Last Chance Saloon

If your Audi starts with a Q or your Volvo starts with an X then I'm not interested in it.

Today's Hagerty story has been on the cards for a while now - I reported precursors in March 2021 and again that September.

Volvo have stopped selling saloons and estates in the UK.

Maybe that will make my S60 a bit more valuable because if you want a new one now you will have to either...

a) Find a country they are still selling them to - or

b) Join the Police.

They will still sell them to law-enforcement officers - presumably because everyone knows that proper cars handle a damn sight better than bloody SUVs.

When mine was in for its first MOT, there was a Cheshire Police one in there:

Jolly nice.  I wonder if the mechanics get to test drive them.

I've just checked out the Volvo website and nobody's told them about not selling saloons and estates.

Yet - this could be your last chance to get one.

Healing Words

There are a couple of Facebook Pages that I follow for their interesting motoring content.  I can recommend them both.

One is Silodrome.

The other is Hagerty UK. Other nationalities of Hagerty are available.

Both of them had Healey stories this week - although strictly speaking, the Silodrome one was a Healy story.  That spelling just looks wrong.  But then again, so does the car:

The Nissan Micra rear lights don't help but the Mini front lights make it look like a bloated Mini Convertible.

It probably looks quite good in the flesh though.

It is a kit car based on an MX5.  It is from Healy Designs reimagining a modern day Austin-Healey 3000.  I can see where they are coming from and I think they are making a fair fist of it.

The Healey name with an "e" allegedly belongs to a company called HFI Automotive and according to Wikipedia, without any citation, so it could be a load of tripe, in 2007 it was announced that Nanjing Automotive (NAC, who own the Austin name and are currently producing MGs) signed a collaborative agreement with them that aims to recreate the Austin Healey and Healey marques alongside NAC's MG.

The Hagerty story, on the other hand, harks back to how Ford could have but didn't invent the Hot Hatch.

With this car:

It was developed in the late '70s by Healey Automotive Consultants who were owned by the Healey family and went on to be sold to HFI Automotive who may well have signed a collaborative agreement with NAC in 2007 that aims to recreate the Austin Healey and Healey marques alongside NAC's MG.  It was actually Ford of America that was leading on this which is why it is a left-hand drive car and has American plates even though the letters and numbers point at a 1978 UK car.

According to MyCarCheck, that UK plate is now on a 2015 Ford Escort Sport - more tripe because there is no such thing.  I suspect that somebody has spotted the headlights on this exact car and re-registered it wrongly on it returning to the UK in 2015.

God I'm good.

I've just looked it up on the Government MOT-check Website.

Not only does it confirm that we ARE talking out this Healey Fiesta, it also picks up on the one thing that really annoyed me when I first saw the photos of this historic car.

Under "Repair Immediately" it states<

• Offside Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (4.1.2 (c))

Ministry O'Transport

Did you hear the one about the Irishman who wanted to get an MOT for his car?

Well he couldn't.

The BBC story is here.

Apparently, there are only 15 Test Centres in Northern Ireland - and they all have dodgy car-lifts.

Only fifteen!?  There are two in the village that I live in.

Yes, but they have a different system over there than us on the Mainland.  They don't let local garages do MOT Testing.  They have large centres with big and little doors for big and little vehicles:

So it prevents your dodgy local mechanic sticking his screwdriver through your CV-Joint Gaiter to make some extra work/money for himself.  "Dangerous that mate - good job I can fix it for you."

Problem is, the vehicles are not the only things that get regularly inspected.

The vehicles lifts in the test centres do too.

And faults have been found on 48 of the 55 vehicle lifts in those centres.

The faults seeming to be cracking:

Imagine having your car fail on needing welding when it is sat on one of those.

Sharp intake of breath - "That ain't going to cheap, mate."

In the meantime, testing has been suspended in Northern Ireland until a solution can be found with four-month extensions being given to the MOTs of cars which have had tests cancelled.

Apparently, the failure rate is 20% so there will be a lot of potentially dangerous cars driving about on these extended certificates.

And every Monday morning, a couple of transporters loaded up with NI cars come over here:

 

Haven't a clue where they're going but they must come off the Belfast Ferry and head South.

 

Perhaps they are going to a church.  Did you hear the one about the Irishman who took his car to a church?  He said it needed a service.