Andy665

Jim - I think most places say you have to be at least 30, they do have an R32 for £100 per day where you only need to be 25 Phil K - we get a decent discount purely because we use them at least once every year. Sarah had got me a Gallardo a couple of years ago but I asked her if we could change it for an Aston - just something about them that lifts them above everything else

Leonard - think its about £350 a day if you have it for 3 days, don't know the discount my wife gets but she says its quite healthy

We get quite a good discount now from the place we use,plus we always get a much higher mileage allowance - obviously pays to be loyal to one hire company

Jon - certainly was. If anything it sounded better than the last one that was hired for me, perhaps this one was just nicely run in - its the noise that appeals more than anything else about the V8 - mind you they did let me take their F430 and Murcielago LP640 Roadster up for road as well, both of those had reasonable noise as well :D

Took some time out last week to clean the 4Motion properly, it had only been washed since buying it in Nov. Really pleased with the results and was looking forward to taking it to a friends 40th birthday bash on the South Coast. That was the plan anyway, got home on Friday night to find no sign of the Golf but a V8 Vantage parked in its place. Yet again my better half totally surprised me by hiring it for me for the weekend - Fri afternoon until yesterday afternoon, with a very healthy 800 mile allowance, needless to say the full allowance was duly used. Travelling down the M40 yesterday a certain Mr. J. Clarkson pulled alongside in a Brera, wound his window down, gave us the thumbs up and asked me to floor it so he could listen to the exhaust - was obviously happy to oblige One day I will own a V8 Vantage :D

Surely Its purely a simple matter of economics. Whilst it would be nice to be think that Volkswagen would produce a niche car to satisfy the desires of enthusiasts and to act as a halo model and return little or no profit in doing so the sad fact is that car makers have long since stopped being run by engineers and are now run by accountants. A man in a grey suit has sat in a windowless office and number crunched and determined that the numbers don't add up to make a V6 Golf viable any more. Furthermore I'm sure that "extensive market research" has proven that customers are far more likely to buy a tweaked 2.0TFSi engined Golf than they are a V6 - we all know that you can make numbers tell whatever story you want them to Having spent time with "Product Managers" with various manufacturers over the years its genuinely frightening seeing the power that these people have in terms of determining what does and does not make production.

The great gods of emissions and sales (or lack of) is whats killed any V6 version of the Mk6 - as a four pot the R20 might not sound as nice as a V6 but will almost certainly be better balanced in terms of handling. As it will basically be using the drivetrain of the S3 it has got to be cheaper than that and the S3 (current model) is highly regarded as a drivers car

Nice wheel, I had Pro Race 2's and was impressed with the quality and obviously the weight

robbie_d - agreed the Carlack is better than Rain-X. I had been using Rain X for about 10 years but would not go back to it since using Carlack. Not that Rain X isn't good, its very good, its just that Carlack is even better - and less frequent re-applications is a bonus

I had a G60 as a daily driver upto to a couple of years ago. Bought it with 117k on the clock, immediately had the charger rebuilt and then put it into daily use. Kept a full log of maintenance and fuel consumption that I have just checked back on. Used every day for 18 months and put just under 53k on it, all it needed was: Rear discs and pads all round Two front tyres Indicator bulb Fuel consumption - calculated properly from brim to brim - 33.9mpg Only precautions I took were not to go above 3000rpm until oil temp reached 80 degrees and oil and filter change every 5000 miles. Admittedly I bought a well maintained car in the first place but still probably the most reliable car I have ever owned

You can't beat Collinite for use on an everyday car through winter, for the better weather there are waxes that leave a better finish but with a trade off in terms of durability. After much trial and error I've found that Zaino followed by Zymol Glasur gives me what I'm looking for

Production of the Beetle eventually got under way due to Major Ivan Hurst who set up production following the end of the Second World War. The Beetle was offered to the UK as part of war reparations and they declined as they felt it would not be successful. Only 640 Beetles were produced during the war, by March 1946, Hurst had managed to get another 360 built and by 1948, the 30,000th Beetle had been built.

Had one for two years now, just coming up to 150k on the clock. Lovely big comf barge, intend running it until it dies but no sign of that happening yet. Deceptively quick and handles well now that it is running Bilstein suspension. Lovely smooth and refined Audi V6, no character in the engine at all but it pumps its out 190bhp totally effortlessly Cost virtually nothing to run so far, still on the same brake pads despite putting 60k on the clock since buying

Just to be pedantic one of the pages has "convertable", it should be "convertible"

Yep, the 80 was available with a 150bhp 2.6 V6, later 80 Cabs were upgraded toa 170bhp 2.8 V6, smooth but gutless, not exactly economical

Best of luck with the venture - the GTechniq stuff is superb, used the glass treatment and the plastic treatment - expensive but good value for money.

Hi John Not quite sure what bolt you're talking about but I can say categorically that when the toothed belt drive was installed there was no problem in installing the new bolts with the engine in place, didn't go anywhere near the engine mounts

My usual process (and products I use) is: 1. Wash and dry the car (Megs Gold Class is good but I prefer a PH neutral shampoo like the Dodo Born to be Mild or Duragloss901). Always use the 2 bucket method and ideally have buckets with grit guards in them). I have started using an AqualGleam water filter for the final rinse, it leaves the water PH neutral so water spots are not a problem. For drying I use a waffle weave towel first followed by a plush drying towel for final drying. 2. Clay the car - I like Sonus clay but tried loads and there is not much difference - just use plenty of clay lube (I use Chemical Guys Clay Lube). Also feel free to clay the glass, you'll be shocked at the dirt it pulls off. 3. Wash and dry again. 4. If you have access to a random orbital polisher or rotary polisher I then clean and de-swirl the paintwork (either Sonus, Menzerma or Zaino ZFusion depending on depth / hardness of paint and mood). I usually use 3 / 4 different grades to cut back as necessary and then progressively polish and fill any remaining swirls. 5. Wash and dry again. 6. Wipe down with IPA - alcohol available in 1 litre bottles from chemists (I mix 50/50 with filtered water). 7. I have been blown away by the results that Zaino provides, it can look complicated but its actually pretty straightforward. For clear coat finishes its Z2 Pro mixed with ZFX accelerator (one 25ml bottle will give you more than enough for 3 coats). Adding the accelerator allows you to apply 3 coats of the Z2 Pro in a day, otherwise you need 24 hours between coats. Secret to Zaino is taking the less is more approach, it takes some getting used to but I did the C with about 15ml (3 layers). In between each layer give car a quick wipedwon with Zaino Z6. After 3rd layer apply a coat of Zaino Z8 (a tiny amount only is needed) - stand back and be amazed. 8. Zaino does not need topping with wax but I always do (just personal choice). Dodo Juice waxes are superb, I have tried most of them. 2 layers of a hard wax (for durability) followed by as many layers of soft as you like (generally the harder the wax the better the durability, the softer produces a wetter finish but does not last as long). 9. For tyres I use Megs or Chemical Guys Silk Dressing 10. Wheels - I always apply 3 layers of Poorboys wheel sealant and 2 layers of P21s - no brake dust issues anymore. For wheel cleaning I always use ValetPro Bilberry Wheel Cleaner. 11. Metalwork - can't beat Brilliant Metal Polish. 12. Rubber trim - I use either Sonus Trim + Motor Kote or Car-Lack68 13. Glass - can't beat AutoGlym Fast Glass. I then use Car-Lack glass treatment - its like Rain-X but 10 times as good. 14. Interior trim - for vinyl trim I use Poorboys Natural Look, for leather surfaces I now use LTT leathercare treatment. As has already been said its well worth stocking up on good quality microfibres / applicators, they work out pretty cheap if you buy in bulk. Worth noting to wash them using a non-bio powder though - it keeps the pile fresh and maximises absorbency Doing all of the above is impossible in the day - the Nugget was stripped back of all wax last year and I did all of the above - just the paintwork took 2 weekends but it stayed so clean once done that it only took a max. of 20 mins to wash and dry. Once finished I always applied a quick layer of Z8 after drying off. Just about to start the whole thing again with the 4Motion

Happy to offer you the benefit of my trial and error approach over the last few years, dropped you a PM

That seems expensive when compared to the similar spec V6 4Motion I bought, 50k lower mileage, less than 12 months older - I paid £2700 If the service history is good I would not have thought that the mileage would be an issue although items subject to normal wear and tear are obviously going to need doing over time

Couple of pics to show before and after - its not difficult to get a decent finish quickly and cheaply

23k on upkeep over ONE year

What on earth did he spend the remaining 23k on then? I can believe 6k for a respray if its a glass out, bare metal job I can believe 6k for an engine rebuild if its massively comprehensive with virtually everything replaced I'm struggling to see how anyone can spend 23k on top of that as well

This was mine before going back to OE. It was a Rieger one that was bonded to the top half of the original bumper so it was really solid and fitted really well.

If you mean how tight the belt should be I used to work on the principle of it being fine if I could twist it through 90 degrees using a reasonable amount of effort - never had a problem