sasha@lazytrips

If you're going to those parts, I'd highly recommend diverting off the LA - San Fran - Vegas route that is done by 99% of tourists visiting the area and seeing some more 'real' America by going through at least Arizona (and Utah - Colorado if you have more time).

Whatever you choose to do don't go anywhere near the Nissan stealers in Ilkeston. Avoid like the plague!

Whatever you choose to do don't go anywhere near the Nissan stealers in Ilkeston. Avoid like the plague!

Did a trip around the US last year - you will have an awesome time! We had a Mustang for part of the trip and a Dodge Challenger R/T for the majority of it. I've got to be honest in saying that although you do get a nice feeling of driving a Mustang around the US, the convertible roof becomes pretty pointless in the heat and if you actually want to talk or anything like that. Also, if you plan on turning around any corners, the Mustang is... erm... not the most agile of vehicles. The Challenger, however was absolutely amazing. We got a brand new one given to us and it is hands down the best car I have ever driven or been in including many much more expensive ones.

Did a trip around the US last year - you will have an awesome time! We had a Mustang for part of the trip and a Dodge Challenger R/T for the majority of it. I've got to be honest in saying that although you do get a nice feeling of driving a Mustang around the US, the convertible roof becomes pretty pointless in the heat and if you actually want to talk or anything like that. Also, if you plan on turning around any corners, the Mustang is... erm... not the most agile of vehicles. The Challenger, however was absolutely amazing. We got a brand new one given to us and it is hands down the best car I have ever driven or been in including many much more expensive ones.

1. I could probably get a bigger house with more bedrooms, bigger lounge and a garage for the same money if I looked around and bought in a cheaper area. I choose not to because I just happen to like mine. I get a smile on my face when I come home after being away for a while and that's all I care about. 2. I could probably get myself a nicer dining room table for similar money that is much easier to extend and doesn't have little marks in places. I choose not to because I like my kitchen table as it is for no apparent reason whatsoever. 3. I could probably get myself a faster car for the same money as the zed which will go round quicker in the wet/dry/round the Nurburgring or whatever. I also choose not to because I just prefer the zed (perhaps irrationally). Luckily for us, a lot of choices in life do not have a binary decision logic to them. It's a given that over the next decade or two mundane cheapo cars will probably outperform the zed and do so by running on AA batteries or whatever, but if that sort of thing actually bothers you, I think buying the zed wasn't the wisest choice.

Holy cow! Starting this thread was an udder misteak. All the jokers are just milking it for all it's worth.

I saw half a Gemballa hanging over a the edge of a cliff last week with Michelin PS2s all round. Regardless of the quality of your car, driving or tyres, if you're not careful, it won't end well.

Here's the last installment. 10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part IV.

Sux. Hope they sort you out pronto. The beer is waiting!

Photos from the Motor Show here: 10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part III.

This is actually a decent suggestion if somebody can put it into practice.

You just wait until I show you what I saw in Bologna in tomorrow's update

10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part II. Here's the next installment. Warning. Car porn material.

Thanks for all the replies! Had a further think and a look around and the original choice appears to work quite well. I exercised my poor photoshopping skills and the TT seems to look quite nice with those OZ Wave wheels (excuse the lack of callipers - was just way too lazy IMO definitely they look nicer than I originally thought they would.

Yeah. 40 Swiss Francs for the pleasure of crossing their country

Exactly! I know I pull Ollie from Skys legabout insurance but seriously I just can't deal with it! I can't deal with the fact that someone is trying to tell me I'm more likely to have a crash because someone crashed INTO ME! How can you even begin to argue that point! Statistics may back it up but it literally HAS to just be a fluke of the numbers - its a pure and simple fact that someone being a clumsy ***** is not infectious! It doesn't rub off on your car and turn you into a careless moron too! Unfortunately, statistically that is very true. In some cases, a good driver would be able to avoid being crashed into through better awareness, etc, etc. Hence if you get crashed into, you are slightly more likely to crash into something yourself...

Welcome to the fold

Hi guys, Don't know if anyone might find it interesting, but I'm about to go down for the Bologna Motor Show and will be posting up a few pictures of the road trip down and the Motor Show itself. Not going in the zed seeing as my co-pilot is not insured to drive it. Also, not going to duplicate the effort, so if you're interested in the progress, here is the plan of where we're going over the next few days: 10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part I. 10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part II. 10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part III. <<< Motor Show pictures 10 countries, 5 nights, 2 idiots, 1 Suzuki Swift - Part IV. Future updates with photos et al to come at www.mapmydream.com. P.S. The site is currently under development, so excuse the stark layout with nothing there at the moment

your handling and performance will be way out and half your sensors will be set off (e.g. ESP) unless you run much thinner tyres on the rear wheels. Some cars are designed that way and some aren't.

This is one point I fundamentally disagree with. Granted, it's coming from somebody who has actually worked in banks and could be classified as a "banker" in the recent past. 1. I did not have a huge salary or extortionate bonuses. 2. Neither do 99% of people working in all the banks in this country. 3. Believe it or not, but the media hype around "playing the lottery" with 2-3 individual fraud cases as highlights are complete nonsense. The regulations, internal policies and the models/systems used by 99.9% of all banks and in all types of operations are very carefully thought through for a reason. The reason the whole situation happened is because we as a society have built up an opinion that living beyond our means is acceptable. This has led to every single entity from an individual person to a small business to a large corporation and almost every country spending more than they had coming in. Clearly this is all a self-inflicted Ponzi scheme as on average these entities all borrowed more money from X to pay off Y. The big problem is this attitude at every level of our society and until the concept of a deficit is not severely changed in people's psyche, this problem will not go away. Here's a simple example of how the world works at the moment: Start: Persons A, B & C have 0 debt. Nobody has any problems. Person A borrows £200 from person B and owes them £400 including interest. Person B borrows £400 from Person C to lend to Person A. They owe Person C £800 including interest. Person C borrows £800 from Person A to pay Person B. They owe Person B £1,600 including interest. Person A borrows £1,600 from person B to pay Person C. They now owe person B £3,200 including interest plus the majority of the original (and not yet paid £400).. etc, etc. *** And the biggest problem of the lot is that people have gotten used to this way of life and nobody wants to lower their expectations of living standards. Everybody regardless of income expects to "have the right" to own a house, two cars, 3 TVs, new kitchen, yada yada. All the idiots (excuse my french - there is no more succinct word here) who say otherwise and go about protesting because life is unfair and everybody is out to get them really need to wake up. As previously pointed out, if a teacher on £30k gets a £20k pension (40/60ths), the price of said annuity is going to be >£650k. In order to accumulate that kind of money, accounting for some average inflation and all that jazz, you're looking at paying around £400 a month out of your salary. Given that most public sector employees contribute around £120 out of that amount, who is gonna pay to more than treble their contributions?

To be fair, judging by his rear tyre, there is a large degree of blame in getting completely the wrong tyre size on those rims too.

6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Nobody is taking away pensions that have already been accrued! That's the thing. Nothing is being "taken away" from anybody. Everybody now has a choice. They either stick with the proposed arrangements or they can leave and go work in a the private sector. My understanding is that everything accrued to-date stands.

WOW. I went on that link and on the first page, they've got this sentence: "Now they are told that their pensions, the schemes they pay into every month, must be cut to pay off the deficit caused by reckless bankers. It's just not fair." I have no words to describe the stupidity.

From having seen quite a few of them on TV, I'd say that they actually do, yes. Q: Could you tell us what you're protesting about? A: They want me to pay more towards my pension. Q: Your pension is already the best pension deal anybody in the country can get and if people don't pay more, the whole system will go bust and nobody will get any pension. What would you propose to do about that? A: Erm. I dunno. Burn the bankers, sell their homes and pay me the resulting money?