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What do you drive?


StefanAVFC

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On 08 July 2016 at 19:55, V01 said:

Seems like the battery is going in my keyfob,

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Anywhere local to West Bromwich I can get this sorted for a reasonable fee or Is it a job I can do myself?

Most important thing when changing the battery in a key fob is to do it quickly (less than 5 minutes) as the electronics will only remember the code for a short period of time. Too long without a battery inside and it will 'forget' which will mean you need the dealer to re-code it.

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So, I've come home this evening to find this cheeky little number in my garage. A 2012 Aston Martin Virage Volante, with a 6.0 V12 under the hood and just 15,000 kms on the clock.

Unfortunately, I can't claim to own this beast as it belongs to my business partner. He's travelling for a few weeks and has insisted I use his car whilst he's away.

Truth is he's trying (and struggling) to sell it for a decent price and he's rather hoping I fall for it and take it off his hands. Unlikely, as I'm not looking to add to the garage until the end of the year at the earliest and, even then, I'm sorely tempted by the Challenger Hellcat with it's 707 unwieldy brake horses, but I reckon I can have a bit of fun with this in the meantime. 

AM1.jpg

AM2.jpg

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1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

**** you, Stan. **** YOU

:D

Honestly, even if I had the money to spend on it right now, I wouldn't buy it as lovely as it is. My mate wants around £85k for it, and that's for a car that's just about to go out of warranty. There's a garage over here called ARM, which is a brilliant place to walk around. They are a specialist mainly for Porsche, but also do Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Aston Martin. I used to take my 911 there and a major service was between £200 - 400. A minor service £100 - 200. For the Aston, you're talking five times that, plus you're hoping nothing goes wrong.

For the sort of money he wants, I can get a brand new Challenger Hellcat plus a used Fiat 500 Abarth and still walk away with £15k in my back pocket. In fact, lots of options - late Jag XKR-S would be nice or another 911 - not quite as sophisticated and Bond-like, but both under warranty and cheaper - or get a used Gallardo or Ferrari 430 and pocket the difference and use it to run and maintain.

All moot anyway as I don't have £85k burning a hole in my back pocket at the moment anyway. Still, I'm not turning down three weeks of Aston 'ownership' all the same. :D

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  • 1 month later...

Any advice for a first car for someone that knows **** all about cars?

I'll do less than 5k a year I suspect, almost exclusively city driving, and with a lack of no claims years, my main priorities are low insurance groups and reasonable fuel efficiency. I'm tentatively looking at an 06 Peugeot 207, petrol, 1.4l, which has 68k miles on it, full service history for £1500, but I'm a little worried that it's due a service in less than 5k.

My budget is up to about 3k, I figure as it's my first car I'm probably going to ding the shit out of it, so I'll hold off on something fancy for now!

 

Edited by Davkaus
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1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Any advice for a first car for someone that knows **** all about cars?

I'll do less than 5k a year I suspect, almost exclusively city driving, and with a lack of no claims years, my main priorities are low insurance groups and reasonable fuel efficiency. I'm tentatively looking at an 06 Peugeot 207, petrol, 1.4l, which has 68k miles on it, full service history for £1500, but I'm a little worried that it's due a service in less than 5k.

My budget is up to about 3k, I figure as it's my first car I'm probably going to ding the shit out of it, so I'll hold off on something fancy for now!

 

fwiw, for a first car just about anything is fine really, once you've driven that for a little while you'll have a better idea what you do and don't like about it

a 1400cc car is more than enough for city driving, might even be worth comparing the insurance against something a little smaller, we've just bought a 1 litre thing for town and it's absolutely fine, just as good off the lights as anything else, it's good fun

£1500 for something you might ding a few times sounds really sensible. But again, might be worth checking insurance on something new, weirdly, it could be cheaper. Sometimes things like a new citroen C1 can be weirdly cheap and will have a year's free insurance.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I decided yesterday I'd upgrade the car after 2 years and 50,000 trouble free miles, even got the ok from the wife. This morning the bloddy engine management light has come on. fuuuuuuuu

Hopefully its one of those that doesn't appear on my next journey and never again (clutches straws).

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I think my beautiful baby is getting their notorious crank/stretchy chain problem :angry:  Could be one of 2 fixes according to mechanic.  One is cheap.  The other, not so much.  I need to stop being a skinflint and just get it fixed otherwise it'll continue to decide on a whim whether to start or not each morning.  Ho hum.

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On 28/09/2016 at 17:52, zak said:

Finally got this Beauty and could not be happier.

A joy to drive

 

2GGrFwG.jpg

 

 

:wub:

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On 10/5/2016 at 10:37, BOF said:

I think my beautiful baby is getting their notorious crank/stretchy chain problem :angry:  Could be one of 2 fixes according to mechanic.  One is cheap.  The other, not so much.  I need to stop being a skinflint and just get it fixed otherwise it'll continue to decide on a whim whether to start or not each morning.  Ho hum.

It's an Alfa (assuming you're still driving the Brera) - spend some money on it and go the whole hog :). It naturally deserves it for being better looking than anything else on the road.    

If it makes you feel any better, I discovered a head gasket leak on the 75 and have stripped the head of the engine to pieces. Treated her to all new sensors, starter motor, water pump, timing chain, radiator, injector rebuild and home test and have detailed the engine bay whilst I have the space. Just wish the machine shop would hurry up with the head weld and skim as the cold weather is approaching.     

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He's going to stick an RPM sensor on it and if that fixes it then great. Otherwise it's a new chain kit for all in about ~€800, but for a ten year old car that's what you'd expect. 

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My 2012 Speed holding up well after 4 years of Houston traffic. Have to admit I've been asked if the plates & badges give me disabled parking privileges. 

Texas-Villan-tag-med.jpg

Edited by ArizonaVillan
typo
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