Aspman

So had a slow puncture on the Q took it in and the tech warned me that the inner shoulder l of both tyres was very worn. Not dangerous but not far off it. Had a stern discussion with the supplying dealer which started with, “our prep records show 4.5mm across the tyre”. i sent a picture the conversation continued, “ah, very sorry about that I’ll see what can be done”. In fairness they are picking the car up next week and putting on two new Pirellis.

It’s got an electric handbrake 🙄 i will have a good look at the tire though. Typically it’s gone again now.

Discs are brand new now. Had them and pads done at the same time. Knocking before brakes done, knocking after brakes done

Not specifically but been going on for a bit too long for that, plus wheel has been off for brakes in the last week. Thought something might have been in the disk guard but again all that has been exposed and worked on recently. That why I was thinking something relating to the drive shaft

With alarms what you are actually doing is 1 - putting off casual attackers, they will look for alarms and if they see a box on yours then they will probably move on to another property 2 - if they decide yours is worth the risk an alarm going off points a finger at them and might make them give up or at least islikely to make them cut short their time in your house cameras are three fold 1 - same as above and obvious camera system is a deterrant 2 - if you do get burgled a camera system makes recovery or prosecution more likely 3 - depeding on your system you can check who is at your door or if you have shut the shed remotely Wired vs wireless. Wireless is easier to put in, wired is more reliable but harder to install. App systems again are easier to use but you run the risk of a system being discontinued by the supplier or app support ending. Cyber security considerations, if you want to view camera feeds remotely the feed needs to be pushed to the internet, that will mean that a 3rd party is either hosting that data or the box has a direct connection to the world. You run the risk of your feed being visible to the world and cctv systems do not have a good security reputation on that side. My home came with an alarm system, we normally only use this during holidays as the house is occupied the rest of the time. As it was a new build I had cables run for external cctv, we have 5 HD cameras. I'm not too worried about cyber security since I only have external cameras, if someon wants to hack in and see my drive well tbh help yourself. I would be less happy if there were internal cameras. Our cameras are POE so only need one cable for data and power. We have a combination of active lighting and low light cameras. They have teh facility for movement detection and have built alarms and warning lights but tbh I've never sat down to figure them out. Those facilities were more trouble than they were worth.

It is a tap tap tap and in line with speed so something related to the spinning parts on that wheel. A dig around online did bring up suspension bushes as a possible candidate

SAw this the other day, no idea what it was until today. thought it was a kitted out mini of some sort but it was a Healy Enigma

It's a 4 stroke so should all be fine. Some 102 + nitros might be the way forward. Maybe a wee blower to keep things rolling along

My Mrs JCW countryman has been making some unsettling knocking noises. Coming from nearside rear. We thought it was brakes as disks were looking pretty knarly like a bit of the pad had broken off so we've had them done (JCW part prices 😭). She's just phoned to say it's back although not as loud. It an odd one, of the car is sitting for a few days when she drives off it's like there is something in the wheel as it knocks in line with the speed of the car. Tap the brakes and it seems to go. Driver regularly it doesn't appear. No bearing like noises (it's low miles, no guarantee I know), and nothing looks untoward underneath. Just speculating but a dry cv joint or something like that?

Sounds good to me. What could possibly go wrong?

i'm not sure my lawn mower likes E10. It was chuntering a bit after a fresh tank. Need to try the bugger on Super.

It's only illegal if you get caught

Getting parts from Scuderia isn't quite so bad allegedly. But I was guessing not much worse than parts for an M5 anyway. I've been nearly £900 for brakes on the Mrs JCW countryman this year. Interesting things are expensive.

Maybe the majority who want an EV have one? And there is a lot of publicity fearmongering about battery lifetime. It doesn't really matter if that is nonsense or not if a majority belive that the battery in a used EV is about to fade like some cheap AAs. If the used prices drop because of the papers FUD headlines it'll drive up lease prices as well. A lot of public charging has gone from free to at cost as well. My neighbour has an EV and he relied on using the council funded chargers for the last few years.

As above if it doesn't have an SSD then putting one in can make quite a remarkable difference especially on a laptop. Laptops often came with 5400RPM drives which were a real bottleneck in the system. The SSD is hugely faster. You could see a laptop that took maybe a minute to boot with the spinning disk coming down to sub 10sec (have seen them boot less than 5sec) with an SSD. If the laptop will run W8 it will also run W10 although W10 is on its way out as well. Would still suggest a lightweight linux setup if you've time to do the learning.

FQ. The GTS V8 of that era can crack 190 and the newest Trofeo V8 model will top 202. Derv is more common because it was a cheapest version. But they are all fairly uncommon. I've never seen another on the road.

Needing a larger family car that would cope with long journeys I started digging around for something. I was mainly after something interesting. So after spotting a Maserati Quattroporte online I popped up to drive it and after a short and fruitful haggle I bought a Maserati Quattroporte V6d. It's fairly rapid (275hp), huge inside, and possibly the quietest car I've ever driven. The ICE is dated (probably dated when it was new) but does bluetooth and DAB and that's 95% of my needs. Some of the switchgear is a bit meh (Chrysler stock) other parts of the car are pure quality. Dash is walnut and leather. Dealer put on a full set of front disks and pads (OEM), two new front springs (caused a 6 week delay), oil and filter change, and a very good valet. Bought from the dealer owner who owns a GTS version and is clearly a Maserati fan himself, I'm guessing the previous owner was also very careful as it it mint. Already terrified of kerbing the alloys and it's a total PITA to park as it is over 5.2m long. But, just look at it....snaps knicker elastic at 100 yards.

Volvo is doing 0% finance again which is usually when they are having problems selling. So is Skoda. Something not adding up.

Someone clipped the bridge at St Madoes nr Perth today as well. St Madoes folk must be weeping they just got the overpass back after it was closed for 9 months after the last time. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23418475.a90-delays-machinery-falls-off-lorry-onto-carriageway/ Story says it fell off so they might have dodged it

there are many people out there that are no where near sane in their thinking and will send in 10 videos a day of their real or imagined infractions. some of these apps require a paid subscription before they will submit anything. And as others have said unless they are recorded to a court submissable quality is useless plus plod won’t bother looking at 99% of them.

'd agree with George there. Too much money tied up in metal and the trade won't just sell at any price. Stock will get hidden away to drive up prices, works for De Beers anyway. I'm sure prices will soften but 5-15% at most and only on undesirable stock, other stuff will get pushed even higher with inflation.

I bought a CTEK One to maintain the battery on a summer car. Cost a bleedin fortune but it does what it says on the tin. Just hook it up, anyway round you like, it sorts itself out.

I didn't know supercapcitors were working tech already. They always stood out as the thing that could be gamechanginf with ev charing rates. It's just how to deliver all that power without melting the cables.

The huge torque from an electric motor could really work with trucks and the saddlebag batteries could be made a great idea. I would hazard a guess that something similar could be done with buses. Truck stops could be built in areas that suit renewable energy the whole thing could almost go off grid. In Aus they could have battery stations next to big solar farms.

It might be worth raising a complaint with the insurance company. Appreciating the futility of this you will probably need to go through several rounds of the complaints process before they actually make an effort. As mentioned they should have had the car assessed properly before making such a statement. I would also phone the ombudsman they will probably be very helpful even if they cannot get involved yet. I would also consider writing to the local press, again I appreciate you only hav so much energy but unfortunately adverse press is the thing most likely to get things moving.