could buy myself or let engineer supply. I know that they get commission.
If you buy it yourself, is it going to be any cheaper?
And who’s going to guarantee it if it goes wrong?

Of the 4 (non British gas) quotes I had all engineers could get the boilers slightly less than I could find them online via trade accounts.

Just replaced a broken Ideal boiler that we inherited with the house. It wasn’t worth the cost of parts to fix. We decided on upgrading to a combi and got a few quotes, we decided on a valiant Eco tech pro with wireless thermostat which got fitted yesterday. It cost. £1880 and went in the same place the old one was in. We got quotes off 4 people on this model ranging from £1800 – £2000 but went with a guy recommended by many on Facebook and rated people.

Edit, British gas quoted £3k on a lesser boiler and the engineer himself said it was a rip off and to go with someone local…

singlecrack – Member
Audi A4 is only the size of a focus ..as above avensis 1.8 would be good but some had problems with high oil consumption
POSTED 3 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Fixed 2003 onwards isn’t it?

Number 37 of 40. Proper muscle. No committees, no accountants, no focus groups. Just blokes in Newport Pagnell, wearing brown coats hopefully, saying, can we get any more out this old horse? And answering “Yeah, I reckon we can!”.

It’s ‘proper’ muscles aren’t very muscly these days.

I have a zero hour contract with the uni for teaching. Its not regular work and I can pick and choose when I want to do it (emails get sent with offers). I get paid a standard rate plus 12.5% inleu of holidays. For this type of work the zero hour contract is a good thing and as a member of staff I still have all the rights that other staff members have at the uni. I have to let them know when I don’t want to be offered any more work. There is no real point in it being a contract as its not ment to be a proper 9-5 job. Would hate to be on a zero hour contract for a proper job though.

.

This ^ I do very similar.

My wife also employs people on zero hours in 2 of her stores. It works well for them both as she doesn’t have as an enployer FTE overheads such as holidays, and the 3 employees on zero hour can pick if they want to pick shifts up around school times/other commitments, 2 are friends of existing staff who have other commitments and one was a full time staff member who wanted to part retire. It works well. However you don’t have to look too far to find retailers abusing zero hours.

footflaps – Member
It will probably be a trade in, they don’t put cars below a certain value on the forecourt as it detracts from the ‘brand value’.
POSTED 12 MINUTES AGO #

This and they like to sell finance on a new car. I wouldn’t neccesserily avoid it

mindmap, mikertroid. I’ve got the N53 detuned 3.0l in my 325i. In order to get to N53 330i levels of power (220>272bhp IIRC) you need the 3 stage intake manifold (325i is only single) which provides a slight forced induction effect by opening and closing valves in the manifold and changing the intake “length” through the rev range – this is the main piece of hardware that provides the extra 50bhp. I spoke to a couple of local tuning shops and they said a remap, exhaust and air filter etc. would get nowhere near 272bhp but would give better sound, responsiveness etc.
I really fancy getting the mod below:
http://mosselmanturbo.co.uk/remapping-carstyling-chiptuning/bmw/car-tuning/performance-packages/x/bmw-325i-e90-218hp/

£1500 sounds pricey but it gets you a 330i.. 325i’s are ten a penny in the facelift E90 but a manual box’d 330i with good spec is rarer that rocking horse droppings. I would get the mod tomorrow but for some reason the OH thinks it’s not a good way to spend 1500 quid!

Hello sorry I didn’t see the earlier post. My wife’s car has upgraded manifold also. We bought a 325i as she wanted a manual and as stated above a 330i in manual is so rare, especially a tidy one. My father in law is service manager at BMW and he couldn’t source one but found a mint loved 325i.

On an owners club I read a bad review on that £1500 tune, I will see if I can find it. It said claims were optimistic

Thanks Hora :-)

I’ve got a (new to me ) E91 325i, which has the 220bhp 3 litre motor. I love it, having driven diesels for many years. It is a heavier unit than my old 2.0d in my old E46 Touring, so I can see your point from a weight distribution view, but has also taught me that I’ll be looking at a 335i next as I still find the odd occasion where I could do with a little more poke.

Map your 325i? My wife has the saloon, mapped with piper cross panel filter and exhaust. It sounds much nicer but only loud when you thrash it. It’s just as quiet as before around town which was a concern as she didn’t want it to sound loud when pootling.

Molgrips, do you own a caravan perchance?

I drive a slow car, and tend to get a real thrill from slowing people in fast cars down, rather than racing them. It works best on wide “a” roads where I tend to stick to about 50 mph. If they try and overtake, I speed up a bit to stop them getting past.

No ones going to fall for that troll surely?

Which then makes the driver behind angry and possibly makes for a ill placed overtake?
Whether it be bike or car I’ll lift off or even indicate left to help someone overtake me. Less pressure and doesnt hold anyone up behind me.

Ah ok, tips hat. Well done.

I think now, the perfect car for me would be along the lines of a small / medium car with a decent grunt engine . . .3 series with 3 litre engine type thing. That way your getting good handling, with an engine that can be pushed hard at times, but isn’t too over the top you feel its wasted.

My wife was a 325i that seems spot on apart from not being able to hear the engine enough.

I like driving and I drive a dull, but capable diesel Mondeo. I do that for practical reasons not because I fear for my lack of self control and observation skills.

Perhaps I wasn’t describing you then? I’m sure there are very good reasons why you drive the car and the way you do, and I’m sure your pleased with it and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. However I’m talking about a very specific but common personality type I come across that drives a boring car and justifies it by saying if they had a quick(er) car they would lose their licence.

My workmate has one but said it’s 100bhp? I’ve been in it but not driven it. Feels like the engine is much bigger than it is, she does 15 motorway miles each way. She said she’d buy another but the spec in hers is basic (wind up windows in back) which seems to bother her more than the engine size.

There it is again.. fascinating.

What I always found fascinating was the number of people in vanilla diesel supermarket hacks and asthmatic superminis that would drive like their underwear was on fire the minute they saw something clearly a bit special. They outnumbered the kids in their Max Power pride & joy by 10 to 1.

+1, and try to speed up as you overtake

There’s also the guy who proclaims to love driving so much they don’t want a ‘fast’ car as they will speed everywhere, so that have a boring passat/mondeo/vectra/whatever. I can never understand that. There’s a guy at work like that.

I’ve got a 435d which I only use a tiny bit of it’s capablities
I also have a 140bhp celica that I enjoy as I can eek everything out of it, keeping the revs above 4k is a joy when you hit a gear right. It’s currently for sale and I will be gutted when it goes.
My wife has a 325i which seems about right, overpowered still but not daft.

Nice! My project for the spring :-)

Fir balance. I enquiried about a car and then asked if the seller minded if I took my mate who was a mechanic, he agreed. Then we decided we didn’t want to drive up 3 hours in one car then potentially do the same drive back in seperate cars and the seller agreed to pick us up at the station. The seller then called saying he felt uneasy meeting 2 guys at the station in the car, I felt uneasy buying a car not at the sellers house. We both laughed a bit and I met him at the station. We then went to his house and I bough the car. We all saw the funny side after.

This could be a scam of course but buying cars is a paranoid business on both sides. I’d be expecting the buyer to tax it off his phone?

hora – Member
Could be better to wait a month or two- MX5 would raise more in the sunshine months?
POSTED 5 HOURS AGO #

It may sell quicker or get more views but I’m my experience of selling 3 soft tops (2 x mx5) they don’t really get more £.

I’m currently selling a celica, listed today in owners club on Facebook and had 2 enquiries. I’m sure there will be an mx5 one. eBay and Autotrader can be hit and miss.

I work as a comms designer and echo what’s said above, your printer may not neccesserily Pantone match. Adjusting your screen to match won’t solve the issue. Are you designing the kit yourself and for example entering the Pantone ref in photoshop? If your doing a lot of ordering it sounds like you need a chart if you want it accurate, no real shortcuts.

I have had a client in the past complain as she printed a Pantone swatch on the office laser and inform me my Pantone chart was wrong :-)

Cheers everyone. I’m thinking just to leave them. Really need to get the car sold too this next week as it’s in the way.

Paint, silver, toyota oem 5 spoke off a 2003 celica. Cheap less than £350 which I’m being quoted given im expecting to get £1500 for the car.

Were are you? Maybe I can lend one if local. Could you buy one, use it, sell it ?

Probate can take a loooong time..

This^ when my granny died it took a year. I sadly lost my other grandma 6 weeks ago but it was all done in a month (maybe as property was passed down rather than sold and split).

Money and death can make people act odd. I fell out with my cousins wife who recently married into the family, buying a new car and showing off other material possesions on Facebook. She hardly knew my grandma and it all just seem to soon and raw to be showing off were money got spent. I found it crass but we ‘agreed’ I was being too sensitive if she ‘agreed’ she was being insensitive.

I don’t think your sounding greedy by the way.

If your under 30 the Seat, 30-50 the golf, 50+ the focus.

I’ve got a 53 plate celica I’ve owned to 70k it’s been faultless. Only needing consumables and a clutch at 104k. Currently up for sale, going to miss that car do much. £1700 if anyone’s interested (carries 2 bikes)
105k, FSH, mot till sept

My disposable income goes on cars, bikes and art and treating my wife. Were 24 and 33 no kids yet both employed. I expect this list to change dramatically if we have children.

I’m sorry I know this is supposed to be about space travel etc etc, but she’s got 21 years on me and she looks fantastic.

Looks practical more than ugly. The colour warmly reminds me of cough syrup my mum used to give me. I bought a CRV as a second practical car, it’s quite ugly but very practical.

1 fiat cinquecento.
I was on a test drive once, the owner took me out, the clutch smelt then gave up on the test drive. I didn’t buy the car.

I usually drive to work twice a week, when I need to leave the office for an offsite meeting and Mondays when I leave my work clothes for the rest of the week when I commute on my bike. Last 2 months I’ve been unable to cycle in been spending £30 – £50 a week extra on fuel.

Is it a posey place and the cars are a a bit posey/fake 4×4 and not in keeping with the OPs off road ideal? I have a friend that sneers at North Face jackets worn by dog walkers in nature parks. Are the cars a but too ‘north face’ for the OP?

Is it a ‘countryman’ but it’s not really in the countryside but looks like it is.

Thanks :-)

I’m liking the air play thing, seems a good solution. My loft conversion will be my new office and I don’t have room for seperates nor do I fancy all the wires.

Fair does Jimjam, how well does a GTi do in the wet? Makes some used GTi’s seem like a bargain if they still drive well.

only putting about 160/170ish bhp to the road. No more potent than a golf gti or a big diesel, though easier to drive fast.

Any data to back this up? A golf GTi, really?

I bought a 330d last year while I was waiting for my company car to be built (another BMW) and loved it. My wife’s just bought a 325i on an 07 plate, they really are lovely lovely cars and I’d wait for a 6 pot. Saying that the one the OP listed seems good value.

My wife’s old car came with a 3 month AA one, they replaced an electric window switch (window went down and wouldn’t come up again) and alternator with no fuss or hassle.

Buy to let could be a faff if your only looking to tie it up for a few years. Still the best way to go though IME long term.

There’s always a new apple product just around the corner. Is your current MBP running slow, showing age? Do you just fancy a new one?

I’m amazed how clear retina is on mine, but it’s only really worth it if you are photo editing etc. Lots of people I know think it’s a gimmick were it’s the minimum these days for my trade.