Company cars experts

Champ says...

Makes me wonder why Steve hasn't opted for a Golf SDi company car and
bought himself an RX8 for the weekends.

 

You won't be able to run something like an RX-8 for two-fifty a month
unless you pay back the money you bought it with for ten years or
longer...

 

Have you been in a "proper" Caterham?

I've got this mate up Battledown...

 

Yep, that's when I had the V6.. and petrol card.. and always did over
20K/yr

 

Well my crap consists of a laptop case and a briefcase, plus an away
bag and it rattles around quite happily in the boot for that distance
a year.

 

Now there I do agree with the both of you. My car is cleaned inside
and out weekly, and polished properly every two months.

The way I see it, is I've made an investment of 10 grand of my own
cash[1] in something and I want it to retain as much of that value as
possible.



[1] I.e., not borrowed from anywhere.

 

Indeed. One of my directors does exactly the same. He has a new
Porsche but whenever he goes on-site as a consultant he wants to make
sure he's treated like the rest of us. Hence he's sold as a technical
consultant and he never takes the Porsche. Gives him a good
perspective on our customers that way.

 

I dread to think what opinion clients form of me, considering I turn up
either on a pink motorbike, or in a sign-written 'MuddyStuff.co.uk'
Jeep. As the clients are Investment Managers, they're generally located
in big, posh offices with a row of Mercs, Porshes etc outside. No
comments so far though.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Blimey, my Fiesta would cost £1200 a year. That's more than it costs
me to run it.

 

<Pats 15+ year old Matsui microwave - bought without extended warranty,
obviously>.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

How much does your 'religious' weakly cleaning of your car add to the
trade in value as compared with a one-off valet just before doing the
showroom rounds do you think.

A self-employed mate of mine once said "my time is to valuable to waste
on cleaning cars."

 

A one-off valet after, say, 2 years, isn't going to get rid of the
accumulated dirt of 60k miles. Plus I like to spend my time in a
pleasant place.

I enjoy doing it. Same with my bikes. I'm about to spend the rest of
the weekend stripping my mtb race bike down to components, cleaning
it, and re-building it. Not because it particularly needs it, but
because I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy riding an immaculate, well
maintained bike. In fact, just ask Lozzo about his reaction at the
Black Horse to my GSX-R1000 when he first saw it.

 

Ben says...

It was the Awesome Jockey in Aylesbury, you muppet. Your Gixer was a bit
too clean, I'd always thought I overwashed my own til I saw the
condition of your one. It looked like you'd got there an hour earlier
and got the polishing cloths out before everyone else arrived.

 

I had someone pull out in front of me when I was in the Silver Tuddy
last week, and had to brake rather harder than intended. That big CLUNK
noise from the back reminded me that I really ought to take out the Z650
engine that had been stashed there for several days.

 

I made bloody certain I did 18k a year biz travel.

This led to interesting behaviour as the end of the financial year
approached and I was still a couple of thousand miles short of target
and tax break.

"Factory opening in Glasgow? Yeah, sure. No, don't bother with an air
ticket: I'll make my own way."

 

Lozzo wrote

There is clean and there is "the one true clean which is also green."
Was it as clean as that?

 

steve auvache says...

Almost.

 

The last part I can understand. Not so sure about the first bit. Is the
difference enough to balance the time devoted IYSWIM.

I shall resist the temptation to refer to fixation and bodily orifice.

I am of the ZATAMM school of cleaning. It has to be done and it can
reveal a great deal about the machine including showing up problems
waiting to happen. Can't say I enjoy it though. Never enough time to
achieve the full fire engine standard and ride it in other than perfect
weather.

I also don't agree that immaculate = well maintained, and clearly not
the inverse. An old mate of mine had a really shabby looking Matchless
G3. All the A&MOC farts sneered at it when it turned up at meetings. Ran
like a jewel though for years as he prioritised function and underlying
form over appearance.


--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Too many pubs with horses in the name.

 

I shouldn't have sold it.

But I've just found an identical one on Biketrader in the same
condition for a good price. And a black/grey one like Champ's that
looks like it's just come out of the showroom

<off to check bank balance>