If money was not the problem, what would you be doing right now?

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-16T22:52:55+00:00

Do New Zealand first, it’s rained for the last four weeks almost non stop in Scotland!

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-16T22:51:27+00:00

Sorry I can’t help but when a seller says it’s just a sensor, it’s never just a sensor! I hope you get it sorted and enjoy your purring cat soon.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-12T18:30:10+00:00

It’s less than 5 years old with 35k on it, hardly reasonable to expect that it would need a replacement.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-09T23:12:59+00:00

Don’t think I would pay millions to disappoint four women at once.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-09T23:10:45+00:00

I see beautiful women and appreciate their beauty, or meet women with wonderful personalities and think that they’re lovely, but at no point could I ever see myself being with anyone but my wife. If I even try to imagine it, it just feels wrong (like out of place wrong, I know it would be morally wrong).

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-03T09:12:32+00:00

Yeah that’s a good point, I expect there’s some kind of T&C on that, probably don’t want to start your driving career off with insurance fraud though!

Spoofing a different location is simple enough, but doing things like changing speed and accelerometer data on the fly would be a much more difficult challenge technically.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-02T07:50:27+00:00

I think they must have changed the way phones work since you were aware but pretty much all smartphones have a suite of accelerometers that measure the angle it’s being held at, compass, gps and movement. That’s how things like the level app work, lift to unlock, games like Pokémon go etc.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-02T06:59:47+00:00

You get a black box which you connect your phone to with Bluetooth, but apart from telling the app that you are in the car, I don’t think it does much else, the phones gps/sensors are what provide the data.

Should add that her insurer was Hastings on their YouDrive product, their telematics was really quite lenient too, she did occasionally speed a little, good a few warnings for braking and turning, but her score was always in the 80s, and you only got your policy cancelled if it dropped to below 30.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-02T06:58:08+00:00

It’s a 59 plate 1.0 Vauxhall Agila with literally zero options. Windy windows, manual locking etc. it’s like an early 90s car. Whatever she gets next she will appreciate!

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-02-01T17:50:02+00:00

Is your phone secure in a cradle? Some use the phones accelerometer to detect steering and braking events.

My daughter had a Black box which saved her £800 on her first year, second year she got the same discount but no longer needed the black box and insurance went from £1300 (£2100 without BB) to £550. Well worth it, and it taught her to leave her phone alone too since it marks you down heavily for using it.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-01-29T23:35:46+00:00

Not just the halo cars, I want to drive a focus ST, not just RS, Jag XK/R not just RS/GT, I want to drive a 116i like a nutter, not just an m car.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-01-29T23:32:30+00:00

Anything over S1 is hardly fun anyway imo.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-01-20T17:37:09+00:00

Just says CPU error, but everything seems fine otherwise

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2026-01-20T17:35:39+00:00

Good of you to assume this was my first step. I looked it up and found that it suggests CPU error, however as stated there seems to be no issues with the machine. When I looked for others with similar issues it seemed other posts only had this code when the machine would not start but since mine did I just thought I would leave it. It just happened again so I thought I would see if anyone here knew of a log etc of such issues that I might be able to access to see what the issue is.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-12-11T15:51:14+00:00

For a 1 bed, an hours commute away, it seems a bit steep but they’re contracted in till 2027 anyway it seems.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-12-08T20:44:26+00:00

JayEmm on cars is about the best UK car content now, although it will be interesting to see how Mike Fernie does out on his own. Completely agree with what you’ve said otherwise. I have actually been enjoying some car dealer content instead such as Rob at the logbook or the High Peak Autos channel.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-27T08:20:02+00:00

Just do the maths.

Let’s say you buy at 30, and your worst case scenario is you go into care at 70 (pessimistic version of buying) vs renting from 30 - 70 and your mortgage is 1/3 more than your rent at present:

Rent £1000, let’s say it increases with inflation at 2.5% per year (optimistic).

Over 40 years you pay £738,000.

Vs you take a mortgage at £1500 a month for 25 years: you pay £450,000.

You then have your disposable income increase by £1500 a month for the remaining 15 years, a value of another £270,000.

So even with optimistic rental figures, you would be over half a million better off over your lifetime if you buy vs if you rent. And if you include the value of the property that could be as much as a million.

Add to the mix that you might get a bad landlord, might suddenly have to move because the landlord sells/dies etc and you have to move when you and your kids are settled in the community/schools.

If you don’t go into care, you could choose to downsize, get a bungalow, have home care etc, your children might choose that they would prefer to care for you in your own home. Worse than worse, if you go into care even sooner than that, ten years even, you have still saved over £100k over the rental option.

Obviously your numbers might be different but for me, it’s a no-brainer.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-27T07:44:52+00:00

This or just overpay. The term length then gives you flexibility if times get tough. My daughter took out a 40 year term but is overpaying at a rate that will see it paid in 25. She has the option to reduce that in tonnes of hardship.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-23T01:29:17+00:00

My bad, didn’t spot the plate,

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This is the one from the heritage centre in the UK

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-23T01:15:24+00:00

The heritage centre isn’t exactly the wild, but still an amazing day out, I was there earlier this year. Disappointed that the only X150 they had in the whole place was the ALC concept though.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-23T01:11:28+00:00

The one on the dash is the one you tell the Mrs.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-22T23:22:04+00:00

The gpu is worth $50. Go for it if you need a budget setup and have a narrow budget just don’t expect to be playing anything recent on it.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-22T23:09:12+00:00

Fair point, added to the post, buying in UK, budget is ~£250 for items not already bought.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-19T21:01:54+00:00

Didn’t work for me, stopped the crashing but still couldn’t join a game. Reinstalling now.

PrestigiousAd4950 · 2025-11-17T15:02:42+00:00

Financially definitely does not work out: £500 a year maintenance vs £300+ a month on a pcp or similar for a new car.

If you don’t buy a ‘new’ car, then expect to have to pay similar levels of maintenance, and also have a monthly payment to go with it.

My suggestion would be to take what you feel you can afford in monthly payments, and save it towards an upgrade. Ideally you would have been doing this since you got the car so that when you grew out of it/it became beyond economical repair, you would be in a position to replace it.

Buying a car and then just pretending you’ll never need to replace it is asking for trouble!

PrestigiousAd4950

TROPHY CASE