Milbrook is a special track in the UK where car companies test their vehicles. It has different areas for testing cars at high speeds and other conditions.
The Peugeot Rifter is a roomy car that can carry a lot of people or stuff, making it great for families or trips. It was made to be flexible, so you can use it for different kinds of activities. People like to talk about it because it's practical and comfortable.
Citroën is a car brand from France that makes many different types of cars, including electric ones. They are known for their unique designs and technology.
The Peugeot 504 is an older car that was made a long time ago and is known for being very tough and comfortable to drive. It was popular in many countries and is remembered for its classic style. People like to talk about it because it has a good reputation for lasting a long time.
The Peugeot 205 is a small car that was made in France and is loved by many people for its fun driving experience. It was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
A four-cylinder engine is a type of car engine that has four small chambers where fuel and air mix and burn to create power. These engines are usually smaller and more efficient than larger engines.
The Vauxhall Astra is a small car that many people in the UK drive. It's known for being reliable and having good engine performance, especially the four-cylinder versions.
The Opel Astra is a small car that is easy to drive and good for everyday use. It's known for being reliable and not too expensive to maintain. People talk about it because it's a sensible choice for many drivers.
The Fiat Panda is a small car that's easy to drive and park, perfect for city use. The '100 horsepower' means it has a stronger engine, which helps it go faster and handle better.
The Volvo 940 is a sturdy car that was made in the 1990s and is known for being very safe and lasting a long time. It has a simple, boxy shape that many people recognize. It's talked about because it's one of those cars that just keeps going and going.
The Volvo EX30 is a new electric car from Volvo. It's designed to be eco-friendly and has some modern features, but some owners have reported problems with its software and electronics.
An oil service is when the old oil in the engine is replaced with new oil, and the oil filter is changed. This helps keep the engine running well and prevents damage.
An oil filter is a part of the car that keeps the engine oil clean by removing dirt and debris. If it gets loose, it can cause oil to leak out, which is bad for the engine.
Limp mode is what happens when a car's computer senses a problem and reduces power to protect the engine. It means you can still drive, but not very fast or far.
The engine block is like the main body of the engine where all the important parts are located. If it gets damaged, the engine can stop working properly.
The Acura NSX is a fast sports car that was made to be both fun to drive and practical enough for everyday use. It has a special engine located in the middle of the car, which helps it handle corners better. People talk about it because it combines luxury with speed.
The Lamborghini Gallardo is a super fancy sports car that is really fast and has a loud engine. It's famous for its sharp looks and is one of the most popular cars made by Lamborghini. People love to talk about it because it's a symbol of luxury and speed.
LIVE
I'm Richard Porter, I'm Johnny Smith, and this is On the Other Side of Things, the Smith and Sniff spin-off in which we answer your questions.
Hi everyone, we're back on a Friday answering questions, and I think I'm going to start with quite a broad one from a listener called Finton,
and he says, Hello you pair of Elizabethan lutes. A very simple question for you.
A flute without the F. I love that.
It's good, very inventive. He says a very simple question for you. What is the point of Vauxhall?
Oh gosh.
Through my extensive research, brackets 45 seconds on Wikipedia, I've confirmed that they've essentially been rebadged opals since the early 80s.
I can understand the 80s and even 90s they did have some individuality to their products, but for at least the last 25 years they've just been rebranded opals.
Apart from brand loyalty for UK buyers, is there any other point in keeping an essentially dead brand alive?
Gosh, well of course now they're not rebranded opals are they, because they are part of the Stalantis.
They are, but opals are now, you know, purses and citrines underneath.
Yes, yes, it sort of shifted again. And whenever we mention Stalantis, we must do the constant, constant Ibiza party that is Stalantis.
I mean, this question reminded me of the fact that it's quite nuts that Vauxhall was much more independent in the 50s, 60s, into the 70s to the extent that it had its own design studio in the UK.
And it had its own test track that was bloody massive. Milbrook is still there. It's got a high speed bowl.
Yeah, Milbrook was Vauxhall, wasn't it? Yeah.
The amount of investment that was made in Vauxhall, in particularly in the 60s, it's only since the last couple of years.
I think that the Vauxhall HQ, their old building, Griffin House in Luton, has been demolished.
And I went there not long before it got taken down.
It had a design studio with a rooftop viewing yard that was, it was quite big. You could, you know, and it was still there in later days.
I think the Vauxhall press office that we would have to deal with when we wanted to borrow Vauxhall was in the old design studio and the outdoor viewing yard just became this massive balcony.
But they spent a lot of money and it had its own, you know, the whole sort of R&D centre there in Luton and then this huge test facility up in Bedfordshire.
It's like, it was a proper car company could develop its own cars and yet, you know, it then just had a sister company over in Germany, probably duplicating a lot of effort.
And I guess that's what they realised when they then brought everything under one roof and that roof happened to be Opels.
Oh, yeah. I mean, we own a Vauxhall Rich.
Don't we?
Yes, we do.
Well, that's a really Opel-y Vauxhall though, isn't it?
It's a very Germanic Vauxhall, yeah.
Very Germanic, quite a straight six rear wheel drive.
Yeah.
It does, yes.
And it has a feeling of solidity about it, which is one of the reasons why we like it.
But to answer Vincent's question about what is the point of Vauxhall, it is a good question because if anything, well, it's like, it's just a rebadge, isn't it?
Okay, so essentially for years Opel sold here just happened to be called Vauxhall's because British people are more familiar with that as a name.
Yeah.
And it also, I think it probably for the less sort of car interested person, they'd go, oh, I've got British cars, I've got a Vauxhall.
Even though fewer and fewer Vauxhall's were made here over the years.
I mean, it is worth saying they do still make cars in this country, which Ford don't, for example, a lot of people sort of somehow think Ford is British.
That is worth, that is definitely worth mentioning.
Since they became part of Eurodance collective Stellantis, you do sort of go, well, yes.
What is the point of them when you could probably get an equivalent Peugeot or Citroen maybe for a bit less money?
And there seems like there's an awful lot of overlap.
I think the danger of having a big conglomerate like Stellantis, yeah, yeah, yeah, is that everything melds into one.
And so the brands lose their individuality, which means it's harder for marketing people to sell them on the merits of them being different.
And so then you are simply looking at the bottom line like, oh, well, the Citroen's the same as the Peugeot, which is the same as the Vauxhall.
And that one's £1,200 this month, less to buy to sign up to.
So therefore I'll just bloody do that.
Or, yeah, Citroen's just introduced more interesting colours.
So I'm going to do that.
And that's, I don't think that's the way it should be.
And that's a really dangerous place to be, actually.
The Peugeot, what's the sort of the rifter?
Do you know that?
Yes.
The Vanny thing.
I love the rifter.
Yeah.
The rifter, which I don't know if I've used this years ago.
I wrote a joke for Grand Tour about because rifter to me sounded like a Glaswegian word for twat.
I remember you telling me about this.
It's not been a rifter.
But the rifter, the electric rifter was going with this absurdly cheap lease deal,
sort of £150 a month or something with not much money down.
And I must be like, fucking hell.
I mean, that's, if you needed just a very functional boxy electric car, that feels like a bargain.
But I was really curious.
And I was like, well, there's a Vauxhall version of this.
I can't remember what it's called.
And there's a Citroen version.
Out of curiosity, I just had a look to see if they were all doing the same deal and they weren't.
And it's like, if you wanted the Vauxhall Citroen version, it was sort of like £600 a month or something.
So that's where the difference is, who's got a finance offer running, particularly with those vans,
because they really are conspicuously the same thing.
Just with different badges on.
In a way, that's the race to the bottom, I feel.
And you remember when the British car industry was bad marketing a lot of things?
I think it worked initially and then eventually everything drowned.
Yeah.
Everyone drowned one another.
Well, I imagine with Stalantis, there's lots of the same sort of politics that went on with BMC,
whatever it was, that there had to be a Morris version of this Austin or whatever it was,
because they were separate dealer networks and there'd have been a mutiny if they hadn't for a period anyway.
And then they were sort of trying to sort this out and consolidate, which I'd notice there's a...
I can't remember what it was originally.
I think it was a Peugeot Citroen dealer that I used to drive past not far from here.
And that now very confusingly is a sort of all Stalantis dealership,
which seems to be what they're trying to do.
And it still scrambles my brain when you see Fiat next to the Peugeot logo.
Yeah.
Why are they...
Oh, because they're the same company now.
And this garage isn't actually that big.
And it's now selling sort of five different makes of car.
And you go, that's hard work, isn't it?
Because when someone walks in and goes, hello, I'd like a medium-sized SUV, please.
What do you do?
I suppose you do just point them to the one with the best offer on it at that point.
Yeah.
And I, as we're talking about this, I don't...
And this is serious.
I don't know the answer.
But what I do believe is that there needs to be more individuality.
So there needs to be a stronger identity.
And I guess if you look at what Renault has done,
Renault has really, I think, dug deep and gone,
let's look backwards a little,
but let's make the desirable, interesting,
and unashamedly close to its country of origin
and feel proud of that.
And I feel like there are companies like Vauxhall and Citroen and Peugeot
who have such an amazing heritage.
That does need to be dug into a bit.
But what's Vauxhall's version of that?
Because Peugeot, you know, traditionally you go,
well, Peugeot's, at once upon a time, they were sort of very upright
and stayed but famously quite tough,
sort of 504s and things like that.
And then they became stylish and nice to drive.
If that was their thing, wasn't it?
The drive of your life was the whole thing.
And you can sort of lean into that a bit.
And people, I think, there's still a generation of people
who have very fond memories of 205s particularly,
but then also 106s.
The lion goes from strength to strength.
Yeah, so you've got a bit of stuff to work with there.
And Citroen, obviously, is being slightly quirky but also comfortable.
And probably there's a sort of Frenchness there
they can lean into in the way that perhaps Renault have done a little bit.
And so I think you could see how you could market all that
and you could make cars that fitted into some sort of historical template
that made sense.
But what's the Vauxhall equivalent?
I don't know because I really...
Yeah, it's hard because in the 80s,
I thought the Vauxhall's were far superior to Ford's,
which is controversial.
But I've always much preferred them back then.
That's the thing.
I mean, I'm trying to think sort of what's the public perception,
not the car nerd perception because we get into...
Vauxhall's always used to have sort of very lusty four-cylinder engines,
didn't they?
Not even Gainty and Red Top stuff,
but just a bog standard like 1.4-litre Astra
always felt like it had a really strong engine
compared to whatever Ratley Kack Ford was putting out
that sort of point in the 80s and 90s.
But what's the broader thing about Vauxhall?
What's a Vauxhall brand value in the eyes of the average person in the street?
Is it just value?
And is it...
Just car, just some car.
Yeah.
But should Vauxhall do something like World Rallycross
where...
And they take a...
Just normal people don't watch it.
It's such a niche.
Nothing, no motorsport, I believe,
is that good at selling cars to a broader audience.
Even F1, I think, is overstated the benefits of being at F1
in terms of actually flogging hatchbacks and SUVs.
I agree.
I don't know.
And I think Vauxhall, you know, that course,
the original course at the start of the 90s was, at the time,
a really distinctive and attractive car
because it was early doors on that very sort of soft...
Yeah.
...kind of sculpting of the panels that became ubiquitous in the 90s.
But at the time, that course was a strikingly good-looking car
for a little car, you know.
It was kind of cute, which meant it was unthreatening.
It just...
People, they sold a shitload of those cars because it looked good.
And they sold it well with those adverts with supermodels and stuff.
And I was in Lisbon a few weeks ago,
and I'll talk about it on the main podcast,
but I saw bucket loads of those first-gen courses still.
Really?
Bucket loads just parked around the streets, the narrow streets.
And I took an unhealthy amount of photos of them,
which I will show you.
But, yeah, it's a very good question, Fintan,
and I think we should probably keep thinking about it.
I don't know.
That's the thing. It is actually quite hard.
It's really sort of ceased to exist tomorrow.
What's the loss?
Jobs, obviously, for people who make and sell voxels.
We're not willing that to happen,
but, yeah, what do we lose from the car landscape?
Right, we're going to rattle on to another question.
This one is from Martin Laver.
Martin says,
Hello.
You pair of perfect prattle purveyors.
I've got a question stemming from a recent almost deceased spec car.
In March, I'm going on a three-week rally to Scandinavia
and the Arctic Circle.
The group will be covering some four and a half thousand miles
on the continent.
The perfect car for the journey seemed to me to be an old Volvo,
and I found and bought a 91-plate 940 pale blue saloon
with spoiler, with an unusual history.
It was originally bought by someone in the forces
who was based in Germany,
and as such it was sold to him by Volvo's
tourist and diplomat division.
After many years of faithful service to and from Germany,
it was sold to the chap's brother and I bought it from him.
It's in excellent condition with no rust anywhere.
It also had an exquisite 90s blue velour interior,
also in top condition, pictures attached.
This is almost the same spec as the Volvo
that my friend Simon Brouse has got,
which he bought, I think, before it was going to be scrapped,
and he's owned it for like 12 years,
and it just is so beautifully built.
Having delved through the car post-purchase,
I've found, amongst other assorted spares,
in a plastic folding crate,
Alar parents of the time,
and a double cassette tape
of Princess Di's memorial music.
I didn't even know that was a thing.
So he's got a crate that came with the car
with a double cassette tape of Princess Di's memorial music.
A near-perfect bound road atlas of Europe
given only to the tourist and diplomat customers of Volvo.
I have also a pair of original tourist and diplomat key rigs.
I couldn't be happier with my purchase,
although I suspect a 30-year-old road atlas
might not get me out of a scrape
when 5G fails in deep Sweden.
Listen, Martin, 5G won't fail in Sweden.
I've driven around all of the mountains around Norway,
and I had 4G constantly.
It was an embarrassment to the UK.
But Martin, who is a patron,
thank you for being a patron,
finishes this with his question.
His question is,
what's the most interesting find
when rooting around a second-hand car that you've bought?
Best wishes, Martin.
Oh, the most interesting thing.
Well, I found a couple of good key rings.
I used to collect key rings as an 80s child.
I think many of us probably did.
So I found a couple of really good...
I remember finding a fantastic spirit level.
It was a miniature spirit level
on a key ring of a car that I bought,
and I can't even remember which car it was,
but I ultimately found the spirit level
more interesting than the car.
And I think when I sold the car
and I kept the spirit level key ring,
I must have it somewhere.
But it was from a place,
or it was a...
No, it wasn't a place.
It was a brand.
It was an advertising brand,
but it was so teeny, tiny.
It was just beautiful.
I got given,
and I don't know whether this is...
It's not like an official memento.
When I bought my Australian Ford Fairlane,
it came with the heaviest gauge
length of boat chain and padlock.
To this day, I've never seen a more substantial padlock
that the guy would chain around the steering wheel
and the brake pedal, I think.
And when I bought the car,
he said, oh, do you want the chain?
And I kind of went, yeah, OK.
And then when I lifted the chain out to put it in the boot,
it was like 30 kilos for like a meter of chain.
Yeah, so that was pretty weird.
And I've kept that padlock and chain.
I didn't sell it with the car.
Yeah, because I'm weird.
Basically.
That's very enough.
I don't think I've got anything to match that.
I don't think I've ever found anything
sort of particularly memorable,
particularly sort of stuff that hasn't been declared to you
by the seller.
They've gone, oh, I'll chuck that in.
You know, it's sort of...
A friend of mine bought a car with a CD
because CDs, left CDs, were quite common, weren't they?
And it was a...
scores of the movie's CD.
And it had a really wide variety
of music soundtracks on it.
And I have still got it
because I thought it was so cool.
He gave it to me and went, oh, I don't want it.
You can have it.
I still listen to it.
Now, this was declared,
but when I bought my Panda 100 horsepower,
there was a CD in the stereo,
which the seller went, you can have that
because it was in there when I bought the car.
And it was...
I think it was...
Like, now that's what I call music,
105 or something.
And then on my way home from picking up the car,
discovering that the radio didn't work.
So I just stuck this CD on.
It was a mixed bag,
but then it turned out
because some of it cut the aerial connection
off the back of the stereo.
That until I bought a new stereo off eBay
and sorted out an auxiliary cable to plug my phone in.
Everywhere I went, I just had this...
Now that's what I call music playing.
It wasn't that good.
In general, there was more shite on it than there was good.
So I wouldn't claim this is a brilliant thing
to find in any car.
That's when you needed Diana Prince of Wales's
tribute double cassette.
I'm still like...
I'm looking at the photo of it now.
It's amazing.
Surely not an official product of any sort,
like to raise money for charity.
Just some sort of awful, mawkish cash in.
I don't really know.
I don't really know,
but what I am...
Martin has sent these photos
and the key ring that says Special Delivery,
Tourist and Diplomat Sales,
and it's got a picture of a profile picture of a Volvo 940 saloon
with the outline of a world globe behind it.
I'm curious as to what Tourist means in that context,
because Diplomat, I get it.
Okay, so you're working overseas perhaps,
or British forces as it sounds like the first owner of this was,
and then you were able to buy cars, weren't you?
I think there's all sorts of advantages to that.
But Tourist, you're on holiday and you decide to buy a Volvo.
Yeah, I think so.
It just wins you over and you just throw caution to the wind,
and you think, should we go out and have tapas tonight?
No, I've got more pressing business.
I'm going to go and buy a Volvo quickly.
Oh, hey, as soon as we're talking of Volvo,
I just want to do a really quick...
This is just a call back to a few weeks ago,
and we were talking about the Volvo EX30,
and I'd seen a couple of people sort of visibly having problems
operating the EX30s because of the quite infamous
electronic and software issues that car has suffered,
and I was saying I'd sort of firmly advise the friend
not to buy one because it felt like it was a bit unfinished.
A listener called Marco from Italy has written to us and said,
he's the owner of an EX30 rear-wheel drive extended range.
He admits he might be a bit biased,
but since June 2024, he's done 24,000 kilometers in it.
So, you know, he's obviously got to know his Volvo quite well.
He says, I think your comments were a bit harsh.
I tend to agree that out of the box, it was an unfinished product,
and I won't forgive Volvo for that,
but they've been releasing at least every fourth or fifth month
and over-the-air updates, and the car has kept getting better.
He's got plenty of torque for the corners,
setup's a bit soft, but it gives you a very nice ride.
The infotainment's a bit marmite,
but if you're used to Android phones as he is,
it's pretty straightforward, and the voice control works pretty well.
He says that in 24,000 kilometers, it's given no headaches,
and he's generally had a nice experience.
That's good.
Well, there we go.
In defense of the EX30, there's Marco.
He says, it's fine.
Can I move on to a message from a listener called Robin,
who says, hi guys, I purchased a 2005 Moonrock Grey Honda S2000
in fantastic condition from a private engineer seller in 2022.
Engineer as private.
So this chap said he'd carried out an oil service for him,
as in for Robin before he picked up the car.
Shortly afterwards, I spanked it onto the A3 when at 9000 RPM,
I couldn't see in front, behind or left and right
due to the smoke grenade that ensued.
I now know that the oil filter came loose
and deposited 4 litres of oil all over the place.
Oh no.
The engine was kaput.
I spent £6,000 on a replacement.
The engineer hadn't done the oil filter up properly.
Oh no, that's shit.
Slowest of hand claps, says Robin.
This brings us to April this year,
when on a similarly spirited run on the A331 near Farmbro,
the engine went into limp mode.
I had the car recovered to the local Honda specialist
that fitted the replacement engine.
They've been busy, so it took until a few weeks ago
for the news to come through that the engine had detonated itself.
Oh no.
I think due to an overrev, the block is cracked
and the internals in bits.
What?
So, herein lies the problem and why I'm asking for your help.
The car owes me £20,000, but is worth circa £14,000.
Do I, A, spend £6,000 to £8,000 replacing the engine yet again,
the cost of which has gone up in line with the S2000's popularity,
or do I, B, sell it without an engine for £3,000 or £4,000?
Either way, it's not a good outcome.
It'll either be a £26,000 to £28,000 S2000,
or I lose the £20,000 I've plowed in,
less than £3,000 or £4,000 I'll get back.
Thank you, please, Robin.
Gosh, well, first of all, Robin, yeah, that is rotten.
That is rotten luck.
The fact that the previous owner changed your oil for you
but clearly wouldn't have done it on purpose,
not tightening the oil filter enough, that's horrendous.
Can you imagine, isn't it?
You go, oh, this guy's an engineer and he's done an oil change for me.
And it's just like you go, well, that's thoughtful, that's brilliant.
You'd just be so excited you're getting a good car here
because it's been looked after.
Just wouldn't think I bet this guy hasn't tightened up the oil filter.
No, it's really bad.
Do you know what, you're lucky you didn't crash.
Four litres of synthetic oil all over the back wheels, bloody hell.
So I am of the opinion, like my good old dad always is,
is better than devil, you know.
I also can't bear the idea of selling a car for a vast loss
because it just means I just couldn't do it.
So I'm of the opinion of going again and putting another engine in it.
I would definitely look at some alternatives.
I mean, the fact that both your engines were irreparable, that is rare.
Normally, I mean, bloody hell, that's quite hard.
I don't want to sound bad, but it's quite hard engine to kill.
But yeah, so I think in line with the fact that you know
that the popularity of these cars continues to rise
and if they are not rotten and if they've been really well looked after bodily,
because the body's actually the harder bit than the engine a lot of the time,
I would say go with it because yes,
you have got to swallow a particularly large pill to rebuild the engine again.
I think it will pay off ultimately
and I hope that you'll actually enjoy the car in the process
because that would be a shame if you're constantly just hating it because of what it's done.
I agree with you.
I suppose my opening question over Robin would just be
do you still want to own a Honda S2000?
Because if you do and you would miss having that car in your life,
then I totally agree with you,
the better the devil you know, everything else about that car is known.
If you still want an S2000, then you might as well just spend the money fixing up this one.
Yes, it's painful, but it's no more or less painful than having to let a broken car go for, you know.
Through a foreground would be hideous.
Absolutely hideous.
If you've fallen out of love for the S2000 and this is another curveball,
but this is what someone would do if you sold it for three grand, four grand,
is do the engine with a view to not keeping the car
and really going to town on the rest of the condition of the car
and make it so nice and then put it through an auction,
like the piston heads auctions, piston heads are pals,
and then let someone else see the car and buy it as good as it could almost get S2000.
And you might break even if the car is in that good a condition and I don't know how good it is,
but then you'll be like, right, I've put some effort in but the car is really, really good,
but I don't want it anymore, sorry.
Or go completely nuts and spend an absolute fortune doing some kind of elaborate engine swap on it.
Well, you could do it, but people swap these engines into other stuff, don't they?
It's very rare that the S2000 has a different engine.
Yeah, but obviously, in a way, the engine is the selling point of that car
and it'd be silly to put anything else in there because it's so revvy,
but it was criticised for a lack of torque.
Yeah, it was.
You could supercharge it, do something.
NSX V6?
Yes, that's it, I wonder.
Shitting hell, imagine that.
Is the engine bay wide enough?
I couldn't tell you.
I don't know, I wonder if someone's done that, but wouldn't it?
And it's still Honda, but it's just mad engines.
You just have to do all manner of fiddling about because NSX, it's a crossway,
so gearbox and things might be interesting, but not impossible, or some kind of other Honda V6.
I don't know, there's nothing as good as an NSX.
I bet NSX V6 though is quite a pricey thing to buy, isn't it?
Probably.
This will be the bit when we get a letter from Robin in about 12 months time saying,
I've spent £80,000 on my S2000 and it was great for about four miles,
and now I don't want it, what shall I do?
And we'll go, this one seems to rig a bell.
For some reason I took leave of my senses and decided to put a Lamborghini Gallardo V10
into the front of it and it's completely ruined the handling.
Also, the end of the engine pokes to the dashboard and it's very hot.
People do do.
OK, well, I don't know.
I suppose that, yes, ultimately, best of the devil you know,
and maybe you just need to take a deep breath and spend the cash and then enjoy the car.
But, you know, if you can't enjoy the car because you're just thinking,
two engines have gone in this, what's going to happen now?
Yeah, what next, yeah.
I still think maybe you'll fix it up and sell it for what you can get for it,
because it's better than just letting it go for...
I agree, because there's a very strong desire for them.
Oh, there is, isn't there?
Yeah, there is.
Honda, you probably know this, Robin, make outboard motors.
They do a really compact V8.
Really compact V8.
Can you imagine if you were to get that?
Obviously you'd have to have water cooling,
but imagine if you could put an outboard Honda V8 into an S2000.
That would get global recognition and then suddenly the car is infamous
and therefore probably valuable.
It's quite a high capacity engine, is it not?
We saw one, didn't we, at Goodwood?
We did, it was huge.
Well, it's tall.
It's a very different shape, I think, to a car V8, or it seems that way.
Yes.
Yes, it was.
We did see one at Goodwood.
I took a photo of it because I was trying to describe to my brother the size of it.
Yeah, I just remember the hugeness was the most striking element of it,
but then is it not also because it's...
Which way round is it mounted?
Is it not sort of standing on its nose?
Oh.
So the crank is vertical.
It could be.
We need to get some more.
These are problems that Robin I'm sure can work through with his Honda Specialist.
Robin, do let us know how you get on.
Fitting an outboard motor.
It seems to me that Ottersod is supposed to be where we answer questions,
but we answer questions with more questions.
Well, you know, but then sometimes questions raise more questions.
If you have got a question for us, hello at smithandsniff.com,
put Ottersod in your subject line if it is a question, makes it easier for us to find them.
We'll be back next Friday with more useless advice,
possibly relating to outboard motors.
Until then, goodbye.
Thanks, everybody.
MUSIC
G'day, USA.
It's Tony here from the Tony and Ryan podcast.
My best mate and I, we make a podcast together every day, daily laughs,
but you don't have to take our word for it.
Ali listens to the show from North Carolina.
Why should other people in the US listen to this podcast?
They're just going to make you laugh your ass off
and make you be a better person, start your day off better
and your day off better whenever you listen to the podcast.
You're just going to fall in love.
Well, no one's ever said anything out nice before, so I love it.
I love it too. Listen to Tony and Ryan.
About this episode
A listener's question about the relevance of Vauxhall sparks a lively discussion on the brand's history and current identity within the Stellantis group. Richard and Johnny explore Vauxhall's past independence, its transformation into a rebadged Opel, and the challenges of maintaining brand individuality in a large conglomerate. They also share amusing anecdotes about interesting finds in second-hand cars, including a listener's unique Volvo purchase and the quirks of owning an S2000 with engine troubles. The episode is filled with humor and insightful commentary on the automotive landscape.
