rabbitstew

With apple users, its more of the fact that they are tied in. If you think about it, when you get the iphone you have to buy it. For example, I got my samsung s2 for free on a 25quid a month contract. My missus had to pay £80 for her iphone 4s and pays £40 a month for the same as what I get. So, straight away you are physically forking out money and buying something. So you immediately think you are getting something "better". Bit like forking out 30k for a bmw badge rather than 16k for a Ford badge. Just cos you fork out a lot more for the beemer doesnt mean its a "better" car. Now you have an iphone you download your apps, a lot of which you pay for, you start buying media through itunes because you have no choice and you use the apple calender & contacts etc.. Now, after 2 years when your contract is up what do you do? You have hundreds of contacts in your iphone, you have spent hundreds on music in your itunes. If you decide you want to move to nokia or samsung or whoever, you`ll probably have to loose all that media and start again. You also have to learn a new OS when you are used to iOS. You may not be happy with your iphone because technically its behind the competition now, so what do you do? The only option really is to just upgrade to the new iphone when it comes out. Thats why they have such a high level of customer retention. The new iphone may not be as good as other phones out there, but the hassle for an apple user to move means they will stick with the iphone. On the other hand, if your using android, you have the choice of going to any android phone, simply entering your email address & password and instantly all your contacts, apps, photographs, calender, wallet, everything appears on your new android phone. It could be a samsung, a htc or anything. Nokia, motorola and even Blackberry have fallen way behind. Apple have recently been trying to force their way into businesses and schools by offering massive discounts, replacing blackberries in a lot of cases which is quite a smart move, as we all know how slow businesses and schools are at replacing equipment - if they get a load of new iphones & ipads today, then they wont be changing them any time soon. And like above, they become tied in. If you look at the smart phone market share for Q2, android devices take up 68% of the market, with iphone only taking up 17%. Thats a massive difference, especially when you think android hasnt been out as long. It will be interesting to see how the new windows mobile 8 does, whether it can gain any market share.

Great... ive got 20 years ncb on my car, so if i made a claim it would drop from 20 down to 3. Id avoid insurance companies if you can as they will ream you out over the next 5 years with increased premiums. My missus had to make a claim when she ran into the back of someone in her 206 Gti the other year. I could have repaired the car for 500quid, but she went through the insurance and their repair company stung the insurer for over 3 grand, and my missus`s premium went up from 600 per year to some astronomical amount so high that she could no longer afford to insure the car, so she had to sell it and get a cheap diesel family car instead. Stuff like these scrotes really anoy me. I think people like that should be shot. Problem solved. With my cars im totally paranoid about where I park. I even refuse to drive my car to certain places and use the missus`s car instead in case it gets marked. And yet would you believe it, last weekend when I was washing my brand new beemer (which hasnt got a single mark on it as its only a few months old) and I find a scratch on the rear bumper already. I honestly have no idea how that could have happened as the cars only parked in a secure underground carpark during the day where i reverse up to a wall and noone can get by, or parked in my drive. So anoying.

I think the dealership must have been having a laugh or something surely? When I took my 350z roadster in for some work, they gave me a brand spanking new 370z roadster fully loaded for 2 days.

Welcome!!!

BMW eh? I will have to try and remember that now im driving a BMW 123d coupe!

Ive got 2 Samsung s2`s and love them. So easy to use and loads of cool features. They are old phones now! About 2 years old now and when you think this new iphone is the first iphone which is actually thinner than it, and its only 1mm thinner! Also, the s2 is 116g compared to the new iphone`s 110g. Screen on the s2 is bigger, better battery life and its so old now its free on most contracts. Since the new android OS update was released to it the phone seems even quicker and on one im running "Go launcher" which really gives it a slick flashy feel to the user interface. On my other s2 i flashed it with the latest cyanogen android which is extremely fast and slick. I didnt need to this but its a great thing about android in that if you want to personalise things you can. Like add moving widgets to the home screen or different sized icons. You can even move buttons about & change what they do. I find all the apps are great and work really well. Ive had no problems at all. I use all the main ones and love the way it all syncs seamlessly with my google account, so all my contacts, emails, wallet, pictures, even browser bookmarks & favourites are all everywhere I log in. Sure, the iphone now can do that too, but its taken them a long time to catch up. I`ll be interested to see how the apple passbook (aka google wallet), apple maps (aka google maps), apple navigation (aka google navigation) updated siri (vlingo on the android), icloud (aka google cloud) all take off now they are "new" apple features. Also interesting is the 4G side of things with htc / samsung / android releasing a 4G LTE phone many years back and apparently samsung own all the relevant patents for it. All in all im pretty disappointed with the iphone5. When the iphone 4 came out I loved the design of it, it was a huge step up from the 3gs, albeit nearly a direct copy of the LG Prada which came out 4 years prior to it, and you couldnt make calls unless you had a rubber bumper wrapped around it which made it look a bit crap. But visually it was cracking. Very nice styling indeed. Apple also introduced a lot of new features which allowed them to catch up with the rest of the pack. But, now with the iphone5, they really dont seem to have made a big jump over the iphone 4s. They have had 2 years to sort it out, and it kinda makes you wonder what they have been doing in all that time? Its as if they have just looked to see what the s3 can do, what the htc one can do and copied a few bits and added to the iphone 5. On the other hand, if you look at the new Nokia Lumina 920 which has just come out. Wow. That really looks funky and has a whole new windows mobile 8 OS on it as well as things like wireless charging, loads of camera features etc etc. My contracts are both up in December, and atm i really dont know what I will be going for. I dont like the Samsung S3 as its just a bit too big for me. I think the s2 is about perfect size for what I want. Maybe there will be some new phones released before then, or maybe i`ll go with the new Nokia. All depends on what offers me the best technology / features / value for money etc... I think my apple loving mate summed it up nicely. He proceeded to tell me last night at how disappointed he was with the iphone 5 (he`s been waiting 2 years for it to come out, having passed up the iphone 4 and stuck with his 3gs), he reeled off all the things he didnt like about the iphone 5 and how it was a disappointment compared to what he was expecting, then announced he`ll be buying one anyway.

A big whooshy turbo Bloody hell! Where did you reappear from Your mothers bedroom !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That made me laugh. I miss my zed too, especially on hot days when id have the roof down. But im also liking my 123d coupe more and more as the weeks go on. Its slowly loosening up now its done 5000 miles and its still surprising me exactly how quick it is, especially when you use the torque (its got more torque than a zed) to over take. Ive been looking at getting a cheap "sports car" to just mess about in at the weekends, but most i seem to see are actually also slower than the beemer, which kinda defeats the point of buying one really - but if i see a cheap soft top sports car I may still get one, although the summer is coming to an end now.

I remember him in the Senna film. He achieved quite a lot in F1.

Hmmmm.. but on the other hand, if you leave it in gear, the engine braking will cause the car to slow down and stop after a bit. Whereas if you leave it out of gear, no engine braking and the car will happily coast for miles (well.. or at least until the gradient changes) Does the engine really use no fuel if you take your foot off the throttle and are on the over run? Or is it still sucking fuel through as the engine is doing say 3000rpm (for example) compared to 800rpm (for example) if its idling and your in neutral.

Those panels seem to be very poorly made. My roadster had only done 20k miles when I got it but the grab handle on the drivers door was so badly scratched up it looked like a lion had been attacking it!

Welcome! Nice list of cars you have had there and im quite envious of some of the ones you have listed. 200 cars though... you must get through several each year! I usually keep mine for 2 or 3 years at least! The 350z certainly isnt cheap to run. As ive mentioned before on here, mine was costing me about £1200 a month all in to use, although £500 of that was depreciation which you may not get as much of on older versions.

I assumed the ones on ebay werent originals! But, if they are then thats a cracking price!

I was looking at a few of those online last week as a mate pointed out how cheap they are now. Only thing he said he didnt like was the lack of any boot space apparently?

I was looking at similar options now ive sold my 313 Zed Roadster. For 10k you can get a lot. Hell, I sold my roadster for 9k, so could have just kept that! But outside of the zed, 10k will get you quite a lot. You can get a 1998 Elise S1 - fun on the bends, maybe not as quick as you want. An early vx220 - same as Elise really. The VX220 turbo is just outside of 10k. I was considering an Impreza WRX. A lot of my mates have or have had them and they are some of the quickest cars you can get for the money. One mate spent got a 1999 model on the road with 325+ bhp for well less than £2000. His mate has 676bhp out of his one and does 30 to 130mph in something like 6 seconds. Only thing I have against them is that they are 4 door family cars, and id prefer maybe something a bit smaller and more sporty if im getting it as a "fun" weekend car. If porsches are your thing, ive seen boxsters for around the 5k mark. As someone else said, E46 M3`s are well under 10k now, so you can get a "nice" one with decent mileage within that price range. Caterhams, MX5`s, MR2 Turbos, RX8`s, all well well within that. Some you could probably get for 4 or 5k, leaving you plenty of change for tuning if required. The list just goes on!

Welcome!

What what......... she has a fricking brilliant @rse........ could rub that @ss with baby oil all day long +1

Its all down to personal opinion really. I was looking at E46 M3`s when I decided to buy my 313 roadster instead. At the time when I was looking, for the same money I could get a much newer car with half the mileage. Whilst BMW`s are common, M3`s arnt. I dont see many on the road at all. I probably see more Z4`s than I do M3`s. But compared to the 313 zed, I have still only seen a handful on the roads over the last 2 years! They are totally different cars, the M3 is a 4 seater, its slightly quicker off the mark, has a fraction more power than the 313. The 313 is a 2 seater, more of a sports car than a coupe. They handle & drive completely different, so you cant really compare them.

I drove a monaro when I was in Australia last year and was very disappointed in it. The owner let me out on my own in it, so i had noone looking over my shoulder and therefore could give it a damn good thrashing. But i just found it boring to drive. Sure, i guess it may have been quick on paper, but it was what I would describe as "lazy". It never felt exciting and it never felt quick or fun. It just sort of rumbled along. The rev limit seemed to be very low as it was always hitting it, but you never felt like you were making any progress. I dont know what the 0-60 or 0-100 is on it but it felt miles slower than my 313 zed. Id describe it a bit like when I had my Ducati 748SPS, compared to a high reving 4 cylinder 4 stroke sportsbike. It kind of begs to be driven slowly, sort of more suited for lazy crusing, leaving it in top gear and just using the torque to accelerate, rather than more "spirited" fast paced driving. I guess different cars suit different people as some people prefer that sort of engine characteristics.

Spotted very clean white 370z coupe heading westbound on A14 around Ellingham / Spaldwick at 6:30pm last night. Not seen it before, bloke driving. I was cruising in my 123d so let you by and soon lost sight of you. Reg: **60 OZC

+1. I put these in my brembos. Not cheap pads mind you, but certainly excellent for road use.

Excellent progress there! Nice amount of power!

I use Waze on my phone or my android tablet. All free, plus you get real time traffic updates and warnings from other users.

Still going strong. Its 7 months old now and just turned over 16,000 miles this weekend on a trip to Somerset and back. We did nearly 400 miles in it over the weekend! Still getting about 350->375 miles out of a tank and the small (40 litre i think) fuel tank still gets me as I still get confused when im filling it up and it starts clicking full at just over 50quid. Im used to putting £75 or £80 at a time in my cars! Over the last tankfull, the trip computer was showing 50mpg. It does 52mpg over a tank full if you keep it to sensible speeds, but drops to 48mph if your "making progress" all the time. Its my wifes car so she mainly drives it, but as we were going on a long trip this last weekend I had chance to re-acquaint myself with it after not having driven it for a few weeks. The engine doesn't seem to have loosened up any more since my last post, so I think after the initial 10k or so miles the engine is nicely run in and how it responds now is pretty much it. Its nippy enough around town although that massive turbo lag does have a tendency to still catch me out. As I mentioned before, its especially noticeable on roundabouts, when your rolling up to one, and timing your entry with existing traffic going around it. If you see a gap, in most cars you can just be in 2nd and accelerate onto the roundabout., but in this 1.5Dci Juke, you either have to remember to drop it down into 1st when your to join the roundabout (something which feels a bit unnatural to me), or slip the clutch like mad in 2nd to get those revs high enough for the turbo to kick in. Otherwise, you roll onto the roundabout in front of traffic only to find the car bogs down and virtually stops. I drove it for nearly 4 hours straight yesterday and it happily cruised at around 85 / 90mph on the motorway, and whilst it wasn't as quiet and as smooth as my BMW123d, it certainly wasn't too noisy - in fact it was quiet enough for the missus to fall asleep for most of the journey! At motorway speed, overtaking is easy and the car responds quickly. I had to do some very tight parking at the hotel we stayed at, and at all times I felt comfortable with the cars size and dimensions. The reversing cam is great for getting tight up against things, and with the front dropping at a 90 degree angle, you know where the front of the car is by looking at the side lights which are mounted on the top of the wings at the front corners. So you can squeeze it into places quite easily. I'm still amazed at how small the normal boot is on them though. I opened up the back to put our overnight bags in and they barely fitted in. My missus does have the original boot floor in hers still, and you can easily store twice the amount of stuff by taking that out. The in car entertainment works well, its got the Nissan Connect Premium kit (I think that's what it called), and the touch screen satnav worked well - speed camera warnings on it too - although I did prefer the bigger screen my HR 350z sat nav had. Bluetooth music streaming from my mobile worked well, and the handsfree phone worked well - nice and clear and the Juke`s mic`s didn't pick up the road noise so people could hear my voice clearly. I actually opened the bonnet on it for the 2nd time since we bought it and checked the oil - thats all fine, after spending a while hunting for the dip stick, i found it is attached to the filler cap. Tyres are wearing pretty well. The fronts (its FWD) are only half worn at 16,000 miles. The 1st service for the car is coming up at 20k, (Im still amazed that you can buy a brand spanking new car and not have a garage check it for 20,000 miles), so will see how that goes. The missus has changed her job slightly, so she`s doing a lot less mileage than she used to, so I expect this 1st service wont come up until mid November time. The only thing I did notice is that the exhaust sounds like it is blowing. Im not sure if this is "normal", but to my ears it sounds like it may be blowing slightly from the manifold. Anyone else got a 1.5 diesel juke notice this? No more scratches have appeared and the front seems remarkably free of stone chips. Although i did drive it into a hedge on Sunday (luckily missus was asleep so she didnt know), so I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more marks on it when I look next. Oops! Those very narrow Somerset lanes.....

Same here. I had no problems with it. It knew of all the addresses I wanted to navigate too and as you say, the only things I didnt like was the lack of postcode and no speed cameras. In actual fact, I preferred it to my Tom Tom, so ended up giving that to my parents to use.

Welcome!