Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm sure you'll get the kids vote in your campaign.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that he was the main culprit.

Ooooh, good idea. We can gang up on her.

He also blamed tree sap.

FREE TYRES!

As daft as it might sound I really rather like the car. On paper the stats are awful ('returned to dealer fifteen times in four months') but in reality the only serious issue I've had with the car is the limp mode problem, which required the valve body control unit being ordered from Germany and being fitted by the island's Merc specialist, and would have cost me comfortably north of £1000 to get sorted if I'd have had to pay for it. (And led to the car being off the road for a couple of weeks, but I was given a Jazz-tastic courtesy car for the duration.)

Other than that it's just been niggles really, principally with the Parktronic which is stubbornly refusing to let itself be fixed, and the Dension aftermarket audio gizmo which it turned out in the end had just been wired in wrong and was corrected at no extra expense to myself.

Important to remember though that the car hasn't cost me anything beyond the original purchase price and the extra on top I paid for the Dension plus installation.

I think I'll be in it for at least another year yet, not least because I've just put £375 of tax on it, and I'm determined to see this ongoing issue with the Parktronic seen out to completion.

For the money I paid it's an awful lot of really nice car, and it emphatically ticks one of major boxes for me which is really good speakers for maximum music enjoyment, add in the 250GB hard drive plugged into the Dension and that alone would be irritating to replicate in a different car.

I suppose the one thing I would like is a CLS that had the Harmon Kardon speaker upgrade, but the factory-fit amp and speakers in mine are still pretty damn good.

How many days has it been off the road though? Surely that's annoying and more than a niggle.

I'm finding it very hard to approach anything resembling actual annoyance with it though. Admittedly the limp mode problem was a genuine worry early on and I wasn't sure which side of the fence the dealer would fall on with being prepared to do what it took to get the car sorted, but (a) He got the fault diagnosed and fixed professionally and (b) Gave me a courtesy car for all the time the Merc was off the road.

Once that was out of the way (and the dealer had shown he wasn't going to try and fob me off), it's not been an issue really. As the guy owns two dealerships on the island for everything else I've just dropped the car off at his dealership in the morning that's close to my place of work, and they've then done whatever needs to be done and taken it to wherever it needs to go, and they have it back there for me to collect after work - it's no hassle. The people themselves are all perfectly nice too, there have been no cross words or anything like that, it's all been done in a friendly and amicable manner.

On top of all that of course, in terms of first world problems this must be right up there, 'Oh no the daft big ten year old Merc I bought isn't quite right, woe is me!' - the fact I even have such a 'problem' at all makes me realise I'm in really a rather fortunate and privileged position to start with, and I'm sure it'll get there in the end. It's kind of like a mission in a videogame - 'QUEST - Take this ten year old Mercedes CLS 320 and make it 100% operational within six months of taking ownership - REWARD Get to pay £375 per year road tax for it.'

Oops

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tesla-driver- ... 58879.html

Ooohh yes I meant to put that in the driverless cars thread, I'll stick a link in there now.

Interesting that they've stated the car was unable to differentiate between the trailer and the bright sky, but not cited anything at all that states that as a cause.

Exciting Rover Update!

Battery flat after sitting for 10 days!

Accidentally paid for someone else fuel yesterday.

Saving me approximately £6!

But did someone else pay for yours?

I'M ON THE RUN!!!

Someone drove into my car overnight while it was parked. Doesn't appear too bad, but have dented the door, broken the light cover in the wing mirror and gouged the area under the fuel cap. Bastards.

Anyway, can I claim on insurance for this? I have fully comp and protected no claims, but I have no evidence that this wasn't just me driving badly.

Yeah you can claim no probs Bobby, but sadly will likely affect you no claims & you'll need to pay any excess.

Bastards, had this done to me in the past, too. Infuriating.

What is annoying is I parked in a place and was about two inches further from the kerb than I usually park, but thought, nah it'll be fine. Bugger.

Car or bike?

I've got just over a year to go on the Leaf lease, and I've started looking longingly at V10 M6s...

If it was a car, it wasn't moving very quickly.

Can't same I'm surprised, Gaz. Good for you.

@Bobby - bike I'd hazard a guess, but it looks well weird. I can't fathom what actually happened here.

Gah, that's a pisser, Bobby

Very strange mark... maybe a bike thats hit then gone over against your car?

Eco warrior!

Not exactly a like-for-like change. Does your Celica not give you the thrills you need?

Hardly drive it these days, it's so low down that it hurts my back getting in and out of it a lot of the time, and the suspension is more designed for track use which is a shame.

And, you know, inline-4 versus howling V10...

I almost certainly won't actually get an M6 though, I'm just looking longingly at them. I'm well aware of what the last V10s did to my financial stability

Not tempted by the new M2?

Nah. Maybe in a few years when they've depreciated a bit more.

If I was in the market for a big ol' bruiser, I'd get a V8 Mustang (then trick it up further).
I accept that's a vastly less sophisticated beast (but is less than half the price when new), but that's all part of the appeal for me. A bit like a four-wheeled Harley.

All a matter of personal taste of course, but the M5 and M6 are to my eyes just so damn fugly.

I'd love a Mustang.

My next car mate, I'm finished with Porsche and all their bullshit. Plus, £60k with options, for the new Cayman with some 4cyl putt putt? See ya!

That's a better example of capitalism at work. Who needs a Mustang?

You should buy this.

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C750979

Wants and needs I said, bellend

Then you said something about cleaning toilets for dinner.

If you're talking about the 2015 RHD model, you want to put your name down for that ASAP, there's one hell of a waiting list.

Yep, when I went on my aborted visit to lease the Fiesta the salesman said someone who ordered on day 1 got his 9 months after the initial delivery date. I can't even imagine what the waiting list is like now.

Drool. Even though I know I shouldn't love those and what pieces of rattly horrid saggy things they are I still do. I blame Burt Reynolds !

Judging by the number of supercars I have seen so far today, it must be Eid. The soft top Maserati looked lovely.

Ecotricity (the company that install, maintain and provide rapid chargers for EVs at motorway services around the UK) have made the decision to start charging people to use their rapid chargers.

£5 for a 20 minute charge.

That's going to kill the EV adoption rate in this country stone dead. It doesn't matter how many kWh you get out of the charger in that 20 minutes, you still get charged £5. Doesn't matter if you only need a quick top up so stop charging after 5-10 minutes, you still get charged £5.

20 minutes on one of their chargers gets me about 40-50 miles in my LEAF (less during winter when the battery is colder) which suddenly makes everything a lot more expensive.

I don't really use my LEAF for longer trips any more, so it won't affect me too much, but lots of people rely on them. I doubt any of them would be bothered about having to pay something, but that's a terrible way of doing it.

Why were they previously offering it for free though? Presumably it costs them money to install and maintain the things.

£5 for 50 miles is 10p a mile. That's pretty much a decent diesel car, isn't it?

It was free previously to encourage uptake of EV ownership, and by all accounts it worked.

No-one expected it to stay free forever of course, but I imagine most people hoped that any charges that were eventually levied would still keep EVs an attractive prospect rather than, as MaliA points out, bringing it back in line with diesel and fuel-efficient petrols.

They're also saying that if you use them for your home energy supply, you can use the rapid chargers for free. This raises interesting questions, as the installation of the chargers was heavily subsidised by the Government and EU (and Nissan/Renault)...

So they've stuffed their pockets with subsidies to install the chargers, and have now decided to start stuffing their pockets with more cash for people to use them?

This is the kind of thing I'd expect to be subject to contracts and user service agreements.

After getting all the stuff for 4 people for 5 days into the Subarururururhbarb's 339 litre boot, and covering it with the luggage cover (might buy a dog guard to get it to roof) MrsA has said that a bigger boot isn't really needed. Thus no new second hand car for a while.

So, I am stuck with the Rover. Which, after an overnight 0.6 amp charge has worked fine (save exhaust) albeit with my pulling fuse out of stereo circuit when parked and replacing once engine is running. I am getting to quite like it.

I suppose the upside is money not spent.

Just looked at Subaru Legacy estates.

They've made it onto my possible next car list. The 2009 model 2.0 diesels are 146bhp, 0-60mph 8.5seconds, £180 tax 48.7mpg and 4x4.

Just get another 100k out of my Leon and save up for one.

This was one of the more entertaining cars at the Chateau Impney hill climb today.
A 42 litre engine from a PT boat, doing 1.5 Gallons per mile.