bernd

You spotted that one, did you?! You're not making it better man... lol The south of England meet? I sense a general lack of enthusiasm there as well...

The crushing disappointment when you spot another Lupo in the wild and you're bouncing in your seat waving manically while the other driver ( @mk2 ) just continues staring straight ahead without even batting an eyelid...

Shall we try again? It's been almost a year...

Ah, so that’s the reason why they weren’t in stock when I tried to order them. Lol! But no worries. I’ve done some more research last night (checking part numbers and manufacturers websites etc.) and have ordered a set of RTS ball joints from eBay. They’re being shipped from Germany of course, so Friday at the earliest. Fingers crossed…

They sent Stark ball joints, even though I’ve ordered the RTS ones. Twice! I’ve returned the first lot and after an email exchange with their customer service department, in which I explained the problem, they sent exactly the same ones again. buycarparts which is just Autodoc in disguise, say that they’re matching the right part numbers, but they’re clearly not…

The sad tale of the front ball joints: The Lupo has been sitting on the drive looking like this for a couple of weeks now while I try and get the right ball joints… It all started with a failed MOT for a deteriorated ball joint on one side and a failed wishbones bush on the other. No matter, I thought and got a set from Eurocarparts, only to find that the tracking was so far out after fitting them that the car was undriveable. I then looked on here and found a thread with a link to GTI ball joints on buycarparts.com. Great, I ordered a set of those, looked up parts numbers and all. And indeed when they arrived, it turns out they are the wrong size too. Volkswagen themselves also don’t sell the GTI specific ones anymore, so there is that. Of course the tie rods are so rusty, that it’s impossible to adjust the tracking for the new ball joints, so I’m gonna have to change the tie rods and track rod ends. Which is apparently a bit of a pain to do. And then probably some spacers for a wider track… If anyone has got an idea how I can get hold of the right sized ball joints, please do let me know! Thank you…

I spotted this one at Tesco earlier. Looking good! I do like the ATS Cup wheels… That’s the third one in a week. Yesterday I saw a red GTI on the A33 towards the stadium and another black one on the A4 towards Aldermaston

My GTi does low 30's mpg when mostly driving to and from work through town and about 50 on a motorway run

I think I’ve seen this one around Caversham once or twice in the last year. There’s a guy in a blue Arosa with ATS cup wheels I meet fairly regularly, usually queuing for the lights on Prospect Street as I drive down towards the roundabout after work

I know exactly what you mean. Setting off from some traffic lights and looking in the rear view mirror at the gigantic gap between my car and the one behind is one of my favourite things to do. @mk2 and spent a considerable amount of time walking around my GTI parked next to one of his standard Lupos, stroking our chins and wondering how such a few minor changes make the GTI look so much better… I also like the geeky engineering e.g. aluminium body parts and thinner glass to save weight. if there are worries about practicality, I’ve transported a tumble drier and a mountain bike (not at the same time obviously) in my old Lupo, and we (2adults 1dog) went camping in Norway and skiing in Switzerland in it…

I used to have a 1.0 E spec Lupo, and I loved that... But for almost the last 20 years I have been thinking: "I wish I had a Lupo GTI" until I finally got one in September last year, and I have to say it fulfilled all my expectations. It's an absolutely brilliant little car. I'm still like a little kid with a new toy a year and a bit later, driving like an idiot with a big fat grin on my face. I dunno about minefield. Mine is an 04 reg with 120000 miles on the clock and it hasn't missed a beat since I got it. Ok maybe that one time when the alarm kept going off because of water in the rear spoiler. And yes, there's things like noisy door catch straps and non functioning door microswitches etc. and the aircon doesn't work, as you would expect from a 17 year old car. All things that are easily fixable if I could be bothered. Generally I would say though that it is very well screwed together indeed. The 3series BMW of similar vintage I had before had many more things wrong with it. Also, if you get a GTI now, you probably won't loose any money if you decide to sell it again, as prices have been going up steadily for the last few years and are likely to continue to do so. All in all then: 12 out of 10. Would recommend!

Ah yes, thank you for clarifying that, I had no idea @kt_lou_gti was taking the piss… Anyway, I agree on the one hand side it’s good to see Lupo GTI’s selling for that sort of money for people who already own one. However, it raises all sorts of issues, e.g. insurance, or using it as a daily driver with everything that implies like a muddy dog on the back seat, curbed wheels, idiots who throw open their doors in supermarket car parks etc.

Why would you want gold plating in the engine bay?! I didn’t check on eBay, just couldn’t see it anymore on Autotrader. I mean, it shouldn’t sell for that price anyway. You could go buy a Porsche for that sort of money…

It looks like they sold it though. Glad I bought mine last year

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106304459310 This is a joke, right?!

Here’s another pic, open bonnet and all… Such geeks! It was great fun. We should do that again!

OX10 0XB Should take you to the actual car park. Also, Wallingford is not that big and the big Waitrose right in the middle of it is difficult to miss

Yay. Tesco has got petrol, and the queues were manageable. So, I’ll see you tomorrow at 11…

Yes to the 3rd! 11 Waitrose Wallingford works for me. Looking forward to it!

How about the 26th? Or the 3rd October? Anyone?

One year in, some ramblings... A year ago yesterday, I went to Swindon to pick up my Lupo. And I wasn't even here on the anniversary. It's even worse, as under normal circumstances I would have been driving back from visiting my parents in Germany yesterday. However, because I didn't fancy filling in another 2 passenger locator forms (Digitale Einreiseanmeldung) (whatever it's called in French) I just drove that stupid Lexus 4x4 barge that I got from Europcar instead of the Audi A1 I had booked to Frankfurt Airport and hopped across to Heathrow on a Lufthansa Airbus 320 neo, which is quite an impressive little Aeroplane, and I really don't like aeroplanes. At least the Professor picked me up at Reading Station in the Lupo so I spent a few minutes in the passenger seat (yelling and shouting because of the stupid RailAir bus and the people on it who all seemed to be coughing a lot etc etc) Anyway. The good news is that after a year, I still feel like a little kid with a new toy. I have also managed to completely mess it up again, e.g. I have kept all Tesco meal deal packaging, empty Red Bull cans and other rubbish contained in a shopping bag on the rear seat rather than just chucking it in the passenger footwell, and I resisted buying a pain au chocolate on the way to work, but only for about a week. So yes, there are flaky crumbs, but priorities... Unsurprisingly, it is also telling me that it wants a Serv/Inspec, so that's on the to-do-list for next week while I'm still off work, and some investigation what is causing coolant to disappear. Not a great lot, and there doesn't seem to be any mixing with oil, so phew! Another tangent: Spending the last week in Germany, I was surprised about how many Lupos I spotted in traffic, just casually doing their thing. But then again it is probably deeply embedded in the collective German psyche that a Volkswagen is indeed the car for the people and so the smallest VW would be the default choice for lots of people who need a car but are not really interested (in fact my biology teacher swapped her Mark2 Polo for a Lupo and my mate's grandmother traded her Audi 50 for a Lupo) and as we all know, they're tough little things.

I'm in Germany on the 12th September, after that I've got nothing planned for Sundays... Is meeting on the 5th still a thing? (I'm still up for that)

Ah well, let’s keep trying with this though…

Excellent. Sunday the 5th works for me too. I don’t mind what time

Sundays work for me… I’ve got nothing planned yet this week or next I’m happy to meet in a car park somewhere. The Waitrose car park in Wallingford is of course rather idyllic (as car parks go), and it’s free on Sundays. The post code is OX10 0XB.