And,

.. and…

…..AND..
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HOW DARE SOMEONE MENTION SKIING THIS EARLY IN THE YEAR. 😈 😈 😈

You do realise that you have now consigned the next 6-8 months of my life to wistfully looking out of the window hoping for snow, and willfully looking at the internet for snow reports, holiday prices and shiny, shiny kit.

FECKER
FECKER
FECKER
😉

Skied in Zermatt quite a few times now – but always stayed in Cervinia.

The combined area gives a huge variety, and yes the high mountain views are magnificent.

Nothing quite beats getting the last lift up to Kleine Matterhorn (3820m highest lift for piste skiing in Europe & the World?) and blasting all the way down to the Italian border at Plateau Rosa and then on down to Breuil Cervinia – all on desserted slopes except for the ski patrol and the piste bashers… Longest pisted run in Europe I believe

You mean the ones you buy when you can't afford a 911?

Lighter, more fun? Don't know as I haven't driven one. Engine not the wrong side of the rear axle?

And yes, the sort of money that a damn site more folks could aspire to.

Do yourself a favour – get the Cayman or Boxster Spyder instead. Use something else for the bike

hard wearing

Ahh, forgot that bit in my OP. One of my concerns – whether "soft" shell meant "tatty in no time".

I've heard everywhere that they're warm – whats the venting like?

Not the prettiest of vehicle.

before they all get legislated out of existence.

I'd be worried about residuals – probably why they're going cheap at the mo, and the tax / fuel regime could be worse by the time you come to sell.

Ta – much as I thought. Will take a look.

i thought the Giulietta was designed to appeal to the fairer sex and that's why they have Uma advertising it and it does look a bit of a hairdressers car to me

I know what you mean – but Alfas always seem to be a man's choice of "pretty" car.

Some marques do a pretty / stylish car and it does become a bit of a girls / hairdresser statement, dare I suggest, MX5, BMW mini, Beetle mk2, 205 CTi.

To describe a mechanical object in "humanised" terms, Alfa's seem to me to have a male:female attraction* rather than a female:female affinity. The last GTV coupe is a good example – very pretty, but not something I'd regard as a sterotypical womans car. The Fiat Coupe of the same era was equally stylish, but much more "muscular" in appearance – Now show me a clean 20V NA Fiat Coupe and I would be very tempted…

* Presumably this is where the Alfa ad folks are going with the Uma Thurman tie in – trying to elicit the "Mmmm sexy, I want" type response.

Where's that picture taken? Looks a bit like the hairpin on the Bwlch road into Treorchy

refined, quiet, smooth. not as go-karty as i prefer

Oh, dear – that really isn't very encouraging 😕

Well I say Anthem to any what FS questions…

… but really, I tried the original Anthem at MM demo day a few years ago. Unfortuantely I was given the gate sized XL / 22".

I'm 6'3" and it was way too big for me. Now have a perfect L / 20" Anthem X3 – and at £1750 it's a hell of a good bike for the money 😀

The edition 30 version is an absolute belter of a car.

Yes – regretted not getting one. They'd just announced the ed30 when we bought our Mk5. Was sorely tempted, but we would have had to wait 6 months (IIRC) for delivery, and I needed to replace a C Class estate before it's lease was up…(or more accurately before it went over the agreed mileage 🙁 )

Looked at (and test drove) the Golf TSi when it came out in the GT trim. Very nice car / engine, but the pricing wasn't that much less than the GTi!!

Went for a year old DSG GTi instead – not diesel, so OT, but no noticeable turbo lag 😉

Sounds like a good case for a small supercharger at low revs, followed by turbocharging as the exhaust gases come on stream – as in the VW 1.4TSi petrol engine.

Possibly too complex / expensive a solution.

Enjoy the Punto…

Oh, I do 😉 – in the same way that you enjoy the Jimny…

… it's a light(ish), nippy, fun little car.

ETA

The fact you feel the need to anonymously tag speaks volumes

I wasn't aware that I had TBH… the tag shows my username against it when I view the site?? It's the only time I've tagged a thread, so perhaps I need to look at the settings in future 😉

Would the cowardly tagger like to point out WHERE I'm wrong? Of course not, it would mean revealing yourself.

Sad little dweeb.

I'm quite happy to state that I put up the original tag.

If, in your opinion, I'm a sad little dweeb, that's fine. However, mixing opinion and fact does seem to be one of your talents – possibly an occupational hazard of the PR industry?

On the other hand, if you can demonstrate that:

Alfa has been peddling average GM cars in drag then selling them as "sporty" for too long.

is correct, then I'll quite happily remove the tag.

From what I can see, your statement is incorrect – ie WRONG. You consistently post on car / motoring related threads with an assumed authority that belies your mixing of fact and opinion. Perhaps your musings on cars would be better valued if you acknowledged the occasional error or differentiated between your own opinions and accepted facts?

On one point you are correct though, I am a sad little dweeb for rising to your opinionated nonsense.
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And of course, if anyone does test drive a Giulietta, I'd love to know what you think. I might have to get around to booking one myself…

Back to the debate, if you want to deprive yourselves of a key sense and factor in added distraction to an already potentially hazardous situation, then as adults, I think you should be perfectly entitled to do so.

This is absolutely correct, as is the post about listening to chain, lungs etc. Tried riding at Afan once with iPod – just didn't feel right, I'd lost a whole set of sensory cues about how the bike was handling…

For all those who dispute the value of hearing I suggest a lone trip to a dark, unfamiliar forest. Your ears will provide you with a 3d map of what is around you. What's moving, which direction, going away, coming towards… Shooting in close woodland is very difficult with hearing protection because you loose your ability to know what is going on around you beyond your limited visual horizon

Some people are just not used to using their full range of senses.

I think there a lot of folks on here kidding themselves…

…it's not about whether she should have seen or heard the hazard – it's about general attentiveness and concentration when riding.

The very absence of which we criticise car drivers for 👿

My point is that diesel cars in general emit significantly less CO2 than their petrol equivalents, which is better on a global scale.

Why is that?
Frustratingly, vehicle emissions are measured at the "tailpipe" as it were – ok for comparing one model to another, which is what consumers need, but not very helpful when comparing one fuel type / engine technology to another.

Plus apparently diesel can cost a lot more energy to manufacture.

And that energy = CO2 emissions at the refinery.
I'd like to know the comparative CO2 emissions of the litre of petrol / diesel that we buy at the pump – that should be included as an adjustment factor to the "tailpipe" emissions.

I don't know the answer, or even if there is one, one way or the other. It's a question that I have been asking for 10+ years – during which time engine technology and efficiencies have improved, but refinery capital investment and upgrades operate over a far longer timescale…

ETA – in my experience the oil companies are very conservative in their approach to publishing information – trying to work out the CO2 emissions of a litre of petrol or diesel could be quite a headache and would be expected to vary from planmt to plant depending on age, configuration, location etc…

CO2 emissions, mate.

In any case I usually drive a hybrid. Low CO2 and low everything else too.

In which case you should be able to direct me to some convincing research in favour of diesel…

I've found none

In any case I'm more concerned about emissions than cost of fuel.

Really?
And you drive a diesel??

That is pretty

Gutless at low revs?

Yes, I guess mine was, but it came alive above 3500

Dont fancy the road bike much for winter.

This year is the first year it's been out of the shed since 95-96, and even summer / autumn wet and slippy roads has me reaching for the mtb…

What do you have at the moment – 147 / 156?

And was your drive in the standard 120 1.4 or was it in the multiair? Keen to know if it sounds like it should and whether it's got Alfa's point & shoot quick steering!!

My mates review of the Cloverleaf

The comments make more interesting reading than the review – and tell their own story 😉

The Autocar review against the Golf and Focus reads very objectively though.

I've got no point to make for or against – hence the original question as to whether anyone has driven one

the Alfa unit is almost identical to the Saab/Vx unit

But – is that because the Alfa is a rebadged Vauxhall, or because Fiat group have sold GM their engine technology???*
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. * or more accurately, entered into a joint R&D process and share the products???

We'll have to agree to disagree on that GM thing SM…

GM / Saab collaboration with Fiat group on engine / platform development is far from the same as stating that Alfa have been

peddling average GM cars in drag then selling them as "sporty" for too long

Which is, as I'm sure you realise, incorrect.

Fiat pioneered common rail diesels and the 1.9JTD and multijet are the product of that development process.

Mullet – normally

I don't think the question should be has anyone test driven an Alfa but has anyone driven 50k miles in one….

I find them beautifully styled & great when new but longevity concerns particularly squeek & rattle resistance. Loved my 147 to look at but damn pleased it was a company car.

But is that really much different from any other manufacturer?? I don't see a preponderance of Fiats / Alfas sat on the hard shoulder…

Alfa's reputation may have been deserved at one stage (fixing that date would be a debate in itself…) but how many of the recent Alfa's peers have been significantly better?? – don't forget 147 is a 10 year old model…

We've currently got a Ford S Max – great car & concept, but build quality is poor.

Previously had Renault Scenic – truly awful in every respect, Merc C Class – well built, but certainly not perfect, BMW 3 Series – nicely balanced drive but very ordinary in every other respect.

Three cars that stand out in my "car history" are

Golf Gti Mk 5 – excellent in most respects, but so competent it wasn't fun at normal road speeds,

Alfa 156 Sportwagon – beautiful, reliable and sounded gorgeous, would just look out of the office window to look at the damn thing,

and my best ever car…

a bright red 309 GTi

Certainly the 159 / Brera models were based on a joint platform developed with GM…"

Saab, to be precise. Who them abandoned it due to costs, leaving Alfa to go it alone

… and I don't think anyone other than Alfa have released any products of that platform development – so no GM versions of it are around.

That's why I couldn't work out what smurf mat was on about… Alfa palming off GM cars as sporty…??

The previous collaboration between Fiat group and Saab gave rise to the Saab 9000 / Alfa 164 – but that was before GM bought Saab.

And the 155 / 156 / GT / 147 line were based on derivations of the Tipo platform.

It's true that the last few generations of Alfa's have had their weaknesses, but the same could be said for many of their peers.

Alfa has been peddling average GM cars in drag then selling them as "sporty" for too long.

Really? If you'd said FIAT then I'd find it hard to contest the point.

How long is too long? Certainly the 159 / Brera models were based on a joint platform developed with GM, and there was a lot of fuss when the Alfa V6 was dropped for the Brera and replaced with a GM block V6 and Alfa head…

Cross company platform development is pretty common in the motor industry.

Pity emissions regs mean it will never see a twin spark motor…

ETA
Car advert vacuous BS content – not breaking new ground there then…!

Haven't seen any ads run on TV

I'm by no means fast, but regular(ish) commutes has certainly speeded me up over the last few years.

14 miles each way, about 50% off road, some nice climbs and descents. I try to ride flat out and attack the route, and other cycle commuters (for the "in town" bit) as if it were a race. Always trying to better my previous best time.

Anthem X3 is a very good bike – but would stretch your budget. No reason for the cheaper X4 to be fundamentally different.

"at the end of the day"

No but driven the Mito

Ahh, but the Mito doesn't come with a free Uma Thurman, now, does it?

Think i would rather keep on the M4 and go to Afan!

I was going to say "how depressing"…

… but on reflection it is quite refreshing.

I live within 30 mins (car) from Afan / Glyncorrwg, but last rode there in 2008….

ETA – did the Gap from home on the bank holiday weekend.
A good 80+ miler. Last climb to get home had the legs on fire

does it work when you are connected via your ISP (i.e. when on your home wifi)?

No.

Because if your connecting other than through your home network most ISPs don't allow remote SMTP access

I can connect through a web mail login from any computer, so the ISP does allow remote access. Supposedly the mail box names / logins should be the same for iphone as for the web mail 👿

To clarify – my ISP provides an online set up guide for iphone (IMAP), which I have followed.

The guide indicates that the login details for the incoming and outgoing mail servers should be the same – so the only difference is the mail server name. However, the software reports that the username / password details for outgoing mail cxannot be verified, and I can't send.

Have also tried setting up under POP settings with the same results.