I find it ‘odd’ after the Galaxy in ours – really small windscreen! But it is mega comfy on long trips…

I had seat on lowest setting and felt that my eyeline was far too close to the edge of the sun visor for my liking. Had a similar thing on a Peugeot 306 years ago and developed neck strain from subconsciously squatting my neck to compensate.
Other than that it was comfy, just didn’t set my pulse racing at all.

Ha! That’s one way of looking at it /\

Sat in an Ibiza tonight, couldn’t get the ergonomics to work for me, nor was I swayed by its aesthetics, so think I’ll be crossing it from ‘the list’.

I want to like the Fiesta ST, I really do. It hovered on the edge of my shortlist when looking for a new car but I just couldn’t get excited by the shape

This x100

I like that they tried to make the front end smart in a DB7’esque way, but it still just doesnt look right to me.
And that dash, with all those fiddly buttons.. its gopping.

It would only be sold to me on a pure driving level – at which it apparently excels. So I will test drive one.

Less than 30mins ago I configured a CarWow search for the Fiesta ST (1)- first offer back, cash price £15,935, finance price £14,875

That’s, erm, pretty good. Right?

Cheers Pete, the name is an ironic moniker.

Yes, I tried to fit in one. The door aperture is tiny so its just plain uncomfortbale to back in, plus the bubbble shaped doors mean my head is too close to the window for comfort. The pedals are too close together for my liking and my left leg is impeded by center console.

I don’t want a 500!

Thank you please.

makes sense when you put it like that.

I may simply forego all the gimmicks I want bolted on in order to secure a rock bottom price via CarWow.

that sounds about right. cheers.

Im potentially about to embark on my first PCP – whats the best tactic to save money?
I have a factory model offer from another dealer that is around £1500 off RRP – but being a factory model of course leaves pretty much no wiggle room for options.
I suppose its best to ask them to match the other dealers discount whilst also negotiating on any options?

I physically cannot fit into a Fiat 500.

Test drove a 75ps Up! at lunch time – lovely build quality, needs some juice to progress from a standing start then has a boost up to 30mph – and then.. not a lot.
Way to breathless for me im afraid, considering similar/better economy can be had for not much more.
So, that also writes off the Citigo and Mii.

We crunched some figures on the Polo R-Line (1.0/110bhp).. seems I can ‘get onto one’ for £191 PCM. Not that much more than the £150 budget I had originally self imposed – and has the looks and economy im after. However, turns out I could drive away a BlueGT with 150hp for £197 PCM.

This stretches my original total budget from circa 11k to 18k (! 🙂 !) – the lure of spreading the cost via PCP getting close to claiming another victim..
Paid off student loan recently so am unlikely to notice a drastic hit on my wallet – especially as my Megane is currently costing well over £1000PA to keep on the road.

The current shortlist:

Polo R-Line / Blue GT
Ibiza FR
Swift Sport

Possibly also considering:

Fiesta Ecoboost

I had an offer from another (local) dealer via CarWow today that was over 10% better. I’m now using this guy for test drive fodder

Delay of Game (from Chapter 6: Dealing With Dealers – The Games Dealers Play)
Salesmen are good at wearing people down. One way they do this is by making you wait forever to receive an offer on your trade-in from their manager. Or several times during negotiations they will go ask their sales manager if they can accept a lower offer. When they leave they are gone for a good 15-20 minutes while you sit wondering what could possibly be taking so long. Meanwhile, your salesman is in the break room B.S.’ing with other co-workers who are playing the same game. They will keep doing this, waiting for you to break down, lose your patience and give in to their price. They wouldn’t do it if didn’t work, but now you know better.

Same thing happened to me today.
I think they are smashing out a valuation of your trade in on webuyanycar. He avoided the subject of the car I told him I wanted, and tried to tell me how I can afford the car he thinks I want.
A proper tool. Looking forward to telling him that he’ll need to beat quotes from his trader buddies at all other local dealerships.

I’d die happy if I had half as many good friends around me during those final days/moments. A life well lived, yet tragic none the less.
Powerful watching.

Yes, it’s always tempting to keep upping the power and upping the budget.. But I need to keep the price down as much as possible.

I genuinely don’t know if I’ll fit my ass into the narrow Swift seat but I’m going to book a test drive and find out. I’ve seen a few new ones at dealerships for just over 12k, which seems brilliant value if they live up to the reviews.

I’m driving an Up! Tomorrow as well as a Polo. Spent some time on CarWow today and had a few offers come back on a Polo R-Line, which if financing through the dealer can drop the RRP from 17.5k to 14.5k. Nice.

Love the Fabia – only available in 5 door – completely uncomfortable for me to get in and out of the bloody thing. Regratably removed from my wish list.

aero roof bars + thule racks..
They’ve made boot size irrelevant to me for the last 5 years.

AX GT – ragged a gas flowed one of those years ago. Great fun. To my mind only the Swift Sport seems to fit the same kind of mould these days.

Stop me before I buy an Up Club!

Polo GTi way out of budget, as is Abarth 500 (if I could fit inside).

MX5 crossed my mind whilst on a dealership browse at lunch time 🙂

I must take a Feista for a spin. The glowing reviews come thick and fast and drivability is important to me. It’s just that its looks do nothing for me, so to chuck 12k+ at one just seems a bit.. hard.

Mito’s look nice, JTD’s are usually strong. May take a peek

Yeah Mini is a reasonable shout. It’s hard to know when to give up on purchasing new/nearly new – and delve into the mine field of used.

Mini’s have big old tyres, and i’m not sure about economy or running costs. Always appealed in style though.

I think I tried to get into drivers side of a 500 once – and failed (im a big lump). I do however fit into its cousin – the new Panda.

Car’s ive tried and fit comfortably into:

Up!
Citigo

Cars I don’t fit comfortably in:

Aygo
Fabia (only 5 door model available, door aperture just not big enough)

well, I always assumed Fiesta’s/Polo’s to be a size above supermini – but the more reviews you read the more you see them lumped into the same category.

I certainly wouldn’t rule out a larger model, but they of course come at a premium. I don’t really want to go to Astra/Golf/Megame hatch size as my main consideration is low running costs – discs/pads/tyres/tax etc.

I also enjoy driving small go-kart type cars, and have option to go B-Roads for virtually all of my 30+ mile commute. I need to do occasional 500 mile round trips so motorway capability is important also.

Panda 100hp would’ve been ideal I think, but don’t really want to chance my arm on ownership of a 5+ year old Fiat.

I’ve rarely seen a custom paint job that didn’t look like it came out of a shed in the 1980’s

Cheers that man.
Also spied a Hope BB fitting tool on their website that may also make the grade.

Possible tip – having followed all the video links on this thread ive come across one write up that mentions how Park and Snap-On Hex/Torx heads are made by Bondhus – whom are satisfyingly cheaper than Park/Snap-On.

Ok, im now cash poorer, but a JIS screwdriver and Knipex plier richer.

There is no substitute for a quality tool last lasts a lifetime. Thanks for the links!

Does anyone have a decent suspension fork top cap removal tool solution? (32mm I think? or is it 36mm?).
I’ve read that pro’s chamfer the inside face of a standard socket as there is a lip that can damage the finish on the soft aluminium/anodizing.

I see that Abbey Tools make a lovely looking set of 5 for around $150..
I only need a modest version for my RockShox Rev.

If it had an 853 sticker with a moustache i’d be all over that shit

Is headset cup wear normally an issue for you with normal cartridge bearing headsets?

Ive seen several cups with minimal wear to the inner surfaces. Granted, they are softer alu cups but I consider them a sacrificial component in a worst case scenario.

I see your point, but still, you are rubbing two materials together without the ability to replace the steel if any wear did take place.

Clearly there are engineers whom don’t consider this to be an issue – and I imagine they are completely correct in their conclusions. But it doesn’t sit completely easy with me. Especially on a product/material that is often marketed to have longevity.

I’ll get over it, maybe.

Can anyone explain the integrated headset cups? Do the bearings just sit inside the head tube and therefore make straight contact with it?
If so, wouldn’t that eventually encourage wear into the headtube?

Or do the bearings sit within an internally pressed cup?

IMO – the Logic 2.0 is a seriously classy looking frame, and the colour is lovely. Its selling at around what? £700 including fork?.
I haven’t checked what the Ribble sells for but i’d pay a reasonable premium for the Ritchey brand plus details like the lovely post binding point, dropouts, and possibly headtube (pending answer to above question!).

If only they splashed some 853 fairy dust on it so I could convince myself it was worth the extra.

If the 57cm above hasn’t sold id probably be interested!

its not one-liner comedy, it’s more observational.

I’m not saying im her biggest fan, but FWIW she’s as good as or better than most of the guff on BBC.

Comedy is as subjective as any other form of entertainment – it’s impossible to convince anyone that something is funny, if they simply don’t think it is. Ullman, however, probably deserves more credit for her delivery skill.

I haven’t seen that movie above, but looks whacky enough to be worth a couple weekend beers!!

Set mine up on Alfine 8 as I wanted a genuine ‘next to zero’ maintenance bike that I could hop on if any of my other usual rides were out of action.
Fitted 29er rims and flick between 32mm touring panaracer pasella’s (actually they may be 36’s – either way there’s bags of room) or knobbly CX Cinder’s – both options are really comfy.

It’s a genuine discovery machine, any path you come across is usually fair game. Have used it on day long rides, Down’s Link, SDW etc – and its completely at home on canal paths/hardpack etc.
When im skint its the first bike I think about parting with, but I always come to the same conclusion – that it’s really the only bike I need.

My Park cable cutters are still cleanly cutting through cable outers first time every time – at least 10 years later.

Gonna get me one of those jap screw drivers!

The vast pollution laced rubbish dump was a real eye opener to me. No, the whole programme was. I knew the Greek goose was cooked, I had no idea how crispy it was.

Man alive, that is one enormous mess.

Weirdly, despite it not often being laugh out loud funny, I found her performances in general rather good. Her accents and mannerisms are very natural, she seems a very good actress.

The Judi Dench sketch was pretty funny. And I quite liked the American tourists finding everything British oh so charming.
The coffee shop IT guy is pretty good too, excellent prosthetics! There’s been many a gender bending comedy sketch over the years but I think she does a great job as passing as that twerp.

There’s definitely talent there, more so than many other touted female sketch shows.

Ritchey pics please!

Duchovny was great in Californication though

That’s exactly what the Mrs said during this episode, hence me wondering if he was genuinely hamming it up on purpose – some kind of statement of shiteness.

With some decent writing and production quality (the soundtrack was dire!) they have the basis for some classy sci-fi. Instead they appear to have just taken the uber easy option.
Whoever ‘they’ are…

I’m almost offended that they dared to make and bother to release such a half arsed attempt. Wrong on so many levels.

No offence, but you are easily pleased. It’s utter tripe

Is this for real?

I’m witnessing the most wooden acted, cliche ridden horridly scripted bunch of junk I think I’ve ever laid eyes and ears on.

Anderson is doing her best to remain professional, but Duchovny is clearly taking the piss out of the script writers, surely??!

Nice to see Djokovic turn up for a bit of bass work fresh outta Australia.

Why didn’t the little spectacled fella do Gangnam Style?

And tight leggings.

Ah half time. Now for the best bit

Luckily I have broke two ribs in a rib cage

Phew, lucky you!

Was on top of the South Downs today prior to the weather forecast of 2pm downpour. Wind was crazy strong and you could see the rain clouds drawing in from the south east, they looked biblical.
Got back down to my car as I literally felt the firsts spots of rain on my face, at 2:06 the heavens opened in a big way.

Chapeau, Met office.

doesn’t make me sound like a poncy **** cyclist

2 out of 3 ain’t bad

Staggers me that some consider it completely reasonable to have a pooch freely wander around trails that are specifically designated for riders to be nailing at high speeds.
I’m sure your mutt is fine 99% of the time, but that one ride out of a hundred may well be the one that it decides to stop and lay an egg or do an about turn on an obscured corner – or run straight across an adjoining trail.

A cyclist committed to a turn or concentrating on the trail ahead (and not directly at the dog running out of the scrub and into their front wheel) can easily be doing speeds that would cause serious injury to all involved. If you can’t accept or empathise with that then you aren’t responsible enough to own a dog.