Your fleet running reports

[DeskJockey]

If it's black, round and legal why pay more?
I imagine that's what 95% of the public thinks.

You're giving them too much credit for even thinking tbh. They'll just drop into Halfords/National/Kwik Fit and be told they need new tyres, and then be given a price. Maybe a couple of prices, and they'll just go for what has been suggested. Whenever I've been in these places they rarely suggest anything from the bigger name manufacturers, or even the mid-range ones.

It is worse than that. I overheard one of their people selling tyres. Argument was "if you don't drive that much, and your car isn't a high performance one," go for the cheapest ditchfinders they happen to have in stock. They were actively pushing cheap tyres without checking if they could match across axles, existing tyres.

[Swervin_Mervin]

If it's black, round and legal why pay more?
I imagine that's what 95% of the public thinks.

You're giving them too much credit for even thinking tbh. They'll just drop into Halfords/National/Kwik Fit and be told they need new tyres, and then be given a price. Maybe a couple of prices, and they'll just go for what has been suggested. Whenever I've been in these places they rarely suggest anything from the bigger name manufacturers, or even the mid-range ones.

It is worse than that. I overheard one of their people selling tyres. Argument was "if you don't drive that much, and your car isn't a high performance one," go for the cheapest ditchfinders they happen to have in stock. They were actively pushing cheap tyres without checking if they could match across axles, existing tyres.

Yep. Makes me wince every time.

[Beany]

If it's black, round and legal why pay more?
I imagine that's what 95% of the public thinks.

You're giving them too much credit for even thinking tbh. They'll just drop into Halfords/National/Kwik Fit and be told they need new tyres, and then be given a price. Maybe a couple of prices, and they'll just go for what has been suggested. Whenever I've been in these places they rarely suggest anything from the bigger name manufacturers, or even the mid-range ones.

It is worse than that. I overheard one of their people selling tyres. Argument was "if you don't drive that much, and your car isn't a high performance one," go for the cheapest ditchfinders they happen to have in stock. They were actively pushing cheap tyres without checking if they could match across axles, existing tyres.

I for one have never had to perform an emergency stop in my life cheapest shit for me, thanks!

[Sundayjumper]

The Disco has a separate chassis & body - possibly one of the last production cars to do so ? Access to the turbos & the rear of the engine is not possible with the body in place. Another popular failure is the exhaust crossover, a short section over the top of the gearbox that links the left & right exhaust, also inaccessible with the body in place.

With a 2-post lift it's not too difficult to lift the whole body and get unfettered access to everything. Without a 2-post lift you can do this. Looks a bit sketchy, sure, but I see a moderate chance of me doing this at some point.

(pics from Facebook Disco group)

465674853_9023128671031011_6419671261626373931_n.jpg (151.3 KiB) Viewed 1194 times

465652074_9023128901030988_7633296170280994839_n.jpg (158.4 KiB) Viewed 1194 times

And the boring so-called "correct" way to do it:

IMG_2094.jpg (139.12 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

[DeskJockey]

Two post car lifts are less than £2k new, used a lot less. Just saying (yes, you might not have a suitable place to install it, but you did talk about possibly finding premises for the collection/workshop).

[Sundayjumper]

Yeah, that came to nothing as it's just not affordable anywhere near here. I wanted space to park four cars including elbow room to work on at least two of them, and space for a workbench & some racking. Enough space for a lift obviously a big plus. In round numbers, I wanted 1000ft² (or 100m²), and budgeted £1k pm. I'm not being blasé - £1k is a lot of money. A regular lockup garage is usually ~£100pm. Four of those would be easy enough. Double that amount to get them all in one place and have some lighting shouldn't be a million miles off ? But I've seen nothing even close. And commercial leases are onerous wrt maintenance so the total cost is likely to be a fair amount more than just the rent.

At a push I'd consider buying, it'd be a huge commitment when it's basically just a shed to park some toys in, but freehold commercial properties of a useful size, that are below the limit for business rates (rateable value <= £12k), are less than an hour's drive from here, and are proportionately priced to £1k pm rent (based on £1k x 12 / 5% = £240k), and are not elected for VAT are worse than hens' teeth.

So I gave up. My driveway is a total mess of cars

I'd be perfectly happy to move west down the M3/M4 corridor to a much cheaper area but wifey says no. She likes where we are.

[Mito Man]

Spend the £12k on a second hand mini digger and dumper. Start watching Colin Furze videos. Get digging. Job jobbed

[Sundayjumper]

Ref. my thread about neighbours - high water table here - I'd have an extremely large swimming pool very quickly.

Incidentally, neighbour is now sending photos of guttering to my wife because he is obsessed with that too.

[Beany]

This is a dumb question, but have you looked around to see if there's one of those places in the area that lets you hire workshop space? Workshop space that comes with two and four post lifts...

IE

https://anydayrentals.co.uk/rent-a-ramp/

https://autobarnmotorservices.co.uk/rent-a-ramp/

Can't remember where in the country you are, mind - so if there's nowhere nearby, obviously you're stuffed.

[Mito Man]

This house has a lift installed on the driveway. I didn’t know they were weatherproof. It’s always got a knackered Range Rover or Disco on it
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ogTSiWdsBCqfoR2p8?g_st=ic
Looking at the older streetview dates you can see it cycle through them
Having a lift is just part of the One Life Live It!

[Sundayjumper]

This is a dumb question, but have you looked around to see if there's one of those places in the area that lets you hire workshop space?

I've not, because ideally I want to be able to store cars & stuff for a long time. And for a one-off job like the exhaust I'd rather do the ghetto approach just for the experience

[Sundayjumper]

This house has a lift installed on the driveway. I didn’t know they were weatherproof. It’s always got a knackered Range Rover or Disco on it
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ogTSiWdsBCqfoR2p8?g_st=ic
Looking at the older streetview dates you can see it cycle through them
Having a lift is just part of the One Life Live It!

That's pretty awesome

Wifey says NO

[Sundayjumper]

You've made me start looking again. This is almost OK. More expensive psqft but very tall so you could put in a load of mezzanine and have a huge amount of storage.

https://www.novaloca.com/industrial-uni ... earch=true

[Rich B]

This house has a lift installed on the driveway. I didn’t know they were weatherproof. It’s always got a knackered Range Rover or Disco on it
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ogTSiWdsBCqfoR2p8?g_st=ic
Looking at the older streetview dates you can see it cycle through them
Having a lift is just part of the One Life Live It!

That's pretty awesome

Wifey says NO

You could disguise them as trees when not in use like they do with some phone masts!

[nuttinnew]

That'd set the neighbour off.

[DeskJockey]

Obvious solution is to buy the house next door and disguise the workshop as a house. Also sorts the neighbour issue.

[JonMad]

This house has a lift installed on the driveway. I didn’t know they were weatherproof. It’s always got a knackered Range Rover or Disco on it
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ogTSiWdsBCqfoR2p8?g_st=ic
Looking at the older streetview dates you can see it cycle through them
Having a lift is just part of the One Life Live It!

They certainly have a thing for Land Rover/Range Rovers. Aug 2016 reminds me of Breaking Bad (it looks like the whole house is covered up)

[mik]

This house has a lift installed on the driveway. I didn’t know they were weatherproof. It’s always got a knackered Range Rover or Disco on it
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ogTSiWdsBCqfoR2p8?g_st=ic

Wow

I didn't know they were weatherproof either, but it's been there 3+ yrs so.....

[jamcg]

This is a dumb question, but have you looked around to see if there's one of those places in the area that lets you hire workshop space?

I've not, because ideally I want to be able to store cars & stuff for a long time. And for a one-off job like the exhaust I'd rather do the ghetto approach just for the experience

Want to get real sketchy? https://hird.co.uk/products/mini-cranes

[Sundayjumper]

I’ve already got an engine hoist. That’ll be fine !