rabbitstew

+1

As much as it is annoying, i have to agree with the majority of comments on here. At the end of the day its her word against yours as witnesses can change their tune or solicitors can twist what they say. From my experience, even if you go to court, they wont do anything and I doubt if the police will either. Ive had a couple of accidents in the past. One, I had a woman pull straight out in front of me when I was on my motorbike. She saw me, but still pulled out. I hit the side of her car and went over top of it. She stopped and said she didnt see me. Witnesses stopped and said it was her fault. Went to court and ended up 50/50 liability. God knows why, so I lost no end of my ncb and had to get my bike repaired myself. The other accident, I was stationary behind a parked car waiting for an oncoming car to pass so I could continue my journey and a boy racer piled into the back of my car at about 50mph. (in a 30mph zone). My car was written off, the force of the accident threw me back so hard that the seat mountings ripped out of the bottom of the car floorpan. Police turned up, and after a few weeks I got a letter saying they werent going to prosecute due to lack of evidence?!. My brother also had an accident many years ago where someone basically rammed him off the road - his car ended up upside down in a ditch, totally written off. The other car never stopped. The other car then changed his mind and came back to the scene 30mins later and admitted it was him to the police. Police never bothered prosecuting that driver either - he just got sent on a speed awareness course. So, in my experience, id just take the hit and get the wheels done myself. These days I drive like a grannie and am totally paranoid about other cars stopping suddenly or getting too close to me.

+1 I used to resell speed camera detectors for years and so was always ahead of the game technology wise and had many detectors before most people did. Laser detectors unless they have recently changed are indeed a waste of time. The laser only takes a second or so to record your speed by which time its too late for you to do anything. Laser Jammers on the other hand can jam the laser for enough seconds for you to drop your speed. However, I think laser jammers are illegal. Radar based speed camera detectors I gave up on a long time ago, so many false alarms. Personally now I dont bother with any speed camera detectors, i just use my satnav and/or a free app on my phone called Waze. Its a sat nav system, but users can report where they see police / mobile traps as well as accidents and hazzards. It also uses user data to show you average speed on roads etc. etc.. Its user based and all updated instantly so very accurate. Theres other similar apps out there, like trapster which also are good.

Pretty sure this is my old car... http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ogcode=emf I spent 4 hours cleaning & polishing it before I part-ex`d it, so the new garage wouldnt have to do anything to it apart from put a price in its window.

+1. Nice and easy. I setup a gmail account and imported all my emails & contacts from hotmail, yahoo, outlook, everything really! Then once you turn on your new android phone, you key in your gmail email address & password and the phone sets itself up - all your contacts, emails etc will just appear! Then, if you get a new android phone in the future, you just do the same again. Any apps or books etc.. are all linked to your gmail and will just appear. Nice & easy!

Brief update. Juke is now on 13,000 miles! Not bad going! Its feeling more and more responsive all the time. I really think he didnt properly loosen up until about 10,000miles. Now, its much more revvy and responsive. Fuel economy has remained the same, although if you cruise at anything more than 70mph then it drops even more. We got through a full tank (about 350miles per tank) the other day, crusing at 80 / 85mph on motorways and it averaged 43mpg. Pretty bad compared to our Peugeot 307 HDI "shed" with 117k miles on it which happily returns 52mpg per tank (600mile range) at similar cruising speeds. Having driven down to Gatwick airport & back for our hols, being in the Juke was a nice place to be and have to say I got out of the car after 3.5hours of driving last week and felt perfectly fine. The ride was good, the steering is nice and responsive and now the engines loosened up, the throttle is nice and responsive. It still has huge amount of turbo lag at lower revs, so you need to slip the clutch a bit sometimes if your rolling onto a roundabout in 2nd gear. We left it parked in a field near gatwick for 2 weeks whilst we were on holiday, and it started up on the button no problem. The bodywork still looks good when its cleaned. No more scratches have appeared (touch wood) but the wheels are looking a little shabby now. Will need to give them a good clean. We loaded it up to the brim the other week, and if you remove the boot floor you easily double your loading space. I really dont understand why they put the boot floor so high, its such a waste of space. We folded half the back seat down, and fitted a staggering amount of boxes and stuff in it, plus 3 adults. The loading space isnt as "long" as you get on a golf or a peugeot 307 for example, but was okay for what we wanted. Fully laden up the engine still managed fine, it didnt noticably struggle or have any problems at all which surprised me a little. Its times like this when the reversing camera really is appreciated, esp when you cant see out of the back window!

Some interesting feedback on my choice of car! Mind you, its the same as i get from my mates when I bought the zed - "You spent how much on a Nissan?" and now they are saying the same thing about the 1 series. I have to say, when I first saw the 1 series I hated it. Really really hated its looks. Then a mate of mine bought a 118d coupe and I had a look around that and it started to grow on me. I considered getting a Golf GT TDi again, or an Audi A3, but decided in the end to go for either the 330d, the 123d or maybe the 135i even. My choice on the 1 series over the 3 series was that i much preferred the size of the car. The 1 series is actually bigger than a 1980`s 3 series apparently and the current 3 series is the same size the 5 series used to be. Performance wise, from what I read the 123d is the most powerful 4 cylinder diesel out there. 204bhp, 0-60 in 6.5 seconds... thats quicker than most hot hatches. My experience so far is limited as ive only done a couple of hundred miles in it, but the performance is "weird" to say the least for a diesel. Most diesels seem to have big turbo lag, then it all kicks in (like our Nissan Juke). Or, on other diesels it all kicks in straight away then runs out of steam early. Because the 123d has twin turbos, no matter what speed or rpm you are doing, if you floor it, you get instant acceleration. The torque when overtaking in 5th or 6th is amazing. The speedo just goes up like mad and I keep finding myself doing about 20mph more than I thought I was doing. The handling i did read a lot about before I bought the car, and read reviews on the run flat tyres. Some people do say ditch them, others say keep them as the car is setup to run best with them. On the road, the ride feels slightly firmer than my zed, but it feels very very planted. No perceptible body roll at all. Certainly a nice smooth very nice ride. The brakes are much better than i expected but no match for the brembo`s with d2500`s my zed had. The cabin is a very nice place to be compared to my zed. It ouses quality and a more up to date feel. The steering wheel is nice and chunky, ive got auto headlamps, auto wipers, all the bluetooth integration, leather seats with god knows how many adjustments and a long list of options. The only bits i dont like is that im still getting used to the automatic engine start / stop. Its a weird feeling when it cuts out at traffic lights. And also the steering feels heavy and vague compared to the zed which was much quicker and lighter. Apparently the 123d had electronic steering or something which affects how it feels. So far im getting 45mpg which isnt bad as the first 60miles I did were around town which obviously brings down the average. I`ll see how it goes over this first tank of fuel, i expect i`ll be able to just about hit 50mpg. Computers claiming i should be able to get 500miles out of the tank... but we shall see. And so back to the price debate. Well, whilst this is a new car, it wasnt brand spanking new off the showroom. Im not that stupid. Its about 6 months old with 2000 miles on it, and as such was about 9 grand less than the new retail price. So I have avoided the mega initial 1st year depreciation. Looking on autotrader and at bmw approved used cars, even with my yearly mileage I should be looking at a £2k a year depreciation, which for me is very acceptable. Thats based upon what 2nd cars are fetching atm. The 123d coupe is a very desirable car, and as such should hold its value reasonably well. Of course, things change all the time and who knows what price cars will be in 3 or 4 years time. BMW servicing.. well i`ll have to see what my experience will be like when it comes to the first service - which isnt due until around May 2013 - even with my mileage. So far with Nissan ive been so unimpressed I vowed id never take my zed to them again. But so far BMW seem keen to lavish free things on me. 12 months free road tax, 3 years free breakdown cover, 3 years warranty, full tank of fuel, then in 3 years time when its due its first MOT they will do the first 2 MOT`s for free... and so on and so on.... Of course, I very much expect they will try and recoup these freebies by claiming the car needs all sorts of things doing and adding "hidden" costs. But, time will tell.

Cheers. The 123d actually has more torque than my 313, coming in at 300lb odd, and 204bhp gets it from 0-60 in about 0.7 seconds slower than my zed. I did read that you can remap them to 270bhp etc.. but thats not something i`ll be doing for a while, certainly not whilst the car has a waranty. Well, ive a spreadsheet in which i enter all the costs. The BMW wasnt cheap, but looking at resale prices, its loosing 2k a year regardless of whether I bought a 2009 version or a 2012 version. So, already thats less than the 5k my 350z did. Servicing costs. Well, my zed I just serviced myself, so costs were minimal. According to the bmw garage who I rang up and asked for a servicing cost, it will be £130 for a minor service on the 123d. So, very reasonable compared to the £170 Vauxhall just charged a friend of mine for a similar service. The 123d has a kind of "long life" servicing where the car monitors how its driven and decides upon servicing intervals accordingly, but typically your looking at 20k miles between services compared to the 9k the 350z was. Insurance for me is half the price of the zed (£375ish), Roadtax is £120 i think per year, compared to the £460 the zed was. Mpg should come out at 48mph->50mpg which means my fuel bill will be halved. So so far, running costs seem to be less than half that of the zed. The only downer on running costs are the 18inch run flat tyres which are £200 each, which means similar costs to the zed there, depending up on how long they last. So all in all, whilst the initial outlay on the car is considerable, the overall running costs, incl depreciation should be half that of the zed.

Its not all sad though, I had load of fun in the car and did 20k miles in it whilst I had it. Thats more than some people do in many years if they have their zed as a weekend car. I`ll see if i can find the link on Autotrader. It appears the trader doesnt really know what they have as they have priced it up at a lot less than other higher milage ones with none of the extras. The only extra they have listed on my car is the sat nav... I am half tempted to give them a bell and educate them on what they have! The main killer was the fuel and the depreciation, I havent got my spreadsheet in front of me atm, but from memory fuel was coming in at about £450 a month (I do about 500miles a week), the rest of the cost per month (£300ish) was the insurance / tax / mot / tires / servicing etc... On top of that, depreciation on the car worked out at about £420 per month over the 14 months I had it. So, per month overall we were looking at £1200.

Well done on the sale. I had a similar dilemma when I sold my zed a few weeks back and decided to leave the exhaust on it. I really just couldnt be bothered crawling around under the car and taking bits of etc...

Well, after much deliberation I have finally sold my beloved 313 350z roadster. It was a combination of the running costs and the crappy weather we are having that made me realise that I wasnt able to enjoy the car as much as i wanted. If it was just a weekend car id probably have kept it, but I was using it every day for work. Having bought the car outright for cash 14 months ago, it was still costing me around £850->£900 a month just in running costs. On top of that the depreciation was starting to get silly with big engined cars dropping in value like lead. I have to say it was one of the most fun cars ive ever owned, and the performance really was fantastic. With the roof down and the K1 screaming out under 2nd gear acceleration, it really was awesome. I shall really miss it. What have I replaced it with? Well, a new BMW 123d Coupe M-Sport. Very nice spec with a list of options, coming in at a price which I could easily pick up a number of mad fun weekend cars for, porsches, evo`s, you name it. But, I need something which is going to be cheaper for me to run over the 5 years or so I plan to keep this one for, especially with the kind of mileage I do. As for my 350z, I part ex`d it at a local main dealer rather than have the hassle of selling it privately. They had no idea what it was, and unfortunately glass`s guide doesnt list the 313 model at all. So the price they gave me was just the basic price for the older model. They didnt add anything for the mega long list of optional extras my car had, or the lower then average mileage. So I lost 40% on what the car cost me to buy over around 14months. They subsequently shipped it off to a private car dealer. Because its quite a rare car and a high spec, I soon spotted it appearing on Autotrader, at a dealer in Oxfordshire, it will be interesting to see how quickly they sell it and whether the new owner ends up on here! Whoever does buy it though should have many miles of cheap motoring, as id just MOT`d it, had new tyres, new brake pads, new drive belt. The roof and leather had just been retreated which should last 6 months and the only thing it would need is its P2 service in around 2000 miles time. I`ll still be around on here as this is one of the friendliest forums ive been on.

Welcome!!!

Ive 2 Samsung S2`s and cant fault them. They are lightening quick with ICS, and do everything I want and more. I find when im at home, rather than boot up my netbook, I just reach for my phone. Have to say looking at the specs of the S3, I dont see it being as much of a leap as the S2 was over the S1. My contracts not up for a few more months, so, as always i`ll just see what the best phone for the money is at that time. As for iphone... well ive got an iphone 4s and an ipad 3 in our house and am not impressed with either. Both just dont seem to be very inituative to use. I find myself constantly struggling to workout how to do basic simple things on it, which on my S2 or on my windows 7 netbook are just second nature. Sure they are pretty to look at and if someone who isnt used to smart phones used an iphone they would think its amazing. But, those of us who have had smart phones for donkeys years just arnt impressed with it. Saying that, I used to hate android, and its only with the S2 that ive been converted and are amazed with it. Maybe when the iphone 10 comes out things will be different.

They had 3 in stock when I was looking for mine - 1 older convertible and a couple of coupe`s. This was 18 months ago. They seem to specialize in the more sporty cars. When I was there they had some porsches and sporty beemers as well as quite a few high end cars. They had 2 showroom areas (quite big) as well as an outdoor area. Its this place where I first actually ever saw a 350z Roadster. I went there to look at a bmw m3 they had, then spotted a 350z roadster sitting there in the corner with the roof down. Unfortunately it was sold, but i sat in it, and decided I wanted one there & then. Ended up buying one later that day from Birmingham. Ive not had any dealings with them apart from speaking to one of their sales people, so cant help you there im afraid. I used to live less than 1/2 mile from their showroom, and if I still did id have popped in to lend a hand in appraising one for you. Good luck with the hunt!

love it! The boot polish trick is one ive used many times before when selling cars with worn out black leather. It hides scuffs and wear a treat - but i certainly wouldnt expect it to be a proper long term fix. Jinxy - thats an incredible result there. That after picture looks like a brand new seat.

Up until a few weeks back admiral were always coming back the cheapest for any car i checked on confused.com. Miles cheaper. But now, it seems they have put their prices up and are well down on the list. Privilage are now coming in as the cheapest for me, regardless of what car i put in! I think each company takes it in turns to offer lower prices for a few months in order to get more customers in, then they jack them up again.

Thats a nice looking kit!

Welcome!!!

I know the feeling. Mine scraped a suit case down my door the other week. At least she owned up to it, and at least I managed to polish nearly all of it out.

Try turning the router off when you go bed tonight and then turn on tomorrow and check. Virgin is very bad when it comes to cacheing, ive had problems in the past while trying to develop a website. +1

I wouldnt bank on getting a decent part ex value. Ive just been offered 9grand for my 2007 313 GT Roadster, which has nearly every factory option you could get on it, when ive seen 2008 ones with half the spec up for sale for £14999. Its the peak of summer and convertibles are flying off forecourts like mad. One of the problems is that the "glasses" guide nearly all car dealers use does not recognize the 313 model, so it assumes all 2007->2009 zeds are the basic 296bhp model. Other car price guides such as parkers and whatcar recognize the 313 model and are suggesting that in my case my car is actually worth nearer 11grand as a trade in - but try telling car dealers that.

The Exige and the VX220 turbo are 2 cars ive always fancied owning. When I used to supervise track days at Rockingham race track many years back, the race school there had about a dozen Exiges they used to use and watching them go around the track was incredible.

The roadsters are 100kg heavier, but have a lower centre of gravity than the coupes and therefore apparently handle better. Depending upon which model you get there is very little difference in the performance. According to Nissan my 313 roadster does 0-60 in about 5.7 seconds, so we are talking maybe .2 seconds slower on 0-60 than a coupe, but more than likely quicker than the older 276bhp 350z`s. Either way, once rolling I really doubt there is much difference in performance between the roadster & the coupe. In 2nd gear and 3rd gear on mine ive found very little which is quicker on the road and ive surprised many cars which on paper are maybe 1 second quicker on the "0-60" time. For me its all about 20mph upwards.

All fits the same. Luckily the strenghening bars under neath which are added for the roadster dont foul the exhaust.

Ive just been looking at 123d`s and a lot of people seem to pitch the 123d and 135i together in "as do which car i buy out of these 2". The reviews of the 135i are very good indeed. Very quick and the engine sound is apparently great. But for me, I figure I may as well keep my zed if im going for another big engined petrol. Im increasingly swaying more and more to the 123d as my next car. 0-60 in 6.7 seconds as standard, 200bhp (can remap to 270bhp) and mega amounts of torque, coupled with 45mpg->50mpg if you take it steady. Sounds great to me... fun when I want fun, and economy when its the daily runner. Only downer is that the coupe ones seem to be expensive. 24k for a nearly new one..... or 18k for a 3 year old one. Thats a lot of money.