Your fleet running reports

[DeskJockey]

They asked if there were any "while you're there jobs", but the garage said no.

[16vCento]

I've had this Tucson for about 2 and a bit months now I think, it does some things better than the Kuga, and some things worse.

Seats are about on a par, maybe a bit wider, equally comfortable either way. The stereo is dogshit compares to the B&O in the Kuga, lacks volume and Bass. The HVAC controls and system are much better, AC and fan speeds are much better controlled on auto.

From a standing start it's surprising quick, I'd say it's about 6ish seconds to 60, apparently these later AWD PHEV ones are about 280hp, certainly feels a lot quicker than the Kuga.

It's shite on fuel, and has a tiny useable capacity of it's fuel tank, from allegedly 0 miles remaining I can get 37 litres in the tank

It then does an absolute maximum of 370 miles off of that fuel.

Suspension much better comfort wise than the Kuga, handles as well as an SUV should I suppose, early days but it's not bad.

Think if I could have a Kuga with the Tucson suspension and power I'd be happy.

[KiwiDave]

After over 2.5 months at the dealer, the Corolla is home. I saw the paper trail in the job folder - roughly a ream of paper thick of emails back and forth between the dealer, Toyota NZ and Toyota Japan. Between the last call and collecting it, they'd gone from ordering the brake control unit (some module up behind the instrument cluster linked to the ECU) to conducting more tests and deciding it was the brake assembly control unit. These things sound the same to me, but apparently one is passenger side of the bulkhead and required all of the dash of the car apart, and the other sits next to the mechanicals of the brake booster in the engine bay.

So in the time they had it, they swapped the 12v battery after giving it a 'carbon pile load test' whatever that is and it failing. Apparently the first time the dealer had ever done that test. Pulled the car apart several times. Ultimately ended up swapping the brake assembly control unit and some gaskets and other consumables. Zero cost to us of course with it being under warranty. Takes second spot for longest ever visit to the dealer (the largest Toyota dealer in NZ, and Toyota being the top selling brand.) Apparently the winner was a Lexus there for nine months(!) No further details were offered.

[jamcg]

Did they provide you with a courtesy car for that timeframe?

[Jobbo]

Blimey, makes my 7 weeks for air-con warranty repair seem short.

[JonMad]

Not me but a neighbour who used to have a Jag XE has made what I think is a brave purchase (I daren't ask him how brave he thinks it is, in case he's been living in blissful ignorance of their reputation as a ticking time bomb). Jag I-Pace. He's very happy with 400bhp and 0-60 in 4.5s. Paid £16k for it on a 70 plate. Was £85k new!

[16vCento]

70 plate is pre updates, I hope he got the Jaguar extended warranty.

Pretty sure in the US they've started buying back all the 20MY ones now

[Beany]

Sidebar, in very brief a carbon pile load tester is basically just a box with a fuckton of adjustable heavy duty resistors and some guages, so that you can do a real multi hundred amp draw on it to see how much the voltage drops. Basically the standard for deciding if a battery is fuckered out or not. If it can't handle, say (pulling a value out of the air) 200A on a carbon pile tester without dropping to 8v or rapidly heating up etc then chances of being able to start a car are slim. It's basically a proper 'hit it with a hammer, see if it breaks' test.

Handheld testers measure internal resistance, which is a sign of wear/capacity but not a real-world test. So they infer health, whereas a carbon pile load tester actually proves health.

[KiwiDave]

Did they provide you with a courtesy car for that timeframe?

Not originally, but after week three, I thought they better had. Was supplied a same era non-hybrid Corolla. Base spec. Still incredibly well screwed together at 118,000 km of loan car use, but I was very surprised at how less smooth and refined it was over our ZR Hybrid. Something about that calibration (be it the top of the line trim spec, or the hybrid integration) which makes the driving experience so much smoother and calm.

The loan car did cost me a few biking trips (no tow-bar for the bike rack) and we did get a few polite but WTF messages from them regarding parking fines. Turns out the parking validation for the ferry terminal carpark the Mrs uses wasn't working. The dealer goes through a full paperwork process making a statutory claim they're not liable for the bill each time. I think they were as happy as anyone to get the loan car back. The loaners are in HIGH demand during servicing etc at the dealership, generally to make sure you get one at all you need to book your service a long way out. Being one car down in their fleet for months must have been giving their customer team a headache.

Sidebar, in very brief a carbon pile load tester is basically just a box with a fuckton of adjustable heavy duty resistors and some guages, so that you can do a real multi hundred amp draw on it to see how much the voltage drops. Basically the standard for deciding if a battery is fuckered out or not. If it can't handle, say (pulling a value out of the air) 200A on a carbon pile tester without dropping to 8v or rapidly heating up etc then chances of being able to start a car are slim. It's basically a proper 'hit it with a hammer, see if it breaks' test.

Handheld testers measure internal resistance, which is a sign of wear/capacity but not a real-world test. So they infer health, whereas a carbon pile load tester actually proves health.

Excellent nerdery.


Now the Corolla is sorted, the 86 goes in. It's a few months overdue a service but seeing as it gets pretty limited use I'm not too bothered. Its aircon is fucked though. Dropped out once before and they regassed it with some dye in it to check for leaks if it happened again. It will be interesting to see what they find as when it stopped working, it worked one day, then not the next. Then worked again and repeated the cycle a few times. Felt to me more like an iffy switch than the system breaking but who knows...