rabbitstew

I missed this update! Wow! TR6! Always liked them. Good move! Going to be a fun summer one way or another for you!

Jesus! You must like no sleep and being skint! Congratulations mate! My missus keeps harping on about having a 3rd, but I really do not think I could go back to being sleep deprived and having to drag a baby around everywhere again. Now mine are at school and out of nappies its so much easier.

....... Rabbitstew runs off to watch this in depth!

R8?!!! I thought it was a TT !!!!

Test Drive 2 was the only reason I bought an Amiga! Loved that game.

Wife bought a JCW Mini Cooper Convertible the other week from Parklane Mini in London based purely on a "walk around" video they sent her. Did the deal over the phone, and had them deliver the car to our front door. I hope she doesnt do that too often. Bit more expensive than her usual "online shopping".

In my experience what will usually happen is that the insurance company will inspect the car and decide if its worth repairing or not. If they decide to write it off they will usually try and offer you the cheapest price they can as they know a certain percentage of people will just assume that's the price & accept it. As Dan says above, what you need to do then, is to show them the real cost of replacing the car with one the same as it - same year, colour, spec, mileage, condition etc. What ive done in the past is to send them copies of adverts etc so they can see what the market price is. When ive had to claim in the past I found they usually dont haggle or complain and increase their offer accordingly. In my view, the insurance should put you back in the same position you were before he crash. i.e. in an identical car. What you paid for the car shouldn't really matter. Last time I had a car written off, their initial offer was actually spot on, so I didnt have to go through this process!

As a side note, I think the fact so many ex zed owners remain on this forum and are still active posters says a lot about this forum!

It will make a lot of difference. The porsche battery on my 997 is widely regarded as terrible (and it is!). I replaced it with an upgraded bosch and the difference in cranking & starting is amazing. However, ive an aftermarket tracker on it, which if i leave it for a month or so, soon drains it.

Usually within 2 or 3 days in my family's experience if its a parked up mobile van, id presume average cameras are the same. It is worth noting however, in general they seem to put these average cameras up, but leave them switched off for months. I remember several times hearing in the news that "the average cameras on xxxxx road are now live", when everyone has presumed that they have been live for months. So you might be "lucky".

Sounds like a good plan then if this the 3rd time. I wonder if theres anything causing a drain?

Does your CTEK have a recon setting? Mine does and revived the very dead battery in my 997 the other month after I left it in the garage over Christmas. Id assumed the battery was toast so went out & bought a new one which is still sitting unused in the garage. At least ive got a spare if I need it now.

Woah! That really surprises me. With the value of some vehicles dealers have on sale or return I would not have thought many people would be happy potentially accepting a trade in value for their car if it gets stolen / written off. Especially when the trade in value could be 25% less than the actual retail price (cost of replacement).

No NCB may be an issue, although in the case of my Mini which I bought last year, I had no NCB on it and the insurer only charged me £80 a year to insure it. Unless you can find some sort of specialist insurance to cover it. Doesnt the traders insurance cover it?

My motorbikes have been SORN`d for years and I just insure them through normal insurance company. I dont recall them ever asking me if they are taxed or not. For me I dont want to loose my NCB on them, so it makes sense for me just to keep renewing the insurance (as its less than £100 to insure 2 superbikes on a multibike policy). Then if I want to use them I just need to MOT & TAX them and away I go. I am now wondering if insurance companies have some sort of clause that if the vehicle is SORN then their insurance isnt valid? But then loads of people SORN their vehicles over winter & drag them out again in spring time.....

Thats pretty much identical to what I found. My dad was paying more to insure his Skoda than I was paying on my modified Porsche 997 turbo. They should introduce something like they made the energy suppliers do - they have to let you know if you are on the cheapest tarrif or something when they send you your bill.

Definitely. I wonder what % of people just assume its the best price & pay. I know my parents happily paid NFU`s renewal price for about 20 years on their cars without checking.

Awesome choice! Hope you dont have any heart conditions as they certainly get your heart rate going a bit when you put your foot down.

It just seems to be a very odd way of doing business to me, offer new clients a very low price, then jack it up in subsequent years hoping that clients wont shop around and leave you. I was with Admiral for about 6 years. Every year their renewal was ridiculously higher than what other companies were quoting, and every year after ringing to cancel they happily dropped the price back down to match the other companies. Last year they just couldnt match LV and so I went with LV. Then come my renewal this time around LV have decided they dont want to insure my car, so I shop around and guess whose the cheapest? Yep, Admiral again.

Nicole! I`d forgotten about those adverts!

Good choice!!!! If you want to know anything about them then just drop me a PM. I've done 40k miles in mine now over last 4 years and spent quite a bit of time setting mine up for handling/performance. I ended up back with Admiral this year, £385 fully comp incl. all mods. Mines got 585bhp at the wheels which is about 650bhp at the engine depending upon the rolling road & transmission losses etc. They are cracking cars. The 996 turbo is also worth looking at. The prices on those seem to be dropping slightly atm again - mid £20k is a bargain for the performance.

I wonder what the actual demand for this is? Ford already have the EcoSport, Kuga, Edge, and in the USA they also have the Escape, the Expedition and the Flex. All SUV / Trucks / 4x4 type vehicles of various sizes. Not to mention the Ranger which is more of a pickup than an SUV. How many more do they need? Its as if some marketing person at Ford had a brainwave and thought "I know, lets bring out another SUV/Truck as we havent got enough of those in our range"

hahahahaaha!!! glad its not just me. Whenever I get in the wifes car I always put 2 or 3 "bags for life" in the boot as she NEVER remembers to take them and always ends up buying 2 or 3 more each shop. We have millions of them now.

I run a Corbeau Clubsport XL in my Mini Cooper S and love it. Bought it without trying and am genuinely very surprised at how comfortable it is. The car has sport suspension, so its a firm ride, but the seats so comfy I have no problems using the car as my daily commuter doing 90 miles a day in it. Im 6ft and 14.5 stone, quite broad shoulders/arms. The other big plus is that it only costs £200 new delivered including side mounts and sliders. Worth a look.

Wow, now that is a bit different!