nicon2k

Not apathy, realism, but if you can tell me how to change the UK tax system I'm all ears. If i had those answers then i wouldn't be making my argument on a car forum! If i were in the position to change things i would not start with the tax system (Other then inheritance tax). I would start with the way the country was run, there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians. If an organisation in the private sector does not have enough funds to operate, they do not just put up the price of their product/service. They streamline and reduce their running costs. Thats what we need from the public sector. And before you ask, no i dont know what to do with all the people that would be out of a job. But i do know that you should not just create pointless jobs for the sake of employing people.

The oil companies make very little profit on petrol. Something like 1 or 2p per litre they sell after all costs have been considered. It's the government who are taking the vast majority of the money. Yup. Most of the profit comes from the sale of assets. I helped run a very successful well test the weekend before christmas that saw the value of the operator that owned the asset rise from £0.43 per share to £4.25 per share. The amount they produced was for testing only. This field couldn't produce for 2 years minimum with £100s millions invested yet the value of the company has rocketed. If they sell the field their profits would be MENTAL without actually producing anything let alone selling oil as fuel!!!!! Regardless of how they get their money, they are still making MASSIVE MASSIVE profits. I know that that is just how capitalism works but it still does not seem right. Especially with OPEC's controls that do nothing other then maintain its high price! So should Shell (for example) GIVE you the petrol to keep their profits down???? As has been said the profits aren't really fuel related so I don't see what they can do. Should a business limit it's profits to keep public happy? I'm sure the shareholders wouldn't be happy and I wouldn't be happy as it'd have HUGE effects on my pension pot. At the end of the day it's capitalism. Sorry, i probably should have explained what i meant a bit better. I know a business is out to make money and they will try and get as much money as possible for their product. In the same way when i look for a new job i look for as much money as possible and never stop to think, if i took a lower salary then someone else could be paid more. While a company like Shell may make most of its money from stock trading or selling assets it does all still feed back to their core product, which is oil. That leaves a bitter taste. I am not for a second advocating a communist state where everyone is equal but as i said before, most of the money it costs us to buy petrol goes to the government. They are not a profit making enterprise!

Indeed. But i don't need to buy bottled water to get to work! Did you see the BBC program about bottled water a few weeks ago? I did, quite interesting actually. I might start selling premium air after watching it, who's in? We could be rich I am going to start selling portable grass so you can touch nature wherever you happen to be. Perhaps we could enter into a partnership since i am sure my grass with benefit from your premium air in the same way that it will require only the purest bottled water in order to grow.

Indeed. But i don't need to buy bottled water to get to work! Did you see the BBC program about bottled water a few weeks ago? As i said in my first post, most of my bile and vitriol is reserved for the fat, greedy and inefficient government. I was also not blaming anyone, rather highlighting the contributing factors. I am in the fortune position of being able to run my 350 with ease and these price rises will have no effect on my life what so ever. Judging from your attitude, you would seem to be in a similar position. But what about about the family that runs one small car which they need to get to and from their job. Should they "just accept it or buy a bike"? Or what if next year the government doubled the road tax on the most polluting car without making any concessions. Is that something you would just accept with the same apathy?

The oil companies make very little profit on petrol. Something like 1 or 2p per litre they sell after all costs have been considered. It's the government who are taking the vast majority of the money. Yup. Most of the profit comes from the sale of assets. I helped run a very successful well test the weekend before christmas that saw the value of the operator that owned the asset rise from £0.43 per share to £4.25 per share. The amount they produced was for testing only. This field couldn't produce for 2 years minimum with £100s millions invested yet the value of the company has rocketed. If they sell the field their profits would be MENTAL without actually producing anything let alone selling oil as fuel!!!!! Regardless of how they get their money, they are still making MASSIVE MASSIVE profits. I know that that is just how capitalism works but it still does not seem right. Especially with OPEC's controls that do nothing other then maintain its high price!

They do it because they can. Its no coincidence that the profits of shell, mobil and other oil companies (not BP ) are rising along with the cost of oil!

I saw the white 350 in the lay by too! Did you see me in a dirty black 350?

Yes it would be great if fuel tax was reduced but it aint going to happen for one very simple reason, the government needs a certain amount of tax income, it can get it in many ways fuel tax is just one option , one that I personaly prefer to say a rise in income tax, at least I have a choice as to whether I spend my hard earned on fuel, with an increase in income tax you don't have that choice. OK our fuel duty is one of the highest in the world, but on the other hand countries with lower fuel tax still have to raise income in other ways through direct taxes. No one likes paying tax but it is a fact of life and as I said before if you don't particularly like paying fuel duty, buy a smaller car at least you have that choice, with direct taxes you don't. Agreed, the money to run the country has to come from somewhere. However, the government, the welfare system and most public services have all become massively fat and inefficiently. You say that you would rather a rise in fuel duty because that gives you the choice of how much tax you give, this is mealy the illusion choice. Let say that you earn £35k a year, this is £14 higher then the the average. Between income tax and national insurance you are paying 33% of all your earnings in tax. Add VAT which is on basically everything and soon to be 20% and 55% of your money is going straight to the government. That's not even including things like fuel duty, alcohol duty, council tax, road tax, air travel tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax and so on. At a guess i would say that this would add around another 10%. So of your £35K at least £18.25K will go to the government. Now think about what you get for that money and ask yourself if you think it is good value for money? I for one think i am getting ripped off. The above scenario is assuming that you are in the basic tax rate. If you are in a higher tax bracket then the chances are that you have worked hard to be there. Your reward for that? More tax. The harder you work the higher percentage of tax you pay, how is that fair? What incentive does that give people to go the extra mile? Sorry if it sounds like i am having a go at you, i am really not. Just venting some frustrations!

Yes, oil is a finite resource (So is gas BTW) so you could say that ever since the first person used some we were "running out" but that's about the only case where you can justify that term. Oil is becoming harder and more expensive to extract, but there is still plenty of it. Since so much oil is produced, the increased costs of extraction are spread over a vast amount of product so the end cost increase is very small. There are two main factors with push up the price, the first is investors and bankers speculating and betting against the demand and price and the second is the relentless rise in fuel duty that successive governments force upon us. The investors and speculators do a fine job of creating artificial demand. Say the global demand for oil is 10 Magical Oil Units (MOU) per day. One day someone decides to buy 9 MOU, the demand for that last remaining MOU will sky rocket meaning that when that person comes to resell his 9 MOU he is able to do so at an artificially high price. That days activities then have a knock on effect on the next days activities and a kind of feedback loop is created. This sort of betting allows individuals to make huge amounts of money while the end user (us) are the ones to suffer from the artificially inflated price. The second factor and the one that really annoys me is the Tax on fuel. This country has one of the highest taxation rates on fuel of anywhere in the world. Fuel duty is seen as very easy way of generating money, its the government's golden egg. If they increase fuel duty by 1% then their net gain is actually 1.175% (Soon to be 1.2%) thanks to VAT. Since over 70% of the price we pay at the pumps goes directly into the government's pocket, that would seem like the best place to start looking for a reduction. However, this will not happen as the government is quite happy to hide behind their "Green Agenda" (Read: load of total and utter bollocks!!) or the fact that they want to shift people onto the inadequate and over priced public transport system. Case in point: i live in Reading, lets say i had to go up to Manchester tomorrow because a family member was ill. I do not know when i will be coming back so i will need an open return. The ticket from London to Manchester is £156 and the journey time is 2h30m. Add to the the cost and time of getting from Reading to London (£16 single to London, £4 Zone 1 single and at least an hour) So that's £176 and 3h30m travel time. In my car a return trip would cost me about £75 in fuel (Even at its stupid price) and take around 4h. The joke is that driving a V6 sports car is more financially economical then using public transport. I know if i booked ahead i *Might* be able to get it cheaper on the train but that is a curtailment on my freedom! Anyway, to bring this rambling rant to a close i believe that if there was not so much apathy and acceptance of the situation then things could be done about it. Freedom of movement is a human right and we are being buggered from behind whichever way we try to go!

Quick update. I stuck another couple of packs in there to see if there was a cumulative effect. THERE IS!!!! Driving home in the cold pouring rain on sunday i had one skip in just under two hours. This is from a system that was almost unusable before. Very happy!

Good to hear (You see what i did there?). Anyone else?

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! "

Sorry for the confusion, i put a small bit of tape on the sachet and attached that onto the head unit. This was just to stop it from disappearing! I am sure it will be fine without tape, you might just need tweezers to get it out.

I just poked it through the tape slot. I never used the tape so i was not too concerned about any potential damage.

Well, I am not sure why it does work but it sure does seem to help. There was a member on here called R35LEE i think. He claimed that he could totally fix the head unit for £50. I would have been more then happy to pay this but despite sending a number of PMs i have not had any response from him. I heard that he was very busy with work and no longer able to offer this service, if this is the case, perhaps he would be able to provide information as to how he fixed the units so we can keep the knowledge within the forum.

I have only have only had it in for a week so i am not sure if i will have to change it. Hope it works well for you guys too!

Yeah, the only prob with that is that the air need to circulate around the pack so that any moisture can be drawn in.

Hey Guys I think i may have finally found a solution to stop the crappy BOSE CD player from skipping and its not to replace the head unit! I have been thinking about it for a while and figured out that the skipping was caused my condensation on the disk and the lens due to temperature variations. I came to this conclusion from the following points. 1. The skipping is always a lot worse when it is wet then when it is dry. 2. Its worse in the cold winter mornings then it is in the summer. 3. Changing the temperature of the A/C significantly can cause skipping. 4. On occasion, when the skipping has been really bad, i have taken the disk out and actually seen the condensation. So, the solution is simple. Get rid of the condensation. To do that i placed one of those Silica gel packs that you get in shoe boxes in the tape drive (secured with tape). Since i have done this, i have not had a single skip when before the CD player was almost unusable. Anyway, give it a try since it costs nothing and takes no time. Let me know how it goes.

Final Reduction down to £12,000. If it does not sell at this price then i will just keep it for a while!

A Dyslexic man decided he wanted to become a Pimp, so he went out a bought himself a warehouse.

Up on Piston Heads now. http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2104906.htm

High Wycombe I will be in st giles on friday night. I am more then happy to drive over and let have a look at my car. The best part is that car is currently for sale so if you fall in love with it, you can buy it! Thanks nicon2k, What do you have, any pics or description or vital stats if possible will be really good. have a look in the for sale section.

High Wycombe I will be in st giles on friday night. I am more then happy to drive over and let have a look at my car. The best part is that car is currently for sale so if you fall in love with it, you can buy it!

SatNav is an optional extra. Where abouts in Bucks are you?

Hi guys Are all your tyres the same make and model? Were they replaced at the same time? Steve