Sorry to hear about your marriage. Depends on your definition of newish but I’ve just got a 5 year old (G31) 540i tourer and it’s a superb car. Powerful, refined, big, 4WD, etc. I mean it’s shocking round the doors on the juice but we have an ID3 for those journeys, and it’s actually rather frugal on a run.. drove it 300 miles home on half a tank.

I’ve bought at a terrible time as prices are still strong especially for the car/spec I wanted but new job and company EV going back meant I needed to replace our main family car in short order. I’m hoping to keep it for a loooooong time.

Yeah maybe. I always turn water off, switch machine off and pull the trigger.. but that’s the extent of it.. is that good practice or should I be doing more?

Also, @bigblackshed I’ve just realised after a nosey on the website I have the exact reel/hose they sell on that direct hoses website.. I knew it rang a bell! The all black washers look like a good machine at a price point not as eye watering as the Kranzle.

Deary me, sounds like I am very much not alone and that a lot of pressure washers are destined for landfill after a shockingly short timeframe! The case for a Kranzle is looking stronger if it’ll last until I’m in the ground and not it.. but not sure how I’m going to get finance director sign off on this one..

Thank you for the replies all.

Maybe. It lives in the garage which is cold but not silly cold.. it’s attached to the house and has a heavily insulated roof. I might take it to bits see if I can work out what’s broken, got nowt to lose at this stage.

Glad you got home safe and sound, I know the feeling when you’re just glad to get off the road.

Tailgating when there’s a clear lane to overtake is a special kind of stupid, drives me potty.

There was a bump on the bend behind our house this morning about 5 mins after me muttering about people driving too fast etc etc, then bang! Someone understeered wide on a left hander straight into a car coming the other way. Very low speed but totally predictable and avoidable.

Stay safe out there.

Update. Ended up going with a quote from a comparison site. After selecting zero years NCD it opened up a further question asking about company car, other cars I drive, etc. which is where I put the 2 years of co car use. It then generated a number of competitive quotes.

The quotes I received after speaking with some bricks and mortar brokers were nearly double the comparison site quote and the initial AF one was nearly treble! Astonishing when that quote was apparently recognising the 10 years NCD I Had with them previously. Crazy.

Yeah it’s less than a hundred quid between 10 years NCD and 2 years company car no claims history. Much less than I thought but still gonna ring around see if I can get it down a bit. Cheers

Thank you sandwicheater but unfortunately Aviva is now 2 years as well 😐

Thank you for the continued responses. I’m definitely going to speak to a human tomorrow and see if I can do better than the quotes I have saved from the comparison sites. I’m a bit shocked at how (relatively) little difference the NCD makes. Not as shocked as I am at the quote from my previous insurer who are ‘honouring’ the 10 years NCD I had with them! All they could say was “its the market and type of car” even though the type of car is nearly identical to the one I used to insure with them FFS.

Thank you for the replies all. The work lease co have said they can provide a ‘claims history letter’ which sounds like it will serve the purpose of evidence for named company car driver no claims (as it is stated on the comparison sites).

The comparison site won’t accept the 10 years NCD prior to the co car as it’s more than 2 years old and the letter from the lease co is not considered bona fide NCD so it doesn’t just accumulate unfortunately. However, the difference in quotes between the two scenarios is <£100.

Ideally an insurance broker would be able to stitch the 2 together but at least I now have a backup quote which is not unreasonable.

Thanks again all.

Thank you @onzadog. I popped in 2 years of named co car evidence onto a comparison site and the results aren’t too bad.. I’m going to ring an insurance broker in the morning and see if they can do better and/or take into account the 10 years prior to that.

I feel your pain.. I’ve been there with the multiple failed injector thing. They were £200 a pop in my old 325i and the bill often ended up north of £350 each time due to oil service if it failed open.. AND there were 6 of them to contend with. I kept that car at the time as felt another used car could just be a load of other issues. But it had relatively fewer miles on it (maybe 50-60k).

I’m buying a new (to me) car right now as co car going back and as above it’s expensive out there at the minute.

Thank you for the responses all. Spoke to the dealer this morning and got all the required pics from iDrive. I had misinterpreted a line in the service history called “inspection” as just an inspection.. and turns out it was a pretty comprehensive service including oil, filters, plugs, etc.

All items green and done on time then the most recent indie service done 2,000 miles ago. So 3 oil changes in 42,000 miles. Really glad it’s all up to date as the spec is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thanks again all and looking forward to that e39 pic 🙂

Thanks Nick, that’s helpful. I’m going to speak with them in the morning as they’re advertising it as full service history so will challenge how they can demonstrate that.

Good point about goodwill should something big go pop later in the cars life.

Thanks kryton that’s a good shout. This is same mileage two oil changes.

I would also like to see a pic of the 535 Brian. And I agree re. independents, I’ve always took past BMWs/mini to the local indie after 3yrs and had fantastic service. Quite the opposite at a main dealer when there was part of a service pack left on a 320i and it ended in a report to trading standards!

Thanks IA. It’s just outside that on mileage but over on time by a bit..

Thanks Brian. It’s with an independent dealer, 2 owners 5 years old. I’ll speak with them again in the morning and see if I can get in touch with last owner but won’t hold my breath.

Thank you @bruneep good shout on the kingspan. Mate of mine is getting big extension done down the road, I shall nip down and politely ask for a bit or do a bit of skip diving..

Haha aye anyone driving a RWD BMW in the snow on summer boots wants a good owld slap.

I bought a set of Pirelli sottozero full winter RFTs on my wife’s old manual 320i and they were absolutely superb. Even in the wet as the weather got warmer they performed fantastically. Got 3 winters out of them and they were cracking in the snow. Those tyres are currently on my brothers 440i auto on their 5th winter and still going strong.. which is good cos they cost a small fortune!

As above, immediately after I buy one.. in January.. when my lease car goes back. The reverse situation played out when I sold my old car (and the wife’s car!) as we both went to lease EVs thru work just before prices went crazy. Sod’s Law.

I was digging thru some old paperwork recently and found the receipt for my old E90 325i. Bought it for £11k with 40k on the clock at 4 years old. Good spec with the 6 cyl engine in a nice colour combo. Unbelievable value when compared to the current market. You’re talking double for anything remotely comparable, maybe more. But a lot has happened in the ten years since I bought it.

A belated thank you for this PSA @69er_Gav

I picked up one of these and have been using it for a few weeks now. I had been idly browsing for a smart watch for biking, running, etc. and this pushed me to order one.

I’m over the moon with it. Battery life is superb! Can get a couple of weeks out of it easy unless using GPS. Friends/family with apple watches can’t believe I’m getting a fortnight between charges.

I’m only scratching the surface of the functionality really but the main thing for me is it enables me to consolidate my rides/trainer rides/runs/treadmill runs/etc.

The 47mm case is the middle of the road option I think, I certainly wouldn’t want any bigger as it’s fairly chunky on the wrist but I’ve got used to it now.

Cheers

Wow, that is whole lot of graft you’ve just described there. I don’t think I could deal with a full driveway of gravel.. my 3x3m patch was enough for life! Never EVER again.

I don’t know where to start with your car projects other than to say GOOD LUCK!

I’m going to give this one a miss.

Interesting point about increased camera use and also (lack of) policing. My car has a factory dash cam with 4 cameras and I’ve had some positive responses from different police forces when I’ve submitted footage via their portals. Usually saying something like “we have reviewed the footage and are confident we can deal with this via fixed penalty notice”. Incidents like another car cutting across me lane 3>2>1>exit slip with a nice jab of brakes all initiated at the 100 yd marker..

I really do hope these people are getting points/fines through their letterbox but I will continue to submit footage regardless.

This is linked to the policing point, there just isn’t any.. and people can largely just get away with whatever they want. Doing the police’s job for them via the dash cam portals will hopefully go a small way to addressing some of the shortfall as people are hopefully realising they can’t just get away with being completely reckless dickheads on the roads.

I do think on a bike you feel it more acutely but it’s a general respect for other road users thing in my view. I’ve recently started working with a client 210 miles away which I drive to once a week (4 hour drive vs 7 hour bus/train/train/train/bus….) and the amount of reckless and intimidating shit I see is absolutely staggering. I’ve been doing this since August and have seen a grand total of 1 traffic police in 1000s of miles travelled. The most prevalent bellendery at the moment is vans doing 90+ mph, are vans not meant to go slower than cars? Either way I’m not confident in the stopping ability of a van at those sorts of speeds.

Some absolute absolute corkers here! Thank you for the replies and laughs all, I’ve had a right giggle at some of the stories. And sorry for delayed response, it’s been a busy month or two.

The posts about DIY stuff in the loft has reminded me of the absolute world of pain waiting for me in my own loft.. insulation is patchy at best, it’s not boarded, it’s tiny as house is a dormer and there’s about 100 boxes all finely balanced on the woodwork. I’m going to have to ignore it for now as can’t face another project especially crawling around in a dirty confined space for hours on end!

Just caught up with qually now.. neighbours will be wondering what’s going on as I’ve just screamed “**** off Sergio!” at the telly

Thank you for the heads up OP. That was absolute comedy gold. The blokes face in the glass factory when the 2nd bit shattered was superb. Rewound that a good few times and still giggling as I type this! And the size of the rental property was outrageous while he swanned about in his Tesla whinging about money.. absolute **** lunatic! He should’ve been renting a small flat and cutting aboot in a £1k scrapper if it was that bad. Mental

One of the best hours of telly I’ve watched in donkeys.

WELL DONE! 👏

Wow, absolutely spectacular. I’m lost for words beyond that TBH!

We had all of the flat roofs on our house (x 4 separate sections) replaced about a year ago. Was done in two stages – 1st floor dormers front/rear and then ground floor garage/kitchen. I was invoiced once work was complete for each of the two stages, nothing up front.

Looking forward to it. Good luck!

This toon game is nuts. Haaland is really up to speed now.

Never really followed football much but F1 not back til next week and my nephew is at St James for his first ever match so thought I’d give it a watch. Some game he’s picked!

2008ish to buy an Ellsworth Joker (my 1st ever FS). A mate I worked with pointed me to it in the classifieds and I hurriedly created an account and thus my user name is just my name.. which is not ideal as there’s certain things I just don’t talk about/ask advice on! The Ellsworth went from me to my dad to a mate and was stolen recently never to be seen again.. bastards!

Only forum member I’ve met (other than to buy/sell stuff) is binners maybe 10 years ago. I asked for advice on here for trails while I was working away and it was his neck of the woods. But, it was lashing down and dark/miserable so we went to the pub. Didn’t even turn a crank 🙂

I bought a Delonghi Pinguino 11,000BTU portable unit a week ago. I work from home a lot in a south facing single storey flat roofed office approx. 2x2m. It was hitting mid 30s in there with all the measures noted above before lunchtime. I do feel bad as I’m well aware they’re an environmental disaster.

It’s completely over specced for the size of the room so it is VERY effective and only needs to be on for 30-40 mins to fridge the place and keep it cool for the rest of the working day. I over specced thinking I’ll get the window kit and carry it upstairs when it gets really bad again for the bedrooms. I tried this out with a bodge for the window ducting and it was average at best. A split system is meant to be much better and efficient but that’s a whole order of magnitude more cost/work as you’re running refrigerant pipes through walls, mounting stuff on the roof, etc.

I was going to get one from screwfix but they were all sold out and when I started reading the reviews they said they were pretty noisy. The delonghi was nearly double the price but was a brand I’d heard of and had a quiet mode.. It is still rather noisy even in that mode but I’ve tested it on Teams/Meet and the only one that can hear it is me so the mic/software must do a good job of cutting out background noise.

Had to cut a 150mm hole in the wall mind.. which was a bit of a surprise as I thought it would just be the same as a dryer outlet but no, £55 for a drill bit I will likely use once. So if anyone in the North East wants to borrow it let me know!

We’ve spent a lot of money on the flat dormer roofs getting them over insulated (warm deck?) with new frame, 100mm insulation, etc. New pitched roof next, insulation behind cladding in bedrooms, etc. but it’s big money and the government aren’t interested in helping people with it. Anyway I’m away down a side road now..

Same as @turboferret. Oops.. Cue me dropping everything to ring insurers and get the policy updated just now. Thanks for the nudge OP! And yes £1,500 sounds like a lot but what do I know, given I didn’t even think to do it 🤦‍♂️

For balance, my wife has an ID3 and I think it’s a cracking car. It went thru a phase where it was kicking me out of reverse for no good reason which made me want to punch the steering wheel through the bulkhead but it was because I was unweighting the seat turning around. Slight change of technique and all good. Also re lane assist I just switch it off but wouldn’t call it dangerous.

Anyhow, the point above on how fast it is, is interesting. My car is a Tesla M3P and obviously the ID is not as fast but it’s still a powerful car. Not as impressive off the line as it is rolling admittedly but 30-70 joining a motorway for instance is plenty good. You can add speed at an impressive rate if you boot it.

I’m 6ft and have no issues getting the seat/wheel in good comfortable position. Ours is specced with a heat pump and the AC knocks the spots off the Tesla. Also apple carplay is better than the Tesla equivalent IMO. And the range indicator doesn’t tell blatant lies like the Tesla!

The Cupra looked great in the photos but in the flesh I’m not so sure, it’s ID3 roots are clear and it just looks not quite right to my eye.. like it’s trying to be something it can’t quite be, like it’s too tall for a cupra hatchback.

All told I often find myself taking the ID over the Tesla for local journeys. Obviously long runs it’s Tesla every time, like our summer holiday to Cornwall which I documented on the main EV thread.

I’m waaaay overdue a watch. This thread has motivated me to dig the dvds out the cupboard! So many good scenes.

“Stranraer?! In Scotland?! Tonight!! Ooh my angina. You wanna sing at me funeral cos it’s coming” 🤣🤣🤣

I’ve been using my M3P as just such a vehicle for 2.5 years now. It’s absolutely fine and will miss it when it goes back in 6 months (not getting another as price has shot up since I got mine).

I’ve got the Yakima aftermarket bars (only one available other than Tesla ones when I bought them). They’re a pain to fit (need to line them up yourself.. e.g. front of front foot must be 102mm from top of windscreen!). So once they’re on they’re on.

The boot is a decent size with the seats down, as above bigger than my old 3 series. I do tip runs, biking trips, camping, and all sorts in mine. It can be practical but I’ve had a few saloon cars now so maybe I’m just used to making it work and not taking the kitchen sink when away.

The not so good points are when there’s a roof box and bike up top I would basically cut the wltp range in half. Also if biking in more remote areas there’s not so many superchargers about but you can get +100 miles overnight on a 3 pin plug.

I know the looks of the 3 are divisive but I think they look great from all angles other than dead centre at the front.. it’s got a very low scuttle and long sweeping windscreen that just doesn’t look right. This is 10x worse on the Y!

Yep. I was screaming at the telly “FULL FULL FULL!” Sadly not to be.

Ferrari 2-3 after qually not even on the podium. Oh dear. They’re handing this championship to RB. In fact Merc probs not far behind in the constructors!

This interview where Verstappen is saying he’s enjoying the rivalry with Leclerc/Ferrari and that he basically doesn’t like Hamilton/Merc. No shit! That’s because he’s winning comfortably this year whereas Hamilton was absolutely pushing him to the limit last season (well second half) and often over (e.g. the crash he had in Q3 in Saudi).

That sticker in the OP is a particularly bad one, but in general anyone putting stickers on their car has to be put in the same bucket as people with bonnet bras, number plates with the engine configuration/vehicle model details in it, tinted lights (I mean FFS the things that allow you to see/others see you), fake exhaust pipes, etc. I.e. a massive red flag that the driver is an absolute whopper.