Your fleet running reports

[16vCento]

And a lot more likely to fully shit itself.

I'd keep the diesel reliability and cost of running wise.

I thought you already had a Cooper S convertible

[Broccers]

We went to MiL's house for lunch yesterday and took the Clubman as it's not been out for a while.


C578C32C-417F-4AE9-A5BB-4E4B437009BC.jpeg


I like it and keep thinking the extra power of a Cooper S would be nice but OTOH, if you're just sitting on the motorway is 70mph in a Cooper S going to be faster than 70mph in a Cooper D ? It'll definitely be 30mpg worse though.

I can confirm that, at maybe slightly faster, ours does 38 mpg. But then its 220+ bhp

[nuttinnew]

The joys of a sixth gear, something the A2 derv could do with (highest so far 69mpg, 70mph is ~2650rpm). Shirley it's a good candidate for a remap, or sell and get a Cooper SD (in Doom Blue, naturally). It makes me have some regret not getting one of the Clubmans I saw before Covid, always the way though

[Jobbo]

As nuttinnew says, Cooper SD?

[Sundayjumper]

I thought you already had a Cooper S convertible

We do, that's the wife's car ! Loads more power, but loads more scuttle shake too.

D4CF5A02-995E-461E-AE4D-7F1054221D9B.jpeg (21.37 KiB) Viewed 970 times

The joys of a sixth gear, something the A2 derv could do with (highest so far 69mpg, 70mph is ~2650rpm). Shirley it's a good candidate for a remap, or sell and get a Cooper SD (in Doom Blue, naturally).

Yeah, 70mph in the Clubman is ~2000 rpm, makes a big difference. Cooper SD feels like it would be the worst of both - still a rattly diesel, with less power than the S, but also losing the super-frugal 80mpg (and £20 VED) of the current car.

Dammit, bring me that moon on a stick ! I want 300bhp and 100mpg. For about £2k

[Rich B]

What's the relevance of the Shibas plate on that mini?

[mik]

Out in the E-Tron on Saturday for an IKEA trip, and hit a traffic jam on the M8. For the first time it occurred to me to try the adaptive cruise in this scenario - set it to 50mph and it just did the job for me.

I mentioned before that it applies regen to slow the car and maintain your chosen speed going downhill, or if you come up behind another car, but regen doesn’t work as you approach 0mph, so it never occurred to me that it would engage the conventional brakes to bring the car to a full stop. But - it did.

Adjusting the distance setting allowed me to choose how close it pulled up behind the car in front…. which it then did very repeatably, whether the car in front slowed quickly or suddenly.

Impressed. Made 12-15mins in a jam a breeze

[DeskJockey]

Out in the E-Tron on Saturday for an IKEA trip, and hit a traffic jam on the M8. For the first time it occurred to me to try the adaptive cruise in this scenario - set it to 50mph and it just did the job for me.

I mentioned before that it applies regen to slow the car and maintain your chosen speed going downhill, or if you come up behind another car, but regen doesn’t work as you approach 0mph, so it never occurred to me that it would engage the conventional brakes to bring the car to a full stop. But - it did.

Adjusting the distance setting allowed me to choose how close it pulled up behind the car in front…. which it then did very repeatably, whether the car in front slowed quickly or suddenly.

Impressed. Made 12-15mins in a jam a breeze

How much were you itching to press the brake pedal?

[Carlos]

That's clever and more importantly the type of driving that's not fun and drains your brain

[Rich B]

Adaptive cruise in my Golf was excellent. Just set it at 90 on the motorway and it'll follow the person in front until they move out of the way and it'll accelerate back up. Normal cruise control is crap.

[Broccers]

Adaptive cruise in my Golf was excellent. Just set it at 90 on the motorway and it'll follow the person in front until they move out of the way and it'll accelerate back up. Normal cruise control is crap.

Yes exactly this. Set to 97 and was pretty accurate when I got pulled. The adaptive cruise made me look like a reasonable driver according to plod . It's the main thing I miss from the golf.

[Sundayjumper]

What's the relevance of the Shibas plate on that mini?

We have a Shiba Inu.

Feel free to flame me for the plate being a plural when we only have one dog

[Rich B]

What's the relevance of the Shibas plate on that mini?

We have a Shiba Inu.

Feel free to flame me for the plate being a plural when we only have one dog

aaaah, fair enough!

[John]

I've booked the mx5 in to have the springs changed to the Mazda lowering springs which should drop the car by about an inch and hopefully fix the floaty feeling you can sometimes get, it should look a damn site better too. I contacted my insurance co last week as the renewal is due so I asked them to quote me for suspension and exhaust changes and it added less than £30.

I also got a "nice car" today from a MAMIL as he filtered past us at some traffic lights

[Jimexpl]

Drove the X5 to Spain, without a/c…
Left Thursday evening. It had been in the garage for a new condenser (lost gas over a few days). When changing it one of the pipes wasn’t in great condition, so they ordered a replacement from BMW Park Lane who delivered one for a 3 series that I owned about a decade ago with the same reg no…
The correct part finally arrived at
1pm on Thursday, only to find that the new condenser had a manufacture fault and lost gas instantly. Couldn’t wait for a replacement as I needed to fly back for work on Sunday, so drove 5 up in a toasty car. Aside from that, the car was great. 23mpg fully loaded with windows and the roof open at 80-85mph is fine by me. At least I got to hear the V8, which sounds far better in this than the 650i convertible that I ran for a few weeks back in 2008.

[Jobbo]

Adaptive cruise in my Golf was excellent. Just set it at 90 on the motorway and it'll follow the person in front until they move out of the way and it'll accelerate back up. Normal cruise control is crap.

I really liked the adaptive cruise in my ex's Golf mk7. Worked brilliantly. My Volvo had it but it wasn't nearly as good; in particular, no matter what the setting, it would slow down really early for a car way ahead in your lane. Worked fine when you did the full autopilot, particularly in traffic jams, but not as usable as normal cruise in normal mixed traffic unless you just wanted to follow someone in the middle lane at 65.

[mik]

Blah blah adaptive cruise : it never occurred to me that it would engage the conventional brakes to bring the car to a full stop. But - it did.

How much were you itching to press the brake pedal?

Surprisingly little after it had done it a few times. If I had switched on my most-hated lane-assist system (or more specifically, not disabled lane assist), it would have steered for me too.

It wasn’t good at spotting people indicating to come into the lane though, so just chopped them off…. the tech generally works extremely well, but doesn’t have v good manners.

[MikeHunt]

Adaptive cruise in my Golf was excellent. Just set it at 90 on the motorway and it'll follow the person in front until they move out of the way and it'll accelerate back up. Normal cruise control is crap.

I really liked the adaptive cruise in my ex's Golf mk7. Worked brilliantly. My Volvo had it but it wasn't nearly as good; in particular, no matter what the setting, it would slow down really early for a car way ahead in your lane. Worked fine when you did the full autopilot, particularly in traffic jams, but not as usable as normal cruise in normal mixed traffic unless you just wanted to follow someone in the middle lane at 65.

Its a small thing that adds to it, but the Golf had a footrest for both feet, not even a 7 series carters for your right foot.

I find it annoying when cursing at 70 and the car brake unnecessarily when a car overtakes and moves into your lane. It will be along time before they become self aware.

[DeskJockey]

Blah blah adaptive cruise : it never occurred to me that it would engage the conventional brakes to bring the car to a full stop. But - it did.

How much were you itching to press the brake pedal?

Surprisingly little after it had done it a few times. If I had switched on my most-hated lane-assist system (or more specifically, not disabled lane assist), it would have steered for me too.

It wasn’t good at spotting people indicating to come into the lane though, so just chopped them off…. the tech generally works extremely well, but doesn’t have v good manners.

Old dogs and new tricks...

[DeskJockey]

Galaxy has had the aircon regassed. Was about a third down on volume, but that's within spec given it was last done two years ago. Was quite cold before, even colder now.

Had it washed and while it is nice to see the pearl in the paint, it is looking a bit sad overall. Considering having the NSR door repainted as the lacquer peel is spreading and it looks bad. Thought of doing what Rich did and get a S/H door off eBay, but all the ones I could find were in at least as bad condition as mine, so no point.

We're off on our hols soon week be doing somewhere between 1-1.5k miles, so having a clean car with cold AC is going to be helpful. When we come back it'll need new tyres all round.