Diz

Never usually go there so no idea what to order! Last time I went into a fast food place was MacDogfoods, in desperation at 2am in Stockholm, and walked out because the smell was revolting and everyone was hammered. As this may become a regular date please recommend something edible! Nothing with those minging chips though <boak>. As for doughnuts, they look great but not got a sweet tooth - BF et al. will have polished them though :-)

Took my mate's daughter, who is daft about the car, to Krispy Kreme (eughhh! - her choice) for a girlie night out. As it was my treat she asked 'Can we stop in at KFC first?' - double eughhh - that is never food! Aside from the dodgy scran we enjoyed ourselves ;-)

Sorry to report the guy working on my car has binned the boot lid :-( He visited our workshop on Sunday and it turns out he got fed up moving the damn thing around, but it was gone even before I posted. I got lucky with scoobyspares in Fleetwood, they were really helpful. Maybe they or some other breakers would be okay about popping the badges off for you. The guys I dealt with seem to know their scoobies, so they could maybe even help you find the right badges for your model.

Awww guys, I had a tough day at work. Thank you all for the laughs! As for testing the awesomeness of my precious, which is like nothing I ever drove before, once I got the feel of it I opened it out on the country roads, about 12 miles to my BF's place, and I felt like my eyeballs were being forced into the back of my head (easy, given that these days it seems there's only air between the front and back). That gave me a lot of respect for the car. I too have calmed down. This morning an Audi came tearing up behind me and sat about 10 feet off my bumper, goading me. Had this twit not been so rude I'd maybe have picked it up after the speed camera we were approaching, but it was worth being 5 mins late for work so that he was too (he turned off one stop before me). Anyways, it is more classy not to drive like a fool :-)

Well, I left a voicemail message asking if the boot lid was still kicking around can we have it back please. Waiting for a response. fingers crossed!

Aarghhh! It was getting late, call it brain !Removed!, I know mine is a blob-eye! I open that bonnet, check a few levels and quickly close it again - leaving the 'awkward' bits to the guys at the local workshop where our mate is a manager. They fall over themselves to fix it as they are keen to 'test drive' it when the work is done. That's allowed ;-) Claire, don't be afraid to do the same, a wee flutter of the eyelashes never hurts xx nb got mixed up with posts and mixed up with a different new lady! Corrected, I hope!

OMG, I haven't even started on my ignorance of what my beloved bug-eye baffles me with! Even beardy BF, with 35+ years of vehicle maintenance experience (mostly motorbikes, Land Rovers and vans, in that order) looks and says 'hmmm... no touchy touchy'

Hey lady, glad you are enjoying your car. Always loved cars that could shift and nothing shifts like a Scooby, unless you are a multi-millionaire... Please do post pics. I love the flashing and waving thing that goes on. I'm a biker too, and bikers always wave to each other, but never before had this happen in a car. Enjoy it :-) As for what's under the bonnet... holy crap. Have had a go with a few old banger cars and motorbikes but you couldn't fit a !Removed! paper in the Scooby engine and I am pretty wary of messing with it: usually looking for something obvious like 'aha! there's the problem, an octopus stuck to the air filter' so don't be ashamed to ask for advice, even if it's only so you *sound* like you know what you're talking about when you take it to the workshop ;-) xx

Aye, and you haven't seen what I did to yours, as if it wasn't crazy enough Back to the point - if any of the badges are still available I'll get them all plucked off and offer them up free to a good home. If only it was bikes, and bits of bikes, I have a shedload - literally.

Very kind of you to say so Gambit, especially as from Hayley's photo I am likely old enough to be her mother :(

If it looks like that first link there is a slim chance the guy who just fitted me a new boot lid and bumper (had a bit of an oops moment) may still have the old one with the badges kicking around his workshop. They're genuine but you'd have to glue them on if I can get my mitts on them. He's due a visit to our workshop tomorrow or Tuesday, so if you can figure it out quickish I can ask if he still has it and if so ask him to pop them off and they're yours.

Nothing to do with cars, tonight I am trying to bust my ex-company iPhone to set it up for a different network. Backups completed, jailbreak about to commence!

'As regards letting oil warm up in previous reply what are we talking - 10 mins ? ten miles ?' I believe you hear and feel when the car is ready to go. On a cold morning I reckon around 10 mins. With mine it sounds anxious to start with, calms down a bit, then sounds like it is ready for a bit of fun. The only thing I don't like about the sound of a Scooby is that when you are inside it you don't get to hear the full benefit of that awesome sound.

Mikeaston, did you get what you were looking for? How is it going with the repairs?

Ha ha Gambit! Used to help my mate out with her market stall. We went to the Harley-Davidson rally in Aviemore. HD, Goldwing and BMW riders, many of them taking their bikes there on a trailer towed by a big posh motorhome, would ride around the campsite showing off their assortment of horns and flashing light arrangements, leaving us thinking 'What else did you get for Christmas?'. What a bunch of fannies.

Maybe a bit late in the day. I got 10000 mile service done, £430. All belts and oils changed at that, although I paid extra for coolant change, all at Subaru dealership as I had only just got the car. which by all accounts had been well maintained, but you never know. Seemed expensive, but cheaper to let them take the rap if it all went wrong...

Mercs these days don't have a good rep for rust issues. A but like the old Datsuns... yes, I'm that old. I am a Honda girl when is comes to motorbikes, CB500 winter bike and VFR800 last pre-vtec model. Bombproof engines, durable bodywork but over engineered? I guess I am a fool for Jap engines. Now I open the bonnet of the Scoob, check the levels and otherwise admit defeat and take it to the garage! Back to the point... Mike If you want to PM me I'm happy to give you the low down, contacts, prices and delivery times I experienced. Or you can check out the Old Banger or Query about my rear end threads where it's pretty much all documented, in all its misery but final glory. Btw I feel your horror, it is the most gut churning feeling :-(

Hope it goes well for you. I ripped a top notch Blaupunkt unit out of my old Rover 620 that was being scrapped (still miss that car). If you didn't see or can't remember how it was fitted it can be a bugger to get it out again. As the car was being scrapped we busted the fascia to get it out, although I felt I'd vandalized and insulted my old friend by doing this. It's funny how folks can get attached to a car. The irony... my BF is now driving around in a pretty tidy P reg Pug, galvie bodywork so no rust. I got it for £400 when my beloved Rover died and gifted to BF when his van died as I was biking all the time and hardly used it - it has one of the better sound systems going. We are not youngsters, but we do like to educate the locals with some hard rock when we are on the move ;-)

I should have said I CAN crawl around. Damn my typo crappos!

Oh, bitter experience dude. Only now feeling the chutzpah to race them feckin' Audi's again!

I have a 6-disc CD changer fitted behind the rear passenger armrest. Previous owner did this, leaving the front fascia untouched. I can't crawl around looking for clues as to how its fitted if that helps.

One other thing I would add, if you get the right colour it saves on getting the underside sprayed, sometimes in awkward places, or only having the top sprayed and being obvious spray on the top only to be met with a mismatch when the bonnet or boot is popped open.

Mods, if you don't mind me saying, I had a lot of luck with scoobyspares.com breakers in Fleetwood, Cumbria, who even held back on sending parts when they had one coming in the same colour. I'd never dealt with them before but they were really helpful. The boot lid cost me £40, bumper skin and upper back beam £100. Delivery was £80 (ouch, most likely because of the size of the bumper skin) but it was very well wrapped and shipped on a pallet. That is a nice looking car, it deserves some TLC :)

I breathed a sigh of relief last night when a minted dark blue Scoob came into the filling station behind me. Didn't catch the model, had no air scoop? But there were L plates on it. I shuddered. Not in my lifetime!

You cheeky monkey! I did think of that mind you ;-)