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200 Series General Forum for the Volvo 240 and 260 cars |
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New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244Views : 1774815 Replies : 4083Users Viewing This Thread : |
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Aug 10th, 2020, 21:27 | #1591 | |
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Around 1992/3, they changed them to Micro-TAC but were essentially the same basic flip-phone but with extra ring tones. Also the battery would last a day easily. Mine cost me £1 and about £30/month in 1994/5 time, got it for work and was promptly laid off about a month later. Fast forward to now and my current Motorola MOTO G5 does so much more than the original Micro-TAC, has unlimited minutes and texts plus 1GB data for £30.43/month. However i also get a 5GB data boost by having my landline with the same company. Officially the contract is called £29/month but RPI increases have caused it to jump to the figure quoted from that. The new contract is exactly £21/month and comes with a MOTO G8, an updated version of the G5 i currently have. Then again look at the humble radio. Look back a few decades and you were lucky to have manual tuning and FM as a waveband choice. Now even basic ones comes with electronic memory tuning, digital displays and so on. Depends what you call progress but some things are just plain strange - WiFi controlled washing machines? Really?
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Aug 11th, 2020, 00:17 | #1592 | |
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There is an expensive but salutary addendum to this story: after a while I realised the iPhones were getting broken a bit too frequently, they weren't being looked after because they were not trendy enough amongst Dan's cohort at school. The solution was to ask Dan which phone he wanted (I'd always bought iPhones because that it what I use - always buy them outright and have a SIM only contract)... the answer was he wanted a Google Pixel 2. We went to Curry's electrical store that eve and Dad left about £500 poorer, but the cell phone is cherished and there has not been a single broken screen since. Here endeth the lesson (for Dad). :-) |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 00:21 | #1593 | |
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Unless one really must have the very latest then technology is very cheap indeed. Sure, that is progress. Alan |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 00:37 | #1594 | |
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The Google Pixel 2 is roughly equivalent to the MOTO G5 i have now, both being made by Lenovo under the Motorola and/or Google brands, Google having bought the phone division of Motorola and having some tie-up with Lenovo. The G8 is similarly a rebranded/badged GooglePixel 3a so lookout when Dan gets wind of the 3a - just pray he doesn't decide he wants the new Motorola RAZR flip at £1500 outright purchase! Nice flip-phone though!
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Cheers Dave Next Door to Top-Gun with a Honda CR-V & S Type Jag Volvo gone but not forgotten........ Last edited by Laird Scooby; Aug 11th, 2020 at 00:57. |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 00:37 | #1595 | |
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This afternoon I drove over to MH with tools, jump leads, charger etc. The problem was the car had been driven front first into the garage, the battery is in the boot, but that only way of opening it was via the electric solenoid. The car also has an electric parking brake and is a modern automatic, electrically locked in P. Surely none of that was really progress? All that electronic stuff that made the car almost completely inaccessible just because of a flat battery. ... after about an hour (including quite a bit of googling on my cell phone) I managed to rig up an old motorbike battery to a charging terminal the car has in the engine compartment which gave just enough power to pop the boot solenoid and access the (one year old) battery. I have never seen a battery so flat - it registered zero volts on a multi-meter so a jump start would not have worked. Of the two chargers I had the digital one would not recognise the battery at all, and the old fashioned one would not charge it slowly enough (9A, so the thermal cut out kept tripping). The only solution was to take it to the battery shop from whence it came to have it re-charged overnight (I think that will probably work - we'll find out tomorrow). I really can't think any of that is really progress. BMW has filled the car with clever electronics but forgotten to make it usable or repairable. The RB is a much better design :-) Alan PS. I have to confess: I did buy a robot vacuum cleaner a few months ago - it was just so clever for the money :-) Last edited by Othen; Aug 11th, 2020 at 00:40. Reason: Grammar. |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 00:47 | #1596 | |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 01:28 | #1597 | ||
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Back in the mid 90s i came to the conclusion BMW were building probnlems into cars, had a 5- series through the workshops because one of the rear doors had deadlocked itself and the central locking motor had failed. Access to the motor was only available after removing the door card obviously - less obviously is with the door deadlocked, the rear seat squab had to come out first to gain access to hidden (by the squab) parts of the door card which could only be partly removed anyway. It was enough to disconnect the rods though and open the door manually so a proper repair could be effected. While the seat squab was out, the battery revealed itself with no less than 7 computers of various forms tieing everything the car did into one main (extra) computer plus of course the Motronics engine management ECU as well. It seems they've continued this course of action with your mates Z4 and the various ECUs simply flattened the battery! As for a vacuum cleaner, i'll stick to my 31 year old Kirby! Have enough trouble with the hound with that, never mind what she would perceive as another animal doing the vacuuming! Besides, it would only take one stray bone and the robot one would be history! Quote:
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Aug 11th, 2020, 07:48 | #1598 | |
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I've fixed that Z4 quite a few times, and I've told my mate this is the last time I'll rescue it. If he isn't going to use the car then sell it as soon as I get it going (particularly as he has just lost his lock up garage). It won't last long parked on the road. I'm not a BMW fan. I bought a brand new 318 touring about 30 years ago (tax free, I was being posted back to Germany). I'd ordered it at short notice over the phone and showed up at the very swish showroom at Park Lane to collect, only to notice the car didn't have a radio fitted. I asked the suited salesman where was the radio, and he explained that I had not specified one so they had not fitted it, but I could of course purchase on of their BMW (re-branded blue-spot) radios that started at only £400 (a lot of money in about 1991). It had not occurred to me that I might have to order a radio separately for what was quite an up market car - I'd bought a couple of new Mazdas in the years prior and they came with everything as standard (certainly radios, A/C and electric windows all round). I took the car away somewhat in disgust, bought a pretty good Kenwood radio for less than half the price BMW had wanted in the NAAFI when I got to Germany. I've never bought a new (or used) BMW since - I just don't like the company's way of doing things (and they seem to be driven by pretentious people that often insist on overtaking my Porsche whatever the risk). Ho hum, time for Bob's first walk. Alan PS. We don't need the robot vacuum cleaner, but it is just so cool. Last edited by Othen; Aug 11th, 2020 at 07:55. Reason: Correction. |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 09:33 | #1599 | |
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Aug 11th, 2020, 11:51 | #1600 | |
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I got on the iPhone/iPad conveyor almost by accident a few years ago and now it the data management is just too difficult to make it worthwhile stepping off. Alan Last edited by Othen; Aug 11th, 2020 at 12:26. |
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