Ekona

Why didn't you put it in the windscreen? I'd love to see the look on their faces when the paperwork of you contesting it comes through!

Servicing a 986 will be the same cost as a Zed at the indies. Tbh if any one expects to be able to buy a premium car and for it to cost peanuts if something goes wrong, they're feuding themselves. Present company excepted, of course.

I went the other way, from Zed to 997.2 C2S. Before I start, I will say that I love the Zed and would have another one tomorrow, so this is all in comparison to a car that costs more than twice as much: The Zed feels a heavy car. The 911 is practically the same weight, especially the 4S models, but they hide their weight very well having it all out the back. A 911 can be an incredibly precise tool, but a 350 is a far more blunt instrument and you'll never hide the mass over the nose. The steering is very weighty and turn in is rarely what you'd consider sharp in comparison. The engine is far from characterful, although the 309 HR is much better than an early car as you can really wring its neck and it will respond. A good exhaust is a must-have on a Zed, it really is. If you focus on the suspension side of things you can get a Zed to handle as a sports car should, and IMHO this is a better direction than chasing bhp. The caveat of the paragraph above still applies. There are no terminal issues with the Zed in the same way the M97 has the bores/IMS worries, so no fear there. Servicing costs are a little lower, budget about £300 per year, but fuel will be worse. Brakes and tyres are very similar, expect to pay the same as what you are now. It won't be much cheaper overall than the 911, which ironically makes the Porker a bargain in that aspect. The seating position is worse in the Zed so longer cruises aren't as easily eaten up, and the blunt front end can make placing the nose down a country lane awkward compared to the 911. The interior is a much worse place to be, but at least it's easy to sort out the ICE in the Zed compared with trying to do anything with the PCM2! And despite all that, it's still the only car I'd consider dropping down to from the 911. Aside from the running costs, it fulfills every one of your criteria perfectly and I can guarantee it's a car you'll learn to appreciate in a whole different way to your current beast.

They're sh*t. Just buy a 911 if you want a proper Porsche. As for specs, you'd want the following: Boroscope inspection to check for scored bores Everything else is down to personal taste. If it's got the standard nav avoid as it's awful, junk the system and put something aftermarket in. Sports seats are very good, I wouldn't want the non-sport versions. A decent exhaust would be lovely but not exactly hard to fit yourself. I'm not entirely up on my 996/986 specs but a lot of it will be just colours, trim and wheels, so pick a decent one oyu like rather than getting bogged down in what options it has or hasn't got. Do a lot of research into IMS issues and be aware of what you're getting into, as a £7K car can end up with a £5K bill very easily. See the documentation (and prevention measures) on the Hartech website.

I love Chris Harris and his videos, but even I disagreed with the outcome of this one. He's right about the 370Z though, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. There's very, very few times you can go 10/10ths anywhere these days, the argument that you shouldn't do so on the roads notwithstanding. That's pretty much what the car was designed for, and it does it very well. Interesting on his comments about the seat position being off, I was quite impressed with how much better than the 350 it was when I sat in Colin's. The 370 is too heavy, but we all know that and the 350 was the same. We know the 370 sounds anaemic when pushed on as stock, that's why we all slap new exhausts on them. Putting it next to the 86 shows just how good looking the 370 is too, so no shame there. Given that the Cayman S was on the PSS9 suspension, I'm even more surprised that Harris chose the 86. That is a seriously good set of dampers and springs there, much better than the PASM setup Porsche offer on the car, so his comments are of the highest praise. I still think you'd be mad to take the 86 over a used Cayman at the RRP of the Toyota.

*Plumbers The description is accurate though

It's spam, 100%. Link in the post? Appalling Engrish? MEGASPAMZORZ

But is the new 3 series convertible more "common" than vectras, astras, mondeos, clios and all the other cheap main stream cars out there? Sure, theres a lot of bmw`s on the road now, but im pretty sure i see more non 3 series convertibles than i do 3 series convertibles. I see what your saying, but if you think there are probably an equal-ish number of mondeo`s, vectras, astra`s, focus`s, bmw 3 series, etc. etc. on the road, the fact that (for example), less Peugeot 307`s break down than say a Clio is probably a fair comparison. Depends on whether the owners of those cars can be arsed to do a questionnaire for Which? or not. You must see more non-3 series convertibles than 3 series convertibles, because I can't believe for one second that all the 3SC in the country number more than the combined mass of Audi, Ford, Vauxhall, Peugeot etc droptops combined I see what you're trying to say, but the 3-series is the single biggest seller in the UK now and has been for some years. The fact a car with a complicated convertible roof mechanism is off the road for repairs for longer than the saloon/coupe equivalent should be of no surprise to anyone. Also if the 107 is super-reliable then the Aygo and C1 should be in the exact same spot, seeing as how they're the same car made in the same factory. It's little things like that that make me rubbish any of these surveys, as they're just too limited in scope.

It's new. All-new.

Why have they put the lights from a Ford Focus on the rear? Front lights creeping around the side looks fine, it works because that's the way air flows so the eye doesn't mind it, but why the juddery flip have they done it with the rear lights too?! Aside from that, it's almost exactly as expected which is no bad thing. Interior looks a significantly nicer place to be. Interested to see the new RRS now.

Infinity. Nothing else will do.

But what did the contract say? Sorry to repeat myself, but if it says you must pay the upgrade fee (and it sounds like it did, as you had to pay it in the first place) then the managers were wrong to tell you that you didn't need to pay it. Terrible customer service to then ask for it back, but legally I don't know if you can escape your contractual obligations on that. I suspect not, but you may get somewhere with their customer service line if you're persistent but polite.

Makes perfect sense. Factory build cars based upon orders. If the order comes from a dealer to get a car into stock, it is ordered with sat nav. If it came from a dealer based on a customer order, then no sat nav.

Regarding the upgrade fees, what does the paperwork you signed say? It will state what upgrade fee may or may not be charged. Regarding the discount of the airtime vouchers, you need to be dealing with Phones4U directly as your purchase was via them. I appreciate they say they've sent them to Orange, but you need to push them and get them sent again if necessary.

The more common the car, the more likely they are to break down. Simple maths. Same reason you see more modern cars than older ones broken down by the side of the road: There's few older cars left, and there's more cars out there in general now anyway. Surveys like this are interesting, but nothing more than that IMHO.

A decent alignment would be a good start, see if that sheds any light on anything

It's a real shame when people can work out which one of Tinchy Tiny Taio is singing their generic stuff, but have no idea when a proper band with a lot of history rock up on stage. Bad marketing on one part, I guess.

Has no-one actually heard of Beady Eye before?

It was Beady Eye. That's Oasis minus Noel.

I don't recognise the name, but the club does gets mention

Shouldn't be any difference at all. Neil's right though, just call and ask.

It's a car. You only need it for one day. Get over it. I had a courtesy Micra once. It was bloody awful, but it let me get from A-B. if image is that important to you, why did you buy a Nissan? If they spent more on courtesy cars, they'd have to charge more to make up for it. Yeah, it's nice to get exciting stuff to drive when you get a courtesy cat, but it's just that: A courtesy, not a right. It's pushing towards a rights bit more when it's a warranty fix, I will give you that though.

Not having a car ready for you when they promised isn't good enough, being offered a Micra but turning it down is a bit off. It's got more storage room than a 370, so why wasn't it good enough for you? It's only a courtesy car, not a replacement.

YOY sales are down about 46% I think Harry Metcalfe tweeted the other day. Subs are stable, but no-one is walking into a shop and picking the odd copy up any more.

You probably wouldn't see a warped disc by the naked eye unless it's horrendously bad. Could well be pad material transfer causing it, go and do the usual bedding in procedure to see if that cures it.