Bluemarlin

If it went down to 3v it's possible that it will struggle to now take and hold a charge. If it's 6 years old then I'd probablly just replace it for peace of mind and move on.

I'm a big fan of Dyson, but not so much a fan of their prices. As such, I bought three Dysons off ebay, two for 99p, and one for £9.99 (I know, I splashed out on that one), which were "broken", fixed them, and gave two to relatives. The good thing about overpriced items is that the people who buy them can often afford, and even prefer, to ditch and replace, rather than repair. This is especially true for items used by the fairer s*x, who will use the slightest fault as an excuse to get something newer and shinier. Often though they're quite easy to fix, with one just needing a plastic bag pulled out if its hose, and the reset button pressed.

I definitely do, but it's entirely due to it being a hybrid. In part it's because I sometimes keep an eye on the economy gauge, but mostly it's more the relaxed feel of the RX compared to my previous sports coupe.

You forgot that cyclists helpfully provide a useful bump warning before you hit a curb. Also, indicating is allowed in one specific instance, which is at traffic lights, with two lanes and a right turn. If turning right, you're supposed to proceed to the junction in the outside lane, come to a stop, and only then turn on your right indicator 🙂

I won't go right back to the beginning (Vauxhall Viva), but my last few cars were a Jag X type, followed by an XF, both were great, but were company cars, so issue free 🙂 I liked Jags so much that when I left the company I bought an XK8. Lovely car if you don't mind regular maintenance bills. It was a combination of ULEZ, maintenance costs, and a preference to step into a car, rather than crouch down, that resulted in me buying an RX. I can honestly say, apart from the looks of the XK, it's a better, more comfortable, and far more reliable car than any of the Jags I owned.

For that length of trip its worth it for the peace of mind. Not so much for the hassle of a flat, but imagine the grief you'd get from the wife if you got one and didn't have a spare (wheel I mean, not wife).

In my experience it's tough to appeal these things and win. Not impossible, but you have to weigh up the aggro vs £60. As for the 15 days, whenever I've gone over the allotted period and given up on fighting it, I've just ignored the demands for £100 and sent the original £60, and have never heard anything back.

For those who do travel to the EU, I can confirm that Direct Line provide fully comp cover for, I think, 90 days in the EU. I have the top level policy (£600ish a year), so not sure if it's only at that level or whether lower tiers include it too.

I'll second the damp cloth, and them maybe some kind of protection; I use 303 aerospace protectant. As I understand it, even any real leather is coated with some kind of plastic based clear coat, so I'm not sure how much, if any, difference it makes using specific leather products.

I have no definitive answer to that, but can comment on my experience. Due to zero ethanol content, I mainly used Esso E5, simply becausse I found it gave me reliably better mpg than anything else. Esso now state that that it's no longer zero ethanol, and that at least appeaars to be the case, as I'm getting at least 2-3mpg less with Esso E5 than I used to. I've since swtiched to BP which seems to be better.

Derek, any topic can potentially be a hornet's nest, as they can often drift. So even posting the most innocuous thing can sometimes be like a game of online Russian roulette 🙂 As to your last point, I suppose it's because of the value people place on gathering data, and the ability to market to people. Bit like saying why don't Tesco give everyone a discount, and not just clubcard holders.

Haha, they are actually workwear as opposed to kitchen ones, but I also have a pair in the kitchen 🙂

Funnily enough I washed mine yesterday, and used waterproof gloves.

True. Less of an issue on Toyota/Lexus hybrids though, as the system is programmed to get the engine up to temperature faster, in part by recirculating exhaust gases.

Should be good Malc, I understand that Wilko oil is made by Comma/Esso.

Much debate, but sadly not much in the way of data. I'm happy to stick with annual servcing and 12months/10k changes, although I usually do less than 10k. For the most part that seems to be the norm in UK and Europe, and 6 months/5k more common in the US. I'm not aware though that engines fail more over here than they do in the US, so it would be interesting to know if there was any data. In the absence of that then annual changes with a good quality synthetic is good for me. Looking on forums cars seem to mostly die from things like rust, failed tranmissions, or other issues rather than engines failing due to oil change intervals, unless of course people abuse their cars and either leave it way to long or run on low oil..

In my experince having a good independent garage neaby is handy for general maintenance, but specialists are often no cheaper than main dealers.

Consider your thinking unskewered Malc, it's far from ok. Money complicates everything, and Hamas being based in Qatar was long ago supported, if not encouraged by the US.

To be fair, the election was almost 20 years ago, and around the half the population weren't even born then, let alone able to vote. As I understand it, around 40% of the population are under 14. Even then it was supposed to be a power share, as the electorate was split, but Hamas overthew the opposition. I don't think the majority of the people have much say. Regardless of what they both say., it's a far more complex situation than either side claim. The extremists on both sides are the bad guys, and the good guys on either side pay the price. Hard to see a solution really as, even removing the extremists on either side, neither side seem able to agree on terms for a two state solution, and Israel doesn't particularly fancy a single state one.

Nuance Malc, nuance 😉 Just because a person is supportive of Palestians, doesn't mean they like Hamas. In the same way that many Jews are not supportive of Israel, and that some (me included) are supportive of the right to a peaceful existence for Israelis, but not supportive of some of their leader's actions.

Hippopotamas ? 🙂

Me too, but I'm also aware that there's a huge difference between causing offence and someone taking offence. The former is on me, the lattter on them. That's the problem today though, in my opinion, in that if you disagree with someone they take it personally, and see a difference of opinion as an attack against who they are. Unless people can separate ideas from their sense of self, then it's almost impossible to have any kind of meaningful debate. Your latter point neatly highlights the importance of history, context and nuance. People would be well reminded that at one time condoning slavery was considered "politically correct", and that people either ignored the flip side, or justiified it with myths of racial superiority. Those people would also benefit from the fact that whilst times change, and we evolve socially, we still create myths, or ignore inconvenient truths, which history will one day no doubt condemn. Slavery is a good example, as yes, we've removed it from our doorstep, but our distaste in some ways is just about distance, and being out of sight out of mind. In 100 years from now it's quite possible that the "woke" youth of today will be seen as barbaric, self serving , slavery condoning consumers, for buying their iPhones, clothes and other tech, that was made by exploited labour in other countries. Times always change.

Agreed, it's very complex, and I've seen it in people with BPD, where pretty much any therapy struggles to deal with it. In my experience you have to almost learn new methods of communication with someone like that, rather than trying/hoping they'll change. In the societal sense, I think the kind of black of white thinking I'm referring to is driven more by (social)media than childhood trauma/experiences. In other words it's influence being applied after early development, and so possibly less ingrained and therefore potentially easier to address. Hard to say, as no doubt those more towards one end of a spectrum are more easily infiuenced, and maybe there are larger numbers of them.

I'm banking on the theory that time is driven by the universe exapanding, and that one day it will stop and then contract. When that happens then time will move backwards, so I'll start out old and get younger each year 🙂

It's very interesting Stephen, and to some extent we all use black and white thinking in certain circumstances. I was more referring to it in a strict sense, and the psychological interpretation and implications of it. rather than a casual understanding of it. And that a widespread, general and overly applied usage of it, seems to be becoming more common, and unhealthy for society. Here's a medical article on what I'm referring to: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/black-and-white-thinking