-
Posts
36,183 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
170
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Calendar
Gallery
Posts posted by Rich
-
-
Unfortunately I didn't get to take the car up to Norfolk so it'll have to wait until next year now ☹️
I'm still amazed at the reactions a 23 year old car gets! I arrived at work this morning and the headteacher and my department manager were outside talking. I always try to drive in quietly but it's not exactly a quiet car! After parking and heading in to school they both said they love my car 😄
The tyres on the car are Toyos, which are 8 years old and showing signs of cracking between the tread blocks and sidewalls. They passed the MOT ok but I've never been happy with them and in the damp they don't grip well, in the wet it's scary! I'm planning on using the car more, maybe even over winter so want some decent rubber on there.
I've narrowed my choice down to either the Michelin Crossclimate 2 or the Pilot Sport 3. I was also considering the Uniroyal Rainsport but they're not any cheaper than the Michelin's.
Has anyone used these tyres? I'm swaying towards the PS3 from the reviews I've read.
-
You can't really go wrong with a Lexus, our CT had no real issues. The only things that needed replacing were the 12v battery and washer fluid valve.
The brakes on a hybrid could last 100k miles, we changed ours at 80k but they still had 2-3mm left on them and the rears were still the originals when we sold it.
What's the infotainment system like on this, is it better than the Prius you had? I found the CT200 one was very poor and looked cheap. BMWs iDrive is so much better.
-
On 20/08/2022 at 09:36, liner33 said:
I think its the same engine as the Lexus UX that we have, I think they share the same Corolla platform , my wife loves it , i find the bleeps very annoying as it seems to bleep at me all the time but its very easy to drive and great for long trips. Ours is almost 3 years old now and 20k on it , trouble free apart from what sounds like a wheel bearing on the front wheel but its probably a stone behind the disc
Much prefer the 2.0 and improved gearbox only criticism is that's its smaller in the rear and boot than the Prius
I'm surprised you like the UX. I looked at those but they get terrible reviews and you've confirmed what I thought about the rear and boot being smaller. The CT has put me off getting another Lexus as the interior is just too cramped for us. Was fine on a test drive but living with it was a different story.
-
That's good. I've always thought it's worth getting the larger engines over the smaller ones as the mpg seems to be negligible.
-
Love that colour 😁
What's the mpg like compared to the other one, was that the 1.8?
-
On 09/08/2022 at 16:18, SMARTLY said:
Did I ever post about changing my CHR for another one ?
I don't think you did, when did that happen? I assume for a better spec model?
-
12 hours ago, adam_r said:
I would not, as soon as they know you want to leave they will start looking for a replacement. It will also complicate matters in work.
Best use holiday / sick day to attend interviews
It's a bit different in a school though to a normal workplace within a company. It's always sad to lose someone who's good at their job but they always support those who want to leave. They even give you the time off for interviews and pay for the day too, no need to pull a sickie. But as I said the first interview I get they will find out as they always get references first.
We've had lots of people leave since I started working there, some have been there 20 years too. Our deputy head who has been there 14 years left before the summer to a school a couple of miles down the road. They knew for months beforehand that she wanted to leave. Reason was she wanted less responsibility and there were no lesser positions available at our school.
-
9 minutes ago, Geoffers said:
Have a great one Rich, you certainly picked the weather!
Going up on Saturday, it's going to be 33 degrees and I'm not looking forward to it! 👎 🥵
It'll be great in the evenings though for a nice drive with the roof down 😎
-
I was at a local show a couple of weeks a go and saw this. Lovely looking motor 😎
- 1
-
5 hours ago, Geoffers said:
Great stuff. Doing the right thing there. Too easy to make the wrong decision on housing, looking through rose tinted glasses because it's a life change.
I just hope I can find a job asap now, although I may put off applying until the New Year unless something I really fancy comes up.
Guess I just need to tell work now or at least my manager what my plans are. As I want to continue working in a school they get references before interviews and I'll need a whole day off for those with travelling.
-
After 9 months of being off the road I got the new belts fitted. I couldn't remove the lower pivot bolt, there was no way of getting any movement on the bar. So instead I carefully forced the alternator forward so I could get the belt on.
Checked all the fluids, charged the battery and started it up. Took a couple of seconds but it fired first time. Left it running for half an hour so it got up to temperature and then took it out. Boy have I missed driving it!
When refitting the battery the hole under the tray has got bigger! The surrounding area is ok still so I'm going to get a rubber bung and plug it. It can serve as a drainage hole then.
From the underneath.
It passed the MOT yesterday. I had an advisory last year from another garage about corrosion on the front chassis but he said it was just surface rust and didn't warrant being put down as a minor. Yes they rust inside out but they're still solid. The whole underneath of the car has surface rust! He did say one of the side jacking points is very rusty and may need attention.
I went to my Dad's before the MOT and when we got there noticed some scuffs on the rear bumper. They weren't there yesterday morning and I had only gone straight to his and then the garage so couldn't work out how they got there. Then when dropping him off I remembered hitting a pothole. As it went down the bumper must've caught the hole and caused the damage. I'm really annoyed! 😡
Anyway, the car is ready for it's annual run up to Norfolk for a blast around the lanes! 😁
- 1
-
For anyone interested I took a new deal staying with Santander on a 2 year tracker for 1.19% plus the base rate. That started yesterday but with today's base rate increase the repayments will go up £20 for next month.
We have definitely decided to move asap now, I have started looking for work already but it may take a while to find something I like. We have gone with an interest only mortgage to free up some money for all the other bills rising. I can make payments towards the capital whenever I want and the important thing is no ERC so that would save a few thousand!
We'll pay the mortgage off when we sell up and move. Then if we need another mortgage to buy something else we can apply again but I'm hoping we'd only need a small one. I think renting short term and then buying will be a lot easier than juggling a job move with having to try and buy something immediately that we might not even like. At least by renting first we can take our time (although not too long!) to find something we both agree on.
I can also change my deal back to a fixed repayment rate at any time in case we change our minds but that's unlikely!
-
I like the look of that, looks futuristic! 😁
-
On 05/07/2022 at 13:25, anothercarguy said:
Sorry to revive this thread but where did you find those actual tyre widths?
I'm currently looking to upgrade my 205 tyres to 215 but if my current 205s are more like 208 fitted and the new set of 215 that I want is more like 210 then I'll be paying a lot more for a more awkward size for not a lot of benefit.
Thanks
Sadly Tony is no longer with us and I have no idea where he got those figures from. I guess it's going to depend on what brand tyres you have fitted now and what you're planning on replacing them with.
I must've missed this thread when Tony posted it but it's not something I've ever thought about.
-
I'm sure Tony always said getting the geometry done on a hunter system was better than a supertracker. Maybe try and find a garage locally who uses one. A good place to start is the align my car website.
-
He sure was.
If the car has been used for towing then I'm sure that's affected the suspension to some degree.
The side that's in red only looks to be slightly outside of the suggested setting. I don't know if the difference between that side and the other would cause any issues.
I think the camber is adjusted using eccentric bolts through one of the suspension arms. Have these arms been checked to make sure they're not bent or the bushes excessively worn?
-
I don't know if you read the thread but Tony who founded WIM passed away in February. He was the one who answered the technical questions like this, his knowledge was superior. The rest of us probably can't help you much with this.
There's quite a difference in the rear camber like you say. Is it adjustable on this car?
-
Still waiting for my mortgage broker to reply, he's taking a while!
I read that you can't get a fixed rate under 2% any more and Santander are offering me 2.49% with a £999 fee.
Trying to look online and the cheapest fix seems to be around 2.25%. I suppose it could be less via a broker. But the difference between those is under £20 a month. Now my broker charges £300 so by the time I factor that in I'm not actually saving much. So I'm thinking I might just take the current deal.
Another option is to try a fee free broker who obviously make commission on selling mortgages from the lenders. But I'd need to find one with a good reputation and go through the whole process again of applying.
I have 50 days left before my fixed rate ends so need to decide!
-
I thought it was strange you could add the fee to the mortgage and the repayments were cheaper than the no fee option.
My brother fixed at 0.99% in December for 2 years. He could've done 5 years for 1.5% and is kicking himself now that he didn't for that.
The best tracker deal I was offered included free everything and no fees for 2.69%. But given how the base rate is rising I'm not taking that.
Need to chase my mortgage guy up but if I have to the Santander deal isn't that bad when you consider there's no credit checks and other fees to pay.
-
Definitely, especially as they were predicting the base rate to increase by the end of the year and it's already gone up!
Still waiting for my mortgage guy to get back to me but we're currently with Santander and they've offered a tracker for 1.94%. That's the base rate plus 1.19% but they haven't added the latest increase on yet!
There are two fixed offers for 2 and 5 years with a £999 product fee at 2.59%, then 2, 3, 5 and 7 year fixes without a fee but 2.79%. Adding the fee to the mortgage increases the repayments by £5, taking the no fee rate adds another £6 on top of that. So if I stuck with them the best thing to do is pay the fee upfront.
Doing a quick search online I can see they aren't the best rates available ATM as sticking with Santander would add at least £40 a month to our current repayments. Hopefully we can find something close to our current rate but we need to hurry up!
-
Base rate has increased to 1% now so that's made my mind up to fix again. But you do make a good point about 5 and 10 year fixes being the same rate.
With everything else going up and factoring in an October energy rise we'd be struggling if we took a tracker deal. If we definitely knew we'd be moving within 6 month I'd do it but I really can't be sure.
-
Just now, eddie said:
What is the total cost to keep it going for another year Rich?
It's £40 for the hosting, that's 12 months. The domain name expires in December and I'm trying to get that put in to my name. Or if I can't then hopefully it won't be renewed and I can buy it myself. I can't change the hosting until I get access to the domain name.
I think we'd probably get away with using the forum unlicensed for at least a year but it depends on what updates we'd no longer have access to. If the forum starts getting spammed that's easily sorted by manually approving all new registrations.
-
I've never used those tyres before but I don't think you can go wrong with them, especially if you don't push the car.
I always use tyre reviews when I purchase new tyres.
-
I think starting a new job in a new area will force our hand anyway as it would depend when the job starts. Plus trying to buy somewhere means we're limited to what is available at that time. At least with selling first and having a good deposit in the bank means we can spend a little time finding something that we like.
I've asked my mortgage guy what fixed rates he can get but I think we'll be doing that for the time being and see how things pan out. Trackers seem to be lower than fixed rates ATM but if the base rate rises by 1% or more in the next year they will be alot higher. I'm sure some lenders reduce the ERC when you get close to the end of the fixed term so we might not have to put the move off for that long.
Rich's 1999 MX5 1.8i S
in Car Blogs
Posted
Thanks Eddie. The Continental aren't available in the size I need, which is a shame as the reviews seem good. I'm not a fan of Pirelli, I've used that brand before and didn't get on with them.
I may leave changing them until next year now as I'll be taking the car off the road end of October, possibly November depending on the weather.