Ignore the FOAK at your peril

Car radiators.

After being advised here that aftermarket radiators would be the worst
option out of aftermarket, re-core and genuine original, I went ahead
and bought one for the car anyway because:

a) a re-core would be awkward: K couldn't sacrifice working late one
day of the week, so I needed the car working by midweek to do the
nursery run. This meant that I couldn't take the radiator off, get it
re-cored, then put it back in without working by torchlight on at
least one winter evening.

b) I don't know who locally is actually any good;

c) genuine Daihatsu ones would come to around 350 quid incuding VAT.

Well, the fucking thing has split along the rear seam of its top tank.
It's taken me over a week to figure out where the increasing
quantities of coolant being spattered all over my engine bay have come
from. The POS really is very flimsy; the metal is paper-thin.

Gah. So now I have to go through the whole fucking rigmarole again,
this time with a new radiator, plus ship the POS back to the hole from
whence it came after possibly having to argue that it's unfit for
purpose.

This has added fuel to my hatred of liquid cooling systems.

In my perfect world, LC systems for IC engines would be found in only
two places: marine engines and high-performance two-strokes.


Happy bunny I am not.


/blog.

 

I have to say that I don't have much sympathy in view of:

"After being advised here that aftermarket radiators would be the worst
option out of aftermarket, re-core and genuine original, I went ahead
and bought one for the car anyway"

Ukrm isn't known as the FOAK for nothing, you know

 

Oh, sympathy was the last thing I expected.

 

You did pay using a credit card or at least a debit card with the *VISA*
logo on it, didn't you?

 

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:25:07 +0100, Pip Luscher

[...]

Are you into tight-fitting clothing made of black leather, too?

 

Oh, yes. I've never used a debit card online or over the phone for
that matter.

 

Keep your fantasies to yourself, biker boy.

 

It's hardly worth bothering about, you really should take the total
price including all these add ons as the price.

Admittedly if you've managed to get a flight or ferry for £30, a £5
charge does seem excessive. That's more an argument about transparency
and clarity and I do get a bit annoyed that these add-on charges are
only apparent at the end of the payment process.

 

Yes. The taxpayer (well STFC) re-imburses me.

[1] Science and Technology Facilities Council, not Swindon Town Fussball Club,
tho' they are based in the same town.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

I pay for ferries/airlines perhaps once or twice a year. I rarely see
extra charges anywhere else apart from the DVLA online tax website.

A couple of quid is irritating but hardly extortionate.

 

With any travel company, be it airline, car hire whatever, then yes.

I look at the total price and decide if it offers value for money. Booking
by credit card is a requirement in my view, due to the added value of the
CCA and insurances offered by individual providers. Most of the time you
can avoid the charges by using alternative providers, e.g. booking train
tickets through Virgin rather than Trainline. Every now & then, I end up
paying a few quid extra to the likes of Michael Ryan because I want to fly
from Bristol to Dublin on the cheap. The price was still considerably lower
than the alternatives from Bristol or Cardiff.

 

I do. I look on it as a cheap insurance policy that guards against
things going tits-up. Especially with airlines and holidays, considering
the number of people who've been left stranded in parts foreign in the
last year or two.

 

Extortionate? With some perhaps.

I've recently booked a flight to Vegas - £600. The £8 surcharge to pay
by CC is insurance well paid for, IMO.