Kia Prides were mazdas 121

Has anyone seen the new Fiesta in the wild yet? I saw one the other day. It's the same size as a Mk1 Focus.

I certainly don't know the legal ins and outs, but as per your agreement with the dealer, you were selling them the car without the private plate. So they've then gone ahead and sold something they never owned. It's on them to fix that, by whatever means necessary.

Hearthly, do you have a personalised plate? If not, how do you keep up with all the different rego plates?

Do you have a Vision-esque spreadsheet?

@zoidberg: is it the kind of personalisation that’s specific to you (as in first-initial,last initial, birth year... sort of thing) that would be gobbledegook to most people, or is it generally recognisable as a personalised plate but still with a limited audience (FR3DD13, or something on those lines), or an obvious ‘everyone might like that’ kind of plate (FA5T C4R, or something along those lines)? I just wondered why the new buyer isn’t answering the calls?

Not Hearthly, but I do indeed have a spreadsheet of all of my previous cars - although freakishly I can remember their original number plates anyway, in order of when I bought them too.

He already stated it was TD1 4LEX. TDI is a type of turbo diesel engine.

Not Hearthly, but I do indeed have a spreadsheet of all of my previous cars - although freakishly I can remember their original number plates anyway, in order of when I bought them too.

Apologies Dr Zoidberg, I’d evidently missed your previous post.

I wonder if the new owner is avoiding the contact with a sight to sell the plates on? Unless (s)he just happens to share the same name, of course?

It’ll be that, or they can’t be bothered with the hassle of changing the number plate, updating their insurance and dealing with paperwork.

And to be fair, why should they? They bought a car with a number plate included. I doubt I’d hand it over without some financial incentive from the dealer who messed up if it were me.

I’d have hoped that the dealer was offering compensation, because otherwise they’re surely going to be out of pocket to you for a higher sum?

How many have you had? I can do that too, but I've only had 6 cars (plus a couple of Lady T's I suppose), which isn't really all that much.

They haven't told me what, if anything, they offered the new keeper.
Anyway, I've sent them screenshots of some similar plates for sale and will see what they say.

24, 25 if you include the Skoda I bought for Jem.

There's a thread somewhere.

I'll give you that one, that gearbox sounds proper shite.

These are all pretty much par for the course these days though, and there's no getting away from that.

I keep thinking about getting back into a car from that lovely triple-striped M division, but even they've gone down this road now (in fact, they were probably one of the first to add fake exhaust noise) - I think the E9x M3 is probably the last "proper" M-car, but it's lacking some of the creature comforts that draw me to its newer brothers.

If Hearthly is all about the visceral thrill-seeking, perhaps he should just drop the sponds on an E46 M3 CSL

To me that sounds like just the sort of thing I'm after, effectively a more modern S4 that goes very fast in a straight line and has all the toys on it, that I'll be able to buy at 12-18 months old with a long warranty left on it, instead of 6-7 years old and with the risk of big bills at any time.

Mate, I think I've finally worked this out: the psychology is fascinating. It's a classic head vs. heart conflict.

Your head says: see that lovely, classy, quick Audi A4/Mercedes C Class? That's a quality, well-made, highly presentable car, as befitting a professional mid-40s man who likes a good, fast drive over the tops but at the same time will accommodate my family in comfort, class and safety, and no-one is going to give me pitying looks in the staff car park.

Unfortunately, though, once in said A4/C Class, your petrolhead heart goes mental - no amount of iPhone compatibility/nice radio bollox is ever going to scratch the itch that isn't going anywhere, a craving for excitement, danger, on the limit speed, handling and above all charisma, that these things are just never going to provide.

So you flip flop back into something more lairy like the Type R, and your head recoils in horror given that (a) you don't wear Burberry (b) you're older than 19, so it's back to the anodyne Golf clone. And so it goes on.

Seems to me the only way out of this is to do as I have long suggested, by some diesel Skoda/Seat for worthy day to day stuff, and a Caterham for the weekends. Job job.

I fully expect to be back in some sort of electric vehicle by the end of 2018.

Doug demuro has now uploaded a review of the new E63S estate.

My word.

Porsche are stopping production of diesel Macan’s and Panamera’s

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-ger ... esel/37584

They'll probably do full electric instead.

They are. It's called the Mission E and it looks superb.

I don't see Ferrari or McClaren doing stuff like this, and yet as far as I'm concerned Porsche and its great motorsport legacy is at least up there with theirs, or anyone's.