Lidl tools

[Michael Mcneil]

I just bought a spare battery for it £20.

lidl are selling spare 18 volt batteries for their drills at £5 each.

[Michael Mcneil]

"Lurch

[Lurch]

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 18:47:53 +0000 (UTC), "Michael Mcneil" strung together this:

Erm, levelling stuff! Depends what I'm doing, comes in handy for anything over a longish distance. I'm sure I could manage without it but it was £25 and I thought it might come in handy for kitchens etc or retrofitting equipment where long pencil lines on the wall are frowned upon

[Andy Hall]

Are they rechargable?

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Michael Mcneil]

I have no idea. I always pay cash.

[Paul Mc Cann]

Availability of spares and service would come high on my list. Try getting a widget for you McCulloch.

[StealthUK]

I said their reliability is overrated! Well put together does not mean they are reliable.

No, it's IME as is every post on this NG. I didn't say anything about good engine design, I said Japanese engines can take more abuse.

It's IME again. Where do you get your statistics from that most engines blow up (and mainly from Cambelt failure) rather than wear out?

Now, you are joking, right? If you really believed I meant they were ACTUALLY made of tin foil then you must be high on something. I was referring to the thickness of the sheet metal used on the panels.

It's a shame, Dave, because you're normally one of the better contributors on this NG.

[IMM]

So are Honda.

Toyota engines can't blow when the belt fails.

He made them up.

He is? You haven't been here long then have you?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I asked overrated by whom? The various surveys - JD, Which, etc have never had them at the top of the list.

All Japanese engines? Think that's rather a sweeping statement too. And what do you mean by abuse? Letting them run out of oil? Water? Driving them hard from cold?

By the fact you'll not now find a machine shop that can do re-bores and crank grinds in every town - most engines will last as long as the car, unless as I said they get damaged.

My statistics aren't accurate, but based on the many posts you'll get on the car groups - broken cam belts are one of the most common serious engine problems - about the same as blown head gaskets. Ones about excessive oil consumption etc denoting a worn engine are rare.

It was a fatuous statement that demanded a fatuous answer. The thickness of the steel used has never had anything to do with the quality of a car - ever. The quality of the steel, yes. And many these days have varying thickness on the panels anyway to further compound the fallacy.

If you don't like BMWs, you are perfectly entitled to your view. But if you try and justify it by talking rubbish, be prepared to be argued with.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All their engines are non-interference types? I find that very hard to believe. But then you probably didn't understand the point.

[StealthUK]

Overrated by Joe public, that's who.

I never made any points about Japanese cars being more enjoyable to drive.

Okay, maybe not every Japanese engine but I'll include Mazda, Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Yes, abuse as in driving the engines hard and neglect (low oil, overheated etc). Japanese engines, in my book, will survive far more abuse. I NEVER said BMW engines were not well designed or anything else you are placing in my mouth.

That means absolutely nothing. The value of cars has dropped tremendously and labour charges are higher than ever. If your engine packs up then it is far cheaper to just buy another car or get an engine from a breaker's yard. It's just not economical to have an engine rebuilt these days.

Oh, so you've now decided to mention head gaskets as well? Well, I check the car groups as well and there are hardly any posts on cambelts breaking - most are about electronic failures. Regardless, people post on there to get advice on how to repair their vehicles or how much it would cost, mainly. Those groups are not for people to give an ongoing report on how their vehicles are performing. If someone is burning oil on an old car and there is blue smoke pouring out the back do you really think they are going to bother posting on a NG about it? The car is most likely not worth squat or worth bothering about. Anyhow this has nothing to with my original post.

I never said I didn't like BMWs. You've provided no argument at all. My original point was that, IME, Japanese engines can take far more abuse than BMW engines. This has nothing to do with how long modern engines last these days. All you've done is misinterpreted my post and then argued against points that I didn't even make.

[IMM]

But they are.

[Grunff]

Now you're /really/ talking crap...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Right, So you're the mouthpiece of the public, then? A relation of IMM, perhaps? ;-)

Quote some recognised surveys, like JD etc, as a basis for discussion

I originally made the point that not all cars are equally enjoyable to drive, and that this has a bearing on why some people buy them, regardless of price and reliability. Same as with power tools.

I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but to get out of it what you actually mean.

You said:-

"Japanese engines can take far more abuse than BMW engines and last longer."

By implication, there is something wrong with the design (and manufacture) of BMW engines if any old cheap and nasty Japanese engine is by your words better designed for the use (or abuse) it's likely to get. And trying to find out what you mean by last longer.

OK - I'll try again. Just how often do you come across *any* reasonable car where the engine is worn out? At one time this happened perhaps several times in the life of any car - many at under 50,000 miles. But these days, near enough none. So engine failures are usually down to other factors than pure wear - cambelts breaking or damage due to overheating, both of which can be the end of the engine if the cost of repairing with

*new* parts is taken into account.

And *no* water cooled engine is immune from damage caused by overheating through lack of water whatever the reason.

I've mentioned it as a cause of engine failure. Now you've moved on to electronics. While of course these can cause engine failure, what has 'abuse' got to do with it now?

But have failed to say in which way, or to provide any evidence.

Do me a favour and explain what you mean by abuse, then, if it doesn't effect the life of the engine? Are you, for example, saying that a BMW engine will tell you in some way if you drive it hard that it doesn't like it, while any Japanese engine doesn't?

Perhaps you need to make the points you mean to get across rather less general?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Last time you mentioned the car you drove, it was a Volvo estate. The case rests.

[RichardS]

Oi! Don't knock Volvo estates - we love our V40!

Having said that, my Prelude is hell of a lot better car to drive (4 wheel steer is a thing to experience) but it's just so damned impractical and expensive to service. And insure. It's just got to go...

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm not. They're very useful vehicles. Just not quite the one you'd choose for a thrash early on a sunny Sunday if you'd an M3 in the garage...

But an engine that will take any sort of abuse.;-)

[IMM]

He is confused as usual.

[Dave]

Mine came with one of the light splitters missing and it took some time to align the system up. The bubble was not accurate and the laser was not accurate between horizontal and vertical lines, but calibration took care of all that. As you say, if you know what you are doing, you can get a straight line from them. Just remember to get the tripod stable and the rotating head solid and you have a dependable laser beam.

Dave

[StealthUK]

Wow, that's a good argument.