Car Talk Topic

[Lurch]

Good luck getting me insured and able to afford the taxes on an M3. Ha!

 

This makes all those bmw's you once claimed to have owned at some point (E60 530i ,E36 328i, E46 325ci) all the more funny.

I know, right?

At least this one's coming. Fo' real like.

And I'm guessing will most likely remain a 1.6 for the foreseeable future. Have fun with 100 hp.

[Garfield 2]

Good luck getting me insured and able to afford the taxes on an M3. Ha!

 

This makes all those bmw's you once claimed to have owned at some point (E60 530i ,E36 328i, E46 325ci) all the more funny.

I know, right?

At least this one's coming. Fo' real like.

And I'm guessing will most likely remain a 1.6 for the foreseeable future. Have fun with 100 hp.

We'll see what the future brings. I will mod it, that's for sure, but I've no idea if I should do the engine + exhaust or the looks first.

[sivispacem]

So in total it's €2810, and I'm paying 1.6 insurance and 1.6 tax (Whoever says it's illegal or something like that, don't bother, I don't really care).

You'd better make damn sure that if you do consider committing insurance fraud, you don't post any identifying details of any kind on any forum, blog or web page that can be linked to this one in any way, because I will more than happily take an hour or two of my time to track them down and report them to the proper authorities. You'd certainly care if you ever got pulled over for a cursory inspection, because if the Irish system is anything like that in the UK you'd be looking at your car being impounded and/or crushed, plus a hefty fine, six penalty points and potentially being black-flagged as an insurance fraudster- and with that on your financial record, good luck getting insurance, a loan or indeed any job where they check credit history. Worse still (from your perspective anyway) if you were involved in an accident- you'd probably see yourself dragged through the courts and taken to the cleaners, black-flagged and declared bankrupt.

 

It takes a special kind of idiot to admit to even considering committing fraud on a public forum. Ironically, the same kind of idiot who considers committing such an obvious and well-known form of fraud in the first place. If you aren't going to abide by the letter of the law, why don't you go the whole hog and just not insure the damn thing at all? That way you save even more money, and are even more likely to lose your license and get blacklisted, so everyone's happy.

[Garfield 2]

No, it's not like the UK at all. It's not considered insurance fraud, just tax evasion. The most you'd be punished for is "driving without insurance", and that's pretty much it. No black flagging. You only get on the blacklist if you D&D.

[Burbalade]

However, the last generation had transmission issues across the board from what I've read (Automatic 4 and 5, and the 5 speed manu-matic). The issue kicks in around 85K miles. It was already starting when I got mine at 83K. Something about the valve seals in the trans needing to be replaced, which seems to completely fix the problem, but it's not a cheap or easy fix. It causes the car to clunk/slam into 2nd, and I get slight hesitation shifting into 3rd and 4th. At highway speeds if I floor it the trans seems confused as to how it should down shift, jumping between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

 

By something that doesn't have a sh*t box. There's a reason my car doesn't have this problem even with a gajillion miles (hint: it's because it doesn't have a gay automatic).

Not all automatics sh*t out before 100k miles. The 4L80E in the burb is sitting at 188k and has never had a problem. Can't say the same for any of my friends with 4L60Es though. One failed about two months ago, another friend's took a sh*t on him this morning, and I've got two other friends that don't expect theirs to last much longer.

 

Speaking of which, how many miles is your e28 up to now?

[Lurch]

 

However, the last generation had transmission issues across the board from what I've read (Automatic 4 and 5, and the 5 speed manu-matic). The issue kicks in around 85K miles. It was already starting when I got mine at 83K. Something about the valve seals in the trans needing to be replaced, which seems to completely fix the problem, but it's not a cheap or easy fix. It causes the car to clunk/slam into 2nd, and I get slight hesitation shifting into 3rd and 4th. At highway speeds if I floor it the trans seems confused as to how it should down shift, jumping between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

 

By something that doesn't have a sh*t box. There's a reason my car doesn't have this problem even with a gajillion miles (hint: it's because it doesn't have a gay automatic).

Not all automatics sh*t out before 100k miles. The 4L80E in the burb is sitting at 188k and has never had a problem. Can't say the same for any of my friends with 4L60Es though. One failed about two months ago, another friend's took a sh*t on him this morning, and I've got two other friends that don't expect theirs to last much longer.

 

Speaking of which, how many miles is your e28 up to now?

According to the head mechanic at turner euro who used to own the car, it's somewhere around the 400k mark on original engine, trans, suspension, seats, etc. Odometer stopped at 227k some 10 years ago or so according to a vin check I had done on it.

 

Regardless, I consider the average automatic lifespan to be about 250k. Of which, my car is well past that now. 5 speed 535i's are known to go over 500k though. M burroughs had that on his and it was still going strong when he swapped the 1JZ into rusty.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Lurch

[sivispacem]

No black flagging. You only get on the blacklist if you D&D.

Seen as you share a large number of insurers with the UK, I find this difficult to believe. Do you honestly think that if you get caught with inaccurate tax, log book and insurance details the police won't report your to your insurer, who then won't revoke your cover and make a note on your credit record? I mean, insurers share records with the police- even if there wasn't a blacklist, they'd all be able to see that you had a conviction for driving without as well as the circumstances of that conviction.

[Garfield 2]

No black flagging. You only get on the blacklist if you D&D.

Seen as you share a large number of insurers with the UK, I find this difficult to believe. Do you honestly think that if you get caught with inaccurate tax, log book and insurance details the police won't report your to your insurer, who then won't revoke your cover and make a note on your credit record? I mean, insurers share records with the police- even if there wasn't a blacklist, they'd all be able to see that you had a conviction for driving without as well as the circumstances of that conviction.

Let's say Ireland's not so tough on these laws. And the Gardai, NCT Centre, Dealerships have no clue about cars. A friend of mine has a Honda Civic with an Integra Type-R Engine, but it's insured and taxed as a 1.4. He's been driving it for the past two years, had been stopped at numerous checkpoints, and no trouble.

[sivispacem]

No black flagging. You only get on the blacklist if you D&D.

Seen as you share a large number of insurers with the UK, I find this difficult to believe. Do you honestly think that if you get caught with inaccurate tax, log book and insurance details the police won't report your to your insurer, who then won't revoke your cover and make a note on your credit record? I mean, insurers share records with the police- even if there wasn't a blacklist, they'd all be able to see that you had a conviction for driving without as well as the circumstances of that conviction.

Let's say Ireland's not so tough on these laws. And the Gardai, NCT Centre, Dealerships have no clue about cars. A friend of mine has a Honda Civic with an Integra Type-R Engine, but it's insured and taxed as a 1.4. He's been driving it for the past two years, had been stopped at numerous checkpoints, and no trouble.

Ah, but a straight six and an 4 look markedly different.

[Garfield 2]

No black flagging. You only get on the blacklist if you D&D.

Seen as you share a large number of insurers with the UK, I find this difficult to believe. Do you honestly think that if you get caught with inaccurate tax, log book and insurance details the police won't report your to your insurer, who then won't revoke your cover and make a note on your credit record? I mean, insurers share records with the police- even if there wasn't a blacklist, they'd all be able to see that you had a conviction for driving without as well as the circumstances of that conviction.

Let's say Ireland's not so tough on these laws. And the Gardai, NCT Centre, Dealerships have no clue about cars. A friend of mine has a Honda Civic with an Integra Type-R Engine, but it's insured and taxed as a 1.4. He's been driving it for the past two years, had been stopped at numerous checkpoints, and no trouble.

Ah, but a straight six and an 4 look markedly different.

They never check the engines during checkpoints though. They were to introduce engine checking on NCT, but I got my inside man there

The only thing they check at checkpoints is alcohol test, if you have valid nct, insurance and tax and that's it.

[matthew1g]

I'm going to put on some black bits on my fabia. Definitely spraying the roof black, and putting on factory black headlamps, foglamps, grille, rims and DRLs taken from this kit:

 

I'm still very dubious on whether or not to put on a black bonnet or not. I have a feeling it will look ricey. BEHOLD MY CRAPPY PHOTOSHOP SKILLS AND CAMERA QUALITY

 

 

So.. Should i leave the black bonnet out or not?

[Triple Penetration]

I think it looks great in the 'photoshopped' picture, I'd definitely drive that. Or not, I don't really like those kind of cars.

 

I especially like the lime colour. Any ideas how much this all is gonna cost?

[epoxi]

You may as well go without the bonnet and see how it looks. Once you have seen that you can always change your mind. My main concern is that vinyls with exposes edges get a bit tatty and can be annoying when washing your car.

[matthew1g]

I'm going to spray paint it at a professional booth with an oven. With all the kit, including a rear diffuser, and a dual tip exhaust which are not shown above it will cost me €1300. All the pieces of kit I'm getting are original from skoda and not some aftermarket bits.

 

Trouble with vinyl wrapping is that due to the very high temperatures and UV we get, vinyl will either warp/shrink and when you remove it, the paint underneath will not match the exposed part so all in all it sort of defeats the whole purpose of using vinyl instead of spraying.

[matthew1g]

I'm going to spray paint it at a professional booth with an oven. With all the kit, including a rear diffuser, and a dual tip exhaust which are not shown above it will cost me €1300. All the pieces of kit I'm getting are original from skoda and not some aftermarket bits.

 

Trouble with vinyl wrapping is that due to the very high temperatures and UV we get, vinyl will either warp/shrink and when you remove it, the paint underneath will not match the exposed part so all in all it sort of defeats the whole purpose of using vinyl instead of spraying.

[GTA36362355]

Yesterday, the fuel in my car got over. The engine was running on neutral but kept dying out in the first gear. I was obviously f*cked up. Suddenly for no reason, I started the engine but shifted directly to the 2nd gear and the car started moving. I drove in the same gear for half a kilometre to the fuel station without any problem. Any idea why it wasn't running in the first gear?

[Carlover325]

So in total it's €2810, and I'm paying 1.6 insurance and 1.6 tax (Whoever says it's illegal or something like that, don't bother, I don't really care).

You'd better make damn sure that if you do consider committing insurance fraud, you don't post any identifying details of any kind on any forum, blog or web page that can be linked to this one in any way, because I will more than happily take an hour or two of my time to track them down and report them to the proper authorities. You'd certainly care if you ever got pulled over for a cursory inspection, because if the Irish system is anything like that in the UK you'd be looking at your car being impounded and/or crushed, plus a hefty fine, six penalty points and potentially being black-flagged as an insurance fraudster- and with that on your financial record, good luck getting insurance, a loan or indeed any job where they check credit history. Worse still (from your perspective anyway) if you were involved in an accident- you'd probably see yourself dragged through the courts and taken to the cleaners, black-flagged and declared bankrupt.

 

It takes a special kind of idiot to admit to even considering committing fraud on a public forum. Ironically, the same kind of idiot who considers committing such an obvious and well-known form of fraud in the first place. If you aren't going to abide by the letter of the law, why don't you go the whole hog and just not insure the damn thing at all? That way you save even more money, and are even more likely to lose your license and get blacklisted, so everyone's happy.

I've never heard of anybody being pulled over to verify what engine they have. They actually do that in the UK?

[sivispacem]

Not that frequent, but there are plenty of possible giveaways and all it would take was one look under the bonnet. Also, there are plenty if cases of people getting shopped to the police and DVLA for insurance fraud/tax evasion for failing to register engine transplant after posting comments like "still 1.6 on the log book so cheap tax and insurance" on public forums or Ebay listings. It basically artificially inflated the premiums of other drivers, and personally I'm not exactly happy with other people forcing my premiums up through illegal activity when a simple phone call will get them off the road, probably banned from driving, and their car crushed.

Edited November 22, 2012 by sivispacem

[Lurch]

I'm glad I like in 'murica. There's literally no way to even declare modifications or engine swaps unless it's high dollar classic car insurance. And then, that's just for appraisal purposes for if your car gets totaled.

 

If I called the insurance agent up and told her about some awesome M3 motor swap I did, she'd probably just say "uh..." and hang up.

[Garfield 2]

 

Not that frequent, but there are plenty of possible giveaways and all it would take was one look under the bonnet. Also, there are plenty if cases of people getting shopped to the police and DVLA for insurance fraud/tax evasion for failing to register engine transplant after posting comments like "still 1.6 on the log book so cheap tax and insurance" on public forums or Ebay listings. It basically artificially inflated the premiums of other drivers, and personally I'm not exactly happy with other people forcing my premiums up through illegal activity when  a simple phone call will get them off the road, probably banned from driving, and their car crushed.

People have found away to avoid it.

 

"New 3.0 engine in it, but still 2.0 on log book... don't have time to change"

 

Besides, it's UK and Ireland that are retarded in terms of insurance. I think Ireland's even more retarded - I'd have to be 30 to actually be able to insure an M3 with most insurers.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Garfield 2

[Kifflom112]

Anybody seen the spy shots of Mercedes S-Class for 2014?

It looks okay on the exterior, but the interior, I think it kind of lost it's class, and not only that, but it looks kinda' ugly.

[Outcast]

It's still gonna sell like hotcakes. As long as its comfortable in the back most people here won't give a sh*t what it looks like.

[Kifflom112]

 

It's still gonna sell like hotcakes. As long as its comfortable in the back most people here won't give a sh*t what it looks like.

That may be true, but just look:

If it really ends up looking like that the S class will be dead to me.

[epoxi]

The previous S-Class's styling was a copy of the Maybach, this new S-Class is a copy of the CLS.

 

I don't think it's ugly, but considering this is supposed to be the flagship model for the brand: a historically unique car which has been the first to have ABS, passenger airbags, traction control etc., it hardly looks special.

[sivispacem]

The previous S-Class's styling was a copy of the Maybach

What, the W220, or the W221? The former predated the Maybach by four years, and the latter looks like an odd hybrid of Mk3 and Mk4 Lexus LS.

[Outcast]

It's still gonna sell like hotcakes. As long as its comfortable in the back most people here won't give a sh*t what it looks like.

That may be true, but just look:

If it really ends up looking like that the S class will be dead to me.

Steering wheel aside, I think it looks like a natural progression from the previous generation. By no means am I an S-Class fanboy, in fact the S350 is my least favourite car in my collection. I use it mainly for guests or my friends. I've got about 150,000km on the clock but I've probably only been in it for 10,000 of those kilometres. I dont give two sh*ts whether or not my driver likes the interior as long as its suitably equipped in the back. My point is for what it's built to do, it's perfect.

[epoxi]

 

The previous S-Class's styling was a copy of the Maybach

What, the W220, or the W221?

I mean the W221 (i.e. 'previous' to the new 2014 model).

 

[Garfield 2]

Maybach is owned by Benz. What do you expect?

[epoxi]

 

Maybach is owned by Benz. What do you expect?

I'd expect to have a bespoke creation with unique styling when paying over $370,000 on a luxury car, not a vehicle which looks like something that costs less than a quarter of the price.

 

Maybach sales fell significantly in 2005 and have been trailing off since, compared to the new Rolls Phantom which has grown in popularity every year since it was released. Both are similarly equipped luxury limousines with prestigious nameplates and history, I attribute most of the devaluation of the Maybach to the S-Class's styling.

Edited November 26, 2012 by epoxi

[sivispacem]

I still don't think they look that similar. Some similarities in the basic shape (well, what do you expect, they're big 4-door limo/saloons), and a little similarity in the front lights (though they Maybach's are more like the "fried egg" style W220 lights) but the biggest difference is the waistlines- the profiling around the arches and below the window-line (deep kink in Maybach, obviously blistered wheel arches in the S-class) are totally different.