sasha@lazytrips

A Dodge Charger is hardly a muscle car

Interesting that. Seen a few Thrifty/Dollar locations and never seen anything like that. Avis/Hertz have a few Camaros on book. It's especially strange given the fact that you can't even book anything remotely like a Camaro online - if they offered it up, that could have been the bargain of the century!

You sure it was a Camaro? When we went about a month ago and hired from Dollar, the best they had was a convertible Mustang which is what we took. Never heard of them having Camaros and they're not on their site either. The only place you can get a new Camaro at the moment is Hertz I think. Here's a link for picking your rental next time you head across the pond: MapMyDream.com

What you should have asked for is a Challenger R/T

I think you'll find that it was sold for A LOT less than £11.5k given that the dealer has now put it up for £11k (usually at least a £2k mark up). http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2855480.htm

I'm not too sure on the price element (although I would say that £11.5k for a 53 plate is way too high even with the add-ons), but I would fix everything before selling as you're likely to end up taking the same net profit as you otherwise would, but would significantly increase the liquidity of the car. If you take it back to standard in terms of exhaust, etc, that may make it even more liquid and net you a slightly better profit if you sell the parts separately although will make it a lot more of a headache.

In addition to the above, I would add: 5. What alternative way could you propose to allow for you to continue to accrue your pension on the same terms? The government doesn't just happen to grow this money on trees. I'd highly recommend the moaners to read a book called "Who moved my cheese" which takes around forty minutes at best to get through which explains the realities of change in life and how different people approach change. Could seriously open some people's eyes.

The one thing that confuses me here is this. Am I right in understanding that the government's proposal will not retrospectively affect all accrued pensions up to the date on which the switch takes place, i.e. if you've done 20/30 years, then you'll get the pension equivalent of final salary as if you left at this point and whatever else you accrue under the new programme for the remaining years until actual retirement. This is the point that the government made, but every single person you read about in the papers/see on TV conveniently ignores and lies about. Would the people protesting prefer for a large proportion of the workforce to be made redundant? There are no two ways about it as when, as Chesterfield pointed out, more money comes out than goes in, something will have to give. So the government had a choice: 1. Make tens of thousands of people redundant. 2. Pension fund goes bust in around 12 years meaning that nobody gets any pension at all. 3. Borrow astronomical sums of money to fund this pension gap which will most likely eventually lead to the country defaulting on its debts making the Greek crysis look like peanuts. 4. Ask public sector employees to contribute a little bit more to their pensions and retire at the same time as everybody else. Given the above options (and there actually are no other options), what would the protesting public sector voters prefer? Got to love the incapability of structuring any logically coherent argument from people paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to be union leaders.

I was going to make a very long post, but then found that Chesterfield actually infiltrated my brain and wrote it all down in a far more concise and explicit manner.

Or here's an alternative option: All start at an agreed location (near London or whatever) with a full tank of fuel at 9.00pm on a Friday night. Everybody has to return to same agreed location by 9.00pm on Sunday night. (allows people from most places in the UK except some of Scotland to get to/from starting location without missing work - precise time can be adjusted) The exercise is then to drive as far as possible in this time frame with the evidence of pictures of the car including numberplates and yourself next to two recognisable monuments (e.g. famous buildings, bridges, whatever)/natural wonders (e.g. famous mountain, river bend, whatever) wherever it is that you end up. This would be a combination of endurance, driving, logical thinking and planning skills. That hardcore enough?

For that sorta money, I would have a very very very long list of cars I'd rather buy if I'm honest.

Real-life answer: bag the DB2/4 cabriolet, sell on to a private collector at a profit and buy a Pagani Huayra. If I had to actuall own one of these, the answer is simple: the 1936 Jag.

In my experience, both in terms of looking for a job and hiring people, degrees from different places in different subjects can have an impact, but in reality, the majority of decent employers will consider the broader picture including any work experience, relevance of the degree to the job at hand, etc. It is also a fact that for every person who is easily impressed by a good degree from a top university, there are two who will tell you to your face, before even leting you speak a word, that the mere fact that you attended a good university must necessarily mean that you are a spoilt rich kid with no understanding of the real world. This happens more that you'd think and creates an almost polar effect where some employers will undoutedly have a preference for good degree/uni combinations, others will put you at a disadvantage. I'm speaking from personal experience. One thing that does annoy me is certain people's presumption that there is an inherent link between wealth of one's parents and their attendance at a good university. Given that the cost of all universities is the same and the fact that professors choosing their intake are actually smart enough to choose on the basis of merit, I fail to see what the direct link here is.

I'm pretty sure the app is device-specific. changing the sim won't change your ability to track it. At least it doesn't with ours.

Are you sure that when you first got your iPad, you did not install a free locator app that Apple suggest? I believe with all recent iPhones & iPads, there is a prompt when you first start it up and connect to the interweb. If you have an itunes account, you may well have set it up without realising. If you have, you can go to me.com and track the ipad to the nearest metre and/or get an app on any other apple device which will do the same. Even if you really don't remember doing it, worth seeing if your itunes/apple account (or one you may have had in the past) works on that site just in case your ipad is on and is sending out signals. Also, I think I might be right in saying that in case of it being stolen, you may be able to find out what your MAC number was, etc from Apple if they can in any way track down your purchase (done online or remember where/when?) and because it is 3G enabled, there may possibly be some way to find out where it is even without a SIM? I seem to recall reading about some guy who did just that, knocked on the door of where his iPad was and presented a violent surprise to the dude who opened the door.

how much ?? Well, my knowledge is a little out of date, but the cheapest V6 TT on pistonheads is £14k.

We've got the zed and the 3.2 TT between my wife and myself. The TT has lighter panels, is generally more compact or at least feels that way (think small boot, rear seats smaller than the zed's speakers, etc). I would guess that below the surface, the materials used are better and lighter given the interior is far better and obviously the car is >2x the price.

I'll leave the pricing question for Abbey to discuss, but it is worth noting that just because a local garage can do a cheaper hourly rate, doesn't mean it won't take them twice as long to figure their way around the car which in my opinion often equates to very competitive rates from people who know their stuff.

Time to hang my head in shame at the knowledge that my wife's 3.2 V6 TT is about 7x more rare than my 350z.

If I told you that the car was picked up promptly from the airport (another long story - I would like to stress that I believe Mark has no intention of making this a common practice - it just worked out that way) and hence it was a truly "Valet Service" while I was on holiday, would that be too good to be true?

A photo or two may well be appended at a later date (when I get my hands on the camera)

Hi guys, I just wanted to put up a quick review of the Challenger R/T (classic) that I had the pleasure of driving through a few thousand miles across city, country, mountain, desert, dirt track and random piece of Mexican border while followed by US Border Patrol (separate story) on my recent trip to the States. First things first... I picked up the car from Hertz in Los Angeles Airport to be handed back there after a brief drive around California and the neighbouring States. I had a choice of the Camaro SS, the Ford Mustang GT Premium or this beast (all virtually brand new). Given that on paper, this lost in every single aspect other than its sheer ridiculous size, looks & feel, heart won over brain and I picked the Challenger. On first impressions, this car looks considerably better than it does in any picture. The look from virtually any angle is seriously impressive and the "60s design done 50 years on" look really worked for me. Having seen a couple of older chargers and challengers on our travels, it certainly resembles a lot of the key features of those cars and stands out from the crowd. The colour was bright burnt orange with black R/T stripes down the sides. One important thing to note is that this is a big car. By big, I am talking dimensions which are larger than a Ford Transit van for a 2-door coupe. Due to its design, it doesn't look particularly big (e.g. new Camaro variants which are smaller look much bigger). Given that this car certainly looks like it ought to be driven by Mexican druglords (in a good way if you can picture that), the boot is appropriate for at least 4-5 bodies. We had one pretty large and one cabin-size suitcases with us as well as some random bags. We could have easily fitted another equivalently large suitcase and a few other cabin-sized bags in that boot. The space was colossal. Inside, this car continues with the rugged look. While these cars can have many options including a Satnav-Radio-Computer-Whatever gadget in the dash, ours was a bit more simple with all the basics covered. In this respect it was a bit more like the zed than a BMW or a porker. The plastics were alright, but not particularly amazing quality and the general feel was a little rough. And that's why it was good. It didn't pretend to be something it is not and really went with the rest of the car. The steering wheel was a very good shape with plenty of controls (I never figured out what half of them did, but hey - reading hire car manuals on holiday is a bit like following step-by-step instructions to complete a 100 piece jigsaw: no fun whatsoever unless you ditch the instructions and go it alone). The space inside is also great. Due to its width and length, the cabin is a lot roomier than it may seem from the outside. Having said that, the rear seats are still somewhat nominal with legspace at a premium when front seats are pushed back a little. We used them as storage space for things like Cowboy hats, maps and lunch. Now we're onto the best bit - the driving. I drove this car after having a go in a Mustang on the Gulf Coast and I must say that after that "experience" I did not have the highest of hopes for the "Ginger Dog" (yes, we did get attached). Having done the trip, I am still in awe of the technology in that car. The engine is a Hemi 6l V8 pushing the best part of 400 horses coupled with an Auto gearbox. The power and torque are really quite amazing. I appreciate that this car is more powerful than a DE 350z, but the change was staggering as at full pelt, this thing really goes. The gearbox was the revelation of my experience. Despite being automatic, it was incredibly sensitive to what the gas pedal was doing with virtually no lag. As soon as you put your foot down, the gears tumble to the appropriate level and the car just goes. When cruising around town, the car automatically goes into "Eco" mode which preserves fuel and whatnot, but as soon as you need the power, it's there waiting to be exploited. The best bit about the gearbox is the manual option. The gearstick is not one of those typical automatic huge things with a button on it, but a very nifty short shifter. Once you've pushed the automatic lever all the way down to "D", you then have the option of pushing it right or left to go up or down a gear. This may be seen as somewhat backward in comparison with paddles, but it keeps the car looking the part and is surprisingly awesome to use (much much better than the paddles in the TT S that I tried before). It literally feels the same as those arcade driving simulators with immediate flawless changes as you push sequentially through the gears. The power at high revs is astonishing. Last, but not least, the handling on this car was something I was not prepared for. Given its size, its relatively elevated look (definitely does not need lowering despite this) and the fact that it was made in US&A, I was prepared for the usual "goes in a straight line, feels like a sofa on broken wheels on ice when going round the most mild corner". In reality, the handling was pretty awesome. The grip in the corners was very very good. I would say the car felt more planted (possibly due to its 2 tonne weight) than the zed and the control at all times was very good. Given all of the above, if (or more like when) I move to live somewhere hot, I am getting the SRT version with the automatic box without a doubt. This car is seriously awesome.

Prior to my recent holiday, some creative thinking linked a trip south to Heathrow with the possibility of sorting out a large number of long-standing niggles with the car and book it into Abbey due to Surrey being virtually "round the corner" according to my geography knowledge. So I did just that and presented Mark & Scott with a huge list of things which were wrong with the car. Not that I am a particularly uncaring owner, but a number of things piled up ranging from a load of lights on the dashboard to having a lset of decent locking nuts with no locking key to cosmetic issues, hubs wearing out and bodywork needing doing. Basically, pretty much everything. All the work was done with every point carefully attended to and the guys clarified a couple things by email while I was posing with Arizona cacti. The rear number plate now actually has light shining at it (while the Do-Luck bumper is perfect in almost every way, I am still confused as to why the numberplate lights are covered up . The car drives very well and I am very pleased with the work. I just wanted to make sure that people are fully aware of how good the guys at Abbey are with the day-to-day work on these cars given their speciality in Nissan sports vehicles and that they are definitely well worth a visit for reasons other than fitting a supercharger or remapping your ECU! The service in getting the car to & from Abbey worked out amazingly due to crazy circumstances where Mark was catching the plane that I actually arrived on, meaning we could do a car swap without even seeing each other by parking it in the Short Stay car park, but that's a whole other story! If you need some work doing, give Mark or Scott a ring and based on my experience, you won't be disappointed!

I've got a black one with black wheels and a fat behind. I've put spotted cards in all the aforementioned zeds including Fodder's blue ragtop. I've seen the owners of the other cars and the contingent appears to be female with no particular interest in the car beyond getting to work. P.S. can confirm Fodder's late night from seeing the blue ragtop at late o'clock when I was leaving the office.

I'm sure you've noticed, but it has a cut-out for an air intake in the front, so beware of that.