Another pointless thread

back in the early 1980s a 'mature student' pulled out infront of me and damn near killed me, I fly well but it hurts when you land.

His insurance company took 18 months to inspect my bike, as soon as thta was done I moved it to a private garage as the bike shop needed the room. The shop had been calling regularly to get the inspection done but the insurers couldn't be bothered.

The bike was a right-off so I agreed a price and retained the bike, they agreed to pay the storage, thinking it had been in my garage all the time.

It was nice to hear from my friends at the shop that they managed to get the £1700 storage cost paid in full.

And as a farwell the solicitor I used paid out myself and the shop, but kept the extortionate medical examination fee along with several (hundred!) others and did a flit to the US of A.

ah, those were the days...

Ref the "Chelsea tractors": we regularly see brand new (PCP obviously!) ones driven by (no bias intended) young-middle aged ladies who have probably not-long-since passed their driving tests in modern small hatchbacks - most of them look to be driving totally "sh*t scared" because they are absolutely "out of their depth" in vehicles that are much larger than they learnt to drive in and so they have no concept of how wide or long those vehicles are

When I see someone like that I keep WELL away from them !!!

OTOH: I wonder how long they'll driving those PCP barges (etc.) after a few weeks/months of lockdown/no jobs/far less income - come 3 months from now, there should be a lot a nice and newly returned vehicles going "dead cheap" as the finance companies try to off-load them PDQ

Ever had that awful moment in a garden centre when a tannoy announces “will the owner of car reg. no........ report to the front desk”? And it’s yours? In the car park an old lady had slammed the accelerator instead of the brake and rammed my brand new BMW Z4 into a tree. I shed tears!

No, but I was taking part in a musical performance in a rural village church when the programme was interrupted by a request for the owner of a red Toyota to move their car because the milk lorry couldn't get through.

Steve

His Nibs was once visiting a NASA facility near Washington DC with a colleague. They had already had a "problem" with the security when they announced themselves as Buck, Rogers, but after proving who they were they all had a good laugh and went on to their meeting. Then over the tannoy will the owner of the car registration...
Having a hire car they didn't know it's registration, but eventually they were tracked down and went to see what the problem was. Jet lagged after the red eye and the battle with Americn traffic followed by the security hitch they were running late and had leapt from the car and rushed to their meeting. Only trouble was they left the engine running, and the keys inside. Being American it had locked automatically afer a few moments because the engine was running. Took all of NASA's brains to sort that one out.

I used to be the 'go to' guy at a factory I worked in when the visiting reps locked themselves out of their Fords..

.. my Truimph Bonneville ignition key fitted the old 'one size fits all ford' door locks. Amazingley it never fitted the ignition though.

And when I had an Austin A35 it soon came to light that at a rally any owner could move any car if needed, different cars, different locks, same key!!

Once when I was a teenager and Dad had Hillman Minx I was waiting in the car while he did some shopping at a Cash and Carry. This stranger came along and unlocked the car. I didn't react at first thinkind Dad had asked hime to load some stuff for him but when he got in and started the engine I said hello who are you? He got the fright of his life when he saw me in the back, and I was terrified too. His car was two down in the carpark, identical in every way, and but for me in the back he would have driven off in the wrong car!

We were on the other side when Dad had a black 1949 Singer. He unlocked it and we all got in, Mam, Grandad and me. Then dad noticed his electric stick on windscreen demister was not there, the stuff in the clove box was not ours. So out we piled, in a hurry, to find Bestsy further down the street. Maybe not as many locks as we think. Was it on here I read the other day, a whole housing estate was covered by 12 keys

Not 12, just 3 or 4!

On the subject of car keys, one the keys to my first (1959 - within the first 30,000 ever built!) Mini was very worn, and so would open the doors and start quite a few other Min's!

oh the joys of push button starting

Yes now all the thieves need is a little electronic gizmo and they can open almost anything!

Almost..

..but not a Yorkshireman's wallet!

The wife says I'm tight, not true, she has all the money!

As they say, you can always tell a Yorkshireman..

..but he won't listen!

Well my padded underpants (for cycling, remember?) arrived and I now understand why Lycra clad speed merchants with the physique of a skinned rat are so bandy. Or as Mrs L says I couldn’t stop a pig in a passage! Much hilarity at my expense but at least my backside doesn’t feel like it’s been tenderized.

My father drove some other guy's car all the way home one day (also in 1940s) before he noticed that the stuff in the glove box wasn't his! I think they sorted it out somehow...

All large SUV's are roughly the same size width wise about 1.9 metres. The real problem is car parks want to fit as many spaces in as possible.

btw your BMW is 1864mm wide. My RR is 1990 wide. Big difference? I think not.