When I was younger and drove everywhere flat out, it was impossible to hit more than a 35mph average on a stretch of b road I knew very well. A standing start from a t junction and one tight bend were the only bits where you were under 50…

I had a nosy at the A2. They’re rare as hen’s teeth, expensive to buy, and made out of aluminium and so expensive to fix if they get bumped. They also sell very quickly.

The Ibiza TDIs are capable of 60-70mpg economy and don’t change hands for such a high premium as the A2 or Polo TDI. And they are pretty plentiful so there’s lot of choice. The 1.4 TDI is the same 3cyl as the A3, the 1.9TDI is the same as the older Golfs. And the shell / mechanicals are Polo based.

Not Nationwide. The products are relatively decent, but the lack of security is absolutely shocking.

Around 6 weeks ago, bank statement got stolen from my post, and someone rang up and requested a new PIN, Cashcard and applied for a credit card, all of which also got stolen from the post. It turns out a nicked bank statement is enough to convince Nationwide that you’re a legit customer.

The first I hear of it is when my cashcard stops working almost a month later. So I ring up and jump through all the hoops and after 3 or 4 phone calls my cash is refunded and a new card and pin is issued out to a branch for me to collect. And there’ll be a special flag put on the account so that they’ll be extra careful in future.

Today I come home and find a letter telling me about my new credit card application. Which of course I didn’t make.

Bear in mind that a cash card and PIN with a customer number will get you into Nationwide’s internet banking, and it’s pretty bloody bonkers. I can’t believe that they’re still taking credit card applications without doing some serious checking after I’ve reported fraud. It’s not even difficult for them to do – someone rings up claiming to be me, they ring me back on the number they have on file. Dead easy if they wanted to do it. Security questions like “tell me one of your direct debits” are pretty useless when a) they rarely change, so nicking one statement can get you in years later and b) a lot of people will have a direct debit going to SKY/Virgin/a utility company so a fraudster has a fair chance of guessing their way in.

I’ve previously experienced fraud on a Lloyd’s account and they sorted it absolutely no problem.

Cheers for all the info. Will definitely have a look at the Mercs. To be honest, if I had £££ I’d be driving around in a 1980s SEC or the AMG 190E…

The consensus I’m getting from googling the BMWs is that I’ll be lucky to see more than 35mpg from any petrol engined 3 – does that seem about right for the lads on here who run one? For what it’s worth, my commute is about 30 miles one way, about 3 miles through town then 50mph most of the rest…

Mind if I ask you loads of questions then Offroading? :lol:

I’d imagined that most of a 318 will be the same as a 320? I appreciate one’s a 4 cyl whilst the other’s a straight 6, but the driveline, interior, electrics and suspension etc. would all be the same? Or do the compacts and lower spec cars get different clobber?

To be honest, I’d sooner have the 320 but those extra 2 cylinder seem to rob you of about 10mpg according to the official figures. That said, the official figures for the 320, 325 and 330 all look to be between 38-40 to the gallon on the extra urban – are they actually that similar on juice in practice? Because if they are, I think I need the 3 litre…

What sort of money would I be expecting to pay for bits? I know VW have a rep for pricey parts, but I’ve found a lot of mechanical bits for elderly VWs to be surprisingly cheap – I think I paid £30 +VAT at the dealer for a waterpump a while ago, and service kit like oil/air filters is generally less than a tenner. Brake parts I would tend to buy Brembo or Mintex – I guess I’d hope to be looking at <£100 for a set of front discs and pads?

And is the e46 suspension bog standard Mac struts with a bottom arm or will I be looking at 52 different ball joints and bushes that all need replacing every so often?

They can be protected and they’re relatively cheap and long lived, especially compared with the other option which would be sticking with the same voice over artist for 20 years plus…

I take it the Doncaster take off is from Robin Hood airport?

Derby? Seriously, Derby? Derby is an absolute hole of a place – OK, statistically speaking you’re probably slightly less likely to get shot, but you might die of boredom.

First things first – you won’t get shot unless you’re actually involved in the drugs trade.

Breakfast – depends on where you are. Franky and Benny’s do an OK fry up / american style pancakes / eggs benedict. TBH I’m not normally up and about early enough in the morning to be dining out for breakfast.

For lunch, Petit Paris do a good set menu. Avoid the all you can eat places on Parliament street. Rank. Desi Downtown and Chennai are both pretty solid for a curry in the evening.

As for drinking, there’s basically a rough 100 yard crap pub zone around the main square. That’s where the Walkabout, Wetherspoons, Yates etc. are.

Decent places are – any pub or bar from the Bell inn onwards, just up the road from Burton’s, heading towards Las Iguanas etc. etc. There’s also a nice Chinese restaurant (Man’s I think) on the side street just before you get to Las Iquanas. There’s also a nice pub up by the castle, and obviously the Olde Trip.

On the other side of town (ie, heading away from the Bell, or as you head into town from the NIC / Capital FM arena) there’s Tilt, which does decent cocktails, and a few good pubs up in Hockley – the Angel tends to eitehr have something good on or be a bit flat. There’s also the Pitcher and Piano which does cocktails, but it’s pricier and has a higher density of arrogant flash harrys. There are also a few half decent real aley pubs down by the canal, but it’s a bit of a mission from town.

As for Bridgford, there are the bars around Trent Bridge as mentioned, plus the Stratford Haven and Monkey Tree. I’d sooner be in town though.

Places I would dodge:
Bar Circle as there’s always a bit of an atmosphere in there.
Any pub that’s next to the station.
Dogma.

No idea which clubs are decent as I’m normally well oiled by the time I land in them…

If you’re buying a new company car and someone else is paying to fix it, then it’s diesel nearly every time.

For personal use, I’d go petrol. For some cars the price difference is bonkers – ie, BMW 320d Cabrios around 2004 go for about £6-7k. 320 Cabrios go for about 4-5k. Add in the complex bits – EGR, DMF, DPF, new turbos etc. and you’re prety much guaranteed a big bill. I’d much sooner hand over an extra £5-£10 a week on fuel than chance a £500-£1000 bill out of the blue.

Some of the folk on here are comparing really poor petrol cars with decent diesels too, which is rather muddying the waters. For instance, the 1.4 Golf is an abomination – the 1.4 engine struggles pulling a Polo around…

I love STW drugs threads.

“none of us became addicts or threw our lives away because we werent feeble minded like the idiots that get hooked”

Yep, because having a beer or a couple of pills, well, it’s all the same really isn’t it? I expect you’d have run a mile from meth, smack or crack because you know they’re hugely addictive and screw up people’s lives…

For £500 you’re basically looking at a small screen (ie, 12 to 13″) and light weight, or a big screen and heavy.

There are a couple of laptops about 12″ to 14″ for £500 at present – Samsung have the 535 that looks OK, decent battery life, light weight, but not a blistering processor.

There’s also the Dell Vostro 3360 which looks good for the money, and is just outside of the ultrabook spec.

Ultrabooks are supposed to be coming down in price though, so I’m waiting at the moment.

It’s a fungus based protein, grown in vats and invented by ICI.

I think that tells you enough to work out that it’s not really food in the normal sense…

I’d be cautious of the Swift. We looked at a low mileage one a while ago, and we couldn’t believe the state of it. It had done 17k and the seats looked more like they’d done 170k. I’m not sure they’re built to last. And the ride is pretty bloody hard – and that’s from someone with a MK2 GTI in the barn.

I’d discount all the modern Golfs, they’re just not particularly engaging.

In your boots, I’d look at BMWs – either a 3 or a 1 series. They’re in a different class to VW and Audi in terms of handling.

Finding the problem is the difficult part IME. Most of the time you can say a) yes, a solution is fairly simple and can be done this way or b) it’s a hugely complex issue which is why nobody’s solved it.

My suggestion would be to look at specialised areas and try and work out what problems they have and deal with every day without really thinking about it or noticing. Or where something exists in one field but inexplicably doesn’t in another.

For bikes, all I can think of off the top of my head that would be good but doesn’t seem to exist is a bike version of a gunson easibleed.

Who gives a monkeys what the plebs in your rear view mirror think?

They’re driving Peugeot 206s and enduring disappointing lives. :D

Try searching for letter frequency rather than letter counting. It’s not an overly uncommon thing to look – letter coding in qualitative analysis and obviously basic cryptography.

Start looking for a job now. Typically it takes at least 3 months to find a job.

Take the advice about going down to the dole office and signing on, and yes, it is shite. The problem is that you can’t back claim dole and you can’t guarantee you won’t need that cash in the future. I particularly remember one bloke with greasy hair and stains on his suit and tie – and he was behind the counter! It seemingly doesn’t matter if you’ve got a history of employment and turn up looking smart – they seem to assume that you’re just one of the tracksuit and special brew crew in disguise.

To be honest, I’d probably also start altering spending habits now – you get through cash at an amazing rate once there’s nothing coming in, so you need as big a cushion as possible.

Cheers, I see you’ve both done this before :lol:

From the other angle – if I happened on a decent 0% credit card deal, am I likely to be hit by dealer charges for using a card?

I’m not a photographer, but I have done some messing about with cameras and deal with colour at work.

The first thing to get right is to get some decent lighting. You can look at two things under different lamps and see different colours – to they eye two things in poor lighting could look more or less bang on matching, but put them under a light box or spectro and you’ll find out that they’re nowhere near.

CFLs can be extremely lumpy in their output (ie if you actually measured the power at different wavelengths of light, you’d find that there are areas which are getting masses of power, and others that get very little. Our brain fills in the gaps and comes up with white).

If you split a cheap CFL light with a prism you pretty much get Red, Green and Blue, and you will never get decent images from that. What you want is a big halogen lamp and something white in the shot to take WB from. I would suggest reading this guide to bodging photography in the home:

http://www.dansdata.com/phototute.htm

It’s definitely exhaust – you can see it drop off as he lifts off the throttle to change gear.

Get a set of Rx wayfarers or aviators. Oakleys off the bike = middle aged man.

I think it’s a latex glue.

It really depends on where you are and what the offers are. On a weekend you can pick up a group day return (two adults, two kids) for four quid, which runs to about 5 am the next day. The bus stops outside my gaff and in the centre of town. On the otherhand, you can easily spend north of seven quid parking for a few hours. And you can have a beer if you fancy one… Or go shopping, come home, go on the lash, avoid having to pay for a taxi etc.

The flipside is that when I lived in Sheffield, the buses were bloody dear…

I wouldn’t want a laptop over 14 to 15 inch. They’re just hard work to move about and use on your knee. And decent battery life is a must, as otherwise the power cable will just get tripped over and knacker the laptop. Been there, done that…

Otherwise, it will just get used for fairly basic computing, remote Citrix access, possibly the odd massive excel spreadsheet, viewing large PDFs and a bit of simple photo meddling, but that’s about it. I know I can do all that on almost anything for sale today, but I’d like to do it quickly and easily.

An iPad isn’t going to cut it. A modern NetBook might but specs don’t seem to have moved on greatly from the NC 20 we already have.

Barker, Loake, Church, Cheaney or Herring shoes. Get made in England ones. Simple.

When we looked, the Specialized Myka was one of the best for standover. It’s never going to be a step through though.

I had a car recoded and new keys cut by a locksmith in Dewsbury a few years back now. It was something like a third of the price a dealer wanted for one key to have the locksmith do a pair of keys. And the car was recoded, so even if someone found the old keys and matched them to the car, it couldn’t be started.

If you want a full new set of locks the best bet is to get on Ebay and buy a set from a dismantler. Another option would be to pull all the old lock barrels out and reorder the wafers so the old keys don’t work, then get new ones cut to match. The big cost will be in the labour to strip out door cards etc. if the locks can’t be removed externally – there’s generally a DIY guide online if you fancy an afternoon’s faff.

Croatia would suit but the beaches in the north are often pebble. Dubrovnik has some sandy beaches. The whole place is pretty much free from Bemidorm / Sharm types. I can recommend Apartments Tonkovic near Dubrovnik for self catering, Hotel Mediteran in Porec is nice as well with a fair bit of active stuff to do too.

If you want proper luxury, its going to cost you unless you go to some dusty hell hole.

Wasn’t the LG Prada released before the iPhone?

Peugeot had a batch of dodgy brake light switches. And indicator stalks.

The indicator stalks cost about 250 quid a pop when I enquired…

Bloke that consulted at the last place I worked at had a large black square watch, with white highlights on it. I think it was a Christopher Ward…?

If it was £3k, then it probably wasn’t a Chris Ward – they’re more in the £250-£500 bracket.

The grand price difference between a Chris Ward and a Bell&Ross gets you a few straps!

There are a few nice watches about with that style of PVD case and simple face – I’d have a good look about.

A vintage Rolex does sound a good idea though – you know it will keep its money.

Bell & Ross use the same relatively cheap ETA movements as half the watch industry. So you pay a lot for the case, strap, name, design etc.

Personally I’d look at Chris Ward for some nice aviator / military / altimeter inspired designs which are in a similar vein to much of Bell & Ross’s designs. And Time Factors too. Both are about 4-500 pounds for a nice watch.

I’d be unsure about dropping big cash on one of the big square watches as I suspect they could date very quickly.

Or if you want to go really cheap, get a big mil style Seiko for about 100 quid, but to be honest, I find the chapter ring on a lot of them ugly.

Physios tend to dish out a damn good prodding / massage / shove things back into place. And give you an exercise sheet to do. The exercise sheet is probably the more important part if you ask me.

Go and see your GP and get referred to the NHS physio. Chiropracty is very often snake oil. The xray serves the same purpose as a beauticians white lab coat…

The Swiss watch firms seem to have a very solid understanding of their product’s status as Veblen items. Actual quality and value doesn’t seem to come into the reckoning. Glossy ads, showrooms and regular expensive servicing with expensive spares are what’s required to maintain their Veblen goods status.

If you want an automatic watch that just works, get a Seiko and have it serviced / a new movement put in it in 10 years, whichever is cheaper.

Just get the affected lense reglazed. Or get both done by an online firm for the same money.

Basic mechanicals. There are 5 main things that can be wrong:

Lack of air (ie, air filter, throttle not moving properly)
Lack of spark (spark plugs, HT leads, coil pack)
Lack of fuel (fuel filter, fuel pump, fuel injectors)
Blocked exhaust (cat, silencer going wrong)
Electrics – air flow sensor not functioning properly / throttle position sensor gone AWOL, but this should be picked up by the ECU lamp / fault code read.

I’d start with the spark first – lowish revs, high throttle opening (ie, pulling away) needs a good strong spark.

I went to Sharm el Sheik 4 or so years ago. I’d had a summer of working absolutely stupid hours, and I just wanted to sit in the sun fairly late on in the year.

The only way you could have a decent holiday there is if you book into a decent hotel (ie, 4/5 star US chain) and are happy not to leave. We stayed in the Marriot and the staff were all very nice. Pop up the seafront to the Hilton and have a few beers and it’s much the same. Wander around the town – absolute pain in the arse – hassle from shopkeepers, restauranteurs etc. Expect to haggle for absolutely everything. Everything. Everywhere. And to have people try to intimidate you into buying total rubbish. Nothing much to do unless you want to go snorkelling or diving. Oh, and the airport is a nightmare – you will come into close proximity with the arse end of the spectrum of British travellers. In the two hours or so we were in Sharm airport we had AK47s aimed at us by the security guards and saw a lovely woman on the same flight home as us vomiting last night’s beer into a clear polythene bag at the gate.

Saying “you may as well be in Spain” is doing a massive disservice to Spain. I’d have sooner stayed in the Solana with Johnny Vegas…

I’d definately second Croatia as an absolutely amazing place to go. Dubrovnik is beautiful, you’d never guess that the place had been to shot to bits twenty years ago. Porec is further up the coast and is a gorgeous place. And the Croatians are ace – very welcoming and absolutely no hassle. Overall, it’s a lot like Italy, but without the Italians and sensible prices.

Aldi will have cycling glasses in this week, Decathlon generally have decent sports specific and Oakley style stuff in too. And Sports Pursuit (bit like vent privee for sport clobber) very often have decent brands of sports sunnys in for less than forty quid.