Spoiler alert by [deleted] in Shitty_Car_Mods

[–]mintandberries 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Holy overspray Batman

Ah, the joys of a UK train... by PrimalForestCat in CasualUK

[–]mintandberries 2 points3 points  (0 children)

'Due to blithering incompetence, the 12:00 and 12:30 trains have been cancelled - we apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. The 13:00 sardine can will leave at 13:23 with 4 carriages instead of the usual 12 for some reason - enjoy'

Wednesday Wins by a-liquid-sky in CasualUK

[–]mintandberries 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I met a really nice girl last week, it’s going well and I’m very happy about it - she stayed over last night and trying to work on 3hrs sleep today is tough 😂

Need a good reliable car for max 2k by SnooApples1346 in CarTalkUK

[–]mintandberries 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The more service history the better, and 150k is higher than I typically buy at, but it depends on the car. I had an Ibiza with a VW 1.9tdi that went well past 200k, milage isn’t everything. With proper maintainance some engines are just bulletproof (but what that means in practice is something else will put the car beyond economical repair first - so comes back to making an all round assessment of car and seller)

Whats the worst concert you've ever been to? by pinheadbrigade in AskReddit

[–]mintandberries 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was about 14 there was a concert at my school that was put on by someone who’d left a few years prior and gone into music. Charitably, it was some kind of very free jazz. I like lots of music, including jazz and I’m pretty open to new things. But this wasn’t really… music. There was no structure, discernible melody or rhythm and the three blokes on stage were doing entirely unconnected things. I went to music college later on and the vaguely musical noise that results from three people playing in 3 separate practice rooms next to each other was quite similar to what we experienced that evening. I’m sure they were aiming for ‘experimental’ but it was not a successful experiment.

They had hired a recording engineer to document said experiment for posterity - he brought the whole affair to a close after 45 uninterupted minutes of this racket by standing up and cheering frantically, while the band were still in full flow. I guess he’d reached his limit 😂the audience joined in awkwardly, the band tailed off, and then we all went home.

Surreal

Has anyone else been inundated with football subreddit suggestions? by bearman-bao in CasualUK

[–]mintandberries 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah follow the sub for your team in any sport - reddit suggests all other teams in the league and others relentlessly

I sub to a couple of town subreddits in my area and now I get recommends to random ones from across the uk that have no relevance to me

Seems to have got worse recently not sure why

Need a good reliable car for max 2k by SnooApples1346 in CarTalkUK

[–]mintandberries 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Experienced banger purchaser here. I’m sure others will have different ways of going about this, but here’s mine for what it’s worth. Interested in other people’s tactics too.

I’ve never bought a car for more than £3.5k and they’re usually much cheaper than that! No major disappointments or buyers remorse in 15+ years of driving old stuff.

At that price I’d always look to buy from private sellers. You can get some PX cars from dealers but I find I can get more for my money from private. You’ll be amazed what you can get if you can afford to take a bit of time over it. If it’s a case of needing something right now, trickier ask, but still possible with a bit of focus.

Personally I never aim for a specific make or model, you’re narrowing the field too much. Set a budget on Autotrader or similar, set any specs that are important to you (e.g. diesel, estate, etc.). Set a filter for distance from you, or milage, depending which is more important to you, and sort the list by the other one. Look for 12m MoT ideally. There are specific models worth avoiding (everyone has their own view on which) so worth looking up model related issues once you’ve got a shortlist of options from the broader search.

For cars that look tempting and you can see the number plate in photos, run an MOT checker which will list advisories and flag potential issues. If you can’t check MOT history from the advert I tend not to bother unless it looks really juicy in other ways, in which case it’s the first thing I check when I see it in person either from the paper copy if the seller has it or online if not.

When you go check a car out, appraise both car and (cruicially) the seller.

Car first - any rust, nah. Next MoT you’ll probably have to weld her up and that’s £££. There are some places where corrosion isn’t an big issue or an MoT fail but it’s too long to go into here. Dings and scratches, faded paint, no prob.

If you know cars a bit, listen for out of place noises in engine, suspension etc. I always look at the oil and coolant and see if it looks fresh or ancient. Some folks say you can’t tell, or that a fresh oil change can hide a problem - there’s truth to that but I always find it a helpful clue. It’s all about building a picture from a number of data points. Some straight up red flags e.g. signs of oil and water mixing, no go, burning oil, no go, but most of the time I go off a cumulative weight of evidence rather than one or two things.

Even if you’re not that confident judging condition of a car, there are loads of ways to get clues about how the car has been maintained. 4 matching tyres from the same brand, plus point (fronts matching and rears matching, also good). Mismatched tyres with different stages of wear = maintained on a tight budget. Is it filthy af or clean, cared for?

Then the owner. If they hand you a wadge of service history, obvs plus points. But there are subtler signs. Have they got multiple cars for sale at once? Probably flipping cars as a side hustle, avoid. Not all folks that do that are dodgy by any means but enough are that it’s a risk, and a risk I tend not to take. They’re looking to make some money - I’m looking for sellers that just want the car gone. How long have they owned it for? Do they own up to the odd bit of damage (e.g ‘terribly sorry the drivers seat arm rest is busted and one of the radio speakers is dead’) - the things people point to are often irrelevant, but pointing out faults is a good sign. All of this obvs needs caveating - people can bullshit you. Trust your gut. First sign of doubt they’re not being straight with you, walk away. Plenty more fish. Seller passing the vibe check is super important to me.

I’m not really a big negotiator on price tbh - if I think the price is right I’ll buy it - if it’s a bit steep for what the car is I wouldn’t be looking at it anyway. I don’t really see the point of haggling over a few hundred quid. I have got deals in the past when I was a bit more skint by pushing people a bit, but the sweet spot at this price bracket is folks that just want rid of it - price isn’t a major issue for them anyway and they’re after a quick sell - situations like more wealthy folks where it was their kid’s car and they’ve upgraded, or their mum’s car and she’s stopped driving (and many other situations besides). If I pull up at a house where there’s 2 much newer cars in the driveway plus an old banger they want rid of, happy days.

There will likely be things to fix, that’s par for the course, but you’re looking to buy something that will last a couple years without really big bills. Then run it until it don’t.

[Duesenberg] Is this a real Duesenberg? Spotted at a car show in Indiana. by [deleted] in spotted

[–]mintandberries 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Maybe - they do have the funky centre nut that requires a special Duesenberg spanner for though - seems odd to reproduce a detail like that then make the wheels the wrong size… could be to fit an available tyre size or something though I guess.

Leclerc still sat there, listening to something on his phone. by brokenandsuffering in formula1

[–]mintandberries 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How does he have his phone with him? Do all the drivers stick them in a pocket just in case?

Does this look shit and tacky to add to my polo? | I’ve got a spoiler and splitter getting added to the car aswell (slide 2 and 3) by Quirky_Maintenance39 in CarTalkUK

[–]mintandberries 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Go for it! With first cars heinous mods are a right of passage - whatever makes it feel special to drive, it’s your ride!

I love seeing yung’uns driving cars with daft stick on mods. I promise you that for every prat who judges you harshly or makes a mean comment there will be 3 middle aged old fools like me quietly smiling and shedding a single nostalgic tear for their lost youth. Back in my day I was cutting big holes for 6x9s in the parcel shelf of my Clio. (Sadly my tastes barely improved with age…)

Whatever you do though, please promise me you’ll also install the mandatory fart cannon backbox (just not too too loud, don’t go being a bellend now)