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Post by garry on Jun 8, 2020 10:00:12 GMT
Just an insurance rant.
Ive been insured with MoreThan for the last few year. Their service has been comically bad:
Mid policy they reverted my insurance to my old address two years after I moved, they then tried to charge me for a change of address.
In an unrelated incident six months later they changed the car I was insuring from the ford to an an Audi I used to own. Again they tried to charge me for the privilege of changing it back.
In both cases I got small compensation and I’m not sure what would have happened if I’d had an accident during those times.
I’ve kept with them out of sheer laziness, but today I get a note saying ‘sorry you’ve left’. A quick call and it transpires that the Ford is no longer insured because they couldn’t collect the annual payment (my card details had changed). No prior notice by email or post! I was informed that the ‘digital only’ communication button was ticked online A bit of a surprise because I’ve never had a logon to their digital service. Maybe I’ve just had a run of really bad luck with them. At least I’ve been forced out of my laziness to find new insurance.
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Post by garry on Jun 6, 2020 21:10:40 GMT
I’m not sure if I accept that George Floyds murder had anything to do with his race. What I see is an American police force that kills citizens with breathtaking frequency. They shoot roughly 1,000 people per year - many more white people than black people. It’s fair to say that black deaths are proportionally over-represented when you pro rata the population but they get killed at the same frequency as everyone else per encounter (meaning there are proportionally more police encounters with black people). I don’t know what the figures are here in the uk, but I will say that from all the travelling I’ve done I would not swap our police force for any other in the world. So, there are two points I’d make: 1. The American people should be protesting this horrible murder for what it is - yet another example of an out of control police force who all too often kill the people they’re supposed to protect. 2. I have no idea why groups in the uk see the police murder of a man in America as a reason to riot here. Protest by all means, but to turn it into a F.. the Police festival here makes no sense.
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 16:52:23 GMT
This sounds right to me. My 991 is worth £40k - £45k I think. I reckon a gmfv on a three year deal would be low £20k’s? A new 992 is £90k. What would the gmfv be - £55k? Add in to that the cheaper finance deals you can get on new cars and I bet they’re not too distant. Could be talking complete nonsense as I’ve never bought a car that way. Yes, but you'd be paying interest on double the amount so I can't see it being cheaper. With some proper man maths yes, but not on paper. I've only had one PCP (the 535d) and would prefer not to have another, but I know in some cases they can work out pretty well and they do give you certainty. I used a low interest bank loan for the BMW (2 years, so now paid off) and took advantage of the deposit contribution by getting the Golf on a PCP and paying it off in the first week. Forgot about the interest on the loan! But, yes, some man maths on the cost of running new vs old would get them closer
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 16:35:23 GMT
That's not how finance companies were setting up their GMFVs. The last time I looked, the monthlies on an early 991 was not that much different from a new car and it appeared that the driver was the GMFV on the 8 year car was very low compared to the borrowed amount Now you may end up moving the car on for way more than the GMFV (new and used) - but add in running costs for an aged 991 and the new car looked very attractive. I also can't get my head around " £50k " for an 8 year old one versus " £80k " for a brand new one. This sounds right to me. My 991 is worth £40k - £45k I think. I reckon a gmfv on a three year deal would be low £20k’s? A new 992 is £90k. What would the gmfv be - £55k? Add in to that the cheaper finance deals you can get on new cars and I bet they’re not too distant. Could be talking complete nonsense as I’ve never bought a car that way.
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 16:20:19 GMT
Do you not have Sport Chrono? I might be wrong, but I think that gives you an individual setting and links the key to the memory preset. He won't be wrong, Garry. Martin already knows the page number you need to look up. I did have that moment of hesitation where I thought ‘he is very likely to know my car better than me’
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 16:18:53 GMT
I’m feeling memory seat envy. I have to push a button to make mine work. None of this linked to your key frippery. Do you not have Sport Chrono? I might be wrong, but I think that gives you an individual setting and links the key to the memory preset. I don’t. To be honest there’s very little frippery in the Porsche. I even have to change gears with a stick!
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 16:15:55 GMT
Good news enough for you to buy one?
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 16:05:41 GMT
I’m feeling memory seat envy. I have to push a button to make mine work. None of this linked to your key frippery.
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 13:00:52 GMT
Lindsay is only 5’4, which is why memory seats are essential, she sits in a similar position to me just a lot further forward and with the wheel right in. Memory seats are a must have here too. I can’t even get behind the wheel with the seat in Angie’s driving position. Many years ago my gran had a mini. She was so short (4’10”) she had cushions behind her and wooden blocks on the pedals. She was, by a huge margin, the worst driver I’ve ever been in a car with! One summer she came to stay for the six week holidays and crashed her car into a wall, a taxi and a pond. My dad refused to let her take us kids out in her car after that.
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Post by garry on Jun 5, 2020 10:36:42 GMT
Got a guy working on my house at the moment. He was interested in the Porsche so I opened it up to let him have a poke around. He was shocked at my seating position how low and far back I like to be. Thinking about it, my default position in every car I drive is to get the seat as low as possible and I do prefer some distance between me and the wheel. Given that I’m only 5’10”, I guess it might be a bit extreme to have the seat so low, but I like feeling that I’m ‘in’ the car rather than ‘on’ it. My partner (who is only 5 feet tall anyway) has exactly the opposite position and I always feel she looks less in control. So what’s your seating position?
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Post by garry on Jun 3, 2020 9:12:34 GMT
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Post by garry on Jun 3, 2020 8:52:20 GMT
Looks like an updated version of that Hyundai Coupe.
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Post by garry on Jun 3, 2020 8:46:01 GMT
Is America broken yet? I would assert that the phrase "more broken" would be more apt. That said I have rose tinted spectacles of my teenaged summers in the USA - we were very "middle class" and had all the kind of things, lifestyle you see on American TV shows but my first arrival was a trip through downtown Newark, courtesy of my step-dad. Houses with no windows in, fires burning in the middle of living rooms, kids playing in the fire hydrant water, the odd pimp-mobile (brand new flash car) and lots of old wrecks parked about. "This is what happens to you in America when you don't make it" he told me. That was 1981 so it's always been the land of opportunity, which of course means it has to also be the land of desolate failure as not everyone gets opportunities or can be a success. This is where my initial thinking was when I first posted this topic. Your experience of the states resembles what I see there today. What we’d think of as the professional middle class is a really nice place to be in the states - big house, big cars, high salary. But the majority aren’t living like that. For them it’s a pretty bleak existence. I’ve though put for a while that America will break because of inequality, and I see covid as potentially one of those tipping points that will expose the extremes of inequality that turns into civil unrest.
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Post by garry on Jun 2, 2020 7:00:18 GMT
Agree with the comments re the boxster - it will be hard to beat at the price.
Couple of alternates:
Classic: Mercedes so r107 - Push the budget a bit: Aston Martin V8 vantage
Both offer a bit of style and are probably safer places to put your money
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Post by garry on Jun 1, 2020 17:21:13 GMT
I am surprised by some of the continued attitudes towards social distancing despite the damage it will continue to inflict on day to day live, the economy, children’s mental health, etc. This all comes back to the fact that this virus poses little threat to anyone other than elderly folk with existing morbidity – and before the chorus of “ it’s not about you, it’s about spreading to others “ starts up like a broken record, consider the following: Hiding healthy people away and teaching them to treat each other like leprosy ridden filth bags is ridiculous given the above, if anything it’s weakening our immune systems which are normally under constant bombardment due to our usual, regular social interactions (so I think we will be more susceptible to the usual snuffles and coughs – ask anyone what the first 6 months of when their kids started school was like). The sooner healthy people are exposed to Covid (under normal life circumstances), the faster it will burn out (virus mutates, becomes less virulent so it can spread faster) and that’s better for everyone – especially those who do need to isolate. Seriously – what is the alternative ?, we play virus hide and seek for the next 3 years until the next cough pops up and the whole sorry cycle starts again ? Well said. The broken record of protecting others is really getting tiring. It’s as if there’s this single, virtuous path to a post covid world - that by locking down and socially distancing they are being good citizens, protecting the most vulnerable. Some are just self-interested bed wetters who are hiding behind the ‘do the right thing’ mantra, but many truly believe it. What that group seem to miss is that lockdown doesn’t come for free. Every life saved from covid needs to be balanced against the lives lost because of lockdown (think of how few cancer diagnosis’s are happening in the uk right now), live’s damaged through mental health issues relating directly to this and lives lost to economic issues relating to this crisis across the world (there are already huge issues building in poor countries because we’ve turned off their export tap). They are saving the elderly by sacrificing the next generation. It’s myopic and cowardly.
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Post by garry on Jun 1, 2020 12:53:24 GMT
The DC outrage was only ever about Brexit. I don’t agree. The media might have made him more of a target because of his links to brexit, but the general public are simply pissed off that he was in breach of the rules as they’d understood them. Argue all day long that they didn’t understand the rules, but that won’t wash with them. Many are truly angry about sacrifices they made whilst he decided to break them.
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Post by garry on Jun 1, 2020 11:07:39 GMT
I think the government are being purposefully confusing and vague on the communication of the rules, making it almost impossible to enforce, if all goes well, rules will continue to relax. If cases start to creep up , they can tell us it’s our fault for not following the rules.
For what it’s worth I don’t think they’ve got any chance of forcing another lockdown, second spike or not. The fear has gone for most people because they personally know no one who’s died (in fact in my network I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who’s died). You’ll be hard pushed to make people fear a killer thats not striking anywhere near them
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Post by garry on Jun 1, 2020 9:41:14 GMT
Is it me, or does she have very long legs? 😆 Models generally do. I've usually required a stepladder. To do what exactly?
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Post by garry on May 29, 2020 16:21:16 GMT
I saw somewhere that the assumption was the Scottish had bigger gardens. It's a strange thing to do from the Scottish parliament as they will inevitably be asked to provide the evidence to support this move when they're handling this less well than England and looking more confusing and more lax. It's all arbitrary anyway, on Thursday 28th it's not safe to go out but on Friday 29th it is! The roads were noticeably busier yesterday evening as people clearly jumped the gun. We've got friends planning to come over tomorrow which will bring the total people here to 5. They better not pee in the garden though, it's full of nettles. Not just the French and the well heeled. I grew up in Doncaster and on Saturday evenings the gentlemen of the town would extend this rule beyond the garden to include doorways and bus stops. The only etiquette being to not pee on your own shoes. A rule they often broke.
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Post by garry on May 29, 2020 16:14:02 GMT
Very good news re Nissan. It throws doubt on one strand of remainers argument about brexit - I was one of those who voted to remain but I’m happy to be proven wrong!
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Post by garry on May 28, 2020 18:16:56 GMT
So we can now meet in groups of 6 from Monday. Hurray! Make it 7 or Sunday and you’ll all die.
Edit: And we can play doubles tennis. Are they going to continue with this very specific level of sports unlocking? Next week we’ll be able to go swimming but only crawl and doggy paddle.
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Post by garry on May 26, 2020 15:58:49 GMT
I didn't but a few cyclist on the way could do with them. It was tremendous fun and the lake I visited was heaving with open water swimmers and other people getting out to enjoy a bit of exercise. Where did you swim? My local lake is still closed but we’ve been sea swimming
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Post by garry on May 26, 2020 15:56:49 GMT
If I was going to order a 992 it would be in adventurine green. Feeling properly brave I’d have the red/black leather interior too.
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Post by garry on May 26, 2020 15:08:03 GMT
Maybe but as was said on BBC radio this morning, very many of us abandoned trips to see our mums on Mothers Day, many people have foregone going to see a dying close relative and have not gone to the funeral because Boris said so, yet Cummings has turned a blind eye and carried on as if he was above taking note and obeying. Is protecting your child from harm in the same category as not visiting your mother on Mothers day? I’ve got a much closer example. My sister was feeling ill in mid April. She’s single with two kids and her only local support are my elderly parents. I had a rental house that was empty near me and there’s enough fitter younger people in my family ( her nieces and nephews, all older teenagers) that we could have worked something out. I wanted her to come over. I even offered to drive and fetch her but she was so worried about breaking the law that she wouldn’t do it and was so concerned that she’d be potentially killing one of her nieces or nephews.
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Post by garry on May 26, 2020 14:51:25 GMT
I’m in the 1 in 279 group. I’m thinking of either having a sex change to almost halve my risk or perhaps shooting a random 51 year old man so he can be the 1.
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Post by garry on May 26, 2020 14:40:21 GMT
I thought we'd all been quite reasonable on here actually. For what it’s worth I really enjoy the range of opinions and debate on here. Many online forums are either not interested in topics outside of the core interest of the forum or are so politically biased that they’re just an echo chamber for one viewpoint. There’s a broader range of views on here that make the debate interesting.
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Post by garry on May 26, 2020 10:57:16 GMT
It would be hypocritical for me to condemn him as I’d have done exactly the same in his position. Family comes first. Agreed. So might many of us. But, boy has he handled it badly. If he'd just apologised, I'd have been relatively sympathetic and I wouldn't have thought resignation was in order, just as I didn't think it was for Ferguson or that Scottish deputy medical officer. But sorry seems to be the hardest word, as the song goes, and so my sympathy has evaporated somewhat. And that press conference. Good grief - what was that about?
In the Downing Street Rose Garden, usually reserved for top announcements by PMs and or photo ops with visiting foreign Heads of State? An unelected special advisor?
The symbolism of it gets lost in all the twittering about whether it's appropriate or not to test your eyes by driving 45 minutes from Houghall to Barnard Castle, and back again.
But talk about nakedly flaunting your sheer power. It was an exercise in saying, without much attempt at subtlety, "I run the show, the show can't operate without me and you better just swallow that because I'm not budging". In Boris' shoes, I'd be pretty embarrassed at being so openly exposed as a sock puppet live on TV. Really? He was sat behind a stackable table on some grass that needed a cut. He looked more like ‘normal everyday dad’. Perhaps the symbolism wasn’t lost in twitter world, but simply wasn’t there and most were more concerned about the answers he gave rather than which bit of grass he sat on? Is there anywhere you’d have been happy for it to be held?
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Post by garry on May 25, 2020 16:38:45 GMT
Just listening to Cummings being interviewed. I’m not persuaded on two points:
I have no idea if he broke the letter of the law by making the trip, but he definitely broke the spirit of the law, The general public were explicitly told to stay put, He decided that he knew better. It’s seems particularly wrong that he set off on this trip whilst presenting with what he thought were early stage covid symptoms.
The explanation of his drive to Barnard castle is odd - a 60 mile round trip to test his eyes and he just happened to end up in a beauty spot next to a river.
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Post by garry on May 24, 2020 9:03:32 GMT
Total bollocks idea. The second I step on to a tube train the app will find at least one person that's been close to someone that's been close to someone else that was close to someone that had symptoms last week. Then all the people that get on after me will see that I was close to someone that was close to someone that's been close to someone else that was close to someone that had symptoms last week. Before the end of the morning rush hour the whole of London would be in a state of panic whipped up by the media after seeing the results from the tracing app showing that 90% of us would be advised to put our affairs in order. Tube train? You don't want to be getting on one of those! I've no intention of going anywhere near one anytime soon. As and when we reopen our office, my plan is: Dry weather? - I'll cycle (not that this won't put me in close proximity to other cyclists but I do get to cycle in after 9am and back after 7pm, when it's far less busy). Wet weather? I'll WFH thank you very much. Also, I doubt we'll have compulsory attendance. I expect it will be a case of "the office is now open - come in if you feel comfortable doing so". Racing, I’m really interested in understanding your thinking. As I understand it: You’re a fit and healthy man of around 40 years of age. The risk covid presents to you is tiny (the data shows circa 260 people under 60 with no underlying health issues have died in the uk. Even this low number doesn’t speak to how low risk a fit younger man is, because the 260 deaths are concentrated on the over fifties. This still doesn’t take into account weight or ethnicity) London cycling stats show circa 1000 killed or seriously injured each year. The risk that cycling presents to you is small but multiple times higher than covid. So why do you make the choices you make? I’m not trying to be inflammatory, but I’m interested in how you perceive and manage risk. .
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Post by garry on May 22, 2020 14:29:34 GMT
I hope the Government learn to grow a pair and quickly – they need to stop worrying about their public opinion now and think more about what public opinion will be when the next elections come around if they don’t sort this mess out asap. Agreed. But they’ve painted themselves into a corner. They’ve let sentiment/hype take hold on a multitude of issues and it’s going to be difficult to reel back in: They’ve promoted a ‘directed by the science and evidence’ narrative as if there’s a single truth (helpful to get everyone locked down) when in reality there was only ever scientific opinion and hypothesis (Lockdown would have been harder to achieve if they’d said ‘This guy has a theory that 500k people will die, but this guy thinks it’s no different to flu’). We’ve now got unions saying that they too will be directed by the science. All a union boss has to say to a scientist is ‘can you guarantee my members will be safe’ and we’ll stay locked down forever with unions saying ‘we too are directed by science and evidence’. They need to take back control and make it clear that science is ONE of the inputs they’ll take as they reignite the economy. They’ve been front and centre of the fear campaign that made lockdown very effective and is making any attempt to unlock almost impossible. Lots of people are in fear because they were told to be very afraid. Johnson needs to be out there building a ‘ready to reignite’ message and be on the news every day visiting factories and shops that are leading the re-ignition. He needs to drive the media narrative so they’ve got more interesting things to talk about than ‘Here’s the widow of a fit and healthy man left devastated by his untimely death IT COULD BE YOU!!’ They’ve let ‘Our NHS’ develop a cult-like following that’s going to be tricky to manage when the dust settles. At the moment telling the country that the NHS isn’t getting extra cash would be like telling god botherers than Jesus can only have 11 disciples. They need to separate in the public mind ’Our NHS’ from doctors and nurses so that they can deal with the NHS without being branded as heartless tory bastards. They need to get public bodies and officials back in line. When Johnson announced easing of lockdown there was no confusion. It got confusing when police forces and local councils tried to limit those easing measures. Police forces should not be taking to twitter to undermine the government policy. Imagine if at the start of lockdown some police forces had said “We heard what the prime minister had to say , but you’re still welcome here as long as you’re careful”.
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