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Post by Big Blue on Dec 1, 2023 19:31:24 GMT
Feels like you are starting the mental journey to justifying the purchase of one... Not quite but I like 5er estates so I have to consider it a high likelihood at some point. I’m still perfectly happy with Eva but mindful that it’s hassle free being not that old. I also don’t like the back end of this new 5er saloon at all so await spring 2024’s reveal with some trepidation. The two big exterior swings for buying the LCI G31 were the hockey stick front lights and the design treatment of the rear light over the launch G31. The G60 isn’t looking like the G61 will have the same effect.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 1, 2023 12:36:23 GMT
Price is an interesting thing. Auto Express did the maths and inflation adjusted the base E34 520 was more expensive than a base i5. In other aspects price is also interesting. Inflation adjustment of my first house puts it at around 33% of the price paid for our current house at the date of purchase. Not sure the current one feels three times better or more special.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 1, 2023 10:53:39 GMT
Complete opposite of Auto Express Test, who loved the interior, the quality of materials, the systems architecture. They admitted it’s more comfortable than sporty and size-wise why you’d ever have a 7er.
Looks are a subjective matter and two tests opposite one another probably indicate that personal opinion is generally a big deciding factor.
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Up!date
Nov 27, 2023 8:03:19 GMT
via mobile
bryan likes this
Post by Big Blue on Nov 27, 2023 8:03:19 GMT
Super car. These were on the short list when the Mini was being looked for.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 21, 2023 11:08:27 GMT
The ergonomics of minor controls seems to have been thrown in the bin in favour of “all in one place”. Perhaps this is what the younger generations want, in which case I fear for their sex lives because the orifices available are hopefully never in the same place!
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 20, 2023 10:58:48 GMT
As I pointed out in another thread, the proliferation of flat screens in cars has led to a cheapening of the experience. There’s also the fact we’re all old.
Modern interiors are, one assumes, designed and developed by young designers with their finger up their arse on the pulse of society so as far as they are concerned everyone now and in the future wants everything they interface with to look and feel like an iPad / Chromebook / cheap-Chinese-shite. They also assume most customers will want to talk to their cars to make them do things, so saying “hey BMW, massage my lower back” as opposed to pressing the massage icon on the touchscreen, or (heaven forfend) pressing the seat massage function button is preferred.
Car architecture is like real architecture - we travel the world to see buildings built by skilled craftsmen using natural materials designed by artists with design features that make us want to visit them and photograph them. Then a new building is placed in a prominent position and it’s a bit of engineered steel clad in glass. To sit next to the other buildings in engineered steel covered in glass. Because the new client thinks that’s great. His accountant thinks he can afford it. His Architect thinks it looks fabulously modern and expresses the capabilities of the modern world. The services engineer thinks it’s really efficient and the planner says it’s fits in with the dullness of everything else.
We walk past the ground floors of such buildings without looking up on our way to visit a dilapidated stone ruin to take photographs to print and show on our walls.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 16, 2023 20:45:51 GMT
We live in the London Borough of Sutton, on the border of the Royal London Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the Borough of Epsom & Ewell. Rows of 1920s an 1930s Wates built houses. Recently this image has appeared for the local survey. Now to get that view of what is Carshalton you need to be standing in the middle of the duck pond. You can’t see that building (All Saints church) if you drive past for two reasons: there’s a wall alongside the road and the road alongside the pond is so narrow that you and your passengers are bracing for what appears to be a head-on collision. The approach from the right of that stretch (just before the convent school, StPhilomena’s) is a stretch of grim housing with those rows of roads off to each side. That situation continues after you’ve gone through the right-left jink on the left. The area behind the photographer, beyond the road over the pond, is the Wrythe, a particularly unpicturesque part of Carshalton. However don’t let that put you off: Sutton can be beautiful as this picture shows. That they didn’t use a photograph of Sutton itself tells you all you need to know. ps. I like where I live for the green spaces, deciduous trees, easy access to just about any transport hub but sometimes I wish there were more views like this available.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 15, 2023 9:50:47 GMT
Lovely thing. Is yours a living one or a garage queen? I bet it doesn't look silly with a tall person on it....... It’s a project. Alas time means it will be a project for sale. When it is running you’re right: I look like I’m on a mini-moto. I could get away with it when I was 75kg and bendy but I’m neither any longer. At least I can say I’ve had every iteration of NSR250. MC16, 18, 21 and 28 - all JDM-only bikes.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 14, 2023 20:09:34 GMT
www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/202311133916948Won’t mean much to many of you but a 250 2-stroke with 76,000kms will have almost no original engine parts, including the con-rods and barrels! even if it is a Honda. I can see from the screen fittings that the screen is new and I’d assume the fairing uppers are also aftermarket - they break at the mirror point and OE ones make rocking horse shit look commonplace. Despite the obvious insanity of the high asking price I’m glad it’s so mad. I have one as well.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 13, 2023 16:30:50 GMT
Really, it made me despair about SUV's generally, and wonder again why so many are sold! This is the issue for car lovers - cars aren’t really built for us they’re built for the market. The vast majority of customers couldn’t give a shit about handling, feel or even ride if the seats are comfy enough. Is it safe, does it send the right messages (wealth, status, environment) and is it comfortable are the questions. Modern car owners take it for granted they all start first time and stop and go as required. Consider it like me buying a TV compared to some others. I want it to be this big, this connectable, future proof for 5 years and cost whatever I set my TV budget at (about £500-600). A few of you in here would sooner poke needles in your eyes than have to look at a mildly warm Panasonic 4K 50” led.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 7, 2023 14:35:59 GMT
. As an aside a Skoda Superb 280 Estate is most definitely all the car you would ever need. Yes. That’s where I ended up after watching the review.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 7, 2023 10:44:29 GMT
Just watched the Autogefuhl review of next year’s Škoda Superb estate and aside from the fact it looks like what the next 5er should look like one thing made me look up. There is an addressable physical switch, among other analogue switches (including temperature). You can select 4 functions from the big screen and assign them to the rotary dial, so Volume, map zoom and stuff like that. It’s a bit like the assignable buttons on the current 5er, which will disappear from the next, and I’m guessing other cars offer this assignable feature. If not they should: it’s a simple solution to the problem of having to look or touch a screen to do stuff.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 6, 2023 13:32:54 GMT
If you saw Alonso holding off Perez with judicious battery use for about 12 laps then re-pass him using DRS on the last lap in a car clearly inferior you can have no doubts about his being in the pantheon of true greats. He’s made some poor team-politics judgements over the years and was robbed of a Ferrari title by a flying Romain Grosjean at Spa but his driving skills and race craft are pretty well unmatched these days.
When Mansell was a whining Brummie he retained a huge fan base because he had car control skills and balls-out faith that exceeded most others. Alonso is an old has-been but still has a huge fan base because he is a driver the like of which well not see many of again.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 4, 2023 20:15:47 GMT
Ye gads!
Is that a joke? Must be. That’s ludicrously bad.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 2, 2023 23:12:52 GMT
You'd think. I'm in Chelsea & Fulham, which is pretty true blue, but apparently our MP (Greg Hands, Tory Chairman) is considered at risk this time around.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 2, 2023 10:07:28 GMT
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 1, 2023 7:46:56 GMT
I am not a fan of this government, but I'm even less a fan of the Labour party. I am really scared for what they will do to people like us and the country in general. As retired people without a nice index linked government backed pension, we rely on our pension pot and our investments to live. Both of these will be prime targets for Labour once they do the few weeks in "there's-no-money-emergency-budget-rip-up-their-manifesto-commitments-on-tax-and-have-at-it" volte face. I expect to see NI expanded to include areas of income currently not covered - in the name of fairness of course. The left are just gagging to introduce some form of wealth tax or increase other taxes on people who have the temerity to own stuff or have money. I'm not a fan of Labour. I would not trust them as far as I could throw them. “No, you don’t need to worry about your pension, Mr. Bond: we expect you to die.” From the Covid enquiry.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 28, 2023 17:56:36 GMT
You clearly need to understand that you’ve jumped to a conclusion based on some defensive mechanism. My actual words were ( go back and have a look) “The Conservatives forced the entire country to vote on a matter to resolve a decades-old internal party argument; they knee-jerk reacted to the far right because they feared a politician that had never won a parliamentary seat ever”
The reference to the referendum related wholly to a long known internal Conservative Party rift, predating almost all, if not all, of us on this forum. The second point related to the party’s shift to the right and the cause of it. There can be no argument that the party moved further right (towards nationalism) and the party itself acknowledged that this was required to avoid losing votes to whatever Farridge called his Nazi party wannabes that week. If you doubt my point about voting numbers in the Red wall seats, that can be looked up to see how many votes became blue because of the positioning, perceived or otherwise, of the parties on nationalism. So the needless jump is entirely yours, including in your latest post where you automatically align nationalism with racism. My wife is very white and the Slavic bloodlines are likely purer than any Western European ones. My mother has “mixed race” on her birth certificate and was born in Cape Town in 1940. The former has suffered overt nationalism from Soviet Russians, Magyar and Brits in her lifetime. The latter - being mixed race in 1940s and 50s South Africa - I’ll let you imagine.
Firstly, don’t take offence at posts that aren’t aimed at any individual: I didn’t suggest anyone here voted in any manner based on a shift towards nationalism by the ruling party. Secondly, certainly don’t try and take the high ground because you’re not racist and have a foreign wife. That’s just normal.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 25, 2023 8:58:37 GMT
Yeah sure Labour could do a lot of daft stuff but, fuck me, they've been given some good examples by the useless cunts currently in charge. Before anyone jumps down my throat I have NEVER voted Labour and will probably not do so this time around. I'm not sure what the solution, politically, to all this is but the current system no longer appears to be working. This is where I am.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 24, 2023 8:37:17 GMT
Ha! We deliver services through the big 4 (all of them) because they are on Government Frameworks that provide certain services and the Big 4 haven't got direct capability in those certain services. We (and others like us) do have so we are tiered suppliers. The thing is the tenders that the Big 4 respond to (and win) would be won by companies like ours if we were allowed to enter the Frameworks as stand alone but there are more barriers that way than partnering with a big 4 and letting them do the expensive tendering bit.
It results in seasoned professionals being managed by callow youth, if I'm honest. I know what my general charge-out rate range is and it can be into 4-figures a day. The big 4 are still making money on the deal as well as administering us. Then get this: we as a tiered provider division in the Partnership are more profitable than the traditional arms of the business that do the really fancy front-of-house stuff for FTSE100 companies.
This is probably why I'm not concerned about being taxed, but remain concerned about where it is spent for the general populace.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 23, 2023 15:31:36 GMT
How does a modern vehicle allow this? Even the (2011) Gorilla went into a battery-save mode when I had a power leaking door handle.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 23, 2023 14:24:42 GMT
Haven't some countries flirted with a move to the right and then gone back a bit? I can't remember who but saw it mentioned somewhere recently. Poland recently. France: always on the brink of a Le Pen administration but never quite making it Slovakia: Nationalists didn't make it to full parliament and have to coalition with all sorts of dregs Germany: same as Slovakia
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 23, 2023 14:22:18 GMT
Remember that the higher rate tax threshold should be about £90K now if it had moved with earnings and inflation but at £50,250 in England and Wales and £43,662 in Scotland (and an additional 2% on top) the people they are taking nearly half their earnings from are hardly wealthy. Who's had the longest period in power in our working lives and hasn't addressed this?
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 23, 2023 14:03:49 GMT
Anyway, this government has run out of ideas and steam. Probably let someone else take the wheel of the bus and drive us off the cliff. This is about where we are. I get (as per the comments above) that fear of change and fear of the unknown are big drivers behind the continued re-selection of the Conservative party (change and fear of the unknown are pretty much conservative traits) but as history shows every so often a shake-up is required to rein-in the creeping complacency and the blatant abuse of the [political] [social] [taxation] system. The biggest issue is that politicians in the history of the filthy career have only ever had one agenda and that is to remain in office because it allows them to play the game that they want to play. That game can differ amongst many: Atlee used the desire for a more vocal public voice by the masses following the war to get elected. That the US (who were handing out money at the time) saw him as leading a party of "commies" and treated the UK with suspicion in their (the US') most fruitful years was inconsequential. Given his social background (he once write a paper attacking striking taxi drivers; benefitted from inherited wealth and lived a lifestyle akin to the current front bench of the Conservative party) he was hardly a natural Labourite. If you check back to the introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy in the UK and see how many politicians suddenly became farm owners and understand the long term level of system abuse. Thatcher used the militancy of the unions to gain power (as was also common, but not as vehemently reported, in the rest of Europe). That the policies of her government probably increased the lot of a far greater number of families than the vociferous many that regale the issues they feel are "working class" that she opposed says much about the political and media landscape. There was no them and us in the late 70s: everyone was fucked with the well-off being taxed at 83% and the rest of everyone wearing clothes that made static sparks if you rubbed them together. Major was probably the last true Conservative political leader as far as the general population were concerned. He came from a relatively normal background (as did Thatcher compared to the alternatives of her time) and understood what most ordinary people wanted most of the time, something that is sadly lacking in all parties today. He was never a glory chaser and became leader in an era of party turmoil. His electoral success was probably as hated by the Tory grandees as by the foaming lefties and his undoing was brought about by the excesses of the type of Conservative we see today, storming out of election halls as bad losers. Blair used that middle ground that had been built by the Thatcher and Major years to gain power. The left despised his centralism; the right were suspicious of any left wing possibilities. Since then there has been a farcical situation at No 10 on all fronts. Brown was a lost cause with the centre ground voters and his much-publicised brush with a common or garden member of the public did him no favours with the working classes either. The Cameron hung-parliament was toilet and he had to resort to playing on the anti-foreigner atmosphere to get the next GE over the line by promising a referendum. Some will point at the Johnson GE success as a pointer of stability of direction in the polls but his tenure was an exact illustration of my point above above about politicians only being there to stay in. So a change is required. It may be that there is a mad lurch to the left and we're all enslaved at 20mph; maybe taxes will go up more (although remember who currently made them this high); maybe there will be a flight of business from the UK, but there is already. The tax issue is the biggest gripe for me: I'm not concerned about my tax percentage neither am I concerned about it going up or down 5%. What pisses me off the most is seeing it being utterly pissed against a wall with no benefits for society as a whole visible no matter which side is in power at a local and national level. Pete's analysis is largely correct: carry on with the same, knowing it's shit or; change not knowing what shit will come. I suspect many will be looking at the latter and gritting their teeth that they can stand it for five years if it makes the other side understand where the limits are.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 21, 2023 19:11:07 GMT
The Conservatives forced the entire country to vote on a matter to resolve a decades-old internal party argument; they knee-jerk reacted to the far right because they feared a politician that had never won a parliamentary seat ever. Many people who voted for Brexit wouldn't consider themselves "far right" or anything like it. People like me. I was a traditional Labour voter from a working class and traditionally Labour voting area which voted decisively for Brexit. As did many similar areas and people. To link people like this with anything "far right" is simply wrong. However the definition of "far right" nowadays seems to include anyone who isn't a member of Hamas. Tongue in cheek but you get my point. I'm afraid you've demonstrated everything that's wrong with modern society, from social media keyboard warriors all the way to those in Westminster setting the rules under which society lives. There was no mention by me of Brexit at all: I pointed out the reason for the Conservatives calling a referendum. I did not mention any Brexit voters from any historical political background at all (although the figures for votes in traditional Labour constituencies showed at the Boris Johnson election that the "foreigners are being nasty to you" approach had some tangible effect and anyone that thinks otherwise is lying to themselves) because there is no black and white; them and us; two sided argument for the running of a nation of 67M people yet that is how everything in society is approached. Some examples: You're a homosexual yet you refuse to accept that transexuals can be women in the same sense as a woman born with no Y chromosome - you're a TERF and need to be killed. You're a white person in a fight with a black person; you defend yourself robustly and injure the other party. The argument was about a girl / spilled drink / football but you are a racist. You think that carpet bombing the civilian population of Gaza is atrocious - you're an antisemite. You think that taxing the better off more is going to result in the flight of wealth and loss of tax income - you're a greedy capitalist. You think that making sure that the wealthy pay their share of tax yet can maintain their lifestyle - you're a raving Marxist. As to the remark about the "far right" and Labour voters, Labour being the party of socialist ideals, the power of the common man and the rights of workers - the National Socialist German Workers' Party was exactly that. Apparently they were also "far right". Sorry if I've come across as a bit bate-y in this post, but this country is in a shocking state and even if, as I said, Count Binface became the leader of the ruling party it couldn't be any worse than the current shower of utter shit. That coming from a reasonably well-off boy from a Surrey schooling background that's quite some criticism.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 21, 2023 16:02:45 GMT
I can never make my mind up about these. I look at them and think “oooh yeah” one day the look at them the next and go “meh”.
Then Pete posts a photo of one with full sexiness and I think they’re fab. 😂
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 21, 2023 15:56:01 GMT
Out of interest, what does the Sunak government offer that’s so preferable to anything other than a violent, murderous purge?
The Conservatives forced the entire country to vote on a matter to resolve a decades-old internal party argument; they knee-jerk reacted to the far right because they feared a politician that had never won a parliamentary seat ever; they forced rules upon the country including imposing huge fines then ignored the rules themselves; they’ve imposed immigration laws that defy the history of the nation; the PM has pushed several decisions that benefited his wife’s finances; he recently single-handedly overturned an act of parliament (HS2) with no debate (as per a dictatorship) and they have overseen the imposition of levels of taxation making them the biggest tax-raising parliament on record with no discernible improvement to services or benefits.
Whatever you fear coming don’t worry: it’s already here.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 20, 2023 11:03:04 GMT
Had to share.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 20, 2023 10:47:35 GMT
Yes, we all know that by- elections can be just a local or mid- term protest vote but these were huge swings.
The mid-Bedfordshire result was a huge swing but the Tamworth one is far more significant. The Bedfordshire one involved a level of voting for Lib Dem’s to swing the majority so far in Labour’s favour whereas the percentages for Tamworth are not far off a straight swap from Conservative to Labour. Some social media suggestion that the Conservatives may yet try to oust Sunak before a GE but one assumes their PR department will suggest that swapping yet another leader in the run up to a GE after the disaster of the past contest is ill advised.
Speaking to my naturally conservative friends with no real political leanings they are of the opinion that if the opposition put up Count Binface as their new leader they’d still be preferable to the current status quo - a change of any kind for the need for change is currently on the cards.
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Post by Big Blue on Oct 16, 2023 9:36:52 GMT
Looks like the boss man of ALPINA has passed away. Top car maker. Top cars.
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