Ekona

Because no-one buys them, so they're more expensive to manufacture. Or they're made in a different factory, or they want to make more profit, or they cost more to design, or because the owner put his pants on the wrong way round this morning. Could be any one of a million reasons, I wouldn't worry about it.

Try the current Sport Automatic 'boxes on the current 1/2 and 3/4 series range, they're utterly brilliant. As close to a dual clutch as you could get, and tbh I was hard pressed to tell the difference. Only on occasion when I was asking it do something stupid like shift down when I was accelerating hard could I trip it up, and that's something you'd never actually do in real driving.

Essentially it's telling you that you're driving beyond the limits of grip, so you'll need to adjust your driving style to the conditions.

It says in big letters inside your fuel flap what fuel to use.

There will be a delay, the slushbox in the auto 350 isn't exactly cutting edge. It may not actually be any longer than the time it takes to shift with a stick, but it will feel like an age as you're not actually doing anything. If you're happy with a slow shift and want a more relaxed drive then it's perfect, but anyone expecting shifts like a DSG or even the new range of ZF boxes will be hugely disappointed I think. There's no right or wrong answer to the manual or auto question, some people will graduate more to one or the other. Try them both, make up your own mind.

Tonight for my birthday meal I went to Pizza Hut and had an ice Cream factory for dessert. I'm so not grown up yet

I had to google that. Wish I hadn't.

I've seen this mentioned a few times now, so I just did a quick google to see what's what. It's actually 144 people beheaded in Saudi this year so far, probably more as the article I found was published at the start of November. However, I guess the argument there is that at least they have a justice system, with proper police and courts and stuff. The sentence may be harsh for some things, like drug trafficking, but at least it's all set in stone and you have half a chance at defending yourself. With Daesh you get none of that, and they'll kill innocents just for the sake of it. I don't think the Saudi system is one we should all aspire to, but neither do I think it's in any way comparable in terms of barbarism.

I like that. I think it's a daft thing to do and it's going to be rubbish to drive, but I can massively appreciate the engineering and style that's gone into that. Subtle is the way forward.

Indeed. When even the French are calling for everyone to take up arms and eradicate this filth from the planet, you know it's really time to step up!

I am Tom!

Your kidding me? Im older than you?! or do you mean 140? I know, I had a tough paper round, I'm younger than I look

Oh. Is that it? Tbh it's probably not hard to hear when there's artillery fire in the distance, and maybe the person who fired it (might not be the Yanks, it's not like the film was of the highest quality) missed the first time? They would certainly have been expecting it then! Or they could hear it being launched, or the site next door just got hit, or thug life they just ain't care.

*groan*

What am I missing?

I'm always nice! Now f*ck off :p Thanks folks! One year closer to the big four-oh, I guess I really should start planning for that now...

HashtagHashtag AtAt. Sounds foreign. Bloody foreigners, coming over here telling us they want to know what love is!

True, can't argue with that. I'm wondering if there isn't a long term strategy as we've not really fought anything like this before, as they're a different kettle of fish compared with the Taliban in Afghan. Perhaps it really is just a case of start with the obvious and see where we go from there, maybe we can keep them bottled up for so long that eventually their own people just give up? I don't know.

Stu, did you read the Wiki link I posted? You need to expand the bits about what strikes happened in what years, they're very precision stuff we're doing rather than carpet bombing.

Because he's the only one that has a cat in hells chance of winning this, and stablising the country, backed by Russia. The alternative is we send ground troops to fight an enemy that will immediately melt back into the population, and attack us from the shadows, which will once again mean we will have to pull out, like we did in Iraq, because our ROE are so airy fairy that the military are forced to fight with one hand tied behind the back, and with the Guardian, et all, reporting every misdeed that goes on. No. ISIS need to be tackled old school. And Russia fights old school. And that's why they got results in the first two weeks, while the USA got nowhere in 2 years. Though I also wonder about the links between the USA and ISIS. So what are Russia doing differently? Genuine question, I've no idea. Assad is a mentalist, nearly as bad as Daesh themselves. Neither should be allowed anywhere near running a country, much less get support from the world. That's in a perfect world of course, where democracy reigns and folks in that region can understand that.

Now he thinks you're utterly mental, so will definitely send them out :lol:

Hurrah, common sense prevails! Been keeping an eye on this today, some very good speeches by the Labour MPs voting in favour I thought. Corbyn as useless as ever, CMD not much better tbh.

There are a few people in life who you can consider to be a friend despite never having met them. Martin was one of those people. I recall fondly the PMs we shared over the Hairy Biker who called his home a brothel, let's just say that Martin didn't hold back in his words! Thanks for the laughs and the kind words and even the rollickings when I deserved them, and I will miss you my friend.

Perfect!