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+1 to what @EcuriePeril said. Having lived many places in the UK and elsewhere, I think somewhere like Belper in Derbyshire would be about perfect to retire to, personally. In fact I'd be planning for that if I didn't already live so close!
I don't know it as well yet, but have always felt similarly about Bakewell.
If you really want to prioritize train links to London, Grantham had a fast line in. I do not know how nice it is to live in, though.
Places like Bedford are becoming increasingly popular with London commuters. Leighton Buzzard or Milton Keynes are also definitely within budget, although I personally dislike both having grown up nearby.
Given what you've said about your parents, one other thing to consider is how multicultural the place is. Sounds like they'd like somewhere where there is a good diversity of people. I have a friend who lives on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, for example, which fits the bill in many ways. However, his one complaint is that most of the people he comes across were born and raised around there and don't have particularly diverse experiences or worldviews.
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I'm very happy to volunteer time and money to keep LFGSS and the other forums going. Internet forums have been a positive part of my life for gosh, probably 20 years now.
I suspect the new act will be modified in time as ridiculous situations come to pass that aren't achieving what the designers of the act wanted. I absolutely understand the desire to not be the person in the crosshairs, and I'd do the same in your shoes, Velocio!
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Definitely the Volvo out of that bunch! Lovely cars.
Obviously there's room for lots of personal opinion, but I'd swerve the E Class out of that list. They're not as nice as they really should be.
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Well in good news I took it to the body shop earlier and they said everything looks perfect other than the number plate. The best possible outcome for everyone.
I'm honestly amazed. It obviously wasn't whiplash or car crush levels of force, but it really was a decent knock. I'm floored at how well the car stood up to the impact.
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I assume what really happened is he put his foot to the floor on the brakes and ABS prevented him from skidding. I bought a car a while back with a new set of really cheap tyres on it, and they were lethal. I replaced them very quickly.
I don't have a dashcam, I do have a witness. He said he was reversing because he had been waiting 10 minutes, thought the lights must be broken, and was reversing to then pass the person in front and go through the red light. Moron.
I rang the police on the non emergency number to ask if I should report it and shared my concerns about a dangerously poor standard of driving and lack of attention paid. They said they'd only do anything about it with dashcam footage or a witness who was prepared to testify in court.
I've decided to get the car booked in with a body shop to assess and quote for any damage that may or may not be there, both front and back. If it's front then it's clearly an insurance job. If it's rear I'll let Mr 17 y.o. know what the damage is, and unless he can pay for it upfront, ahead of the work being carried out, I'll go via his insurance. If the assessment isn't free, Mr 17 y.o. will be paying for it.
Thank you all for the perspectives. I completely understand those of you saying don't even think about anything other than claiming on his insurance. I know I'm being far nicer than I need to be, and I'm good with that.
Fingers crossed it does end up just being the numberplate 🙂
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Could well have been. I see so much of it on the bike that it really depresses me. Almost certainly distracted somehow, whether it was a phone, changing the heating, or just general daydreaming on a bit of road he knows well.
He had his phone up in a holder on the dash and said it had fallen off in the impact. He said he was using Waze, but also said he was headed from his parent's house to his girlfriend's house 🤔
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Renault 25 V6 turbo is indeed an awesome first car! My first was a 2000 Clio, and I can confirm it was made of soft French cheese 😉
I'm definitely not keen on reporting to insurance until I know there is damage costing more than the driver is willing or able to pay for. Doing so will make my premiums increase despite neither collision being my fault. I did check with the local police if I should report the collision to them, and they said only to report if someone was injured or there was significant damage causing the road to be blocked.
But yup, @pifko totally with you on it not being my fault they're 17. It's absolutely their fault and was a very avoidable thing had they left enough space and paid close enough attention
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Not exactly car appreciation, but I'd appreciate some car based advice from those who know more than me.
I've had quite the week, especially given how little I drive!
Thursday morning sat in a queue waiting for a red light to change. After about 2 minutes sat there, reverse lights come on in front of me. I get in reverse, but before I can take the handbrake off, the bloke has reversed straight into me. He has a terrible attitude when he gets out - "oh well, stuff happens, this is why we have insurance, why are you acting frustrated about it?"
Friday afternoon I slow to give way to a bus coming under a low bridge. High vehicles have to go into the middle under this bridge, and there's a big flashy LED sign telling me and drivers behind me that there's an oncoming vehicle in the middle of the road. Boom, the car behind smashes into the back of me with quite some force. He says he has his brakes full on to try and slow down but his car skidded. This driver has what I feel is a normal attitude to it. He was incredibly apologetic, wanted to check if occupants and car were okay. He's a 17 year old who begged me not to report anything to his insurers as it's already so expensive, and promised he'd pay me in cash for whatever damage he had caused.
There does not appear to be any damage from either collision, apart from a small crack in the rear numberplate. I genuinely can't believe it, particularly the hit from behind as it really felt like a decent bit of force. I've had the boot floor out to see if anything is crumpled or pushed back there and it's fine. Panel gaps in the area all still look even. Parking sensors also somehow work perfectly.
Local mechanic has recommended I take it to a local body shop and get them to take a look in case there is damage I can't see that needs repairing.
I'll avoid a long(er) story, but basically I've got 2 kids under 3 at home and we're all struggling with sleep at the minute. As such, I know I'm not making the best decisions right now. Would you get it checked out or not bother?
The car is nothing special. It's very much a utility family vehicle in my head - a Seat Leon estate. I look after it well mechanically, but it's far from a pride and joy type car.
On the one hand I'd hate for there to be an issue that causes issues down the line that I end up footing the bill for one way or another. On the other hand I'd really rather not have the cognitive load and hassle of needing to book time off work, book in at the body shop, arrange a way to get back home from there while they're looking at it, etc.
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Yeah, I agree. I did try and find the raw data to take a peek at that, but I couldn't easily find it. It sounds the Farm Business Survey and DEFRA surveys are the main source of data for this.
I worry that even if I were able to get the raw data it might not be all that useful, though. Everything I read online says that farms with a standard output of less than 25k EUR are excluded from the data. I don't know for sure, but it feels like there's probably lots of farms in a given year operating at a loss or a tiny profit, given the nature of the business.
As you point out, excluding those lowest profit farms will further skew the average.
Hmm it's no London, Birmingham, or Manchester, for sure.
Edit - done some googling and it's worse than the Derbyshire average for ethnic diversity and far worse than the UK average. Ho hum, this definitely makes me feel worse about it as a settlement.