OV9

2008 Mustang GT also recently passed it's MOT with flying colours. Not even a whiff of an advisory.

Which I'm actually chuffed about. It's a pretty high mile car that has not been pampered, and I've not spent much on it at all in the past 3 years under our ownership. Just fluid changes, tyres, and ball joints.

Research tells me that the old 4.6 modular is a dependable lump that can take abuse. That seems right to me. Sounds absolutely awesome with it's SLP Loudmouth exhaust

I know everyone says American cars are shit, but I don't care. The Mustang is great fun.

2016 Mini F55 also passed it's MOT with no advisories. Brilliant little car that does the daily duties with no stress. Short trips/long trips/dump runs.. whatever. It's a very competent all rounder. My only snag is it's so long geared that trundling around traffic in first can be a bit tricky. And I hate reverse being next to 1st. I've gone backwards instead of forwards a couple of times

V8Granite wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 11:59 am Flying colours should always be a super pass, not a regular pass or a scraped through pass.

Maybe MOTs should be given grades.

The whole point was that they aren't given grades so there is no super pass.

Although I am reminded of my ex-stepson's super fail; who knew there were so many categories of fail?


That car did a get a pass 3 weeks later with a mere 7 advisories.

Collected the Caterham.
£700 for just oil and filter
Returning car in a dirtier state to customer having driven it through puddles
Priceless.


Still, that’s the last service it needs under warranty and once that expires it can be mapped.

Also just noticed uploading this picture, fucking bonnet isn’t on quite right as it’s crushing the air filter intake.
Cirque de Caterham.

Mito Man wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 2:21 pm Collected the Caterham.
£700 for just oil and filter
Returning car in a dirtier state to customer having driven it through puddles
Priceless.


Still, that’s the last service it needs under warranty and once that expires it can be mapped.

Also just noticed uploading this picture, fucking bonnet isn’t on quite right as it’s crushing the air filter intake.
Cirque de Caterham.

Dealers these days are fucking clowns - almost without exception.

Mito Man wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 2:21 pm Collected the Caterham.
£700 for just oil and filter
Returning car in a dirtier state to customer having driven it through puddles
Priceless.

Also just noticed uploading this picture, fucking bonnet isn’t on quite right as it’s crushing the air filter intake.
Cirque de Caterham.

(yet somehow not . ).

£700 on those notoriously-tricky-to-service Caterhams? And they didn't even clean it?

We gave it a quick wash an hour ago - they must have been doing bodywork/sanding on another car nearby as the interior was coated in thick dust
And you know how people usually joke that dealers must charge extortionate prices to pay for that shiny showroom, the coffee making facilities and pretty receptionist.
Well they can’t even use that excuse as they had 0 out of 3 above
(And I’m not being mean to the receptionist as they didn’t have one either!)

Driving across town this evening, the bm started chirping like circadas, which soon progressed into a squeal when off the throttle. I thought it might be a belt slipping so opened the bonnet and saw that it had spat the belt off.

I took off some of the covers and moved the fan to discover that it had also spat half the crank pulley onto the undertray. Fortunately it's just the bit that drives the ac compressor. I'll get it to the garage and get all the belts and tensioners changed at the same time.

I just had the tensioner and aux belts replaced on my Mondeo as it was starting to chirp. Then I had the front dampers and top mounts replaced as one of the dampers had burst, and an alignment. Then a set of new Toyo Proxes. Basically I've spent what I paid for it all over again in the space of a month.

Finally it's driving like a new car again, lovely old job for 183,000 miles. Literally a day later the PAS pump went, so that's being done on Monday.

Enough now!

IanF wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:52 pm I’ve been test driving a few cars and my daughter’s suggestion is I try a Panamera, sort of a middle ground between big SUV and sports car.. maybe that would work for you and is probably one of the few cars you haven’t actually owned as yet. The estate is a good looking car, and even comes with a V8

So you weren't smitten with the RR either ?

V8 Panamera estate sounds lovely but you're overestimating my wealth quite considerably Cheapest one on Autotrader is £48k. I was planning <£20k but...

...we've had a sudden shake-up at work this week and my new boss works in London. Looks like I'll be needing to go to Whitehall once a week. So instead of an 80 mile drive each way to Corsham, I've probably got 5 miles to Farnborough and then a train into London. Cheap-as-chips-don't-care-about-leaving-it-at-the-station is likely to be the next purchase. Sadly.

Have you considered a smart?

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2024 10:43 pm

IanF wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:52 pm I’ve been test driving a few cars and my daughter’s suggestion is I try a Panamera. The estate is a good looking car, and even comes with a V8

V8 Panamera estate sounds lovely

Panamera estate pulls off that mad “trick” of looking pretty good in pictures, but massively better/more purposeful in the flesh. Would love one.

As mentioned elsewhere - Mrs mik’s E-tron was back at the dealership to fix the SOS system that started sheiking at me on the way home from collecting the car following the front electric motor replacement.

As the SOS system still worked (ie pressing the button connected me to the Audi SOS Phoneline) cynical mik suspected that the tech had possibly failed to plug back in the connector for the sensor that makes the phonecall for you should you and provides your location should you be incapacitated.

It turned out that wasn’t the case - the aerial (or Aireal according to the worksheet) behind the rear bumper had failed and was replaced in record time.

Which was pretty positive for the dealership, as presumably they could then bill their time to Audi. (I assume any tech error would conversely need to be covered by the dealership, so good that wasn’t the case after all).


All working again, so customer experience is +ve.

integrale_evo wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2024 11:51 pm Have you considered a smart?

I know. Funny how things work out isn't it ??

I'm not seeing anything that's really grabbing me atm. I'll see how things go. If I can wangle it to be fortnightly (or less) visits then I'll just use the Cayenne.

Speaking of which, the stop-leak goo hasn't fixed the suspension problem, but it has made it far less frequent. A small win. Offset by the fact one of the rear lines has now sprung a very obvious leak and is leaving a puddle on the floor. D'oh.

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2024 10:43 pm

IanF wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:52 pm I’ve been test driving a few cars and my daughter’s suggestion is I try a Panamera, sort of a middle ground between big SUV and sports car.. maybe that would work for you and is probably one of the few cars you haven’t actually owned as yet. The estate is a good looking car, and even comes with a V8

So you weren't smitten with the RR either ?

V8 Panamera estate sounds lovely but you're overestimating my wealth quite considerably Cheapest one on Autotrader is £48k. I was planning <£20k but...

...we've had a sudden shake-up at work this week and my new boss works in London. Looks like I'll be needing to go to Whitehall once a week. So instead of an 80 mile drive each way to Corsham, I've probably got 5 miles to Farnborough and then a train into London. Cheap-as-chips-don't-care-about-leaving-it-at-the-station is likely to be the next purchase. Sadly.

More a lack of supply issue; I think the model I want is actually still on lease with the first owner, or petrol-hybrid. Them ofcourse the inevitable evonomics and the fact that the new shape doesn’t seem to be holding value well, means the new one is affordable, but not whilst they are depreciating that quickly!

I was thinking of an Aston Cygnet for parking in Windsor (Parents friend has one from new, maintained, always garaged and they are looking to downsize house wise so it my need to go..), and so had a look at the iQ, which as it’s wider than the Smart, may fit you better?.. Anyway, mate has just moved and first day there, there’s a fvcking purple iQ parked outside, covered in spider webs, mess inside but no manor damage obvious.. problem is, I didn’t like it! Hoping it was just the colour

The Smart is actually fine for me size-wise. A tiny bit tight on headroom maybe, e.g. I need to duck down a bit to see traffic lights when I'm close to them, but general driving is fine. They're good little cars.

Mito Man wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 8:09 pm We gave it a quick wash an hour ago - they must have been doing bodywork/sanding on another car nearby as the interior was coated in thick dust
And you know how people usually joke that dealers must charge extortionate prices to pay for that shiny showroom, the coffee making facilities and pretty receptionist.
Well they can’t even use that excuse as they had 0 out of 3 above
(And I’m not being mean to the receptionist as they didn’t have one either!)

Jesus it'd be cheaper for him to get it transported to me for a service, I lalready look after another 620r for a local guy.

I've got an awesome coffee machine too.

The best Caterham specialist around here charges £360+VAT and do spark plugs too… And they’re much easier to get to as not within the congested M25!
https://www.pgmsussex.com/prices

mik wrote: Sun Jun 30, 2024 12:25 am the SOS system that started sheiking at me

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2024 10:43 pm

IanF wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:52 pm I’ve been test driving a few cars and my daughter’s suggestion is I try a Panamera, sort of a middle ground between big SUV and sports car.. maybe that would work for you and is probably one of the few cars you haven’t actually owned as yet. The estate is a good looking car, and even comes with a V8

So you weren't smitten with the RR either ?

V8 Panamera estate sounds lovely but you're overestimating my wealth quite considerably Cheapest one on Autotrader is £48k. I was planning <£20k but...

...we've had a sudden shake-up at work this week and my new boss works in London. Looks like I'll be needing to go to Whitehall once a week. So instead of an 80 mile drive each way to Corsham, I've probably got 5 miles to Farnborough and then a train into London. Cheap-as-chips-don't-care-about-leaving-it-at-the-station is likely to be the next purchase. Sadly.

you'd really buy another car to drive 5 miles every week or two?