2 of 2 possibilities
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
DR600
With the money left from expenses and a helping hand from Claire I was able to buy a winter bike.. and it's really nice!!!
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Compact MPVs
Compact MPVs are a good alternative to estates, what they lack in length they usually make up for in height and can have quite a high driving position. The higher driving position makes the car more appealing to the elderly or those who frequently transport the elderly/those with disabilities, this actually has an indirect bonus of the car usually being well looked after and having fewer previous owners (increasing the chance of a FSH).
So on to the cars:
The C-MAX
An MPV offering from Ford, with the car starting production around 2003 and a facelift taking place between 2006-2007. The common choice of engine is the 1.6L turbo diesel but a 1.8/2L petrol (same engine as in the mondeo mk3) is also on the cards.
The standard trim is hideous and looks as bad as the mk1 mondeo standard interior.. infact it looks like they had some left over fabric and thought 'why not?'. There is an all leather interior which is better looking and I've seen a cream interior but I'm not sure if this was from the facelift version (2010+).
Price wise these are on the top end of budget starting at around £2200 upwards, however most of those on offer that I've seen have had low mileage and appear to be well kept. A number of these are extremely over priced in what I can only assume is traders attempting to fool unwitting buyers (which many elderly are) into paying more than is reasonable. It's a good looking car and has all the standard features expected of a modern car (CD, electric windows, A/C, remote central locking, power steering etc). This really is the mondeo of the MPV market.
A larger alternative to the C-MAX is the S-MAX which is people carrier territory, and I would say larger than required. Since it was released in 2006 it may be hard to find one of these in the price range.
Zafira
Vauxhall's offering was the inspiration for this discussion on compact MPVs. The Zafira is now on it's 3rd generation classed as the Zafira C which is yet to be released. The Zafira A is starting to show its age now in both its style and asking price:
The Zafira B began sales in 2005 which means it comes in at more expensive than the C-MAX with asking prices around £4500 and sales between £3000-4000 depending on mileage, that said the imminent release of a new facelift model can only cause prices to drop.
You can recognise the Zafira B from the thick bit towards the top of the grill.
Scenic
The offering from Renault is what introduced the compact MPV to the world. The first generation Scenic was simply a small MPV but is a bit bigger than other car which have been discussed. What we're really looking at is the 2nd generation 2003-2009. The question with this, and infact all Renaults of the time, is do you love the styling or hate it. I am of course referring to the 'bum' on the back:
After a quick search the Scenic is probably the cheapest of the bunch with sales rarely exceeding £3000 even from 2008 models. Renault offer good value for money as depending on the trim level there are extra features, gadgets and gizmos to play with. Some would argue all these extra things are just faults waiting to happen, which may be true, but this is the generation of Renaults that made up the lost ground from poor reliability of the older models.
Altea
This is from Seat and is a slight divergence from the other cars shown. Rather than being a scaled down MPV the Altea is more of a stretched hatchback:
This is a nice looking car and seems to be going for the same price as the C-MAX, similarly it seems to have a bit of a dull interior but boasts the same features.
There are other compact MPVs out there but I have either not included them because I think they're either too crap, too ugly or too far out of the price range. Any of the cars above would be reliable, stylish and cheaper to tax if the 1.6 Diesel option was selected (with the exception of the Vauxhall which is a 1.7 Diesel). All the cars have similar engine options starting from a 1.6ish Turbo diesel and 1.8+ Petrol.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Car Search
Hey I’ve had a quick glance and like all of the car market cars just aren’t selling its a real buyers market at the moment. With a budget between £2000-3000 you could get one of youngest mk3 mondeo estates
[mk3 Mondeo]
(around 2005 with low mileage) which will look the same or very similar to the one here but there are improvements to the design etc. You would probably have some money spare at the end too!
[mk4 Mondeo]
A mk4 mondeo sadly is not on the cards simply because they started in 07 and you’re still paying for the age and in some cases warranty.
[Volvo V40]
[Volvo V40]
A surprising find was that Volvo’s seem to be very cheap to buy! Volvo are renowned for safety and reliability but have more of a luxurious feel than a Mondeo. The V40 is a very good and stylish (later models anyway) car and come in slightly cheaper than a mk3 Mondeo. The V50’s (newer model and more stylishly designed) are being listed quite a bit higher but are simply not selling so it’s likely they might just about fall into the very top of your budget.
[Volvo V40]
What is hard to find with a Volvo is a low mileage (or a low mileage thats not on an auto), since they are such a reliable car and don’t tend to be bought by people who care a great deal about fashion or modern styling the second hand market tends to be flooded with cars that have 100+k miles on them. That said most Volvos expect to see the 200k mark and maybe go way beyond it!
[Vauxhall Vectra]
[Vauxhall Astra]
Ofcourse there is still the Renault Laguna estate as an alternative to the Mondeo and a Vauxhall Vectra Estate, The Vauxhall Astra estate is comparable to the Focus estate which you may find too small.
A further alternative is the MPV market including things like the zafira or larger.
Finally a thought on why you want a bigger car; In addition to preferring larger cars I’m assuming your wanting a bigger car incase I need to move stuff or move house. The fact is no estate, van or car in general would be big enough to accommodate all my stuff, infact only a truck would be upto the job. But what may be better if your wanting to keep these things in mind is a smaller car (ie focus size car medium hatch/saloon that has a towbar and roof box. That way when you don’t need all the storage space your not wasting fuel dragging it around town and when you do you have more space than is possible than with even the largest estate car. It seems like a happy medium, also you would likely find the cars cheaper to run on fuel and they would feel more powerful as the same engine is powering a lighter frame. A focus is still a big car, alternatively a Zafira could also tow and thats an MPV.
You’ll have to let me know what you think
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Busy Busy Busy!!
So this has been the first proper week back at uni and already I feel like I've been back a month!
There's a few things to report:
Uni Stuff
First off I've made a very brief start on my individual project,that is a feasibility study of fitting a nuclear reactor on an aircraft. At the moment it's just a contents page so I have an idea of what to cover and a little bit of an introduction. It's still quite an interesting project and there are many sceptics who I can have a good debate (argument) with about it all.
Aswell as this project we have another year long project, although this one is a group design project. The task is to conceive and design a fractionated space craft (one where each part of the space or even individual spacecraft has its own unique role) to perform as task or service of our choosing. For this we've decided to create a defence satellite constellation which is able to provide on demand high resolution ground imaging and closer to real time surveillance all at a lower cost than current technology. The plan is simple enough that there are 2 separate constellations, one for controllers which maintain a geo-stationary orbit (the satellite will stay over the same bit of earth at all times) and one which will be in low earth orbit. the GEO constellation is for conrtoller sats which will keep constant communication with the surveillance sats, these are used to maintain a good coverage of the earth and allow for information to be passed to any part of the globe. The surveillance sats have a standby orbit where they simply orbit the earth by a flight path as determined by the controller sats. However, should it be required the sat can break orbit and descend into an elliptical orbit allowing it to get closer to earth and potentially communicate with earth directly. By being closer the resolution of the images are improved and communication time is reduced.
It's only in the earliest of stages but the project seems to have alot of meat in it that we can get stuck into, its also quite an interesting concept which, as far as I know, is not currently employed.
In addition to these projects I still have x2 nuclear units, x1 maths unit and x1 modelling & simulation unit. Theres no slow welcome back for us it's straight in and on with the work! Assignments have been set. That said over the past 2 weeks I've been partly pre occupied with PASS and similar bits of organisation. This week we ran an icebreaker event for the 1st years; it's an important event as it not only gives the 1st years a good opportunity to meet with their coursemates and their PASS leaders but also the success of the event will dictate the attendance to the sessions for the remainder of the year. The event was one primarily of my design which was to design and build crude polystyrene models to be used in a smoke tunnel so that flow around the model could be visualised. Unfortunately I had to miss most of the event to purchase the prizes, and while the event went ok I can't help feeling it could've been better. Overall I think it was an improvement over what has been run in previous years but if run smoothly it would've been even better. Here are a few pics from the event:
Bike Stuff
As I mentioned today I have won the competition!!! And will be touring all over the place taking photos of road signs and the bike. It's going to be action packed and will last 7 days, which is alot of riding! Someone suggested I should put the photos up on facebook or something as I get them.. it would be quite cool if I put them on a blog like this so you could be emailed and maybe even follow me on a map over the course of a day!
Anyway, since the bike clutch has been giving me hell for a good while and I hadn't gotten round to looking at it, I finally looked today and not 10 minutes later it was completely sorted and the clutch is not better than when I bought the bike!!! - So much so that I look forward to riding it to uni at the next opportunity! Also with all that travelling I've decided to buy a top box and rack, unfortunately I don't think I can afford to keep them once I come back but its better than having a heavy bag on your back for hours everyday. I'm considering buying some touring boots but in honesty I'm not sure I can find where I can steal the money from in my already stretched budget!! But all in all once the rack arrives I'm pretty much set to go! Have been looking at when is best to set off, for me it's probably Oct 10th but it doesn't seem like Claire will be able to do that week so it may be the week of Oct 17th instead. We shall see...
Car Stuff
With all the other things going on I haven't had chance to do much on the car, but it has had a wash!! and is now very shiny.. there's a few scratches and marks to T-cut out yet. My plan for the car this weekend is to get the fuel gauge working. On Monday I should be receiving a call about the part I ordered and will be able to do the crankshaft pulley and have another shot at starting the engine. My aim is for the car to be completed by next weekend sort of time, but we'll have to see.
Last time I was by the car I remembered to finally take a photo!This is a pic of the crank locking pin that has caused all of the recent troubles!!!
Notice the bend.. which is not supposed to happen!!
Other Stuff
Other than that Rosie has been for her innoculations and the vet seemed genuinely afraid of her. She didn't really enjoy the experience and was a bit moody with me after as I had to hold her still whilst the vet was stabbing her with a needle! Also, to our surprise she is micro chipped, but not yet registered to me. She's due her 2nd set of injections in just under 2 weeks time. She's having to wear her vet cone all the time now and I had to pay out £15 for some cream because she thinks chewing on her leg is a good idea and me and the vet disagree! Shes on the mend and still looks as ridiculous as ever with the cone on!
There's a few things to report:
Uni Stuff
First off I've made a very brief start on my individual project,that is a feasibility study of fitting a nuclear reactor on an aircraft. At the moment it's just a contents page so I have an idea of what to cover and a little bit of an introduction. It's still quite an interesting project and there are many sceptics who I can have a good debate (argument) with about it all.
Aswell as this project we have another year long project, although this one is a group design project. The task is to conceive and design a fractionated space craft (one where each part of the space or even individual spacecraft has its own unique role) to perform as task or service of our choosing. For this we've decided to create a defence satellite constellation which is able to provide on demand high resolution ground imaging and closer to real time surveillance all at a lower cost than current technology. The plan is simple enough that there are 2 separate constellations, one for controllers which maintain a geo-stationary orbit (the satellite will stay over the same bit of earth at all times) and one which will be in low earth orbit. the GEO constellation is for conrtoller sats which will keep constant communication with the surveillance sats, these are used to maintain a good coverage of the earth and allow for information to be passed to any part of the globe. The surveillance sats have a standby orbit where they simply orbit the earth by a flight path as determined by the controller sats. However, should it be required the sat can break orbit and descend into an elliptical orbit allowing it to get closer to earth and potentially communicate with earth directly. By being closer the resolution of the images are improved and communication time is reduced.
It's only in the earliest of stages but the project seems to have alot of meat in it that we can get stuck into, its also quite an interesting concept which, as far as I know, is not currently employed.
In addition to these projects I still have x2 nuclear units, x1 maths unit and x1 modelling & simulation unit. Theres no slow welcome back for us it's straight in and on with the work! Assignments have been set. That said over the past 2 weeks I've been partly pre occupied with PASS and similar bits of organisation. This week we ran an icebreaker event for the 1st years; it's an important event as it not only gives the 1st years a good opportunity to meet with their coursemates and their PASS leaders but also the success of the event will dictate the attendance to the sessions for the remainder of the year. The event was one primarily of my design which was to design and build crude polystyrene models to be used in a smoke tunnel so that flow around the model could be visualised. Unfortunately I had to miss most of the event to purchase the prizes, and while the event went ok I can't help feeling it could've been better. Overall I think it was an improvement over what has been run in previous years but if run smoothly it would've been even better. Here are a few pics from the event:
Bike Stuff
As I mentioned today I have won the competition!!! And will be touring all over the place taking photos of road signs and the bike. It's going to be action packed and will last 7 days, which is alot of riding! Someone suggested I should put the photos up on facebook or something as I get them.. it would be quite cool if I put them on a blog like this so you could be emailed and maybe even follow me on a map over the course of a day!
Anyway, since the bike clutch has been giving me hell for a good while and I hadn't gotten round to looking at it, I finally looked today and not 10 minutes later it was completely sorted and the clutch is not better than when I bought the bike!!! - So much so that I look forward to riding it to uni at the next opportunity! Also with all that travelling I've decided to buy a top box and rack, unfortunately I don't think I can afford to keep them once I come back but its better than having a heavy bag on your back for hours everyday. I'm considering buying some touring boots but in honesty I'm not sure I can find where I can steal the money from in my already stretched budget!! But all in all once the rack arrives I'm pretty much set to go! Have been looking at when is best to set off, for me it's probably Oct 10th but it doesn't seem like Claire will be able to do that week so it may be the week of Oct 17th instead. We shall see...
Car Stuff
With all the other things going on I haven't had chance to do much on the car, but it has had a wash!! and is now very shiny.. there's a few scratches and marks to T-cut out yet. My plan for the car this weekend is to get the fuel gauge working. On Monday I should be receiving a call about the part I ordered and will be able to do the crankshaft pulley and have another shot at starting the engine. My aim is for the car to be completed by next weekend sort of time, but we'll have to see.
Last time I was by the car I remembered to finally take a photo!This is a pic of the crank locking pin that has caused all of the recent troubles!!!
Notice the bend.. which is not supposed to happen!!
Other Stuff
Other than that Rosie has been for her innoculations and the vet seemed genuinely afraid of her. She didn't really enjoy the experience and was a bit moody with me after as I had to hold her still whilst the vet was stabbing her with a needle! Also, to our surprise she is micro chipped, but not yet registered to me. She's due her 2nd set of injections in just under 2 weeks time. She's having to wear her vet cone all the time now and I had to pay out £15 for some cream because she thinks chewing on her leg is a good idea and me and the vet disagree! Shes on the mend and still looks as ridiculous as ever with the cone on!
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