Used car buying advice

[Bob Williams]

Beautiful Dogs, Richard. I take it the carpenter survived?

I hope that your wife’s new chemo routine helps to put things on a better plateau. My own has not varied: I have 3 weeks of one cycle, with bloods each Monday morning and chemo each Wednesday, length and type of treatment dependent upon blood results. After the 3rd week, 7 days freedom, which is how we had the holiday opportunity from the 12th to the 19th. And yes, it has done us both a power of good. I am still losing weight, but it has changed in that what I am losing is not meat and muscle, but remaining fat. My arms and legs are becoming bony and I have become aware that I no longer have “padding” to protect my rear, when sitting on a harder chair. The result is another 2″ gone from my waist and my latest new trousers need to be worn with a belt. All complicated by the left sided protuberance of my Parastomal Hernia. “Getting by” is the real summation.

Next Monday, back to the routine for another 3 weeks, with a visit to the senior Macmillan Nurse after bloods, for more tests, weighing and BMI and a decision about the type of further treatment, based upon my condition and test results. During my last chemo session, one of our long-standing members rang the bell on his way out, to signify that he was now in remission. An event greeted by applause and cheers, from those of us with the energy to do that.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls… Sorry, couldn’t resist it.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

just been through the whole insurance renewal palaver with Admiral. They wanted nearly £640, magically reduced to just under £500 on the ‘phone. Informed them that I won’t be renewing with them because I can get it for £350 with Debenhams insurance through Moneysupermarket. Saved another £15 by using the link from MSE

Happy with that result, a lot less than last year, even with my lowly 1 years n0-claims.

 

[Richard]

Thank you Bob, I had some good news today, I saw the consultant and it appears that when my sample hit their laboratory it was an instant hit. Because it was a very rare example everyone was keen to look and study the thing. Happily it is still in the early stage and considered encapsulated so there is no indication of any spread from the initial site, by implication the margins are intact which is good. The senior specialists all signed off on that analysis, so I appear to have dodged the bullet there. I will have to have some regular monitoring for a while to ensure that no active sites appear again which is always a risk with this type of problem. With the schools on holiday the traffic was quite light so the cross country run only took about an hour.

My wife has not had such a good time, the chemo has interacted with her various issues and her feet are now very painful to walk about on and her hips are not sending her love notes. We will have to go back to the unit this week to have the PICC line cleared as it is currently blocked and not usable. Still only 11 more weeks then a few weeks rest before the knife person will be on stage. The outline plan was set up during a Saturday appointment when there was a request for reconstruction surgery. That  should result in a meeting with the plastics surgeon – if they have not melted in the present heat, (sorry old joke.) No one has slept well with all the stress, heat and drugs my stomach has made itself a real pain, adding to the nigh time disruption. I still got the dogs out for a walk before leaving for the hospital, though it was already hot and I had the unfashionable boiled salad look before I set off.

I celebrated my today’s good news by fitting a new fuel pick up for the garden vacuum, I decided it was too hot to try it out at the moment so then cleaned the bathroom floors, only with the household vacuum clearer. If it cools down again I will try to steam clean them later, I think they need to attention.

[StevieP]

Richard good news indeed for yourself, certainly helps when you are supporting someone else.

Bob can be very frustrating not knowing what comes next or in my case not really being in control, but best to you both and yours.

[The Duke]

Great news Richard.

Pm I was about to say “How Much!” untill you said about your no claims.

I’m about to go from a personal car to a motability car. So I may have to get a second car just to keep my insurance NCB running. Looks like your NCB vanishes if you don’t use it withing two years.

So I could have an excuse to buy a little old hot hatch or maybe even an old MX5. I’ll sell it the wife as it’s saving money long term ???

[PlaneMan]

Steve, I’d go the MX5 route, an Eunos if possible. Real possibility of making money if you get a good one. Might take 5+ years but they will eventually be worth good money.

[Richard]

The Duke wrote:

Great news Richard. Pm I was about to say “How Much!” untill you said about your no claims. I’m about to go from a personal car to a motability car. So I may have to get a second car just to keep my insurance NCB running. Looks like your NCB vanishes if you don’t use it withing two years. So I could have an excuse to buy a little old hot hatch or maybe even an old MX5. I’ll sell it the wife as it’s saving money long term ???

Steve, it might be worth getting something on which your daughter would be a possible second driver as very much a second driver to avoid the problem you/she had before. Anything cheap and above all insurable for the two of you with you clearly main and her very much a legitimately second driver, especially after she has at least her first year NCB. You do not have to rush the choice the clock has not started on the two years.

[Bob Williams]

Good news for you Richard, time you had some. A better outlook when you are having an alternative scenario from your wife’s plight: I wish you both better news there. In another thread I report that my bloods show that one of my white cell types is very low and they have cancelled this week’s chemo until better results show up. Apparently everything else is fine, improving and I have gained a Kilo! I am a bit fed up with friends telling me how good I look, though: I just lost weight, had a great holiday and came back looking brown. Waiting for a mate I will see soon, not seen for some years. He will probably say something like “You look well, have you been ill?” That’s his style.

Thanks Stevie P, know you are going through similar and appreciate that. I just keep on keeping on.

Steve: Motability is insured with RSA and you can have at least 2 Named Drivers. I know from a mate that RSA considered his long history with Motability, after he came into a pot of money and decided to just keep the payments. They made him a fair offer to insure outside of Motability, dependent upon his claims history. As he had never made a claim, it was apparently a good offer, although the tight lipped bugga won’t tell me what it was.

Alternatively, you really, really want an MX5.??

Nolan, that is bargaining of the highest order.?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Thank you Bob and to the others. One lesson I take out of this is:
<p style=”text-align: center;”>DO NOT IGNORE ANYTHING THAT IS NOT RIGHT</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Sorry to shout, but I was darned lucky to get it caught and hopefully sorted while it was still an itty-bitty bump brooding and not a systemic problem. So do not volunteer to be a dead hero.</p>
Sorry not to respond to your white blood cell saga, it does show the value of the blood tests and why they are not to be missed. My wife gets some self administered injections after each round to bring her bloods up to par. She was worried tonight about how exact the timing for 24 hours between shots needed to be, seconds, minutes, hours or what? Having read the long document in tiny type there was nothing about the timings worth noting. As for anything else the mental filter just screened out anything that was not timing related.

[The Duke]

MX5 is a great car bob. Easy and cheap to turbo or supercharge. Also a V8 swap kit too.

But I like the old British sports car set up, thank God the Japanese finally shown us how to do it. The new hard top one is nice, but not in my second car price range. I’d have a mk 2, pick good ones up for next to nothing.

If I was tall I wouldn’t entertain one, but being a whale 5’8″ I fit.

[Bob Williams]

Steve  do you recall me talking on here about a childhood mate in Aussie who used to come over to us every year and then passed away 3 Christmases ago?

2 years before that, he moved to another location on the Gold Coast, after recovering from stomach cancer, and bought this in Oz to get around:

http://tinyurl.com/y9etsr7y

Vic was very happy tooling around the Coast in his Miata, which is what the MX-5 is called outside Europe and the UK. Within 2 years we hosted him for the last time. He was looking ill by September and I wanted to take him to the airport to go home, but he preferred to go back to see his sister, then take a taxi to the plane and fly home. His cancer had returned and by Christmas Day his daughter sent me a pic of the family gathered around him, playing Elvis’ Christmas album and singing along, although it was pretty clear that he was not really with them. By Christmas Day evening he was gone.

But after buying the Miata, he was always emailing his enthusiasm for the car, loved driving around the Gold Coast in it. I know it had a good second home with the daughter he loved: she still has it and says it is lovely car to drive and feels like dad is there with her.

Vic was my best mate from 2 years of age, school, teenage years, bikes and gf’s. He left for Oz when we were both 22, made good money from a business he founded and sold.

A gentleman, RIP Victor Brindley. So glad you got joy from that car.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

The downside of being lucky an having a good innings, is you’ll get to see though youre close to disappear one by one.

The angle of that MX5 photo you posted bob, makes it look more like trh Honda S200. Another great car. Probably the better car than the MX5, but there are 100s of thousands of MX5’s sold in the uk, so parts are cheap, and modding is huge.

I’d lije one of the older more simple ones. One a Haynes manual will fix. It may get me into actual spanner work. Somtehing I’ve always shied away from until this month. Never fixed anything on a car before ever.

An MX5 or a Landrover 90 would be perfect  hobby cars. The Landrover would suit my personality, but the MX5 is more fun, so would suot my driving personality.

Also in sure my girl wouldn’t wouldn’t mind a convertible sports car, to be named driver on. I bet hers would never move.

 

[Bob Williams]

Steve, if I was younger and in the market for a small, fun sports car, I would choose the Toyota MR2.

http://tinyurl.com/y9xmscnl

This is the one I would buy:    http://tinyurl.com/ydy45qcm

I drove a ’93 model belonging to a customer in my last year of work (’95) and was so impressed that I had to have several “test drives” after carrying out a lot of work: the bodyshop lads had sorted it through insurance after a heavy impact with a VW Camper van. I had all the mechanical bits to sort out. (I made sure of that! ??) Despite never having worked on one before, it was pretty basic except for access. They are mid-engined, which gives the car such great steering and ability to chuck it round corners at daft speeds: the MR2 stuck to the road like glue. Toyota are bringing out a new model based upon the Lexus in 2020, according to the first link above. As happens with most cars like this, because it’s a ‘legend’ to enthusiasts, the new improved model looks like it will be larger, heavier and not as maneuverable as the nimble little older car. I certainly enjoyed those (cough!) Test Drives over a period of three days. Well, I had to make sure the RAC and insurance company would give it a clean bill of health, didn’t I? I even put some fuel in myself. That never happened before. Or since.

I loved that car and would have bought one if I had stayed in work, but collapsed with spinal paralysis about two months later.

The older ones are the best models, great fun to drive. And fun is what driving should be, right? Unless you are a parent of a huge 4×4 Chelsea Tractor, taking the kids half a mile to school and back…

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

Bob, I once drove a 2004 MR2, on a go kart track in Cardiff. My friends brother owned the place and had literally just inked the deal to sell it for a very healthy profit. The car was owned by the company so he didn’t care about it any more. Very good fun but push it to hard (and you had to drive like a loon) and it swapped ends quickly, IIRC the only mid engined car I’ve driven.

[The Duke]

I liked the  mk1 MR2 with the T top. Though I once seen a video and in sure all the chassis was was an reversed corrolla iirc.

Never liked any of the MR2 looks after that. The last was very boring looking.

 

[Bob Williams]

As I said, the early MR2’s were the best. All car manufacturers make the same mistake, take a model that is successful or becomes a Cult Classic, then ‘improve’ it. That usually means making it bigger, heavier and shoving more gadgets into it. That’s why the MX-5 is a credit to Mazda, they haven’t messed around with it too much. Incidentally, this is what Wiki has to say about the first model for the UK market in 1991:

” This first generation of Miata (often referred to as the NA) included a special Limited Edition of 250 examples in 1991, produced in British racing green with the first use of tan interior, to celebrate the highly successful launch of the MX-5 in the UK. These have a numbered brass plaque on the dash above the glove box and on the front of the Owners Book,[17] and are fitted with alloy wheels from MSW (Mazda Sports Workshop) which are often mistaken for BBS’s, but which are entirely unique to this model.”

I never saw one of those, although as I was still in the trade then, I heard about them. I wonder how many are left today, out of 250? Be nice to find one, even nicer to own one.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

The MX5 lot are a real pipe and ale brigade. I’d be amazed if even one had gone missing. Lol

Though I bet what are still alive, will be under dust sheets, as they will be going up in price I bet.

[PlaneMan]

Parked my car up yesterday morning at about 8am, mum picked me up about 9am, home about 6pm after a visit to the legion and some lovely duck for lunch. Kids on bikes trying to ride with the parents watching. I asked them to stay away from my car as the kids were wobbling all over the place.

Get up this morning (before my gabapentin adventure) to check the fluids on my car, about 7 scratches down the drivers side. I could have killed someone. Spent an hour claying/waxing/ polishing and they have got a lot better, some are deep enough to catch a nail in so beyond my capabilities. I thought everyone went in a bit sharpish last night. OFC no one knocked the door or put a note through my letterbox or on the car. Barstewards. Maybe £200-£300 worth of damage.

I know it was a bike, one set of scratches is exactly the same as I did to my own car years ago on my mates BMX, went a bit haywire trying some fancy flatland and caught the barend and brake lever on the passenger door.

I know who knows what happened because of the looks I got this morning when some of the neighbours were going out and I was trying to minimize the scratches. Guilt all over when I asked them if they knew anything.

I’ll get the stone chips on the bonnet and the other scratches (from when it was a demo car) and the new ones but not for a while. Kind of seems pointless now that I know that the vast majority of people that live near me are complete cowardly mammaries.

[The Duke]

?? Feel bad for you.

Mines looking worse for wear atm, but just though the build up of motorway miles, just over 5k km so far, lots of bugs, and backed on spanish sand and grit. (it’s been hitting 38 to 39 evey day)  I won’t take it the local car place as it’s the drive through roller one, so it will have to wait untill I get home in 8 days time.

The lovely deep matalic fleck green, now just looks mat black full of sand.

Also I’ve found at 39 degrees, my clair con just can’t keep up. 35 it’s OK, 39,it can’tcool the inside to stop me leaking.

Ive noticed most people drive old bins, totally battered, and old, loads of mk1 kas, and they all have 3rd party fans on their dashes. I’d die, in an non aircon car at 30, never mind knocking on 40.

When you first open the door it has to be 55-60 in the cabin. I’ve been opening the boot, and turning the aircon on, for 5 mins, then shut the boot for another couple of mins be for I get in.

My half leather sets, are a big no no. If I lived in a hot place, cloth all day long. All day.

Hope you get it sorted. I not long ago had to get a dent and about a 7 inch deep scratch (through top coat and paint down to metal), lucally it gin done for cost, which was 150. He blamed my paint. He reckoned it would of been 50 cheaper if it wasn’t for the posh paint.

[Ed P]

One car lesson I take is do not put off to tomorrow what you can afford today!

When we were younger my wife and I both fancied sports cars, but because we had kids and were ‘responsible’, we never did much better than an XR4i. Now we are older and do not have the ‘responsibilities’ we no longer fit into sports cars – my wife has a hip problem and I cannot get out of ’em except by rolling out of the door!

[Author]

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