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16

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 13 April 2024, 13:51:05 »

Any car in that class is going to cost more, no different to Jaguar etc. If you want a car to spend minimal money on you go for a simple shopping car with nothing in it except the minimal equipment to drive it - steering wheel etc.

That used to be the case, but now everything has A/C, some sort of display, remote central locking, immobiliser, ABS, electric windows, PAS, various driver aids for the safety ratings, electric handbrakes, etc etc there is no such thing as a simple shopping car.

You could get around expensive technology failure by buying a 'half decent' Morris Minor Woody from the fifties or sixties .......for about £10,000.

17

General Discussion Area / Re: Going to take a look with maybe a purchase.

« on: 13 April 2024, 12:31:36 »

Black vinyl roof and an 8 track sound system.

18

General Discussion Area / Re: Dead Person

« on: 13 April 2024, 12:29:44 »

O.J.Simpson aged 76 that's one his fancy legal team couldn't get him off.

That was three days ago Baz. 

It's a shame he went to his grave still not knowing who killed his wife.

Are the police still looking?

19

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 12 April 2024, 15:37:49 »

I think the 5 Series in all generations (except perhaps the E60/61 at the time) has the most tame styling of all the vehicle ranges they make.

If I had the cash i'd happily go from my F10 to a G30 or G60 but I don't so that's the end of that! 

Yeah, but in 10yrs when the prices are better....

Best looking M5 was the E39 from around 1998-2003 with a 5 litre NA V8. Only 400 BHP though.

20

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 11 April 2024, 14:16:54 »

On the face of it, I would fancy one, enough I could almost accept that good awful interior

Sadly, my back probably wouldn't cope (it struggles with a standard 5 series). Not that I could ever afford one

They depreciate like falling off a cliff and insurance won't be that much for an elderly gentleman such as yourself.   Think of it as a modern day 3.2 Omega with an extra 400 BHP.

21

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 11 April 2024, 11:24:53 »

Does it sound like a hovercraft for many minutes after you lock it and walk away?

Not a fan of that engine! 

Yeah, about 20 minutes. I thought I had broken it.

22

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 11 April 2024, 11:23:44 »

Two wheel drive?

Four paw.....although it can be made 2 wheel drive only if you want to make lots of smoke.

My M240i is permanent 4 wheel drive only.

23

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 10 April 2024, 18:26:26 »

It's a nice colour under all the vulgar black trim and white upholstery. And I wondered what all the noise was when I was gardening

Tanzanite blue which I'm told was a £2000 option.

In the sunlight it was quite spectacular......but without the sun it is just a drab blue.

24

General Car Chat / Re: Bavarian brawn

« on: 10 April 2024, 17:39:34 »

Wow, you get some decent courtesy cars don’t you.    Whenever I’ve taken a £50K beemer in, I’ve been given an old 318 or similar. 
Car salesmen can smell wealth so they know it’s worth letting you rag about in it if they’re going to get a sale in return. 
A Competition Edition as well you jammy git. 

They let me have it for the day.

Filled it with enough petrol for 200 miles.

It would have been rude to refuse.

They want me to buy it though and that might be a stretch too far even though it has lost £35000 in just 6 months.

25

General Car Chat / Bavarian brawn

« on: 10 April 2024, 17:03:36 »

When asked how much power a car needs to make it exciting  Carroll Shelby of AC Cobra fame would often reply with a smile  "Too much is just right" 

I reckon he may well have said something similar if asked about the 625 BHP BMW M5 Competition.


I really like this car.

 
















BMW 240i

26

General Discussion Area / Re: Starlink.

« on: 08 April 2024, 14:18:19 »

We have been looking at how we integrate LEO solutions into a car for some years now, have worked directly with Amazon and Starlink on this.

So have you set it up, tried it, and its not performing?

Basically yes.

No obstructions as it looks out over fields. Starlink customer service say that it's as good as it is going to get.

Now using Lebara with the Vodaphone network through a Huawei router,  which costs £12.50 a month instead of £75 for Starlink.

Connecting the TV aerial to the router seems to have made it much faster.....or is that just the placebo effect.

Possible but far from ideal, you can get directional and external cellular antennas which are MUCH better, they just need pointing at the cellular mast (for directional)

I shall look into this.

Do you have one (or more) you can recommend that works well and won't break the bank?

27

General Discussion Area / Re: Starlink.

« on: 08 April 2024, 13:08:48 »

We have been looking at how we integrate LEO solutions into a car for some years now, have worked directly with Amazon and Starlink on this.

So have you set it up, tried it, and its not performing?

Basically yes.

No obstructions as it looks out over fields. Starlink customer service say that it's as good as it is going to get.

Now using Lebara with the Vodaphone network through a Huawei router,  which costs £12.50 a month instead of £75 for Starlink.

Connecting the TV aerial to the router seems to have made it much faster.....or is that just the placebo effect.

28

General Discussion Area / Re: Starlink.

« on: 08 April 2024, 12:16:43 »

I've signed up for a 30 day trial with Starlink because my options are pretty limited before 5G becomes more common.

I've gone for the 'residential package' at £75 PCM.......roaming and mobile packages are £85 PCM and according to users regularly throttled back if the demand is high elsewhere.

As suggested by Sir Tig  I have gone for the refurbished dish which costs £150, so £79 less.

I'll see how it goes.

That's not actually how it works, the major issue is the user count on the satellite.

It might appear that there are loads of satellites up there but, there are often only 1 or 2 over the UK at any one time, throw  in a 30 degree acceptance angle for the receivers and you have many thousands of people using the bandwidth of a single satellite.........it then gets worse with between satellite bandwidth sharing (for when they cannot access an uplink, and there are not many uplinks!).

The killer for Elon is that as users increase, bandwidth falls, plus there is big competition arriving (Amazon Kuiper plus others) and he has backed a bespoke setup so will have to replace the current  space junk he has up there (although they only last around five years anyway and they are constantly burning them up over the Pacific)

Interesting live map here:

https://satellitemap.space/

Interesting, Mark

It's shite so I'm sending it back.

I'll lose the cost of postage and £75 they have already taken for the first month.

29

General Discussion Area / Re: Outage this weekend

« on: 06 April 2024, 13:57:55 »

Excuses...excuses.

30

General Discussion Area / Re: I dont know if us men know...but..

« on: 05 April 2024, 12:09:05 »

I quite enjoy it when a girl takes control. 

Yep....but I have also put a few 'naughty girls' across my knee when they become too strident and bossy for their own good.