Be Excellent To Each Other

You laugh, but the new clean air initiative that's being proposed means that my two elderly hot hatches (in which I do a combined 4k miles PA) are going to be taxed punitively because of their age. So, to drive my 18 year old Clio sport, with it's 2l engine off my drive onto the road is going to cost me £12.50 every time. If, however, I buy something made after 2005, with a 5l V8, I won't be charged. Not that I'm looking

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Hi

Heh. It's on the list, though to be fair I'm going more down the comfort and refinement route as driving in London is deeply tedious at the best of times
[edit] Nice colour, that.

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Hi

Diesel Cayenne

Move to the north and drive round in modern classics like Mali and I.

I wouldn't say either of you were modern.

I'm 25!

World's tiniest violin playing for people who live in inner zone 2

Also wine and Iron Maiden.

Walk to the Hills!

So Much Want.

There's a yellow one with black OTT stripes that's been sat on one of the dealership forecourts for a good couple of weeks now. It's really tempting to totally ruin my family's finances for the next three to five years. Bloody kids

It's glorious isn't it?
Mind you, it has to be the V8 (not the Mondeo engine), and black - with extra loud, custom-made, titanium decatted exhausts (and remap, Stage 1+) for maximum swivel-o-meter annoy points. Bask in glorious contempt, it's great! I do!

Shame we don't get the fabulous flat plane crank V8 Shelby GT350 in the UK, that's a *real* 'Stang. Any car that has a hooded cobra rearing up on the engine intake and steering boss is a default-win for me.
No, Hyundai ain't making one of these babies any time soon, and not a washing machine electric motor or "fake noise" in sight neither. Not even a turbo. *This* is what it's all about; don't you just want to grab that great, black beast by its brawny neck and try to master and tame the snarling brute?

https://www.ford.com/performance/gt350/

There's a Shelby approved company in the US that make 'new' '67 GT500s. And they'll make them RHD. 'Only' $250K.

I want one so hard.

I feel your pain, buddy.
If I win the lottery I'll buy you one!

The Dodge Charger was always my absolute dream car (and still is, obv.).
Prices have gone utterly stratospheric, sadly.

Just look:

https://www.classic-recreations.com/she ... 00s-specs/

Droooool. Fantastic; that's art to me, more than any pretentious shite at the Tate Modern could ever be.
These cars were conceived at a time of great enlightenment and bold optimism for the future, and it shows - in stark contrast to today's increasingly moribund, boring, emasculated, mean-spirited offerings, borne of far more pessimistic, doom-laden and paranoid times. Man, it shows.

Driving one of these in '69 with money in your pocket with your girl riding shotgun - on a hot, balmy Californian evening, on empty, inviting roads; ripping up the tarmac, with not a care in the world. It must've been fantastic; I belong in this era, not today’s navel-gazing, self-obsessed, endlessly apologetic and puritanical mess.

Hardly in the same league, but time to wheel the Harley out methinks; it's cold, but at least it's sunny, the sky is blue, it’s American, big and black, and it’s very, very loud. 'There's no replacement for displacement', right?

It turns out the Skoda Kodiaq is pretty reasonable even in 1.4TSI form, at least for our needs, and the Superb Sportline 280 is a nice, gargantuan estate more suited to the squirt to 60 on country lanes than my 535d.

Meanwhile Jaguar sent an email at 5pm saying our test drives of Epace and Disco Sport at 1030 tomorrow have been cancelled for vague reasons, soz.

So yeah, jaguar aren't earning their extra 5-10k per vehicle here.

Skodiaq

Do you need the extra room or will a Karoq do? That gets the 1.5 instead of .4?

You could also wait for the Cupra version on the Ateca and get 300bhp in the same size car.

Skaroq

Karoq can only be had AWD with a diesel because idiots. My preference would be the 2 litre because while it's 180 instead of 150 bhp there'll be more scope for tuning. However, this is Helen's commuter and the 1.4 is plenty pokey for cruising, overtaking and getting out of junctions - surprisingly so - while being cheaper and marginally more economical. Also for going round double apex corners at nearly sixty because I commute on that road and I forgot a bit.

I’ve not looked at the detailed specs yet as I’ve gone off skoda for a while but that doesn’t surprise me.
There were some bizarre restrictions on the Kodiaq when it launched including forcing you to have 7 seats if you wanted the higher spec with sunroof.

The sales guy was definitely playing down availability of 5 seat ones, but that possibility disappearing would be a deal breaker, they eat way too much of the otherwise huge boot.

They all do it, like Jag not doing the petrol auto AWD combo in the estate, only the saloon. Market differentiation nonsense.

Shelby GT350 to a Skoda “Kodiac” 1.4 diesel. Excellent.

Kodiaq 1.4 petrol, thank you very much

Ah thats ok then...

You could have latched onto the 280 hp wagon. Still not a V8 lump but I don't get to have one.

The superb will tune up nicely.
https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/4 ... -a-sleeper’s-journey-–-280ps-to-560ps/

Couple of Beemers have come up locally, both of which I'm (up to now) resisting the urge to take out for a test drive. (Not least because they're both 3-doors, and that'd get me a serious arched eyebrow from Mrs Hearthly, as she'd end up sitting in the back when the three of us are in the car, as Jnr refuses to sit in the back.)

The M135i appears to be very well regarded as a great car to drive, nearly full-fat M1 performance but a nicer car to live with day to day.

The 335i is clearly a sillier one, and convertibles are just stupid in our climate, but it does look nice and it's got a decent amount of power.

CAR CRITICAL MASS is approaching again I'm afraid, I had to stop myself going to the local Kia dealer last week to get myself a brand new Stinger GT-S on PCP......

The M135i would probably cost me a couple of grand, the 335i might well just be a straight swap. (Assuming the dealer wants the Leon.)

Other thing with Beemers though is their propensity to have random things break on them once they get to a few years old. Nothing apocalyptic but the kind of stuff that can easily land you with a £500+ bill without any warning whatsoever.

I'm off work tomorrow, which means DANGEROUS TERRITORY for doing silly car things.

What difference does the number of doors make to the seating arrangement?

It means Mrs Hearthly has to 'climb' into the back rather than just open a door and get into the back.

When I had the 3-door Type-R (the FN2, not the FK2 I had last year), I did cop an unimpressed look as she folded the front seat forwarded and clambered in. It's a bit '80s' innit, when 5-doors was a luxury feature and poor people only had shit old cars with 3 doors.

Thinking about it the 335i probably has really compromised back seats because of the convertible shenanigans, and I believe the M135i isn't exactly spacious in the back. This is something that would need to be assessed when I totally don't go and look at them tomorrow.

The BMW Mondial warranty is one of the best in the industry, from what I gather - certainly saved my bacon a few times with the first M5.

M135i is indeed a stonking car to drive, but it's still just a 1-series innit? Fairly basic inside.

M135i all day long, every day. That’s what I call a great motor; “proper” straight six pot 3.0 power as befitting a sporting BMW, all wrapped up in a compact, rear drive hatch package. Awesome.

The 335 cabrio is a wobbly piece of shite, in my humble. You’d hate it almost instantly. Don’t do it.

My friend has a M135i and it's nice, comfy and fast. Looks dull though and I'm sure you'd be bored with it in a month's time.

Well it's a turbocharged six so not entirely 'pure' I suppose.

By all accounts they're quite cramped in the back so I'd definitely need to appraise the suitability of the rear seats, although the truth of the matter is that for the vast majority of the time it's just me in the car, sometimes me and Mrs Hearthly, and sometimes the three of us. (And Mrs Hearthly isn't very tall so she doesn't need loads of legroom.)



A mate at work has an E60 M5, the one that routinely eats its own engine and associated bits and pieces. He's got some sort of mega-warranty on it but it costs a huge amount of cash, like £150 per month or thereabouts. Not sure if it's a BMW Mondial warranty or something else, either way I'd expect the equivalent sort of thing for a 2013 M135i to be a hell of a lot cheaper than that.



I quite like a Q-Car sort of arrangement though, despite having owned the FK2 Type-R. The M135i looks pleasingly understated.

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I'm also slightly concerned that this particular M135i is a total base-spec model, in which case it won't even have rear parking sensors. Only BMW would sell a £30K car that doesn't even have parking sensors.

Again, I'd need to go have a look at it to assess that though. I note that 'parking sensors' is conspicuous by its absence in their description though. (Not that I'm wildly fussed about sensors on a smallish car like that, but their absence would indicated it's a boggo-spec model.)

That'll be the Mondial warranty. It is a lot of money (which doubles to £300 per month when you get over 60,000 miles) but when you consider that when said engine eats itself it can be upwards of £10K to replace, it is worth it for peace of mind. And unlike a lot of warranties, you can get an option that covers absolutely everything (as long as the car's not over 100,000 miles I think) and there's no quibbling, they just do it.

Hmmm right you can get a quote online, BMW want £510 per year for that M135i.

That seems like a reasonable amount to pay for total peace of mind, in all fairness.

Seems like a no brainer.
My bloody road tax alone costs £500/year...

Ah, I read it as H jnr would only sit in the front of a 3 door.

Yeah, eminently reasonable. Also, it may sound counter-productive, but go for the monthly option. If you pay for it annually they renew it every year (well, duh) but that means they take your current mileage into account and if there are any points where it goes up in cost, you get hit by them (the 60,000/100,000 mile marks on the M5, may be different on a M135i)

With a monthly premium, this doesn't happen (or at least, didn't when I had the M5s, may be different now) - you pay the same even if you tick over the mileage limit.

Now the one series is as big as a 3 series from 15 years ago the back seating isn't as cramped as you'd expect. Boots bigger too.

Apparently Jag sold the disco demo (dicks) and the person with the epace didn't bother bringing it back (dicks).

interesting to see that they're front-loading tax now so you pay more now if you change car within the first 4 years, after that you save with the 140 flat rate after year 1.

I'm amazed the government has managed to respond so quickly to changes in car ownership patterns.

The first year on either skoda is only 33% more than I pay yearly for the beemer, after that it's more than a fifty percent saving! Insurance is about half, too.

I think it’s disgusting; as if I’m not paying enough tax already. Still, got to keep the carbon fairies happy, huh.

I wasn’t bothered when I had her sidewise in the winter sunshine yesterday afternoon though, and it’ll be the same again in about 20 mins. Don’t ever let the killjoys win!

Oh yeah, the £450/yr for 5 years on expensive cars, hadn't seen that. Both jags tip into that with the desired/required options. Jesus, Skoda are looking like winners here.

Also, enjoy the drive, you git

Cheers buddy, I may post a pic later

Just been asked to “give it the beans when I go” by the cash wash lads

I know they're often considered a front for money laundering, but that's just taking the piss.

Many a true word spoken in jest I would’ve thought, they sure don’t seem too keen on card payments..... probably why my bloody road tax is so expensive

What's road tax?