On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:04:16 +0100, Fredxxx wrote:

On 20/04/2016 23:42, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Wed, 20 Apr 2016 22:18:57 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Chris writes:
How long do lead/acid car batteries typically last nowadays and does
it make any difference if you do low annual mileage but with lots of
very short local trips, or high annual long-run motorway miles?

IME, the original battery in all the cars around the family does in
excess of 10 years. Finding a replacement anywhere near as good when
it finally needs replacing seems to be impossible.

If that is the case there is no good reason for it. The required
characteristics of a replacement battery are readily ascertainable from
observation and measurement of an in-service unit - if not from
published data. Most likely scenario is that car owners just buy cheapo
replacements without concerning themselves about satisfying that
particular vehicle's requirements.
Do reputable battery manufacturers like Oldham and Exide still even
exist given the punters' tendency to go for the cheap and nasty
alternatives?

My experience is that a name has very little association with quality.
Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle nominal quality
with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Chris writes:
How long do lead/acid car batteries typically last nowadays and does
it make any difference if you do low annual mileage but with lots of
very short local trips, or high annual long-run motorway miles?

IME, the original battery in all the cars around the family does in
excess of 10 years. Finding a replacement anywhere near as good when
it finally needs replacing seems to be impossible.

I like Bosch silver. It certainly lasted far better than the original here
- and longer than any other I've ever had. So both cars now have them, but
too soon to say about those.

--
*When companies ship Styrofoam, what do they pack it in? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My experience is that a name has very little association with quality.
Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle nominal quality
with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency is to
think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part is
basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it is
cheap rubbish.

--
*Honk if you love peace and quiet*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:43:36 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My experience is that a name has very little association with
quality. Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle
nominal quality with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency is
to think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part is
basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it is
cheap rubbish.

My experience of Lucas was always very poor. We are talking 1960s and
1970s here.

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:43:36 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My experience is that a name has very little association with
quality. Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle
nominal quality with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency is
to think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part is
basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it is
cheap rubbish.

My experience of Lucas was always very poor. We are talking 1960s and
1970s here.

Car electrics are made to a price set by the car maker. The very worst
electrics I ever had on any vehicle was in a Bedford van of the '70s. All
AC Delco. Just about every major part like starter motor etc failed.
Sometimes more than once.

Lucas made very high quality electrics for the likes of Rolls Royce. And
for aerospace.

Basically, UK car makers of that time made the cars as cheaply as possible
and quality suffered. It wasn't just the electrics they penny pinched on.

So of course Lucas made stuff at the bottom end of the market - they had
to survive.

--
*Modulation in all things *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 21/04/16 08:55, Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:43:36 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My experience is that a name has very little association with
quality. Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle
nominal quality with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency is
to think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part is
basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it is
cheap rubbish.

My experience of Lucas was always very poor. We are talking 1960s and
1970s here.


"Lucas: Prince of Darkness."

As the old saying went.

Or:

"Lucas: Home by dark" (if you want to see where you're going).

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 14:14:00 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

On 21/04/16 08:55, Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:43:36 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My experience is that a name has very little association with
quality. Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle
nominal quality with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency
is to think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part
is basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it
is cheap rubbish.

My experience of Lucas was always very poor. We are talking 1960s and
1970s here.


"Lucas: Prince of Darkness."

As the old saying went.

Or:

"Lucas: Home by dark" (if you want to see where you're going).

Indeed. That crossed my mind.

In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:43:36 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Bob Eager wrote:
My experience is that a name has very little association with
quality. Most old "names" have been bought up in order to peddle
nominal quality with lots of margin.

That might have improved the quality of Lucas.

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency is
to think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part is
basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it is
cheap rubbish.

My experience of Lucas was always very poor. We are talking 1960s and
1970s here.

Car electrics are made to a price set by the car maker. The very worst
electrics I ever had on any vehicle was in a Bedford van of the '70s. All
AC Delco. Just about every major part like starter motor etc failed.
Sometimes more than once.

Lucas made very high quality electrics for the likes of Rolls Royce. And
for aerospace.

Basically, UK car makers of that time made the cars as cheaply as possible
and quality suffered. It wasn't just the electrics they penny pinched on.

So of course Lucas made stuff at the bottom end of the market - they had
to survive.

my 1971 Cortina had a LUcas headlamp relay - which failed. I rebuilt it
but bought a spare. The spare was a Bosch made one = but I never had to fet
it, my repair lasted for the next 8 or so years.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

In article ,
charles wrote:
Basically, UK car makers of that time made the cars as cheaply as
possible and quality suffered. It wasn't just the electrics they penny
pinched on.

So of course Lucas made stuff at the bottom end of the market - they
had to survive.

my 1971 Cortina had a LUcas headlamp relay - which failed. I rebuilt it
but bought a spare. The spare was a Bosch made one = but I never had to
fet it, my repair lasted for the next 8 or so years.

Think a lot of the Lucas 'reputation' was based on people buying an old
banger which was neglected. And of course the most likely thing to stop it
running would be the electrics including ignition. So then blame the maker.

--
*OK, who stopped payment on my reality check?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
wrote:

Basically, UK car makers of that time made the cars as cheaply as
possible and quality suffered. It wasn't just the electrics they penny
pinched on.


So of course Lucas made stuff at the bottom end of the market - they
had to survive.


my 1971 Cortina had a LUcas headlamp relay - which failed. I rebuilt it
but bought a spare. The spare was a Bosch made one = but I never had to
fet it, my repair lasted for the next 8 or so years.

Think a lot of the Lucas 'reputation' was based on people buying an old
banger which was neglected. And of course the most likely thing to stop it
running would be the electrics including ignition. So then blame the maker.



The Lucas reputation was down to lack of quality control. If it
resembled the specified product you shipped it. The Lucas engineers were
competent and the design side was sound, but they had no control over
what production were doing and it was another example of testing the
product for maximum yield, not performance.

In article ,
Capitol wrote:
Think a lot of the Lucas 'reputation' was based on people buying an old
banger which was neglected. And of course the most likely thing to stop it
running would be the electrics including ignition. So then blame the maker.



The Lucas reputation was down to lack of quality control. If it
resembled the specified product you shipped it.

Ideal for most car makers of the time, then. As they did exactly the same.


The Lucas engineers were
competent and the design side was sound, but they had no control over
what production were doing and it was another example of testing the
product for maximum yield, not performance.

Car makers would also under specify the product. Well remember a Rover P6
3500s I had with an alternator so small it couldn't balance the full load.
Earlier models had a larger alternator.

They did much the same with the P6 2000. Fitted the same starter motor as
the Mini. When it needed the next size up.

--
*Just give me chocolate and nobody gets hurt

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
In article , Capitol
wrote:
Think a lot of the Lucas 'reputation' was based on people buying an
old banger which was neglected. And of course the most likely thing
to stop it running would be the electrics including ignition. So then
blame the maker.



The Lucas reputation was down to lack of quality control. If
it resembled the specified product you shipped it.

Ideal for most car makers of the time, then. As they did exactly the
same.


The Lucas engineers were competent and the design side was sound, but
they had no control over what production were doing and it was another
example of testing the product for maximum yield, not performance.

Car makers would also under specify the product. Well remember a Rover P6
3500s I had with an alternator so small it couldn't balance the full
load. Earlier models had a larger alternator.

They did much the same with the P6 2000. Fitted the same starter motor as
the Mini. When it needed the next size up.

The Mini and the Anglia used the same starter motor. It was cheaper to buy
the spare from a Ford dealer than a BMC one.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:43:36 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Actually the exact opposite. The quality of the current Lucas branded
distributors etc is appalling. But then they are cheap. The tendency is
to think a new Lucas branded replacement for an original Lucas part is
basically the same - or even improved. But one look inside shows it is
cheap rubbish.

Lucas has always been rubbish for as long as I can remember.