Rich

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.

Have you paid the increased premium then Eddie or did you manage to get it cheaper looking around? My Accord is due in November, I'm hoping it doesn't increase too much! I barely do 2k miles a year in it and tax costs £400 now plus it only does 20mpg. But I know it's reliable and changing it for something else could leave me with a pig of a car!

I had a letter yesterday from More Than (RSA) who I have the Accord insured with. They're no longer offering car insurance and I will receive a renewal quote from Swinton instead. I've not read too much about it but it seems inflation is having a big impact on insurance too. Things like car repair costs have gone up meaning they're paying out a lot more than what they did. The MX5 insurance is due next week but that's on a classic policy and increased by £25, which I thought was good. So I will just renew that. I did get one quote elsewhere but it was £150 more! 🙃

Do you wear shorts in the winter? I know some people do! 😀 I wouldn't mind it as I hate the heat and summer. I prefer the colder months personally.

I guess heated seats aren't for everyone, I rarely use mine, only when it's very cold and even then they're not on for long. My Dad hates them, he's always said they make you feel like you've wet yourself! 🤣 That last sales guy sounds like a right prick! I can't be dealing with people like that neither.

What a massive waste of time! Why do people do that. Is the car you've put a deposit on another Audi or something different?

That's annoying, is there nothing closer to you? What are used car prices like now, still high or have they dropped? I've not looked for a while.

Base rate is now 5% and their excuse for increasing it is to slow down inflation, yet after the 13th consecutive rise it's still not working! Really in a catch-22 situation now. Need to fix asap as our tracker will be 6.19% but I can't do that until I know if we're moving. I won't know that until work decide whether to give me this promotion. If they do then I'll fix for a year, possibly two. It won't make the repayments that much cheaper but will protect us from further rises.

Been running them for a couple of weeks now and really impressed with the grip, although I've not pushed too hard. If anyone had that storm on Tuesday morning with the flash flooding it gripped really well in the wet. I had a nightmare drive to work though and had to turn around twice as the water was so deep. Cars were parked up where they had gone through and conked out! I had no choice but to drive through a small flood on the 3rd route I took but made it!! 😬

Are you keeping the car now? It's certainly worth sorting those bits out of its still worth money. Did you get the geo done?

Had them fitted on Monday, first set of tyres not fitted by WIM. I missed being able to look around the car while it's on the ramp and having a chat! The guy put the pressures on 32psi, the recommended ones are 26 and what I usually run them on so dropped them. They're obviously still scrubbing in but they feel very grippy with a firm sidewall. The steering does feel a little heavy since dropping the pressure so I may try increasing it slightly and see how it goes. When the guy handed the keys back he said I don't know how you drive that, it did his back in trying to get in and out! 😂

Wow, that's some bad corrosion. The MX5 ones need doing as well really but I might try doing that myself as they're not too bad. How you finding the tyres, similar to the PZero?

Would that not be a balancing issue if you just had new tyres fitted? What did you go for? I had some new tyres fitted yesterday at Costco. It felt weird taking the car somewhere else where I couldn't chat while they were working on it or look underneath when it's on the ramp. As for the geo I've not looked at where else we could go. Not needed one for years since they were first done by Tony/Joe.

I think they'll get funding eventually once the dunes have completely gone and it starts affecting the brick houses and village. I'd imagine the valley will start flooding too. They are building alot of new houses in the area too, planning has been put in for hundreds more! A few miles up the coast they have had defences for years but that stretch falls under Norwich council, this area is Great Yarmouth. Also, if the sea had eroded the dunes further north it would've flooded the broads with salt water. I had heard that many years a go the sea was alot further inland, completely covering the caravan site we're on so I'd imagine the whole area is sand or sand on a clay base.

Took a walk along there earlier. He's pulled the house all the way back but suffered a lot of damage. They've finished putting some rocks in front of the dune by the gap to protect the access road. I don't think it'll help but we'll see. Apparently planning for proper defences has been approved but they need £15 million to fund it. Sea view anyone! Yes this is a glass bottle and that's why people should keep off the dunes. Not just to protect them but also prevent injuring themselves! A couple of other random ones! Scarecrow in the garden of a local house! Anyone got any change! Nice choice of ales from a local pub. Leopard at the local zoo enjoying some deer!

I haven't got them yet and the offer has finished. Just waiting for the next offer to start and I'll get some. The reviews are really good so I'm definitely taking a punt on them.

Another base rate increase so I'm now paying nearly £300 more a month than what I was when I took the tracker out! That's on top of the utility bills, council tax, food increases etc. We'll now be on 5.44% but it sounds like things may settle now. I can get a fixed rate deal for 4% if I lock in for 5 or 7 years. Still not worth doing with our planned move though, as long as we do it soon. Or do I fix in and put it off for 2 years or try to port the mortgage and look for a property we can move it to.

This footage really shows how bad the damage is. I remember walking along that road 25 years a go and then up 20ft plus sand dunes and down the other side to get on the beach. Lance started pulling his house back today, it's going where the shrubs were on the other side of the road. How much longer he'll get is anyone's guess!

Although a couple of those bungalows were bought in recent years, which IMO wasn't a great idea, others have been owned for years. Decades a go there were 5 or 6 rows of dunes all with bungalows on them and this is the last row. I think some of those residents have been there 30 years so it's very sad for them. Also with the road at the other end at risk of collapsing that means the properties there are going to be condemned as emergency services can't get through. One of them was refurbished last year too!

Live reporting on this tonight, the remaining houses and road are all going in to the sea 😞 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-norfolk-64918477

I put the car back on the road Sunday, so it's only been laid up for 3 months while the worse of winter passes. Typical that the next 2 weeks or so is forecast as rain! The tyres are getting quite cracked on the sidewalls now, they're 9 years old, even though they're only half worn. I was looking at some crossclimates but as I won't be using the car during winter it's probably better to get a summer tyre with good wet grip, something the Toyos lack! Costco are doing £10 off a tyre on the Michelin Pilot Sport 3 so I'm going for those. It'll be £300 for a set which doesn't seem bad for premium tyres.

I think you're right, less people are ordering new cars or even buying used so demand is definitely down. Out of interest I just did a WBAC quote for the Lexus we sold to them. Sold it for £7k, a month later we could've got £8k but they're now offering £7.5k. I'm surprised by that for a 12 year old car but they're obviously still very popular with zero VED and being cheap to run.

That doesn't sound good. What's the offer from WBAC, is it a lot less? It was much easier to go there, they look around the car and then the money was in the bank 5 minutes later!

Not far off the reserve then, hopefully you get some more bids. Carwow sounds better to use than Motorway though!

Yes you will need to submit photos and take them from the angles they ask for. Motorway have a step by step guide to do this, not sure about carwow. But like I said I went through the whole process, retook the photos they asked for and replied to emails with more information and then they didn't even submit the car to dealers or reply to emails so it was a massive waste of time.