Aspman

I scanned it and got - Barcode DATA_MATRIX 03591746 Not sure that'll help you much

Lol that's the walkie Talkie isn't it? The building that melts cars and starts fires. So yes just like some mobile phones. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23930675

The data was 'free at the point of delivery' I guess. The car was doing other things over the air as well I wasn't paying for.

My BMW used to update over the air. The car had an eSIM and talked home to Baviara. As long as the map subscription was in date it would updated itself and BMW paid for the data.

I've worked in IT professionally for nearly 25yr and I still find dealing with car ICE tech a total ballache. Million pound high assurance critial systems...nae bother. Updating the maps on the car...nearly impossible* (*RaRo map update needs a 33Gb download, 2x accounts created to access the download, the download needs to use a windows client and a 64Gb min USB stick, The USB stick needs to be formatted in FAT32, a non standard and non-supported filesystem in Win10).

Ah, I know the phenomenon but never knew why until now.

Making a car work as a car is hard and expensive. Adding electronic features via a touch screen is cheap and easy since after all it's just software and you can outsource that to India. Even better just put ina cheap screen, make it compatible with Google and Apple and then your customers bring the features for you via their phones.

Unfortunately plenty of people want a car that is full of 'features' and don't really care that it's not very good as a car.

No friends or family that would let you use a Windows machin to do your update? Seems like a big expense to do this job. Looks like it is possible to put Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi 4 https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/how-to/install-windows-10-raspberry-pi Might be cheaper than £150 and you could use the Pi for something else, just keep the Windows install on an SD card.

We're about to move to an induction hob for the first time. Some trepedation after having used gas for a long time. Old ceramic hobs and the older electric ring hobs were pretty awful in comparison.

Jimnys hold their money pretty well, probably a bit too well. If you're not too fussy maybe something like a Dihatsu Terios would do the job cheaply? They do have permanent 4x4 with a centre diff lock.

Yeah electric hobs need a 20A cable as I recall, ovens pretty much just plug in a 3pin 12A circuit like anything else.

Ratings on appliances bear the same relationship to the truth as MPG on cars. Why do think the eco setting on your washing machine takes 5hr? Reckon that actually takes less electricity than a 1hr warmer cycle or do you just think it games the efficiency rating?* *Disclaimer - I am an appallingly cynical person but also normally right Just be glad you don't have an Aga

I suspect if it's cheap it's a Chinese brand so will be a bit of a hit or a miss. Probably not up to doing proper work and more likely a 'toy' quad. This seems like a fair balanced article on Chinese ATVs in general - https://www.thejunkmanadv.com/is-a-chinese-off-brand-atv-for-you.html

I did it with my eyes open (despite my weeping), our Countryman was a fairly rare (at that time) JCW with about £10k of extras thrown at it.

SO had to have the loaded Mini with the extras that took the list price to 41k

I'd so much rather have the Alfa. But I'd also need a tow truck to follow me since they seem to be built in the traditional Italian style

anything over 40k new gets an additional payment for the first 3yr. So £140 becomes £550 And there are an awful lot of not very interesting cars these days that have a list price of over £40k, and it does include optional extas

RR is in getting a couple of things looked at and I passed the BMW garage on the way in. They have 2 new M4s out front. Dark blue and Black. Sorry it ain't any prettier in the metal. Looks fine, a little bland even, from the side but that front grill is a horror show.

The other problem with touchscreens is that I absolutely hate fingerprints on any screen I have to look at. Screens are for looking not touching. 'Friends' used to think it amusing to sneak up and touch my monitors etc knowing how riled I got. My collection of severed fingers grew rapidly to start with Being forced to make marks on screens is practically apostasy and these manufacturers should be treated as the heretics they are.

I'm sure they will claim that voice control is replacing many options and touch screens are only for backup. However, I've yet to drive any car with an effective voice control system. And it's not just that I sound like an East coast farmer. SO has a proper posh English accent and neither the RR or her Newish mini are even remotely useful using voice.

Touch screens are a disaster and imho have no place in a car. In a car you should be able to reach and adjust all common controls without taking your eyes off the road. My car has two touch screens and the time taken to change your focus, then find the tiny little control on one of two panels, then get your finger to hover over it as you bounce along, then wait for whatever indication it makes that your change was sucessful just isn't safe. In my old VRS almost everything had a button or a switch. I think that era of VAG car (2007) is really very hard to beat for a set of controls that makes sense and can be done without moving your eyes

I got out of Edinburgh during the Met Office Black Warning "snow bomb". The X-drive is actually pretty good at most things. Except farm tracks with massive ruts which is why I've now got a RR.

I had a BMW 335d, that IMHO is one of the great engines in the world. 313hp and an achievable real world 42mpg (plus no adblue). If you want a mix of power and economy I couldn't recommend it more highly. Mine was pretty much faultless for 3yr (other than diamond cut wheels rotting) I don't know your budget but the 335d isn't crazy oney used. However, yep lots of short journey will kill any DPF equipped diesel.

The old Audi Quattro stright 5 sounded pretty good Me old ZXR400 4 cylinders, 396cc and 14k of revs. He hits the limiter at about 40sec