I’ve blatantly stolen this, but I like it:thumbup1:


"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods." --H. L. Mencken

Government schemes of this sort are classic boondoggles that illustrate the "law of unintended consequences".
If they want people to scrap older fuel guzzling vehicles, why not just raise the fuel tax a bit? Politically indigestible?
In the US the "mob" (in the ancient Roman sense) prevents fuel taxes being enacted to raise the average price of fuel past ~US$2.75/US gal. So instead they enact idiotic "corporate average fuel economy laws" to try to make people buy vehicles they don't want. Wouldn't it be more sensible to pull in US$300bn/year without more income taxes, and people would automatically buy new parsimonious vehicles?

Charlie

I,m afraid its all too late ,we,re all doomed i tell you , all doomed.!!!!!!!!!

Its a load of old b#à&'écks my parents 13 year old Volvo 960 estate has gone, even though a mate wanted to buy it as a tow car, the garage wouldn't change the deal and it was only 24 hours from when they signed.

Anyway I work for a clothing company, its policy to have the shop doors open all year around, so it snowing outside and we are trying to heat a shop at 26d ... errr I wonder where all the heat goes... So there we are, always close the door behind you !!!....

There was only one way to make my car more boxy. The manual 850R is now one rarer.

http://www.pzorb.com/albums/for-sale/850R_15.sized.jpg

You didn't did you ???? my god it must be work £1000 in parts...

Ahhh volvo with their 15% discount if you are a previous volvo owner ?

The scrappage scheme wasn't about going green, it was to prop up the car industry during the economic downturn. it's well documented that scrapping old cars and building new ones is more polluting than keeping an old one going. (by the way, the carbon footprint of a toyota pious over an average lifetime is the same as a discovery 3 because of the immense polution in it's build and destruction)

I was at a scrappies the other day getting some bits for my saab (which uses more fuel than my 130 landie!). They had an immaculate BMW 750 being scrapped. Fit it with gas and keep it on the road and you have yourself a very nice, and environmentally friendly luxury saloon.

The scrappie told me they also had a mint split screen morris minor come in. I don't know why the garage didn't just buy it off the woman that bought it in! It was her husbands pride and joy but when he died she just decided to trade it in for a nice little runabout.

I also heard of a bristol being scrapped. to a classic car fan like me it's pretty heart breaking. for goodness sake, I'll give you 2 grand for them!!!!

moggy
landie 130 300Tdi
Toyota H60
Ford Ranger

I suspect that should I never be seen again while trying to cross the Sahara on roller skates, my wife would be doing much the same with my 60's Lotus Elan. The bikes would probably just end in a skip.

Isn't that grounds for a divorce ?

You mean if she ever sees this post! :rofl:

Haa haaa maybe.....
However the good weather is coming and I'm sure she enjoys the Elan too...

Which model is it you have ?

My lotus history started with a Eclat, great project car in 5 years never drove it on the road, then brought an Elise as I decided its more reliable than a 60's British sports car .. of course the head gasket within the first 3 months of ownership.

That's Lotus for you, Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious :clap:

The Elan is a '69 fixed head S4. Pic below, taken when I drove it down to the Alps last Sept.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r.../_DSC5148b.jpg

My wife has a love /hate relationship with it. Mainly hate though. She works as a medic and some years ago borrowed it to visit a patient at home when there was a problem with her own car. It got her there but wouldn't restart afterwards and she had to get the patients family to push start it. My reaction was "at least it got you there" followed by :blushing:. Hers was :stormy::stormy::stormy:

Now that's beautiful.... 1600cc twink, 4 speed ... Chapman rear suspension.... had it long ?

BTW great website you have ... makes great lunch time reading .. Are you still with Sally :innocent: haa haa

I bought the Elan back in the early 80's - nobody wanted them then and prices were rock bottom. Things have changed over the last 10 yrs!

Glad you enjoyed the website. It only goes to '73 at the moment but Pisquick tours went on for another 10 yrs or so so there's lots more to go on it. Recently one of the other people sent me his version of the early trips and it's really interesting that his recollections - backed up by his pics - are different to mine. Same events, different perspectives. I'm redoing the site at the moment to enable me to incorporate other peoples contributions.

Sadly I don't think Sally will be one of them! We went our separate ways about six months later but the fallout from that trip changed my life and has an influence even to this day.

:offtopic: