and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

And I woke up this morning with a thought running through my head: this car has side steps - how are they held on?

I've been searching for ages but it seems like the only ones you can buy now are "universal" and nobody's showing how they're attached Googling either shows pictures of them fitted to cars or Grand Vitaras which aren't quite the same.



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/suzuki-vitara ... 3f10a14b57

Argh! I need to know, erm, yesterday!!

[Welly]

This place kinda shows how they fit.......

http://www.sidesteps.co.uk/fitting.php

[steve_earwig]

http://forum.difflock.com/viewtopic.php?p=670629#670629

[Welly]

Bloody newbie

[steve_earwig]

Pfft, I really am a newby when it comes to Vitaras as I know sod all about them. It's ok though, I've met someone on there we know

[highlander]

Sounds like you need one of those mirrors that the police and border security guards use for checking under cars for bombs - if your mate can't accompany you and you can't bend or lie down to look under a car without your back giving in, fashioning some kind of a "Mirror-on-a-Stick" might be helpful?

[Welly]

That sort of car is probably spot on for her indoors, just get a new set of tyres if you can and let her get on with (ab)using it.

You probably won't need to have much to do with after that it to be honest

I can see now the difference between UK and Croatian car owners, in Croat if you twat a stone wall and take out half of the nearside you just leave it and carry on.......in the UK though you'd be in a Courtesy Car like a shot and waiting for an update on the progress of the body repair and reviewing the Warranty T&C's

I see this when I go to my family in Spain; loads of new cars with more dents than a Post Office van but they don't care I think they hold more important values like Family and relaxation. Makes you wonder who's getting it right eh?

[steve_earwig]

Family values like getting drunk and biffing your wife, unfortunately. It seems like there are two sorts of car owner here: those that care and those that don't give a toss, treating it like a battering ram yet still expect it to be worth as much as the former's cars

Sounds like you need one of those mirrors that the police and border security guards use for checking under cars for bombs - if your mate can't accompany you and you can't bend or lie down to look under a car without your back giving in, fashioning some kind of a "Mirror-on-a-Stick" might be helpful?

It has crossed my mind, although I'd also need another one with a finger on the end for prodding suspicious-looking underseal...

[steve_earwig]

I've got hold of my mate and we're back again tomorrow morning. We've got him to drop the price 500€ because of this bracket and the state of the tyres. Oh, and get this, if I do buy the car we then have fill out a vehicle purchase agreement (I have two...)we then have to go to his local glavni bilježnik (somewhere between notary public and licensed criminal) who will accept the form (along with a fee) and stamp one of the booklets. Because it's registered in another county I have to drive it back here, take the registration plates off & take them back to the guy. We then have to go to his local registration office and get a piece of paper to say that I have surrendered the plates to him. Then I have to take this piece of paper, along with the two booklets that always accompany a vehicle, to my local registration office (the guy who runs this is nationally known to be a complete arsehole) who will then (begrudgingly) issue me with shiny new plates with "ZG" on them. They will, of course, all charge me handsomely for doing almost nothing at all.

And people don't bother sending log books off to DVLA


Meanwhile, in a shock return to the original subject of this thread I've been back to see my physio. Finally. He is pleased with my progress and tells me that this will give me a better chance in the future (yes, this guy really did insist I needed an operation...). I have some more therapy starting on the 6th involving suction and short-wave radiation (NOT microwave, he says ). I can stop taking the diazepam now. Oh, and I must give up smoking because it is drying my disks out and exacerbating the problem.

Pass me my jacket please, is the white one with the long arms with no holes in the end, ta.

[Welly]

Bejesus, you'd need to be a smoker just to help you through the registration

Sounds like your slowly on the mend and I hope it doesn't need me to tell you THAT'S when to be careful

[Doggy]

I hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel at long last, Steve.

Am I the only one that believes the difficulty of finding a replacement vehicle and the hugely cumbersome bureaucracy you're having to deal with are all helping to ensure you'll recover first and maybe not need said truck?

[FarmerPug]

Er off roaders:
the jimny is a decent jeep if you want to go off road, its basically the samurai with electric windows, and coil springs, still like driving a 4x4 go cart, but they are easy to park and suit town driving much better than other cars. The vitara i never see any 1990s ones over here for sale without rust in important places, but the engine is reliable, carbs are a bit sh*t a 16v injection is a much better one to get.
The shogun my uncle had one before the hilux, its a big 3.2 diesel, they are quick and powerful but guzzle diesel and can feel a bit boaty, and the hilux is just as bad except the suspension is very hard, it likes the diesel just as much, and the pickup isn't really useful for much apart from lambing rabbits.

Nissan do some good 4x4s the quasiquack isn't a bad car, but the xtrail is great a good height for getting in an out of, and a sensible shape for loading stuff.

[steve_earwig]

This Vitara is injection, so I presume 16 valves (twice as many to go wrong...) I'll have to make my mate have a good peer at the sills, I've got a mirror handy but I suppose something to kneel on would be useful.

The X-Trail has already been deemed "too big" and, as with all the more popular 4x4s, the only ones in my price range are garbage. Same with Shogun/Pyjamas, I wouldn't want to feed the thing either.

Perhaps things will change once the wife's been driving a while, who knows maybe she'll even learn to love the Pug, but I think its days are numbered due to my back anyway because of my back. Perhaps not days though, maybe a year or two.

The Nissan Squashies have lots of good reviews, although the ones for sale seem to be predominantly 2 wheel drive. And extremely expensive of course.

[FarmerPug]

The vitara from the ones I've had, i find the trim and dash looks like it will fall apart but its all fairly tough, interior door handles and window winders can snap off when they get a bit brittle but everything is so easy worked at its not worth even thinking about. Two of the ones i owned were used at the seaside and the chassis were completely rotten beyond repair, the sills on one were so bad they collapsed when i stood on one getting in, the body can also be just as rusty. The 3rd vitara had a fairly decent chassis but the body had rotten sills, and wheel arch covers which covered huge amounts of rust, even round the fuel filler cap had rust holes.

The clutch in the vitara usually at this age can need doing, if the brakes are sticky they wear away in no time, one vitara we used to pull a trailer to move cattle across the road, a few runs of this and it ruined the clutch, though its not really made for that sort of thing. But even so a clutch costs no more than £80 and can be done in a day.

Has the fiat panda 4x4 been mentioned yet

[steve_earwig]

No-one's mentioned pogo sticks yet either... I had a look when they had one up on the ramps - dinky 'ickle dwive shafts aww The inside was HiDeOuS