The Advice Thread

[b3h]

My friend also went with PB and said all was great for them. We were going with them but plans changed.

 

[Sniffer]

Anyone had recent experience of selling their house and can reccomend which estate agents to list with.

I sold two years ago with Purple Bricks and like Kenny can recommend them. Just as a follow up to the Solicitor I also went with Quality Solicitors Davisons. At the time however and it may have changed since, they weren't on an approved list from my Mortgage Lender so I ended up having to change to a different firm. Put me back a couple of weeks in the process and led to hassle with the developer who I was buying from as he was looking for a speedy sale.

 

[Deano]

Thanks all think I will do that then. Wife is self employed and works from home so having the online diary and doing the appointments ourselves will be ideal

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Anyone got a PHEV?

Considering one for my next car but few things I'm not sure of, firstly them all being automatics and me having never driven an automatic but we'll see how that works next week when I go for a test drive. Think that's more of a worry for me though is battery life, can't seem to find out much about that other than different models 'electric only' range but I can't see myself using that too often, more concerned with the typical battery life when utilising both power sources simultaneously. There's only one charging point at work, with increasing numbers of people looking to use it, and nothing at home as yet, wouldn't really fancy hanging the lead out through a window from a three pin plug all night.

Just can't see the point if I'll end up spending half the time dragging round dead weight of batteries/motor when it's run out of charge, want a bit of comfort that it's not going to need to be on charge daily to get maximum performance out of it.

 

[pavlosmacwolf]

Knees!! Went to the local hospital yesterday as I have had some seriously painful problems with my right knee for six or so weeks.
X rays show that the meniscus is damaged and there is a bit? Of arthritis in there, well I am an old bastard now, like many on here , so anyone got any tips, rules, diet plans or exercise regimes they can pass on? Please.

 

[Sniffer]

Anyone got a PHEV?

Considering one for my next car but few things I'm not sure of, firstly them all being automatics and me having never driven an automatic but we'll see how that works next week when I go for a test drive. Think that's more of a worry for me though is battery life, can't seem to find out much about that other than different models 'electric only' range but I can't see myself using that too often, more concerned with the typical battery life when utilising both power sources simultaneously. There's only one charging point at work, with increasing numbers of people looking to use it, and nothing at home as yet, wouldn't really fancy hanging the lead out through a window from a three pin plug all night.

Just can't see the point if I'll end up spending half the time dragging round dead weight of batteries/motor when it's run out of charge, want a bit of comfort that it's not going to need to be on charge daily to get maximum performance out of it.

Have you looked at some of the review videos? I think if you are not going to recharge daily then you would be better off with a diesel as like you say there's a huge amount of extra weight to consider. The review attached shows 63 mpg when using combined power and charged, or 32 when not charged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDnylpt9B8I

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Have you looked at some of the review videos? I think if you are not going to recharge daily then you would be better off with a diesel as like you say there's a huge amount of extra weight to consider. The review attached shows 63 mpg when using combined power and charged, or 32 when not charged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDnylpt9B8I

I've read a few reviews but all they ever seem to flag up is the electric only range rather than battery life under combined use, I'm unlikely to ever really utilise electric only mode as it'll be a company car that I pay into a fuel scheme for and thus I don't have any great benefit in minimising my fuel use. I was more concerned about it from a performance point of view than efficiency, all well a good having a car that's enjoyable to drive when you've got both power sources at hand but imagine it will quickly become a chore when you lose 40% of your power when the battery has gone.

 

[Tredman]

Do you need a 4x4 style? Tesla model 3 might be a better option for a similar price. Much nicer car too.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Can't make my mind up on Teslas, some angles they look really nice and others they look all wrong. It's not an option for me though, have a very limited company car list to choose from so have to go for the best of a bad bunch unfortunately.

In this instance it's a Mini Countryman Cooper S E All 4, really nailed the snappy name didn't they, it's the one of only two options that have enough power to be anything other than completely mundane (though real world might tell me something completely different to what's on paper) the other being a Toyota Corolla but not heard anything good at all about the belt driven nonsense Toyota use in place of a proper gearbox in their hybrids.

Outside of that I'm guaranteed to be in something pretty uninspiring, although some would at least be pretty nice places to sit, and come a much higher cost to me too compared to the hybrid options.

 

[Tredman]

I'm not really sold on Hybrids mostly for the reason listed above. No Golf GTE on the list? Colleague of mine has the Hyundai all electric and that is very nice.

 

[Pablowolf]

Knees!! Went to the local hospital yesterday as I have had some seriously painful problems with my right knee for six or so weeks.
X rays show that the meniscus is damaged and there is a bit? Of arthritis in there, well I am an old bastard now, like many on here , so anyone got any tips, rules, diet plans or exercise regimes they can pass on? Please.

I can't help you out on the diet front (you'd know if you met me) but speaking from experience, X-Rays don't show up meniscus damage, you'd have to have an MRI. Just keep off it if you want it to heal, although you'll feel it from time to time for ever.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I'm not really sold on Hybrids mostly for the reason listed above. No Golf GTE on the list? Colleague of mine has the Hyundai all electric and that is very nice.

Our car lists are generally shit to be honest, they buy all the cars outright and have our own garage on site to maintain them so it's all about being thrifty, generally get one stand out option on each pay grade at any given time due to something being on a good offer from dealers.

I'm not really sure what their plan is going forwards in regards to hybrids or electric, the top dog has got a Tesla S and finally got round to installing himself a charging point when he took over from his old man but it's still the only one available here. They seem to be pushing the hybrids as the more attractive option at the moment, potentially due to the tax benefit? As the grade above me has the Mercedes A250e and then the saloon version of it with the AMG Sport spec on the grade above that, but without more charging points or incentives to install them at home people are soon going to be driving round with lots of dead weight in the backs of their cars and still using just as much fuel at the company's expense.

Could explore the allowance option I guess but whenever I've run the sums before it doesn't stack up.

 

[Tredman]

Our car lists are generally shit to be honest, they buy all the cars outright and have our own garage on site to maintain them so it's all about being thrifty, generally get one stand out option on each pay grade at any given time due to something being on a good offer from dealers.

I'm not really sure what their plan is going forwards in regards to hybrids or electric, the top dog has got a Tesla S and finally got round to installing himself a charging point when he took over from his old man but it's still the only one available here. They seem to be pushing the hybrids as the more attractive option at the moment, potentially due to the tax benefit? As the grade above me has the Mercedes A250e and then the saloon version of it with the AMG Sport spec on the grade above that, but without more charging points or incentives to install them at home people are soon going to be driving round with lots of dead weight in the backs of their cars and still using just as much fuel at the company's expense.

Could explore the allowance option I guess but whenever I've run the sums before it doesn't stack up.

I don’t know how many miles you do, but you can lease a decent car for £250 (or less) a month, add a £100 for extras / contingency then with mileage / car allowance / tax reduction you should easily be in profit.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I don’t know how many miles you do, but you can lease a decent car for £250 (or less) a month, add a £100 for extras / contingency then with mileage / car allowance / tax reduction you should easily be in profit.

Whenever I've worked it out before I can break even at best on similar models, any chance of an upgrade comes at cost.

I do around 20,000 miles a year, though it does seem to be falling a bit year on year, which always seems to send lease prices rocketing up. Our company rate for business miles is pretty shit, 13p a mile I think, so don't get a great deal back that way and the allowance is far from excessive to begin with, as they want to keep as many people on company cars utilising their investment in the on site garage.

Depends what company car you make the comparison to as well in terms of tax trade off, think that Mini hybrid would only cost me about £100 a month in tax and fuel contribution but the 1 series BMW on there would be about 3 times that!

 

[Boozad]

Anyone got any idea where the best place is to get sheet wood cut to size and delivered?

 

[Wombat del combate]

A lumber yard?

 

[Pablowolf]

Anyone got any idea where the best place is to get sheet wood cut to size and delivered?

Carver's would be a good place to start.

 

[Boozad]

Carver's would be a good place to start.

Probably the best one I've found so far.

 

[broughtonwolf]

Whenever I've worked it out before I can break even at best on similar models, any chance of an upgrade comes at cost.

I do around 20,000 miles a year, though it does seem to be falling a bit year on year, which always seems to send lease prices rocketing up. Our company rate for business miles is pretty shit, 13p a mile I think, so don't get a great deal back that way and the allowance is far from excessive to begin with, as they want to keep as many people on company cars utilising their investment in the on site garage.

Depends what company car you make the comparison to as well in terms of tax trade off, think that Mini hybrid would only cost me about £100 a month in tax and fuel contribution but the 1 series BMW on there would be about 3 times that!

Bear in mind you can claim tax relief on the difference between what your employer funds at 13p/mile and the Govt mileage allowance at 45p/mile for first 10,000 and 25p/mile thereafter,

 

[Keef]

Don't know if it helps,but Harry's garage on YouTube has just put up an electric min road test he does good and fair reviews