marzman

Did anyone ever see Clarkie34's car again after he sold it? That was one of the best zeds on the forum back in the day.

Thanks for all the advice and messages so far everyone, i'm taking it all in. I think the biggest think i've taken note of so far is the mortgage percentage thing... it sounds like 50% of my take home on mortgage payments would be over the top. I know it's horses for courses as, i dont really have anything to spend my money on (no kids, dont smoke, rarely drink, no hobbies other than cars), so perhaps 50% of my income might still leave me with more free cash than others, but still, i hadnt considered what it would be like trying to make those large payments if something bad had happened etc.

Your car sounds like an HR. The DE is the 2003-2005 model year. JWT is a make of an intake, which is often thrown around.

This... When i do the online mortgage calculators and see the actual amount i'd be repaying when borrowing 90% it's terrifying. I feel like i want to keep saving forever so i can buy a house outright! ... but then im renting a house during that time, and the £8000 a year in rent im paying is just money in the bin. ...perhaps i should buy a small house now with a mortgage around the same price as my current rent costs, and then at least that £8k a year is going towards my own mortgage rather than our landlords, although doing this will mean i'll have to downsize, which im really reluctant to do.

I think i'm too cautious to be lucky. The other reason i've not bought is i see the housing market as being too volatile. The way house prices are rising right now, i can only see them falling through the floor when the bubble bursts again. Hi Chris, long time no talk. We work for a few very rich self made people,and sometimes I have to say I think were am I going wrong. Don't get me wrong, I'm reasonably well off but it's that step to a different league. What I have noticed is that they just get on with it with an unnerving energy and self belief. I'm a bit like you, by the time I've worried about it and thought it through, the opportunity has passed. Case in point is a local company a stone's throw from us both, Magpie. They polish scratches out of old cds dvds etc and then flog them. I was doing this for my son and his mates playstation games with t cut years ago. Magpie guys just took it to another level and ran with it and are now multi milionaires I have renovated properties for people and made them fortunes. As Dan says, a lot is down to luck. What I will say about property though, as history shows, in the longterm, it will always go up. My first house in Macclesfield was £8,000, its now £120,000. the problem comes if you have to bail out in a dip. I've said to you before, if your not a risk taker, property in this country, long term is always a good investment. I realised that after blowing fortunes on fancy cars I think our location is part of the problem. In what sounds similar to what you describe, 8 or 9 years ago whilst i was at Uni, i worked as a plumbers mate over the summers in Prestbury, so i've been in 30-40 of those mega houses and want their life. One of them had 9 bathrooms and an indoor swimming pool, and will forever be my benchmark of success. Property is still on the cards for me... i've got enough of a deposit at the moment to buy a sub £100k terraced house to gut and flip, and hopefully look to make £7-10k profit. I think realistically im likely to take this route with 3 or 4 houses over the next 3 years, to accelerate my deposit-saving capacity.

I think i'm too cautious to be lucky. The other reason i've not bought is i see the housing market as being too volatile. The way house prices are rising right now, i can only see them falling through the floor when the bubble bursts again.

1 week of your net...? Wow, i'll be living in a shoebox then. Having 3 kids must be tough, plus your other half not working. My wife doesnt earn much more than minimum wage but it still helps. When she's not working i struggle to save much.

Seriously, im not joking we have discussed moving to Canada. I even mentioned you when raising it with the wife! My Dad lives in the states and my wife has family in both Vancouver and Toronto so its a realistic-ish prospect for us. If i had a job that offered those kinds of prospects i'd be up for it, and with me considering a job move it's not outside the realms of possibility. We have no kids and will not be having any either, which helps.

Looks really good. Definitely do the door handles and then maybe the inner mouth of the front once the lip's fitted.

Hope she knows about it. Thats pretty cool - well done Amy.

Looking at the pictures of this guys property in the Porsche thread... http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/85721-the-991-is-back-with-a-new-engine/ How do you get to a position where you own a home like that? You cant do it whilst being an 'employee'. You need to be a business owner and have other people earning that money for you, i'm sure. Or have family money/inheritance... At 30, im not a homeowner yet... simply because my idea of an acceptable place to live far outweighs my buying power! I spend a lot of time looking on Right Move, and all the houses I want are £3-400k, but with little deposit (only stated saving at Christmas) and no equity from a current house or help from family, how can i do it? Career-wise, i've got a very good job but im probably at the ceiling salary-wise for my job title. I've started to look round at other jobs which would be a step up in job title, paying £55-70k but even then i cant see how that'll make a huge difference to my buying power. What do people feel is an acceptable percentage of their net income to be paying towards a mortgage? I dont really want to be paying more than 50% really at the very most... but thats going to limit me to a sub £250k house with a 10-15% deposit. How do you guys do it?

Lucky buggers. At our place if you dont have a car allowance you get 40ppm, but as i do thats why im now getting shafted with 14ppm.

How long does it take for the payment to come through? This is my first year submitting it...

... you want a 911, or a 320d?

Yep. I've never bothered with it until this year, but i submitted a claim dating back 3 years this May and it's worth about £700 i think.

Until recently i've always had uneconomical cars such as the Zed or the RRS etc, and i've always *just* broken even with my business mileage allowance (25p per mile). All my colleagues drive diesels and were pocketing quite a few £££ a year in profit from the extra they made on their journeys. Around 6 months ago the number of miles i was doing increased due to a number of new clients, and so i decided to join the diesel club buying a BMW 320d, pocketing roughly £100 a month in profit! However, we were informed last week that our company has now changed it's business mileage policy (in line with the HMRC), and from now on will only be paying 14ppm for <2000cc Diesels (mine is 1995cc), and 17ppm for > 2000cc. Alternatively, if i have a >2000cc Petrol car they will pay 24ppm. So what that boils down to is i must own a diesel which achieves approx 46mpg in order to break even on a work trip, or a 26mpg petrol car (assuming using regular unleaded, not super, and dependent on the price of fuel of course). So to me this is a no brainer.... i should ditch the derv and get a fun petrol again! A zed would almost work, except for needing super unleaded, but this is a negligible difference. Also the sweetener - the company gave me an £800 increase to my car allowance to cover the shortfall in 'profit'... so essentially they've just leveled the playing field between owning a petrol and a diesel, and given me an £800 a year bonus too! The only downside is that i cant get another Diesel RRS as i'll be massively out of pocket owning that... but stupidly i might be better off if i got a petrol one, but i need to go away and check the sums...

I'm up for this.

Mine were 8mm on the examples below, which i think are the perfect size. Note you will have to dremmel down the backs of those holders as they're deeper than the reflector. You need to secure the holders in the reflectors with glue, but not superglue as it reacts with the plastic. I use 'serious glue' which they sell in Wickes for a few quid. Lastly, i always filled mine with clear silicone sealant to waterproof them, before sticking the back of the reflector back on top (which i'd previously dremmelled off.)

Where did you buy your LEDs from. ? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk eBay. £5 for 50. You need to get some resistors too, relative to the LED's you buy. I used to use the calculator, below, to work out what voltages i needed etc: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

That picture was from my car about 4 or 5 years ago. Just look on ebay for 350z LED Reflectors. However i used to make my own and briefly sold them. If you're handy with a soldering iron these are really easy to make yourself. I say easy, they were a good 3 hours work per pair to make, hence why i binned the idea off as i was only making about £30 profit per unit. It was more of a hobby than a money making scheme. http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/67074-led-reflectors/page__hl__reflectors

Wow the dipped version looks bad ass!

Honestly, not great. I dont enjoy driving it, it always feels like such a chore, i find it clunky and cumbersome. Will be getting rid in the near future i think. Thats a shame dude. At least you can tick it off the bucket list hey. Right you are.

Honestly, not great. I dont enjoy driving it, it always feels like such a chore, i find it clunky and cumbersome. Will be getting rid in the near future i think.

I've got a .177 Co2 AK, amongst a few others.

Too cheap seeing as it is a genuine pop charger.