Life's good without Vodafone

I've been with Vodafone for 12 months, before that I was with Orange. I've chopped and changed handsets, but I've always stuck with Pay As You Go. I've never thought that the Vodafone service was anything special, Orange even less so - then I totted up how much I've spent over the past seven months and was staggered when it came in at an average of £50 per month. This is way more than I thought and it's spurred me into taking action.

Firstly, ditch Vodafone.

Secondly, PAYG is fine - but not if you need to make any volume of calls, especially during peak hours. With buying a house and planning a wedding, I'm using my phone quite a lot and it's costing me big time. One day, £10 of calling credit was gone in one call.

I am also fed up of my current handset - It's yet another Nokia that hasn't lived up to my expectations.

So I've swapped to the simplicity tariff on O2 - it's a rolling 30 day contract so nothing too scary for an ex-PAYG devotee like myself and I've got tons of free minutes and texts for the bargain price of £25 a month. I opted for the 600 free minutes and 1,000 texts package, and then bolted on another 200 anytime minutes for free. O2 have such a great reputation for good customer service and decent network coverage, and although I love a good price I also want a great service to back it up.

I've also bought myself the LGKF600 Venus and I have to say I am loving it. Whenever I've strayed from Nokia I've always regretted it and returned with my tail between my legs - hopefully not this time. Life sure is good with LG.

Diesel Power Tuning

In one of his motoring columns, Quentin Wilson recently recommended that a reader kit his car out with a DPT box. DPT is Diesel Power Tuning for those of us unfamiliar with that particular acronym.

It seems that not only does the magic DPT box improve fuel efficiency, but it also increases BHP and torque. In their own words:

"The DPT tuning box module has been engineered and is manufactured in Europe. They can be programmed to be used on most modern diesel engine vehicles. DPT will give you more power when you need it most, better acceleration if required and better fuel economy. Your DPT installer can advise how to achieve the most for your personal motoring requirements."

You can even check compatibility with your own model of car online. These are the results for my 1.9 GT TDI (150 BHP) Golf:

Standard BHP: 150
Tuned BHP: 180
Standard Torque: 320
Tuned Torque: 370
BHP Increase: 30
Torque Increase: 50

Not bad eh? The DPT will cost me around £300 plus fitting. I can't stretch to it right now, and I need to speak to my insurers - but it's definitely one for the wish list.

Car insurance sorted - happy days!

I've finally got my car insurance sorted out, so that's a big relief. I posted about my renewal notice about a week or two ago, and I've been comparing quotes on and off since then.

I've used all of the top comparison sites - confused, moneysupermarket, comparethemarket, gocompare and tescocompare - with mixed results. The thing is, I'm really specific about what I want from my policy and whilst price is an important factor it's not the only factor.

There are things I like and things I don't like about each of these sites. The best one, for me, was gocompare.com. This was because it offered a clear way of comparing policies not just by price but by policy features too. That made the whole process a lot easier and a lot more credible. What I didn't like about gocompare is that I got phone calls from two companies almost immediately, even though I had opted out of the marketing bumph. Overall, if you want to compare car insurance but you are not just looking to compare by price i.e. looking for the cheapest quote, then this site is one I would recommend.

Having said that, I suppose what's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander - so the real recommendation is to use all of the comparison sites. Like me, you'll probably find yourself a cracking deal - I shaved £97 off my renewal price without compromising my cover.

Word of mouth does the business

The VW dealer got it wrong. Who'd have thought it, but their comprehensive and scientifically unproven 'blown fuse test' misdiagnosed the problem with the cooling fans, meaning they didn't need replacing after all. Now both fans are working fine, and VW are £420.96 out of pocket. Ha!

The grinding and scraping from the front passenger wheel (that VW failed to identify or fix) turned out to be a wheel bearing, so that little blighter got sorted too along with new brake pads. Peace of mind and the Golf in pukka order for just £225. Bargain!

The thing is, once you find a decent mechanic who does an honest job for an honest price, you'll recommend them to about a hundred other people and they'll do the same. It's good business and well earned.

It works both ways of course; shoddy service, over charging and blatent bill hiking (replace not fix, for example) all fuel word of mouth too. One of my biggest gripes is with companies who go to the expense of getting themselves online, but then fail to respond to emails or contact form enquiries. Get with it, you total losers!

For me, no response = I'm off to your best competitor, may you go bust.

Make bills whilst the sun shines

The Golf is back to the garage tomorrow - as a result of the weather picking up, I'll be picking up a bill for the cooling fans.

I've also been entertaining myself by having a rant about Rip off Britain on my other blog. Someone's got to, so it may as well be me.

Diesel prices bring out the bitch in me

The variation in petrol and diesel prices is staggering, not only between the different companies (BP, have you even heard of competitive pricing?) but also between different locations in good old Great Britain.

I work in Wales - and a fill up with diesel at the local superstore will set me back a not insignificant 113.9 per litre. Travel 25 miles home, and I'll be lucky if I find a garage at under 119.9p a litre. Apparently it's all due to the filling station's proximity to the nearest oil refinery, not that a paltry 25 miles should justify a 6p per litre price hike. It's just any excuse to fleece us.

So now diesel and petrol prices are higher than they've ever been. And what do us resolute Brits do? Form blockades? Boycott the fattest of the fat cat filling stations? Vote our grasping, greedy Government out of office? Nope - we simply moan, bitch and complain of course! Watt Tyler will be spinning in his grave.

3/8 diameter pipe? No such luck

On Saturday I went in search of the 3/8 diameter pipe required for the rear wash wipe fix, not realising that finding a blunt needle in very large haystack would take a lot less effort.

Halfords sell 1/8 or 1/16 diameters.

Motorworld sell 1/8 or 3/16 diameters.

Partland sell 1/8 only.

So here I am, no 3/8 diameter wash pipe, no rear wash fix. Despondently, I came to the conclusion that my run of luck had officially come to a premature end.

But I was wrong. This morning, I nearly went face first down the stairs but saved my sorry ass at the last second, preventing stains on the carpet and a possible funderal. I'm not trying to tempt fate or anything, but I reckon I'm good for a while yet!

It's that time again!

We all know it, but not many of us love it - yes, it's car insurance renewal time again.

I'm over 30, I have maximum no claims and I drive a diesel (albeit a fast one) - but it never seems to get any cheaper dagnamit! It's probably because I haven't switched for years. Lazy, I know - so it serves me right. There are reasons why I've stuck like glue to my current insurer, but they're boring so I won't yap on.

This year, I've resolved myself to shopping around and getting a better deal. The thing is, price is not everything and so many of the comparison sites you see relentlessly plugged on TV care more about who is the cheapest than making sure you're equipped with the right cover.

I'll let you know how I get on, expect me to take a while.

Rear screen wash gets the boot

Yesterday, I thought the Golf was going senile in it's old age.

Randomly, the 'luggage compartment open' warning was flashing on the dash and the alarm kept triggering for no apparent reason. Annoying, and costly - or so I thought.

Not so. Having nosied around online, I've found this is a common problem, caused by a leaking rear wash wipe. I've even got step-by-step instructions on how to fix it! Cool eh?

Let's just hope it doesn't all go horribly wrong.

Counting my lucky stars

Phew! The Golf escaped it's brush with Cruella de Pothole with just a couple of loose bolts and some dented pride.

This weekend I seemed to have been kissed by the lucious lips of Lady Luck. My £5 wager at 33-1 on Carole's Legacy in Friday's 17:30 at Aintree put £166 in my pocket; and a further £50 came my way when equine superstar Comply or Die was crowned Grand National champion.

I also woke early enough on Sunday to see the snowy morning, and timed last night's roast to perfection (for once).

Conveniently, the £216 Aintree bounty is just enough to pay for the Golf's cooling fans to be replaced - as by another stroke of good fortune, I've found a VW specialist willing to do it for half the cost of the £420 quoted by my local VW dealership.

Being blessed is cool.

Golf v Pot Hole. Who wins? The rain decides

The Golf has developed an ailment, brought on by a run in with the biggest and most evil pot hole in the world. A pot hole that was masquerading as an innocent puddle.

There we were, tanking along at a fair old pace and then BANG! or should that be SPLASH! BANG! and I'll even add a WHALLOP! for good measure.

So the Golf has taken a trip to the garage, and I've taken a trip to Potholes.co.uk. I may have lost the battle, but I sure ain't gonna lose the war!

My love affair with my Golf

I have a 2002, 52 plate VW Golf GT TDI 1.9 (150) and I love it with a passion. I've had a few cars in my time, including a couple of Fords, a Lexus and even a Smart - and there were things I loved about pretty much all of them, and lots of things that griped me too.

The Mark 1 Focus handled brilliantly and was great to drive. I liked the styling but I hated the lack of air con, the steamy front windscreen that wouldn't demist and it's total inability to tackle hills with any sort of gusto. It was a 3 door hatchback and although it looked great, it was awkward for passengers and cramped in the back. I bought it brand new, kept it for 6 years and put 100K on the clock. We had a fair few adventures, and a few bumps too, some more serious than others. We were battered and bruised by the end, and i sold it (too cheaply) to my ex.

Before the Focus I had a T reg Ford Ka. Again, I bought it new but I couldn't afford metallic paint, so I opted for Belladonna because I liked the name and it was better than red or white.
I called it Charlie, it was cheap to run and, as my first car, it gave me a liberty that I'd never experienced before. We were united for 18 months, and it was great whilst it lasted.

When I reached 30 I did what most thirty-somethings do - I went in search of some fun. That came in the form of a Smart Roadster-Coupe in Star Blue and silver. I bought it used from a guy in the next town and kept it until the novelty wore off. I loved the electric roof that would work at any speed, the fantastic fuel consumption, the heated seats, the retro styling and the precise handling, but I hated the dreadful gearbox, the appalling lack of comfort and the plasticky interior. I was weary and, being newly single and a one car household, I desperately needed some practicality. We parted company soon after.

On a whim, and without reading any reviews, I bought a Lexus IS200. It drank me out of house and home. The more I filled it, the more thirsty it became. And if ever a car lacked balls it was that one, talk about snail's pace. As each day passed I despised it more; I felt imprisoned by it's fuel consumption and frustrated by its performance. Being a saloon with privacy glass, parking was a nightmare - even with sensors. Our relationship lasted a traumatic 4 months, and I traded it in with not a backwards glance. It was the first of my cars that I wasn't upset to say my goodbyes to. It's brilliant xenon headlights were the only things I loved about it, and the only things I miss.

And so the Golf - a great all-rounder, with the best bits of all the previous cars I've owned. The four door practicality and comfort of the Lexus; the heated seats of the Smart; the handling and hatchback body style of the Focus; the frugality of the Ka; and best of all, something none of the others could lay claim to: decent bhp and foot to the floor pleasure. It's also the first car I've not had finance on, so it's mine, all mine.

I wouldn't trade it for the world.