Somewhat off-topic, I’ll admit, but I’ve worked with Automotive clients for years helping to teach them how to sell properly so perhaps I’m well placed to help you get the right deal for you. Having just bought a used Toyota Verso, here are my practical observations:

Choose your car before you go to the dealer

Car sales executives will want to sell you the car that best suits them, whilst (more or less) meeting your requirements. This might be a car that’s been on the forecourt for a while or one that the sales executive has been incentivised to sell for whatever reason.

Use the internet and personal recommendations to select your car. Check out What Car and pay particular attention to the user reviews (whilst bearing in mind that reviewers are self-selecting: either gloriously happy or, more likely, bloody angry!).

Once you’ve generated a short-list based on your requirements, find possible cars using each manufacturer’s used stock service (usually found from their main web page). Most services include the ability to select a maximum distance you’re willing to drive to find a car. From this, you will have an idea of whether you can afford your preferred cars: if more than one remains from your list, go and test drive them in order of preference.

Make sure you know roughly what the car you’re buying is worth

Go to Parkers and use the free valuation service to see how much you should expect to pay for the car. You shouldn’t expect to pay any more than this unless the  car has done fewer miles or is in exceptional condition.

Know the value of your part exchange

You can get a valuation via Glass’s Guide. Currently, Vauxhall are giving away free valuations. Be honest about the condition of your vehicle: it’s likely to be in “average” condition (that’s what “average” means, after all). Don’t tell the sales executive that you have this information: it could be useful in the negotiation process.

Go to a main dealer

If you possibly can, I suggest going to a dealer that specialises in the car type you are looking to buy. You will then get a manufacturer authorised health-check, a one-year warranty (usually, sometimes longer) plus membership of the driver’s club. You can also feel a little more confident that you’re not buying a lemon since these dealers have more of a reputation to protect.

Test until you’re happy

You can test drive as many cars as you like: it’s a lot of money and you must be happy with it.

Ask for a price for the deal

Make sure the Sales Executive gives you figures for both the part exchange and the car you’re buying. It’s essential that you get a complete breakdown and the sales exec might resist giving this to you because they don’t want to argue the toss about each figure

Mull it over

Don’t let them convince you to sign on the dotted line that moment (unless you’ve driven a long way to get there and are completely happy with the deal). Think it over, make sure that you’re happy with the figures and if not, come back with a counter-offer the following day. Do this by email if you possibly can because it limits their ability to use their patter to confuse the issue. It also gives you a paper trail

If they try to convince you to buy today, simply keep repeating “I need to think it over tonight, I’ll come back to you tomorrow” as there’s really no answer to that.

First, negotiate on the price of the car you’re buying and then, when you’re happy with it, negotiate the part ex price IF they have undervalued it (as they did in my case). Tell them you’ve checked on Glass’s (which is the service they use themselves).

Don’t buy any add-ons

Dealers make LOTS of money from Add-Ons which means they’re unlikely to be good value for you. If you think you’ll benefit from GAP insurance then buy it separately online as it’s MUCH cheaper done that way. If, on reflection, you want any particular add-on, you can always go back.

Pay by debit card

Dealers will charge you around 3% to pay by credit card and banks will charge for drafts so the most economical way to pay is by debit card if you possibly can.

So, my main advice is to be well informed, confident and upfront but to examine carefully every single statement the sales executive makes. They simply can’t help coming out with white (or not so white) lies such as “my boss insists I ask you” or “ok, although we said we wouldn’t budge on price, we haven’t had to give any other discounts today so maybe we can”  or “the FSA says we must offer you GAP insurance” (all of which I heard this week). This is mainly fluff which is part of their persona as sales people: if it’s important to you, get it written down.

I live in Milton Keynes and have been to Bletchley Park many time. As you probably know, Bletchley Park was the home of the “codebreakers” in the Second World War who cracked the various enemy codes (including the infamous Enigma Code) and are credited with shortening the war. The park became, by default, owned by BT but is now independent. It is, however, in grave need of preservation. I heard about an Early Day Motion in Parliament related to the park and asked my local MP, Phylis Starkey, if she supported it.

Here is her response:

My reaction? Well, I’m glad to have had such a thorough response: this is clearly something that interests her. She is somewhat stymied by her own government’s luke-warm attitude to Bletchley Park (the giving out of medals was not universally appreciated by the veterans: they wanted money to keep the place going) but it’s good to see that someone is championing such an important national asset in government: at least until the next election.

Dear Phyllis Starkey,

In a letter from Ian Dalton to NHS Chief Executives published on the department of health site, he identifies the priority groups to receive the swine flu vaccination. From the list, it doesn't appear that school-children are going to be routinely vaccinated.

Given that the swine flu infection rate goes down when the schools go on holiday and leaps again when they go back, surely the most efficient strategy would be to vaccinate all school children?

Can you confirm whether it is government policy NOT to vaccinate all school children? It does seem a bit odd if that is the case, not only will it take longer to get the pandemic under control, but surely we should be protecting our children?

I'd appreciate any light you could shed on this.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Partner

Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous

My 19 year old daughter has been into Lloyds to convert her under-18 account into a “proper” current account. To my utter disbelief, rather than the free Classic account, she has been placed on the “Silver” account which costs £8 a month and offers benefits such as:

• AA breakdown cover: my daughter hasn’t even learned to drive (she told them this)
• Travel insurance: my daughter is not travelling abroad this year
• International mobile insurance: ditto
• Airmiles: ditto
• Travel money card: ditto

I am incandescent at this disgraceful misselling because my daughter made the mistake of trusting the advice from her bank, a bank we own after all. Outrageous.

It was with great trepidation that I told Amazon that the Sony Cybershot camera I bought for my daughter last Christmas had broken (the lens cover wouldn’t open). I had read horror stories on the internet of their intransigence as soon as a product was more than 6 months old and I expected to be passed on to the manufacturer at the very best.

To my utter amazement, within 30 minutes of sending the email I had an apologetic email (no doubt a “form” email but that doesn’t matter) that said whilst they would normally replace the item, it’s not in stock so they’re going to refund me. The email included a link to print a returns form and book a DHL collection.

Having just today ordered a Sony SLR from them I was dreading getting a negative response but credit to them, this old cynic is impressed!!

Update: Packed up the camera (no box, most of the accessories missing). Had the refund processed without issues two working days later. Outstanding.

Microsoft has made the Release Candidate of Windows 7 freely available to download. It’ll work properly until March 2010 which is very generous. All I’ve heard about Windows 7 has been positive but I won’t be installing it. Why? Because once the Release Candidate expires, I will then be required to perform a “clean” install of a paid-for version. In other words, I’ll need to install not only Windows 7 but also all my applications.

Furthermore, Microsoft recommends that I don’t install it on my main machine. So what’s the point? This might work for a piece of application software you use occasionally but Windows 7 is an operating system! It’s only function is to allow other programs to run. All the programs I work on are on my main PC, so when do I ever get to use Windows 7?

It was, as always, too good to be true.

The Royal Mail has just raised the cost of sending a “large letter” up to 250g from 78p to 90p in one go. That’s a 15% rise! Absolutely outrageous.

If you’re a web developer or designer you should get yourself over to www.visibone.com. VisiBone sell paper-based, cut down references for designers and developers including everything from colour charts to MySQL commands.

I ordered the “Everything Book” on the 1st April, it arrived (from the US) 2 working days later and it’s one of those products you didn’t know you needed until you saw it. This book contains a colour reference chart on the front cover, HTML character codes, HTML and CSS reference, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL all printed on heavy paper and wire-bound.

The product has been put together beautifully and thoughtfully with the most commonly required stuff at the front. No more endless searching for colour values and HTML entities: it’s all here. I speak as an experienced web developer: I know my PHP and MySQL but I often need my memory jogged and this product now occupies a permanent place on my desk.

Completely off-topic but these two issues have so dominated my life over the past three weeks I thought others might find my experience (and hints and tips) useful.

Tooth Pain

There are few things worse than tooth pain: it feels as though you can’t get away from it. The worst form of tooth pain is caused by an infection and this can only be treated by taking antibiotics: these are available from your dentist.

These are my tips for handling the pain before you get to see the dentist or while you’re awaiting treatment

1) Get into a regular pain-killing regime

Depending on the nature of the pain, Paracetamol and Ibuprofen will have varying impact. Where the tooth pain is caused by swelling as a result of infection, Ibuprofen is likely to be more effective. The good news is that you can take them together. My recommendation is to take them in a staggered fashion. In other words, take 2 paracetamol then, two hours later, take ibuprofen. However, remember you must not exceed the daily total dose. Check this in this instructions that came with your medicine but the general guidance is no more than 4000mg of Paracetamol a day (4 doses of 2 500mg tablets) or 1200mg of Ibuprofen (3 doses of 2 200mg tables or 6 doses of single tablets).

2) Ice cubes are a life saver

Get a roll of those plastic bags that you fill with water and then put in the freezer. The resulting ice “cubes” (actually they’re ovoid in shape) are ideally sized and shaped to roll around your mouth. In my experience, even when the pain was at its worst, I got complete relief for at least a few minutes after doing this.

Preparing for fillings/extraction

In the words of Nessa from Gavin and Stacy “I’m not gonna lie to you”. An extraction is unpleasant: I had mine three days ago and I hope not to have to repeat it. It’s not painful (or at least it shouldn’t be) but there’s an unpleasant feeling of pressure being applied. In my case, my molar took just under 10 minutes to get out which is a bit longer than usual as it had a curved root.

Top tips for preparing for and copying with fillings/extraction:

1) Find a good dentist!

This is absolutely essential. You must find a dentist you can trust. If you are nervous about seeing the dentist then he or she must be made aware of this. Preferably, get a recommendation from a friend. Personally, I prefer going private: there’s a subtle change in the relationship from “patient” to “client” which I like.

2) Make sure your sugar level is high enough

You will have a pain-killing injection of local anaesthetic (or several injections). In me, these injections trigger a sugar dip which my dentist says is very common and is your body reacting in shock to the injection. Buy some Lucozade tabs from your local chemist and take a couple before you go in. Whilst this might not prevent you from feeling a bit rubbish, it will stop you passing out.

3) Take in your iPod

This is particularly important if you’re having a filling. This process might take 15-20 minutes. It isn’t horrible and there shouldn’t be any pain but it will pass much more quickly if you have something to distract you. Personally, I prefer listening to an audio book or something similar rather than music, not least because I want to be able to hear the dentist.

Adopting these tips will reduce the pain before seeing the dentist and make the process of either having a filling or extraction less unpleasant.

Kate Rusby's latest album

Totally off-topic, I know, but I want you all to experience the warm, fuzzy feeling of listening to Kate Rusby’s just released album of Christmas music: “Sweet Bells”. It’s her versions of the carols sung in Yorkshire pubs and they’re very different to those most of us are used to. It feels almost as if the genuine spirit of Christmas and warm cozy winter’s nights are captured in this little gem. And if it introduces you to the wonderful Ms Rusby then so much the better. You can get in pre-release from Amazon or right now at iTunes.