Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I like this:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509046608413?atmobcid=soc4

Low mileage. A fuck tonne of options etc.. Rapid too...

Skoda vrs.

Like the 135. I'd considered the 335i touring before but they are fairly rare second hand.

Can you not get an E92 M3 for sub £20k yet?

How about a 996? They have four seats so long as your rear passengers are kiddywinks.

Or an XKR? I'd have thought you can scrape the new shape for that £ now.

The x35i cars are monster fast, especially with a remap, but lack a sense of occasion.

BMW E90 330/335 touring would be around budget, 41 examples thrown up on PH search, this one isn't bad > http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e90-3-series-05-12/bmw-3-series-3-0-335d-m-sport-touring-5dr/4587062

and as @Lynx mentioned, the vRS is pretty handy, and good value > http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/skoda/octavia/skoda-octavia-2-0-tdi-cr-vrs-leather-sunroof-2012/4346857

M5 shirley

E61 M5 touring too spendy

and for the vintage, the gearboxes are starting to fail. friend on teeside graunched his in the summer, £6.5k replacement bill :(

rs6

E92 M3 is so fucking fast too, after driving that, my "realistic garage" extended from my MX5 and Dammit's Volvo, to an E92 M3 as well.

Did I say I drove my friend's at Knockhill? His is standard except for AP Racing brakes (huge) and it is so fun to drive.

I didn't even have it in M mode, but did have TC in middle setting, and it allows hilarious slip angles.

Didn't you have one of these Richie?

except for AP Racing brakes

Snap - fronts on the Volvo are AP Racing.

No mention of the bertone collection then....U R FAIL

reader's wives, incoming and outgoing, not to everyone's taste, but is to mine:

Home, James!

Must say some of Benz aesthetic not really doing it lately...what be they? E Class?

cls350 oil burner

Landie perfect for the urban jungle...https://www.gumtree.com/p/land-rover/land-rover-v8-ex-army-armour-plated/1134603221

Are they standard? They look like they're only 1 pot but they're big and they fucking work.

Nope, they're a kit made specifically for the 850 as the ones that Volvo fitted were remarkably inadequate. They're four piston.

OK that explains why they are so good then.

I like the old yellow and green badges....

;)

Having the dawning realization that I don't want to use my seven, in case anything happens to it nor sell it. Has had a few different engines, started life with a 1.6 crossflow, then 2.0 pinto then a cvh and then a 2.0 dohc all from different sierras. All the 2.0 engines suffered from abuse as they were all from scrapyards and cheap. Then finally ended up with the 3.5 out of my SD1, black jack manifolds and holly carbed....but that was a bit too silly,too much power for the tyres.

Just going through the usual annual bullshit of dealing with insurance companies again.

Esp annoying when they quote you a decent price, then when you ring to book it it suddenly triples in cost*

*I assume because they have accessed an existing quote and then re-applied it to the 'system', therefore I'm getting the 10.03am price and not the 9.49am price

Its literally the biggest pile of shite in this country, especially given regardless of fault I'll be paying thousands extra over the next 5 years if anything does happen and they will not cover the true cost of replacing a damaged vehicle. Total shite.

Is there a way of getting to an underwriter direct and not having to deal with these scammy little companies pretending to be insurance providers?

Stop whining, I remember pre internet days of walking in to brokers such as swinton and setting out a saturday getting quotes then, the chore of phoning broker after broker from the yellow pages. Had a spreadsheet knocked up with all the 0800 numbers and a few 0845's.

So much this.

It's great today.

I just do two price comparison sites then ring the nice lady (Emily) at my local mutual insurer and ask her to beat the price. Which she does. It takes about an hour.