rabbitstew

Bet the student gets off, even though he was clearly in the wrong from the witness accounts.

Welcome, your right, the zed is a bit of a heavy car, but a cracking one all the less.

Dont know about the sort of people who work at the Tesco car wash, but all the car washes around my way are run by Albanian gangsters who are a bit dodgy to say the least. Luckily I know a couple of them quite well, but I certainly wouldnt fancy messing about with some of them. Having said that, they have always been very polite to customers and take a pride in their work, so maybe the guys on this Tesco car wash are just a bunch of idiots.

I bet you certainly were a bit twitchy indeed. Reminds me of when I was 17 and borrowed my mothers car to drive to college. I flew around this bend only to find the whole road covered in mud where they were harvesting sugar beet. The farmers around my way tend to not bother cleaning the roads afterwards. Needless to say the car spun about 3 times heading straight for a wall before I managed to save it. I had to not only jetwash the car when I got home, but change my trousers as well.

So can I, but we are back again to what people think is "fun". And that is something which varies from person to person depending on what they like! Ive my 350z, a tuned up R1 and a 200+bhp Renault 5 GT Turbo in my garage amongst other things. Looking at the specs online for the 265 Trophy, it has 188bhp per tonne. A standard Renault 5 GT Turbo weighs 0.85 of a Tonne. Mine is stripped out and considerably lightened, so the bhp per tonne figure for it is quite reasonable to say the least! As you can imagine, its a hell of a lot of fun. Do I find it as much fun as the zed. Yes and No. For out and out total mental turbo fun and incredible handling its ace. Ive owned this car for about 12 years now so know it inside out, so feel very confident in throwing it about knowing its limitations (mainly lack of front end grip in the wet). But the zed is a different kettle of fish for me and a completely different type of fun. Both cars are fun at the end of the day!

My dad is a classic at buying my mum pressies. He bought her a microwave one year, and an ironing board another year... I keep telling my missus im getting present advice from him.

I know I'm labouring the point here a bit, but neither myself nor my brother did. Before I bought my first sports car, an MR2, the other choices were an Impreza, a Focus RS, and an MG ZS180. Hardly similar cars at all. Before the Zed, my brother had on his list an Astra VXR and a Focus ST before deciding on the Zed. Again, for him it was about looking at the stats and going from there, along with the style of the overall package. You and me know more about these things so when deciding on a new car we'd work out what we actually wanted from the car (RWD or FWD, 2 seat or 4 seat, NA or FI etc) and then work out which cars fitted those criteria. Joe Public doesn't, he just wants something that he can show off to his mates in, whether that's with a badge (BMW 318i owners) or with masses of power (Mazda3 MPS owners). Examples used for effect, in case anyone takes offence!

Surely thats obvious though? People would buy a RWD sports coupe because they wanted one, not because they thought it was more fun than another car. Not at all. You're assuming that most people know the difference between RWD and FWD: BMW have proven that they don't, and that's why we're going to see FWD 1-series cars in the next couple of years. Joe Public is clueless about cars and how they work and the dynamic differences between the combinations of engine placement and driven wheels. They just care that it looks good, it feels quick and they can afford it. Everything else is irrelevant really. How many people do we get on here wondering what the 0-60 of the Zeds are, and the top speed, and how they compare with other cars? Any serious driver will tell you that's all completely irrelevant, but to some people it's still how they decide what their next car will be. Renault know this, that's why they're making a big thing about their Ring time for the Megane Trophy, as it does sell cars. I remember the stats showing that something like 85% of BMW 1 Series owners thought their car was FWD. But my point was that most people buying a new car wouldnt necessarily be comparing a 4 seater "family" FWD car against a 2 seater RWD sports car. Usually people decide they want maybe a 2 seater sports car, then look at the zed, the z4, maybe an mx5 or s2000 etc... before deciding. And vice versa... they would probably compare the renault against the golf gti, the focus st or rs, astra vxr maybe or whatever other cars match that sort of criteria. Ive had no end of French cars: 3 x Renault 5 GT Turbo Peugeot 206 GTi 1.9 Peugeot 309 Gti Peugeot 307 HDI Peugeot 106 1.5 Diesel Peugeot 306 1.9 Dsport Peugeot 306 2.0 HDI Renault Clio 16v Can honestly say they the ones ive had have been no different to any other cars my family have owned. My family are big VW fans, currently they have a Polo, a Golf and a Passat. The only problems ive had have just been normal routine maintenance like brake discs every 80k etc. Or glow plugs needing replacement after 140k miles etc... On some of these cars I did 80k miles or more.

Jesus!!!! My Xmas party consisted of 4 guys having a meal in Prezzo this year. However my missus didnt roll in until about 6am the morning after her Xmas party.

Do you definately need a laptop or will a netbook do? I bought myself a acer aspire one netbook last Christmas, think it cost me about 200quid new, 2gb ram, 250gb hard drive, dual core processor. I bought it just to mess about on and really didnt think id use it much as I also have a £1800 Sony Viao HD laptop. Believe it or not, ive used the netbook so much the Sony is gathering dust. Its ace. Battery lasts 10->12 hours, its quick loading up and using. I cant really fault it. I use it for all my business stuff, emails, internet, streaming videos / dvd`s everything. Not only that, its ideal in the car for diagnostics as its so small & portable.

Nice one! I was originally looking at a black one myself, but ended up with gunmetal / grey.

Surely thats obvious though? People would buy a RWD sports coupe because they wanted one, not because they thought it was more fun than another car. For the money a zed costs that opens up a whole lot of other cars you could buy, and everyone has their own personal preferences as to what they like or find fun to drive.

Women dont seem to understand HT do they. I repent about 2 grand on KEF speakers a few years back and came home the other week to find my missus had "rearranged" the living room, thus moving all my carefully set out speakers. I had spent hours making sure they were positioned correctly for my sitting position and adjusting the levels. She just doesnt understand the concept of cinema sound. Then had the cheek to say she couldnt tell the difference and would rather we sold them as they are big and ugly and just had the sound from the telly. WTF!!!!!! I think its just her, because all my mates keep saying how awesome they sound, and even the cat seemed impressed watching Rambo 4 at high volume the other night whilst the missus was away.

The whole purpose of the comparison was just to raise debate. Thats the only thing I can think off. As others have said, they are 2 completely different types of cars and therefore shouldnt be compared against each other. But, shows like 5th Gear and Top Gear seem to love doing such weird mis-match comparisons. And this is the reason why I stopped watching such shows years ago as they would make me so angry id end up shouting at the television. The Renault should be compared against other similar cars like the Golf GTI, Ford Focus etc.. and the zed should be compared against cars like the Z4 etc.. I remember many years ago Clarkson was saying some Ferrari or something was crap purely because he couldnt fit a Christmas Tree in the back of it. wtf!

Not a fan myself of eyebrows, but each to their own!

Only check your portfolio when you have had a few beers, never seems so bad Good advise! I tend to check them every few days just to keep an eye on things. After dropping about 75% on what I bought them for back in March, they have been slowly creeping up so I was only 40% down until todays drop. But, I think with all the EU uncertainty and stuff, they are not going to get back to a profit for me for quite some time yet!

My missus suggested I get some of these yesterday and I told her off for being so cheeky!!!!

Well i was in my missus`s car, as I didnt want to get my zed dirty. As it was, looking at the state of her car when we got home, I was quite pleased we didnt take mine. You certainly dont see many Integrale`s around, ideal cars tho for this time of year!

Just checked my portfolio and in total my shares have dropped 20% today already.

Lovely looking car there! And welcome to the forum. Id personally get it inspected if you are not sure what you are buying, that way you have some re-assurance that all is okay with it.

I use the kettle of water trick myself, have done for years. As others have said, make sure its not boiling water!!!

Spotted going north at 90mph then turned off at Watford Gap Services. L** RST i think the number plate was.

I`ll believe it when i see it!

Good info, thanks, I checked out my Escort RS Turbo that I bought in 1989 and sold in 2001 and was amazed to see that it was taxed as recently as July 2011. Pete Wow... thats good, since most of those either were crashed or rotted away! My brother checked all his ex cars over the w/end, he had no end of hot hatches, incl an escort rs2000 (1996 i think it was). The only one left on the road is an old 1994 Clio 16v!!!! Which supprised us a bit"!

Its funny, as ive noticed I have to be careful what shoes I wear in supermarkets. Its as if they super polish their floors or something, as some of my shoes which I can happily walk around outside in, have zero grip when trying to push a trolley in the supermarket! Usually I let my missus drive the trolley whilst I steer it at the front end.