I think equity release is a big mistake. 😟

You lose control over your future living. 

What about this Gov't scheme: 

https://www.ownyourhome.gov.uk/scheme/opso/

OPSO is a form of Shared Ownership available to people aged 55 and over. It allows you to buy an initial share in a OPSO home and pay rent on the remaining share.

OPSO homes delivered through the new model of Shared Ownership will enable you to buy an initial share in your OPSO home of between 10% and 75% of its market value. Under the previous model of Shared Ownership, the minimum initial share you can buy in your OPSO home is 25% of its market value.

OPSO works in the same way as the general shared ownership scheme, but you can only buy up to 75% of your home. Once you own 75% you won’t have to pay rent on the remaining share.

You may be able to buy a home through OPSO if you’re aged 55 or over and meet the following criteria: 

• your gross annual household income is £80,000 or less outside London, or your household earns £90,000 or less in London
• you are a first-time buyer, you used to own a home but can’t afford to buy one now or are an existing shared owner looking to move.

Find out how to apply for Older Persons Shared Ownership (OPSO)   (GOV.UK). 

6 minutes ago, Cotswold Pete said:

I live in a 20mph zone, and I agree it is hard to do, as it feels like your going backwards, but once when driving at 10mph I had a little kid run out and nearly go under my front wheel, and it shocked me how I was caught off guard; at 30 they would have been meat. In the 20mph zone I live about 90% of cars are still doing 30 (or more)

Similar thing happened to me. Kids will step into the road at any time and any place. I was in a queue of vehicles doing about 10 mph and a child stepped onto a zebra crossing straight into the road directly in front of me - about 2 feet from the car!! I stopped dead and no harm was done, but the mother went berserk. I reviewed the camera footage and could see the child walking down the pavement, stepped behind her mother and out straight into the road with her head buried in her phone and without a single look or hesitation.

Thank God I had the camera because if I had hit her I would be the villain ( on a zebra crossing ).

I had not seen this coming at all and luckily was paying a lot of attention to the road etc at the time because it was very busy.

I also had a situation where a man stepped out of a shop backwards and fell/tripped off the shop step into the road right in front of me. I just managed to swerve around him.

BTW this all happened in France where pedestrians are even more unpredictable than here.

Pic disappeared here it is ---

50 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

Lone Ranger !

I always got confused between William Tell theme and the Lone ranger theme on the telly.

I like the bit below where Tonto refers to the lone Ranger as " He who knows nothing"  

kemosabe" might actually be "quien no sabe" meaning "one who knows nothing"

Here's a good link:

What does "quimo sabe" mean?

I had a decrepit Comma van. The body was parting company from the chassis. It was a thrilling drive all over the place.

My 1 ton Thames trader was fun too. There was a bus stop underneath a motorway bridge and I could turn off the ignition while in gear and turn it back on under the bridge. This resulted in a VERY loud bang and a 4 foot flame from the exhaust.

What a horrid thing to do  scaring all those people, I am so sorry!🙄

5 minutes ago, First_Lexus said:

while another had a 504 Estate, both of which I remember well as they parked in front of the classrooms!

Ed, I agree, and there was more variety and "shades" of coolness to be had. I always wanted an Alfa 3.0 V6 but could not afford to buy one and certainly not afford the repairs

My old 504 estate was a solid, reliable and fairly quick car. I still like the looks and style. They were favourites in African rallies because of their toughness. The only weakness was overheating the spark plugs buried deep in the valve cover.

I forgot that we had a 104ZS for 6 months until it exploded and was traded back in. On the other hand our 106Xsi was a great fun car.

16 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Nice bikes Gray. Not bad top speed from the FZR Exup. Me and a friend tweaked my FJ1200. Ported, bigger cam, bigger jets. Definitely got 180 out of it. Oh what happy days the 80's were.

Hi Vlad, the fzr was de-restricted and tuned by V&M racing who did the TT bikes. Removed the rubber restrictor between the carbs and the cylinder head, new Cobra 4-1 ( empty ) slip on exhaust and re-jetted. It was amazing. It was still picking up speed at 177 until I chickened out. Could not keep the front wheel down up to 100 mph. Yes those were the days and amazingly I survived.  The bike shop gave me a great number plate which would never be detected - WVM *** It just looked like a squiggle to the plod and their cameras.

BTW I forgot in the list Honda dominator 650 and Bultaco 250 trials.

BBTW  I am no longer a hooligan☺️

If you google expensive repairs to tesla or similar query you will see. For example:

• There were 120 Tesla Model Y electric vehicles listed in two large salvage auction houses recently, and the "vast majority" had under 10,000 miles on them, according to a report from the Reuters news service.

• The insurance companies that covered these vehicles decided that even with so few miles on them, these Teslas aren't worth the $50,000 or so they sometimes cost to repair.

• The cost to fix a car has gone up as the ease has decreased over the years, which has prompted a discussion over so-called Right to Repair laws, which would give owners more rights to fix the things they buy.           

• Or a similar headline from the USA motoring press   -  Crashed Teslas With Low Mileage Are Being Scrapped Because They’re Too Expensive to Fix

23 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

AND does anyone have credible reasons from an Insurer as to why this Tesla model is just about uninsurable ?

I think it is the cost of repairs, scarcity of spares, irreparable damage to Battery systems and finally the high performance in the hands of idiots - maybe?

The cars that I remember being owned by my Dad were:

Vauxhall Wyvern 1950 something - an american copy with a weedy engine.

Ford Cortina1200  A car with a 3 bearing crank that needed new main bearings every 12000 miles.

Ford Anglia 1200 - same crappy engine

Austin Mini 850 - gutless rotbox 

Vauxhall Victor FBW estate held together by filler compound - rotbox

Mine were ( in chronological order )  :

Inherited the Vauxhall Victor - sold for £12

Austin Healey sprite 1100 1966

Vauxhall astra estate Year?

Thames trader van 1700

VW I ton Van

Transit 2000 V4

Fiat ES 2000 Twin cam - great engine rotten bodywork

Peugeot 504 estate - very reliable.

Rover P6 V8 with denovo run flat tyres police spec.

Audi 200T 5 cyl - scary fast.

Toyota GT  RWD twin cam AE86 - worth a fortune now

Sierra XR4i  no comment

Renault twingo, Megan and Qashqai ( with a nice Renault 1.6 Dci engine ) - in France.

Kia ceed3 1.6 dci - still going with no problems after 140,000 miles passed to family.

Volvo T5 - lovely

Lexus 200t - very comfy and Quirky and 100% reliable

Lexus ISF -  what a great car!.

PLUS - bikes

Bantam 175

Kawasaki 750 twin

Kawa 900 - Worth a bomb now.

Kawa Vulcan 1500

BMW K 100   1000cc 4 cyl -  worst bike ever

Yamaha FJR 1000

Yamaha FZR exup tuned - 177mph honestly!!

Kawa Vulcan 1700

HD 114.

That's it for now.

The joys of owning a Tesla or similar. From the Guardian today. Quote:

"  Driving an electric car should be a win-win, saving money and the planet. So David* was shocked when the insurance on his Tesla Model Y came up for renewal, and Aviva refused to cover him again, while several other brands turned him away.

When David did secure a new deal, the annual cost rocketed from £1,200 to more than £5,000.

“My insurer was Aviva from July 2022 to July 2023, but when it was coming up for renewal, I received a letter stating that they would not be covering the Tesla Model Y any more,” David says. “I am a member of a Tesla UK owners forum, and lots of other people seem to be having the same issue.”

In the Facebook group, members share stories of horror renewal quotes, with increases ranging from 60% (up to £1,100) to a staggering 940% (a jump from £447 to £4,661, according to a screengrab shared by one driver).   "

And you could get two Whippets in the back.

Why do they call them minis when they are big fat ugly things?  Just wondering.

The acme of mini - ism is the 1965 cooper S. A pal of mine was driving his when the steering wheel and column parted company from the floor and he ran head on into a lamp post. The car fell to bits.

It transpired that the column was attached to the steering mechanism with one pinch bolt. Good old British engineering.

My 1966 Healey sprite exploded on the M1 at 70 mph.    70 in top gear was 5500 rpm!!! No wonder it blew up.

4 minutes ago, GMB said:

Whippet

Sorry, I should be more polite. He is called Kevin.

22 hours ago, Spacewagon52 said:

If you lived down south you would get many more of these days!

 

I think the sunniest part of the UK is around Essex and even Kent ( the garden of England - Winemakers' heaven ). The only problem is that the Whippet gets sunburnt easily and would miss his occasional 'tater pie.

3 hours ago, Linas.P said:

when I go on Autobahn I just set cruise control at 120MPH and leave it there

I agree, the only snag with cruising at 120 is the massive increase in fuel consumption even with a lexus auto gearbox that has two overdrive ratios. So, only if in a big hurry such as a ferry to catch.

49 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

Narrow tyres, small wheels and a truly bad chassis can give that just drive a suzuki swift from 20 yrs old, every roundabout is a challenge at 40 kmh!

For sheer terror, excitement and buttock clenching fear try getting one of these round a gravel infested potholed roundabout. It took me quite a few days scary practice and It is still not easy.

No, you can only buy whippets from registered dog breeders. And there is not much meat on them, but they stew down quite nicely and make a good gravy.

17 hours ago, talaipwros said:

Lexus RZ 450e

71.4kWh Takumi Auto 4WD 5dr

2023 (23 reg)

2,850 miles

£58,880

 

 

If you just change the position of the figures then I would buy one:

Lexus RZ 450e

71.4kWh Takumi Auto 4WD 5dr

2023 (23 reg)

58,880 miles

£2,850

Sorry - only kidding!😉

8 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

Fink you are alluding to Pie Barm surely. Only place mad enough to put a Meat Pie in a Barm Cake to make a sandwich. For the uninitiated 'up here' people call a Teacake a Barm Cake. I know, Meat Pie wrapped in bread, really ?. First time I heard about it i thought someone was taking the proverbial out of me.

Pie barms are for the posh folk. Wigan kebabs are for eating after 16 pints on a Friday night followed by a technicolour yawn up a back street. I hear that in some of the rougher areas ( and I do not mean Bolton ) they eat deep fried meat pies on a barm / bap / flour cake or whatever it is called in some places.

I heard recently that some people up North can still afford to buy and eat meat!  Our chippy still serves "scraps" and pea water to the pensioners!  Used to be free at one time. Fish chips and peas with scraps 1 shilling and 6 pence please. That's seven and a half pence if you got O-level maths.😇

20 hours ago, Spacewagon52 said:

Dishwasher liquid!

Must be a northern thing!

Ee bah gum, no, we use donkey stones up 'ere.  Don't even dare ask what they are. Clue - Grandma used to use them to clean the front doorstep and they are not from anywhere near a donkey's back end.

Finish off drying the car with a good clean whippet skin followed by a Wigan kebab for dinner - that is three pies on a stick.

Barry and Malc I could not agree more. I still have the motorbike ( and the historic broken bones to prove it ) and the fast car and still enjoy them while I still can. However driving pleasure is nothing compared to what it once was. As you imply; our driving experience is being controlled and ruined by all the restrictions. It's all about safe careful drivers and not so much about limits.

The last time I went out on the bike for a quick spin in sunny weather I did not get out of second gear and just sat in queues at traffic lights and even stuck in a queue because some idiot refused to pass a bolshy lycra lout hogging the road. I went home after 20 minutes of frustration and had a good moan at the Mrs about the joys of motoring today.

Even our country roads have more 50mph average speed cameras. Having been out of the UK for many years, on my return I noticed that the standard of driving has reduced dramatically, the roads are badly congested, the potholes are omni-present. The cameras are everywhere. The lunatics are running the asylum.      -  Nurse!!!!🤕

3 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

Gray,  have you a 1992 Ls400 then ?

Malc

I wanted one a few years back but could not afford one and I remember all the fuss when they were first launched. But, three years ago, I was fortunate enough to find a nice Isf 2012 which has proved - up to now - 100% reliable. Sad news is that it is going SORN until next spring due to massive increases in insurance plus the usual road/robber tax £695 and expensive annual service. Thanks for asking.🥲

22 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Chris, I presume you had a Lexus V8 of some sort to compare ?

Malc

I think it must be an age thing. I love the v8 experience. Many many years ago I just liked to race around and go fast. A few   (56 since passing the tests)  years and a few bans, speeding fines, write-offs, car repairs, etc later I now appreciate the finer aspects of real cars of character. It is almost impossible to even do the traffic light grand prix anymore as you will draw the attention of the dashcam snitches. ( I have a dashcam too🤨).

Now I enjoy the "drama" and feel of a fast v8 and very occasionally give it some stick, keeping an eye out for the cameras and occasional plod hiding behind a dustbin. I feel lucky to have finally got one. - I did have a 1976 rover P6 v8 but that was about 160BHP and not very quick compared to today but it still sounded great. It rotted to death🤯

Michelin pilot sports tyres are the correct choice, but a bit over the top for a non-sporty car. They wear out quicker but grip like hell. They do not squeal on corners they just grip. If you have the budget don't compromise.