June 2007
Just idly looking at a purchase plan for a Renault in today's DT. It looks like HP. Basically one puts down zero deposit, a first payment including some fees, 35 monthly payments and a final payment at the end of which you own the car, I suppose. Now, there is a penalty of 6p/mile for every mile over 10K a year. If you are going to own the car at the end of the 3 years and have done 50K in it why should that bother the seller and why should it cost one money? I guess the answer is blindingly obvious but I can't see it from here! Something to do with value if they have to repossess it perhaps?
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I've just come across a piece on the Telegraph website about the Vatican announcing the new 'ten commandments of motoring'.
Maybe someone more clever than I could do a link to the story?
'Thou shalt not kill' makes an understandable appearance in the Pope's top ten rules for the road, as well as advice to avoid road rage.
Apparently it's OK to pray while driving as well - and this from a man who never gets driven around by his wife...
Only kidding ;-)
Any views on this long-overdue intervention from On High, or have they forgotten anything? Read more
I'm looking forward to all the lists telling the Pope how to run the Catholic church.
A distasteful current news story concerns so-called paedophiles swapping perverse materials over the internet, who have been identified and are now being prosecuted by, er, cybercops.
Obviously no one sane and half-way normal cares what happens to these depraved muppets.
But are we safe here in the back room? Do-gooders, spoilsports and general po-faced nincompoops have put an end to smoking and fox-hunting, both harmless to bystanders and even beneficial in various ways (please don't bother to argue about this). Motoring is now squarely in their sights.
How long before we too are being run to earth and imprisoned for our attitudes and for parading them so shamelessly on a website?
Discuss, if the moderators will let you... :o) Read more
Non-motoring related. Political as well which is against site policy - locked. PU
Just taken my car to the car wash, its a newish one various prices the most being £8.00, i had that one as I have just returned from Le Mans (it was great fun, poured with rain) and there was a great deal of mud on the RAV. The wash starts off with de-greaser, jet spray etc , then through a comprehensive wash wax, dry. Once done I checked the car and the arches were still caked in mud, went back to the operator she said we only clean what we can see, the menu said the underside, but her retort was the arches are not, I was in total disbelief. I argued in a calm manner but she would not budge, she would not do it again as it would cost her money!!!!, I was not in the mood for any more, asked her for her bosses telephone number, nil response, I left, I have used many times before, but not any more. Thought of advising trading standards whats your view.
Richard Price Read more
I often use an ARC automatic car wash, I dont have time to regularly hand wash my car. They do a jet wash by hand before it goes through the machine and the end result is usually pretty acceptable IMO. They seem to me to be superior to the unmanned filling station auto car washes.
At the one I go to there would be no chance of them leaving wheelarches full of mud. The auto brushes can sometimes miss little nooks but overall its good enough for £4 or £5 when I havent got time to hand wash it.
In many years of regularly using auto car washes I've only once had a car damaged. One once took the (glued on) rear spoiler off my old Mk3 Golf but it was loose and flapping to start with, I knew there was a 50% chance of it getting ripped off. I stuck it back on with silicone and it stayed put after that.
No I did not get a Lexus or BMW
In the land of cars I got a Meguiars Washmit & Some Autoglym Goodies.
Autoglym products I have had before and if not the best available they are very good.
The Meguiars Washmit is a revelation, infinitely better than "the old sponge" and a lot better than using the power Washer + attachments I bought a few months back.
Washmit - Quick & easy and completely different from the "Microfibre cloths" I had tried before.
The winning combination for the future is the (Autoglym Shampoo + some Turtle Wax to get foam in the bucket) + Meguiars Washmit + Autoglym Cloth for drying.
Quick, Easy & Streak Free in about 30 mins / car. Read more
I was given a similar Autoglym case a couple of years ago for my birthday - most of the bottles are still going strong...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
does anyone know where I can get my new key programmed other than at a main dealer? Read more
Did my earlier suggestion not work?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=52763
Hi All
Some woman in a Mazda 6 rear ended my miggy this morning on the way to work. She hit me good and hard - her airbags went off and it took two tow trucks to winch the cars apart. My car is 8 years old, so given that and the damage my insurers have decided it's a write-off. Which is a shame, really. I'd got it all sorted (after 4 and half years of ownership) and it was running nicely with everything working.
It's a 1999 pre-facelift 2.5V6 CDX Omega saloon, petrol, manual with 96K on the clock. How much do you think I be should looking for as an insurance settlement?
I wonder what I should replace it with? What decent sized saloon or hatchback would fit the bill? It's going to have to be something not too expensive (maybe £7K/£8K certainly no more than £10K) and SWMBO has said I should have something cheaper to run. I suppose a Mondeo (diesel?) would be a sensible second hand option but (no offence to anyone) the thought of owning one of those doesn't really do it for me - and that from Vauxhall driver :D
Cheers
Les Read more
Thanks for the follow up scotty -you'd get a nice Omega for 2,495 :-))
Hi All,
I have made the descision to convert my car to LPG (its a 2.6 Omega). Could anyone give me the benefit of their experience in what I should look out for in terms of choosing the best system (by manufacturer) and pros and cons of emulation/non emulation systems.
Also, what should I look out for when sussing out an installer.
Many thanks,
David.
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omega 2000 reg converted 2001 135000 on the clock and still going !
When is a fake not a fake?
When it is an expensive ?authentic ?tool room copy?? apparently.
There are a lot of expensive Bugattis, Maseratis and Jaguars created in the 1980?s on the market.
Seemingly accepted by the FIA and VSCC as being eligible for competition.
We had a 1929 Bugatti Type 35 entered on our historic vehicle club run this year. It said Bugatti on the badges and the tax disc BUT a local expert was able to tell us, too late to refuse it, that it was built recently by an Argentine company ?Pursang?.
I was able to lovingly recreate £50 notes I?d end up in Strangeways.
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Thanks PeteM. My memory was not clear, beyond recalling that Jaguars were involved and there was a court case!
My wife doesn't like flying, so we regularly drive down to Austria - have been for 28 years. This involves driving around 900 miles each way. We take it easy, with an overnight stop. Our usual practice is to drive for about 2-2 & a half hours each, then swap over, taking a short break in between. However, I got to thinking whether this was optimum, as I was reading a paperback this morning in which 3 people travelled on a long car journey and they changed drivers once an hour.
The reason for asking the question is whether by altering our pattern of driving/non-driving time it would effectively increase our range. Taking two days to drive down each time is not optimum, particularly when we are staying there for just a week. As we have just bought a flat there, we are likely to be making the journey more often, so I'm wondering whether, by reducing the onset of tiredness and subsequent loss of concentration (important on the german autobahns), we could do the trip in a day (albeit a long day - we can arrive when we like when we've got our own pad).
I'm not interested in discussions about whether we are taking the quickest route, just curious to tap into other peoples experiences of long-distance driving.
TIA Read more
I drove this section of the A9 the other week and it's a complete nightmare- extremely narrow lanes meaning that overtaking slow moving lorries through the speed restrictions is heart in the mouth stuff. Avoid like the plague.
Browse
Personally not the reason I did it. It means I don't have to buy the 'last third' of my car - after 3 years I will either move on to another PCP, or will pay the final payment, run the car for x further months and then trade it in. When compared with 'traditional' HP the monthly payments are lower.
NB To walk away at the end of the deal is usually the most unwise move financially as the final payment is set to be lower than the actual value of the car.