Be Excellent To Each Other

Passenger side electric window relay had gone all crunchy and has added constant ventilation to my car.

Those alloys would be a nightmare to clean.

If you could afford it, you could afford for someone to detail it once a month.

Ideal for the environmentally conscious billionaire to get to their private jet.

I haven't seen the vid yet (at work ), but look at that car spec - it's had a blown up engine (surely not eh ) and third party "rebuild" (which may or may not have been "thrashed in" by the previous owner who blew up the engine in the first place). It's also done 70000 miles, which is relatively shitloads (especially for a 996 911), assuming that's even a verifiable figure, which I doubt, given there's no mention of full Porsche service history (so it won't have it).

In terms of the car itself, it's a wobbly old cabrio, it's 4WD which nobody wants..... and worst of all it comes with whiny, awful, entirely defunct *TIPTRONIC* 'box....?

Fuck me, you don't half pick 'em. £24,000 for this?

This car is demonstrably and objectively vastly worse than the very nice, tidy, low mileage, manual, second-gen BOXSTER S that ~£25k buys you. It's at least as fast (probably faster 'cause it won't be a shagged old shitheap with rebuilt motor and power-sapping Tiptronic 'box), handles much, much better (smaller, stiffer, shorter wheelbase, lighter, variable damping (newer) shocks, mid-engined so much better weight distribution). The ONLY reason you'd spurn one for this old shed is to be able to say "I've got a Porsche 911" which is fine of course, it's a free country after all - but in that case about the only people you're actually going to impress are clueless anyway.

So yeah, bad idea.

I just picked one that looked shiny and was the same price I'd paid for the Type-R, if you search Autotrader nationally for 911s and then add a '996' filter there are 33 pages of them, so plenty to choose from, and loads around the £22-£25K mark.

Obviously if I were actually intending to buy one I'd do a whole lot more research, I wasn't highlighting that specific car as one I'd buy, but the 'right' 996. (Note the phrase 'I'd consider one myself')

Porsche Club GB don't seem to write it off - https://www.porscheclubgb.com/regions-r ... e-911-(996)-buyers-guide

It's all a moot point anyway really as we're a one-car family since Mrs Hearthly never managed to pass her test, so the chance of me getting a Porsche 911 as the family ride is precisely zero, but I stand by the basic point that if you were careful in choosing one, it seems to me like a (relatively) affordable way to own a perfectly good 911.

This fella is up at £24,990 and looks fantastic IMO.

They start at £12k. Or 20 Exciting Rovers.

You sound like my dad, he used to measure everything in how many Maxis he could buy for any given item. (He generally had a maximum budget of about £250-£300 to buy a car, and bought nothing but fucking Austin Maxis (1500 and 1750, in various trim levels) until the last ones had finally descended into the pits of hell, at which point he moved onto Maestros.)

I recall paying £1000 for an exotic Sony hi-fi separates system once I became eligible for credit, to be greeted with an incredulous 'One thousand pounds? I could buy four Maxis for that!'

The Austin Maxi was almost a legitimate unit of currency in our house.

34 months of unblemished service in the xtrail and it throws an engine management light the day before we need to use it to drive to the airport for th first time in 35 months. Dick.

Yep, nice shiny silver car picture.

Mate, in the nicest possible way you just can't be told, not the last time - or now. It doesn't matter that this is my thing, or much more importantly the guys I hang with love and breathe this stuff and have been directly affected etc., you know better, because shiny or whatever. I particularly like how the very example you chose had a blown engine... you make me smile, man. Don't ever change.

That's fucking glorious.

Apart from the front. The front looks like a poor kid at a prom.

What? No. That looks lovely too.

It's like a kid with horrid braces smiling.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41005208

Exciting Rover now quadruples in value

Is that £2K off what you would actually end up paying with no scrapper or £2K off the list price that nobody pays anyway?

No doubt it'll be £2k off the RRP.

Did you fill it with fuel?

So after having our car stolen, we have a load of paperwork to fill in about what happened, where the car was at the time, who saw it last, driver details etc.

One of the questions asked is 'what was the value of the car at the time it was stolen?'

What is it reasonable to put here? As a consumer am I expected to research things like Parkers and Autotrader for similar cars and similar mileage and take an average of those prices, or do we pluck a value out of thin air based on the purchase price, or do we write 'market value' as that is what the car is insured for?

Is there any disadvantage here to writing in a figure as really this is not an expert opinion, so could they hold us to it? Do people filling this in normally stick in as high a figure as they can get away with and hope to not get busted for insurance fraud?

Please, please help, this is a point of worry as to what we should write in here.

Use parkers as a guide and print/save some examples on Autotrader of same spec / age cars for when the insurance company give you their first offer. If it weighs in lower than you expect send them the examples.

Don't forget to mention any valuables that were in the car, MacBook Pros, Faberge Eggs etc.

Oh yes, I understand the final bit for when they offer me the value of the car (assuming it is going to be counted as unrecoverable), as I've had that happen before when I've written off cars before.

Mimi and I are just unsure if there can be any advantage or disadvantage to filling this out on paperwork ahead of time.

They've got their own valuers, this is a way of speeding things up for them if they think they can get a reasonable low first offer in.

I'd put in a value a few hundred quid over the best example I find on Autotrader / Parkers. Ball's in their court then and you haven't shot yourself in the foot.

What Z said basically, I'd only add it might be worthwhile phoning your friendly local garage asking them typically what they would have offered to buy it off you (having firstly explained to them you need it for an insurance claim ), and getting them to email/in writing, which can then use as part of your substantiation or not, depending on whether or not it's a helpful/high figure.

Really sorry to hear this mate, this sucks.

Golden rule of all negotiations, and this is one, is whoever goes first, loses. I'd go £500 over what you think the car is worth, because they will try and pay you as little as possible.

Cheers guys. I'm getting myself quite upset and tense over this process, and I've been feeling sick for days. Just seeing someone with *some* advice, when I feel we've been treading water for so long just trying to do our best to work out what we are doing, is helpful xx

I'm here to help.

Cheers to you all; the advice really helps settle the mind, and thanks too to Dr Zoidberg who forewent the replying process here to come and stop by my desk

Well, that's not helping settle my mind. Zoidberg now has to stop by and see me. Bring biscuits.

I was going to say "come round to mine and have biscuits and a BBQ" but that requires a car, so do that once you are sorted.

I can possibly drop Russell home after work one day next week and say hi, as it wouldn't be far out of my way.

That'd be lovely! Don't feel obliged to bring Russell, mind. I see that guy ALL of the time, and you'd be depriving me of a daily picture of 'Russell looking sad/ill on a bus'

£100 for new window relay and fitting. Not too bad but could do without extra outgoings at the minute.

Looks like one of my vibrators.

"20-foot-long"

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Awesome, Jem. For once, I'm speechless lol

The Merc has a cunt on the inside.

Obviously it's a bit bigger - like a 10x scale model or something

200'!

Poor GazChap.

EXCITING ROVER UPDATE!

After 10k miles in it, i am used to it and now accept it.

Known issues (current):

Feels down on power. Noticeable if there is only 86 whorespowers to begin with. No funny colored smoke from exhaust, expansion tank only a bit oily. Mpg remains constant. Suspect underinflated tyres. Will change airfilter and redex it. Add air to tyres.

Chirping sound at higher revs when you come off throttle. No idea. Possibly needs oil. Will turn radio up because my love for the Tay Tay is strong today.

Heater now only goes from FULL HEAT to 1/4 HEAT. This is less of an issue now winter approaches. No action.

Fans only work on settings 3 and 4. Relabelling 3 and 4 as LO and HI.

Clock still buggared. It is 12:12 all the time.

Lost fuse box cover. Will find fuse box cover.

Battery still drains itself over 10 days due to alarm system. Then sounds alarm. Stupid.

Various dents and rust patches. Dents from a vauxhall, gatepost (twice), scratches from bins.

It would probably pass MOT

3 weeks in the Merc and it's probably already the best car I've owned. Not the most fun to drive certainly (after an RS Clio and a CTR it was never going to be the case), but a really nice place to be in.

For £1500 it feels like a real bargain.

Do you know if the fuel filter has ever been changed?

There is a full book of stamps, but i haven't in 10k miles. Good call. Will look into it.

My GTD is still making me smile every time I put my foot down, it's nice to have a decent amount of power when overtaking. Also, when accelerating in top gear, just as you think it's starting to lose a bit of power, the turbo kicks in and it screams forward faster again. I like that bit a lot. Wish I could find a long enough stretch of road to see how close to the top speed I can get it.