Mr Chonks wrote:
I own mine outright now so it’s just VED, fuel and insurance. Going to see what happens this year if I reduce my mileage right down.
I’ve heard one insurer has given cash back to to policy owners doing less miles than they anticipated!
Zardoz wrote:
Mr Chonks wrote:
I own mine outright now so it’s just VED, fuel and insurance. Going to see what happens this year if I reduce my mileage right down.
I’ve heard one insurer has given cash back to to policy owners doing less miles than they anticipated!
Probably not mine. I always go for the absolute cheapest
Yeah, Admiral gave us £50, which was better than a kick in the balls.
Was the kick in the balls an introductory offer?
Zardoz wrote:
Was the kick in the balls an introductory offer?
It was, and it was delivered by the Admiral herself (that lady from the Scottish Widows advert has been enlisted to try and modernise Admiral's image)
Just changed the front brake pads on my car. £60 for parts, vs £130 at Kwik Fit vs £280 at Mini.
Man points earned, though I may die at the first corner where I need to slow down.
Man points earned, though I may die at the first corner where I need to slow down.
Ah the first run after changing your own pads/disks 
Zardoz wrote:
Ah the first run after changing your own pads/disks
I made it back in one piece. Smoother & stronger braking than on the worn OEM pads, and no excess heat from either side so I don't believe they are binding at all.
Result!
Good stuff. Even with buying calliper winding kit, calliper hooks and top brand pads and disks you can save a fortune by doing them yourself.
Zardoz wrote:
Good stuff. Even with buying calliper winding kit, calliper hooks and top brand pads and disks you can save a fortune by doing them yourself.
Yep. I bought a "normal" caliper winding kit to do pads on one of my Octavias, then had to buy the opposite threaded one for the Fiat Bravo I had after which had different directions for the opposite side of the car.
I've used them about half a dozen times on a few cars so that's probably saved £1000
It's the MR2, as seen in other threads. It's got some pretty impressive rust at the backs of both sills which is why I picked it up cheap. It also suffered from no-starty-sometimes and coily-on-off-sparky-gone but I've sorted those problems already. Once the sills are done there's a fair bit of suspension donk-donk to sort and the AC doesn't work but I'll probably drive it for a bit then sell it.
Yeah, that rust has taken really well! Always liked the shape of the Mk1 & 2's.
Zardoz wrote:
Yeah, that rust has taken really well! Always liked the shape of the Mk1 & 2's.
It's got through 3 layers of sills and eaten half the wheel tub!
I had this exact model in black a while ago and I've always really missed it.
Looking forward to seeing the progress! How’s the Scimitar?
I had tremendous fun in the MR2 Turbo that I had a few years ago, would love another one.
Zardoz wrote:
Looking forward to seeing the progress! How’s the Scimitar?
scimi is languishing outside the shed while the mr gets its repairs done. It's having to think about what it's done because I can't get it's ignition fuckery to go away.
Finally got the Lexus last Thursday, so just over seven weeks (!) from deposit to collection.
All the little niggles have been sorted and (fingers crossed) everything is working fine, I've put a couple of hundred miles on it without issue. (They had to replace a LAMBDA sensor amongst other things, which took a bit of time to diagnose and sort out.)
It's as nice as you'd imagine - (original sticker price with the options it has would have been knocking on the door of £42K) - and includes nonsense tech such as some sort of weird glass for the instrument cluster that it can change the properties of to prevent reflections when the sun is shining a certain way (similar idea to self dimming rear view mirrors I think, which it also has).
Someone has had an aftermarket iPod/AUX kit fitted at some point, and I still have an old 80GB iPod knocking around (in fact the very same one that Trooper sent me years ago!), so I plugged that in to the olde style iPod connector and it works a treat, it sees it as a disc in the CD changer (as is the case with most of these kits) and turns itself on and off with the car and remembers where it's up to on its playlist.
The factory fit system is 10 speakers with a sub and it sounds fantastic.
Engine wise it's a 3 litre V6 putting out 245bhp with a six-speed auto (it can be switched to manual change in sport mode if preferred). Over the 200 miles I've done so far it's averaged pretty much bang on 30mpg. In a straight line it's got a decent turn of speed but obviously it's not designed for being chucked through the corners.
I took my father-in-law out for a drive in it yesterday and he guessed at it having cost £20-£25K, he genuinely had a hard time believing it's 15 years old and had only cost four grand.
It's a thoroughly lovely car to drive and I can sort of see myself getting back into having a drive round the TT course of an evening, which I was never much minded to do in the i30-N as it wasn't exactly the comfiest thing in the world.
Oh yes it's got proper bluetooth built in (quite good for a 2005 car) so I was able to pair my phone with it without issue.
Anyway, a group of us on a Manx gaming WhatsApp group have all placed bets on when it will chuck its first error code, some people bet on 'within one day' so they've lost already.
All the little niggles have been sorted and (fingers crossed) everything is working fine, I've put a couple of hundred miles on it without issue. (They had to replace a LAMBDA sensor amongst other things, which took a bit of time to diagnose and sort out.)
It's as nice as you'd imagine - (original sticker price with the options it has would have been knocking on the door of £42K) - and includes nonsense tech such as some sort of weird glass for the instrument cluster that it can change the properties of to prevent reflections when the sun is shining a certain way (similar idea to self dimming rear view mirrors I think, which it also has).
Someone has had an aftermarket iPod/AUX kit fitted at some point, and I still have an old 80GB iPod knocking around (in fact the very same one that Trooper sent me years ago!), so I plugged that in to the olde style iPod connector and it works a treat, it sees it as a disc in the CD changer (as is the case with most of these kits) and turns itself on and off with the car and remembers where it's up to on its playlist.
The factory fit system is 10 speakers with a sub and it sounds fantastic.
Engine wise it's a 3 litre V6 putting out 245bhp with a six-speed auto (it can be switched to manual change in sport mode if preferred). Over the 200 miles I've done so far it's averaged pretty much bang on 30mpg. In a straight line it's got a decent turn of speed but obviously it's not designed for being chucked through the corners.
I took my father-in-law out for a drive in it yesterday and he guessed at it having cost £20-£25K, he genuinely had a hard time believing it's 15 years old and had only cost four grand.
It's a thoroughly lovely car to drive and I can sort of see myself getting back into having a drive round the TT course of an evening, which I was never much minded to do in the i30-N as it wasn't exactly the comfiest thing in the world.
Oh yes it's got proper bluetooth built in (quite good for a 2005 car) so I was able to pair my phone with it without issue.
Anyway, a group of us on a Manx gaming WhatsApp group have all placed bets on when it will chuck its first error code, some people bet on 'within one day' so they've lost already.
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Definitely your forever car.
GazChap wrote:
I had tremendous fun in the MR2 Turbo that I had a few years ago, would love another one.
Might be cheaper than the BMW
I'm sure you and the car will have many happy years months together
Zardoz wrote:
.
Japanese Mercedes!
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Hearthly wrote:
I can sort of see myself getting back into having a drive round the TT course of an evening, which I was never much minded to do in the i30-N as it wasn't exactly the comfiest thing in the world.
Surely the i30-N is more designed for this than a Lexus though, right?
It's, um... It's got a look to it, hasn't it?
I like Hearthly's adventures in car buying and motoring. As long as you're happy mate!
I'm giving my Audi back next month when I leave my job. Sort of not bothered really. It was nice ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu features but a bit small and not as quick as I'd hoped, coming from a GTD. I was surprised how much smaller the A3 was than the Golf.
No idea what my new car will be... I've asked for something within the same ballpark as the Audi. On reflection, I'd probably like something bigger, even if that means slower.
I'm giving my Audi back next month when I leave my job. Sort of not bothered really. It was nice ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu features but a bit small and not as quick as I'd hoped, coming from a GTD. I was surprised how much smaller the A3 was than the Golf.
No idea what my new car will be... I've asked for something within the same ballpark as the Audi. On reflection, I'd probably like something bigger, even if that means slower.
GazChap wrote:
I had tremendous fun in the MR2 Turbo that I had a few years ago, would love another one.
My MR2 Turbo was my first experience of a properly quick car, and also the first experience of a seriously fast car when I tried to lose an NSX down a B road, and he just kept the same distance behind me no matter what I did
Turbo went all jonky on it when starting from cold, so I warmed it up and traded it in for a banana yellow mk1 mx5...
flis wrote:
I like Hearthly's adventures in car buying and motoring. As long as you're happy mate!
I'm giving my Audi back next month when I leave my job. Sort of not bothered really. It was nice ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu features but a bit small and not as quick as I'd hoped, coming from a GTD. I was surprised how much smaller the A3 was than the Golf.
No idea what my new car will be... I've asked for something within the same ballpark as the Audi. On reflection, I'd probably like something bigger, even if that means slower.
I'm giving my Audi back next month when I leave my job. Sort of not bothered really. It was nice ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu features but a bit small and not as quick as I'd hoped, coming from a GTD. I was surprised how much smaller the A3 was than the Golf.
No idea what my new car will be... I've asked for something within the same ballpark as the Audi. On reflection, I'd probably like something bigger, even if that means slower.
Wut?
flis wrote:
It was nice ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu features but a bit small and not as quick as I'd hoped
I think those were only on the IoM special edition.
flis wrote:
I like Hearthly's adventures in car buying and motoring. As long as you're happy mate!
I have virtually no interest in cars, but I always like reading his posts on themflis wrote:
It was nice ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu features.
Umm, yeah.
Hearthly's adventures in car buying make me feel better about Gaz's adventures in car buying. Long may it continue.
I was worryingly close to being as hilariously inept and wasteful with cars and money but I’ve had the same one for nearly two years now and didn’t need anything at the MOT. 
This is my forever car
This is my forever car
DavPaz wrote:
flis wrote:
ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu
Wut?
"And had some great", I think.
BikNorton wrote:
DavPaz wrote:
flis wrote:
ans.jas.aomw.dqmxu
Wut?
"And had some great", I think.
Well done Bik!
My nails are too long to type with on my phone. And hinder proofreading, apparently.
TheVision wrote:
Definitely your forever car.
Auris brakes are getting noisier and after a quick look the pads and disks on all corners are pretty worn. Probably the factory fitted ones, it's 12 years old but only done just under 25k. New Brembo disks and pads ordered for £150 from The Fatherland a good 1/3 cheaper than what Eurocarparts was asking for!
Spoiler alert!
Sweet! That whole back end of the car looks really tidy.
Ta! And thank fuck you didn’t say Malicool x
Looking good that. What's next?
Supra engine
Isn't it the law to cover up your reg number when posting a pic of your car online?
Yeah, that’s a made up one.
markg wrote:
Looking good that. What's next?
Hunting down one of these that’s not £350 from Japan.
...or building up the bottle to just spray it
TheVision wrote:
Isn't it the law to cover up your reg number when posting a pic of your car online?
IT’S THE LAW
I don’t think so. Less so than putting your rubbish in other people’s bins. That’s a paddlin’
Zardoz wrote:
markg wrote:
Looking good that. What's next?
Hunting down one of these that’s not £350 from Japan.
...or building up the bottle to just spray it
Spray it with plasti-dip then if it goes wrong or looks shit you can just peel it off.
Yeah, already thought that mate. Probably will give it a go myself.
TheVision wrote:
Isn't it the law to cover up your reg number when posting a pic of your car online?
I've always wondered why people do that. What are they scared of?
Grim... wrote:
TheVision wrote:
Isn't it the law to cover up your reg number when posting a pic of your car online?
I've always wondered why people do that. What are they scared of?
I remember you saying this and was typing my message, thinking of you..
Grim... wrote:
TheVision wrote:
Isn't it the law to cover up your reg number when posting a pic of your car online?
I've always wondered why people do that. What are they scared of?
Cloning!
Someone might clone my plate and then park in a restricted area, garnering me a £30 fine