Your fleet running reports

[integrale_evo]

Nope.

I’m perfectly fine with my shoddy BMWs but land rover products give me the fear

[Jimexpl]

Nope.

I’m perfectly fine with my shoddy BMWs but land rover products give me the fear

My BMWs have given me more trouble than JLR product, some of that is age, but of the newish JLR stuff -

XFR £30k five years old: ran for 3 1/2 years/30k
A/C condenser (stone damage)
TPMS module

Defender £22k five years old: still have it
Chassis rust (they all do that sir…)

Disco Sport £43k: new to 3 1/2 years 36k
Sat nav module at 12 months

[V8Granite]

I test drove 2 L322 range rovers back in 2014, the TDV8 had a turbo issue and needed at least 1 new turbo on the test drive.

The 4.2 Supercharged one fell onto its bump stops on a dual carriageway and shook my teeth out driving back to the dealers. I took that as a sign.

I love what they build but it’s either brand new with a warranty or a weekend toy for playing in the mud. Everything inbetween I don’t like.

Dave!

[GG.]

May be a bit of nonsense really but I quite like buying something new enough so it can have a warranty and I can do that for a couple of years and ‘get to know the car’ before deciding if I will continue doing that or take a punt.

First year warranty on the Range Rover has effectively been money wasted as it hasn’t really put a foot wrong. I guess there are some things like it occasionally makes a clunk when putting the box in reverse that I’m more relaxed about than if I didn’t have a warranty

At the end of the day though - the 911 had a habit of ‘missing’ at low revs under load (never resolved despite repeated investigations at a reputable independent and was missing 30 ponies somewhere). Coffin arms rotted within 8 years, crossover coolant pipes needed replacing, steering rack shat itself and had to be recon’d. Basically all cars have their issues and I think JLR maybe has more ‘Friday afternoon’ cars than other marques… then again you can bet an IMS failure or scored bores and a piston slap to ruin your day just as much as a RR’s air suspension failing or sat nav having a hissy fit.

What I would hesitate to do is buy an L322 at 100,000 miles on 8 owners, 5 of whom owned it at less than 30% of list price - then again that probably also applies to many high end German cars too.

[Rich B]

My e92 M3 had 9 owners (54k miles) when I got it, the e46 M3 had at least 6 (108k miles). I don't get too hung up on that - interesting cars tend to cycle through owners, with people buying them to have one for a while then onto the next interesting car.

So long as the service schedule is complete and the car has not been badly neglected for any of its life (gaps in its history, awful mot tests, etc...), you can usually see what kind of condition it is from who you're buying it from. Plus I try to avoid dealers with sub £20k cars as there's always a "reason" they've acquired the car, and it's rarely a positive in my opinion.

[jamcg]

Twingo had 5 previous owners- it’s a 12 year old car so stuff going wrong is all part of the course. I’m the cars 6th owner, it’s not without its issues but I just remind myself it’s a 12 year old car and it drives great.

The bodywork is in great condition, and there’s no meaningful rust- just the usual surface rot underneath. Bodywork, paint and rust scare the shit out of me- Mechanical failures I can handle- if I can fix a boiler, I can fix a car (there’s an advert in there somewhere) Even if it’s something I’ve not done it before, if I’ve got a guide I’ll give it a go, it’ll just take me longer than it probably should the first time I do it. There’s no Haynes for the 133, but I found a copy of the official workshop manual online so I’ve got something to go on with procedures/ torque settings etc. which takes a massive amount of the fear away

[nuttinnew]

Meh HVAC.

A2 derv ac didn't work when we got it. It wasn't just a regas, but it got fixed and life in the hot dry weather was good. Now it's wet, dehumidifying is good, but it's warm and the temp flap has decided to get stuck in full heat, maximum burn position. It's remarkable how much heat so quickly a derv can put out when you don't want it to - and, yes, I had turned the aux. heater off (I'll get pics of that another day) - and how quickly it fogs up in a drizzle when you turn the hvac off.

[tim]

Jaguar XJ8 3.2 WillItEverBeFixed Edition - End of Year Report



God bless you, Maurice, for all the wafty goodness you've delivered unto me this year. Ok so the first third of it was spent in a garage with his trousers down, but that's all in the past now. Whilst I had grand designs on slowly restoring Maurice to his former glory, it's pretty apparent that ultimately that's probably not a good use of my spare cash. So this year I've done little more than keep him running whilst continue to overlook relatively minor annoyances.

The a/c is broke, meh. Windows open ok. The heater fan, or one of them, has as a buzz that comes and goes. The annoying rattle that was literally driving me insane went away with one small tweak of a fairly big bolt where the upper dash joins the centre console - praise be for that! He sometimes likes to drink all his battery juice overnight. I've still not figured out what it is that doesn't go to sleep, but it stopped doing it for a good 6 months until the cold weather set in, and then he just needs plugging into the optimate overnight. I don't drive much these days so he can go 4-5 days without being started.

The only serious work required since he came back from the de-rusting, was the replacement of both front shocks and top mounts, and an O2 sensor. I know the rears need doing, at least the shocks anyway, and there's some play in the steering that might need a recon rack, which is quite spendy. It's not bad enough to be a proper issue, so I'm willfully ignoring that for now. I may get the rear shocks done in the next month or two.

The acid test will be the MOT in april. If he requires any major work for that, I think it might be curtains. Which will be a shame. On a good day, there's nothing like it wafting along, and he would be sorely missed.

105,200 miles when I bought it. 115,500 miles on it now. Average mpg around 21-22.

[mik]

God bless you, Maurice, for all the wafty goodness you've delivered unto me this year. Ok so the first third of it was spent in a garage with his trousers down, but that's all in the past now.

That initially confused me as I read Maurice as @Maurice

[Broccers]

Mini had its mot today. The brake light bulb holder needed attention as ns was out. Rectified for 5 pounds by my tuna.

Pass. No advisories. Rare with this car as there is always something wrong

[Ascender]

Nearly 1000 miles over Christmas in the M2 and it didn’t put a foot wrong. Had some fun drives on twisty stuff up north and it really is good fun. Only criticism is that to improve traction in non-dry conditions they’ve clearly mapped it to restrict power and feed it in more gradually than on older M cars. Which is understandable but a bit frustrating as you can find yourself losing momentum if you’re not careful. It’s been fairly predictable in the damp, icy, snowy conditions, but I’m really interested to see how the XDrive system works, especially after a glowing report from evo where it was up against the 911 Turbo and Yaris.

[Gwaredd]

...is all part of the course.

As a fellow Twingo owner (well, it's my daughters car but I maintain it) I feel I should send you into the new year by picking you up on this. It's par for the course, as in golf. I would hate for people to be laughing behind you back over this

Regarding the Twingo, I always understood they were basically a clio in shrink wrap. The RS shares many components with the 172 iirc, so torque figures etc should be easy to locate.

I love the way they drive though. Proper fun. My daughters (the GT) is easily fast enough to keep up with most stuff. I love it. The RS must be a blast!

[mik]

...is all part of the course.

As a fellow Twingo owner (well, it's my daughters car but I maintain it) I feel I should send you into the new year by picking you up on this. It's par for the course, as in golf. I

When people mention misused phrases I always think of think of this one : I was behind “a wee wumman” in a Glasgow city Centre corner shop. She was heading to work early in the morning, but was “reekin o teh drink”. She had a short exchange with the shopkeeper where he said “ach it’s just whit he’d expect though eh?” she replied “aye, it’s just Power Fer The Course”

I have been guilty of being on temderhooks instead of tenterhooks, and I have also described something going down like a damp squib instead of squib.

[tim]

I said "Chanks!" to a waitress once, because my mouth started to say Cheers! but my brain decided Thanks! was more betterer and it overloaded my brain cell.

[integrale_evo]

Bone apple teeth

[Beany]

"Chomping at the bit"

[Sundayjumper]

It's a mute point.

[Mito Man]

The farmer tends to use the phrase “I haven’t heard a dick”. I thought I misheard him the first time but he definitely says that. I have no idea if it’s his own thing or if it’s something he’s just butchered

[240PP]

Not a pronunciation fail but a girl from school on FB said she was going for a ‘santra pay‘ tan.

[McSwede]

Not a pronunciation fail but a girl from school on FB said she was going for a ‘santra pay‘ tan.

She could have been a little more Pacific.