Commander

Small world - my brother was there too in his e36 m3 - think he's got some videos so if I spot any Zeds in them I'll let you know!

I've got these on my HR - great bit of kit, sounds good and they helped me get a few more ponies out when I had it remapped - not surprised they sold so quickly!

Agree 100%, people need to just chill out. I drive 25-35,000 miles a year and very rarely (if ever, to be honest) get frustrated, angry or aggressive behind the wheel. It also has a massive negative impact on your decision making and therefore standard of driving. I used to do those kinds of miles too. When I was getting used to it I got wound up by other people's ineptitude but after the first 9 months or so you just get numb to it and all the stupid things you see are just like water off a duck's back and never wind me up any more. Since I changed jobs a few years ago I work from home a lot and I'm not too proud to admit that my immunity to other people's stupidity does seem to be wearing off a bit - although the lessons learnt from doing the miles will stay with me for a long time yet. (Tailgating... no need! Argh!) Being angry / annoyed / upset / irked / whatever you want to call it, definitely impacts people's decision making. Not sure I agree with this... Yes I'd prefer people indicated more, but even when they do you still have to assume they're going to do the opposite is going to happen. Treat every other driver out there like they're an idiot who's trying to kill you and you won't go far wrong. Accidents happen because people don't realise what's about to happen, or what could happen at any given point in time. None of us can tell the future, but I'd wager that a person who drives 25-30k / year will almost always have greater awareness of what's currently happening / about to happen / could happen, than somebody who only does 10k to the shops and back because they will have been forced to learn to drive more defensively and with greater general awareness. Experience and lessons hard learnt are the only way people really improve imho.

Yep, couldn't agree more!

Congrats! Sounds to me like they're trying pretty hard to keep you - new job title, some direct reports, freedom to make strategic decisions, commitment to train you up and influence over your business' operations... Aside from wanting 'manager' in your job title, I'm not sure what's missing if I'm honest?!

I GOT THE JOB!!!!

Well I'm after two! One nice one and one to track, so manual is ideal, I'm not too worried about the cosmetics and I'm glad to hear the RSF has had some TLC. What sort of price are you after?

I'm in the market for an M3 and I'm thinking about selling my HR (Coupe, not Convertible) - got an advert up anywhere?

I'm sure somebody said the Zed was designed as a 'vert' first and the Coupe design followed? And that the vert was actually quite decent and doesn't suffer with the usual problems you get when a coupe design is chopped up to make it a vert?

Bit of a thread hi-jack but I had my interview yesterday, though I'd hate to call how it went... I think I knocked some of the questions out of the park and others were a bit harder. The role is essentially to manage the team I work in. Easy questions were things like "explain what you'd change about the team / the way we work today", but much harder ones were things like "tell us about a time when you managed a high performing team". Even managed to throw in an anecdote about crashing that rental at the Nurbergring which seemed to go down well. I the hard ones difficult because I don't really have any team management experience, so all I could do was talk about times when I was the technical lead on a project and I had to get other people doing things for me... might not be what they wanted but that's all I had to offer. Find out by the end of next week apparently.

Thanks for all the congrats. I think I'll end up doing something like; Sell HR - Buy something else. M135? E92 M3? Not sure... Engagement ring for the g/f Few £k extra on a mortgage Couple of grand on a holiday next year Even spending £20k is hard work as I want to make sure I get the most out of it... I dread to think what it'd be like if you won Millions!

Right then, just won 20k on the lottery last night! The question is.... Cash in the money + my HR and get a 996 Turbo / XK R / e92 m3... Or pay off some of my mortgage instead? Or something else? Suggestions please!

There aren't many problems with the Zed really. RevUp burns oil, some g'box problems on older cars, but that's it really. Considering you just bought a decent looking 300ish BHP RWD car for fairly little money, I don't think there's too much to complain about. Why not add some info about the car you bought and the concerns you have so people can address your fears?

THIS! You have just described my exact circumstances and current thinking, the only difference is that I work in Networking instead of Programming. I've been a bit luckier though and there is a Management position open at the moment which I've applied for, my interview's on Monday, but it's by no means guaranteed that I'll get it. In the past I have secured promotions by simply asking for them, and by quitting. I walked in to my Director's office one day with two letters - one was a resignation letter and the other was the offer I was about to accept from another company. Fortunately he didn't call my bluff and I stayed, got a 10k pay rise, and a car... but it's a very high risk strategy and I do know people who have tried this and been less successful. I don't have any direct reports or proper management experience today either, but I figure I'm in with a fair shout of getting the role because of the other stuff I do (though I have no idea who my competition is). I'm forever helping my peers and my bosses evaluate complex commercial / technical / political situations and arriving at an informed, rational decision. I also pro-actively try to keep the rest of the business informed about relevant new developments in the Industry and I've been building bridges with some of our suppliers which has proven to help deliver some decent ITT wins for us. My argument on Monday will be that while I'm good at my day job, I do so much more for the business than just that, and if you give me a management role I can focus more on the wider team and my attitude / approach / skills will be able to benefit the 10-12 guys that would be in my team, instead of just me and the jobs I'm working on. There's also a lot of internal change happening in my business at the moment and I have a positive attitude to this, which I also hope will come off well on Monday. Aside from a lack of experience with direct-reports, the only other worry is that in my current role I have a pretty unique set of skills and I know they can't replace me easily (we've been trying to find another me, for months). I am worried that this will work against me. I guess, from my perspective, the thing to ensure is that you want the change because you think you'll enjoy the new role, that you'll be good at it, and that those under you will benefit from your leadership. If you just want the change because you're bored of your current job, then I suggest you need to think long and hard about the change you're going to make before you take the jump as there may be no going back if you're crap at the new job, or if you don't like it.

+1 for moving out. I left for Uni in 2001 and never returned bar a few months here and there while I was between places. Never had any money and drove a shite car for years, but it was a great experience. If you're moving somewhere you don't have any mates, get a house share with 'professional' people your age, just make sure you get to meet / interview them as well as the other way around - don't want to end up in a place full of weirdos! Couple of my mates did this and have built long term friends this way and they've stayed in touch after people move on, etc... They hosted some great house parties too - always a good way of meeting new women

An E90 M3 is better than the Zed in just about any way you care to measure it?.. And I think you can get them from about 18k these days so not massively outside your budget.

^^^ This is the same problem I had; the market is all over the place. I figured about 9k private, 8k trade-in, but it's far from clear cut :-/

Cos it's not as good as a PC... Still doesn't answer the question in the thread title though does it?

Hah, I knew somebody would say that... It's a standard looking silver HR! Plenty of pics on my road trip thread, not that I can find that at the moment. Stupid iPhone.

Silver 313 GT, 73k, fsh, with factory sat nav, black leather, rays, 12 months MOT, 11 months Tax, 4 new MPSS, brand new Milltek ( cat back ), HFCs, new yellow stuff pads and pagid disks all round. Paint about average for age. What do ya reckon?

This makes me feel so much better! At least I didn't roll it

That's my assumption too, but I don't know it for sure.

12-14 mb is pretty good for non fibre. I was in the same boat but was getting 1-2mb before and on 25-30 now so was really worth it. Your provider should be able to estimate what speed you'll get. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [off topic] Yep, definitely worth it. The technology you're probably using today is called ADSL, which means the bit of equipment in your house talks to another bit of equipment all the way over in the exchange, which could be quite a way away, and that's what makes it slow. With fibre, they typically roll it out to your local green cabinet on your street, then it's copper from there in to your house as usual. This means that instead of doing ADSL from House-to-exchange, you will do VDSL from House-to-local-street-cab, which can make things a LOT faster for you. Assuming you're using a BT line, take a look here for details about the service in / coming to your area from BT. http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/ [/off topic]

Kenny Brooks Genius!

I went with the resonated Milltek - looks OEM, sounds great (awarded 'best zorst' on our recent road-trip), doesn't drone, costs less than £900 delivered (cat back) and dead easy to fit. Win.