earos74

couple of points on this: If the requote had been fairly near the quote from axa i would have just renewed with flux BUT the operator couldn't deviate from the script she had, either that or she just was justing being bloody thick and awkward. I had an email containg a questionair regarding the telephone converstaion i had - so whats the point of contacting "dan" or is the email i received "spam email" and does it go into the trash can upon return? Doesn't really matter as i got my insurance so im covered for business use now.

I've gone elsewhere as the way I look at it is - if you can't even quote me for a car insurance renewal then how could I trust you to sort out a claim effectively?

Renewal quote came in at £35 or so less. I also received an email from confused at £100 less? So i spoke to the renewal section and in the end i put the phone down as i couldnt be arsed with the "price increase cr*p being spouted". I quoted that id been offered a price of £671 through confused and was being quoted by flux £715 but all i got was well " was you being offered legal" - sorry but i dont pay for extras "but i cant compare like for like" - fine i'll go elswhere if you cant help or you cant do a quote for car insurance! bloody hell i thought indian call centres were bad!

I never got to do this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP9Ujp5EEkY A nice video anyway.

you could try britania tyres in coventry - you live in brum? They matched camskill for price (18inch) and ordered them for me and cost me £86ish supply and fit 6 months ago.

try central skoda in birmingham - last time i was in they had vrs alloys for sale at £150-£200 ish (each) cant remember the correct price but they were i think having a clear out at a discount price. again dont know if they were 17 or 18 inch rims though.

depends where you live - i done the same and bent the rim of an alloy. A lot of so called places said no it cant be done and tried to flog me a new set. went to a place in birmingham who said no problem and repaired it (recommended by quinton wilson). I've also just scuffed the front alloy on the vrs and to be honest it wont get touched untill its time to sell the car as i know i'll do it again so theres no point. should i repair it myself - not if you want it looking good or depending on the damage you caused. mine cost i think £40ish but they recommend that you have all four done to match the paint as trying to match oem alloy finish is quite hard. Normally cost's extra as well for removing the tyre and fitting it back on. do a search as others have asked this question before.

oh come on no one else spotted the "2 tone" on the rear quater?

Need some help on what bike to get now i've moved back to my own house and away from the misses! choices are: yamaha dtr or aprilia mx125 Only passed my cbt (not recently) so its just something to pi## about on occasionaly. I like the look of both but fancy the aprilia more but reliabilty worries me on it. According to reports it has the same engine as the rs which is prone to breaking on 10k and might not be suitable for a novice rider. Yamaha is bullet proof and looks ok but dont know if its to commom or something. The idea is use the bike untill i fancy doing the full test in the near future. I know i will be only allowed to ride a 125cc if i take it on this size bike but that doesnt bother me. Oh and im 5ft 10inc if thats to short for the aprilia (looks quite big) Cheers Paul

yep i should get back from the tax man about £2k for the business mileage i've done which will cover the £800 insurance,the 2 services & 2 tyres i've had so far. My company should pay me 11p as per the rates but still only pay me 10p so thats another big reason why i drive like gramps. I can then offset this money for the cam belt change when its due or put it towards paying off the car earlier so i'm never out of pocket for running my own car on company business. The car has got the latest software according to the previous dealer but i suspect its got a faulty exhaust sensor from the help and advice i received of this thread. I'll update the tread when it goes in for a service - which isn't that long away.

M42 around birmingham does have the flash gatso on the gantries - saw them flash lorries and the occasional car. Didn't know if they were active or just for show but a overheard a customer say they got caught twice on the same strech of road.

dont want to push my luck - they didnt contest it either so its worth the hassle if its not your fault.

ok - update - i received a letter from their insurance company saying the council will admit liability and i received a cheque for £135 so the moral of the story is if you hit a pot hole and can prove the council were at fault and can be bothered to follow it up DO IT. I'm sure most people cant afford to just toss £135 for a new tyre away.

please help me then as i looked at the accord and the forums say the figures quoted are miles out, audi and vw same stable but more expensive, crappy ford - no thanks, vauxhall - dont like the insignia. options are limited here in my view so some suggestions. Previously i posted the figures quoted were better than my company focus 1.6 diesel and for the first 25k they were unreal getting 550 minimum on a tank and upto 630 miles. Just because its a performance car doesnt mean it should only be driven fast & hard, if the car is more economical than my previous car why shouldn't i have brought it? The figures added up, ticked the right boxes for work use. Didnt want a bog standard octavia or an L&k so plumped for the vrs diesel. I spend 75% of the working day in my car and wanted something better than a basic car - my company pays for the car so why not? Why the suprised bit on a vrs - its a diesel. People buy diesel because there good on fuel, fleet managers buy diesel to save money on fuel. Skoda/vw would probably have produced the vrs in diesel form to appeal to the business fleet market for economy and BIK. anyone with some suggestions on what i should have brought for a car then istead of the vrs thats fits my criteria. I paid £12600 2008 registered with 4k on the clock and 2 years warranty.

Taken from the highways code 261 You MUST NOT exceed 70 mph (112 km/h), or the maximum speed limit permitted for your vehicle (see Rule 124). If a lower speed limit is in force, either permanently or temporarily, at road works for example, you MUST NOT exceed the lower limit. On some motorways, mandatory motorway signals (which display the speed within a red ring) are used to vary the maximum speed limit to improve traffic flow. You MUST NOT exceed this speed limit. Tell me where it says i have to do 70mph? I'm happy, relaxed and know i can react quicker at 60mph than a higher speed. Ok, after driving crap ford focus estates and Peugeot estates thrust upon you for 10 years + with no choice as a company car I opted out. I was involved in an accident and was given an Octavia as a hire car and was impressed by the boot space (bigger than the focus estate). I looked into the cost, running cost and fuel figures. The fuel figures for the vrs are better than the focus, bigger boot and I get a lot more for my money. The reason why I drive at such low speeds is because a few years ago I racked up 9 points in 12 months and was close to losing my license – no license no job! I also find that if I don’t rush to get some where or drive like a complete arse (like I see a lot of drivers) I don’t get stressed when I get to an appointment. If I do 60 on a motorway instead of 70+ it puts a few extra minutes on my journey and at high speeds it usually involves an allocation with a nob head anyway trying to force his way past everyone. I get 10p a mile from my company for every mile I do. If I do 400 miles I get £40 back from my company but if it cost me £60 to fill up I owe my company £20. With rising diesel cost I’m more wary than ever than wasting fuel by driving enthusiastically shall we say. I have a belltronics 550 radar detector and sat nav camera updates – so if I want yeah I can spank it in my VRS and yes I have when I’m not at work and i'm paying for my private mileage.

thanks for the reply but the dealer was a bit of a wan*er when i went in the other week to say about the fault. 've had other faults like coolent light coming on, low oil light to name a few. They had the car in twice for poor fuel economey, juddering constant regen and coudn't find anything wrong with it - no faults etc. Went in last week and one thing the service reception man said that really pi**sed me off was "where did you buy the car from" hinting that i should take it back to them in london (i live in coventry) - without going off on one when i have waranty left on the car and i want it fixed - they were more than happy to take 2 basic services off me and other labour charges in the last year. totalling over £500 - nob ends. sorry but i'm really peed off with the car and dealership in birmingham. I'v got a service coming up pretty quickly so the new dealer can take a look and hopefully sort the problem out.

.Ok, need some advice before I deliberately smash the car into a tree to destroy it as I loathe and hate the car which is a shame as I loved it for the first 10 months. I drive conservatively (to save fuel) i.e. I drive at 55-60mph in 6th gear on the motorway etc - soft driving if you like. I do a lot of motorway and A road mileage so short journeys are minimal. Lately I’ve had the exhaust emissions light coming on and off but not limp home mode - normal power. Dpf came on for the first time in over 34k of driving so I cleared it with 5th at 2-2500 revs as per manual. To clear the exhaust light I have to keep doing 15 minute runs at regen level which is screwing my fuel figures up. I'm contemplating doing the de-dpf pipe from custom code like wega done but my concern is the the warranty but I’m at the stage where I couldn’t give a rats ass anymore with this car. Is this car suitable for how I drive because at the moment I’m being forced to do 60+ to clear the exhaust codes when I’m happy to cruise along at a relaxed pace. Help me before I go nuts with this car

i had the 150bhp redtop in my calibra and loved it until it sadly broke the timing belt. Would have loved the calibra 4x4 turbo but i'd have probably killed myself or been banned for life.

dont forget bbc alba cost 14 million to set up and an audiance share of 250000 :wonder:

sport is always a good indication - football/tennis on hd is briliant compared to sd (looks fuzzy) also make sure your tv is set up properly as most tvs come set up to bright etc and this can have a big effect on picture quality - Digital Video Essentials - HD DVD/ DVD LCD TV setup is good - heavy going but the basics are good - you do need a blu ray player to set it up.

I'm afraid thats how you work the system - i lost my job in the early 90's and went into agency work straight away. Some weeks i done half a day others it was a full week - as long as i done half a day out of 2 weeks they didnt bother me. i could have done that for months possibly years. - its activly looking for work they said Me personnaly i'll do any job i can untill i get the job i want its just how i am - its soul destroying to go down the job centre.

A strictly mathematical viewpoint... it goes like this: What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life? Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions: If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26. Then H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98% and K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96% But, A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100% And, B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T 2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103% AND, look how far ass kissing will take you. A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G 1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118% So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bull**** and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.

I'm in the middle of a claim against a council for a new tyre - its going through their insurance. According to them they are investigating it (that was in December, I'll be patient for a couple more weeks then send another letter) I have a good case as they missed out the inspections and failed to adhere to the code of practise for highways. http://www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/pdfs/p03_well_maintained_highways.pdf yes it boring to read but if your cars been F*ked by a pot hole and you want your money back its worth it. Page 83 and 94 is the items you need and what the council class the road as - this in turn determines how often the road should be inspected.

i brought my current laptop (HP) from pc world business clearence for a bargin price of £300 instead of £550 because of an open box - never even been powered up! brought my current desktop (IBM lenovo) from there at a discount of over £200 for the reason of a taty box when i enquired as to see if i could order off the business side they said yes - so i paid with a card on the net and had them delivered. 2 things to watch out for are occasionaly the item is listed but due to low stock it might not be available when you buy but they do email to confirm availibilty and also product support for the item starts on the original purchase date e.g. if the pc has been returned and you buy it you might get 1 months remaining warranty from the manufacturer but as far as im aware the normal 1 year from pc world - but dont quote me on that. some items they list are not worth bothering as the discount is nothing to buying new but some items have big discounts. I was a bit wary when i got the laptop as it said returned (expecting marks/damage) but it was immaculate and untouched. other places to try are http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/ and http://www.ballicom.co.uk/ both in coventry - i play one against the other for prices and they normally match even when there cheap. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ok didn't propely read the thread above me but any one looking for an occasional bargin look above

1st variable cost £170 second variable £180 and my next variable service will cost £170 plus a new set of front pads. Oil top ups are free from my dealer as they look after the car. I did ask why they didn't change the brake fluid on the second service but it wasn't required yet. As to regards never changing the brake fluid - that's taking some risk especially as you're a high mileage driver. found on a skoda dealers website "Skoda recommend that a Brake Fluid Change is carried out every 2 years alongside the manufacturer's scheduled service. It is important to ensure this procedure is carried out when required as the fluid that is used in the braking system is prone to drawing in moisture. Once moisture is in the system, it can reduce the braking efficiency of your Skoda. A complete brake fluid change can be carried out on a 'while you wait' basis, taking approximately 30 minutes and costing you only £50.00 every two years " hardly breaks the bank even for the dealer to do it.