The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

bugslet

CKhalvashi wrote: »

It's company policy not to deal with the Renault group (although I would drive a Dacia as I quite like the idea of a top spec car for less than basic Fiesta money), so sadly I can't help you there.

What don't you like about the Renault Groupe? We are about 80% Renault in the fleet.

vivatifosi

chris_m wrote: »

My guess would depend on where in the country it first started being widely used - if in the North then I'd guess almost certainly the Swedish (Viking) root, if in the South then more likely the Dutch.

I think that they both have the same root anyway having dug a bit further.

It's interesting how much we travelled in centuries past. My dad's family were from north Norfolk. In my tree I have a bit of Scandinavian, poss Swedish but more likely Danish; some Dutch; Belgian and German. So they could have retained expressions from pretty much anywhere in n Europe. I love the randomness of family tree research, you literally can end up anywhere.

vivatifosi

Your Duster sounds great Chris. My SIL and NIL both have 4 x 4s. Not totally unnecessary as we are edge of Chilterns.

They currently have high end 4x4s. I struggle to see much difference between these and a much cheaper high spec Sportage, or Dacia even. I think the Sportage is a fab car and so reliable. Don't know much about the Dad is, but they look fine.

chris_m

vivatifosi wrote: »

Your Duster sounds great Chris. My SIL and NIL both have 4 x 4s. Not totally unnecessary as we are edge of Chilterns.

They currently have high end 4x4s. I struggle to see much difference between these and a much cheaper high spec Sportage, or Dacia even.

My original plan was to get a second/third hand Landrover Defender, but even s/h they go for silly money - for the price of the Duster I'd have been looking at a more than 5 year old, probably fairly beaten up, Defender. The same applied for most of the other decent 4x4s second hand. The other advantage, to me, with the Duster is that I was already used to the engine, the same one being in my Merc A-Class.

I also didn't want to spend a huge amount in case it transpired that I didn't like it. For the same reason I bought the Duster on PCP (as was the Merc) so it made it relatively easy to dispose of whichever I decided not to keep. As it turned out I liked the Duster better so returned the Merc early (waiting for the PCP contract end would have cost me around £3-4K more) and, at the same time, paid off the Duster contract completely.

I do have a few niggles with it, all down to design rather than build or other quality;
Because it's a 4x4 version, 1st gear is very low ratio but they did that by making all the gears lower than non 4x4s, so my 6th is the equivalent of other cars' 5th so it is a bit thirstier than it could be when cruising - the aerodynamics of a slightly smoother breeze block don't help there either
The driver's seat could do with having another inch or so of rearward adjustment.
The windscreen rake isn't ideal - driving into the sun I get almost as much reflection of the dashboard as I can see outside.
It really needs permanent instrument panel illumination. again, when driving into the sun it's like looking down a tunnel when trying to see the speedo - as I said to the salesman, who I bumped into when I took it in for its first service recently, it's the first car I've had where I need to turn the headlights on on a sunny day :rotfl:

Other than those points, I'm totally happy with it and will certainly consider another when it comes to replacement time - hopefully not for quite a lot of years.

I think the Sportage is a fab car and so reliable. Don't know much about the Dad is, but they look fine.

They shouldn't have much problems with reliability - just about everything is thoroughly tried and tested in other Renault-Nissan groups cars. The engines and gearboxes go in lots of cars from those brands too (as well as others, eg the diesel is also in some of the Merc A-Class models), the 4x4 system is pretty well straight out of the Nissan X-Trail.

Pyxis

vivatifosi wrote: »

Greetings hummingbirds of hygge, do join in!

Edit....

With reference to 'lurk', the dog type 'lurcher' is also thought to derive from 'lurk'.

A lurcher was a poacher's dog, and poachers are quite keen on lurking furtively!



(Interestingly, neither of the two meanings of 'lurch' appear to be connected to 'lurcher' or 'lurk').

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

With reference to 'lurk', the dog type 'lurcher' is also thought to derive from 'lurk'.
A lurcher was a poacher's dog, and poachers are quite keen on lurking furtively!

That makes sense - at least, I've never seen one moving around with a staggering gait :rotfl:

CKhalvashi

bugslet wrote: »

What don't you like about the Renault Groupe? We are about 80% Renault in the fleet.

I will PM you when I've got some more urgent issues sorted out and I'm on a laptop.

vivatifosi

Wind gusts very strong here, hard to sleep. I wonder why this isn't a named storm.

CKhalvashi

Same here Viva, the tree was rustling.

I'll be in a different time zone tomorrow and could really have done with getting a good nights sleep.

Lets play a game: How many layers of clothes am I going to have to wear to keep my luggage under the 10kg limit?

chris_m

It's a tad drafty up here, but not what I'd call strong winds. At least the rain's stopped, loads of road probs around the county yesterday.