rabbitstew

Ive a mate just like that. He asked me if I could give his car a service. So he bought it over and I checked the oil level and like the OP, it wasnt even remotely showing on the dipstick. I asked him when he had last changed the oil & he said never. Transpired he hadnt even checked the oil level in 7 years of ownership. Amazing what some people are like.

All depends on what the caveats are in your deeds and what the local planning allows. For example, mine wont let me change the frontal appearance of my house much or build out front. At my old house, I built a massive triple garage down the garden and didnt need any planning permissions or anything. Didnt even look at building regs. The main criteria was as long as it was not right up to the neighbours boundry and below a certain height. I got around the height thing by having quite a low angle on the pitched roof, and by building it out of wood the whole garage was classed as a temporary structure. It was seriously big though, the neighbours thought i was building a conference centre.

Depends which 350 you are coming from really. If your going from the older models then the 370 is a nice jump and you`ll notice a big difference. However if your going from a 350HR to a 370 then you`ll notice very little. Personally I found my HR felt quicker, more responsive and more planted around the corners. Another thing to factor in before you rush out & buy a 370, is check your insurance. As whilst it was a no fault accident, very often companies will increase your premium simply because you have had an accident. Still, its a great position to be in, cash in hand, looking for a new car! Good luck!

Ridiculous.

hahahahah!

Very nice, exactly the same as my old one. Lovely car!

Maybe a little more hassle, but what I do when im on holiday is just set my phone to be wifi hot spot - so it shares its 4G with whoever I let connect it. On my phone it just involves clicking on a button and thats it. It was a god send on my last holiday where the holiday cottage in Cornwell had no internet signal, but fortunately I managed to get 3G on my mobile. You can actually download an app which lets you set rules, so for example, it automatically switches the wifi sharing on based on conditions - so for example if its automatically connected to your cars bluetooth, or if you have arrived at home (gps location), or even switched on by time.

A new car always seems better if you have a long drive home after buying it. I bought my HR zed from a main dealer about 80 miles from my house, simply because it was only one of 2 for sale within a 100 mile radius. Was great fun driving back, all excited, getting used to the car & everyone staring! Welcome to the forum!

Result!!!

All depends on how its been driven to be fair and the make of tyres. When I bought my zed at 22k miles it was already on its 2nd set of tyres. I replaced them at around 25k, and when I sold it 20k later the tyres were not even 50% worn. Guess it kind of showed how I drove the car compared to its previous owners.

I had it the other way. When I moved from a very busy main road in a City to a quiet cul de sac in a little small town/village my insurance went up!

Hastings seem desperate for business atm, they are coming up as the cheapest for me whenever I do any insurance quotes atm. Up until now it always used to be Admiral who was coming up cheapest.

I sold all of my cd`s on ebay last year, including a load of rare Metallica stuff. Made good money on them tbh.

I had a Constructive Dismissal once. Basically the company wanted to get rid of me. It was obvious that some Senior people there really disliked me and wanted rid of me. They had changed my job in an attempt to get me to resign and I really hated working there. From what I could see, they had 2 options left. They could either have made up a redundancy and gone through that process, or give me "constructive dismissal". Which from what I understand basically the company making you an offer for you to leave there & then and you accepting it and agreeing not to sue or take them to court etc. In my case, the company went for the constructive dismissal approach. They paid for me to see a local solicitor for him to go over the agreement and explain it all to me. They offered me 3 or 4 months pay tax free. I lept at the opportunity. Pocketed a nice lump sum then spent the whole summer doing labouring on a building site to clear my head before getting another IT role just before the cold weather kicked in. I ended up getting a great tan, getting fit and started the new job fully recharged and with a new outlook on life.

Result!

Welcome!

I had a 370z for a week as a loan car whilst my 350z HR was in for some work and personally I felt that my HR was a much better car performance wise. The 370z just felt slower and less responsive. Handling I felt was the same. I suppose on paper theres very little between the performance between the 350z HR and the 370z and so if you were going from an older zed you might notice more of a difference. And of course, a lot of it might just be personal perception. Of course, the 370z interior was miles better and really made my 350z HR look very dated inside.

Me too! But the bookies reckon Clinton will win.

:blurgh:

Lovely stuff. Back in 2009 a mate of mine had a highly modified 2001 model. Cost him £1750 back then so they must be peanuts now. Had loads of special bits on it. Went like the clappers. Great fun!

Buying back is always an idea if you have the time/tools and storage to break the car down. My last car I had written off was an old banger Peugeot 106 Diesel id bought for about £600. I used it for 2 years, took the mileage up from 80k to 170k then some idiot piled into the back of me at 60mph when I was stationary. Car was squished up like a concertina. Luckily I wasnt far from home so I borrowed a sledge hammer off someone and hammered the rear wheel arches out enough so the back wheels werent catching and I could limp home and get the car on my drive. Insurance came out and assessed it. Assessor didnt blink that I had fitted the full interior out of a GTi model, or query anything "non standard" on the car at all. They immediately wrote it off, paid me £1000 for the car which they felt was the "market value". I didnt even bother haggling as I was extremely happy with that. I asked them what about the car now and they said they would either come & take it away, or I could keep it for free. I kept the car and was going to break it. In the end I just cut the chasis number out of the car, took the plates off, sent the log book off saying id scrapped it and then sold the whole car on ebay for spares for about £250. So all in all, I had 2 years of free motoring and was £650 up on the deal. Had I had the time I could have made a lot more by breaking the car and ebaying each bit, but then you have the hassle with postage/storage of parts etc.

In my experiences of having a couple of cars written off in the past its a pretty straight forward process. You can either deal directly with the 3rd parties insurance company, or go via your own. If the car is written off then the insurance company will give you the market value of your car. i.e. what it would cost to replace it like-for-like with the same car, colour, age, mileage and spec. You more than likely will find that their first offer is a cheeky low-ball one just to try their luck. A lot of people amazingly assume thats fine and accept it. But, if you come back with proof of what it would really cost to get such a car with adverts from Autotrader and Pistonheads etc then in my experience the insurance company will immediately up their offer to the correct market price. Bare in mind that whilst the accident was no fault of your own, your insurance may increase as a result next time as you have been involved in an accident. You might be able to claim the increase in cost (if known) back from the other driver along with any other costs such as hire car etc. Such a shame as it looked like a lovely car.

I always wanted an F40 since they first came out, but sadly doubt if I will ever be able to afford one now. I remember seeing one fly around Rockingham race track when I was working there a good few years back and it was pretty awesome watching it.

Redundancy is usually a really good option as you get a nice payout and its tax free. Companies dont usually expect people to workout their redundancy, so you can leave straight away on whats known as "gardening leave". If the company is making you redundant, i think theres a law where they have to allow you time off for job interviews and try and help you find another role - I know when ive been made redundant in the past thats certainly whats happened. Personally id go for the redundancy option if you can, then start looking for another job straight away. If your lucky you will get offered another job quickly and not have to touch your redundancy cash! Nice little earner! Oh and when you get interviews, dont say your leaving the other job cos you hate it! Just point out how long you have been there (5 years is a nice length of time), that the company restructured and hence you were unfortunately made redundant. Good luck!

Oh dear, why did he put that badge on the back?!