>>3701

You could rent a car for the period, or simply insure yourself to drive any car and just keep the policy ticking over and renew it with a different company each year so your premium doesn't rise, earning you no claims. That way you're always prepared to get behind the wheel and if you're an older driver with experience your premium will be tiny for the year.

Adrian Flux will quote you a price for pretty much anything.

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/short-term-car-insurance/

Lad where the fuck did you look?

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=temporary%20car%20insurance

HIF
http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/110729-what-carb-do-i-have/

Sounds like a borderline scam mate. You don't need ten hours of lessons to get used to the brake pedal, more like an hour at best.

I would tell them you're not interested in anything other than what you've paid for, and you'd like to take those lessons as and when you feel like it, not when they dictate. Request a new instructor, or your money back. If they don't play ball, go to citizen's advice, they'll sort you out.

>>3672
>No, I don't think it's normal to pay for 35 hours up front unless it's one of those intensive courses where all those hours will be done in a week or two.

I should clarify, it is an intensive course, it seemed odd to me day 1 to say, If 10-20 hours in she had said something, I might very well agree, but day one it seemed odd.

Continued with course foolishly.
Just contacted the driving school to change instructor, as said instructor would leave weeks (once 2 weeks, this time 3 weeks) between lessons.

Now said instructor has contacted me and is trying to bill me for lessons booked that will not be delivered. We will probably go to small claims court if she does not back down. Her argument is that I have have agreed to those lessons my position is that I agree to an 'intense course' (withing a week or at least a short time) which she had no intention to deliver on.

>>3696

> she

m8 why on earth did you hire a female driving instructor?

>>3697
You make a good point.

OP you need one hour of driving tuition per year of your age - that's the rule of thumb. If you're 35 years old, you probably need that many hours of tuition. I don't think you're that old.

Practice is the thing - find someone with L plate and a car who is prepare to let you drive with them in the passenger seat after 10 hours of lessons.

I'd look into a Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Shogun, Nissan Patrol or Isuzu Trooper.

>>3693

Jap 4x4s are quite reliable. The Mitsubishi Shogun goes for peanuts and will be cheap to maintain. I fell in love with that little Suzuki James May had in a Top Gear Special, which was a trooper, and had a go in one but it's got really bouncy suspension and doesn't handle too well and from what I read that's a feature and not a fault.

I haven't drove anything else to give you advice on.

>>3685
>nonce
>16+ girls

Visible smirk.

>>3685
Now that's nonce sense.

>>3688

Can one invisibly smirk?

> ask some chums
> ask some local friends

Niggas please.

Thanks for the other advice though. I guess I'll just book a 1 hour trial lesson with 3 of my local experienced instructors and choose the best one.

>>3691

I assume that means you don't have any friends? Where abouts do you live? I can recommend in the north east.

>>2977
Oh teenlad, so sweet and innocent. I used to clean my car for the MOT too.

>>2978
I was a bit surprised last time I took my van for an MOT. They asked if i could move the crap in the back forwards by a few feet, so they could forklift a 2 tonne block of concrete in to help with the brake test. Fair enough.
I have never cleaned a car for an MOT. It's not as if they touch any part I'd clean anyway. Then again, I don't clean cars when it's not MOT time.

>>2978
Next you'll be saying you don't need to have one extra special clean before you go to the dentist.

I moved town last year, which means I've got to go through the whole rigmarole of finding a trustworthy garage again.

The head gasket blew on my car last week so I tried a local garage on the recommendation of my neighbour as he owns about a dozen vans through his business. It's taken them a week to fix that and fit a new timing belt, they mentioned about replacing the battery but I'm not sure if they've done that so I'll have to look under the bonnet later, and they kicked up such a fuss about paying by card because they blatantly wanted to dodge tax with a cash in hand payment. They've also given us both copies of the invoice, which doesn't actually specify the work they've done, so they won't have anything on their records.

I think I'll be giving them a wide berth.

>>3678
Cash payments is how you know you're getting good value.

>>3578
The best part is that if a tree fell on his car, he still wouldn't be covered.

>>3579
Not if the tree was on fire. You know how to put this right OP.

>>3518

Holy shit just take the door off and do it yourself. It'll cost you £20 tops.

In my opinion, cyclists should have to get insurance if they want to ride in public, seems only fair.

>>3676
Not before they pay road tax!

>>3664>>3665
When I was at uni someone decided to make their own space behind the spot I was parked in. I ended up reversing relatively fast straight into their wing mirror, although IIRC it remained intact and it was the actual body of the car which I damaged.

On my third trip after buying a car, going back about 8 years, I started turning the wheel before I'd reversed out of the space and really fucked up the side of someone else's car. I rang my mum and she told me to drive off. Karma caught up with me when I bought my next car as I'd had it a few days before someone badly scratched one side of it and fucked off while I was in Asda.

I'd like to say I'm a better driver now, but about 3 weeks ago I reversed out of my driveway and into a car parked on the path on the opposite side of the street, wasn't going very fast so no damage done.

Is there ever a situation where a car turning onto a main road has priority?

I was literally doing 30 down a main road and some cunt in a huge car literally just decided to drive out (turning right out of a junction on to the road) and nearly smashed into me, but instead of apologising he started beeping and making angry gestures at me

I genuinely am not sure whether I should phone the police because he might be drunk, I can't work out why he'd drive straight out and then get so irate about his own mistake

>>3660
Oh lad. We've all done it. Not all of us on Christmas Day mind, but the rest is the same. It's a rite of passage.

>>3668

I haven't.

>>3667
>Is there ever a situation where a car turning onto a main road has priority?
When they're in a rush and driving a Chelsea Tractor or anything German.

>>3654

They are both valid faggles.

>>3655

Meme-Master is a redundant title, seeing as we don't have any memes.

>>3656
All Chans have memes.

>>3408

If it's a bit icy on the road i'll drop my tyres down to about 20-25 psi, but other than that nothing. I do drive a land rover so that helps.

>>3656
I think you mean to say that Meme-Master is a redundant title, seeing as we're all masters of our memes here.

>>3643
Also, I'm being tracked by my phone wherever I go anyway.

>>3643>>3644

I'm>>3641>>3640

How much did you save by having the tracker though? I thought it would dramatically reduce it for a new driver (especially teenagers), but by how much? If £1700 was without a tracker, how much are you paying with a tracker?

>>3645
£1150. The cheapest insurance with courtesy car and other stuff was about £2000. The £1700 was the 'Hastings Direct essentials'.
the £600-1000 I've saved has paid for all the fucking problems this pile of wank has caused me. I'm a good driver, too, so if I have another year with the tracker I'll probably get it below £800.

Maybe you can get money off by setting it on fire?

>>3647
Absolutely do this. When my car was about to catastrophically fail an MOT I smashed into the back of someone else so at least I got a partial refund. The insurers won't suspect a thing, m8.

>>3585
Congrats lad, may as well get mine out the way while this is on the top of /sfw/ . You'll thank yourself for getting this out of the way early in life.

>>3588
Insure it under your dead Granddads name, so that it comes up as insured in all the cameras used to keep us safe.

>>3591

My Grandad died in a car crash, m8. His no claims is fucked!

>>3592
What about your nan?

>>3593

I don't think he was expecting a follow up question to that pretty obvious joke, spectrumlad.

>>3539
I'm almost 30 and I pay just shy of a grand. It is more or less the average these day for people our age depending on where you live. Stop being a cheap bastard. If you can't afford it, don't buy a car. The black box is like the Gestapo. You don't know what they are judging you on, and it will never work to your benefit.

Out of people I know who've had a black box they all seemed to have saved money in the short term without any obvious negative sides. Though some enforce a curfew I think, which would be pretty shit in my view.

I guess it comes down to how much you care about data protection/privacy, they represent quite a worrying slippery slope. Though if you own a mobile phone you're likely already giving out similar data to what a black box would collect (GPS, accelerometer etc.) so you might just think fuck-it anyway.

I am 28 and pay about 400 quid. To be paying a grand I imagine you must do lots of miles, or you have been in an accident, or you drive a car that tends to get in accidents.

>>3545

Not more than 10k a year in miles, and it's a new but small 308. The only reason I'm paying so much is because I haven't insured anything in years, and my profession doesn't help as it's long hours and late night commuting. My plan was to take the Big Brother box for a year or two until I have some NCB back.

>>3544

In my mind the worst that can happen is when I come to renew my insurance they want to charge me more, in which case I tell them where to shove it and go back to driving in freedom with some other insurer. I have an android phone, so Google already knows where I live, work, and how often I have a shit, so I'm not sure that changes much.

While we're on the subject of old cars, wasn't there a lad here doing up an old Escort?

>>3446
It was probably a terrible failure, any old escort has probably had at least a few children in her at some point, and they lose all their charm after that.

>>3449

I don't know why anybody would do up such a humdrum car like the Escort. There are countless other cars which would be worth restoring, it doesn't have to be such a bland everyday car.

>beanz thread

>>3516

She smiled afterwards. It was a sad smile, but she smiled nonetheless.

>>3509

You buy the ticket with the discount, then the conductor will ask to see your Railcard when he inspects you ticket on the train. So as long as you have one by the time you take the journey, you're fine yeah.

It's not like the cinema or something when you have to enter you CEA reference to get a concession ticket or anything like that, just buy the ticket and then get the card before you get on the train.

>>3509
You can just go to a staffed station with the documentation you need (see form or website) and get yourself a 1-year card on the spot. They'll sort the whole thing there and then, just as if you were getting a photocard for a season ticket. 3-year cards need to be sent away for, IIRC.

If you order online now it should arrive by friday. As another poster alluded to you can book railcard tickets without proving you own a valid card but ticket inspectors will expect you to show them a valid railcard on the journey.

>Apparently you can get them at the station - does anyone know how long this takes?

About ten minutes. If you intend to buy one at the station, leave yourself plenty of time in case there's a queue, and remember to bring ID and a passport-sized photo.