Plans on Hold??
 

Has this bloody credit crunch, job insecurity etc put your plans off doing any expensive jobs on your beloved? (I mean the car not the misses)
I have set aside a bit for some work i want doing on mine but think its best to hold for now. So what's the general feeling

Christmas is cancelled so I can lavish all my money on my motor.

For those who still believe in christmas I have asked santa for lots of halfords vouchers so I can get all my essentials from there and I got a nice little bonus heading my way in Jan and it's already spent for some engine work. Got loads of parts piling up in the garage now ready for an major effort in the new year so the answer is definatley a no from me :D:D

I don't blame you..but i need more than a few Halfrauds vouchers lol

Everything is on hold. I work for an Asset Manager which is managing fewer assets by the month. Our hedge funds are nearly all emptied. 75 made redundent last week and waiting to see whether phase 2 hits me. That means, new house, replacement for my daily Golf and spare cash for the Audis is all on hold until further notice.

I was at a cheery conference last week that said our only hope is in property in the UK. Equities, bonds and now cash show next to no returns for the forseeable. The thing is, until the banking scumbags produce some decent rates, nobody will be buying houses - we have reached stalemate. What a shambles. All thanks to those rich American bankers.

Oh well, all I'll say is - its only money. Things could be much worse

I've turned to 98% DIY - instead of paying a garage - the 2% is for any welding - of which a tiny amount is needed on the 200. Was going to pay to have the PAS/Braking servo refurbished but will have a go myself...

If I may I would like to put in my 2 pence worth... The US were very clever to offload quite a bit of their sub-prime debt - but we greedily took it. We need to get used to saving up for things and not borrowing money we can't afford to pay back. Now if you want to feel better about things take a look at this graph (which represents house prices but can represent the economy), I think it's accurate...

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/ima...-lifecycle.gif

Now lets say 'New Paradigm III' is September 2007, based on previous boom and busts I estimate we will hit the bottom in around 3 years time (best case). Alternatively this could be a lot worse than the great depression... Our one comfort is that 'we' can't do anything about it.

:)

In all honesty what do we expect when we teach our kids that debt is ok.

We seem to think its ok to turf them out of university already with a £9K loan around their necks, then subject them to attrociously high mortgages where they can borrow heaven knows how much? The poor buggers really don't have a chance to start with and have no concept of NOT being in debt. Therefore debt becomes the norm to them.

Then we have the absurd situation whereby for those individuals who fall behind on payments we have companies offering to loan money to people who simply can't afford to pay their existing debt off. How many ads did you used to see on TV offering to "consolidate your monthly repayments into one easy loan"??. Since when has any sort of loan been easy??. Loans shouldn't be easy, they should be earned based on sound financial risk of ability to repay. Money is not conffetti thrown around at a wedding for heavens sake.

Here you go mister, have a loan to pay off the loan you can't already afford to pay off and by the way if you get into trouble we can give you another loan. How is that in anyway sensible or responsible.

It's all well and good blaming the financial system, bankers and all but what happend to a bit of self discipline. I must really sound like an old fuddy duddy at times but I learnt very quickly to spend what I have saved and if I can't afford it I go without.

Don't get me wrong I am truly sorry for those hard working people out there with families who will be hit hard but lets not kid ourselves here that this hasn't been coming. Debt always needs payback in the end.

Glad i got that one off me chest :mad:

In my case i have no plans. :(

I dont like to make them because somethng always seems to come along and foul em up. :D
So i just tend to take it a day at a time and dont look further ahead than a week....lol

I think i'm one of the few people out there that know my job is safe. Being in the Forces does have its bonus points, still can't afford buy tho and houses are cheaper in Scotland!

Too right 90Quattro - keep up the good work!

cheers Randall

Oh yes!
 

Yes, though car on SORN now anyway until 1st May when hopefully I have done the annual scrub up (on the car) and fitted this charge cooler kit that my wife and family have been convinced to buy me for Christmas...
No worries job wise but my disposable income is now down to £50. Doesn't buy much these days and if something fails on the any of the cars then its 'find something to sell on e-bay' time. Always do all the work on the cars myself which at least saves a bit of money..

eBay is my backup plan too - it's how I gnerate non essential spending money...normally by selling Audi parts I've aquired!

Wel i had planned to have the bits of tin worm that are on the rear and front wings, plus a few small dinks in the paintwork. This will mean a full respray, new pin stripes and the replacement colour coded anti chip protection on the bottom of the doors and wings. So although the cash is sittting there earning a paltry 2.5 per cent interest I just think Its better to be safe than sorry. I might need to pay what's left of the mortgage off if the worse happens at work. Don't think five of us would live together for very long in the Coupe lol

I was going to put a new jetex exhaust on my 80 as the old janspeed one has cracked and is to rusty
to repair but thats on hold as i got made redundant last monday

That's bad news vag80..and there's not much out there at the mo. Good luck in finding something.

Cheers m8 . It not looking to good out there for car technicians

Can you set up your own business?

It may be worth looking into???

I'm seriously thinking about it, got a mate coming round tomorrow to help design some
flyers then go and do leaflet drop and see wot happens

if you want to post up any ideas of the words you would put on your flyers, we would gladly assist in seeing if we'd "buy your services".

Business Link are worth contacting too:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg...sslink.gov.uk/

Steve

I'd have thought a good honest mobile mechanic would be able to earn a living. People will still need there cars looking after. It will take a while to build up a client base but word of mouth is a wonderful ad. Good luck

Cheers m8 going to kick afew ideas around as this is something new to me

A top tip is.......

Don't start off too cheap.

You can always offer "introductory discounts", but if people know you as "cheap" you will find it hard to get out of the trap.

I took redundancy 3.5 years ago, left marine engineering (ship / submarine design and support) and set up a property maintenance business, plastering, painting, tiling, bathrooms etc.

Did that for a couple of years, now back doing marine engineering, but as a contractor earning twice as much with more flexibility and more options.

If in doubt, go for it. You have the idea already, that is 90% of the decision made.

I've always worked for main dealers and at there prices i'm surprised people bring their cars in for servcing once the warranty has run out . I'm going to call afew small garages and see wot their prices
are for careing out basic servicing and go from there

A guy at my work is looking for someone to do bits and bobs on an "ad-hoc" basis to his 18 year old BMW convertible. Not too far away from you, Tadley way.

Let me know if you want more details, it may be a way to start off, word of mouth is always best.

Steve

Hi steve if you let me know more details i may be able to help your mate out
sorry it's taken a while to see this i can only get on at weekends as this is other halfs laptop