December 2001
I have a cousin the same age as me (late 20's). We are both spending just over 20 grand this month, me on a very modest 2 bedroom house, him on a BMW 3 series (imported from Germany via the internet).
Fair enough, his BMW will look good and turn heads and my new house won't, but in five years time my house will hopefully be worth what I paid for it and his BMW will be worth 5 grand-ish.
My point?...Buying new is insanity, I'll stick with my near 8 year old ZX worth 500 quid!!! Read more
I know, I know... It ain't motoring, but HJ and Mart have both been hit recently...
A POWERFUL new computer virus was tonight causing havoc with email systems across the world.
Experts described the virus, called Goner, as one of the fastest-spreading they had seen and warned computer users to immediately delete it. Alex Shipp, spokesman for anti-virus service MessageLabs, said: "It's spreading with tremendous speed and thousands of users in Britain have already been sent it.
"The virus mass mails itself out through email and attempts to destroy anti-virus software on computers, which could prove extremely problematic for those unfortunate enough to receive it."
The infected e-mail has the word "Hi" as its subject and body text which reads "When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you. I am in a harry (sic), I promise you will love it." Its attachment is labelled "gone.scr."
It was first detected this morning in America but experts believe it was created in Europe. The US, the UK and France are the worst hit of the 17 countries affected so far.
www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne...l Read more
Anyone using Outlook Express should go to 'View' and set it so you don't get a split screen view of the incoming e-mail. Then you have to double-click the incoming e-mail to view it. But by single clicking you can select it to be deleted and delete any incoming e-mail with an attachment. If you don't do this, future viruses could work like BADTRANS and automatically download from the attachment as soon as you select them.
HJ
I seem to be getting through brake light/headlight bulbs at an alarming rate these days. At one time they lasted forever. Do these things have a fixed hour burn thats got shorter to get us to buy more?
Will 42 volt electrical systems improve bulb life? What about fibre optic technology? Read more
Hi Stuart,
No, these are Bosch so called OE bulbs fresh of the shelf. Interesting to see HJ's comment about VAG cars with one brake light out, mine's an Audi!
I was talking with a mate from the Isle of Man last night - he has a Nova with Manx plates. Anyway, he thought he could register it here and it would get a Q reg? Is this still the case after the change to xx51 xxx etc?? Read more
According to the DVLA leaflet on the new plates the 'Q' plate will be retained in it's present style.
Is there a product i can buy on the high st. that halts the spread of rust?
I've a couple of places on my car where rust is starting to replace the paint.Luckily it has'nt eaten to far into the metal,but want to check its progress before its to late.Any suggestions? Read more
the car next door is a mini, and its just RUST, i cant believe it gets through its mot, you can actually see THROUGH the bodywork, it started to rust at about 2 years old, and that was in 1984.
Hey!!
Wondering if anyone can give me a bit of advice...............
Learning to drive, hopefully passing test in a few weeks. I want to buy my own car in the new year. Any ideas or insight into the best car around for me at the moment??? Or know of any "free insurance" deals with cars for 20year olds???
Thanks,
Kelly Read more
cheers colin!! I'm sure that you have given me some sound advice there!!! Already listened to your advice and have booked for Tenerife next summer (should be fun!!), now I have to get to work on spending money on the other stuff!!
Confirm something for me please.
Where a car selling at auction has "VAT Qualifying" in the description it means VAT is shown separately and can be recovered by a business user.
It doesn't mean that VAT is added to the hammer price does it?
Only thing to go on the hammer price is the buyers premium, correct?
You can tell I don't get out of the workshop enough!
David Read more
Steve,
No I'll have to wait a few years to justify one. Just hope I don't go off them in the meantime.
David
we have 2 puntos (no sympathy, folks.just advice) on one the wipers judder horribly at normal speed but are OK at fast. have swapped blades but the juddering does not follow the blades. have tried various cleaners on screen and have even waxed the screen.slight improvement but did not last. after they have been on for a while they settle down but switch off and start again and the juddering comes back. it is so bad that I'm pretty sure that that mechanism will eventually fail. any suggestions gratefully accepted. please. Read more
Fiat new type Punto juddering wipers fixed today. Local dealer changed grease in wiper gearbox. Thank you for your suggestions and advice. In particular I liked the Rain X. In my case it didn't help but the patterns the rain made on it were fascinating to the point of being dangerously distracting.OP
Hi All
My son is thinking of buying a Peugoet 205 diesel. It's a P reg with 38000 miles on the clock. Asking price £1500. Is the price reasonable, anything with this car to look out for?. It is a private sale Read more
Sounded interesting to me so I had a delve around - came up with:
www.smmt.co.uk/ads/ads03_example.asp
But sadly you have to pay rather a lot of money to see the document!
Anyone know if similar info is on the net for free?
OK so alloys reduce unsprung weight and look good after cleaning. I wonder however just how much they improve road holding. Or are there other advantages?
On the debit side they add in typically £300 -£400 to the cost of a family car. They are a pain to clean and neglecting this chore leads to pitting; they also show the results of any kerbing.
The problem is that they have become mandatory on the higher spec models of most cars. SWMBO has a Yaris Verso GLS which is used in shopping trolley mode. The problem was to get ABS(essential) and A/C(desirable) you had to order the GLS - which came with Alloys. (ABS is now standard on GS).
I question why manufacturers feel that we need, or want, alloys on anything other than a sports car.
Bob H Read more
Hurrah for Piers the man-o-reason,
Steel wheels lighter than alloys on the average car?
This must mean that alloy materials are weaker than steel... Even if you assumed that the alloy weighed as much as steel (which it doesn't) you are effectively saying that more/thicker supports are required on alloys to acheive the same performance as steel wheels.
So why do alloys have spidery three prong designs and steel designs are still inspired by biscuits? (Note that alloys have higher melting points and are much harder to work with...)
dan
Browse
.jpg)
"If its a 330d though, all is forgiven. That is a truly brilliant car - almost worth the money."
If you buy on the continent and save £5K+, they're excellent value for money. Mine (bought in Holland) is 10 months old and has yet to visit a dealer in the UK. I agree completely with John S's comments but I've already got the house with the mortgage paid off. To me, it was worth spending the money for the pleasure of driving a fabulous car which, hopefully, will give me many years of low cost and reliable motoring. But, if I was in my 20's the house would come first.
On the subject of houses as an investment, I paid just over 20K for my house 25 years ago and it is now worth at least 10 times that. The interest on my mortgage was insignificant compared to the capital gain and the repayments reduced over the years in real terms. Had I rented, the rent would have increased over the years and the landlord would have got the capital gain. And I wouldn't have the security that comes with owning a property, particularly when the mortgage is paid off.