Nick528

No nasty surprises on service and MOT - needs a couple of steering gaiter clips - £30 fitted, the two tyres I wanted done anyway, one failed MOT for cords exposed and they are being done at better price than National or Kwik-fit offered. The car wanted brake fluid changing - getting her back tomorrow all set for the year ahead. N

The tacho is an interesting thought - I work in an industry with data recorders and it is easy to recover and review what was happening in fine detail not only for "incidents" but also to investigate performance problems or support technical investigation. There are products out there already that will hold the last x minutes prior to an incident on some cars I believe. I suspect Data Recorders in cars would improve some peoples driving - you'd need to have controls on access so that there had to be grounds for data recovery and no "fishing missions". I would suggest it was reasonable for police to access data in the event of an accident, and for an insurer to seek the data in the event of a claim. To make it effective you'd need the insurer to be unable to refuse 3rd party liability on the basis of the data, but able to reduce or refuse claims by the insured in the event of patently stupid driving. An interesting challenge is what form the device and data take - you'd need to ensure a common format but also security to prevent a back-street industry developing in "digital record correction" like we appear to need "digital mileage correction" at present. Interesting territory - the sensible should have nothng to fear. Nick

Sorry to hear that Snypa-D - I'm in same maximum no claims etc and 30 years driving - can't see why yours should go up - talked to colleagues who deal with insurers and they reckon that whilst NCD % is capped and effectively fixed, the insurer must be reducing the starting cost of the policy before the NCD is applied - must be reducing actual risk in the light of not claiming. M1KES your costs are frightening - my 18 year old passed test last summer and has not driven since other than test drive on recently bought 1996 Volvo on the traders' insurance - simply cannot contemplate adding him to the insurance and your numbers are terrifying.

Arrived home tonight to find the two envelopes from insurer - renewal time. Oh Dear - lots in news about rising rates etc. Put them on table whilst I took dogs out and had supper - putting off opening them. Opened them after tea - prepared for the worst - shock................... BMW 528 - Was £625 pa - new renewal premium £480 pa inc DD fee Volvo 850 - Was £295pa - new renewal premium £295 pa inc DD fee This is now second year that I have actually seen premia go down rather than up - I have protected maximum no claims and expect to see it rise a bit because general prices are rising, but clearly not in this little oasis in Renfrewshire. In addition I haven't written off an old Volvo on black ice for 2 years and 3 months now. Year before last insurer did try to hit us with a rise so we priced up on comparison websites and they matched prices and since then we've had a drop in costs each year. Perhaps at 48 I'm becoming "old" in the view of the insurers - funny I still feel like I'm 18. I think I drive better though. Are there other sensible drivers out there seeing their policies getting cheaper? Nick

Thanks all for welcome - car's in for service tomorrow - hope for no nasty surprises ! N

Hi - just signed up after 10 months with a blue 90000 mile 1998 E39 528i touring which I am growing to love. It's our first BMW and was bought last summer on the recommendation of my 18-year-old petrolhead son (a Pistonheads regular) to replace a 1999 Merc E240 estate - a W210 with - yes - rust problems. I run the auto 528 as main family car and my wife's preferred drive (lots of space, air con, leather, auto, all the things she likes in a car) and a manual 1996 Volvo 850 estate as the low mileage dogs kids taxi and bike carrier and paper rounds on a foul morning car. As you will see I don't do "new" cars and find quality cars at about 100k miles a very cost effective way to luxury motoring on a budget - costly on fuel with older engines but dirt cheap capital costs of ownership. The 528i came from a trader in the Wirral as a dealer PX having spent its first ten years in wealthy rural Kent dealer-maintained then came north to Southport for a few years, garaged and independent maintained at about 3500 miles per year before I took it on. It's come to Scotland where I'm afraid it lives on the drive and encounters regular frost snow and ice. The only problems we've had are a CPS replaced for occasional shutdowns at idle and the battery went flat recently in protest at being used on lots of very short village runs when my last Volvo was off the road recently - easily solved by a night on charge and buying the "new" old Volvo to replace the dead one! It's just coming due it's first service since purchase - fortunately only an Oil Service - I'll MOT it at the same time and expect no nasty shocks. Nick