gangzoom

I blame Roy Ried for making me spend a disgusting amount of £ on a car. I was fully expecting another session of EV bashing as per Clarkson, but instead he just confirmed every thing I already know about EVs. But I do realise the irony of taking consumer advice from a show like TopGear

Congrats on getting married!!! Best advice I can give about wedding planning, what ever the question your better half asks you about X/Y/Z just nod your head and smile!!! As for cost, a registry wedding will cost a few hundred quid at the most, on the other hand we had some photographer quote £5k+ to cover just the wedding day. It really is like everything else in life, don't get bogged down comparing to other people, its your wedding, do/spend as much or little as you want .

Found a better picture of a white one with 21inch wheels...Looks pretty damn sweet. Tempted now to dump AWD option, up the battery size, which will give me an excuse to get some 21inch wheels

Yeah not bothered about autopilot, but would like the hardware, pre-crash avoidance, and lane departure warning etc all comes standard with the hardware, and if I really really wanted auto-pilot later I can activate it later by paying Tesla. Also have the option to 'add on' another 15kWh of battery range at a later date. Was tempted by a used 24 months old pre-face lift P85+ but it's not any cheaper than a new 60D, and the only real advantage is 0-60 time (4.2 seconds versus 5.2 seconds), but the new car will be better built, AWD, with longer battery warranty and autopilot hardware. Cannnot wait....Might even bring the delivery date forwards if I get really impatient, the Leaf can always be parked up in the garage. .

^^I haven't actually seen a face lifted Model S in the flesh!! But I've been told that it looks really good in the metal, and with/without the plate looks better than the pre-face lift car. It will look identical to this one, minus the black wheels

But doesn't arrive till Feb 2017 £ dropping like a rock against the $ has 'forced' my hand in ordering the Leaf replacement early. So everything been ok, this will be replacing the Leaf in Feb 2017....It's going to be a long long wait .

When given the choice between cash in the pocket or a 2 litre diesel surely there is only one choice .

Mercedes actually has made a very good EV. In the next few years (by 2020) there will actually be a battery powered C class . http://www.motoring....fast-ev-102721/

I don't mean to come across as cocky, but I don't pay for it so I don't really care, my only cost would be the BIK. We looked into buying my own shitbox ( translate to boring diesel commute-mobile ) and the costs don't add up. I won't lie, I'm pretty in the dark with this, and just following what my accountant has told me and doing the sums myself, this seems like the best option. Someone is paying for it, from what I know about company cars most employers will allow you to give up the company car 'perk' in exchange for a higher gross salary. May not be what you want to do, but I know of a few family friends who gave up their company cars pretty quickly after doing the sums in regards to getting extra £ in their pay packet instead. Worth asking your employer at the very least.

£400-500/month seems like an awful lot to throw away on a generic diesel barge. If your saving for soemthing nicer/you reallg want wouldn't it make more sense to see if you can drop the company car for a higher take home pay? Save £500/month and in 2 years your have £12k in the pocket.

Am sure the planet will sort it self out too, every dominant species eventually end up only existing in fhe fossil records, I don't see us been any different . As for the V8 am sure your always be able to have one along as you have the £ to fund your hobby.

^^Don't forget the 2k initial lump sum for high CO2 cars. The idea i suspect is to deter people from buying in the first place.

EVs also dont have to any fuel duty, not unless they tax electricity which will put up prices for everything. 1/4 of the miles i did last year also count at buissness miles, and HMRC pay 45p per mile even for EVs. If i did more buissness miles HMRC would end up paying 100% of the running costs!!! Infact am sure people are making money from HMRC by using EVs to do big miles, its not uncommon to see 1year old Tesla's been sold with 15K on the clock. EVs only maks up 4% of new car sales at present but when the fleet market catches on to the potential savings the treasury will have to re-write the rule book.

Not to rub it in....our household car tax bill for both cars

Next week will be interesting, sounds like the BBC have made up with Tesla as they have got hold of an X...Am pretty sure that piece will generate plenty of debate

Seen quite a few Mustangs around already, so Ford must be shifting them, or else owners just lovr driving around in them.

Only saw one bit btiefly..Did they really stick a machinr gun and rockets on to a Viper?? Looked like the producers decided their target audience was a bunch of 5 year olds. I presume the rest is on iPlayer, will give it a watch, MBL will pull in the viewers and am sure his half decent at his role.

I know there are quite a few gamers around, been playing around the Samsung VR gear last few weeks and have been really impressed at what it can do. Originally wanted just a cheap Android phone to replace my dying iPhone 5, but a deal came up on a used S7 which I couldn't pass on, so ended up with another £400 handset instead of a £200 one . After I took delivery I realised the handset worked with Samsung's VR gear....Had a look at prices online, and for £60 (used) I thought it was worth a go. So here's what the headset looks like with the phone attached. It's surprisingly light, and even though I wear glasses because of all the head support it's more comfortable than wearing 3D spec on top. The screen resolution is a little disappointing to start off with, these days we are all use to 4K/HD, this is more Quake 1/original UT resolutions. I know you can get higher res VR solution but they require hooking up to a PC/PS4, where as this works off a phone (and is really cheap). The games: Samsung have their own VR store, but unlike the Android or iTunes store most games/app are pay-once affairs, and a quite a few free VR demos. To be honest it's refreshing to find apps/games where you just pay once rather all this 'free to play' and 'in-app purchase' rubbish. After trying a few free demos, I bit the bullet and splashed out a whole £3.99 on a space shooter called 'End space'. Had to get a Bluetooth game pad (£20) to go with it, but after spending a few hours playing it last week have to say I'm now hooked on this VR business. From the screen shots you can see its a bit like X-wing/Tie-Fighter or Wing commander. Essentially you pilot a fighter flying round shooting at various things, dog fighting, doing maze runs around capital ships etc. You control the ship with the game pad, shoot with trigger, So nothing new so far.....but the killer addition is instead of only been able to look at what's infront of you, you turn you head and the whole view in the cockpit changes. You can now visually 'track' that fighter by looking to your left/right whilst moving your ship in a totally different direction. Look up and you see a massive gas giant in the background, look down and you see the floor of the cockpit - as well as details about your ship. The guns follow where you look and is amazingly accurate, it'll track the smallest change in your head position/orientation. It totally changes your gaming experience, it's feels so 'real' I got a bit of motion sickness initially but now get use to it. It's a little hard to explain, but essentially of needing a stupid 3 screen setup like the below, but without the stupid weird distorted FOV in the other monitors and much much more immersive. You get a much more immersive experience than anything I've tried before, and really really hard to explain, you have to try it to really get it. The head tracking of the VR gear is incredibly accurate. The potential for racing games is massive. Having cockpit view in current driving games is great, but in reality it's nothing like real driving, as in real life we are constant looking around and changing your point of focus. Traditional cockpit views just cannot deliver this, but a VR headset will change all this. Sadly there is no racing games on the Samsung store yet. It may be because of the limited resolution of the current phone, or a lack of processing power, but something I would love to try something like Forza with a high res VR headset, a steering wheel, and surround sound....It'll take gaming to the next level!! If you got a compatible Samsung phone I strongly suggest you give the Gear VR a go, but make sure you get a controller too, your need it. 3D was a bit of flop, and wearable's are also proving to be a bit of damp squid, but this VR thing is really coming of age. For those of you with a big gaming rig I would think the Oculus Rift must deliver the next level of VR experience, and I'm a bit jealously of what you resolutions your be able to run in VR. Sadly I haven't got time to mess around a gaming rig these days, so I'll make do with the VR gear, and wait for the next round of updates. Samsung is apparently already working on the next VR gear. On a separate note, I also found out you can get Mario Kart on the S7 for free.....Despite it's cartoon graphics the game play is still top class. Or maybe I'm just really rubbish at more realistic racing games

With BMW/Merc/Audi etc you should be looking at 15% off list price as a starting point if buying on PCP. But I thought Porsche was one of the brands that did little to no discounts?

Good question OP, never have worked out just the deprecation 'costs', not had that many cars... Mondeo ST24 -> DC2 Teg £1K lost in 6 months DC2 Teg -> 350Z, £4K lost in 10 months....At this point I learnt an important life lesson. Never trust a car dealer 350Z -> 335i, £13K lost in 4.5 years. 335i -> Leaf, £8K lost in 4 years. Leaf ->????. Unknown So in total £26K lost in deprecation/initial capital over roughly 10 years, or £216/month, which is about how much the leaf is costing me. Though clearly mods/insurance/garage/fuel costs will probably double that figure. So like the OP I'm quite surprised at how "little" money I've wasted on cars. I have a bad feeling though in the next 12 months that might end up changing, and that figure may double/triple!!! Though I can afford it, when it comes down to parting with the cash it may turn out to be a different story.

Sounds horrific, hope it gets sorted and you don't end up having to go to court as a witness. I've replaced my cycling with swimming these days.....Have had a few too many close calls in the past .

But an Aygo cannot carry 4 adults and a baby seat in comfort, allow everyone inside to talk at a comfortable volume even at 70mph on M way, and does the equivalent of 150mpg+ interms of fuel costs. The Lexus has been sat idle on the driveway for the last 4 weeks now, with the Leaf doing 99.9% of family/commuting duties. As a family car it really is hard for me to fault the Leaf at the moment. It's even making me doubt the wisdom of spending £60K+ on a Model S in 6 month times when the Leaf is been so good and costing me next to nothing....Infact the total £££ I would have spent on the Leaf for 2 years would be barely enough to buy fancy leather seats+para roof on the Model S!!!

Not sure about porn, but the Gear VR shop have some interesting content already. The resolution is not great at moment, think Quake 1 quality, but the head tracking is really really impressive, and I find the headset is actually more comfortable to wear compared to 3D glasses. I'm sure the next S8/S9 will up the resolution to improve things, and it may be a good enough reason to tempt me to upgrade. For FPS games this is the way forwards, they just need to get some kind of arm/hand tracking controller. This is one of the new games just released, its a free roaming arcade shooter. Can see lots of potential in this VR business!!

Instead of saving money with a cheap android handeset, I some how ended with a S7. Had it for a few days now, and love it, so much more customizable than iOS, a much better camera, expandable storage but most impressive of all no longer need to worry about battery life all the time!!! Wife now wants one to replace her 5S Also couldn't resist in ordering this, may be a gimmick but at £90 worth a trial.