November 2005
Basically I was driving SWMBO's Car when I was hit by another Vechile whilst Stationary.
Anyway I phone up my Insurance Company who tell me it is going through a Company called Angel Assist who deal with these Third Party Only type Claims.
Strange thing is last time something like this happened to me my Insurance Company dealt with it all after I had produced an Repair Estimate and just claimed off the other persons Insurance.
Has anyone else had this happen ?
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After just 7 weeks of owning my new Navara, it developed a worrying rattle from the back end. After calling out the RAC to check it out, they informed me it had a lot play on the rear wheels (possibly bearings) and it was not safe to drive. I then had the sickening experience of watching my new truck being carted away on low loader.
I have since been informed by the Nissan dealer that I may not see the vehicle for at least 3 weeks as the new parts have to come from the factory and there is also a waiting list! I find this wait totally unacceptable; after all, don't parts arrive next working day!!
Although I have been given a hire car (on my own insurance) I am still gutted. My truck was sign written, for my business and I could get at least 3 or 4 jobs from it per week - obviously I have lost that advertising for the foreseeable future.
I will be ringing the manager of Nissan UK customer services on Monday, to get to the bottom of the fault and also find out why the long delay.
I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions of how I should approach Nissan to get priority for a speedy repair. Also, are there any legal angles I could use to move things along a bit? Read more
I'm glad you've got it sorted.
H
Due to a complete balls up on the part of a utility company, one of my clients has just had his driveway unblocked after over a week of not being able to get his car out. A pit was dug right in front of it.
After the 3rd day of being blocked he got onto the utility company, it was eventually unblocked 4 days later. (I know ? why did he wait 3 days?)
The company involved have apologised, and offered compensation ?to cover his inconvenience?. I don?t know how much but we were discussing how to work out what the inconvenience has cost him.
My take on this is to total up his cost of having to use alternative transport, so receipts etc plus some sort of goodwill payment for not ?having the car at his disposal?.
His take is that the utility should pay a daily rate for the whole time it was blocked, even the 3 days before he formally informed the utility company, ?as they should have known it was blocked?.
......and yes I?m sure the ?compensation culture? discussion will raise its head again, but this inconvenience has cost him money. He and his family had to cancel a trip to see relatives last weekend, plus he has had problems getting to work. Taxi on the Monday and lifts/public transport causing him loss of overtime for the first 2 to 3 days of the week.
Also I had to reschedule some work I was doing for him as a result, but that hasn?t actually cost him anything.
What is the best and most reasonable approach to this, and what sort of request will be treated with the most respect by the utility company? Read more
Update:
I spoke to the client today and he tells me that he has accepted an offer.
The original offer was £150. He apparently escaleted it through the management structure and, whilst they didn't agree his original claim (around £600), they have offered £400.
I saw how he arrived at the original £600, and to be fair to the utility board I can see why they didn't fully see his point of view. I suspect he was hoping for the figure he got.
I didn't offer to do an invoice for him, as whilst it may have helped him, it could have caused me tax problems, having issued an invoice which I wouldn't be expecing payment for, but possibly facing a tax liability for it.
Apparently he is just waiting for a cheque, which is good for me as he's putting the proceeds towards a much needed bathroom refit, and guess who's got the job ;).
H
Hey all,
As I have mentioned a few times I plan to buy a new car next year in the next 6-8 months and as I never buy anything without a great deal of research first, now is the time to start.
I will be 22 by the time I purchase, and feel it would be a good time to own a car I've wanted more or less ever since I developed an interest in cars - an E39 5 Series or perhaps an E46 3 Series. I'd like to do this in the near future becuase if I leave it to long, they'll all be getting on a bit, and I have no love/desire for the current BMW range. I am the sad sort of person who, when watching Gone in 60 Seconds, had more lust for the coppers 540i than for some of the Ferrari's...
So, what am I in for? I will be looking to spend less than £10k and have no problems buying privately or at auction. I have worked out this means I should be able to get one of the below cars, unless any of you guys know better..
99-00 528i Sport
00-02 525i Sport
00-02 530i Sport
01-02 325i/330i Sport
I love the looks of the Sport, so thats what I'd prefer. You'll note some of those seem a bit ambitious for under £10k in 6 months time - well, I'm not scared of high mileage so am prepared to own a car with more than 100,000 miles on the clock if it means I can have a newer/higher specified example, and looking at HJ's recent auction reports I don't think those are going to be too far out of reach with the possible exception of facelift E46's in Sport guise. I don't know much about these. If I am honest I prefer the E39 in terms of... everything, but the performance of the 3 is tempting. Evo clocked a 330i @ 5.9 seconds to 60. But a 3 is only acceptable as a facelift Sport.
What am I to expect in terms of running costs? Is there a reputation for unreliability or will a BMW will be a largely trouble free, well built car with the odd expensive service and large tyre bill? Are any of the engines a particular reliability nightmare? Are some to be avoided whilst others to be encouraged? Is this really worth doing or are these cars £10k for a reason?
My Mondeo is a fantastic car, despite near 130k it... just works. Am I neive to expect similar performance from a more expensive, apparently better engineered car like a BMW? I don't expect general Mondeo running costs but surely it should prove to be at least as reliable?
I've figured I'm in for servicing costs of about £300 every 10k miles, an insurance bill of about £1000 a year, and £400 a set for tyres. Is this wildly inaccurate? I don't actually know what mileage I will be doing per year with the car yet which is a tad ackward. Could be as few as 5k around town, could be as many as 25k on the Motorway.
I'd dearly like a diesel - but I've figured I don't have a hope in hell of getting a decent 330d Sport or 530d Sport for my budget so I've put that lust aside and will stick with petrols unless anyone genuinelly thinks the 6 cylinder diesels are acheivable.
Ownership experiences would be most appreciated. Not too fussed about alternatives, but as resident Mondeo pimp I guess I'd be daft to make a final decision before test driving an early ST220.
Thanks guys! Read more
You certainly would it if was still around when I'm looking to buy in May/June time.
OK
You know the story.....
1. MiL crashed car and written off;
2. SWMBO gives her Trajet to MiL and SWMBO takes my Scooby;
3. I get to drive 'spare' 10yo Fiesta 1.25 which is fine for a few days;
4. MiL may keep Trajet for a few months and I am going spare without central locking, electric windows, a radio and most importantly automatic gearbox, my knees hurt.
So, if she does keep the Trajet, I want a car which has automatic, central locking, electic windows, electric heated door mirrors, and ....a radio!
I also want a disposable car. I may keep it three or six months. If MiL keeps the Trajet we will sell it to her and I will get the Scooby back, buying a new car for SWMBO.
So, what to I buy. I don't want to spend more than about £1,500.
Any ideas about what and where to buy.
I'm going out now to the pictures. I'll look again tomorrow and expect more than a few responses.......
Oh and by the way, anyone who comes from the north west and suggests a Mondeo TDCi will get a pint poured over them at the BR NW New Year meet - when Adam finally get around to sorting it out [sigh].
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive? Read more
If we're playing the eBay numbers game, 4592373091 - I know Mapmaker would approve and it's your end of the country, too.
Direct imports from Germany are tempting, the only problem is fuel consumption. I think that all W140 use straight-six engines ? How do they cope with LPG conversion ? We're talking smaller ones, like 280 or 300 (I guess 300 is actually 3.2) ?
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I am the only Pole over here. Read more
Now, I never said Ford made bad cars, or that the Mondeo was anything but a good car. I have said it is not (in my opinion) much superior to the competition, including our C5. I have also never discounted having one.
Today, my wife and I paid a visit to availablecar.com, as we only live about 4 miles away. We went to look at an Alfa 156 but I did see the above Mondeo at a price which I thought was very good. It is an 05/05 model, registered in April, with about 5K miles, and it is priced at about £10,700. Parkers guide prices such an example at well over this from an independent dealer and even the guide part exchange price is not much less at £10245. Now I am not really looking for a car yet and would have preferred a 130PS model, but I would like to know whether the price is lower than one would expect to see for this car? Read more
If full Ford history the warranty will be valid until 60k and 3 years so if you buy it get all warranty work done straight away.
My brother is thinking of getting a Focus. What is the best petrol engine for all round economy, performance, reliability, ease of service/repair etc. I would think the 1.4 would be underpowered, the 2.0 a bit thirsty. So that leaves the 1.6 and 1.8
What do you think? Read more
If you're looking at an older Focus, one good thing is
that all 2.0 models have alloy wheels and ABS (and I
think air con even on the Zetec) whereas most 1.6s won't
have any of these except air con.
Beware that none of the very early Foci had ABS because of problems of supplies.
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L\'escargot.
Why do people HAVE to answer their phones while driving??? even when they have a passenger sat next to them....
and why do they need to answer the phone...mine has a display that tells me who is ringing....i can phone them later..or at a convinient time...ie when i can pull over into a law abiding place(not a roundabout,,,no stopping zone etc etc)
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www.storme.co.uk Read more
You must be joking - they *always* put them on, hoping
the baddies will run away.
Last time we had to call them they did a high speed but silent approach to our house and the first audible sign that we had called them was the arrival of the helicopter complete with it's nightsun illuminating half the street. :-)
All very exciting, I'd love to have a job just driving those high powered Volvos, I can only imagine the adrenaline rush when you do actually fire up the blues and twos!
Blue
Why do cyclists use a busy 60mph road to cycle on???? when there is a purpose made cycle track built next to the same road..and thats follows the same road
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www.storme.co.uk Read more
My theory is that newbie/leisure and returnee cyclists have an unfounded fear that leads them to ride too close in to the kerb. Your vulnerability is much less than lower than you think. Very few cycle accidents (around 5%) involve being hit from behind, and of those that do many are the result of careless weaving/stopping. In fact, for the reasons set out in earlier posts the kerbside is more, not less, dangerous. However, using all your senses is vital ? cycling under headphones is Darwin award stuff ? you soon learn the spatial awareness to keep a picture of what?s behind.
Paraphrasing from Cyclecraft and the earlier advice of Richard Ballantine:
Good road positioning is not about keeping out of the way of other traffic, to do so can actually reduce your margin for safety. Motorists tend to focus on what is in their own lane, and give scant attention beyond 25degrees either side of straight ahead. The urban cyclist needs to take account of that. The aim is to keep yourself visible, which you do, as described by David, by riding in the Primary position towards the centre of your lane. Ballantine calls this "riding high". Obviously one should avoid deliberately impeding following traffic, and to this end there is a secondary position, roughly following the nearside wheel track of a car. Do not be afraid to use your road position to restrict the movement of others if necessary to protect yourself.
What counts as a ?fast? road is subjective but I?ve used the technique above to good effect since 1978 on everything from country lanes to Parliament Square and remained intact.
Browse
Yeah we spoke about that a while back and decided to do it when the policy comes up for renewal