Boomer54

Just having a quiet read of the FT and came across this which hitherto I was unaware of as it never came up on my investment radar screens. Aston Martin ! Oh, how many of us gazed at the screen as Bond whisked his femme fatal away in the only thing that looked more beautiful than it's passenger ...the CAR. Yet this is a strange and mysterious tale when one looks further. Gorgeous looking product that in a nouveau rich world ( of luxury buying status) you would think it had to be a roaring success. However not so! Had you bought shares at it's launch price of £190 per share then today 5 yrs later you would have lost a whopping 94% of your capital. In trading parlance this is termed 'ruin'. Indeed, had you put the same capital into the hard asset which is the car then capital preservation would have been far more effective. There is a moral to this cautionary tale. Do not be seduced that because you like the product you should buy into the company. It may have worked well enough for Warren Buffet and Coca Cola, but there again he really bought the management not the bottle. So, if ever one is tempted please look carefully beneath the covers before the chequebook comes out.

Personally, just going to starve the flames of 'oxygen'. And he's gone !

Just saw this and well....how could I not post it.

Main dealers are not always tops at service that is true. I can think of one BMW dealer right here who nearly bought themselves a basketful of litigation until they decided to see the light. However, I will say that when it comes to the mechanical not one ever really let me ,or my wife down. They did do what needed doing and they seem to have done it well. Perhaps that would have happened at independents, but perhaps not. My wife's first car was serviced at the garage of a friend of her fathers. The two would regularly be sharing a table and a beer at the British Legion club. After we left that area and took the car to a new independent garage we were absolutely taken aback to find that much of the servicing work she had been paying for had just not been done. You can guess the stuff in question, because these things are generally observable. So, after such an experience it's long way back in terms of regaining trust of independents for my wife. Indeed decades on I know she would rather pay the premium and use the dealerships in the belief she will get what she is paying for. So far she has had no reason to change her mind .

You may have just created something new. Car Racism ! By god we need a new law to deal with that and I would hazard a guess the first two rules would be ; fossil fuel drivers must giveway to EV drivers at all times; Fossil fuel drivers must never overtake EV drivers. Car manufacturers are currently working to redesign EV cars so that all are painted the colours of a rainbow. It would have been that other colour ,but that's taken. For clarity in moderation it is not known if colours of absolutely any sort known on this planet ,or throughout the galaxy, are determined to be associated with any issue whatsoever. 😃

I know what you mean. At one glass of Carmenere per set played I should have just bid on the vineyard.

Yes, we live in the same world. We didn't make it this way. We're just trying to manage our way through it. My family was a really good example of how a streamed system works well and not just for social mobility , but in determining that there is a stream available that fits the child. Family with no parents with anything but basic education (other than a degree in hunting down Japanese soldiers in Burmese jungles 😉 don't knock it), but with a respect for the value of education without the educational level to support learning. Hence, eldest brother disinterested in academic education goes to a Comprehensive school (trapped according to labour), but went on nonethless to do very well in civil engineering. Certainly earned well and enjoyed what he did in something he found interesting. Middle brother goes to Grammar, not particularly academic although according to mensa he scores 147 and goes on to be Senior management with a multinational Pharm , kids educated privately. Youngest goes Grammar, most academic ,but too interested in everything takes time to find the path which is he likes which is to make money and finds that how he does it is less satisfying than the challenge that he does it. Kids educated privately. Ironically you don't really need private education for social mobility, but unfortunately our educational system overall seems to favour academic achievement Grade inflation ahoy) as opposed to a system that correctly assesses what is appropriate for the individual and then offers a pathway to optimise that.

I have been thinking on this myself, and it is something that unsettles me. We are acting on a theoretical issue, but seem to have jumped a couple of steps in the learning process, albeit I can't quite work out how we could reasonably do the science on this issue so that we could act based upon what we had learned rather than what we had theorised.. You see as you imply we tend to learn and develop our next steps incremently. Call it learning by trial and error. This is the very basis for the Edison adage “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” We really are not that different in this respect to squirrels. So, imagine how would we learn about climate change and formulate our next steps based upon what we have learned if we were this squirrel? I am not confident that this is the same as computer modelling in which case we could really be setting ourselves up a Ratner moment,,, means "oops it's all crap".

I think you meant "taking on the Argentinian women single handedly" with the occasional time out for a good Malbec.

Forever to be known as (T)he (D)riving (V)olcano

Indeed, that is why so many struggling leaders like to start a war, or at least identify a 'common' enemy. It distract people from other issues that the leader actually cannot resolve. Call me a cynic, but i am pretty sure I have seen this a number of times over the years. The N Korean guy and his family have basically brainwashed a country this way for going on half a century

No, you think you know how this would go, but you don't. There is a world of difference between diddling around in small claims/tribunals and a fullblown civil action case involving multiple litigants. Done both too many times. I saw above the basis for your action would be to protect your insurance premiums. Hilarious, that wouldn't cover the legal reps travelling costs to court nevermind any individual exposure you might end up with if you make the mistake of allowing your pride to overrule your brain which yoi might if you really think 'right and wrong' have any place in court. These are different worlds and I hope you don't ever really get to experience them, because I am not picking on you at all as I harbor no ill will to you, or indeed nearly anyone ( the person whose dog craps in the entrance to my driveway is definitely excepted). By the way we actually have a bit in common. Many years ago did the same degree plus some Quants, but here we are a long way from Salomon v Salomon.

Ok, without respect talk is cheap. Exactly how many legal disputes have you been involved with that went to court? How many such involved multiple parties each with theirown legal representation? How many were disputes where no judicial precedent existed so legal outcomes were essentially difficult to quantify? I would have gladly foregone building up unwanted experience in legal disputes. To say it's been costly is like saying a Tsunami is a bit windy and that is with winning more than I lost. Indeed, you will find somewhere in the small print of Insurers that they usually have a caveat regarding participation in legal disputes being subject to their estimation of a successful outcome. So ,whilst you may be happy to sue, the Insurer if they don't like the expected outcome will settle and leave you bearing any further costs entirely on your own. From your expressions above I sense you are in unknown territory.

Sometimes you need a little uptempo ! San Remo Strings https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=X6cjPtf4kb8&si=ghVmmMFj3zBY4qL2 Who needs lyrics ! Fathers Angels https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=UwMmcuraifA&si=oVMcIkvI7WxycrK7

Glyn roughly how long do you go inbetween drives in the car?

Subject to no building laws having been broken I think you would have a tough time establishing liability against the airport/garage owner. Just about every garage I have been in display the signage that drivers park at theirown risk. Whilst there may be some argument about the legality of that as a form of defence I dare say you would find the cost of pursuing it to be prohibitive. I am not aware of any overarching judicial precedent that covers this issue that either party could rely upon consequently legal costs for arguing such murky 'waters' would likely be sky high. Multiparty actions and legal costs really you wouldn't go there. Your insurer wouldn't want to either ,because the probability of success wouldn't fulfill the criteria for them to get involved. Hence, I think in reality each owner will end up using theirown policy for cover. I could think of a situation where the insurance company covering the the car that started the fire could be held accountable, but really with something this scale I doubt the policy limitations are going to cover that much. Just an outside chance of something happening on a counterparty claim against the manufacturer of the vehicle, but we don't have enough data to know if such a thing could be warranted.

I think what you are getting at is the effect of role modelling. Child imitates parent. Parent poorly educated can and oft does lead to the same outcome for a child. Not always, but probably too often the undesired outcome. I once mused that a cap, or ceiling on how this affected wider society once existed, because when countries went to war this part of society usually littered the battlefields of the world. A culliing process if you will along Darwinian lines for the good of society. Now unfortunately they are in the local car park ripping off a new Lexus ('cancel it', it's a joke ,(but is it? ). God, the brackets ,this is like grammatical algebra !

Soft spot in my heart for this one as it's synonymous with my youth. Scott Mackenzie https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0vkKy504U&si=DR3UmaGG9sAIJ9nO

Or Private education fails better than state education? Or private education succeeds better than state education? Or there is little difference between the two EXCEPT I think you will the difference that does exist explained more by parental support outside of school than by what happens inside the schools. Personally, I think my kids would have excelled academically whichever school I put them in, because they had unlimited access/support outside school, but their social experience was without a doubt what I wanted when I plumped for private over state.

There is not a great number of similar vehicles in the market to make a comparison with. However, what there is suggests it's maybe slightly below market price.

"instead of highlighting how you might benefit, either in terms of innovation, more efficient energy provision, better health from cleaner air, as well as protection from the future cost of dealing with an even worse mess." Oh if only you could have found room for a free monthly subscription to a case of Carmenere I would have been 'where do I sign up'. So would Malc, but in his case he would have still had to buy in for the other 3 weeks of the month.

Don't think you need a 'hung parliament' these days Malc. The way it appears to work to me is if you wait awhile any and every MP will get 'hung out to dry' by the court of social media. These days it appears just the merest slip of the tongue no matter how innocent is enough to terminate a career. Oh, how lucky we are , no career left, no fear of being cancelled. You can just stick your finger in the air and say suck it 'cos I'm off for a glass of self medication.

For my 'rock' who I didn't deserve. Bettye Swan https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=NXE6ksv_cBI&si=W-RmiBPDawp7Y1pV

Damn glad we are not talking serious money. Had me concerned there for a moment. I know we are never (in my lifetime anyway) going to see a meaningful reverse in the need to fund public issues. However, it would be gratifying as a first step if when any politician, national or local, wanted to introduce a new policy/law/regulation they first had to cost it out and then had to find a policy/law/regulation that they could remove/abolish that cost at least as much as the one they wished to introduce. Cost neutral politics ! nah ,never happening.

Moving right along 50 years give or take and the ladies can still knock it out. The Pretty Reckless and Taylor Momsen. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1XvK_pwJj9Y&si=1eNYdf5P8RD_kE4d Beth Hart - good as it gets. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-X8US_i4Teo&si=wM2uBQ5E7hFJ7Klu LDR for biker enthusiasts https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nvb8wdBglpw&si=i2e9KmCLID8eXD72