My latest common sense failure (sorry Jordi!)

[Jordi]

What you gonna do with this one?

Still selling the other one?

[Anton]

Probably. To cut a long story short, I traded a 9500lb Ramsey winch that I'd bought for the gray one for a few man hours, and managed to get my old daily driver (which was sitting waiting for a new head to be fitted) taken to the scrappies, so I can store the gray one.

I put 2 new engines and the better part of a grand in the old Ford daily, and it still wasn't right. So I swallowed that, and now the gray one is (kinda) safe for now. The wife still wants me to sell it though. She wants me to buy a Jimny instead.

The garage where I was storing it was offered £1500 for it, but refused to give me the number of the woman who offered that. I know for a fact that the guy at the garage wanted it, and was planning on forcing me to give it to him for basically nothing. He knew I couldn't afford to pay someone to move it again, but then a guy I know with a trailer needed a winch for his trailer, and we came to an arrangement.

The plan for the red one is to fix everything, go back to factory spec as much as possible (maybe even get an aisin carb...) get it shiiiiiney. Go to a classic car show or two. Then I'll probably have to sell her, as the low emissions zone coming in october 2021 means I can't keep her as a daily driver.

I'm on such heavy medication at the moment that I can barely remember what I did 10 minutes ago most of the time. That's not an exaggeration - I forget if I've taken pills, forget if I've eaten, I even set alarms on my phone, and stare at my phone trying to remember what I set that alarm for as it ring ring rings at me. I have to sort things out during the brief moments of clarity I have before the next round of meds, which is probably one of the reasons why I needed 5 attempts to get it though the MOT.

So the plan is one thing, reality is...???

[Ju]

Hopefully you can get it back to standard.

This low emissions charge, will cause quite a few problems for people.

[Anton]

This low emissions charge, will cause quite a few problems for people.

A guy up the road has an Aston Martin that is compliant. Is my 1.3 really more polluting than his 6.0 v12???

I see this as a tax on poor people, because the rich all have newer (therefore compliant) cars. This thing is only hitting people with low incomes and therefore old/cheap cars, and forcing them to pay £12 per day.

Nice.

[Jordi]

Yes and no.

He is hammered on the road tax. Also when buying new cars, over £40k i think it is the first years road tax is even higher.

We all make the choices about what vehicles we drive and factor in the costs of using them whether it be the MPG, annual road tax, maintenance costs of additional tolls such as the ULEZ charge.

Regardless of the ULEZ charge i can’t afford an Aston, i can afford a Zuk.

It’s not even truly emissions related as old vehicles are exempt.

As a london resident you are also given a grace period, to allow time to change your vehicle or modify it to meet the new emissions standard.

Ways and means to avoid it and not have to go spend £100,000 on a tesla.

[Ju]

There was also a screw up with bringing it forwards with the buses as the upgrade to make older buses compliant has not even been properly tested or approved

[donkeychomp]

Nothing wrong with a Jimny Anton. I have a 410 transfer box we can transplant!

[Anton]

I'm not so worried, Jordi - but plenty of single mums with old fiestas will be.

There should be more help for low income people in the ULEZ. Even if it's just government backed low interest loans.

What they really should do is find ways to help people on very low incomes into electric cars, because they are so cheap to run, they pay for themselves in a few years. If you save the same amount of money on petrol/tax etc as you pay for a car loan, then you are no worse off financially.

DC - we'll see, I have a bit of breathing room, so I'll try to get the red one nice and go from there. To be honest, it's tempting to just buy a Hyudai or similar euro5 econobox and be done, even if they raise the ULEZ standards.

[Anton]

[Jordi]

Not sure about those red bumpers Anton.

Was it a full strip down job? Window glasses all out, all trim off or a flat down and spray over?

Looks glossy but i’d make the bumpers black. Too red, if that makes sense.