m0n1xX3r

Sounds like a fair shout to me Andy, and if I've been guilty of this, I apologise to anyone I might have offended. I know I'm very grateful for the help and advise received from quite a few of the members. Cheers, Bart

I had this same issue when I was looking for a zed. I think just about everyone asks about it. I bought a manual because I thought it would be more fun to drive, and because I'm a control freak. I've never looked back. However, driving it around town isn't much fun, and TBH I think an auto would probably be better if you're doing a lot of urban driving. That said, it just isn't that kind of car so you might want to consider something else as a runabout in that case. Bart

LOL. Dunno, depends how fast you go.

Yeah, it's nice.

You're probably right. It does look nice though. And yes, it will be called Vista, Longhorn just having been the project codename.

Well, it's a nice car, and I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at one... but no, I don't think so. Just IMHO of course. It lacks a certain something: I think it's basically just not rude enough. And it's slower as well, what's that all about?

Hmm, that I don't know.

Done.

And, as I pointed out elsewhere, they don't catch people on their phones whilst driving, nor do they catch: - drunk drivers - drug drivers - people who don't indicate - people who intimidate other drivers by driving right up their backside etc - people who undertake (including those using bus lanes to do so) - lane-hogs - people who can't keep their smegging cars in between the white lines helpfully painted on the tarmac on those roundabouts where the lanes spiral out from the centre (I mean, how hard can it possibly be) - people otherwise driving without due care and attention - people driving dangerously (overtaking on bends etc) I could probably go on, but I'm tired of my own complaints.

Don't get me started. They've put up a load more speed camera signs on the A14 around the Milton and Histon exits. No cameras yet though, but they are known to use mobile units along this stretch, so I'm not sure whether they are warning of these or not. Honestly it's true though, on speed camera stretches I spend far more time looking at the speedo than I normally would, and this obviously diverts my attention from the road ahead, which doesn't seem like a great idea to me. Grr.

Is there anyone he doesn't beat? I think I must have seen 3 or 4 videos of chunk demolishing some poor wastrel. Always enjoyable. :)

LOL. Yeah, I walked right into that then didn't I?

Convertible zed you mean? Yep, only shipped as an N/A.

Nice wheels. Actually looks like a nice car... but somebody *really* needs to explain to me why in so many of these photos the bonnet isn't properly closed. Gets right up my nose.

They are nice cars. I've seen a few E46 convertibles knocking around the place. Very nice too... although way out of my price range. I believe the 0-60 time for the E46 is 4.9 seconds, so significantly quicker than my beloved TT. But then it would cost about 8 times as much. However, if anyone feels they want to give me one...

Yep, I want one of those. Always wanted to build something like that but never quite had the motivation.

Looks... not too bad actually. But that "wharf" at the top of the screen with the fancy hover animations... strewth, I can already see another Apple UI lawsuit coming. Groan.

Yeah, definitely a bit on the thin side. Also 16s are possibly a bit small, although the tyres would probably be way cheaper I suppose.

It amazes me the number of people that still use the phone whilst driving, and inevitably they're doing so without showing care and consideration for (or even awareness of) other drivers. And of course, this is yet another thing that speed cameras *don't* and *can't* catch people doing... but I'm going to restrain myself from having a huge rant about that. ;)

Bit dodgy. Just IMHO, but I reckon some 19s even look too big for the zed. I've got 18s and TBH wouldn't want to go any bigger. Daft question, but is there any way you can try before you buy? It's a lot of money to part with otherwise.

Fantastic looking car. Love the colour. Get those tyres glossed up though!

Hmm... I like that a lot, and the bodywork is pretty much stock as well. Just goes to show the zed is sweet out of the box. Love the wheels too. It's making me think maybe I'll do that to mine. :0

I get the feeling I may get laughed at for saying this, only because it even sounds to me like I've jumped on some sort of bandwagon... I really like the new Coldplay album (sorry, I know, it's been playing to death everywhere). I've also been listening to Fundacion by Sasha quite a bit, although I don't know whether it'll turn out to be a classic album of the future - probably not, but it's great when you're churning out code. Perhaps oddly, I've also got into The Beatles much more, although they're hardly current. This is for very much the same reason as somebody mentioned Jem above: singability. The Beatles came up with great melodies that you can just sing unaccompanied and they stand up on their own. I think I'm probably getting old, but I've become quite deconstructionist in the way I listen to quite a bit of music. Certainly when I listen to pop/rock/alt etc music (i.e. stuff that is actually comprised of songs, rather than dance/techno etc a la Sasha), quite a strong criteria for judging a good song for me is: if I stripped all the production from this track, and just sang it with acoustic guitar accompaniment, would it stand up? Or would it still sound good if I just sang the song entirely unaccompanied? (Yeah, I know, this kind of assumes I can sing/play with enough ability not to murder the song anyway.) Obviously it's not all about the melody, and it's importance varies depending upon the type of music you're listening too. However, if you look at "classic" popular songs that have endured for decades, and which still get loads of airplay (discounting Radio 1), they've all got a really strong melodic hook. Erm... so that'll be the songwriting theory lecture over with then. Sorry, do have a tendency to go on a bit sometimes.

This is a possibility. However, I think there are a few factors that may make this only a temporary problem: - Insurances costs: I'm 29 with 4 years NCB and it still cost me getting on for £800 to insure my TT, but there are people on here paying thousands. If you can't afford that you can't drive it. That's one good thing I'll say for ANLP systems and insurance databases: it should get harder for uninsured drivers to get away with it, so hopefully there won't be too many uninsured zeds being driven around. - Cost of maintenance. It's not cheap even if you do it yourself, and there's not much point in skimping because it'll only cost more. From what I can tell if you don't show this car some TLC it won't get through its MOT, and if it doesn't have an MOT see my comments above re: ANLP. - Cost of fuel. I earn a decent salary, but I don't drive much because if I did the fuel costs would kill me. 97p / litre the last time I filled up, and it cost £54. I don't want to be doing that every week. Even the NA is pretty thirsty, but the TT around town is a complete nightmare. OK, so now here's my pet theory. If you're paying £1500 for a zed it's still quite likely to be a shed. Prices for decent ones aren't that low generally, so whilst we'll see more zeds in the short-term, they'll probably be a bit ropey. On this basis the maintenance costs will cripple their owners, because they'll have to spend ££££ to get the thing working properly, so they might be forced to scrap / break. Now this is kind of a shame, but the upshot is that the zed will become rarer again, and so maybe the value of a decent one will increase. Or alternatively everything I've just said could be a load of tosh. ;) Take yer pick. Bart

Strewth, you've been Veilside tangoed! :) He's really gone to town on that! Looks like he's made a good job of it though, so although it's not necessarily my taste, I'd say good on him. I play guitar to a fairly mediocre standard, mainly acoustic nowadays because I can never be bothered to get out the electric, and the pedal and connect it all together... oh yeah, plus my electric is one of the cheap Ephiphone Les Paul copies (I mean the £250 ones rather than the £500 jobbies), which goes out of tune for a pasttime, which gets quite irritating. My acoustic guitar is actually quite nice, and far better than I deserve for my standard of playing (Larrivee D03-RE). It's got quite a Coldplay sound to it, although that isn't why I bought it. I also sing and try to do a bit of songwriting, although not nearly as much as I'd like, and occasionally play with friends. That's mainly been in church, but we also just jam together and I'd love to try doing a pub gig or a bit of busking. But as with most people I suspect, it comes down to having the time. Music's actually my real passion, much more so than the zed, and one of the main reasons I now work part-time is to pursue that a bit more. Sorry, bit of a long reply there. Seem to be quite a lot of people with a more than passing interest in music on here.