To get out of a lease, you will be making all the payments remaining.

Not necessarily true. You would need to look in to the T&C’s of each specific deal. There are examples of early termination fees in the order of 50% of the outstanding payments. As stated previously, you cannot necessarily walk away from a PCP without incurring some penalty.

As with any finance, you need to ensure that you understand the implications of all the ‘what ifs’.

Glow plugs are used for more than just starting on modern diesels…

Has it only started running rough when cold since the mornings have turned chilly or was it doing so during the Summer?

Could be the glow plugs (or myriad other things). FWIW, my wife has the 1.5 DCi in her Qashqai, and it’s a bit rough when cold. Don’t think there’s actually anything wrong with that.

I’ve read that injector cleaners can damage some designs of fuel injectors.

I’d be more inclined to try a few tanks of good quality fuel and an ‘Italian tune-up’ to see how that affects it.

Just to comment on the larger NA v’s small turbo debate…

I had the 2.0 normally aspirated mk5 golf (the old FSI), which produced 150 bhp. The 1.4 TSI feels very similar and despite producing less peak power, is only 0.4s slower to 60 mph, is quieter at motorway speeds and is about 25% more fuel efficient.

I don’t find the 1.4 whinny. It has a quite a pleasing note during acceleration and it does not need to be revved hard, as all the power is available at low revs.

IMO, the 1.4 TSI is a superior engine to that 2.0 FSI in every respect.

They offer the A3 with the 150 bhp 1.4 TSI. I think that would be as close to perfect as I could get for my application (except, perhaps a PHEV).

Because a) I don’t have a deposit and b) if I get a personal lease and then lose my job I’m stuffed (AIUI).

Understood. However, just be clear how you are exposed in a PCP if you haven’t made a large initial payment and you do need to end the contract early. In this scenario, you could have negative equity and have to pay to hand back the car.

With a lease, you can get contracts with small upfront payments. If you have a short lease and keep the spec sensible/jump on a good deal it can work out very cheap indeed over the term.

There is a balance of risk versus outlay. Also, depending on your allowance, there could be potential to keep the monthly below the annual allowance so you can put aside cash ‘just in case’.

Still worse than diesel though. My old Passat is bigger, heavier, more powerful, is auto and gets 60mpg at 70 and about 46 or more on B roads.

The ‘cost’ of diesel v petrol when buying new is about more than MPG. You must factor in the cost at purchase, VED, fuel cost, servicing and residuals. For everyone, there is a point where diesel does become more economical.

The point I was attempting to illustrate is that the gap between petrol and diesel has narrowed significantly and aside from the pure financial cost, there is an intrinsic value to each in terms of how they drive.

I simply prefer driving a petrol car but others prefer diesel. This, less quantifiable value, should also be considered.

Any particular reason for PCP? I’d look at all the finance options. When I did so recently, PCH i.e. a personal lease was by far the most cost-effective way to get in to a new car.

Look carefully at the figures on PCP, if there are big contributions and v. low interest rates then great. Otherwise, they don’t tend be as good as they used to be – largely due to the way residuals are calculated.

As discussed, petrol v diesel is about intended use and don’t get hung up on the CO2 figure as the only measure of emissions.

Modern small capacity turbo petrol engines are really great. The 1.4 125ps in my Golf delivers a real 50 mpg at 70 mph and I have a combined economy of 37 mpg over the first 2000 miles. This is a mix of short journeys on rural B roads and dual carriageway/motorway use. Small fuel tank means limited range (400 miles) but it is quiet, smooth and generally pleasant (dull) to drive. It in no way feels underpowered on the motorway. Yes, it has much less power/torque than my old 320d but it is still sufficient. Also note, that the Golf is actually more economical in that mixed driving than the BMW was. Plus the BMW was hateful to drive in stop/start traffic (see point about intended driving for merits of petrol v diesel).

Had a child because we wanted one. Now that he exists, he seems pretty happy about it – win win!

As already mentioned, SEAT are currently knocking out the Black edition on v. cheap lease deals of £249 pcm over 2 years.

Two years gap insurance for £104 from Gapinsurance123 on a PCH. That includes an additional £2,000 cash payout to me to cover the initial payment. Cover was about £80 without this extra.

Check with the Bride’s Father who he plans to thank in his speech. It sounds a bit daft two people making the same thank you’s.

I’d be concerned about scratching or warping the bezel. I’ve no idea how much force is required but I understand some are harder than others. I wouldn’t bother investing in the tools, hence recommending a shop who should have the tool and experience.

For just the bezel, I wouldn’t send mine back to Tag. But I might be tempted to live with it until the automatic movement needed a service then just get it all done.

A pukka bezel spring should be fairly cheap. I’d either find a Watch repairer who is an authorised Tag repairer and pay them to do it. Or, source the part yourself and get it done at another trusted repairer.

Maybe I’m being naive, but I’d be surprised if it were more than a £100 – 150 repair including parts.

I feel that I’ve had similar symptoms, albeit over a shorter period. They have reoccurred perhaps 2-3 times in the last 5 years. The most recent was when I felt I’d reached something of a ‘peak’ in terms of fitness. I’ve since had achey muscles, stomach upset, some episodes of chest tightening and a physical inability to push myself to train. I put this down to fatigue.

When I regularly played football, I always took a complete month off at the end of the season. Plus I invariably had a mid-season break either because I was injured or the weather prevented matches being played. However, since ‘retiring’ I just train constantly. Not necessarily with any particular focus (maybe one or two individual events per year). I think this lack of structure (particularly the lack of rest/recovery), isn’t really ideal.

Dunno, I just let our merrily turn things on an off.

Somewhat brilliantly, at 14 months he appears to have worked out how to record using the TiVo box buttons (we hide the remote). I frequently find episodes of Paw Patrol and Ship Ahoy recorded.

Firstly, I very much doubt you’ll achieve a 1:45 if you are running 27 min 5 kms with 7 weeks to go.

Realistically, you have 6 weeks to train and some time to taper. If you really can run a 2:00 with no training, then I’m sure there’s room for improvement. However, if you go out today and start pushing 8:00 min/miles I’d predict an injury before you see any improvement.

If I were in your position, I’d start running 5 km 2/3 times per week and do a long run once a week. I’d start at 10 km and up the long run by 2 km per week to peak at 18 km at week 5, then run a 10 km on week 6. If you want to work on you pace, only focus on this during your 5 km runs. The long runs should just be about completing the distance.

I’d still look seriously at the anticipated costs over 5 years for a car like that and compare to leasing.

Bare in mind that nothing is simple about servicing modern BMW’s. There’s not even a dipstick! Even a new battery requires a trip to a dealer/independent for recoding the power management system (£300 including the battery).

My opinion of the 320d is that it is built to run for 3-5 years flawlessly with minimal servicing. After that, all bets are off. For an older BMW I would look at 6 cyclinder petrols only.

Which engine are you looking at and what annual mileage/type of driving do you do?

Poppy and Pint looks perfect. Thank you!

And so begins the unsolicited swing advice. Ignore everything except what you’re told by your pro!

My irons and putter are adjusted for length and lie angle. However, I can play just as well with a standard set of clubs. It’s also worth noting there’s no such thing as standard in golf. Every manufacturer does it slightly differently. As a beginner, don’t get too hung up on whether the clubs are ready right for you. If you hit a bad shot, it’s your fault!

Golfs about accepting your bad shots and understanding what they’re telling you. Golf is hard.

Are you truly starting from scratch or have you played any sort of golf before?

If you are absolutely a beginner, then you probably won’t use half the clubs in that bag, so id be tempted to spend the £200 on a decent half set of irons and whatever putter you like the look of. Ask the pro giving the lessons if he has clubs you can borrow. My local range has a bin full of clubs anyone can use – he’ll probably only have you hitting 7 irons for a while anyway! Once he gets you set with the basics, ask him to recommend some clubs. If he has a shop, he can probably sort you out for a good price. Most pros with shops are happy to do a good deal not to lose custom (more so than bike shops, IME!).

Good luck! Golf is hard.

Low value, low insurance group, low annual mileage, ‘safe’ postcode, Female, loads of NCB and 3rd Part only policy (or a massive excess) are the key (according to conventional wisdom).

Brand new car (group 15, so low-ish)), safe(ish) postcode, limited mileage, full NCB and Wife as named driver has me fully comp with legal cover, low excess and protected NCB for £230.

Cheapest renewal I’ve had since I drove bangers will 3rd party insurance ~15 years ago.

What’s wrong with Renault engines?

I don’t think it’s *likely* to fail at any point. It just *might* fail. I don’t think it’s inevitable unless you abuse it.

I didn’t say it was likely to fail. I said that if it fails, that failure would likely occur at higher mileage.

DMF’s aren’t any more or less reliable between marques. Simply, that they are prone to earlier failure than SMF’s. This will largely be down to the driving style of the owner(s) i.e. lots of stop/start, short journeys will lead to quicker failure than only motorway driving.

Personally, I think that the scare stories have distorted the perception of failure frequency (similar issue to DPF’s). Yes, if it goes, it’ll be a £1000-1500 bill, but it will likely be >80,000 miles (more likely >100,000). If the car has been otherwise reliable this is not an unreasonable expense.

Haralambos is (or was 20 years ago) the A Level bible for Sociology. Well worth a read or just have it to reference stuff raised in other books.

Your expenses policy must be very generous if it will pick up this charge.

I think they’re defining ‘space age’ to be contemporary with the Apollo program.

Whilst an hour is entirely possible, the reality is that averaging 40 km/h for a full hour for someone who hasn’t done this sort of thing before is a tall order. 33 km/h at a first go is respectable. If you can get some tri bars and are comfortable on them for one hour+, then that’ll buy you another 2 km/h (maybe) for no extra effort.

If you can put in the miles between now and the race, I think 38 km/h is doable. So, I’d be looking at 1:05.

Yes, it’s often referred to as ‘nominative determinism’. The New Scientist would regularly publish readers examples.

Of course the error rate increases in proportion to the competency of the competitor in any given competition. However, in a sport such as Football where you also have to factor the cumulative impact of 11 individuals propensity for error and the shear number of variables that can lead to that error, then direct comparisons to individual disciplines becomes problematic.

Therefore, to pick an individual footballer and say they are less skillful than an individual Tennis player is a flawed comparison. The sports are just different. Of course, that difference is a completely legitimate reason not to enjoy one compared to the other.

Give me footage of every goal scored in the premiership last season, and i’ll bet you I could demonstrate in 90% of them it came down to a basic defensive error that would be taught at under 14’s level.

Isn’t this stating the obvious? The beauty (IMO) of the truly skilled player is their ability to force opponents in to making mistakes or their ability to anticipate what that opponent is about to do (you could argue that the obviousness of some passes/moves are also a type of basic error).

As you teach racket sports, you must also understand the importance of this in those sports too? i.e. How many points are won in tennis by capitalising on a poor choice of shot or simply from an unforced error by the opponent? Probably not 90% (not sure it’s really 90% in Football either), but hugely important nonetheless.

Ask them if they still watch ‘Dinner for One’ every Christmas.

As this is now after the fact, I’d call 101 to report to the Police or pop to the local station. They’ll tell you if there was any criminal wrong-doing.

b r – Member
For all those who say it’s not worth it how tall, or more importantly how long are your legs?

6’5″ and 35″ inside leg. I wouldn’t fly long-haul in Economy. But I happily do so within Europe. The extra pitch on a Premium Economy seat on BA was just fine for a long flight.

Also, if you like to gamble, you can pay for a class upgrade at check-in at a fraction of the cost compared to pre-booking. This only works if there any upgrade seats left, of course!

I fly business on long-haul 2-3 times per year. It is great but I wouldn’t pay for it myself. However, I would (and have) pay for the upgrade to Premium Economy over Economy on a long-haul.

The extra pitch does make a difference, but the main reason is that you will be in a smaller, quieter cabin compared to Economy. The relative tranquility is worth paying for.