Lady Elanore

A colleague just bought a 335D estate the week before the Lock-down started! Loves the car, hates the debt. Probably won't bother taking the M4 out today It's definitely more of a Hyundai sort of day here in the 'Wet and Windy' North West. It has a nice graphic that shows power apportioning in regular driving. It seems to put varying amounts of power to the rear wheels in the first 3 gears when pulling away, regardless of how quickly you accelerate.

I thought when people referred to classic cars as money pits they meant something else. I'd keep digging, "there's gold in them thar hills"

To be fair to your Aspmobile, the 335D is an epic car and only recently have any of its competitors produced something similar. When I got my C350CDI i really wanted a 335D but they were too expensive, I then looked at the 330D but it too was significantly more expensive than the deal i could get on the C350. In the end I loved the MB. It was an AMG lite sort of thing. Handled very nicely and was quite lively at the rear if you wanted to be silly (obviously I don't mean the full Chris Harris, but rather the things I think he calls 'Squiggles' out of corners)

My BMW banger plays cd/dvds Well there is a slot for them, either that or its new Postal feature I hadn't realised existed?

I took a customer for a test drive in a 206 CC (convertible) with a trade plate in the back window. When I cleverly dropped the roof as we drove slowly through some road works, the plate fell through a gap and disappeared onto the road without trace. Salesmanager called me a 'clot', or something similar.

I had a guy who was seriously ill with a shocking cold, eyes watering, nose running, sneezing and coughing, looked like death warmed up. He insisted on accompanying me on a test drive, but it put me off so much I dealt with a different dealership and when asked why I had come to the second dealership (their computer flagged I'd been elsewhere in the group first) I told them about this salesman. I was then told it was a shame as he was one of the nicest blokes you could even meet. Goes to show how important the first impression is

So on a changing cars theme. Do you guys (non gender-specific 'guys' of course) have a preference for whom you deal with when buying cars? Old, Young, Male, Female, bit of a geezer, slightly posh, weeping silently into their cold coffee and failed sales figures etc??

Do they come in Wooklet size? btw, got to be the award for word of the day... "mavin" I've not heard it used very often. Top erudite effort

I couldn't fit a whole Wookie into my M4, but I could in a Z4, I'd just have to drive around with the roof down all the time. Although I imagine that if it rained a Wookie would smell like a weapons grade wet dog and would take days to dry out.

Posting multiple quotes to distract from a simple fact is rather pointless. Regardless of mileage, men are more accident 'prone' (to put it nicely). Nobody in their right mind would want to pay more money for a thing than they have to if it was based on something as clear as the figures that the insurance companies use. Yes there are mitigating factors that men do more mileage, but that does not alter the simple fact, they also provide more of the accidents. Feminism is not about being anti-male, it's about equality, nothing to do with the grass is greener. Trying to get equality in something as simple as 'pay' is still something of a struggle and no, I don't expect many women would be able to compete with men where size and strength is important for a job, that's just the way the genetic cookie crumbles. Interestingly and back OT, when I go to change a car, it is fairly apparent that the opening salvo of the salesman is usually one of very slight sexism. By that I mean, the salesman may talk to me in a slightly patronising manner as if I don't understand the technical side of the car I am interested in and probably will need help to grasp the complexities of the financial packages available (I do know the difference between this patronising and simple trying to explain things about the car in question). A good salesperson should listen to the needs and requirements of the customer first and be able to ascertain many things along the way, eg seriousness of the buyer, how well do they know their product and are they aware of competitors pricing etc. If I go with a man to buy a car, the salesman usually talks to the man by my side first and it's not until I engage him directly with the fact the car is for me and it is entirely my choice, do I get his full undivided attention. Weirdly, this happens much less if I am buying more of a petrol heads type of car, ie my M4 or my previous M135 than when I bought my Golf or Octy. Perhaps it is to do with the price of the vehicle, but it is something I've found to be rather consistent over the years. I bought a C350 about 8 years ago and the salesman took me very seriously from the moment he greeted me, it felt great. Buying a reasonably expensive car as a single female, is not something that you see too often in the car trade and having sold cars, I really can't remember many single women coming into buy more costly and specialist cars, at least on their own. If she is uncertain in any way it is a good idea to bring help obviously and that does usually mean it's a man that will come with her which is understandable. I am fairly confident after a few hours haggling with me, the salesman in question would have no doubt that I should be taken as a serious car buyer who probably knows more than a little about the product I'm interested in, to say nothing of the working of the i.c.e. It just would be nice if we started off on the same footing that my many 'petrol head' male friends take for granted On a plus side for salesmen. I find I can get a better deal with them than with saleswoman on average, that's something I haven't quite figure out yet and may be in part because the salesman realises I should have been taken more seriously to start with and over compensates? I don't know if men find they get better deals with saleswoman?? Everybody got a good deal with me (not a euphemism) as I was 'lovely' to buy a car from....honest

Funnily enough I was advised by the insurance company to add a named driver to lower my premium. Seemed daft as I wasn't going to let them drive the car, I asked if it mattered whether the person was a (less likely to crash ) female or a (more likely to crash ) male, a younger person or an older one and was told it didn't matter. They don't even have to live with you! so you can put who you want on the policy (obviously not someone with a shocking driving record), although a Wookie would not be acceptable I reckon.

??? I assume there are a lot of sites I can visit to read this info.

Get you! "taken at a ball" with your fancy antipodean ways

So exactly as I said. Men cause more accidents! Thank you for showing my post was correct. The mileage is not relevant as it is the accident rate I quoted. Also, as is quoted in several studies, women suffer greater injuries when involved in accidents-which as you have shown is mostly caused by men. Several bodies suggest that owing to the different nature of female physical form, that crash safety design does not help them to the same degree as it does men. And now I have to pay for all these men having accidents. . Btw I too looked at the overseas figures, but didn't quote them as they are not particularly relevant to my insurance payments. The USA figures and facts do come up first in a search on the subject however (thank you Google ), so any one looking to see UK figures will have to scroll down the page a little to find them

I see your avatar has gone pink. Any relevance or just liked the photo?

I remember recently having to pay more for my car insurance to subsidise the fact that men crash and damage cars more than women . I won't post the countless links to threads on the subject, most backed up by official data. Just saying

????

I'm sorry I missed this post, I seem to have lost a few links to threads I follow I realise it's a done deal now too, but.. So far I genuinely love it and I am now (almost) regretting setting the mileage on the PCP lower, than I now find, I would like. The 4x4 version has independent suspension which I think makes it more comfortable, if a little stiffer, than the lesser suspended models. The gearbox is really smooth and quick enough for something that isn't a sports car, occasionally fluffing which gear to go for in really slow stop-start traffic, but no worse than a typical German DSG/DCT in that respect. More toys than you can throw a stick at and so far rattle free. The one downside is still the consumption, it has improved slightly as the car has done nearly 6,000miles now (would have been higher mileage, but I've been unemployed and locked down like most people) and the engine has definitely improved, not something that I have noticed so much in many new cars, at least to the degree of the Hyundai's improvement. It's not a sweet engine by any means, but pulls really well low down and picks up pretty smartly, meaning you can hustle the little box along at a decent rate 177 Neddy Powers helps a little in this respect and it's interesting to watch the appropriate graphic show shunting of torque to the back wheels in various conditions and speeds. It always sends shove the back wheels in the first 3 gears when accelerating for instance. It also has incredibly light steering, not something I am used to, but like most things in life, you get used to the change pretty quickly and it doesn't become an issue, at least until you get into an M4 and wonder why you can't turn the wheel any more.

The front is hideous isn't it

I've always had a soft spot for the Lada Niva, having spent many happy hours in one, but this version is appalling to look at and I had to read the article twice to make sense of it all https://www.carscoops.com/2020/07/chevrolet-niva-regains-lada-badges-as-avtovaz-completes-gm-joint-venture-buyout/

Erm...? I think......er.......well.....hmmmm?..........it depends?........er........although.........but!..................er......OK

I don't know? It got too hard for me as a close up of a rivet was a bit too tricky for me and some people were just google searching the images if they were pulled off the web anyway

Tada! We have a winner

This is me and the valeter driving the yello thing around Manchester. Really big clue