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Thanks Doctor - so coolant won 't come pouring out?

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As to DG's comments about leasing/HP, as I've said loads of times before, it will work for some people.  Company schemes often make it a no brainer - like tunnie's EV tax avoidance scheme, or Mrs TB's old scheme when she was at Rover. ………..

It worked great for us for quite a few years.    No deposit, no tax or insurance to worry about, just chuck fuel in it. The price was reasonable and as I changed cars every nine months, I could work my way through the model’s catalogue.     My main stipulation was a big engine and black leather, as big engines went hand in hand with more toys. 
I’m certain that it annoyed some managers that a shop floor pleb was allowed to have a BMW X5 M50 and park next to the management 3 Series.    Anyway, they eventually reduced the choice of vehicles for non-management, as well as the prices going through the roof, so I decided to purchase them, using my company discount. I could buy a vehicle with discount, and sell it eleven months later for what I’d paid for it (we had to wait eleven months due to tax implications if we sold before the eleven months was up). Car traders get to recognise your number and phone you to discuss what spec sells well, so moving them on was never a problem. It worked ok but was obviously more hassle than leasing, plus you have to have the initial costs available for the first purchase.

As for new cars versus older models, we recently visited several dealerships (mainly BMW and Audi) with a view to replacing one of ours. I can honestly say that nothing took my fancy, and I never thought I’d ever say that. Ridiculous dashboards that extended to the passenger side and looking tacky did nothing for us, and most exteriors have gone weird, so I’m sticking with what I’ve got.

The code reader has become the new WD40 and 15 piece socket set.

I only suggest the Bini as a B road hoot. You're not wrong about cheap shitters. You really have to suffer the depths of Faceachebook market place to find anything sub £500 that is complete.

Which is bizarre because noone will pay reasonable money for a working car with a years MoT, especially as the same people will throw a perfectly good car away for the want of a decent service 

Mond boggling when you consider the reliability/life expectancy of new cars.

Yes, never had no functionality.

I'll also bet that on your HPE servers, a failed boot drive in a RAID1 doesn't bring the OS to a crashing halt either. In 30 years of working with Proliant servers, under the Compaq, HP and HPE brands, I have never seen one crash just because one of the boot drives in a mirror failed.


The worse I ever saw on a Proliant, an old Compaq Proliant 2000 I think it was, running NetWare, I hot swapped a failed 500MB drive, and it all started smoking badly until I yanked said drive out, sadly not before all the fire alarms and suppression* systems went off.  NetWare remained running.


*Halon days, thats how long ago that was.

You could do alot worse than a Bini for hacking to/from work. Although if you can get an early Leaf cheaply enough, there's a strong case to be made, just don't expect it to manage much more that your commuting though, battery degredation on them is something to behold

I think there are way better banger cars than the rather crap BMW Mini.  They still command a premium, even at the snotter end, and are full of German engineering solutions to simple design issues.

The Leaf has nothing to like about it.  With no battery management technology on them, there aren't many that can easily do 20 miles between charges.  On the upside, refurbed batteries are fairly cheap by EV standards, just not cheap enough to make such a venture worthwhile.

I've owned less reliable new cars, but I think if I had to deal with the main dealer/manufacturer interface on a regular basis, I would be seriously considering my life choices.

Some people like that hand holding and warm feeling of a franchised dealer - not that most know they are just franchised.  Whether or not you get the support you need from a dealer when problems arise is debatable.

Additionally, most of us are likely to get to a point where working on cars becomes less practical, and have to start relying on "professionals", which can again swing the maths on old v new.

Modern cars - including our "old" ones - are horribly complex and can break down due to minor issues.  Gone are the ways when a simple toolkit and a can of WD40 would at least get you home.

Just had a look at the new radiator - it has two threaded brass holes on the offside facing the engine  which the one in the car does not have. I have checked online and all the radiators for sale for the 2.2 have these. Can they be bunged up or do I have the wrong radiator?

You can safely ignore them. That said, there's something to be said for closing them up with brass plugs to keep the elements out

There was a leasing deal on Leapmotor,s a few months ago, which was three year lease at £200pcm, with one month deposit, and 10,000 miles a year.
No doubt a loss leader just to  achieve market penetration, but if I had known at the time, i might have been tempted.
Would still have kept the Omega as a second car though, just as it is now.

As for your Merc - no point trying to make economic sense of it. Its your hobby that gives you pleasure and thats all there is to it.
Some people spend disposable income on golf bats, for reasons better known to themselves, people like us choose to spend it on cars. 

There's nothing economically sensible about a big V8 saloon, there never was even if you could afford a new one

You could do alot worse than a Bini for hacking to/from work. Although if you can get an early Leaf cheaply enough, there's a strong case to be made, just don't expect it to manage much more that your commuting though, battery degredation on them is something to behold

Just had a look at the new radiator - it has two threaded brass holes on the offside facing the engine  which the one in the car does not have. I have checked online and all the radiators for sale for the 2.2 have these. Can they be bunged up or do I have the wrong radiator?

Just fitted a set of dials / clocks / instruments (call them what you like) to Sons Civic .
Long story but after me messing around with them due to an airbag light that wouldnt go out, just before the MOT, they werent working properly anymore.
Disappointed to find that the replacement set have 30,000 more miles on than the original set, despite being advertised as having almost exactly the same mileage. 
Got to fit an exhaust rear box to it at the weekend.
Hoping to fix its various little issues before decent weather arrives so I cand start into the list of various *little issues on my own two cars.

* C1 needs a replacement steering column due to knackered PAS motor, which requires the removal of the  complete dash assembly before starting the actual swap over.
If it gets too much, or doesnt solve the problem, then it will be down the weighbridge, and replaced by a cheap milk float, aka Nissan Leaf.