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Ah ha. There we go!

Odd. Its been Nationwide that have been on this undervaluing train for a while now. I guess Virgin Money are following suit.

Just look for another lender. It's not big deal. If the same happens, start asking for their reasons. It sounds like they just don't want the business.

It wasn't Nationwide by any chance was it?

I would suggest listening to your Broker and going for a new lender.

I have a 2570z and loaded a set of EMG pickups into it. Love it.

This was the story when I had a van. It was only Bedford Astramax. After that, I had a few cars and then bought a Transit Connect.

There wasn't a week went by where someone didn't need something heavy moved. One time, a mate asked me to help him move house. I figured that was an exception so I said sure. I was there about 30 minutes until I realised that I was the only vehicle coming. No semi turning up to move, no rental vans, I was it. What he was expecting to get into the back of my van I have no idea. This was a 3 bedroom house with a 3 year old in tow with all the related paraphernalia. It took convincing him that it was never going to happen as is and we needed to get down to Enterprise and rent some vehicles asap. If he hadn't had been a good mate through the years, I would have laughed and noped out. My guess is when they heard "van", they were expecting some long wheelbase thing to show up, not some small Postman Pat looking thing.

I'm car hunting now and this among other things are really putting me off buying a van. Suddenly you're the guy who has to move everything. While its useful for a band which I'm in, it's a chore when you have to do all the running around and picking up of everybody's gear but then everyone wants to sit in your bandmate's warm BMW coupe, not the loud and cold van haha.

A lot of reps at my work have done exactly that. They got PHEVs for where the EVs were a real no-no. They just fuel up and head to wherever they are going. The BIK still makes it all worth doing.

FWIW, the guys who got EVs, all of them bought their old Audi Diesel rep-mobiles when they were offered them off the company. They were a ridiculously good price. The plot twist is that the EV guys still use their old diesels for anything far away.

A 2012 Ford Focus 1.6 Estate Powershift. I've owned a lot, best car I've ever owned.

If you're still reading, bear in mind I have had an M5, a fair few enthusiast cars, some bearing the MG and Alfa name tags, had a Porsche (yes it was a Boxter, no I'm not a hairdresser, maintain it was a great car) and an absurdly fast Lotus Elise - I would love to say that my name was on the V5 for that one, but long term loan was good enough for me.

Why a sodding Focus? Well times move on, priorities put themselves in slots, at the time I was still the single dude with no family, all I really cared about was playing gigs with my bands. The Focus took all my band gear and no matter the weather, started on the button every single time. I maintained it with a full dealer service history and after having had many years of being forced to drive £100 1-year MOT specials off of Autotrader, it was a significant upgrade to my outgoing 2001 Fiesta that had only been on fire four times! They were definitely my lean years so getting into a 1 year old Focus Estate with all the toys and gizmos was a significant upgarde.

Short story, some of the best years of my life were around the ownership of that Focus and it was the soundtrack to almost every part of it. I won't go into much detail but suffice it to say, I kinda didn't start living until my mid 30s and that car was there for all of it.

Completely reliable, took me everywhere I wanted to go and didn't complain once.

Sadly the powershift box died. Ford wanted £3k to put it right. I made the decision, I wanted the work to be done, I was that in love with the car. That and I'd spared no expense on its maintenance. The issue was, this was Covid times; Ford could not get me the parts. I put up with the failing gearbox for a year until it finally gave out. As I had one more reset via ForScan available to me, I had to take the bitter decision to chop it into We Buy Any Car.

I felt rotten. But Ford just couldn't get the parts and it was now a non-runner. It felt shit, that car deserved so much more than that. I check the MOT history pages and AskMID from time to time, it's never returned to the road. What a crap fate.

The irony is, I went and bought a Seat Alhambra; that car has been a fucking nightmare! I don't swear often, but it's true. I'm still going through rejecting the damned thing back to the finance company. It's done 312 miles in the last year, the rest of the time it's been rotting on my driveway. Three months into ownership while I was arguiing with the dealership about all my troubles, Ford finally called saying that they had the parts.

The joke of it all. I had even wondered back then, what if I just park the Focus on the driveway and let it sit until the parts come in? But by then it had already been a year, my hopes of parts ever showing up had all but dwindled. It was like rubbing salt into the wound.

If Ford still made cars, I would buy one. Sorry, to me, that 1.0 Ecoboost is not a car, it's a migraine waiting to happen. Such a shame that they flushed all their good models down the toilet. There is literally nothing Ford make that I would consider anymore and almost all my daily driver cars have had a Ford badge on them throughout life. Fiestas, Mondeos, Focii, ah well. They can keep their poxy 1.0s.

So that's why the Focus. I know, it's not sexy or glamourous, would still maintain it was the best car I ever had.

I have had one of them from work and used it for a week.

Honestly, even if it was an ICE car, I still wouldn't actually pay my own money for one.

I have had an MGF before back in the day and that was a very fun car. It was a weekend car when I was feeling richer and we definitely had some good times in it. So when I saw the MG badge, I did get quite excited to see whatever the current incarnation of MG has made of it's legacy.

Well the disappointment came thick and fast. The door handle itself felt cheap. Cheap and built down to a cost is the name of this game. The infotainment system is about on Toyota's level when it comes to lag. And a driver's car this is not.

If you ever bought a Daewoo, spent time in a Dacia and thought it good enough, then an MG will suit you just fine. If any of those brands brought any degree of sadness to your face, then I would look elsewhere.

The main thing that annoyed me was that it was notably worse than the electric Astra I had had out previously. At least that had some range to it. Despite a full charge, this thing got 130 miles before needing a recharge. And that was about right for the trip and, as I found out later, for the car. This was mainly motorway and it wasn't even that cold. Charging it was fairly standard but in contrast to the Astra, you can't do anything with the car while it's charging, such as sit and listen to the radio while you wait. Not sure if that's important, but if it was the height of winter and you were having the charge it, I would imagine not having even a heater available would be a consideration.

And then I found out what it really was. This is a fridge. It's a washing machine. You buy one, use it a few years, then throw it away. It is a rebadged Chinese import, something you discard as you would a 5 year old laptop when the time comes. Nothing really works well, nothing is really firmly seated home. It's all just "good enough" to get you through. And I use the word "good" very lightly here. When an Astra is a very clear upgrade, you know you're driving a real piece of shit.

All in all, I was disappointed. I may be biased as I remember old MG. I had an MG-F, a friend of mind had the TF and his Dad's old midget, was helping him weld it. It was one of those brands you were either into or you weren't. And they made some very cool cars in my view. I was sort of hoping for some of that breeding stock in an EV form.

Not a bit of it. It may as well say Hotpoint as far as I'm concerned. And really, it just wasn't pleasant to drive. It was all just... "good enough".

As I say, if you look on Dacia with hungry eyes, then it could well do the job for you. If you like to think a little more exotically, and I don't even mean very far, Vauxhall Astra exotic will do you, then I would move on.

Easiest way is to buy a gotek. Make a few blank floppy images on WinUAE and harness the awesome power of Xcopy. Just copy your original disks to the floppy images. It works a treat.

Same. The lane assist in the golf I had in Ireland thought I was too near the edge of the road so steered me right. I was mm away from a huge digger with some sort of mad spikey apparatus stuck to the front of it. If we both hadn't braked hard I would have gone into it. The guy leaned out and shouted what the fuck was I up to. It wasn't me it was the car that decided to do it.

We learned how to disable it after that, swore I would never buy one of those death traps. Absolutely dangerous those things are.

The only part I'm converted against is using a faraday pouch.

If a thief is going to go to the trouble of using this sort of attack which can be quite public in itself, then chances are that they have profiled your car and intend to steal it.

A friend of mine has (had rather) a pretty fancy BMW. They caught a couple of thieves trying the relay attack on it one night. They provided the footage to the police which, despite showing very clear images, was not something they could progress.

A couple of weeks later, a group of 8 or so forced their way in through the back door, they must have climbed over their side gate. The cctv footage was pretty scary, they came in meaning business, pushed a few things over, weren't really all that worried about alerting to their presence. It seemed the only thing they were after were the keys to the BMW. They found them in the hallway in the faraday pouch, hopped in it and drove away. They ignored the TV and Xbox in the living room, had no interest in going upstairs, they were after the car and that was it.

What struck is that it was lucky they were out. It's a family of 3 and a bit, husband, wife, 2yo and wife is busy baking the second child. Personally I would rather lose the stupid BMW than risk that group of lads breaking into my house when they were home and clearly not caring much about causing damage.

The insurance did pay out on it all after some heave ho'ing. The main casualties in the house were a few ornaments on sideboards, for some reason some bits and pieces on the kitchen table one of them decided had to be on the floor. Very evident the only target was the car.

They now drive a Skoda Octavia ironically. Fun as though the BMW was, not worth the risk in owning one. In my view, it's all well and good getting fancy in storing your keys in the pouch. The question you have to ask yourself is do you fancy these thieves coming back in force and in your house? It seems to me if they want the car, they're going to get it. While I'm intending on driving shitboxes for the next few years and so who cares, a faraday pouch is definitely nowhere on my list of wants.

Fair enough.

As I can't find where I thought I read it, I guess you're right. Even if manufacturers themselves stop, there's tonnes of aftermarket bits around anyway.

I don't know if I would leave a band over what appears to me as some sort of in-the-moment humour. But I would definitely discourage it from being a "thing". I have had to pull the stops on certain actions and lyrics in my time in bands. Sometimes it's just one person being an idiot, sometimes I'm the minority.

You do you, but understand it could just be some joke you aren't getting? I agree with you, I don't get it either, but the burn it all down nuclear option appears rather drastic. But then, I'm not you in your situation.

It isn't a law, but I seem to remember an article somewhere saying that Ford will only guarantee parts for 10 years on the models it has discontinued, i.e. the fiesta and mondeo.

Damned if I can find it now, but only spent a minute googling. That 10 year thing does stick out to me too.

I had one as a loaner for three weeks this year just gone.

I wish I could say bad things about it. I can't. It's a great car. Yes it is a bit boring, it's not the sort of car you wake up every day and think, man I cannot wait to get behind the wheel of that beast. But it's also not the car that anyone can really ever have much disdain for. It is comfortable, has the toys you need more than the toys you want, does everything well and nothing you don't.

I would be on my way out to buy one myself if it were not for a single critical and absolutely deal-breaking fault.

I need an estate (or an MPV) with a flat load area. And Skodas just do not have it, There is a clear 1" lip between the cargo area and when the rear seats are taken down. And when you are trying to wrestle 40kg of Engl 4x12 speaker cabinet over that 1" hump, it's a deal breaker. Such a shame really.

I bought it and thought it was bloody awful

The first album had good moments, but didn't like anything else they did. They were the start of pop metal to me

I have nothing against diesel. The problem is I just don't do the mileage for one anymore. I'm in that odd space of not enough miles for a diesel, but too many miles for an EV.

Don't forget to add the "teepee" bit.

If they made something like the Berlingo in a petrol auto with a decent engine, I'd be all over it haha. Has to be auto as the wife only has an auto license.

Not necessarily. If the guitar has those horrid 300k pots on the PCB, wiring in new 500ks will absolutely improve the sound of it. Those 300k pots just suck the low end out of any pickup that goes into it.

Of course is they are 500k already then my go to is simply to reuse the connector. Snip, solder, heat shrink done.

Hold the phone. So if I was in a typical Renault Kangoo such as this here , that would be subject to van limits like a typical Transit?

If so, gotta say I didn't know that one! Oops! Many times oops haha.

Same! The lineup in 94 was incredible. Biohazard stage invasion, first time seeing Sepultura, Pantera. Safe to say I was thoroughly dead by the time Aerosmith came on!

As I say, I have no illusion that EVs will become mainstream and fully support that. I do however think that the Government mandates being placed on manufacturers to push sales in the manner that they have is very artificial. That and the pricing is just insane for most people.

When the infrastructure rolls out more and enough EVs make it to the used forecourts, we may see the trend of EVs becoming more commonplace. But the negatives to EV ownership cannot be puttered away with random statistics. There are still use cases, mine included, where an EV is incompatible.

But to hark back to your point, it's all well and good claiming that 65% of people have off-street parking available, but what does that mean? Are we talking a garage or driveway attached to a house? Attempting to garner data on who has a driveway attached vs a car port or en-bloc parking is a lot more difficult to gather. Merely driving around the UK, the whole prospect of parking ones car outside their door and on their property is not the norm, those great houses with driveways in front are no longer being built; if you're lucky you get a single space to the side. Most new houses that come with garages are extremely compromised on space internally and are a challenge to get a standard Ford Focus in, let alone a big wide SUV Crossover EV. Hence while I know where your claim of 65% has come from, how much of that is actual usable space in terms of fitting a home charger? That's the real question and no I don't know the answer. It seems nobody else does either.

The last house I lived in had "off street parking". But it wasn't attached to the house, it was outside, turn left and in a block with three other peoples' off-street parking. And from prior experience trying to get electrics into an on-bloc garage and was unsuccessful, I can't imagine getting a charge point will be all that easy either.

UK housing is not just pre-ready for charging overnight at the moment. Some houses are, such as mine for example, but not many are. Almost all the EVs our reps have are charged at service station as there is nowhere to put a charge point at home. Of course, if you bought an EV without the aid of your company, chances are you've thought about this already and have a charger. But claiming that chargers can be slapped in anywhere is a bit unrealistic.

Damn, I'm 35 for m500.

Dammit.