. The Qashqai took a bit of shuffling with its fairly poor lock. The Jeep isn't too bad, the very square shape helps I suppose. But I find the Aygo will go into tiny spaces with ease, anything with its wheels positioned at its corners sort of pivots around its centre line.
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Post by dixinormus on Aug 20, 2021 22:06:49 GMT
The problem with parking a small car these days is visibility I find. More precisely, when exiting car park spaces it’s often difficult to see anything because of the tall SUVs/utes parked alongside.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 23, 2021 20:35:38 GMT
Picking up a bit of metaphorical momentum now. We've had a couple of runs out of town to practise junctions and things on some faster roads and he's coped really well. He's talking in terms of looking for a cancellation appointment for an earlier test and I think he'll be ready if that happens.
Trying to get him to slow down a bit, though. Not his road speeds, which are well chosen, but his action on the controls, especially the gearchange, which he treats much the way Arkwright treated his till - although with less reason. We did the same left turn off a 40mph B road four times this evening, and he's learning that he has time to slow right down and still find second gear slowly before he has to commence the turn. It'll come - in fact, it already is.
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Post by EspadaIII on Aug 24, 2021 9:19:29 GMT
My son who is 23 still drives in a jerky manner, but that is partly his character as a nervous person anyway. His brother is calmer. His sister, turning 17 in two weeks time, already has some off-road low speed experience and is very smooth.
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Post by Humph on Aug 24, 2021 10:27:38 GMT
My father in law drives in an entirely binary manner. All controls are treated as having two positions, on or off. I avoid being driven by him.
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WDB
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Posts: 7,427
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Post by WDB on Aug 24, 2021 11:48:20 GMT
Yes, I know that type and he’s not it. He just worries a bit about getting gear changes done in time, so he tends to snatch at them. Everything else is pretty tidy.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 25, 2021 7:24:46 GMT
His sister, turning 17 in two weeks time, already has some off-road low speed experience… Out of interest and mild concern, how is she insured when you do this? |
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Post by EspadaIII on Aug 25, 2021 9:23:38 GMT
She is not. The off road bit is a privately owned industrial estate (owned by my family) with gated access. We only go there on a Sunday when everything is closed so no danger of damaging anything other our car or our own property.
Did it my boys as well. There is plenty of space so that hitting a building is highly unlikely and enough length of road that you can just about get into second gear and then come to a safe stop.
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Post by Humph on Aug 25, 2021 9:58:51 GMT
Sounds ideal if we could get hold of a couple of Granadas and some cardboard boxes.
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Post by EspadaIII on Aug 25, 2021 10:41:38 GMT
The thought had crossed my mind....
I learnt to drive on the same estate when I was about 12. I started on Renault 4 vans and progressed to small HGV oil tankers - about 20 tons max when full. There was a car dealership on site then with its own petrol pump. We had an account there, so I would nag everyone to give me their car keys and would go a fill the cars and give them a wash. Great memories of summers in my youth.
I did manage to crash a small van into the Beetle of staff member.... got banned from the site for six months.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2021 9:51:52 GMT
Still not come to any firm conclusion about my options regarding the fleet. I think I'm getting closer to deciding to part with the Civic, get a manual Avensis or a Mazda 3 for the lad (these are his choices, not mine), and an older Superb or Mondeo for myself (reliability, cheapness to maintain, capacity for luggage and dog, good on a long journey, best rear legroom without buying a funeral car or another unreliable Merc E). I have had the Civic valued, I now have almost £3k equity in it due to the current rising prices of used cars. This is pleasing, as I gave £1050 deposit, so if you look at my PCP payments as a leasing payment for the last 2 years, I'm coming out with a £2k profit. Seems like a win.
My sister's soft top Mini has gone (when I drove it recently it threw some oil pressure error messages, despite having been fully serviced and checked out by a Mini dealer recently. As she lives abroad and needs reliable transport on her occasional returns, she decided to bin it). However it's been replaced by a newer 5-door hatch Mini. Also an automatic. So we would, until next September, have 4 cars cluttering up the drive and garage if I buy one for laddo, and keep one for myself, as well as keeping the Leaf for the wife/main daily local duties. I have also noticied that next door's daughter is having driving lessons, and may get a car herself. They already have 3 vehicles (Audi SUV, works van, Scirocco), and only two off road spaces - they have elected to always use the road space outside my house instead of their own to store the least used vehicle (the Scirocco), so life could become interesting if I've got 4 vehicles and so do they. I have the off road capacity, but they don't, and I can envisage them just littering the road with their cars eternally now. Sigh.
The black Avensis I liked and the 2.3 Mondeo with the worn out parking sensor button are still both available from the same dealer. I'm wondering about going to have a look at the weekend. I wonder if he'd do a bulk buy discount...
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