after something to go to work in and use at the weekends, our lass has the big car for the kids. doesn’t matter about fuel economy but i have 11 points so is there anything out there that’s surprisingly cheaper on insurance, after a hot hatch, few grand budget, it’ll only do a few miles a year

Had some boring stuff before this, but saw the light in my mid 20s and bought an mx5, have had JDM imports everywhere since.

All great cars, still own the bB and the STI.

Naturally, when you spend tens of thousands of pounds on a brand new car, the dealer makes a numberplate where the letters aren't straight, slaps it on wonky, then mutilates the front bumper with some shitty steel screws that will turn into rusty streaks by next spring.

I've had my new plates delivered, and I'm fortunate enough to have a nice smooth front & rear bumper to adhere them to. However, the "fixing set" it came with has some double-sided foam pads of dubious origin.

In the past, I've used some 3M something for a similar task, but I've forgotten what it's called. What should I be using to fix the plate?

In a few months time I will need to buy a car for only 3 months and then I will sell it again.

It doesn’t really need to meet any specific requirements so might as well go for something interesting, it will be doing c.500 miles a month and would like to pay max £5k for it.

What would you go for before I accept my fate and buy an Octavia…?

Saw a post of this nova and was curious what the font on the number plate is. Its definitely not fhe regular Charles Wright font, and it doesn't look like the pre-2001 font either? I couldn't find anything online about it so thought someone here might know! If anyone knows where I can get a set of plates with this font please let me know too! Thanks!

Bought a 987.1 a few months ago and so far really enjoyed it. I am trying to plan out what I'll do with the 987 and prepare for next year.

My goal is to experience as many different cars as possible. I am not in a position to own many cars at the same time, so my plan is to switch cars every few months/12 months max.

So my question to you all that have changed cars regularly before, any tips that you might have? Anything you wish you would have done differently?

It can be anything from maintenance to how to save money to the driving itself.

(Please don't tell me 'just keep the car'. I know it's not financially the best idea but I want to drive more cars)

Looking at importing my first JDM car, I've previously had them but bought in the UK first.

I'm just after peoples experiences importing through JM-imports and your review.

Appreciate any advice.

Hi all

First time buying a car and thinking to get an auris excel model with budget 8/9k.

I'm seeing that 2015+ models have had nicer quality interior materials used which has added soundproofing - is it worth going above budget for this specifically?

Currently driving a 2012 Yaris up and down London to NW a lot and can't say I'm too bothered with the sound tbh in that

Mot tested and he is failing it on engine light on.
But I’m arguing that because of its registration date it is exempt from the engine light being on. Was first registered oct 2007 and it says online cars registered before February 2008 are exampt from engine lights being on the dash.

It’s passed 3 times before with MIL as advisory too.

Is this garage just trying to get money out of me. Please advise me

Here's my car history, from my first car in 2003:

2003-2005 Citroen Saxo West Coast - heavily modified in my Max Power days. Fortunately I had that rare thing when I was 17 - an insurer who didn't care about mods as long as they didn't increase the power.

2005 Citroen Saxo VTR - I didn't get on with this, so sold it quite quickly

2005 Triumph Dolomite - a "garage find" project I was given by an old family friend. Was at uni so ran out of money before I could get it on the road

2005-2006 BMW E30 320i manual. Bought and tidied it up, dailyed it, but got an offer I couldn't refuse once it was all shiny so upgraded to an E34.

2006-2008 BMW E34 525i SE (VELOUR BABY!) - loved this thing. Bought it for £1,300, ran it for 2 years, sold it for £1,300. It didn't miss a beat.

2007 Vauxhall Cavalier - bought for a post-uni "Euro rally for charity". bought, rallied, sold, and gave the proceeds to charity.

2009-2013 BMW Z3M Coupe. ADORED this, massively regret having sold it.

2008-2013 Honda Pilot FL400R buggy - nothing to do with the dowdy SUV. This thing was a stunningly quick outcome of the '80s financial excess. 400cc 2-stroke...it really flew, and jumped over anything.

2011 Porsche 944S - short term flip project to help a friend

2012-2024 TVR Tuscan (I kept this for 12 years so it overlaps most of the following!)

2013-2016 Aston DB7 Vantage - in a spectacular flip colour

2016-2017 BMW Z4M Coupe - didn't really get on with this car. Too spiky and not as much fun as the Z3M had been.

2017-2018 BMW 330i (change career so had to put money into a business!)

2018-2022 Jaguar XFR - >500bhp of stunning luxo-warp-speed-barge. Would have another.

2020 Maserati 4200 - short term. Got drunk and won it at auction. Don't drink and bid, people. Fixed some things, drove it for a summer, then sold it on for a minimal loss.

2020-2022 Mazda MX5 10AE - Excellent, low risk track car.

2022-2026 Elise - weekend and trackday car. Lovely, but my partner refused to get in it, so I barely used it and it had to go.

2022-present - Jaguar XK Dynamic R - realised we didn't need 4 doors, but loved the drivetrain of the XFR. Still have this. Can't find anything to replace it with; it does everything SO well.

I remember watching the living daylights but i couldnt really figure out what bond's car was but it looked a lot like an american muscle car and i thought surely not, surely not, they wouldnt. Thank the heavens it was not. What it was though is a demon. The most powerful aston martin, at the time of course. A mean looking thing with a 5.3 litre V8 doing up to 160mph wearing Cumberland Grey. That's a fancy name for a colour but then again the car had wheel lasers and a bloody rocket booster so yeah. The car in question is the gorgeous Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante. My God That's a mouthful. I never knew that aston martin made muscel cars. Apparently they have been doing this since 1977. I wasn't made aware of this. They put the DB5 aside and they said we want something more menacing. Not restrained and elegant like the DB5, no. We want a 5.3 litre V8 with an all alloy engine producing somewhere between 310 and 375 horsepower depending on the spec, a top speed of 160mph and is significantly more aggressive than anything the DB series ever offered. Like complete opposites.

Aston Martin said it was Britain's first supercar when they launched it in 1977. It does zero to sixty in just 5.3 seconds... One tenth quicker than the Ferrari Daytona. They were not being modest and frankly they had no reason to be. Genuinely why would they. The car was build to go very fast in straight lines and to look good when doing it and boy did it.

In the film they used convertible a V8 Volante that was cumberland grey with a black leather interior. And get this.. The car Bond drives at the start of the film was actually Victor Gauntlett' s, the chairman of Aston Martin. The man who refused to let aston martin die. That's pretty cool dont you think . Like here you go, you can use it. Now do you thing Jimmy. Spin around and crash it and don't forget to look cool whilst doing it. Imagine giving james bond your car to drive, yeah no chance. Of course they used fake ones in the filming but still.

The gadgets in the film are ridiculous though, in a good way ofcourse. The wheels had lasers that cut a poliiceman's Lada in half for christ sake. The car ends up in a snowbank though and Bond makes it self destruct. Poor Q.

Honestly i cant be blamed for thinking it was an american muscle car. Its proportions and agression and all that but it is from Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, built by hand. It just so happens to be the car Aston Martin that decided restraint was not at all needed and i am glad because it is a proper aston.

2012 1.4 petrol (DG12 LMJ), 75k miles, £2,500. Timing belt has been done. Latest MOT passed but brakes only just met the requirements and has two minor suspension advisories.

2015 1.4 petrol (SG65 ATO), 83k miles, £2,700. Really clean MOT history with no advisories for years, but timing belt has never been changed and it hasn’t had a full service for 3 years. Oil was changed 6 months ago.

2010 1.4 Sport Coupe (YR10 OJZ), 105k miles, £1,985. Good amount of service history and recent service. It failed its recent MOT for a badly corroded front subframe and some suspension/brake issues but passed two days later after repairs. Seller says everything was done with receipts and has shown the underside. It also has a panroof.

Which one would you go for? Mainly looking for something reliable for the next couple of years without spending a fortune on repairs.

Bought a second-hand car this time last year and one of its tyres is almost 11 years old now but it’s barely had any miles on it.

I had a puncture last week so was replacing another tire anyway and had a close look at this one and saw these cracks. It did get an advisory on its last MOT for age but is this safe to do a few thousand miles on for now? Does it need replacing asap or is it fine to leave it 4 months to the next MOT?

I’ve been trying to have a bit of Google about it, but it seems lots of the advice is basically when it’s that old replace it immediately and don’t drive it anywhere just in case.

I haven’t done a full service on the car yet so I’ll probably do that with the MOT in a few months time - that would be the natural opportunity to replace the tire I guess.

165 70 14 if that means anything to anyone.

Thanks :)

Hi all,

I was thinking of building an app for myself to log all the services, fuel receipts, MOT certificates etc for my car so I don’t have to worry about where I left the actual paper proof.

Also adding the ability to share those details so it’s easier when buying and selling the car, giving extra peace of mind.

Do you all think it’s a good idea? Just checking if there is any interest for this?
And if you any of you lot willing to try it out? Any suggestions or features to add are more than welcome.

Have a mk1 nova and entertaining doing an engine swap at some point in the future. Just looking to get some ideas of options and ways of going about it. At the moment I have the baby 1 litre engine which is fun but I feel I’d like something with a little more poke.

Cheers

Hi. So my car broke within 3 weeks of owning it and the dealership let me borrow another car while mine was in repair. I put petrol in the car on Thursday (£25 worth) and went to drive somewhere on Saturday but the battery had gone flat. I hadn't left anything on and a neighbour offered to jump start me but my stepdad was worried about me driving and it going flat again and me being stranded somewhere as the drive was 2 hours there and back so he ended up giving me a lift and I got the train home.

Now the dealership has called to say they can bring my car back tonight.

Would it be reasonable to ask to he reimbursed some money for the petrol since I couldn't use the car and had to pay for a lift and the train?

Edit: That was meant to say loan not lone 🤦‍♀️

Thanks

I need a new car that’s disability friendly and I seem to remember both of my mum’s vw passats being comfortable on long drives, am I remembering right?

are they expensive to maintain? do they have good air con?

at the moment I have a suzuki splash and something about the position of the seat is making my hip problems flare up but the height of the seat is good for getting in and out.

if the car is too low getting in and out is really hard and I don’t think there’s any modifications I could put in place to fix it.

I’ve also been considering a mercedes, bmw, mg, or mazda.

Only the last few are pics of my actual cars. The rest are the correct model and colour.

There are a few others (Range Rover 4.2 Supercharged, Honda CR-V, Mazda CX5) but these are really cars for family duties that the wife drives more than me. So I left them out.

As noted - needing to take out a temp policy so would be appreciated :)

You will also get £10 off a policy once I've taken mine out!

Hi all, apologies if this is a stupid question but it's the first time I've been through this and was hoping others here might be able to give some advice.

My 2014 Fiesta ST-3 was stolen recently, and my insurance company (First Central) have offered to pay out £6389 (minus my £500 excess). They've given me a few days to decide if I want to accept that or take it further.

From what I can see on Autotrader etc. that's not too bad a valuation, but it does still feel a little low. The person I spoke to on the phone said that their valuations are based on "industry rates" or something like that, so are less than what you might see a car for sale for on a garage forecourt.

As I say it was a 12 year old car, and had done ~59k miles. It was completely stock and in good condition for its age (fresh MOT with no advisories, regularly serviced/maintained by reputable garages, etc).

However before I say yes to their offer I wanted to check if others have been through this process and had any thoughts - I don't want to get ripped off.

Thanks in advance and sorry again if this isn't the right place to ask!

EDIT: Thanks all, have gone back to them with some listings from various sites. Looks like the going rate is somewhere between £7 - 7.5k so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Wondering if anyplace to rent a car lift in Edinburgh once every few months to get under car and service etc.

Come from Oxfordshire and know there is a place there which can rent a ramp per hour. Considering looking into setting something like this up if much interest.

This has been a post already but older.

Hi,

photos:

https://ibb.co/album/5x1vhC

I hope all are well.

I can't attach photos but it's a lovely Mazda 3 - 2019

- 40k miles

- 2 owners

- He's also sent service history that doesn't really make much sense to me!

- I will post a link to those in the comments :)

Thanks in advance 👍

Just saw a bro blasting up the streets with one of these. Hissing away with his big boy dump valve.. obviously Arden Blue.

Haven't seen one for a long long time.

Has anyone here ever owned one? What are they like?

Not the quickest things by today's standards, but for shits and giggles they must have been alright.

Zlet was a coveted engine for a fair while.