MadMac

Its that time of the year when there is a loud thud at my door which is my home insurance renewal and its accompanying t&c's filled with lots of clauses on why if I should ever make a claim they will not pay it.

So opening it up and oh look surprise surprise they are trying to put it up from £334 a year to £558, or an increase off 167%

Did they not learn last year where they tried to do exactly the same thing only to knock it back down again after I had gone to them saying I have quotes from 6 other companies who will charge me about £300. Plus they are putting on far more cover than I actually need.

Somehow I doubt a one bedroom flat will cost a million quid to to rebuild when the reinstatement value in my survey is £80k.

Insurance companies are such con artist

Now done my insurance quotes and have lots of companies who are willing to do it for £200. Now I dont mind paying a bit more IF its a good company.

So my question is, who do you use? How has your experience been with them and have you ever had any problems making a claim?

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What are you going to say to her when she says she likes it and wants one?

Fake a coughing fit while saying Mk1 TT Mk1 TT

Well done on the blag! They're awesome cars, my boss (kinda) has one and its like Christmas when they bring it into the office and everybody wants a ride. They're the one that got me thinking about 350s actually - since they had one back in the day, and an S2k, TVR Cerbera, Scooby...

Can we swap bosses please

I got an invit to test drive the new Continental GT Supersport, and bagged the mrs a test drive in that.

 

Then subsequently arrived a day late to the weekend event, having not read my leter from the dealers correctly.

 

That did not go down well.

Yeah always turn up for your test drive, dealerships really get fed up with timewasters, even if is isn't intentional!

My Mrs is a florist and she delivers flowers to the Audi Dealership in Coulsdon Surrey and has done so for a few months now. And every time she comes home after making a delivery she tells me what R8 they had in, what colour is was and "Oh I wish I could drive one."

Well its her birthday this month and I was looking at track days to send her on, but she made me promise not to spend to much money on her (makes a change eh? )

So I thought I would give the Audi guys a call and ask. So speaking to a rep and explaining she is the florist who does their flowers and she would really like to have a drive in an R8 for her birthday. If there are any costs I'd be happy to pay them and the response was.

"Of course she can, and dont worry about paying for it, more than happy to take her out and let her have a drive, we will take her out in the V10 too."

Well I didn't think it would work the only stipulation is that the demonstrator is available as customers come first, which is totally fair.

Just goes to show, dont ask, you dont get

Pics and Video to follow when we go :top:

They look tiptop just as they are!

meeting health and safety guidlines in the EU,

 

stops children decapitating themselves

Really?

Well if they are stupid enough to stick their head out of a car door window and then close said window I think natural selection in this case may be a good thing!

Well bad news is it looks like I'll have to wait until august until I can get my hands on a Z now

I'll probably just miss the summer so might not be able to enjoy the V6 with the roof down.

Still, means I can stash more of the cash away between now and then which should give me some more options.

GT with satnav seem to command the most respect with pricing, but I am willing to pay the extra for the cruise control and heated seats. Mainly because I like motorway driving and to stop the mrs complaining about being cold when I put the roof down, that woman is always bloody cold.

I showed this to my father when I spoke to him recenty, he is a chauffeur by trade and got them all bar one.

"I remember son," he said, "when I took my first test when we lived in Lebanon, it was drive up the road 200yards then reverse back down the same road by 200 yards. They introduced the reverse 200 yards that year because people had to know how to reverse away from the tanks."

Bless him, that guys face when it turned up.

That's a great shot, really is one in a million chance that!

Never been in a plane that's had a lightning strike, but got chatting to some of the crew when I flew out to Oz last year because as we were comming into Hong Kong there was a thunder storm. My Mrs was bricking it, she is nervous enough as it is when flying, so the thunderstorm was just the icing on the cake really.

The crew, bless em, were reassuring her and one of them said in one flight they got struck 4 times in a heavy thunder storm, they didn't even know about it until the pilot told them.

Fuel Guage = Accurate generally.

TripComputer = Not Accurate

 

The computer is just trying to make an educated guess, but it doesn't actually know exactly how much fuel you have in there.

.

 

They both work off the same measurement tho. The Fuel gauge is also trying to guess. How else can you explain the gauge regularly going back up as i drive more economical.

Each car is different, and to be honest, I don't know about the Z guages to understand it, but, the major contributing factor it the shape of the tank. Every car fuel tank is irregularly shaped because, let's face it, trying to fit a perfectly simetrical fuel tank in a car is never going to happen.

But they are usually bigger at the top than they are at the bottom, so if you put fuel in you will find in most cars, the first half a tank on the gauge goes down slowly, then you get your last half empty much faster. But the gauge isn't usually designed to take that into account.

Then you also add in, if your driving like a loony, just like when swirl a drink round a glass, most of the fuel is sloshing around the tank, but the reader can't compensate for that so it thinks you have less. (this was usually pretty obvious in old cars, my old escort, the fuel gauge would drop to empty when I went round a corner quickly!) When you drive normally, the fuel isn't sloshing about so you get a more accurate reading.

After all the sensor in the tank is usually just a float on the end of a rod. It's kinda like to sticking your hand in a bucket of water, you know how much water it can hold, an your friend is taking a cup of water out every few seconds, so you know that too, but you have to guess how much is actually in there, it's even harder when it's sloshing about or a funny shaped bucket.

I've typed this on my iPhone on a train, please excuse the spelling and grammatical errors.

Fuel Guage = Accurate generally.

TripComputer = Not Accurate

The computer is just trying to make an educated guess, but it doesn't actually know exactly how much fuel you have in there.

My AA man friend is always complaining about rescuing people who watch the trip computer and not the actual fuel gauge.

Yeah that probably is a bit far... but wil bear it in mine because reasonably priced and reasonable work is hard to come by.

Especially spending loads on a £800 micra but the Mrs doesn't want to get shot of the car.

Means I'll have to lend her my car when she is delivering flowers.. if it ends up being the roadster she is going to be the fastest florist in the country I recon

Hi Guys

Well, unfortunately my Mrs poor little Micra took a beating a couple of months back after an uninsured white van man drove into the side of it, and it now needs fixing.

We managed to secure a couple of doors and a new wing, so its really fitting and painting that needs doing.

Can anyone recommend any one in the Croydon area that would be up to the job?

Most people are happy to take one car, but he has to take 4

After an unfortunate end to my last Clio172 cup, I bought a new one and as most of the good bits survived they are now gone this car! :cool:

 

I took a four of my cars to Bedford last saturday and my brother in law ended up driving my Clio home. He LOVES it now and as a thanks for letting him hammer it on track he gave it a clean and took some shots of it for me.

Thought I would share!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a video of Clio on track

 

 

Was great fun last friday night. Thats my uncle driving my Exige in front

 

On friday I remembered just how much I LOVE the Clio. It was honestly more fun for me than the ExigeS on track. Just loved driving it!

 

This was a good little play I had in the Lotus though with a similar car on friday night before jumping in Clio

 

and this was a video playing in my Donkey with Sean in his scooby and Rentons new 420bhp Audi turbo powered Exige the previous saturday. apologies for the MASSIVE ERROR WITH CAMERA PLACEMENT! whooopsy! mirror is badly in way. Dan has BIG moment on a fast bend near the end

Just interested in hearing peoples stories.

How did you buy your Z?

Did you save up?

Did you take finance?

Did you get a windfall?

Go!

Did someone fit a 2 stroke?

Just what I was thinking, sounded like the Saxo that drives round my way with the grapefruit cannon exhaust...

I though, from the back, and from the front, the body kit didn't look too bad, the. From the sides it just doesn't work on the front and rear wings...

Fail.

I live in Croydon... which basically has the 3rd highest crime rate in london

How is that even possible? Sure I will accept maybe 15... but 39!!!

I'm 30, held my license for 10 years, no convictions, no claims, but no bonus as I haven't been running any policies! For years I worked in london so was a named driver only as I didn't need to own a car.

Getting £1,200 for the Z and £250 on the mrs micra.

That does look very good

Right, so now I am finally in the position to be looking to buy myself a nice car (its only taken me 5 years ) but I am facing the horrible truth that I have not built up any no claims for all that time and the car I finally am going to buy is going to rape me on the insurance for the first year.. oh well.

So the insurance on the mrs car is due for renewal in the next couple of month. And as I'm buying my own car, I really want to get a bit of a head start on the insurance if I can.

Does anyone know of any multi car insurance policies that allow me to start earning no claims on the mrs car with both of us being insured on the one car with a view of adding my car to it later once I have actually found the one I want?

Dammit, couldn't make it.

When is the next one?