"When in doubt, get a Fender P-bass"

[TBird1958]

Not fair. They can usually make it all the way across a parking lot before needing a major overhaul. 

Kinda makes you want to buy something French 

[PhilT]

I'm excited about these new designs: smart cars  

Those are cute.

Talking of British cars, here's my nemesis, circa 1977 I think. Great when it was working, which wasn't often. What insane optimism led me to try to get it up a mountain in Switzerland? By this stage the throttle was sticking, the wipers didn't work and the cooling system mysteriously emptied itself at random intervals.



>>Kinda makes you want to buy something French 

About the same period I was driving a Renault something on the Rover test track and the gear lever came off in my hand. So, yes, it wasn't only the British.

[Dave W]

My sympathies to anyone who owned a TR-7. They were as bad as my Saab 99, maybe worse.

[rahock]

TR-7 was the absolute bottom of the barrel in British sports cars. I've got the perfect British sports car  , a 99 miata with a supercharger and a mild shot of nitrous.
Rick

[godofthunder]

My first car was a '68 Triumph Spitfire (not very good for hauling bass gear, I used mom's station wagon for that). It was rust with white trim. Ran on average 4 days a week. More like a go cart than a car. Rusted out wheel wells you could see the front tires from the driver seat. I glassed them up but water still shot up from the gear shift. Several times the rear wheels just spun off. In the winter we put a orange bike flag on it, the snow piles up so high here you couldn't even see it coming down the road. No locking column, my friends used to borrow it by push starting it. It was alot of fun, but the only British car I ever owned !

[PhilT]

I had the misfortune of working for the company. I had actually ordered a Spitfire on the employee scheme, as I liked the idea of the rag top. The promised delivery date came and went, so I started hassling. After a while the fleet manager phoned: "We know your Spitfire was built, but we can't find it anywhere. Would you like a TR7, we've got plently of those?"

There was a joke about British cars that you'd switch on the lights and the wipers would come on. So, in 2002, in an ill-advised fit of nostalgia and discovering that after 25 years I was still entitled to a staff discount, I bought a new MG. First time I took it out at night, I switched on the lights and the wipers started up.

[Chris P.]

Nice story

I hope you don't mind if I go a bit off topic and talk about P basses? Your story remind me of one.

As you maybe know my Fiesta P got stolen and my colleague (who had it when it was stolen) and I got a discount from Fender Europe because they hated the story. After a while a Fender employee called me and asked me that they could also send a Marcus Miller Jazz instead of a Precision... NOOOOOO!

[SKATE RAT]

my dad had two TR-6's (a little bigger than the Spitfire) both were cherry.one navy blue the other British racing green. nice and fast.

[the mojo hobo]

I also discovered you needed two British cars, one to drive while fixing the other. I had a GT6 and an MGA, also at times an MGB or Spitfire. I held on to the MGA for about 30 years, only selling it a few years ago.

Oh, I did finally get a P bass a few months ago. I have been assimilated.

[Pilgrim]

I am the proud owner if a 1958 Fiat 1200 Transformabile (Spyder), which was my high school graduation gift in 1968.  It has been in storage since the 1970's and is just about finished with a minor restoration - so I've had no reliability problems at all for 30 years!  If you don't want service problems, you can't miss by having it up on blocks. 

Here's a promo photo.  The windshield is low enough that the convertible top actually extends UP to allow headroom.

[Chris P.]

WOW!

[Dave W]

I see a great future for Fiat, Chrysler and the concrete block industry. 

[TBird1958]

WOW!

Get in your Twingo and ride!

[Chris P.]

 

[godofthunder]

LMFAO ! Were we not talking about the Fender Precision bass ? The most robust and reliable of all bases ? How could this degenerate into a discussion about British sports cars ? Only here.