gangzoom

One month in to having to look after a dependent. It's hard work at times, but not as bad as I had imagined. Actually thinking about booking first holiday aboard with our daughter end of the year....and the Tesla fund is 100% intact, if anything my wife is now getting excited about it, or maybe she cannot wait to see the Leaf go . In short I still don't think it's selfish not to have kids, but having a kid isn't as hard/bad/expensive as I had thought....Actually quite enjoying it so far!!

They certainly stock a wide range of cars, from a V8 to a Ford Fiesta. Though to be fair looking at used prices, there's quite a few at around the £30K mark. It's a lot of car for the money!!! Just think I could buy one of these instead of a Tesla Model S and still have £30K sitting in the bank .

Down size the dream to 1 kid and have a lambo as well Lambo will save you money in the long run I just bought an ex council 2 bed flat near the nice part of Rickmansworth for £285k!!!! I just bought a 1 bed apartment in London, warehouse conversion, big, parking, E1,,,, pricetag was utterly silly, but I did look at houses in Surrey for similar money and could never commit to it, especially considering the commute. With the new place, I walk to work.......... and hopefully in a few years time, I can cash it all in and buy Nurburgring (which should be bankrupt for the 13th time). Your going to drive the GTR in central London!!! I see another potential EVer looming

Absolutely at the end of the day to most people a house is a home first and foremost. It really doesn't matter what the market is upto, when it's your time to buy, and if you can afford it than it's all good .

The problem with trying to factor in rising house prices into their equity calculations is forgetting to take into considering how much your end up spending on the next move up the ladder.....If your house has gone up by 10% than so has the house your about to buy. Given most people buy more expensive houses as they move up that ladder, rising house prices may make you feel richer, but unless your downgrading your actually simply building up more debt. For example, a 10% price increase on a £100K house is £10K extra - you feel great, but that's a £50K increase on a £500K house you want to buy next, so your £40K net worse off. Ofcourse if you can afford to move without selling up that's the best way to generate true increases in equality.

Your LTV is excellent, I know friends buying in a similar bracket aiming for 90%. Don't be tempted to up the borrow more than what you need to get the right house. Factor in what your repayments will be like if interest rates went back up to 6-8% pre 2008 crash. Hope your job situation gets sorted, but it's really impressive to see you have managed to save so much!! As for kids, all I can say is they make you as happy as you can be, but also make you worry/tired/fustrated all at the same time....and I've only had ours for 3 weeks.

Very nice, my wife's IS300H is by far the most comfortable day to day I've ever driven. Really relaxed in traffic, comfy seats, no rattling diesel engine but still 50mpg. Enjoy it .

£700 a month!! That's brand new Tesla money (and lots of other £50k+ car). The 220d engine in the Merc really is horrific for refinement, why buy a 'premium' badge and put up with such an awful noise/vibration. An Insignia diesel is more refined.

^^ Well my less than 3 years old £35k list price BMW £35k+ was less reliable than my old 6 year old £1k Peug 106 .

Lexus is the biggest 'premium' seller in the US, the last few years they have out sold Merc/BMW/Audi, and ultimatly who really cares about what other people think?? BMW/Merc/Audi are as common as muck in most cities, and having owned a BMW previously I can tell you first hand theirs nothing premium about their build quality and realibity is on par with Peugout/Renault . Lexus do 24-48 hr test drives without much hassle. Try one and you might be surprised what you think.

Family friend recently got a new GLC, all shiny but still sounds like a tractor at idle. Honestly sounds like it's done 100K and ready for the scrap yard despite been brand new. If you don't want a diesel tractor have a look at the hybrids from Lexus which are the same price lease as BMW etc, or even something like the BMW 330e.

Everyone loves a bit of glory supporting.... Have lived in Leicester for 15 years now. 2016 so far has certainly been a year to remember, winning the League almost as excited as to see Mr Walkers crisps in his underware

The 16gig SE is good value, and Apple will give me £100 for my 5 so making it £259. Just going to wait to and see what the one Plus 3 is like.

It depends on who is 'assessing' your car, and age/value. We took in my wifes old Civic - coming up to 100K on the clock, 8 years old, so as you would expect some stone chips, kerbed wheels and a couple of cosmetic reparis. I declared all the 'damage' on their website before taking the car in, and was given a value of £4000 (down from £4750 for 'perfect' condition) - which I thought was OK, so took the car in. The boy who 'assessed' the car decided the car needed a whole respray, and all 4 wheels needed doing to get it to 'as new' condition. He didn't quite to seem to understand no one buying a Civic with 100K on the clock is looking for 'as new' condition. Anyways the final offer on the car was £3000, I did suggest that if they are really going to do a whole car respray it's going to cost more than £1000. Anyways I ended selling the car via autotrader that afternoon for £4500 in the same condition as I took it to WBAC. I get the feeling if you have a new-ish car that is in 100% show-room condition, and you don't get an arse of an assessor you will get close to the on-line price. But you can always walk away, like we did, so no harm done.

How are you finding the size/width of the Touareg for getting around town/parking etc? One of next potential cars on my list is about the same width but longer than a Touareg, only thing putting me off is the size compared to all our previous cars.

One Plus 3 looks promising, June release......Having not ventured out of Apple's product range since forever it's pretty amazing what good for value phones are out there . The 5 will keep going till end of summer if needed, but looking fowards to trying something different. http://www.androidheadlines.com/2016/04/ceo-carl-pei-shares-fist-oneplus-3-camera-sample.html

What are the good Windows phones? Main attraction of Android is the cheap £. Some of the latest 'flagship' handset are crazy price. I notice Apple will even sell you finance on an iPhone - 14% APR.....Maddness.

My iPhone 5's battery is slowly dying, it's lasted me well and I'm half tempted just to get the battery replaced for £59, but some of the cheaper Android phones have caught my eye. Especially the One plus 2, £250 gets you a lot of phone. Have always had only iPhone before (Plam Pilot way before), but happy to try something different. Anyone got any experience or Android devices or in particular the One plus 2?? Max budget is £250-300. Should add not all interested in getting another iPhone, I'm done with Apple and gradually shifting eveything to Windows based devices.

That car is likely under a 'flex' deal, so as well as the buying the car your committed to a £70/month deal on battery rental. It's also the base spec which doesn't come with the upgraded heat-pump or reversing camera etc. The PCP deal I'm on works for me purely because am handing it back to Nissan in 12 minutes time. I could have gone for used but don't want the hassell of trying to sell on. When used Leafs hit £5k (battery included), they be bargains interms of keeping as daily hacks, providing your daily commute is less than 60 miles. If I was buying one with a plan to keep for 5 years+ I would be buying the cheapest post 2013 car.

A used Leaf is crazy cheap if you commit to keep using it as a daily hack and plan to keep it for say 100K+ miles. The first 2nd generation cars (post 2013) are now appearing for under £10K battery owned, with less than 20K on the clock. The batteries have proven to be good for 100K despite been charged to 100% each time by a Taxi company. http://evfleetworld.co.uk/news/2015/May/Taxi-company-hits-100000-mile-landmark-with-LEAF/0438019955 So assuming 4miles per kWh, 12p per kWh, and 95% charger efficiency = £2520 in fuel costs for electricity over 80K miles. A similar age/miles 1.6TDI Ford Focus is roughly also £10K. According to Honest John the real life mpg of the Focus is around 55mpg. So assuming 55mpg, fuel at 105p per liter, 80K miles = £6900 in fuel costs. Add in the difference needed for oil servicing on a combustion car, say £100 per 10K, and £0 for EV (which is ture), the running cost difference between a relative efficiency TDI + cheapish fuel costs and a Leaf is £5K over 80K assuming no mechanical breakdowns on either car. Given we are talking about a £10K car to start off with a £5K difference in running costs over 80K based on fuel is massive. I honestly wouldn't object to keeping the Leaf as a daily run around, and than having something special for the weekend, but that's not a option for me. I'll be booking an extended test drive in a Model S/X before the year is out, which am sure many people on here will be looking forwards to my thoughts on EVs after that .

Given the X is the only mass production car with folding gull wing doors, has the largest piece of front windshield glass ever produced, the most advanced auto-pilot hardware/software, it would be frankly amazing if it didn't have 'bugs' to sort out at this early stage of it's production cycle. The first UK demo cars have apparently just arrived in showrooms, the deal breaker for me though is there is still no confirmed UK pricing. It's likely the base spec 75D will have a starting price north of £70K (Compared to £40K for a used 85kWh Model S). Which compared to my Leaf is horrific/un-justifiable amount to spend on any car, regardless of the tech. But I'll wait and see in 12 months time, if we can keep on saving even at 50% the rate we've managed in the last 12 months despite having a baby, than who knows .

Halifax will finance a Tesla at 3.3%, which is pretty damn good. Have been tempted but there's no rush, the Leaf is doing fine, costing me hardly anything to run, and at the rate which Tesla is bringing out new updates etc, used prices are only heading one way, in 12months time a used S85 will be <£40K (£70K+ original price) . Besides, currently have other more important things on my mind(already another thread about that!!).....But clearly not that busy given I'm still having time to come on here

It’s been just over 12 months since I swapped my old car (BMW 335i) for a Nissan Leaf. Various factors drove me to try such a drastic shift in transportation, after all the two couldn’t be more different. The 335i was heavily modified and it’s engine is essentially the same block found in current M2/M3/M4, the Leaf is an all electric car with a range of less than 100 miles in summer (70 miles in winter), and a 0-60 time in around 10 seconds. So what’s it been like?? Range: Biggest concern around EVs is always range. If your doing 300 miles a day than no EV is going to work for you – it’s as simple as that, but my self it's been OK. I've done 7000 miles in 12 months, most of my trips are sub 20 miles, so even in winter the 70 mile range of the Leaf is fine for my usage pattern 95% of the time...The other 5%, it's a major pain in the backside (see below on Long distance travel). Charging: I have a home driveway/garage, so charging is a non-issue. I can plug in at home, and even with-in 3-4 hrs of charging the car will be back up at 80%. In 12 month of usage I’ve yet to come across a situation when I had issues with charging at home. I’ve even been able to charge it at a farm using a 3-pin plug whilst on a stag do. If you haven’t got a home charging solution, again EVs current really are not going to work well for you. Long distance use (100 miles+): Range and charging away from home are major issues and current solutions are NOT fit for purpose on both counts. motorway service stations now have rapid chargers that can deliver 80% charge in 30 minutes. But to be honest it’s useless because 80% range in the Leaf at M-way speeds is about 50-60 miles, and unless your crazy stopping every 50-60 miles is not really compatible with M-way travel.....For me that's not an issue, we have a second car in the family, but for anyone thinking of running one as their only car....I would think again (Personally I wouldn't/couldn't do it). The drive: The Leaf isn’t a quick car, but it’s surprisingly good to drive. The electric motor responds instantaneously to your throttle input, and with no gears to worry about it means the drive train of the Leaf is by far the most reactive I’ve tried in any car before. Going back to any petrol car is like trying to use an old Nokia phone in a day/age dominated by smart phones. This is the future of driving, I have no doubts about that. Day to day use: Not much to say, it's a large 5 seater hatch back with folding rear seats, you can pack load of stuff, and a baby seat fits in with no issues. Plenty of gadgets too. Cost: This was one of the main reasons I jumped into the Leaf. I’m currently paying £200/month, having put down £0 deposit. Somehow despite me taking delivery of the Leaf last March, my finance payments didn't start till May, so I essentially got 2 month ‘free’. My main aim of getting the Leaf was to enable me to save up £50K in 24 months, well actually thanks to my wife now contributing to the Leaf replacement + sale of the old car, we’ve hit the saving target in just 12 months. We are getting £150/m back from interest from the savings made as result of me getting the Leaf. The Leaf has cost me 1000kWh of electricity to run over 7000 miles and 12 months (£120), add in £99 service and £350 insurance which means in TOTAL my motoring costs are now about £100/month. Which I’m more than happy with Overall: As much as I love the EV drivetrain of the Leaf I would say to anyone thinking of getting an EV now I would recommend holding off for another 12 months. The Leaf is cheap, but it is compromised by range. For early adopters who are keen to get involved/experience what the fuss is about it's great (providing you can get it cheap), but for the majority of 'normal' people the range is a killer, and you cannot get around it. But things are getting better, BMW are due to announce a 50% boost to the battery/range of the i3 this summer. GM are due to deliver their 200mile range EV (Bolt) to customers in the US Q4 2016, and Tesla have taken nearly 500K per-orders for their ‘affordable’, 200 mile range EV, with deliveries starting end of 2017. Nissan will also surely update with Leaf 2016/17 too…..Essentially the tech is getting cheaper/better, and the current generation of cars are on the verge of been replaced/superseded, so waiting is really the most sensible thing to do!! What next for me: As much as I enjoy the cheap running costs of the Leaf, I’m now wanting something quicker and with greater range. I could run the Leaf as my main car and get a weekend toy quite easily, but becoming a dad means family duties come first - which means one car to do-it-all. The Leaf contract will expire in around 12 months, and sadly despite been on-sale since 2012 the only real replacement EV I can think of is a Tesla of some kind – Either S or X. There is no arguing you need a serious wedge of ££££ to get into a Tesla, it’s far from been a ‘people’s’ car, but for us, we are lucky enough to be able to afford one, and as they say....’You only live once’, so why the hell not. The exact spec/budget is still to be decided, but one thing is for sure, both me and my wife are in 100% agreement our new born daughter is most likely going to grow up with no concept of what a combustion car is. By the time she is old enough to really understand cars we’ll be replacing her Lexus with a similar C-segment sized EV. The combustion car is already dead to our household......I really cannot wait to see what the future holds for the car, all I know is am thankful I’m lucky enough to be alive, and have the financial capacity to experience the coming revolution first hand. The Leaf will be distant memory in 5-10 years time, but just like my very first car (Nissan Micra), despite it’s lack of range I’ll always remember fondly as the very first EV I ever own, and the first car my daughter experienced .

Anyone who thinks women aren't physical enough to compete in something like F1 need to go and ask their mothers/wife's what it's like to go through labour!!! Having just recently watched my wife go through the whole thing recently I can tell you I would (and other most men, F1 drivers included) wouldn't have managed 5 minutes let alone 6-7-8 hours of it..... Bernie is part of previous generation that have had their time. My daughter is going to grow up doing what ever she wants. But more importantly for me it's always brains over brawn, and actually I don't want my daughter risking her life in a sport that exists mainly for entertainment, she's not going to be that stupid .

Baby girl, been up now pretty much 32hrs striaght (kind of happens when labour starts at mid night!!). But all is good, the baby seems to have no problems sleeping, am the one jumping up at every noise .