When you went through MD the time limit was 3 months not 2 as it is now, erm. Also there was plenty of money available so you could run out of time and apply again so time wasn't an issue. Anywaysanall, on your advice, I rang NTA before ringing the decider in terms of car availability again yesterday to re-clarify what I had already clarified. I'll update that in the relevant thread in due course.
If I had read your post yesterday, Wingnut, I think I would have said fuck it you're right and just bought the BZ4X when the ID4 Pro wasn't available. As I said for me it was a very close second and definitely would have come ahead of an ID4 Pro Plus. I should've been a bit more diligent in test driving it like taking the time to adjust the seat and such like. I think there might have been a subconscious leaning towards the ID4 because I've driven Skodas since 2004. In fact, a lot of drivers who know what they're talking about (and Octy!) have come down in favour of the Toyota so that's something I'll definitely take on board should I get a grant offer next year.
I would reiterate Mercs advice on haggling... you mightn't get anywhere where stock is in short supply but it won't add anything on to the price. In fact the last Saturday that I worked late my second last job was a car full of salemen from a main dealer. The lads in the back were discussing targets and bonuses and such like which prompted the slightly older - but still very young - man in the front to tell me that the best time to buy a car is in the last few days of a month as it's likely that one or more of the salesmen will need the sale to achieve his target so if there's a deal to be done that's when you'll get the best of it.
I haven't changed a gearbox in a serving taxi since I had the 1994 Astra, Octy. I changed the box in Gretta (our new name for the MKII since she failed the National Car Test on emissions for the first time in her life this year) recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was no rush as the younger not so young lad's Yaris hybrid was available at the time so I ordered her a brand new clutch from Poland and stretched what was actually a few hours spannering into a project spanning a couple of weeks. I did need to employ the brawn of the older not so young lad for an hour or so to lift the once new box in. Typical of not so young lads these days he wouldn't class himself as a practical man but managed to fane interest in my explaining how a clutch works. Anywaysanall, the MKIII box (being a DSG) is twice the weight of Gretta's cute little gearbox so would probably be beyond my DIY capabilities. In that respect the lunacy of Govt regulations is potentially doing me a favour in requiring Gretta to keep smoking up the ozone layer in favour of scrapping the EURO VI MKIII. Gretta has no expensive DPF and a cute little manual gearbox that can be changed for less than the price of an EV tyre whereas the MKIII could get a lot more expensive to maintain with age. Interestingly, 12,000 kilos later, Gretta's new solid flywheel clutch conversion is still light as a feather. Any time I've had a dual mass flywheel replaced the pedal has gone heavy within a few hundred kilos. I looked it up on the VAG interactive manual thing I had a pirate copy of years ago and the solution was advise customer that it's normal.
