I had thought that Mrs H was coping with mid-life stuff very well until a run of rough night shifts in the midwifery unit immediately after our holiday, and a simultaneous visit from her unemployed brother and his idle wife made her unusually irritable at the weekend. I paraphrase our conversation as follows;

Mrs H, " I want a new car, my C3's nearly 10 years old now."
H, seated, browsing this very site, "It's actually just 7 years old. Anything in mind, my dear?"
Mrs H, "Something that turns heads." Pause. "In red; bright red."
H, looking at the rolling Citroen advert and pointing at the pics of the C3 Picasso, "That would turn a few heads. Especially in bright red. Honest John himself thinks very highly of it."
Mrs H grabs the magnifying glass and peers at the ad for a second or two. She then mimes sticking her fingers down her throat and narrows her eyes, "It's hideous. I didn't mean that sort of head-turning. I can't believe you'd even consider buying me something that horribly ugly. Listen to me, I want a SPORTS car. I've done the family car thing to death. I don't need 4 doors. And get over this ridiculous obsession you have with Citroens. I want a sports car that's not a Citroen; and that's bright red; and that turns heads. And that goes a bit."
H, after 19 Citroens, drawing on his limited experience of other marques, "How about a little Mercedes coupe? In red of course."
Mrs H mimes tearing her hair out. "You're just not getting this are you? Your MOTHER had a Mercedes. And John (my stepfather). And Louise (one of her more mature therapy clients). Forget Mercedes. You've got your motorcycle; I want a head-turning, red sports car that's not a Citroen or a Mercedes that I can overtake with. I've nearly forgotten what it's like to overtake other cars. How difficult can that be?"
She disappears only to return a second later, "And don't be looking at any posey BMWs either."

So I'm turning to you lot for help. Allemagne null points. Budget about £8k with the maybe £2k we'd get for her '02 diesel C3. Suggestions outside the box welcome.

Bewildered of Richmond. Read more

Need a bit of advice here.
Neighbour who lives directly across the street from me - despite having a drive capable of safely parking 4 cars - chooses to park in the street.
Street is pretty narrow - typical housing estate set up.
By going so - getting out my drive involves quite an effort despite the fact it's only a small Peugeot 205.
Weekends are a different matter altogether.
Because I race or practice on the scrambler - getting the van out the drive is a complete nightmare - often taking a good 10 minutes of forward/reverse turning. Again the van is not the biggest - a Vito.
Often I leave early in the morning - noise would certainly annoy me if trying to sleep.
Despite constantly asking the neighbour to show some consideration - he'll move the car when asked but early in the morning - I would be wasting my time to knock/ask.
Question being - the van is fitted with a tow bar and no rear windows. I must be getting very close to clipping his car.
From my understanding - it's illegal to block of someone's driveway and incidents are often seen as knock for knock and that's as far as it goes.
Basically with the darker mornings approaching - it's only a matter of time!
Any advice/help would be appreciated Read more

Hi,

My car was hit from the back (other party has addmitted responsibility) and was declared a total loss. My insurance company is ready to pay me the market value (deducting the salvage costs), but refuses to sell me back my car.

The irony is that the damage is quicte negligible and the car is perfectly drivable. Furthermore, the car is now in my posession (I have recovered it from their workshop).

Is there any way I can "persuade" them to sell me my car back?

Many thanks for yor answers. Read more

www.daveramsey.com/etc/lms/drive_free/player.cfm

I've already being doing this as I wanted to spend £2k on my car but I ended up spending £1100 so I am paying myself a loan payments and sticking it in a tin and also adding a £1 coins to it every now and then.

I am not quite sure this Dave Ramsey plan will work in my case though :D.

It is certainly made me think twice about buying a brand new car but this person has not thought about the fact older cars cost in repairs. Read more

Hi All,

As per the link below when travelling north up Bond Street to the Newfoundland Street junction, can you go go west bound up Bond Street? My SatNav says no and consequently calculates a route further west or alternatively wants to take me east up Newfoundland street to turn round at the r/b at the end.

tinyurl.com/n4ymje

Just trying to get it right before i make the journey.

Thanks for any help.
FTF


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