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Post by racingteatray on Oct 8, 2021 16:47:22 GMT
Blimey. Looks like the road outside my house here in West London.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 8, 2021 10:02:48 GMT
Excellent - Marco is much obliged!
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 7, 2021 19:02:50 GMT
A mate of mine in Italy has inherited an old Disco after his father-in-law passed away and no-one wanted it. He’s got in touch to see if I can help as he’s after these grommets and says they are not findable locally and his local mechanic can only bulk-order them. Any ideas on best place to source them for him? Thanks!
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 7, 2021 18:59:18 GMT
... and just you wait until new petrol and diesel car sales are banned and there is a drop in demand for liquid fuel. Who is going to want to train as a tanker driver, knowing that demand for what you deliver will be decreasing steadily? How will smaller garages survive on reduced sales unless they all open mini-markets to remain solvent? There is a distinct possibility that supermarkets will be the only organisations large enough to sustain the traditional forecourt.... I wonder who in government has thought this through and produced any plans to "cope" as the fuel situation changes over time, same way as where is the planning for an increase in the number of EV charging stations and how do people with no off-street parking cope? Surely you know the answer to that!
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 6, 2021 13:30:06 GMT
Peskily, it seems that BMW have issued a diktat that they will no longer offer seasonal wheel storage. I had an apologetic call from BMW Battersea to break the bad news that when the car goes in for its winter wheel change at the end of next month, I will need to take the summer wheels away with me and find somewhere else to sote them.
Fortunately one of our neighbours has kindly agreed to find some space for them in her garage.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 6, 2021 10:27:09 GMT
This may seem shallow but I find the M3/M4 so ugly (noticeably uglier than a normal MSport 4) that I simply cease to care how good it is.
Which is vastly frustrating in the generation of M3/4 available in green with tan interior and as a Touring...
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 5, 2021 20:12:08 GMT
What a great day! The M3 sounds like a really good car and I’m amazed by the traction, such a shame it’s so ugly. This ^^
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 5, 2021 12:31:12 GMT
So more to service than fill. That includes big ticket items like suspension elements and tyres but not the windscreen as that was an insurance claim. If I add in the insurance cost and the tax it works out at £0.946 per mile before depreciation. I’ll update that when (if) it sells but I expect it to be £1.70ish – a figure that will owe as much to the better rate of exchange I had at the time of purchase as to any depreciation mathematics. For what is essentially a toy. So now we know the sale price and looking back at my Transferwise account (or Wise as it is now) it has cost £1.531 per mile. At the time the purchase price in Euros was the equivalent of £33,738.11. At today's exchange rate that would be £36,655.00, a difference of £0.14 per mile. Looking at the figures as a whole with man-maths the car cost £1,714.97 less in total than the price I paid for it. Over five and half years that's not too bad and I don't reckon a basic savings account would have netted me that and given me that much enjoyment. That sounds pretty good, depreciation-wise. Looks good value against: www.sytner.co.uk/bmw/car-search/search/?make[]=alpina&page=1
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 5, 2021 12:27:17 GMT
Today, walking to tube, I spotted a silver/grey Ferrari SF90 queuing at the traffic lights at the end of our road. Looked gorgeous.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 5, 2021 12:25:03 GMT
It often happens in democracies - the tail wags the dog. A vociferous zealous minority makes enough noise to get its way on a topic on which the general public is generally indifferent. I suppose, in this democracy, the Government could offer the electorate a referendum on insulating Britain, and a majority vote to insulate Britain, then the Government could deliver an insulated Britain. No? I think that already happened! Although possibly that was about insulating from reality...
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 4, 2021 21:47:36 GMT
I think that's a bit of a bargain given how much Sytner charges for a RHD one...
What did you pay originally if it's not too wude to ask?
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 4, 2021 21:45:44 GMT
It's become something of a theme in this country of late. It's anarchy, we cannot have a small group of people holding tens of thousands to ransom (inconveniencing daily lives) for the sake of what they perceive to be a good cause. Where are the water cannons when you need them? It often happens in democracies - the tail wags the dog. A vociferous zealous minority makes enough noise to get its way on a topic on which the general public is generally indifferent.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 4, 2021 19:30:24 GMT
The problem is they're zealots and like any fanatic they see themselves as righteous, the end justifies the means. False idols attract all kind of nutters It's become something of a theme in this country of late.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 4, 2021 17:08:52 GMT
Apparently they held a protest half a mile away from our house, on Wandsworth Bridge. Not having reason to leave the house, I did not notice.
I doubtless would get pretty angry if I found myself stuck in my car unable to move as a result, so have every sympathy with those who are stuck. But in the grand scheme of things, there are bigger problems.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 4, 2021 16:01:15 GMT
It is indeed the lack of charging infrastructure that is of most concern.
But also just, so far, zero want. I don't need to change my car, so I need to want to change my car. Which means the new one must be better and more desirable. So far I am struggling to think of a single electric car that I actively desire (I don't like the styling of the Taycan much).
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 1, 2021 13:57:42 GMT
I saw Never say Never Again in the cinema. I like that version of Thunderball but then Thunderball itself is one of the very best Bond films. First Bond I saw in the cinema was The Living Daylights in 1987. My father took us to see it at the Riverside cinema in Woodbridge.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 1, 2021 13:55:35 GMT
I hope we will go and see this one, but like Ed I think that Mrs PG will want to wait until the crowds subside, a lot. This ^^. I hadn't really thought about it to be honest, even though our nearest cinema is less than 10 mins walk away. Work actually had some tickets to the premiere for one reason or another, but they were snapped up immediately by the great and the good.
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Post by racingteatray on Oct 1, 2021 13:52:00 GMT
See, I’m the complete opposite. As soon as they face lifted it I started speccing one. Yes complete opposite. It's not a disastrous facelift by any standards, let alone what BMW is capable of these days. But I definitely prefer the pre-LCI version - I find the new one more boxy and less cohesive.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 17:54:31 GMT
Brexit is not a blame for anything, it's the government's response (or lack of it) that is to blame for a number of issues that we have subsequently experienced. In terms of the fuel situation it's entirely down to the public. People are fucking idiots.
Yes in large part, but as ever I don't believe you'd be quite so forgiving if this was a Labour administration. There were genuinely some fuel shortages. When I stopped at the Tesco in Martlesham on Monday of last week, before this panic blew up, I did notice that half the pumps were out of action because I had to move several aisles down to find the only one that still had super unleaded (I don't normally use super unleaded but treat the car to it every time I go to Suffolk, because at that Tesco it costs less per litre than normal unleaded costs here in my part of west London).
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 17:47:18 GMT
Not as badly as us. I know lots of European nationals and every single one of them (including my wife I might add) said they no longer felt welcome here post-Brexit. Lots of them (including my wife, who has British citizenship) found themselves receiving unfunny comments at work from colleagues about "so when are you going home?". So sure, when the going gets tough, really what incentive was there for them to stay here? You can try and dress that up any way you like, but in this is the reality for EU citizens in the UK. To them, post-Brexit Britain feels unfriendly, uncompetitive, badly-run and not the future. Yes because Remainers have spent 4 years telling them Brexit means they’re not welcome. In those 4 years I’ve not heard one person who voted for Brexit say that EU Nationals are no longer welcome. Ironic, eh? How about accepting that others have had different experiences? As for this being the fault of Remainers, I can only say that you are a loss to the legal profession!
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 16:27:37 GMT
That's a great looking car, the facelift 5 series is much more successful that the original. I hope you have many fuel efficient miles in it. Really? I think the front is definitely a retrograde step myself. I'm not about to buy a 5, but if I did I'd want the pre-LCI version.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 16:25:32 GMT
He was on the money with Liverpool. Not really the point. I dare say quite a lot of people would say Rayner was on the money too.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 16:22:21 GMT
Yes: the shortage exists across Europe but the effects of that shortage assumes all things need delivering at the same time. Due to movement of workforce the wax and wane between EU states at any one time can be covered (so Polish, Slovak, Czech etc. drivers go to Germany when the need (and pay) is the greatest. Brexit means the UK can be as desperate as it likes but has to pass a parliamentary action to allow the flex, which didn't really get pushed for in a hurry did it? It's almost as if politicians are afraid to admit that it's not really a grand plan for the masses. Many left due to COVID, not Brexit, which is why other European countries are also suffering. Not as badly as us. I know lots of European nationals and every single one of them (including my wife I might add) said they no longer felt welcome here post-Brexit. Lots of them (including my wife, who has British citizenship) found themselves receiving unfunny comments at work from colleagues about "so when are you going home?". So sure, when the going gets tough, really what incentive was there for them to stay here? You can try and dress that up any way you like, but in this is the reality for EU citizens in the UK. To them, post-Brexit Britain feels unfriendly, uncompetitive, badly-run and not the future.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 16:11:56 GMT
Just to point out, I am talking about the people 'out there' who blame everything on brexit and NOT an individual. Right to an opinion and all. I heard brexit being blamed for all and sundry while circulating Hasda be yesterday. Just as there were, and remain, millions of people 'out there' who eagerly blamed everything on the European Union pre-Brexit and now continue to do so post-Brexit.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 14:33:28 GMT
There was a thoughtful piece in The Times comparing Johnson and Rayner and saying that for all their political differences, they are similar politicians, both being shoot from the hip types, eager to be liked and get the limelight, keen on upturning the applecart and generally not bothering with finer details when there are big soundbites to be had. Really? As far as I remember, Boris has never called his opponents scum. Or to credit her with the full quote - "We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile of banana republic, Etonian piece of scum." Her comment is right up there with Hilary Clinton's "deplorables" rant. Johnson has said pretty offensive and outrageous things with reckless abandon in the past. He had to apologise to an entire city once. He just does so using the disguise of similes and florid language to mask the immediate impact. I don't condone Rayner's words but I think she just uses plainer, more pungent English than Johnson.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 14:27:04 GMT
Every form of extremism is particularly prevalent on social media.
It should not be used in return as an excuse to exculpate Brexit from all blame by deploying ridicule.
We're told that some 1.3 million foreign workers (EU-born and non-EU-born) have left the UK since 2016, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic as more foreign workers reassessed the value of being in the UK. Any notion that this wasn't triggered by Brexit and doesn't include large numbers of key workers would be laughable if it wasn't so self-defeating and wrong-headed.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 12:18:09 GMT
Just popped out to stick some diesel in the Cumquat. There was only me and one other car filling up at the BP station. They were out of pies though. Bastard Brexit. I don't get why it is now not possible to even suggest that Brexit does have some unfavourable consequences without being ridiculed as being some sort of latter day McCarthyite Remainer. It's as bad in its own way as any other bit of so-called cancel culture.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 30, 2021 12:08:25 GMT
There was a thoughtful piece in The Times comparing Johnson and Rayner and saying that for all their political differences, they are similar politicians, both being shoot from the hip types, eager to be liked and get the limelight, keen on upturning the applecart and generally not bothering with finer details when there are big soundbites to be had.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 29, 2021 13:08:15 GMT
This ^^.
It's sort of the whole point of a common market for goods and services.
But the necessary number of people to win a vote in a referendum either deemed that expendable or never understood its value in the first place.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 28, 2021 13:53:04 GMT
Add it to the almost infinite list of consequences they omitted to put on the side of a bus.
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