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Are ALL modern cars crap ?

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
Why do all car adverts today tell you not one useful thing about the product they are pushing ?
I can only conclude they are rubbish..
They tell about how they will charge your phone, connectivity and a few other useless things but absolutely NOTHING about the car..
I can only presume the modern car has nowt going for it apart from a bit of gadgetry .. and most of that is actually old hat by todays standards
 

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
Just had the Fiat 500 ad on.. All it said about the car was that it is now available in orange ... WTF !!!!
 

Vinterceptor

Been there, and had one
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Had a phone call from my son on Thursday night asking for the number for the RAC. He had shredded a tyre after hitting a pothole. Unfortunately he has a modern car so there is no spare wheel... just a cannister of gunge to pump into the tyre.
Phoned me back again to let me know the RAC were on the way. An hour later he phoned me yet again to say they had just called him to say they would be there after 10:30pm (in another 3 hours+) and could I go to his house and pick up one of his spare wheels, a jack and a wheel brace, then take them to him in Blackburn.
Why on earth do they not have spare wheels anymore?
 

Cougar377

Express elevator to hell
Staff member
Moderator
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Why do all car adverts today tell you not one useful thing about the product they are pushing ?
I can only conclude they are rubbish..
They tell about how they will charge your phone, connectivity and a few other useless things but absolutely NOTHING about the car..
I can only presume the modern car has nowt going for it apart from a bit of gadgetry .. and most of that is actually old hat by todays standards
It's the same step change that we saw with mobile phones a few years back. The percentage of time that a mobile phone is actually used as, well, a phone has been reducing year on year. The change in how they advertise a brand of phone rarely bothers to mention it's actual telephone functionality.

Advertising for cars is created along similar lines now... They're sold on all the bling and gizmos and not on their capabilities as vehicles for transportation.

And let's face it. If things carry on the way they're going we won't be driving our cars ourselves anyway. :mad:
 

JayTee

Si vis pacem para bellum
Club Sponsor
Had a phone call from my son on Thursday night asking for the number for the RAC. He had shredded a tyre after hitting a pothole. Unfortunately he has a modern car so there is no spare wheel... just a cannister of gunge to pump into the tyre.
Phoned me back again to let me know the RAC were on the way. An hour later he phoned me yet again to say they had just called him to say they would be there after 10:30pm (in another 3 hours+) and could I go to his house and pick up one of his spare wheels, a jack and a wheel brace, then take them to him in Blackburn.
Why on earth do they not have spare wheels anymore?
My Bongo van came with a space saver wheel, got rid of it cos it wasn’t to be driven above 40 mph and then only untill a fix could be done on the damaged wheel, got a proper wheel and it fitted in the space provided so it begs the question why not have a proper one in the first place.
Seems you pay more for more useless extraneous shite and get less everyday useful stuff.
 

Pow-Lo

Make civil the mind, make savage the body.
Club Sponsor
Just had the Fiat 500 ad on.. All it said about the car was that it is now available in orange ... WTF !!!!
I stand to be corrected here but the Fiat 500 doesn’t have an NCAP safety rating.

EDIT: I’ve just been corrected. It has three stars.
 

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
Had a phone call from my son on Thursday night asking for the number for the RAC. He had shredded a tyre after hitting a pothole. Unfortunately he has a modern car so there is no spare wheel... just a cannister of gunge to pump into the tyre.
Phoned me back again to let me know the RAC were on the way. An hour later he phoned me yet again to say they had just called him to say they would be there after 10:30pm (in another 3 hours+) and could I go to his house and pick up one of his spare wheels, a jack and a wheel brace, then take them to him in Blackburn.
Why on earth do they not have spare wheels anymore?
More to the point why does anyone waste their hard earned joining the RAC ?
RAC left me on the M11 for 4 hours with ( believe it or not ) a set of points that had snapped.. When they finally arrived they said fitting points was too hard at the roadside and I would have to be towed in
I told them to fuck right off and get a mechanic out or get me a set of pointd2 1/2 hours later a van arrived with a 'mechanic' and a set of points
Took him ages and he told me he had dropped the broken bit in to the distributor and could not find it, but 'it will be ok'.
I got about a 100 yards, the distributer jammed, and stripped the drive teeth
Some 9 hours after breaking down I got home with the car on a low loader.
Got £100 compensation

Following year, M11 again this time in a rather breathed upon Transit... German block V6 bored out to 3.3, 5 speed bullet box, Zodiac diff etc etc
Unfortunately the master cylinder rubber literally turned inside out due to some rather heavy braking..
They ( the RAC ) sent out a tow truck.. When it arrived I suggested a 'live tow ( the tow truck works as my brakes ) as he could not lift the front as it was just a dummy ( Diesel Transit front end on a petrol body to make room for the V6 )
Matey knew better.. pulled the front end off wrecking a grands worth of custom paint job, the radiator, and of course the front end
That ended up in county court where they offered £500.
I asked the court ( very respectfully and as a question ) if I could refuse money and ask the RAC to repair the vehicle.. Court said yes..
and instructed the RAC bod that the work should be carried out in a reasonable time frame and they had to loan me an equivalent vehicle
Of course there was no such thing as a v6 transit and I ended up with a brand new SDI Rover ( they had only JUST come out )
I had my Transit fully repaired ( inc the brake issue :) ) in under two weeks..

Soooooooooooooooo.. RAC Rank Amatteur C!ints !!!!!!!!!!!
 

andyBeaker

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
Two stupid breakdown stories from me, both involving Blackbirds.

  1. Front tyre went pop while doing about 60 (scared the cr*p out of me). Green Flag turn up with a car low loader and the driver asked me to ride the bike onto the back by going up an eight inch wide steel ramp. With a flat front tyre.
  2. electrics had packed up (who would have believed it), the garage appointed by Green Flag called and I asked them to make sure they had a whatever amp fuse the main fuse is on board as it had blown (I told them what amp it was but can’t remember now) and was somewhat spottily told ‘we are fully equipped, no way would we go out without that on board’.. Guess what.
 

Me!

Utterly retired
Club Sponsor
I stand to be corrected here but the Fiat 500 doesn’t have an NCAP safety rating.

EDIT: I’ve just been corrected. It has three stars.
That’s good enough for you.
 

ogr1

I can still see ya.....
Club Sponsor
Had a phone call from my son on Thursday night asking for the number for the RAC. He had shredded a tyre after hitting a pothole. Unfortunately he has a modern car so there is no spare wheel... just a cannister of gunge to pump into the tyre.
Phoned me back again to let me know the RAC were on the way. An hour later he phoned me yet again to say they had just called him to say they would be there after 10:30pm (in another 3 hours+) and could I go to his house and pick up one of his spare wheels, a jack and a wheel brace, then take them to him in Blackburn.
Why on earth do they not have spare wheels anymore?
Don't come to Blackburn unless he
wants the remaining 3 tyres wrecked.
Roads around here are shite.
 

Stevebrooke

Knee up, wheel down
Club Sponsor
Why do all car adverts today tell you not one useful thing about the product they are pushing ?
I can only conclude they are rubbish..
They tell about how they will charge your phone, connectivity and a few other useless things but absolutely NOTHING about the car..
I can only presume the modern car has nowt going for it apart from a bit of gadgetry .. and most of that is actually old hat by todays standards
I think the ASA banned the details of a car's performance from being used in adverts.
 

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
I think the ASA banned the details of a car's performance from being used in adverts.
Possibly.. but they did not ban mpg, what sort of engine, its CAP rating and a myriad of other useful things
 

derek kelly

The Deli lama
Club Sponsor
Two stupid breakdown stories from me, both involving Blackbirds.

  1. Front tyre went pop while doing about 60 (scared the cr*p out of me). Green Flag turn up with a car low loader and the driver asked me to ride the bike onto the back by going up an eight inch wide steel ramp. With a flat front tyre.
  2. electrics had packed up (who would have believed it), the garage appointed by Green Flag called and I asked them to make sure they had a whatever amp fuse the main fuse is on board as it had blown (I told them what amp it was but can’t remember now) and was somewhat spottily told ‘we are fully equipped, no way would we go out without that on board’.. Guess what.
What?
 

ogr1

I can still see ya.....
Club Sponsor
They turned up on another 'Bird'?
That had the same problems??
 

Minkey

Ok it was me
Club Sponsor
I was left by the AA sat on the side of a busy road on my own for 4 hours and by the RAC another time for 3 hours in the middle of no where on my own and yet they both say that a woman on her own gets priority, my brother in law broke down outside his house and the RAC was there in half an hour go figure
 

Minkey

Ok it was me
Club Sponsor
Why do all car adverts today tell you not one useful thing about the product they are pushing ?
I can only conclude they are rubbish..
They tell about how they will charge your phone, connectivity and a few other useless things but absolutely NOTHING about the car..
I can only presume the modern car has nowt going for it apart from a bit of gadgetry .. and most of that is actually old hat by todays standards
I don't think it is the cars that are the problem, it's the buying public and the things they think are most important to them, never mind what engine etc has it got Wifi connectivity etc
 
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