Early Risers.

[bbishop]

I ignored all the "advice" and took out a repayment mortgage with Nationwide. Once I had enough cash to cope with "eventualities", I paid it off. And Nationwide didn't require any silly penalty charges.

 

One of my better decisions.

 

Bill

[laurenceb]

Birthday greetings Brian

[AndyID]

 

 

The way I understand coverage of that emission cheating scandal, I don't expect owners in countries outside the U.S. will receive nearly as much in compensation, either material or monetary…

 

Frankly, if one could be sure that the staff at the front line in production and sales would not be those to suffer most, I would certainly wish for VW to be punished most severely for such blatant fraud. This has nothing to do whatsoever with sincere and reliable engineering skill, which not only Volkswagen have kept boasting of beyond any measure.

 

I continue to think that the majority of people in executive positions at German car makers in particular do believe they are above the law and get all their bidding done by policy makers at the snap of a finger. And, sadly, they actually do have every reason to believe so, in my opinion. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that they have conclusively proven they cannot be left to just act on supposed free market principles, and do need more or less gentle nudging to innovate beyond riding the dead horse which combustion engines are eventually destined to become – one way or another.

 

Sorry for getting a bit political.

 

Certainly VW made a huge mistake in thinking they could get around the rules, and I'm willing to bet some senior managers were fully aware of the "circumvention". But things are seldom as simple as they might seem.

 

The TDi can emit excessive oxides of nitrogen, but it is also very economical on fuel. Consequently it does not emit a lot of CO2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but oxides of nitrogen are not. They produce smog and can be very unhealthy in high concentrations, but oxides of nitrogen breakdown in the atmosphere quite rapidly. CO2 does not breakdown in the atmosphere.

 

So, what we have here is a situation where densely populated areas with smog problems (e.g. Los Angeles) are making everyone else emit greater amounts of CO2 than they otherwise might.

 

I'm not suggesting that anything should be different, but it's one example of actions producing interesting reactions.

[Oldddudders]

I recall the Two Ronnies doing a sketch about famous folk and their pension plans. The killer line was the fact that Rudolph Nureyev was due to get a lump sum on his endowment.

 

The VW scandal is one I only half understand. Were the pollution figures falsified, because if so then I see the problem. The only VW Group vehicle I have owned was the Skoda Fabia diesel, which pleased me mightily by being very drivable with 100 bhp, but consistently returning 56 mpg, thus being cheaper to run than any car before or since. As my Nissan Note is now a decade old, and has 114k km on the clock, replacement may be sensible in the next few months. Discussions with my financial adviser are at an early stage.

[AndyID]

The VW scandal is one I only half understand. Were the pollution figures falsified, because if so then I see the problem.

 

In the US the qualification test (before the vehicle can be marketed) is to operate the vehicle on a rolling-road to simulate various speeds and load conditions while measuring the fuel input and exhaust gasses emitted. The on-board VW software (actually it was Audi) recognizes that the vehicle is running the rolling-road test and deliberately dials back the engine performance to reduce the NOx (oxides of nitrogen) emissions during the test. The rest of the time, it doesn't.

 

Our Jetta regularly achieves 50 MPG, and that's with US gallons. It also goes like a bat out of hell when required.

[Oldddudders]

In the US the qualification test (before the vehicle can be marketed) is to operate the vehicle on a rolling-road to simulate various speeds and load conditions while measuring the fuel input and exhaust gasses emitted. The on-board VW software (actually it was Audi) recognizes that the vehicle is running the rolling-road test and deliberately dials back the engine performance to reduce the NOx (oxides of nitrogen) emissions during the test. The rest of the time, it doesn't.

 

Our Jetta regularly achieves 50 MPG, and that's with US gallons. It also goes like a bat out of hell when required.

Ok, so how does that affect the many individual owners who joined up for the class action? You, and most of them, were very happy with the vehicle until this came to light. So, are you defending the planet? Very meritorious, of course - except that most of you are parents, and thus wilfully creating far more pollution through bearing kids than any car could create in it's lifetime.

[Happy Hippo]

One of my brothers got caught with his Endowment.

 

Luckily we had good advice that an Endowment was unlikely to pay off our mortgage.

Poor man.

 

Not being well endowed!

[AndyID]

Ok, so how does that affect the many individual owners who joined up for the class action? You, and most of them, were very happy with the vehicle until this came to light. So, are you defending the planet? Very meritorious, of course - except that most of you are parents, and thus wilfully creating far more pollution through bearing kids than any car could create in it's lifetime.

 

Nothing so noble I'm afraid. The vehicles were seriously devalued when this came to light. We could only sell our's at a huge discount, and it might not be possible to sell it at all in some US states.

[BoD]

Thanks for the advice folks.

It's not the figures, with or without profits, that are important. I know exactly how much the endowment will pay and how much shortfall I have to pay. That is all in place. The problem seems to be getting the endowment company to release the money to the current mortgage company and not the one who held the assignment twenty or so years ago. Not that they or I can find any up to date details for this company to ask them to declare no further interest.

I think tomorrow will be another day when a lot of time will be spent on the phone.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening all.  Out of practice with that now.

 

Agree about not having endowment mortgages - we were advised 30 years ago not to get one, and two repayment mortgages later don't regret it.  Paid off last year, and like Tony, don't see the point of savings cooped up earning nothing, so bought our new (ish) car instead last week!

 

I miss the 115 bhp diesel in the Flawed Foci, but the B Max is easier to park and 100,000 miles newer.  44 mpg now instead of 52, not too bad.

[emt_911]

A fairly good day in Merton and managed a reasonably early finish. This was counteracted by the traffic getting home. I did manage to inspect my eyelids and woke to a cold coffee.

 

Brian - Happy Birthday

 

Mick - Great to hear that Karen is on the recovering well

 

Thinking of those ailing, supporting, recovering and missing

[JohnDMJ]

Evening all!

 

Can confirm the Contented Pig in Littlehampton is now closed and partially gutted of fixtures & fittings in less than 24 hours! Staff apparently given instant noticed on reporting for work!

 

Landlord's other place, Tap & Brewery, less than ten yards away is still open, although I've never had a good pint in there. (The barrel is tapped behind the bar and it still tastes like the (non-existent) lines have not been cleaned!)

 

Still, there remains the 'Spoons.

I've never quite understood why Scottish school summer holidays are so early. Yes, it means that parents can possibly get marginally cheaper holidays while the English schools are off, but it seems perverse to lock the kids back in school from mid-August when the Book Festival and Fringe are taking place in the Capital... Hey ho...
 

 

Seems like Scotland should look beyond he Fringe for their holidays! However, I can see the appeal of cheaper holidays to the Scots!

Edited August 18, 2016 by JohnDMJ

[AndyID]

 

Can confirm the Contented Pig in Littlehampton is now closed and partially gutted of fixtures & fittings in less than 24 hours!

 

 

So it's been disgruntled then?

[Purley Oaks]

Mal,

I was going to offer that explanation; but then I thought, wouldn't the Scottish harvest be later, being mainly further north than the English one?  Prepared to be overruled, however.

Bill

Hi Bill

 

Ah! But the summers were summer then, so June to August were warmer and good for bringing in the hay. Then there's the potatoes. I'm not a farmer but think that winter wheat or barley is ready for harvest sooner than late August or September.

 

Anyway, happy birthday, Brian!

 

Saw our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, at the book festival today with our new Makar (pronounced Makkar), or poet laureate, Jackie Kay. Both were great to hear and Nicola could charm the rust off your car.

 

Hope your evening's going well

 

Mal

[AndyID]

 

Ah! But the summers were summer then, so June to August were warmer and good for bringing in the hay. Then there's the potatoes. I'm not a farmer but think that winter wheat or barley is ready for harvest sooner than late August or September.

 

I was always a bit envious of my cousins in Brechin. They always seemed to be getting tattie holidays or berry holidays. Now I'm not so sure I missed out.

[28XX]

Nothing so noble I'm afraid. The vehicles were seriously devalued when this came to light. We could only sell our's at a huge discount, and it might not be possible to sell it at all in some US states.

What worries me now is that many thousands of cars, all far more efficient and less polluting than vehicles over, say 20 years old, will now be crushed and recycled at a much greater environmental cost than the hidden additional cost of using them for their planned lifetimes.

[emt_911]

Night all

[The Stationmaster]

We have always used straight repayment mortgages - they always struck me as the most logical way of doing it as you knew exactly where you were with them.  However we ran into trouble when we built this house as despite offering lenders all sorts of inducements (like a year's interest payments in advance) or various things as security the dumbos based it all on income and the only way we could get a loan was to remortgage our existing house - and at a written down estimate of the value - and offer them an optimistic estimate of my income for the coming year.  

 

The silly s*ds wouldn't give us a self-build mortgage either but insisted on a straight repayment mortgage but that was ultimately their undoing in some respects as we immediately put the money on deposit with the interest going to Mrs Stationmaster who happened not to be a tax payer.  Net result was of course that we only drew on the mortgage as we needed it for stage payments and sundry purchases of materials so that over the year for which we had the loan the interest it earned amounted to roundly 50% of the interest we paid on it thus substantially reducing the cost of the loan and actually making it cheaper than a self-build loan would have been (i.e the building society didn't make as much profit as it could have done).  

 

It's hardly surprising that somee banks and building societies got themselves into a right mess over mortgage loans when you consider that one of the biggest turned down a piece of land of higher value than our existing home as security and even turned down the offer of the payment of a year's interest in advance (at a couple of percentage points above their then interest rate if they so demanded).  Their lending criteria seemed to be entirely based on some spotty youth in a remote office seeing if certain things matched what he had on his computer screen rather than any sort of actual business decision - very odd.

[AndyID]

What worries me now is that many thousands of cars, all far more efficient and less polluting than vehicles over, say 20 years old, will now be crushed and recycled at a much greater environmental cost than the hidden additional cost of using them for their planned lifetimes.

 

I don't think they'll end up in the crusher - certainly not the newer ones. If VW can come up with a satisfactory fix many of us will elect to keep our vehicles, and those that are sold-back will be dismantled and the parts will be recycled. I'm sure some creative individuals are already looking at ways to take full advantage of any opportunities that this might present.

[southern42]

' Evening all from red dragon land.

 

Debs. Good to see you around again. 

Brian.  Happy Birthday.  Hope you had a good day.

Mick.  Great to hear Karen is recovering.

 

A few pics out and about over the last few days.

You may remember blue skies and sea a few days ago.  Today, flat calm and eery.  Just the sound of waves dumping down on the beach.

 

Cygnets seem to be doing well down on the pond.  So does the pondweed!

 

A few more bags of dirt dumped and raked around the base of the new track this morning.  This was Tuesday's load.  A car bootful not making much of an impression here.

 

 

Rain tomorrow.

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone.

 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It's been very quiet for most of the day. The grandkids came round just before lunch, which was nice. I also had a few phone calls later on too.

 

I managed to get DCC chips fitted into 4 locos today, which I'm very pleased about.

 

After tea a celebratory glass of red was enjoyed as we sat and read, with just the radio on, so a nice relaxing evening was had.

 

This plate was decorated by our daughters three youngest, each one doing a separate part!

 

 

It really is tiring playing trains all day, I'm bucking follocksed, so it's off to bed for me.

 

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night all

[Barry O]

My cricket meeting lasted 3 hours.. too much "blethering" and someone who needs to realise putting a "loaded" gun against my head will not get the answer they want.

 

Cricket seems to have too much politics at the moment. 

 

Sleep well/have a nice day everyone

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.