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Our Grandson in the RAF , was due to come home for a few days has had his leave cancelled & has been put on standby  he only came home on Sunday from  the USA & Greenland, be interesting to hear what is actually going on.

This S40 felt more like my old 2.2 Omega. Suspension felt like 145k mile suspension 

No complaints of stiff ride for this old thing.

This i4 comes with the adaptive ride option, combined with 18's I think the ride is incredibly smooth. My old 435i was fine on the motorway but to firm on rough B and A roads. This is near perfect if I'm honest for me and when you pop it in sport it firms up nicely.

Its not so much the smoothness of the ride, but the firmness that seems to knacker my back.  Thats how I've ended up with a pair of Jags, due to lack of any other viable options, and not my first choice.

Often my XJ isn't that smooth, as there aren't many points in time that all 4 wheels are round, but I have no issues doing distances in that, either driving or as a passenger.  The seat in her XE is getting tired - base spec car so shitty seats, and its now 150k and I'm guessing the previous owner made me look skinny - but again no issues doing fair distances in that (although never done more than 200 miles in one journey in it).


The ride of yours is more curiosity than anything else. Its unlikely I'm going to be buying a milk float any time soon.  My limited mileage makes it uneconomical (and our EV scheme is currently a bit wank on pricing), and her mileage is creeping into the territory of having to stop and charge during the day, which isn't ever going to happen.  Additionally, she knows all too well the pitfalls and related costs of owning an EV.

Lets plan a date when I can come up for a curry and you can have a blast in it. 

Officially, this i4 M60 on paper is a £75k car. Not that anyone pays that! BMW were offering 35% to Lex on the build slot, which explains why this was cheaper than a Tesla which had a list price of £50k on LEX monthlies.

The gross cost is high, but it's my tax band that makes it very cheap.

I will also admit that as soon as you need to charge away from home, it makes little sense. I get a discount from BMW making it 0.45p kWh from Ionity, but that only lasts 12m and even at that price, running a petrol is cheaper! Not sure I'd own an EV, to replace MrsT Mummy bus yet.

99.99% of the time, I will be able to charge at home to cover all my miles. So at £5.50 a "tank" it's fine from home.

Discounted Ionity is "£36" a tank and normal fast chargers you are looking at £65+ a tank.

But not that I use a tank, because I plug in daily....

My Saturdays normally consist of topping my car up with electricity, due to zero use

Bland and boring like all modern Volvos, but as an appliance, they do the job without fuss.

(Not withstanding the soot chuckers have their fair share of issues).

I found the ride a little firm on the S60 (I think) that I nabbed from that joshwyatt geezer for a test drive...  ...though that was ex-plod so might have been beefed up to carry weight.

This i4 comes with the adaptive ride option, combined with 18's I think the ride is incredibly smooth. My old 435i was fine on the motorway but to firm on rough B and A roads. This is near perfect if I'm honest for me and when you pop it in sport it firms up nicely.

Its not so much the smoothness of the ride, but the firmness that seems to knacker my back.  Thats how I've ended up with a pair of Jags, due to lack of any other viable options, and not my first choice.

Often my XJ isn't that smooth, as there aren't many points in time that all 4 wheels are round, but I have no issues doing distances in that, either driving or as a passenger.  The seat in her XE is getting tired - base spec car so shitty seats, and its now 150k and I'm guessing the previous owner made me look skinny - but again no issues doing fair distances in that (although never done more than 200 miles in one journey in it).


The ride of yours is more curiosity than anything else. Its unlikely I'm going to be buying a milk float any time soon.  My limited mileage makes it uneconomical (and our EV scheme is currently a bit wank on pricing), and her mileage is creeping into the territory of having to stop and charge during the day, which isn't ever going to happen.  Additionally, she knows all too well the pitfalls and related costs of owning an EV.

Thought I'd share that before my i4 M60 arrived, I ran a banger Volvo for 2 months. I'd placed the order for my i4 and was waiting for it to be delivered. My plan was to sell the BMW and use the funds to pay for a charger install.

When the delightful Mr Khan introduced ULEZ, I decided I'd go back to petrol from the Daddy bus that I ran. (rather than line his pockets). So I took a small loan and also took the excuse chance to also build a man-cave shed attached to the garage.

So the idea was to sell the BMW, that would clear the loan and leave me a good amount of money for a charger and fair bit left over. That plan started to look like a bad idea when just before the 435i's MOT and just as I was planning to sell it, did the 435i blow all it's coolant out of the engine bay. 

Had a temp warning in the display, as BMW only run oil temp on the dash  - The N55 power plant decided to split a plastic pipe that ran from the expansion tank to the rad. No engine running issues, but it took 6L of coolant to fill her back up again 

So I decided to part ways quickly with her to bank the cash needed for the charger. This left me with a 2 month period when I needed a banger, so for £900 I bought this locally.





My first Ford Focus Volvo S40 and have to say it was very comfortable. Once owner since 2008 and it was serviced every year without fail and ran quite well. I replaced for £10 the "Vacuum Solenoid Valve Intake Manifold Runner Control Unit" as the EML kept popping on and it had little power. (well as much as a 1.8 should)

I think that was the reason the chap sold as it had a shed load of work the previous year.

I'd have a Volvo again, but going from a 1.8 120bhp to the i4 600bhp monster was quite a change 

On the banger-nomics though, I still was chucking in £200+ of fuel in per month, it was only a bit better than the 435i on fuel. (35mpg vs 30mpg) over a full tank on average. Throw in insurance, tax and a little bit of maintenance here and there and I could run a car cheaper, but not by much.

I also don't have time these days to spend an entire weekend fiddling with a car. A normal Saturday now involves:

Ballet Lesson x1
Junior Life Guard Swimming Session x1
Swimming Lessons x2
Parties vary but normally at least 1 or 2 per month
Record for parties is: Little MissT number 2 had one at lunch time and Little MissT number 3 had two parties on the same day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. 


  - I'm basically a taxi service during the weekends! = Zero tinkering time

Plus work wise, I was in Lisbon in December for the week, I'm in Prague next week and I'm in Philadelphia at the end of Feb for 1.5 weeks. 

Clucking bell.....sounds like a good deal.

They are currently an extremely good deal for those of us who Ms Reeves currently likes to ream out via PAYE. The 'trick' is that the net cost is low because we would otherwise be giving the money away in Tax. My car for example has a scary gross lease cost of something like £1150 per month, but because there's no way I could get to keep all of that, the net cost of having it as a company car is much lower.

Arguably you could put the gross amount into a pension and run a cheaper car - but where's the fun in that 

This was my hardest bit, that gross figure could go into my pension. So in some ways, that is what it costs me. But my pension is doing ok I feel for my age right now. I also need a car and I've already done 1,500 miles in it. While I could maintain a banger for a little bit less, I really have zero spare time these days with 3 kids all doing clubs at weekends, sleep overs etc.

Hopefully get rid of the mortgage in the near future and then I could up figures again. Even with this though, I still still be contributing 20% of my salary and 9% comes from my employer into my pension.

The way I look at it is, if I asked the lovely government for some money instead, I'd get £450, or I can have this car. So far, loving the choice I've made!

Lovely car Mark, enjoy. 

Thanks, the only bit I don't like is when I have to unplug the car in the morning and it's been raining. My hands get all wet sorting the cable out and have to back inside 

You will have to bring it round one day tunnie , looks a decent enough car and at a good price - had you bought with your own money, depreciation would be wiping out a fair chunk of that monthly cost, and general wear/tear items the rest.

I've found all beemers a little too stiff for around the last 15+ years, and that tends to aggravate by back issues, but not sat in a milk float version. So would be good to flatten your battery give it a go.

We must be due a curry, if you can arrange an overnight pass away.   Hmmm, curry, beer, pissing around with cars... ...just like the old days

Yes, we must book that in. I need to pop up to Brackley to raid the loft at my parents. My little suspended railway project is coming along and I think I have more stuff in Brackley.

This i4 comes with the adaptive ride option, combined with 18's I think the ride is incredibly smooth. My old 435i was fine on the motorway but to firm on rough B and A roads. This is near perfect if I'm honest for me and when you pop it in sport it firms up nicely.

It is a heavy car though and even I notice that....

Im not goint t try and defend much of what Trump says and does, but to compare him to Hitler is preposterous ! 

Agreed.

The Leftists are that desperate they are calling Stephen Miller, a confirmed if not practicing Jew, a Nazi, comparing him to Himmler stating that when the regain control they will hunt themselves people to the ends of the earth and hang them... I mean FFS, really

They have started comparing Renée Good and Alex Pretti to George Floyd as martyrs. They have a commonality, but it's not a good one.

It's interesting to listen to the cries of the outraged and note how their opinions change like the weather.

You will have to bring it round one day tunnie , looks a decent enough car and at a good price - had you bought with your own money, depreciation would be wiping out a fair chunk of that monthly cost, and general wear/tear items the rest.

I've found all beemers a little too stiff for around the last 15+ years, and that tends to aggravate by back issues, but not sat in a milk float version. So would be good to flatten your battery give it a go.

We must be due a curry, if you can arrange an overnight pass away.   Hmmm, curry, beer, pissing around with cars... ...just like the old days

.....and women.

Always good to get a leg-over after a night out.

Your getting too old for all that nonsense now. Your approaching 70, and it might cause your old ticker to cry enough.