Car Talk

[BroadAmbition]

You paid the van insurance, paid HMRC and still had money left for boots?

Truth be told - My daughter bought me some new work boots as in her words - I looked shameful  - Not sure what that has got do wi new workboots - Anyroadup I will of course refund her

 

%%%%%% In-ell

My previous van insurer has just renewed my van insurance AND debited me nearly £600 despite me previously instructing them both via phone call and email not too 

I have rung them first thing this morning - What's worse is they now tell me it can take up to EIGHT DAYS for them to refund me, it didn't take them eight days to debit my account despite being instructed NOT to did it?

Then to top it all off I got warned I may get reported for my attitude on the phone!

I'll give em attitude, where one of my ?

Griff

[annv]

Just had my  breakdown renewal notification for premium service with  no home start £35=00.  Use to be with Green Flag until they were bought out by a insurance company and fee's went through the roof. Often wonder if to continyou with breakdown cover as i dont do many miles these days, peace of mind i guess. John

[floydraser]

My Volvo XC90 will be 11 years old in June and has racked up 77,000 miles without too much bother at all. Now retired and considering whether to keep the two cars, bin one of them, or bin both and go new, we've decided to hang on for another year and take a view then.

So the Volvo is due a timing belt. The main dealer where I bought it is still there and they quoted “around £1,200” for the belt, water pump while you're down there, auxiliary belt and major service.

About 5 years ago a new prestige car dealership with workshop opened up in new industrial estate at the top end of our village and started to develop a good reputation. They quoted me £785 for the same work. I dropped it off with them at 08.30 yesterday and got a call to collect it at 13.00, job done and avoiding me walking up there in the forecast heavy rain!

Having always done my own work I'm always nervous when some else works on it but I needn't have worried. So it'll be good for another 77K now. All I need now are 4 new tyres as these are down to 3mm and 3 of them are slowly losing air, but then they have done 40K, only the second set it's had.

[grendel]

when i bought my v50 i asked when the timing belt had been done last, as we couldnt find any evidence we assumed that it hadnt been done, so I asked them to do that as part of the pre sale inspection, it was under £300, so they lived up to their name affordable autos.

[kpnut]

Same dilemma for me. 9 years old, 110,000 miles diesel ford BMax, totally versatile for my current lifestyle.

Timing belt is due for renewal. I have dinted the rear nearside sliding door and rear wheel arch which makes it a bit more awkward selling it, but doesn’t affect driving or me generally. 

It’s a good gardening/building work workhorse, but I’ll be doing less of the building type work in future, so don’t really need a car quite so big, but it needs to fit at least one dog crate. 

Do I keep it till it’s on its last legs, or change soon before I pay out for the timing belt, and one or two other things beginning to niggle?

And if so, what to change it to - SWB van, another BMax about 2017 with its fold flat floors, easy side access, low tax and low mileage, or a less workhorse type car?
One day it’s sell, the next it’s keep - it’s been going round and round in my head for months!!!

[MargeandParge]

Sometimes vans are dearer to insure than cars worth looking into KP .

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[Mouldy]

12 hours ago, kpnut said:

And if so, what to change it to - SWB van, another BMax about 2017 with its fold flat floors, easy side access, low tax and low mileage, or a less workhorse type car?

One day it’s sell, the next it’s keep - it’s been going round and round in my head for months!!!

I’ve been thinking about changing my car too.  Mine is now approaching eight years old and now has 98k miles in the clock.  Despite having been used as a van since we moved, moving all sorts of stuff from the bungalow to the tip since we moved, it’s still in good shape.

I’ve recently had to spend the best part of a thousand pounds on it, for new front fog lamps (the old ones had filled with water after driving through a flood), a new headlamp washer pump (which is required for the MoT as it’s fitted with HID headlamps) and a service.  I did find out that VW/Audi have extended the change interval for the timing belt, so I don’t have to worry about that for a while.

On positive note, I still enjoy driving the car - it’s quite lively and I can have a bit of fun in it, it has an enormous boot and is very economical on diesel, still averaging around fifty to the gallon despite being driven enthusiastically.

Until the wife retires, I still want to keep a second car, so my current thinking is that it will cost far more to replace with anything similarly versatile, so I’ll hang on to it a while longer yet.

[grendel]

my thoughts are that with the fact that Internal combustion cars will be difficult to buy new soon, that the value of older cars will suddenly go up, as people try and avoid getting an EV thats not fit for their purposes- take me for example, I probably need to visit the office about 6 times  a year, but the office is a 4 hour drive from home (200 odd miles), when I go on holiday, its to norfolk, also about a 4 hour drive (180 miles) usually setting out in the dark, and usually on a timescale where I wont really want to stop en route (getting to the office at 10am means leaving home at 6 and praying for good traffic, would I really expect to stop for an hour or two to recharge en route? I would be worn out before I even started working.

so for some  people internal combustion (or at least hybrid) is still needed, so if you have a n internal combustion car, then its either a case of replacing very soon, with something a lot newer, or keeping it on the road, where its value will be increased as EV's take a hold at least for those like me that do drive long distances when I drive.

[kpnut]

It’s exactly Mouldy’s and Grendel’s thoughts that whirr in my mind.
Change it now for another diesel that’ll last until electrics are cheaper and more versatile next decade sometime, (I too, generally do long journeys on about 56mph), and while there’s still a good selection of second hands to choose from etc, or keep it and spend when necessary and just deal with it later?

No right answer I guess. Today I’m for keeping it - Tomorrow might be different!

[floydraser]

Yep, I guess we're all thinking along roughly the same lines. For starters, which is going to be the cheapest to run in 5 years time.... apart from the technologies we have recently been reminded of the vulnerability of fuel prices affected by wars and political instability.

They still seem to be saying the same thing about the daily costs of electrics - that it's only cheap when you charge at home, and then not by that much. Only good for short runs.

The Volvo is the most comfortable car on the planet and any replacement will be a compromise - I know the car as I've had it from new - always returned 40mpg on a run and around 26mpg towing the caravan. Only unreliability would make me think about changing I think, and there's no sign of that. The insurance will be high I suppose and I'll have to pay higher road tax to cover the cost of climate change while people burn their patio heaters for pleasure, don't get me started. 

Oh, and there's the little matter of how much we'll actually use the car. Now retired and having bus passes we may be changing the car just to have it sitting on the drive. I don't think so.

[kpnut]

9 minutes ago, floydraser said:

Now retired and having bus passes we may be changing the car just to have it sitting on the drive.

Tony has a 61 plate fiat panda, again used mainly as a workhorse, towing the trailer filled with wood from his hedgelaying jobs, or countless tons of builders rubble up the A1 from Nottingham to our home council tip in east yorks in the past, so it has needed two sets of new springs but other than that has cost very little. He uses his bus pass a lot so it sits on the drive doing not much. I hate driving it. He announced he’s going to keep it to run into the ground rather than changing. 
You’re right about unknown fuel costs in the future though. 

[Mouldy]

17 minutes ago, kpnut said:

You’re right about unknown fuel costs in the future though. 

I’ve seen recently that some manufacturers are devoting more effort into hydrogen fuel cell development rather that EV’s.  There are definitely other options available, including  so called E-Fuels.

What I can’t understand is why our politicians think that we are solely responsible for global warming and throwing everyone under the bus in their quest for carbon neutrality.  The impact of the ULEZ scheme in London is a prime example of a knee jerk reaction to a situation that has adversely impacted so many people.  In real terms, our emissions are negligible as a country in the big scheme of things .  The biggest polluters are China, USA, Russia, India and Japan.  I wonder how much effort is being made in those countries to achieve the same targets.

[floydraser]

45 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

 The biggest polluters are China, USA, Russia, India and Japan.  I wonder how much effort is being made in those countries to achieve the same targets.

And I wonder how it will be before those living in the remote districts of those countries will have access to practical electric vehicles? Never of course.

[ChrisB]

I don't know what the answer is either, but I am in the same boat.

I used to buy new, every three years, then along came covid so I put it off as my mileage was low and bought my "Picnic Car" for summer pottering up to Blakeney, Morston, Wells Brancaster and the odd few days away in Summer.

So I now have a six year old Ford with 24000 on the clock, worth about £9K on trade in. I would have to put at least £25K to replace with a similar high spec Puma. To do 2500 miles per annum, the economics just don't work. In fact this last year I have done more miles in the Fiat running about in Summer (3500). But that car with 6000 on the clock will be three in Sept.

So I am going to do the same, Nothing. Like Grendel I do three or four long journeys per year and electric just would not suit me as I am widowed and live alone with my only relatives 180 and 11000 miles away, in an emergency I can fill either car in 5 minutes from empty and have a genuine 400 mile range.

 

[ChrisB]

I forgot to say that I bought the picnic car to feel the wind on my bald head.

[Turnoar]

6 hours ago, floydraser said:

And I wonder how it will be before those living in the remote districts of those countries will have access to practical electric vehicles? Never of course.

Of course not, they’ll be driving around in our old ICE ones the next time a “scrappage” scheme happens and our perfectly useable trade ins are exported. Cynical perhaps but I do wonder if cars were scrapped whole and unbroken, with the keys in the ignition...

[Mouldy]

30 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

Of course not, they’ll be driving around in our old ICE ones the next time a “scrappage” scheme happens and our perfectly useable trade ins are exported. Cynical perhaps but I do wonder if cars were scrapped whole and unbroken, with the keys in the ignition...

You may already know that a great number of our old HGV’S are sold and exported to Africa.

[Turnoar]

That’s interesting Mouldy, I didn’t know that but I did have an offer on a 4x4 once with the buyer intending to ship it out there. I know they buy a lot of mot failures for parts... unless they’re too good!

[ExSurveyor]

I sold one of our old Transits for scrap, we found out it was exported to Somalia. I half expected to see it on the news with the company sign writing, the roof cut open and a machine gun mounted.

 

[oldgregg]

6 hours ago, ChrisB said:

I don't know what the answer is either, but I am in the same boat.

I used to buy new, every three years, then along came covid so I put it off as my mileage was low and bought my "Picnic Car" for summer pottering up to Blakeney, Morston, Wells Brancaster and the odd few days away in Summer.

So I now have a six year old Ford with 24000 on the clock, worth about £9K on trade in. I would have to put at least £25K to replace with a similar high spec Puma. To do 2500 miles per annum, the economics just don't work. In fact this last year I have done more miles in the Fiat running about in Summer (3500). But that car with 6000 on the clock will be three in Sept.

So I am going to do the same, Nothing. Like Grendel I do three or four long journeys per year and electric just would not suit me as I am widowed and live alone with my only relatives 180 and 11000 miles away, in an emergency I can fill either car in 5 minutes from empty and have a genuine 400 mile range.

 

If that's your mileage, you're best keeping those cars until the wheels fall off. There's no real need to replace cars that aren't causing trouble.

I think @BroadAmbition would approve of those numberplates....

[ChrisB]

10 hours ago, oldgregg said:

If that's your mileage, you're best keeping those cars until the wheels fall off. There's no real need to replace cars that aren't causing trouble.

I think @BroadAmbition would approve of those numberplates....

Thanks Oldgregg, it is good to have someone confirm what I to thought. Another consideration was a couple  of years  ago or so my son and I went flighting at the start of the season on St Davids Peninsula. Every day we travelled over 3 miles on an old quarry road which was in appalling condition. At the next MOT the car had 3 failures for cut tyres so I told them to fit 5 x new Michelin Cross Climates (not cheap) the four have done about 6000 and are like new, the spare zero.

[BroadAmbition]

[BroadAmbition]

Well that worked.

I've been asking MrsG for the past few months to SORN her Q5. Ended up nearly issuing a direct order evening of Feb 29th so she did so, on line via her phone.  Then the DVLA website informed her that she couldn't re-tax it for 5 days on-line but had to use a post office if she wanted to do so (Why?).

Yesterday I downed tools, collected her as I was working local and drove her to a nearby post office that had the capability of taxing vehicles.  It was a simple process and took only minutes

MrsG got a refund of around £290 - the portion of months of tax unused when her car was sorned

Re-taxing the very next day for the whole year cost around £212 (Now that the Q5 is over 5 x years old)

Plus she has avoided the increase in road tax duty that is coming our way on April 01st

-----------------------

However it wasn't all good news

'I've been robbed in broad daylight your honour'

Not sure how this happened, the sorn refund goes straight into MrsG's account.  Somehow at the post office I found mysen paying the £212:00 for the new road tax

How did that happen then?

It takes a Jock to fleece a Yorkshireman

Griff

 

 

[MargeandParge]

Old Marge sometimes insists I take her car out as it's making a strange noise. Normally it's the echo of an empty petrol tank. The ladies certainly have a way with them.

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[FairTmiddlin]

2 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

Old Marge sometimes insists I take her car out as it's making a strange noise. Normally it's the echo of an empty petrol tank. The ladies certainly have a way with them.

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

My old car had a whine to it.

Always when my Ex Wife was in it.