Funny but sad. The sad world of today.

[Bazzer]

If its a Golf, it could well be an engine-out job.

There is the Germany conundrum, where you have to carry a replacement set of bulbs in your car incase one blows, but no requirement on the manufacturer to design cars so that bulbs can be replaced on the roadside without tools. Or, if @Lozz360 is correct, then a driver can't replace the bulb without invalidating the car's warranty.

As an owner of many Golfs in the last 35 years and a current owner of a Mk7.5 Golf, I can assure you I have never had to remove an engine to change a bulb.

Renault Meganes were I believe a nightmare for changing the wing repeater.

 

[Blue Hills]

EU regulations specify bulbs must be changeable by the roadside.

I'm profoundly worried that you even know this.

 

[Oldhippy]

Pre 89 some of the vodka you could find in Eastern Europe was deadly.

 

[Blue Hills]

Pre 89 some of the vodka you could find in Eastern Europe was deadly.

it would have been pre 89 - i didn't suffer - maybe the deadly communist cola protected me.
I do remember some incredibly rough fags - sold incredibly cheap - the state's way of keeping folk moderately happy/drugged, getting them off the pension list perhaps*.
Various flavoured vodkas/spirits were also incredibly cheap in Hungary.

* Worker brand in hungary sticks in my mind - the young hungarians i met shunned them as I recall.

 

[Oldhippy]

I smoked then and the fags were b*oody awful. I remember paying taxi drivers in Marlborough a few times.

 

[Badger_Boom]

They did indeed.

The Driver's Handbook for our 1969 Minor 1000 certainly does, as well how to adjust the points, and what needs lubricating when.

 

[Profpointy]

A telling phrase I read somewhere is that "'maintenance free', often means 'not maintainable'".

 

[Profpointy]

This is all very true. But how often do you see cars broken down at the side of the road these days? Used to see dozens of them on any long trip in the UK 20 or 30 years ago, now you notice them due to the rarity of it.

Even these days, On a 50 mile motorway trip you nearly always see someone broken down, so not 100% convinced

Admittedly cars break down less, but on the other hand, if they do break down, you're going home on the back of a lorry. Back in the day, you could nearly always fix it yourself, or at least bodge it up enough to continue.

 

[RoubaixCube]

the daftest web/tech solution i ever heard about was an app that used gps satellites and mapping to tell you when you were standing somewhere dangerous. Standing on a cliff-edge?

A lot of early TomTom Satnavs (and possibly Garmins) used to do this too so its not a 'feature' that is limited to using GPS on mobile phones. GPS and Mapping technology has come a long way though that doesnt mean they are error free though any wireless device is always subject to signal interference and ive had multiple devices both new and old, cheap and expensive that throw a fit when navigating around the London Bridge due to the amount of high rise buildings there are.

Never used a Garmin etrex satnav unit though so i cant comment if they are better than the satnavs designed to be used with cars

 

[ColinJ]

the daftest web/tech solution i ever heard about was an app that used gps satellites and mapping to tell you when you were standing somewhere dangerous. Standing on a cliff-edge? - not safe. Awandering down a railway line - not safe. etc etc.

Especially when the GPS is probably only accurate to 5-10 metres. You could be on a safe path adjacent to a railway line - GET OFF THE LINE!! You could be close to the cliff edge but it thought you were further away... YOU ARE SAFE!!

As for 'kids these days can't fix xyz'... Most stuff now is not designed to be easily serviceable.

I got into electronics as a teenager because I could and because I needed to. I couldn't afford to buy things like amps and tape recorders so I built them or got hold of faulty ones cheap and fixed them. I mended several old TVs.

The thing is, tech now is generally extremely reliable, ultra complex, and ridiculously cheap. It rarely needs fixing, and without very specialised knowledge and equipment it is hard to fix when it does go wrong. Much better and cheaper to just replace it. The big issue really is recycling dead/surplus/redundant products.

 

[Beebo]

I needed to change the battery on ky ex-mrs' Landrover. Bought a new battery and fetch it home, opened the bonnet -where the f is the battery? After much head scratching and actually searching the vehicle I surmised it could only be under the passenger seat, as there was nowhere else it could possibly be hidden, and indeed it was!

We got the AA out to change our car battery when it failed away from home.
The guy was telling me about cars with the battery under the passenger seat.
They can’t do this at the side of the road anymore and the car has to be towed to a garage!

 

[mustang1]

Is this a case of people getting thicker over time or to do with suing culture?

 

[mustang1]

Technically, that's correct - although sounds completely nuts!

Peanuts are not nuts. They are legumes, and so more closely related to peas than nuts.
However, they are prepared in the same factory as nuts, so there's a risk that your pack of peanuts may contain traces of nut....

Its a nutty world.

I will tell the local school that peanuts are.ok. They are banned due to nut allergies.

 

[Oldhippy]

Lack of personal responsibility and litigious culture these days I think.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Monkey don't see, monket don't do: Kids used to observe things their parents did, like cooking or fixing things. Less of that goes on now so there are fewer opportunities to learn. Also they are less interested because they have xboxes and tiktok. In my Dad's day (50's) he built his first bike from scrapyard parts. Well we're not even allowed to take anything from a scrapyard any more. In fact, my local one won't accept metal any more, and never accepted "bike parts" (I had to cut some things up and disguide them as "parts off a bed frame").

Also the "why wait" mentality: why bother fixing something or waiting 4 days for parts when mum and/or dad can buy a new one becasue they have more disposable income? No learing there either.

I do blame social media a lot for most of the un-streetwise kids. They see so-called influencers and millionaire Youtubers who destroy cars for fun etc. There is no real knowledge or teaching involved in a lot of the virtual world. It's all about likes and materialism. Some kids, of course, are into lego or electronics or dinosaurs, but I think they are a vast minority if we look at percentages compared to 20 years ago. So we are raising fewer kids who are or would like to be practical, and more kids who might be very bright but don't know how to apply it in the real world