We had a panasonic combi for 20+ years. Replaced it with another one, seems fine so far

I have a t5 and I have driven a tourneo hire van – really impressed with the tourneo. Was in Germany so I can tell you it goes flat out and is nice and stable at that speed!

I think the reason why everybody runs a limited company and not sole trader is that in the days of old there was a case where somebody did not pay the due tax and it was found that the client was therefore liable to pay. Thus everybody now has to use limited companies.

(Hopefully my recall of this is correct)

Surprised about the suggestions of BTL. In about 3 years time you will no longer be able to offset mortgage interest against your profit/income. See a massive exit of the small BTL landlords in the next few years.

Mind you, i know somebody who goes after (small) places that you cannot get a mortgage on (for various reasons) and buys them cash.

Stevie I had the same choice.

We ended with combi (biggest bosch one – maybe what you said). House is 5 bed, 2 showers.

The main thing that swung it was that our water pressure was not very high, so maybe we could not have 2 showers at the same time running – we certainly can’t now.

Wish we had gone with pressurised system.

Also hot water seems to take forever to flow through – partly I think it is the pipe run and partly the combi affect.

bays are ok – but when looking for spaces on the road side most will be smaller!

But you can’t fit anywhere near as many bikes in SWB. (Got 8 road bikes and about 20 extra wheels in my LWB).

I have moved from S6 to S7. Camera might be better, not noticed much difference elsewhere.

S7 has ability to use micro sd card though.

Wired Ethernet to obvious places. Also work out (if possible) if you can get good wifi throughout house – if not make sure you have power and Ethernet next to each other somewhere useful (like in a cupboard). TV aerial with good distribution amplifier (if in a low signal area). Think about where your master socket (BT style) comes in – if you can have it centrally then that makes wifi easier.

Lounge area(s) – single sockets non switched which go back to light switch (for centrally switched lamp lighting).

Outside lights – by door / gate. Outside power points. Garage/shed CU.

CAT 5 to shed/garage if you are really geeky.

Alarm wiring – you could go overboard and duplicate with some dark CAT5e as well???

they do calculate you average speed on the peage as standard

The definitely did not do this (short section that used to be around Reims – my average was very good one year)

Take a look at my strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/475225 there are rides from:

Lacock
Biddestone
Browns
Bristol
etc

+1 for XS stance. Worked well enough in the alps

I was very tempted by the petrol one, basically same engine as in S3. So a remap increases the power LOTS. Friend has S3 and in eco mode, crawling to work, he gets ~47mpg (I know, what is the point of an S3 crawling in eco…).

Had mine for 2 months now. 8k miles on it. It is a manual

Very little to complain about!

The size of the fuel tank means I get around 500 miles to a tank – which I would like more. That is my main gripe!

Fuel consumption ranges from high 40s to 60ish if just pottering along.
Quiet at speed.

I had the mirrorlink software coded by the dealer for less than the option price (just because the car had been built without it). that feature is great, but is very annoying when it locks the screen from scrolling for safety (even if the passenger is doing it!!!)

(Old cars have included 5 series, A6 2.0, Q7)

I know flats are different, but who in their right mind buys a house built on land they don’t own? Bonkers.

I did, with my eyes wide open.

It is near unique, with lots of interesting features.
It has communal areas where a lease makes lots of sense.

Ibiza and Fabia are expensive to insure.

Best price I had was for a Hyundai i10.

This is based on at least 50 different quotes!

(ended up with a mini)

Mine has 274/40/20 with a drop – 40 or 50. It failed it’s MOT because the wheels were fouling on the inside of the wheelarch. The original wheels were put on and it passed.
Maybe spacers might help – something to watch out for when dropping it.

I use 1and1 and forward email, so I just use my ISPs email with reply set to my domain.
Gmail sends my emails with “on behalf of”.

So I just pay the few pounds per year for the domain and no extra email costs.

If I used (say) outlook application and not gmail then it the receiver would only know about my public domain name.

I have a 1 month old vRS diesel estate, manual. Now with 3.5k miles on it. I came from a 9 year old Seat Leon FR diesel.

It is quiet, relaxing and comfortable – everything I was hoping for.

Economy has been 46mpg overall so far. That is not hanging about, but almost all motorway miles.

Bikes go in with both wheels on easily.

(I don’t have a tow bar)

I have a Nexus 10 and it is so slow these days. My father has the 10″ Samsung and that has a fantastic screen and seems spritely – that is what I intend to get when my Nexus dies.

T5 lwb 180bhp DSG.
Will do ~35mpg (gentle driving).
Also goes down to ~28mpg if you do not hang around

Les Arcs from 15-23 december.
Like you say, there was no natural snow low down.

However, I have skied in much worse conditions. There was very little hard packed snow (I think because the French stayed away because of the lack of natural snow).
However, it was deteriorating such that New Year was probably a lot less fun.

I have my own domain, which sends mail to my POP server and also to my (private/free) gmail account. In gmail I have told it to send emails as if from my domain.

(Bit of a caveat – mine seems to say “on behalf of dave@domain”, where as the kids/wife just says “wife@domain” (correctly) when sending from gmail. If it bothered me I could probably work out why and fix mine)

Facebook keeps telling me that I can get a Skoda Superb estate diesel for £350 per month lease for 2 years (10k miles) – seems like a good deal.

Your comment about having low signal strength and still being able to make voice call –

What may be happening is that you are on a 4G doing data, when you want to make a call it MAY redirect onto 3G to make the call, which may be from a different cell or a different frequency (or both). Both of which may mean you go from low 4G strength to high quality phone call. You could simulate this by turning off 4G (if you can??).

Also, Sony’s support more frequencies than some other makes. Therefore the operator MAY be pushing you onto a frequency that your old phone did not support – therefore suggesting that your new phone has weaker signal.

Had an A6 multitronic 2.0 tdi s-line (so comes with paddles). Was ok, nothing wrong with it. just boring. Friend who had the same said the same. Economy – 35-45 mostly around 38 – I have quite a heavy foot. dont do much round town driving.

Currently have 13 plate t5 auto. so 7 speed dsg in 2.0 tdi. Better once rolling. Still has the uncertainty of the small engine boxes.

If I had a choice I would go for 520d auto. (actually I would go for the 535d auto!).

I use Mavic shoes, I presume they are actually a MTB shoe, but have a very stiff sole and are reasonably light (not as light as a proper road shoe – mostly because of the grips on the sole) but are really comfy.

My brother wanted to make a big exit during an argument, so thought he would slam the front door. He held onto it for as long as possible. Maybe a little too long.

He now has a shorter middle finger.

(Not technically broken though)

I have 2013 T5 (sportline – i think).
It has Kenwood DNX-521DAB (i think – off the top of my head).
It has tweeters in the dash (standard looking) and DAB aerial stuck on inside of the windscreen.

Sound quality is excellent (that is why I know the tweeters are standard – I was surprised that they had not been upgraded and sounded that good).
Responsiveness of the unit is verging on rubbish. It is a very expensive head unit but feels like they shoved the most basic of processors in it.
DAB aerial is fine (Swindon area).
It looks almost like a standard fit stereo.
Screen does not move, so very occasionally it gets obliterated by the sun.

2 sliding rear doors really good.
road bike goes in nicely sideways (as somebody else mentioned).
MTB bikes won’t.

LWB in a city with narrow streets would (I think) be quite hard work. Living in the sticks you don’t notice it.

I presume a SWB handles better??

New t6 loaner seemed quite good on fuel (diesel, stop/start, 100bhp – so slurped fuel if you went faster on the motorway / only had a 5 speed).

I do, the cursor keys on our laptop are broken

Not thinly veiled – just put in the wrong place!

Not aware of being able to relocate a thread though.

bump

I once received a letter about going to court, for speeding, which I had paid the fine and received the points.

I contacted them and they corrected their mistake.

Phone them!

I have a T5 kombi LWB. All very nice, no real complaints.

I had a hire Custom in Austria and drove that flat out through Germany and was really impressed with it. We were 6 up, luggage and it held 105-110 really well!

Had ours for probably around 10 years.
Amazing fun, need to watch out for the adults hurting themselves more than the kids.
Dissuade them from using other kit to jump in from a greater height.
I think the most on there has been about 8, I don’t think they recommend that!
Makes them used to do flips, which is a good thing. Maybe not useful, but interesting!

I have one that we do not use. Used it about 3 times. Got it off amazon – http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008B01SYI?ref_=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_0

Would sell it for £35 posted, email me if you are interested and I can send some pictures

Great, thanks!

done a few – really easy if new drive is at least as big.
Pain if smaller.

In the future I would use hybrid drive.

One year we went to Alp D’Huez. The good bits:

green run lift was free – nice wide separated piste. Son was able to learn to ski at 2.5yrs by wife going backwards and pushing him away from her.

They did a time-limited lift pass – so that I could go off and do some skiing too.

When mine were younger a place with a pool was great for late afternoons.

We also did Les Arcs 1800 (they really liked the kindergarden there.
La Rosiere worked really well when they were a bit older (good tution).

Also pay attention to when you start to pay for kids passes – some aren’t until 7yrs.

Also if you need more storage then get OTG usb sticks – they should allow you to stick all the films on there.