Posidrive

That is where it gets intesting. Job title is Senior Software Engineer, but I have absolutely no software qualifications. The job primarily requires domain knowledge and if the code happens to be reasonably well written then so much the better.

With all the recent threads about accurate declarations and insurers looking for an easy out, it got me thinking about how they interpret your job and the industry in which you work sicne it apparantly has an impact on you premiums. Take my example. I have a degree in Chemical Engineering, work in Petroleum Engineering but spend nearly all day writing computer software. So am I a Chemical Enginerr, Petroleum Engineer or Software Engineer/Developer? I work for an Oilfield Services company. We provide survices to oil companies and oil exploration companies but don't actually either produce oil or search/drill for it. On one comparison web site these were the only real options, neither quite right. You can tell that I'm bored today

Could be worse, the cluch on a colleague's 2007 Zed went at 6k. I'm still on the original clutch at 65k although I suspect that the wallet is going to get a hammering in that area fairly soon.

Sounds like the business owner told the van driver to say that the OP was speeding. Probably trying to protect his fleet insurance costs. Words fails me about how big an a!"£$%e some people can be. But it occours to me that if the van drivers states that he thought that the OP was speeding then he is clearly admitting that he (i) saw the OP in the lane and (ii) Tried to move into the lane regardless of the speed of the OP. In my book that is not just stupid, but dangerous driving. I would also take the van driver's statement that he thought the OP was speeding (rather than attempting to blame the OP for trying to cut into the van's lane) as essentially a confession that he hit the OP rather than the other way around in which case I don't see how it cannot be the van driver's fault. You can tell that I'm a bit sensitive about insurance issues at the moment because of an attempt of a fradulant insurance claim against my wife by someone who had clearly had a close encounter with a bollard smashing the front wing of their car claiming that the light supermarket trolly scuff scratch on the back of my wife's car had caused it.

Several years ago a twonk trying to impress his friends in his parent's people carrier screwed up taking a corner too fast in the wet and took out the entire drivers side of my 300ZX. To say the least I was unimpressed. Twonk's father turned up 10 minutes later with the insurance details and implied that it was possibly my fault. I simply said I would call the police and let them decide if it was dangerous driving, if twonk didn't admit to being responsible. I got a note admitting responsiblity from twonk there and then. A quick phone call to the van driver pointing out that by his own admission he is responible for dangerous driving and that perhaps the police should get involved may very well concentrate his thoughts.

I'm not a lawyer but, I sort of find that intersting: - The van driver has said that you were driving too fast. So he has admitted that he saw you. - He saw you and yet he still chose to move over. At the very least this is driving without due care, and if he keeps to his statement that he though that you were driving too fast then the only assumption can be that he deliberately moved over to to force you to brake. This is dangerous driving and should be prosecuted. I would suggest that you get the police involved. If the van driver is charged with dangerous driving then I don't see how the Insurance company can wiggle out of it.

Hmmmmmm....... Drove 300ZX Twin Turbos for 7 years, aged 50+, 9 years protected no claims before leaving the UK to spend 4 years in Canada during which no accidents or claims driving on Snow and Ice for six months of the year, living Wiltshire/Oxfordshire border and wouldn't quote me..................... Yes but the issue wont be with your previous vehiclee experience, I will assume it was your lack of UK NCB due to living outside of the UK. My memory may be letting me down, but I'm pretty sure that I was told at the time (almost 2 years ago) that I couldn't be quoted because "I didn't have at least a year of experience driving the Zed" The issue with NCB is very frustrating because some insurers are happy to take proof of foreign NCB and accident free driving. We'll see what you can come up with this year when my renewal is due in just over a month:)

Hmmmmmm....... Drove 300ZX Twin Turbos for 7 years, aged 50+, 9 years protected no claims before leaving the UK to spend 4 years in Canada during which no accidents or claims driving on Snow and Ice for six months of the year, living Wiltshire/Oxfordshire border and wouldn't quote me.....................

At the time I bough the Zed I was also looking at the RX8 as an alternative, partly because it has 4 seats. I have a 30 mile each way commute so the fuel consumption figures struck it off the list. Higher insurance quotes than the Zed didn't help either. I always though that in principle the engine wasn't that fragile, but owners tend to forget that it is designed to consume oil and simply forget to keep monitoring the level.

Ice + Zed = Brown Pants Up until my journey home on the A420 tonight I was thinking what's all the fuss about the Zed in the current weather. I have now decided that snow is your friend and ice is the spawn of satan. Going past Faringdon my tail was all over the place, and still the twonk in the clio almost driving in my rear hatch didn't have the sense to hang back.

Where abouts in Wiltshire are you? Swindon was snowy but just about managable if you took it carefully. Had to go out to do the last of the Xmas shopping due to having left at late as usual and have to say that the persistent traction control warning light got rather annoying.

This sounds about par for the course for those of us who have more that a short town based commute. I've been down from a 420 to 360 miles per tank. That's with a fully service including new plugs just over a week ago so I know that its not a blocked filter related issue. 200 miles per tank sounds like you've either some serious peformance mods under the hood or something is amiss. That seems to work out to about 13 mpg. Before I got the Zed I had a fleeting thought about getting an RX8, but the thought of sub 20 mpg was just too much for a 60 mile daily commute.

anyone any experience with snow chains? Not legal to use in the UK. How stupid is that? According to the AA they are legal in the UK http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/ov ... tyres.html But subject to note (5) that there must be enough snow covergae so that you don't cause road damage.

The Sunset might have been me on the school run to Wooton Bassett just before half past eight. Were you in the red import heading towards Wroughton? Yes mate, tried to give you little wave but as I going round the corner it probably looked like I was trying to kill a wasp or waft a really smelly fart out of the window Sounds like my attempts to flash when I normally end up turning on the wipers

When I got my Zed she had Bridgestones. They were diabolical, the skid marks weren't just on the road:). Being a bit skint when it was time to replace them I went for the 452s because they had had some good reviews. Been really happy with them and only had 2 twitchy moments with them in a year, one of which was this morning. Can't really blame them though since they have done 18k miles. I checked and the tread is till legal but nowhere near new . All I can say is when they were new, I survived the ice and snow of last Winter without incident and that was with daily use.

The Sunset might have been me on the school run to Wooton Bassett just before half past eight. Were you in the red import heading towards Wroughton?

That might be me if you turn off towards Wantage. Lucky if you saw me flash, I normally end up turning the wipers on instead.

I've had mine down to 30 miles, and then put 77 litres of fuel in. Other times I've only managed to put just over 60 litres in with it down to 50 miles. Basically means that all the reading is good for is a game of chicken.

On the tyre front, Falken 452's appear to be perfectly adequate for your average Zed driver. When I got mine a year ago, the rears very very low on tread so I bit the bullet and replaced all 4 tyres since I don't like mixing them. In 12 months I've only felt the back end slide when I did want it to once and that was on a round about in the wet when I was half asleep one morning and my intelligence gland hadn't been woken up by coffee. Even then it was eay enough to catch.

OK, so the Zed is not normally a car that you should drive and worry about fuel consumption. But I use mine for a daily commute of between 60 and 80 miles and since these are not the "fun" trips I like to be reasonably economical. Last year I noticed that when the really cold weather set in that my normal fuel consumption dropped from about 27 mpg to 20 mpg. Over the past couple of weeks/tank fulls of slightly cooler weather it has dropped to 25 mpg. Is this to be expected or is there something potentially wrong with her. A 10 degree chnage in temperature corresponds to a 3% or so change in mass density of the air, but since the Zed has a temperature gauage (or so the instruments would lead us to believe) surely the engine managment system is able to correct the air mass flow readings for temperature?

Been listening to radio ads fro Tracker systems this morning and was wondering if anyone has had one installed? If so, what sort of insurance discount did you get? I'm not sure that the sums add up or even if I would want the car back if it had been stolen and thrashed by joy riders.

Perhaps a dumb question from Mr. No Mods, but does a replacement albeit "performance" drop in filter have to be declared expecially if the ECU is going ot negate the effects once it has finished learning. Surely this would mean that you would have to declare any non OEM parts used on the car. Low drag wiper blades anyone

Hope you get this sorted out. I suspect that they don't have pet insurance which realy makes my blood boil, you shouldn't be allowed to keep a og (or in fact any animal) without it. Not only would it have covered the vet fees for their dog, but probably also 3rd party liability for damage caused by their dog. Many house contents policies would also have covered the damage caused by their dog, so definitely looks like the boyfriend was being a ****. The dog was off the leash and therefore legally not under control, so they have no defense regardless of any speed that you might or might not have been doing. Should be no problem in the small claims court, although I don't know how you go about handling witness statements. Perhaps point out to them that when you take them to court that the witnesses will be appearing in person and that their travel costs will be added to the judgement :). 10 years ago or so that happened to us from the dog owners perspective. Our dog was on the leash at the time, but when a dog on the other side of the road barked at him he took off at warp 10 ripping the lead from my wife's hand. When he he spen about 6 feet into the air and landed on the cars bonnet leaving alarge german shepherd sized dent. We quite happily paid for their repairs and got the money back from our pet insurers. Only shock was they recovered half the claim form our home contents insurers so we lost our no claims discount. At least our dog was OK apart from a bruised bum after a night at the vet being treated for shock.

FINE!! - will buy one this weekend..... DONE! - For the M3, people will look at you and think "drug dealer":teeth: I am driving an Xreg 520 As long as its not a personalized plate, you'll probably get away with it.

FINE!! - will buy one this weekend..... DONE! Good lad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Strange set of possible choices though, but my take is: - For the Clio, it does matter how much fun the car might be, people will look at you and think "Chav" - For the M3, people will look at you and think "drug dealer" - For the Zed, as long as its a sunset, people will look at you and think "Cool Dude"