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Post by Martin on Apr 26, 2024 12:12:31 GMT
I've been wracking my brains on what to get Lindsey for her 50th. An idea popped into my head this morning and I've booked three nights in Vienna at the end of November to coincide with front row tickets to a display at the Spanish Riding School. Very nice. We had our 'minimoon' in Vienna, I had no idea what one of those was until it was suggested to me! It was also at the end of November, so enjoyed the Christmas Markets and Ice Skating as well as plenty of strudel. Have you sorted the hotel? To my original list, we've added a long weekend in a cottage in Norfolk next BH and 4 days at Disneyland Paris in July. We've also booked 9 days in the UAE for February Half Term, so getting started on 2025.....
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Random
Apr 24, 2024 19:02:23 GMT
Post by Martin on Apr 24, 2024 19:02:23 GMT
Surely this must be an error….129k miles in a year?! It’s my old 2009 520d. Good to see it’s still going, whether it’s 214k or 314k miles. .
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Post by Martin on Apr 20, 2024 8:50:44 GMT
The hybrid gets a different grille to the EV with an old AR script that looks at odds with the rest of the car imo
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Post by Martin on Apr 15, 2024 16:58:55 GMT
So, Milano no longer and not Tychy either, but not far off…. The Alfa Romeo Milano was revealed just last week as the Italian marque's very first pure electric vehicle, but it seems the Italian government wasn't too keen on its name. As a result, the new compact SUV has been renamed entirely to 'Junior' before the first cars had a chance to hit the road.
In an official press release, Alfa Romeo confirmed that despite the firm believing the Milano name met all legal requirements, a government official declared the use of the Milano name illegal. The logic behind this ruling is that the new model will be produced in Poland, contravening a law that prohibits the sale of products with Italian-sounding names that aren't produced in Italy.
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Post by Martin on Apr 13, 2024 11:43:25 GMT
Alfa Tychy doesn’t quite work!
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Post by Martin on Apr 11, 2024 17:33:48 GMT
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Post by Martin on Apr 11, 2024 17:11:27 GMT
I don’t like the grille either, but it’s the only way you’d know it was an Alfa Romeo, they’ve even put the number plate in the right place!
It’s a pretty dull thing. If I had to have a small EV, it would be an Alpine A290 or Renault 5 if they stick too many ‘sporty’ bits on the Alpine.
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Post by Martin on Apr 9, 2024 17:04:00 GMT
The air bags are notorious for leaking in the F11. If it is, then you should get an aftermarket replacement as they are better than the originals and will be cheaper to replace as you won’t need to used a main dealer. If it’s sitting down low all the time then it does sound more compressor related.
If you can fix it yourself for £25, that would be a great result!
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Post by Martin on Apr 9, 2024 9:22:36 GMT
The customer service I had from Porsche when we had the Boxster was excellent, it’s a bit too early to comment with this car, but the buying / collecting experience was the best yet. It’s booked in for its first service in a few weeks, which will include a software update (they called it a recall) and I’ve asked them to look at the charge flap as it doesn’t always open first time. The only negative so far is the quoted cost of £845! Cheaper than the family truck for now as that cost £600-650 every 11k miles and Porsche service intervals are 20k miles. I think the next one will be double the cost, so that will be broadly the same £ over 40k miles.
My experience of BMW service is pretty good overall, but far better when I had the 7 series, which the dealer told me was a directive from BMW.
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Post by Martin on Apr 8, 2024 16:32:48 GMT
A couple of my team have the M50 and really like it, a range of 220-250 miles seems fairly easily achieved and I'm not aware of them having any reliability issues.
Tanzanite blue with Oyster is a good choice. Only bettered on the i4 by full Ivory Merino, but that would have you as even closer to BMW twins!
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Post by Martin on Apr 7, 2024 9:04:10 GMT
Maybe EfficientDynamics wasn’t just marketing guff! Relatively light weight for a car if its size, high gearing, plus decent aerodynamics and it lowered at motorway speeds…all helps.
My son’s MINI has the same engine and even with 3 x 6 footers on board it would easily do over 50mpg on the motorway. The Golf will do 45mpg (have seen more) though, so equally impressive.
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Post by Martin on Apr 6, 2024 6:38:00 GMT
That's about what the Octavia manages with a 1.4 turbo so Porsches hybrid system must be a tad more effective than Skodas! That was the 750i. The Panamera does 36-37mpg on the motorway when the battery is empty.
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Post by Martin on Apr 5, 2024 17:16:29 GMT
That is pretty good, but it is a diesel. I’ll just leave this reminder of what a 4.4 litre V8 petrol engine can do….at a decent average speed too
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Post by Martin on Apr 1, 2024 19:30:02 GMT
That’s not too bad, less than I’d expect to maintain a 20+ year 12 cylinder Ferrari. It’s only £40k, that’s a lot of car for that money (same as a fairly basic new electric MINI…) and doesn’t need much man maths to make that cheap motoring when you take depreciation into account!
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Post by Martin on Mar 29, 2024 15:48:52 GMT
If that has the Manthey Racing upgrades then it is likely to have spent most of its 10,000 miles flat out on a track somewhere. Lovely colour and wheels. It was upgraded half way through its life, but fair point, although it is what it was designed and built to do.
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Post by Martin on Mar 29, 2024 14:59:33 GMT
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Post by Martin on Mar 28, 2024 18:01:30 GMT
No picture as I was driving. A grey AMG GT Black Series, bit too much for me but it did look like it had just driven off the track. It was close to MB UK in Milton Keynes, registration MR67 AMG which a google search suggests belongs to a Youtuber.
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Post by Martin on Mar 28, 2024 12:47:45 GMT
That Silver Spyder is lovely. In theory the Green one should be lovely but the colour just doesn't work does it? As much as the Spyders are fantastic a Boxster GTS would be a far better proposition 99 times out of a 100 in this country. No and I don’t think it would even with different wheels. Don’t you think it depends on how you’re going to use it? If it’s regularly or as a daily, then GTS every time, but as a weekend toy the Spyder is quite a bit more ‘special’.
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Post by Martin on Mar 27, 2024 20:20:25 GMT
I know Martin and that silver Spyder is absolutely gorgeous. I have obviously reached that age where people younger and the same age are passing away far too often and it does make me think I need to get something like that before I get too old to enjoy it! I’m having the same thought.
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Post by Martin on Mar 27, 2024 17:21:33 GMT
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Post by Martin on Mar 27, 2024 15:28:57 GMT
It's a good idea, you need to make this one happen!
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Post by Martin on Mar 27, 2024 12:41:28 GMT
The link didn’t work, but I assume it’s the 30k mile one in Bournemouth for £24k. Nice condition and low mileage, but a fairly poor spec and as you say, about double what you’d expect. I’m not surprised prices are holding firm, once you get down to the price level of a 987 it’s all about condition. I’d expect prices to increase over time for well looked after examples.
Really good cars, we still miss ours.
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Post by Martin on Mar 27, 2024 0:11:03 GMT
I struggle to think of something I’d buy and keep for 20 years, but that’s because I don’t know what the options will be in 5-10 years and it would have to be something special as a second or ideally third car.
Lots of fleet musing going on in the Martin household at the moment, including an EV, but only as a 3 car garage solution with the EV as a (Lindsay’s) company car.
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Post by Martin on Mar 25, 2024 17:07:18 GMT
Its an interesting idea! I have wanted for a few years to do a long road trip from the tunnel up to the artic circle in Norway, passing through Denmark/Sweden on the way - it would be epic! The scenery on the Norwegian coast looks absolutely incredible. It would not be a cheap trip mind, and I think their speed limits are exceedingly dull. But its on my bucket list!!! That's something I'd quite like to do as well. + another. The Atlantic Ocean road looks stunning. I It would be a round trip of over 3,000 miles and 30+ hours each way, so one for retirement maybe. You're right about speed limits, 50mph max in Norway iirc.
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Post by Martin on Mar 25, 2024 16:48:07 GMT
It won't help in this particular scenario, but Harry M used a car transport company to take a couple of cars down to Spain and he explains the costs / cost benefit in detail. If you're travelling a decent distance as part of a group, it makes a lot of sense.
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Post by Martin on Mar 22, 2024 6:42:09 GMT
I use this one I think. Whichever one I use it’s the one Martin uses as he suggested it. Feel free to correct me, Martin. www.insurance4carhire.com/That’s the one. I’ve only had to claim against it once, but it was very straightforward and paid out quickly. Go via TopCashback, savings depend on which cover you get, I saved £15 on a £60 worldwide annual policy. An annual Europe policy is £47 and you’ll get £14 back. A bargain compared to the hire companies daily charge. It’s cheaper for an annual multi-trip once you go over a week.
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Post by Martin on Mar 20, 2024 20:06:55 GMT
Really good discount. Not massively surprised as it hasn’t had great reviews, but that’s when it’s a £50k rather than £30k (ish) car.
There are some huge discounts being advertised at the moment, I saw a Jaguar advert which was offering an unregistered iPace S for £46.5k (£76k list) and HSE black for £53.5k (£83k list). At a lower price point, the e-208 starts at under £20k (£33k list…which is crazy).
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Post by Martin on Mar 20, 2024 15:56:39 GMT
Is it up on a 4 post lift?
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Post by Martin on Mar 20, 2024 10:58:02 GMT
There was an unregistered Panamera Estate in that colour at my local dealer when I was looking and I thought it was quite smart. Lindsay referred to it as ‘Old Man Red’, I’ll take it as a positive that I’m not viewed as old….
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Post by Martin on Mar 19, 2024 13:04:06 GMT
To be fair to this one, he did say they could only get a budget tyre so I should go with my Plan B. I’d told him he needed to let me know what he could do by Thu am, was able to get them fitted at my normal place on Friday.
The difference in profit margin is surprising.
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