What are you doing today ??

[Cav]

My commute is 15 minutes by car. It's about 6 miles. I could cycle it in 35 minutes probably but I won't be doing that everyday. The wife works 2 miles from home but finishes late which is why she drives. She could walk there and I pick her up.

We're pretty sure we can make it work, there will be times when we might call on the in-laws but then they rely on us sometimes too.

Including fuel cost based off my shorter commute and also upcoming maintenance costs and repairs we've been putting off the new car comes in £15 cheaper per month. Without the maintenance it works out £20 more expensive.

I guess a chat with the wife will determine this outcome haha

[Kwacky]

Is a little scooter an option for you?

[Cav]

It could be an option if 1 car didn't work out.. didn't think about that !

[duke63]

Scooters are great for commuting. Still toying with the idea of buying one myself.

[D41]

Cav, you'd be better off selling your bike & keeping two cars. Otherwise, you're both working in different places, you're talking about starting a family, etc.
...A bike sounds like a luxury you can do without for a while until you're both a little bit better established. Otherwise it sounds like too much compromise.
Sacrifice short-term to gain long-term, in other words.

[Cav]

D41... you having a laugh? You sound like the worst type of Wife, "sell your bike!"

I'm not selling my bike. It owes me nothing and I can afford to keep it. If I did no trackdays there is next to no money leaving my account to cover it.

A scooter is a great idea. Just a little 125 would be awesome. There's 3 choices of commuting roads, 2 of which are A roads and 1 is motorway so I'd be fine on it. I would need to buy all weather gear though

[D41]

Hey, I'm not the one you have to convince here....

[Blade]

Hey, I'm not the one you have to convince here....

Ditch the wife before the bike

Those the rules

[Stonesie]

Worked half a shift and just sat at home waiting to go for a hospital appointment for the Diabetic eye camera, not a fun afternoon but necessary.

[Cav]

Bought the car. The Wife is really excited although she didn't realise that when I told her the car was "DSG not Manual" that means the car is an automatic. Oh well, she'll love it before too long.

Also had my surgery date set. I'll have to change it as it is 7 days before my Euro Trackday.

[duke63]

DSG gearboxes are brilliant. Once she has driven one she won’t want to go back to a manual. They are so yesterday.

[Blade]

DSG is actually a manual box, its just the ECU controls the clutch engagement and there in lies the problem. In my experience the a DSG box is great to drive but crap when your in a situation where you need to slip the clutch i.e reverse parking as there simply is no clutch to slip and unlike a true automatic gearbox there is no creeping as you don't actually have a torque converter gearbox.

[Cav]

I'm an Engineer so I understand all of this, she would just look at me blankly, wait for me to finish and tell me she doesn't care. Haha.

I'm used to DSG and you can induce the creep but you need to ride the brake. Fine for short durations but it does overheat the clutches and isn't recommended. They're super smooth once moving though and just require a fluid change every 40k miles. I'm fine with that. I think they're also more fuel efficient than a traditional auto

[Blade]

I'm an Engineer so I understand all of this, she would just look at me blankly, wait for me to finish and tell me she doesn't care. Haha.

I'm used to DSG and you can induce the creep but you need to ride the brake. Fine for short durations but it does overheat the clutches and isn't recommended. They're super smooth once moving though and just require a fluid change every 40k miles. I'm fine with that. I think they're also more fuel efficient than a traditional auto

Must admit I was surprised when you called it a auto tbh, Cav..

TBH mines a DSG, and its fine creeping in traffic but a proper bitch when reverse parking as the clutch will disengage if you try to creep too much and then if you turn it off with the clutch disengaged, it gives an annoying message "protect against roll away" and an even more annoying issue that it wont actually let you lock the car, as it wrongly thinks with the car in neutral and the hand brake on, there is a risk the car will roll away.

BMW trying to be too clever for their own good Hopefully the VW system differs in this repsect.

[D41]

I like automatics TBH....stick-shift is more involving when you're "on it", but when you're not it gets old real fast. But it depends on the car, too. The Tiptronic thing that Porsches have is the best of both worlds.

[Blade]

I like automatics TBH....stick-shift is more involving when you're "on it", but when you're not it gets old real fast. But it depends on the car, too. The Tiptronic thing that Porsches have is the best of both worlds.

Quite a few manufacturers of powerful cars are switching to traditional slush boxes as opposed to DSG / PDK or tradional stick shift manuals as the manual boxes and automated manual boxes cannot cope with the torque.

[Monty]

I'm still trying to decide on a new company car for next year. I was 100% going electric, but the new company car list came out and it's got the new Cooper S Works AWD 306bhp Mini Clubman on it. Plus a really nice Black Edition A3 Quattro.

[duke63]

I would check the proposed BiK figures over the whole life of your ownership before deciding Monty. Some vehicles will not work as a company car in the coming years. There are also murmurings about how the chancellor is going to raise the extra billions Boris intends spending. At the moment payroll software companies won’t release the updates for 2020/21 which suggests there may be some significant changes coming in the budget.

[D41]

I'm still trying to decide on a new company car for next year. I was 100% going electric, but the new company car list came out and it's got the new Cooper S Works AWD 306bhp Mini Clubman on it. Plus a really nice Black Edition A3 Quattro.

Audi S8.....something that can shove 'em a bit.
You're also going to need a nitrous system..../

[Monty]

An electric car next year would cost me around 25 quid a month in TAX, the Mini around 500 quid! Should be a no brainer really.