@indigo It's not sinking in. On the 3rd Wed of each month, the Men's Shed group has a BBQ lunch: sausages, egg, bacon & hash browns get cooked up. I can't handle sausages, have to slum it with 30-day aged scotch fillet steak.
There's always some sausages left over. Invariably one older fellow takes 6 or so home for his dog.
This is despite the fact that when a dog eats a sausage it's the equivalent of 3.5 hamburgers (with buns) consumed by a human.
// @hazardwarning @ukhaiku @kdfrawg
@kdfrawg No change. The same level of insurance for the newer vehicle was actually some $50 cheaper than for the old one, despite the disparity in insured value. The newer car has over twice the insured value of the dead one. I opted to pay for unlimited hire car use in the event of a claim. I'm lucky I have my mother's car to use this time around: she's too infirm to drive now.
There's a particular hill locally, in an 80 kph zone that's somewhat challenging. In the car I killed, a 63 kW 1.3 litre Toyota Yaris, I had to drop back to 3rd gear to get up it and even then it'd drop back to 70 kph near the top.
Mum's car, a 1996 Hyundai Lantra wagon, with a 95 kW 1.8 litre automatic was swapping violently between 2nd & 3rd gear to climb it & also dropped back to 70kph near the top.
My replacement car, the 1.5 litre 75 kW Mazda 2 took it in its stride in 4th gear at 75 kph where the others slowed down a bit more.
Paid for 12 months insurance on the replacement car. This insurance mob does things a bit differently to most. They could send your car anywhere for repair & offer a paid taxi service to take you to pick up the car when it's ready.
@kdfrawg I'm well pleased. It's a really neat & tidy late 2012 Mazda2, just over 5 years old.
@matigo Yeah. I had to get in quick, the price was too good. They'd reduced it by $500 to sell it. The reason it hadn't sold before was lack of automatic transmission. I prefer manuals anyway.
Visited used car dealer. Checked out desired vehicle, took it for a test drive. It's been on the lot for at least 2 months & the main reason it hasn't sold (until now) is that it has a manual transmission, not an automatic.
It has cruise control & stereo system buttons on the steering wheel. I have paid a deposit, got a bank cheque for the balance & should have the car by tomorrow. It will be registered until April & I've paid for 12 months of insurance.