OV9

Replacement bonnet collected from Bolton of all places! 7.5 hours driving, ~450 miles, 2 x 5 min piss stops.

Very lucky with the windscreen, most of the cracking is on the unswept area on the top passenger corner, one horizontal crack which encroaches further if hidden by the rear view mirror ...

240PP wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 2:12 pm These numbers wouldn’t be possible under the Biden administration.

Pretty sure Donald Trump hand built the engine

Bit of a bizarre incident for autocar



I kind of get Mercedes explanation, but not quite sure how it determined the ‘thing’ moving away from them was a person and kept the anchors on all the way to a dead stop

Turns out I’m twat of the year.

I was rather annoyed at the alarm / wet electrics issue. After drying, plugging in and checking things I had a couple of fault codes so took it for a rip down the road to charge the battery a bit and see what would clear on its own.

Turns out if you forget to close ...

Yes, it has a panoramic roof unfortunately. Would have preferred one without but was standard fit on the 4.8.

It’s broken, like most of them are so both motors are disconnected to save it jamming open, which is going to make it a bit awkward to open it to poke the drains!

Anyway, cleaned ...

I didn’t realise they’d kept the split tailgate on modern X5s. I know they still have opening rear glass on tourings, just assumed the SUVs had gone to a single huge opening hatch.

I was shaken awake by the mrs at 6:30 this morning because the x5 alarm was going off. Weird, I don’t normally bother setting the alarm as I don’t keep anything in it, it’s still immobilised and we’d certainly hear it if someone tried to nick it in the night.

Weirder still, only the left front main ...

I didn’t actually know what the stats were, I was just surprised at how nicely it drove for a cheap basic little car.

Have thought about getting myself one for the commute, which is mostly sat behind other people at 40-50mph. If it would really do close to 60mpg it reduce my fuel costs by at least ...

Probably would fail if it needed one due to the radius on the raised edges.

If it’s technically just a bodykit and doesn’t need structural modifications then it shouldn’t be classed as ‘substantially modified’ and wouldn’t need an iva as far as I know.

I think it looks pretty good.

I also like ...

Just a whole load of rain here.

There was a lot or white lumpy bits in it and only showing 1c when I left at 7am, but went back to rain, so was pretty borderline. A degree or so cooler would have made a difference.

I do miss the era of everyone having slow cars though.....now everyone has Ferrari power in a hatchback with added distractions and feelings of invunerability due to aids.


I miss it too. But even an 85bhp Peugeot 205 was fast enough to do 100mph on virtually any straight, given a ...

It really was crap, should have sold it with the 1.25 zetec

Nope, never had a plate change.

I’m sure at some point they changed green v5s to red ones, I should probably go check the actual V5s I have 😂

My e36 says it had a new v5 Oct 2011, I put my plate on it may or June 2010 as it was a 30th birthday present and would have got a v5 then.

Or maybe it’s ...

Pretty sure I bought the m3 in 2006. An online check shows last V5 was issued in 2013 though. Was that when dvla sent out replacements after they had a load stolen?

I don’t think I bought anything in 05, just had the metro and lancia

Shame the snow didn’t happen over the weekend, I would have got up early and taken the x5 for a play on quiet roads.

Haven’t bothered using it for work as with its silly wide summer biased tyres it’s probably far worse than the mito on modest width all seasons.

-7.5 was the lowest I saw on my ...

It won’t be finished, but I’d really like to have it mot’d and useable by the end of the year…

I need to be better at separating on car and off car jobs, both on the e30 and golf, so I can still make use of my time when the weather is too crap to be working outside.

Had a bit of a wobble over Christmas. Found a car I really wanted, on auction, had a cheeky bid as a placeholder.

Quickest / easiest way would be to sell the e30, had a couple of offers which aligned with my thinking. Bit of a fire sale moment.

Didn’t win the car I was after, had a moment of ...

Nexen Winguard sport winter vs a normal ‘sporty’ but not particularly high performance Goodyear eagle F1.

One will be ok in snow, the other virtually useless!
IMG_8000.jpeg


Got Eagle F1's on the Up....got stuck a few times in the snow this morning :(


The Mrs took the boy out in his one ...

He’s had it more than a year which is quite a long while for Ste!

The vw is for sale too Zed

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