Woe, woe, and thrice woe

[Paddy]

What was the minor problem? That's a crime.

I had the car many years ago, the starter motor and flywheel ring needed replacing. The rest of the car was fine. I went to work abroad and left the car in my private driveway. After a few months neighbours complained to police and the police wrote a letter to me saying that the car is causing a nuisance because it spoiling the neighbourhood. I then sent a telex to a friend to dump the car. I did not know about the law then. I now know it was not a police matter and I could have given them two fingers.

[xoggoth]

Yesterday I was backing my van out of the drive and there was this awful scraping sound. Panic. Then I found I had left a stool behind it when I was fixing the roof rack.

PS The sort of stool with legs and a seat.

[DaveB]

Somewhere at home I must have the bill from when the offside trailing arm went a few years ago.

It took nearly a week to get the part that time. The garage chap explained that "Ford have got the part, they're just not sure where it is" to which I replied "Don't tell me, it's in a box in the loft and they can't remember which one?"

I'd like to keep it going but there are other bits that either need doing or will very soon, so I'm not sure its viable

1989 Ford Orion 1.6i Ghia Mk. II

Try these guys, they have parts for pretty much everything.

Cheap Car Parts & Accessories, Engines, 4x4 Parts. Used Euro & Jap Car Parts From Online Car Breakers

[Sysman]

Somewhere at home I must have the bill from when the offside trailing arm went a few years ago.

It took nearly a week to get the part that time. The garage chap explained that "Ford have got the part, they're just not sure where it is" to which I replied "Don't tell me, it's in a box in the loft and they can't remember which one?"

Translation: It's on the computer but it's not in the warehouse bin the computer thinks it is.

It could also have gone walkies.

I'd like to keep it going but there are other bits that either need doing or will very soon, so I'm not sure its viable

I once made the decision to get shut of a car because the cigarette lighter packed in. It was the last straw in a succession of things going wrong.

Mind you, the spanking brand new car that came as its replacement wasn't too reliable either. It can be a case of "better the devil you know..."

[NickFitz]

Good news - and bad

The car is now home again with a new trailing arm and handbrake cable (that seems to have been broken by an over-vigorous RAC man), having been trailered up to the local garage who've always worked on it

Total cost: trailer £100, repairs £195; or, £45 more than I paid for the car ten years and 73,000 miles ago

The bad news came when I was settling up for the repairs. The garage is a family business and I was dealing with the owner's son, so I assumed his dad was on holiday, but when I asked after him the son told me that his dad had passed away in his sleep in March

Then, as I offered my commiseration, he added that his mother had died last week