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

I've been driving company car fr the last 2.5 years and am thinking I'll buy it in 6 months. Prior to that I had my own car for 2 years and built up 2y no claims. I had a crash last month that the other driver has admitted liability for. Cost to fix my car is about £4k. Best quote for insurance of £974.55 without a telemetry box. Am I getting pinged for a crash I didn't cause?

I pay over 800 with no NCB in E17, would be more without a wife on the policy

put wife on. I might just get another company car.

.

I had a knock the year before last in the UAE and my insurance went up about a tenner to about 300 quid.

The insurance for the M3 is about the same and for the Beetle they almost pay me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZe1rVgT0WE

Oh dear, Oh dear.

^Grim!

As another option in my ongoing 'she doesn't like the Mercedes 190' saga, the Alfa Romeo 147 has been touted as another option. It looks like they're shit at holding their value but generally quite well-regarded. Are they as unreliable as Alfas traditionally are?

I'm going to guess yes.

Guy at work had a 159 and said he had to learn to treat steering and suspension parts as consumables. A shame. I really like the look of the modern alfas

That is down to the roads, potholes and speed bumps.

You keeping it or getting rid?

because only alfas go over them? That doesn't make sense.

Considering one of these for some weekend V8 fun. Am I mad?

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I thought the suspension dramas were just for the first gen 147/156 - never knew anyone that bought a 159 though! Plus, wasn't it just bushings that went, but in typical modern car style you had to buy the whole lower arms cause it's cheaper than pressing in new bushings...

Anyway, surely there's bush kits to sort it out and plenty of cheap spares for a 147.

I don't know enough about it, tbh. I just wouldn't want to deal with it on a sub 2k car

Maserfatty is grim. Please stop building these monstrosities!

Considering one of these for some weekend V8 fun. Am I mad?

Probably cheaper to have a terrible cocaine problem...

Got a Merc C200 courtesy car at the moment, you can't put it in full manual so the paddles are pathetic, it revs like it's about to explode when you kick-down, and there's a weird 'sentience' to the steering wheel. Is this what electric power steering does?

I've got a GT and it's never let me down.

One of the benefits of the belief that they'll always break is that you can pick up a great car for relatively little money.

The steering and suspension are fine and it's needed very little other than consumables. (EGR Valve.)

Yes/No.

Weird Autotrader listing of the day

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509217107297?radius=1501&postcode=E17%205JZ&sort=pricedesc&search-target=usedcars&page=1&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&searchcontext=default&make=mercedes-benz&logcode=p

They need to advertise this in the Dubai classifieds.

Or ask the Dorchester to put a card in their window in May.

Why not buy a helicopter?