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[12th Monkey]

From a piece in Autocar about the effects of the cost of living on car sales and garages:

Average age of cars on the UK's road is now 8.4 - the highest ever recorded.

In 2001 there were 1.7m cars on the roads over 15 years old - that's now 5.3m.

Now cars are (generally) better built than ever (discounting electrical gremlins as a result of them becoming more like self-propelled mobile phones), so you'd expect older cars to keep running longer than they used to, but the average age surprises me. (Still, I'll have had mine for 17 years come January...)

Average hourly rate for labour is £76 according to the RAC - when I kicked Audi into touch for being rather less than honest (which must be six or seven years ago) they were charging £250 p/h, up from £150 p/h five years before.

 

[Friesiansam]

From a piece in Autocar about the effects of the cost of living on car sales and garages:

Average age of cars on the UK's road is now 8.4 - the highest ever recorded.

In 2001 there were 1.7m cars on the roads over 15 years old - that's now 5.3m.

Now cars are (generally) better built than ever (discounting electrical gremlins as a result of them becoming more like self-propelled mobile phones), so you'd expect older cars to keep running longer than they used to, but the average age surprises me. (Still, I'll have had mine for 17 years come January...)

Average hourly rate for labour is £76 according to the RAC - when I kicked Audi into touch for being rather less than honest (which must be six or seven years ago) they were charging £250 p/h, up from £150 p/h five years before.

Our local garage, which has a very good reputation, charged £60 inc VAT per hour, earlier this year.

 

[Gray]

I'll have had mine for 17 years come January...

Mine's 19 years old.
Never had have, never will have, a new one.

 

[Gray]

In 2001 there were 1.7m cars on the roads over 15 years old - that's now 5.3m.

Bit strange really because all I seem to notice are fancy-looking, new ones.
(Mind you, 15 year old cars are newer 🙂)

Mine qualifies for a punishingly high level of road tax - yet not for the London ULEZ charge 🤔.

 

[WayneKerr]

Mine's 19 years old.
Never had have, never will have, a new one.

Ditto on current car age. Had a few brand-new cars when I worked for Ford, mainly because the discount was just too good to turn down. Wouldn't touch a new car with a barge pole now - far too many sensors, driver-aid gizmo's and electrical gremlins waiting in the wings.

Bring back the days of unlocking with a key and manual windows. Fuel injection is a plus, ABS is a decent innovation but my bike hasn't got it and I seem to ride that okay without locking the brakes. People are lazy these days and have lost the ability to "drive" a car without gizmo assistance.

 

[WayneKerr]

Bit strange really because all I seem to notice are fancy-looking, new ones.
(Mind you, 15 year old cars are newer 🙂)

Mine qualifies for a punishingly high level of road tax - yet not for the London ULEZ charge 🤔.

They never actually own them Gray, probably most on PCP or similar. People just like to have a flash car to look successful, personally I don't care what the car looks like as long as it's reliable and is cheap to run.

 

[Gray]

People are lazy these days and have lost the ability to "drive" a car without gizmo assistance.

Brother took me for a spin in a relative's brand new Cougar (I think it was...the owner works for Ford).

I couldn't believe the amount of automation. Bro's into his gadgets, has read the massive manual inside out - and tells me how useful they all are....until it turned the engine off as we stopped to give way at a roundabout. Good for the environment...but gets you rammed up the ****🤪

 

[jjbomber]

From a piece in Autocar about the effects of the cost of living on car sales and garages:

Average age of cars on the UK's road is now 8.4 - the highest ever recorded.

Probably more to do with lockdown. People weren't using their cars, so there's very little mileage on the clock. That means most people have put off changing their car for a little while longer.

The economy is still growing, unlike Germany, so it won't be that.

 

[Gray]

BBC1 tonight at 8pm:
'Electric Cars: Is It Time To Buy?'

No.

 

[jjbomber]

BBC1 tonight at 8pm:
'Electric Cars: Is It Time To Buy?'

No.

BBC any night. No.

 

[12th Monkey]

Bit strange really because all I seem to notice are fancy-looking, new ones.
(Mind you, 15 year old cars are newer 🙂)

Mine qualifies for a punishingly high level of road tax - yet not for the London ULEZ charge 🤔.

I know what you mean on point one...

A friend was horrified when she asked what my tax was - hers is £20 p.a. Mine's £55. A month.

 

[12th Monkey]

Probably more to do with lockdown.

No - the article goes into a lot of detail.

 

[Gray]

I know what you mean on point one...

A friend was horrified when she asked what my tax was - hers is £20 p.a. Mine's £55. A month.

☹️don't dare think about what I pay per mile - so wish the tax was on fuel.

Some of those low payers have vastly greater annual mileage than the stung ones....they must be putting out as much (or more) total pollution.

 

[DCarmi]

My son worked for Ford for a while so we took the opportunity to "upgrade" our car for a newer (second hand model), using the family discount. Bells and whistles galore but a disappointment because Ford "upgraded" the quite good Sony audio system in the old model for their own branded one in the new, which is frankly rubbish!

 

[12th Monkey]

☹️don't dare think about what I pay per mile - so wish the tax was on fuel.

Some of those low payers have vastly greater annual mileage than the stung ones....they must be putting out as much (or more) total pollution.

Ditto me - around 4-5k p.a.

 

[Gray]

Ditto me - around 4-5k p.a.

Less than 1500 for me.
Without question, it would be cheaper to take a taxi every time.

 

[jjbomber]

Less than 1500 for me.
Without question, it would be cheaper to take a taxi every time.

The next generation will have driverless Uber taxis to take them everywhere. They won't need a licence, and houses can have much smaller garages.

 

[Gray]

The next generation will have driverless Uber taxis to take them everywhere. They won't need a licence, and houses can have much smaller garages.

Yeah we said that about a 2 year old in the family, making the easy speculation that she'll probably never need to learn to drive.

(No doubt quite a few of us have parents / mates that never did drive).

 

[12th Monkey]

A mammoth bone, 11,000yo:

 

[Symples]

Makes good soup.

 

[12th Monkey]

The pub exterior shots in the fictional village of East Proctor in An American Werewolf in London were taken in a tiny village in the Wye Valley called Crickadarn. And here it is:

 

[plastic penguin]

The pub exterior shots in the fictional village of East Proctor in An American Werewolf in London were taken in a tiny village in the Wye Valley called Crickadarn. And here it is:

View attachment 4921
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Not seen the film but... gorgeous cottages.

 

[jjbomber]

Did you know the film 'Oppenheimer' will be up against 'Barbie' at the box office? I think it will bomb!

(Even by my standards, that's bad)

 

[davidf]

The next generation will have driverless Uber taxis to take them everywhere. They won't need a licence, and houses can have much smaller garages.

Existing garages are already too small for most modern cars anyway. Most people round by me just use their garage for storage, or have had it converted into another room.

 

[Al ears]

Makes good soup.

Makes rubbish soup...