The Best ///M/Barge/General Rant/Look at this/O/T(Vol XIX)

[PlywoodPascal]

braddo said:

I don't understand why BMW seems to be in a competition with itself to design the most ugly cars possible.

Jesus Christ. From the classy cars of my childhood like the E30 and E34 to this....

It might be ugly but it’s still classy
The grills light up
Can’t get classier than that

[Stick Legs]

The XM in black and gold at the FoS was horrific.

I don’t know why BMW bother to showcase the new M5 next to all the old M5’s because the target demographic for the new one probably wouldn’t give a fig about some old boxy saloons & the people who appreciate the heritage of the BMW marque are too busy trying to keep their breakfast down in the presence of the new ones.

I have thought of a new potential brand ambassador for BMW though:




Jocelyn Wildenstien’s appearance changing over time, with successive facelifts, mirrors BMW’s ‘evolution’ quite well.

[Crook]

I saw a large grey BMW that looked a bit similar to the green one above and it had a red A-Team van-esque red stripe around the glasshouse. Looked factory and also utterly crap.

But, as noted above and by those on the CC podcast, we’re not the market, they’re after the younger people, the next market with terrible taste who have a different aesthetic appreciation.

And the Chinese.

[Crook]

Also and unrelated, just remembered I used the Dartford crossing on Thursday.
That will be a £35 fine. Balls!!!

Also, more rant; why is 6 months tax (sorry Road Fund License) still more than 50% of 12 months? There’s no need for a paper disc or someone to write it out. It’s just penalising people who are unable to pay for 12 months.

That’s been irritating me since renewing the SL, it’s just an unfair and unjustified charge ( I always think I’m going to be selling it soon…)

Edited by Crook on Saturday 13th July 09:45

[ATM]

Crook said:

Also, more rant; why is 6 months tax (sorry Road Fund License) still more than 50% of 12 months? There’s no need for a paper disc or someone to write it out. It’s just penalising people who are unable to pay for 12 months.

That’s been irritating me since renewing the SL, it’s just an unfair and unjustified charge ( I always think I’m going to be selling it soon…)

I see Labour making noises about road pricing. I'd like to think that means no or less fixed price road tax but it will probably be on top of that. As an enthusiast or idiot with too many cars [and a Van too] I've got bored of paying to tax them all. So what I try to do now is be strict with myself and say I'm going to SORN this one and that one. So towards the end of the month I decide which are in and which are out for next month. It only takes 30 seconds to SORN a car but you need the v5 document reference number. So I have these all stored on my phone. You can do it right up to midnight on the last day of the month even a Sunday. If you pay for 12 months and then SORN you only pay for the month you have used. DVLA send a cheque out which takes a few days to arrive. I assume it is all automated. Since Covid i can now pay in Cheques using my phone. The whole process is therefore super easy. So I've gone from taxing 6 to 3 or maybe 4 for the whole month. Or from paying over 2 grand in road tax to less.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-sorn

[Crook]

I can’t even remember to pay for a river crossing

Sounds like you’ve got it sussed though.

Whilst I’m moaning, got a puncture in the Citroen on Monday, used the SL on Tuesday and got a chunk of brick flicked up off a van on the M1 that smashed the indicator to smitherines. The noise and bits of car that I saw in the mirror had me terrified that it had taken out the grille/bumper / headlight but I ‘escaped’ with needing a new indicator and a bit of paint. New OEM one ordered from the internet as MB are NLA.

[Fast Bug]

Crook said:

Also and unrelated, just remembered I used the Dartford crossing on Thursday.
That will be a £35 fine. Balls!!!

Edited by Crook on Saturday 13th July 09:45

If it's your first 'offence' is £2.50 which is the cost of the crossing. I got caught coming back from Pork by the pond. Turns out the card on my dart charge account expired a few years ago. Whoops

[Crook]

Well that sounds positive! I had the old car registered but didn’t think to do the Citroen so fingers crossed.
Thanks

[jeremyc]

ATM said:

Crook said:

Also, more rant; why is 6 months tax (sorry Road Fund License) still more than 50% of 12 months? There’s no need for a paper disc or someone to write it out. It’s just penalising people who are unable to pay for 12 months.

That’s been irritating me since renewing the SL, it’s just an unfair and unjustified charge ( I always think I’m going to be selling it soon…)

I see Labour making noises about road pricing. I'd like to think that means no or less fixed price road tax but it will probably be on top of that. As an enthusiast or idiot with too many cars [and a Van too] I've got bored of paying to tax them all. So what I try to do now is be strict with myself and say I'm going to SORN this one and that one. So towards the end of the month I decide which are in and which are out for next month. It only takes 30 seconds to SORN a car but you need the v5 document reference number. So I have these all stored on my phone. You can do it right up to midnight on the last day of the month even a Sunday. If you pay for 12 months and then SORN you only pay for the month you have used. DVLA send a cheque out which takes a few days to arrive. I assume it is all automated. Since Covid i can now pay in Cheques using my phone. The whole process is therefore super easy. So I've gone from taxing 6 to 3 or maybe 4 for the whole month. Or from paying over 2 grand in road tax to less.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-sorn

Or just make sure your cars are more than 40 years old and continue using them all.

[ATM]

jeremyc said:

Or just make sure your cars are more than 40 years old and continue using them all.

Not much exciting here

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/tax-insurance-an...

[ATM]

ATM said:

jeremyc said:

Or just make sure your cars are more than 40 years old and continue using them all.

Not much exciting here

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/tax-insurance-an...

Tax exempt

12 grand

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296019419561

[W00DY]

I'll take this as my tax exempt cruiser.






https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1751710

[slopes]

ATM said:

I see Labour making noises about road pricing. I'd like to think that means no or less fixed price road tax but it will probably be on top of that. As an enthusiast or idiot with too many cars [and a Van too] I've got bored of paying to tax them all. So what I try to do now is be strict with myself and say I'm going to SORN this one and that one. So towards the end of the month I decide which are in and which are out for next month. It only takes 30 seconds to SORN a car but you need the v5 document reference number. So I have these all stored on my phone. You can do it right up to midnight on the last day of the month even a Sunday. If you pay for 12 months and then SORN you only pay for the month you have used. DVLA send a cheque out which takes a few days to arrive. I assume it is all automated. Since Covid i can now pay in Cheques using my phone. The whole process is therefore super easy. So I've gone from taxing 6 to 3 or maybe 4 for the whole month. Or from paying over 2 grand in road tax to less.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-sorn

It's only a matter of time before they rape the motorist silly, fuel duty going through the roof, VED tripling in cost, highest possible rate charge per mile they can stick on us because it's the only way they can ever afford the absolute bullst lies more intricate parts of their manifesto and especially now that they have banned any new licences to drill in the North Sea Oil and Gas fields so that we can import more fuel instead

[andy ted]

ferrisbueller said:

Some absolute p0rn in the GFoS auction.

Did you see the results some ‘cheap’ things went no reserve I thought?

https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/

A couple all including fees
Citroen SM for £31k
Metro 6R4 for £80k
Facel Vega HK500 for sub £60k
And a lovely little Giulia Ti with FIA papers for £11k!

Would make an eclectic (mostly) usable car collection
All for the price of one BMW XM Label!!

[Cheburator mk2]

andy ted said:

Did you see the results some ‘cheap’ things went no reserve I thought?

https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/

A couple all including fees
Citroen SM for £31k
Metro 6R4 for £80k
Facel Vega HK500 for sub £60k
And a lovely little Giulia Ti with FIA papers for £11k!

Would make an eclectic (mostly) usable car collection
All for the price of one BMW XM Label!!

That was a shocking auction. Chicken are coming home to roost… Even the halo cars were suffering - the GT2 stalled at £860k, the 2.7 RS also sold at the bottom of the estimate, Daytona at £350k… 612HGTE with 14k on the clock for £38k hammer anyone?!

Great news for us, enthusiasts… st news if you thought cars are a new asset class

[ATM]

106 Rallye S2
Modified 16v 150 bhp GTI engine

11 grand

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156279586278

[Drclarke]

Cheburator mk2 said:

That was a shocking auction. Chicken are coming home to roost… Even the halo cars were suffering - the GT2 stalled at £860k, the 2.7 RS also sold at the bottom of the estimate, Daytona at £350k… 612HGTE with 14k on the clock for £38k hammer anyone?!

Great news for us, enthusiasts… st news if you thought cars are a new asset class

I was there and the Metro wasn’t very nice at all, the 612 was left hand drive and other cars made high amounts.

[ferrisbueller]

This looks https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/lot/201/196...



And, per recent chat, https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/lot/203/197...

[Chris Stott]

ferrisbueller said:

This looks https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/lot/201/196...



]

Absolutely love a Giulia… someone got a massive bargain there. .

[andy ted]

ferrisbueller said:

This looks https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/lot/201/196...

If this was a coupe I guess it would be 3 or 4 times this? Honestly seems like so much interesting car for £11k would love that!