JohnRS

Wow that's pretty atrocious behaviour but it seems to be becoming more common practice these days. Copper BMW in Sunderland are good, they have 2 RR Sport's in, both 1 owner. My dad bought his current BMW from them and I know of a couple of people with bikes from them and they're nothing but good reports I hear. My dad had a couple of issues with his BMW and they're always very good to deal with them. It's the after sales that makes or brakes an experience in my opinion as they're all great when they're about to take your money.

I got a an S10+ just after release after having Xiaomi phones for a few years and realised how much I hate Samsung's UI. Although the screen resolution and quality is exceptional the resolution is pants, but Huawei is the same. As others have said the Mate 30 Pro isn't much of an upgrade to the Mate 20 Pro, in fact it's only the camera so you could probably get a good deal on a Mate 20 Pro. The only feature I really like on the S10 is the super slo mo. For me, after this I'll stick with Xiaomi, to be honest I may even sell the S10+ and buy a used Mi Mix 3 Forbidden Palace, assuming there are any around, in the near future.

To be honest it wasn't a surprise. When i was looking for bikes they weren't that interested in my business then, i wrote on my new rider thread about them and this just reinforced the fact I'm unlikely to go back. For anything. I asked about a Kwaka demonstrator and he said they can't give one as a courtesy bike, God knows why not. To me that's a lot of lost sales there, I reckon there's loads of people who'd buy a bike after using one as a courtesy bike. A colleague had a GS and bought an RT from having one as a courtesy bike, in fact the exact one. He's just had his RT in and got an XR and is now considering one. For £170 I'd expect a lot more than a bog standard oil and filter change that took me essentially half an hour and less than £40.

I serviced mine on Saturday. After much deliberation (with myself) I decided to do it myself. The biggest concern was retaining the warranty as it's only just gone a year old but after emailing Kawasaki regarding using an independent they confined both self servicing and the use of an indi would only invalidate if it was shown that this contributed or caused a warranty issue. The way I see it is it would be difficult to differentiate between me/indi/authorised for them if all the authorised dealer was doing oil and filter. After speaking to the only local authorised dealer regarding booking it in they couldn't offer a courtesy bike, could only say at minimum they'd need it 2-3 hours and wanted £179 for an oil and filter change this left me feeling a bit disappointed, especially as working in finance this time of year it's impossible to get leave. I ended up getting genuine parts for £36 and it took an hour and a half, which included leaving it for an hour to drip out. I figured given the weather was decent I'd give it a proper wash which is hasn't had for months.

Mine was pretty much bang on. The most interesting for me was charver (chav), as Jim said bun and a backer when you take someone on the back of your bike, which appears to be very regional.

I bought 2 from the seller linked and they're fine. In fact I've bought a fair bit from AliExpress in general from phones to electronic components. You can get them from Amazon but they're £10 more. Yes you can set timers via the alexa app, I've never tried on the Yeelight app. For my son I have a series of them go off on a morning to wake him up, like one of those sunrise alarm clocks. It turns his light on half an hour before his alarm and at 5 minute intervals gets brighter and the colour changes, then his echo plays a wakeup tune.

We have these in the kids' bedrooms. They link with the Echo via the Echo app, or they have their own app. You don't need a hub - they work out of the box. They are very user friendly with all functions such as dimming or colour change done via the app or by voice via the Echo. When in default mode are very bright - claimed 800lm @6500k. The only issue is they're E27 fitment so we needed an adapter to fit them.

Where did you get your seat done? I like the look of that, a lot.

It was when I was doing my theory for my bike test. I looked at the top purchased apps and people buy some questionable apps.

I have Google rewards and end up spending my rewards on in app purchases to spend it before it expires, usually on games. The only apps I've purchased are PowerAmp pro and the official DVSA theory app.

11 years tomorrow for me which would have been just after I bought my mk1 Octavia vRS. Doesn't seem like it was that long ago!

I used paints 4 u via ebay and got the kit. The colour match is great but I'd recommend buying better and finer sandpaper than supplied, otherwise it's a great kit and only £15 or so.

I was told by Audi that they won't open a gearbox and therefore only repair Mech units as they're on the outside, therefore anything inside broken would be just a new (reconditioned) gearbox swapped over. You really need someone with specific DSG experience, i found a lot of gearbox specialists didn't have experience with them. In fact i found 2 in my area, one was the place that messed it up first time and the second had a "we'll have a stab at it" attitude. There were loads of gearbox specialists but they worked on traditional auto's or manuals. As you say getting it done right is the main thing, but done at a reasonable price.

I had a DSG fail on an S3 at 40k miles, although mine was a bearing which in turn caused other damage. It failed 1 month after buying it used and long story short the garage paid a gearbox specialist to repair it after threatening legal action but it wasn't done properly and I went down the Ombudsman route and got literally nowhere. I ended up getting it re-repaired myself and paying the bill. What I would say is £3,000 appears excessive. My initial repair paid by the garage was of the clutch pack, all bearings, new oil and filter which was £1900. It's a huge piece of work so most of that was labour. I subsequently (after the ombudsman decision) ended up paying £800 to get it stripped down, inspected, a new gasket and oil pan to the Mecatronic, then re-fitted sealed etc and new oil. From Xman's links the parts are about £720, plus new gasket's and seals and then labour. I expect they'd get trade prices so maybe cheaper, they're quoting £2,000 in labour. I paid about £600 in labour - it was 2 days of work. Unfortunately Cornwall is miles away from the specialist I used in Thornaby called Easi Gears. However if you know of someone who could remove the unit and deliver it to them it could turn out cheaper, they were very honest with pricing and with what was required. If you call them and get a price for the work you've already been quoted it may work out for you. They may be able to recommend a courier too as from what i gather they get many gearboxes from mechanics across the country. I had a DSG fail on an S3 at 40k miles, although mine was a bearing which in turn caused other damage. It failed 1 month after buying it used and long story short the garage paid a gearbox specialist to repair it after threatening legal action but it wasn't done properly and I went down the Ombudsman route and got literally nowhere. I ended up getting it re-repaired myself. What I would say is £3,000 appears excessive. My initial repair paid by the garage was of the clutch pack, all bearings, new oil and filter which was £1900. It's a huge piece of work so most of that was labour. I ended up paying £800 to get it stripped down, inspected, a new gasket and oil pan to the Mecatronic, then re-fitted sealed etc and new oil. From Xman's links the parts are about £720, plus new gasket's and seals and then labour. I expect they'd get trade prices so maybe cheaper, they're essentially quoting £2,000 in labour. I paid about £600 in labour - it was 2 days of work. Unfortunately Cornwall is miles away from the specialist I used in Thornaby called Easi Gears. However if you know of someone who could remove the unit and deliver it to them it could turn out cheaper, they were very honest with pricing and with what was required. If you call them and get a price for the work you've already been quoted it may work out for you. They may be able to recommend a courier too as from what i gather they get many gearboxes from mechanics across the country delivered on pallets. As others have said because you've owned the car for several years it would be pretty much impossible to prove the fault was there when you bought it so you're likely going to have to pay for the repair yourself.

Thanks! Yes, if nothing else it saves a load of weight - the standard system weighs £17kg. It sounds great too, which wasn't hard from the original but I'm very pleased.