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Gotcha! 👍🏼 Yes I agree, everyone should be able to buy a house, especially when rents are usually more than the mortgage payments. My Dad had a second house but sold it last year after his tenant moved. He did well out of it but now interest rates have gone up he's making the same return from having the money in the bank as he was in the rent he received.

Possibly, that would be nice. Still kicking myself I didn't go for the 3.89%. Hopefully it drops to that point again soon or lower. See what happens on Thursday with the BoE meeting. Although fixed rate deals go by the swap rates and not the base rates so it might not have any impact. I think it'll stay on 5.25%.

best go down in person and talk to them with the MX5 Rich. if the accord is sound mechanically it may be worth getting a quote - may be less than you think

I'm not a religious person but this did come to mind... Matthew 7:24-27 The Wise and Foolish Builders 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

the welding was done by the body shop behind the takeaways on uxbridge road - looks like a decent job

Great pics. I love the Cotswolds. Been there quite a lot and worked a bit down there and lots of places, including Tetbury where Charlie lived at the time. I remember doing an out of hours network upgrade in Malmesbury and needed to clear my head after a particularly difficult problem so went for a walk. This place was out of the way and a saw a cut through alleyway into the town area, but everywhere seemed deserted. This was around 2:30am and as I was walking through, two police officers turned into the alley. Both walked past and said "Evening" and carried on walking. This absolutely amazed me as in Liverpool it would have been a full search and questioning where I was going and why in such a quiet area. A few minutes later I saw a woman walking her dog who who stopped for a chat. No shutters on the windows or anything. Lovely place. She said about the worst they hear of crime there is drunkenness.. This was about 10 years ago I was last there and hope it's managed to keep that.

Looks like they've got the Hawkeye. Makes sense as that's the one Tony trained him on. Glad the car is handling much better now. Yeah the dog is really lovely 👍🏼

finally managed to get the GEO on the Lexus done! Now drives like a dream!

You need to remember that the specs given by the manufacturer are only a guide/starting point for the geometry. Some got it very wrong like Lexus did with the IS200 and Tony used to set the cars very differently meaning most readings were red not green. It's a similar story with the MX5. You have the standard settings but to get the most out of the car he could set them up for fast road and track us without compromising on tyre wear. It's all very interesting. The MX5 is one of a few cars that is completely adjustable so you could get it all in the 'green' but even they can run out of adjustment sometimes!

Joe has now left Pro Tyre, he was the last member of staff from the WIM days. See the other thread about where he's now working. When I was there the other week Pro Tyre have changed none of the WIM or BB signs, they haven't even put their own name on the building! Therefore, still trading off Tony's good reputation 18 months later 😞

Brilliant. Home from home, especially if more family are on site at the time too. Paint/Wallpaper scraper if you don't want to try chemicals but wd40 soaked in often removes stuff like that.

I guess it's a new thing, flagging it on MOT tests as the guy said he'd never seen it before. I don't want the emissions fix because the car is fine without it. Once you get the emissions fix it overworks the egr system and causes more frequent DPF regens. Essentially you end up burning more fuel to reduce emissions. That can never be a good thing in my book...

Well 10 days on and had a call from the seller. He's had it in for service and detailing, changed a tyre which had a cut in it (fitted a Uniroyal so I'm good with that), needs an MOT, and he's got to get the wheels refurbished as they're a bit scabby. He gave me the option of having them done now or he'd knock the price off the car if I wanted to take it as is. Looks like I should be going to have a look on Wednesday. If it's as it should be then the deal is as good as done.

Found one which sounds good, so put a deposit on it. More importantly the seller sounds good as well. Answered all my questions, didn't haggle over the price of my part ex (just said he'd give me what I was looking for which was WBAC and Autotraders valuation), getting it prepared and serviced / mot'd for next weekend hopefully.

Nope, nothing good coming up just at the moment. Checking a couple of times a day though. 😊

I guess the winters are a little warmer for you down there, up in the Yorkshire Dales it's winter more than it's summer. 😁

Found a nice one today on Autotrader. Had everything I wanted (except it has a sunroof which I really don't want at all) and it was £2k more than all the other stuff I've been looking at. Thought I'd give the guy a ring, and he was the typical car salesman. "It's just come in, and to be honest one of the mechanics and the valeter are both interested in it and they say they'll buy it if you don't!" So I told him I wasn't going to waste any more of his time and best sell it to one of the staff then, and put the phone down. 15 seconds later I get a text saying "I can knock £500 off if you leave a deposit right now!" So I replied "No thanks, I don't play those types of games so sell it to someone else." 🤪 Still looking...

the tyres feel about the same as the pzeros - i know the wheels are knackered - they need to be refurbed but the car itself needs a bit of work as well on the body

Miss-alignment AKA four wheel alignment AKA tracking is a shared angle or put it this way. You just hit the curb and knocked the alignment out 10mm, as soon as you move the front wheels will self centre meaning each wheel has 5mm and not as many think one wheel is 0 and the other 10mm. As for cost we charge by the adjustment and not by the car, so on the MB it would be a full chassis image £30+ vat or full image and front - rear toe correction £95+ vat. Add to this the MB adjuster bolts they are £30+ vat each and it reads like you would need two. £30+ per bolt reads expensive but the entire under-tray needs removing, fitting the adjuster bolts are a bugger and then replace the under-tray. Before you spend any money there's something you need to test first which costs nothing? Move the front wheels with the tyres side - to - side. The reason for this is to see if the pull is due to the tyres. If it goes straight or pulls the other way then it's the tyres. Don't worry though it's not a defect it's a build issue with radial tyres.

as usual its always the smaller businesses that take the brunt end of stupid legislation...

I didn't realise lots of property was being bought by investment companies. That is so wrong. People should be entitled to buy their own home at an affordable price. I was in North Norfolk today, we're looking to move close to Norwich and I couldn't believe the difference in price looking at the estate agent window. A 4 bedroom detached house with double garage was £325,000. Close to Norwich you're looking at around £450,000. Where we currently live you could double that! 😳

I had to go to Screwfix after work so drove along to the garage to see if they had replaced any of the signage. Guess what, they haven't! WIM signs are still up. As WIM was run under Blackboots and they purchased it from them I guess they aren't doing anything illegal like trading under false pretences. Although there is nothing to say it's actually Protyre there.

Just came across this video, they really did take a battering last week! You may want to fast forward through it. The houses on stilts at the start of the video have been given 7 days to move out before they're pulled down. One of them (dark blue) has only just been completely renovated. Personally I think that was a silly thing to do but they're stripping the whole house now. This end of the road was actually eroding slower than the other end and no one expected them to lose the amount they did. You can see on Google maps the one that was being renovated (no roof) and how much dune was still left. The problem now is the brick houses are directly behind them and there are hundreds at risk. Surely the government will fund the defences before it gets that far. The cleanup operation and rehousing everyone will cost much more than the defences will.

I feel your pain, I picked up a nail in a new tyre after driving home from having it fitted! Went straight in the sidewall so was a write off! As you say that is right on the border of where you can repair. Personally I would ask yourself if you would still be comfortable driving on that tyre if you did manage to get it repaired. But as above, if you do, fit it to the rear of the car. They do now. I had new tyres fitted the other week and they had signs up saying repairs were £10 each IIRC.