marzman

Bit too different for me that.

Thats great insight, cheers Jim. To be fair i only do about 8k miles a year most of which would be in the daily, so only 2-3k in either the Jeep or Stang, so it's nice to have something different/agricultural for special occasions.

I've been on Autotrader/eBay literally every day since Christmas trying to work out what i want. I can't stop flip flopping between options, but i feel like i'm getting closer to a decision! I have £10k to spend, plus the value of my Mustang (£31-32k) if i decide to get rid. Or I dont mind borrowing a bit more if needs be. My dream car is a Mercedes AMG GT. These start at £52k, so are within reach, but it doesnt satisfy my needs. I want a nice, easy to drive daily - my current front runners are a C250d C-Class or a current shape Audi TT - both are approx. £13k for the spec i'm after. But i also keep coming back to 4x4's. I've had 2x first gen Range Rover Sports which i loved, but they were really unreliable - i'd love a new shape one but expect they'd be equally as crap to maintain. X5 or F-Pace is an option here. Beyond that - I definitely want a special car for the odd weekend trip out. A classic Mustang is the front runner here... but a heavily modified Jeep Wrangler is also high on the list (I want both!!) Or a caterham-style car of some sort. Or TVR. But with almost all of those options, it means my Mustang has to go. It hurts because it's lovely to look at and gets an unbelievable amount of (positive) attention... i just don't love it. Below are some of the cars i'm strongly considering:

His car is a JDM so will need a JOBD capable reader rather than ODBII.

Trace the pipe back from the bonnet spray jets to under the front windscreen cowl. There will be a Y shaped 1 way valve which gets blocked. I replaced mine with a Bic Biro pen lid for a fe months and it worked perfectly.

Happy days. Looks identical to my first one.

My first one had stock JDM brakes, second one had Brembos with uprated discs and pads. Definitely a big difference between the two, but i wouldnt say they were dangerous - but definitely dont take it to a track! I managed to cook my JDM brakes on a spirited drive out with this club, and i had to limp home with a spongy pedal. Although this was easily remedied with braided lines and a fluid flush.

Hmmm... could do. Not sure how long electronic records go back for.

It'll be fine... nothing to be afraid of. Mine were very well blacked out... just a tiny rectangle of electrical tape cut and stuck over the K. You'd be hard pressed to tell even if you knew about it.

Do my GT350R replica's count as oem?

I would guess that if the clocks say M/H then the K has been blanked out, as i would have thought they'd say MPH otherwise. But you say thats not the case, so i dont know. You'd need a UK owner to confirm whether their clocks say M/H on them presumably. BUT... On a typical import the speed signal wire behind the clocks will usually have been modified by fitting an HKS Speed Defencer (no, not a typo!) which modifies the signal to output MPH rather than KPH. However ideally you need to find out at what mileage that was fitted, as the miles on the car pre-fitting will be KM's, and post fitting will be miles. If they are genuine UK clocks though, i think the mileage is locked to the clocks themselves so whatever mileage was on that would remain after being installed in the car i believe. Could be wrong though. Regarding the central pods, i believe if HKS SLD is fitted then they output in MPH anyway - but for me at least it was the lack of MPG readout that was the bigger concern - the JDM pod reads in KM/L. But yes you can just straight swap for a set of UK pods without any further modifications. EDIT - one more thing to ask (cant really check lol)... by default JDM's are electronically limited to 112mph. My first one was, my second one wasn't. Im not sure how this is lifted... whether you need a map or something else.

...And after 9 years of Jim being on this forum i've only just realised that DoogyRev is Very Good backwards.

I'm half a generation after 'Joey' was popularised... i'm 37 but my brother is 50... and i still remember one Sunday dinner in the 90's him explaining to me the origins of the term. I've only come across it a handful of times since.

Joey. Not heard that in years!

Doesn't sound like droplinks to me. They're not that loud and are more of a creak. Could be wrong though.

Bastards!!

Cheers, thats good insight. I didnt really consider them moving the age brackets as raiding pensions, but i guess it is exactly that.

What sort of stuff could they do, or did they do previously? I assume removing the tax relief on contributions to some degree, but can they do anything to actually invested cash? I hate the concept of a pension anyway and would rather invest in the markets so that i'm not locked in till i'm 57... especially if there are other pitfalls im not aware of.

Good plan... until the government whack a £5k a year road tax on ICE cars, forcing the market to implode. My mate's got a Ferrari F430 which he refers to as his pension.

Hi guys, Very off topic, i know, but i'm interested to know how much people are saving for their pensions / investments for later in life, e.g. how much are you putting away each month, or what final pension pot size are you aiming for...? I genuinely haven't got a clue on how much is 'normal' to be putting away, although i guess that's irrelevant as everybody's circumstances will be different. I'm aiming for early retirement (57 at the latest) but I've neglected my pension until recently, only contributing minimally. I'm now 37 - so i'm aware I'll need to 'kick the arse out of it' from now on... but I'd still like to understand what normal is! For reference, i've found the below quote on The Telegraph website. According to the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, a single pensioner would need a pension income of £10,200 to live a “minimum level” lifestyle in retirement, which is already slightly more than the current maximum new State Pension of just over £9,100 a year. Profile Pensions estimates that a single pensioner could live comfortably on £17,818 a year, which would require a pension pot of £237,000 at retirement. If you’re in a couple or don’t own your own home, you will need to aim for a higher income and pension pot. The average UK pension pot after a lifetime of saving stands at £61,897. With current annuity rates, this would buy you an income of only around £3,000 extra per year from 67, which added to the maximum State Pension, makes just over £12,000 a year, just enough for a basic retirement lifestyle. Cheers.

Yeah mad init. I'd have lost my house on that bet. I blame non-HD TVs from back in the day!

And is a valet key even supposed to start the car? I always thought they just unlocked it so it could be valeted...?

Did you drive it or leave it running after that one time it started, or just shut it off fairly soon after? Could be flooded (again) potentially. Try pulling the fuel pump fuse, turning the key and let it crank for 30 seconds, return the fuse and retry. This should dispel any excess fuel. Although i expect your mechanic would have tried that already...

I got into The Professionals when watching a bit of daytime TV in lockdown 1.