Be Excellent To Each Other

I realise now how stupid that comment was

And I don't think he's that bothered about what people say to him about his car buying, no-one is being horrible or offensive. Besides, it's his money, and if the worse he gets off his wife is a look and raised eyebrows when he turns up with a different 3-door every few months, then he's got it pretty made!

I reckon I spend more in Boots in year than he loses on cars so whatever

I have felt this too (only slightly, as it is generally good natured ribbing). I don't know Hearthly but I suspect he loves it really.



*snort* yeah, or maybe he can just ride a unicorn to work

Hearthly should approach it like building a PC. Simply buy all the best bits he likes from all his favourite cars and stick them together. Probably save a lot of money too.

FTFY

Spent ages scraping ice off the windscreen this morning, then decided to top up the washers. Opened the bonnet, poured the pink goo down, then tried to close the bonnet. It didn't shut. After much banging, pulling levers and cables, and covering the mechanisms with WD40, I eventually gave up and got the train to work. If the engine's still there this evening I'll sort out a repair. Too busy today to deal with it.

That's unusual. Hope you can get it sorted out tonight.

It's frustrating because it's a really simple thing. Not like a wheel's fallen off or the roof's missing or anything. And had I not decided to top the sprays up I probably wouldn't have noticed the problem and let the MOT people deal with it when I put the car in on Friday. Gah. I empathised with Basil Fawlty this morning but didn't have a tree nearby.

Is it fully up* or just not closing properly?


*

Just not closing. Stuck in that raised bit you get when you pull the release lever from the car normally. I think the cable's slack.

I saw a Kia Stinger out in the wild today, a white one, heading in the opposite direction as I was driving through town.

Looked quite nice, smart, but maybe a bit too sensible and lacked the 'awww yeah' response that I have when I see a Mustang, or a Focus RS, or even something (relatively more) common like an HSV R8.

Hearthly, yesterday.

Hearthly - rather than buying a car from your local dealership, offer to actually buy your local dealership. You'd save a fortune in the long run!

I'm not taking offence at any of it, I just read is as good-natured piss-taking. It's a running joke with the people at work.

Took the M135i out for a decent drive at lunch, they just gave me the key and let me crack on so I went up to Windy Corner on the mountain and back. It is the absolute base spec model, no options on it all, not even rear parking sensors. That said it's still reasonably well equipped, I didn't think it was missing anything in particular.

It's stupidly fast but a lot more comfortable than the Type-R, once I'd got the seat and steering wheel as I wanted them I found it a pretty pleasant driving experience in COMFORT. SPORT and SPORT+ are quite racy though.

The rear seats are OK, with the driver's seat as I wanted it (I'm 5ft11), I could sit behind it, albeit it was rather 'snug', but Mrs Hearthly is a few inches shorter than me. Ingress and egress was fine as the doors are long.

Overall I felt it was a car I could live with day-to-day, but it's fun to drive and fast, and it has four usable seats plus a decent boot.

Two sticking points are he's only offering £14500 for the Leon and I want at least £15000, and more significantly he couldn't find the service history details. Not only that but the display flashed up 'SERVICE' when I turned it on, having gone through the various menus I found that it's been wanting an oil service since last September.

The chap at work who has his E60 M5 in the Mondial Warranty programme says I need to make absolutely sure it's got a fully documented BMW main dealer service history, with the details logged on BMW's backend systems, otherwise they won't accept it into Mondial - so this could be a deal breaker.

The dealer is investigating and has said he'll get back to me.

That's not my stuff in the passenger footwell, the chap is using the car as his daily driver.

That'd be enough to put me off, to be honest. Unless it's barely moved since September.

It's not a full-fat M car but that doesn't mean servicing is any less important on it.

Which it has, as the dealer is using it as a daily driver.

I doubt it's done that many miles since Sept at least they haven't just cancelled the warning light. Like I would have done.

Yeah I know, it's just not the sort of car that you'd be ignoring a SERVICE light on for the best part of six months.

And it's not like you can miss it either, there's a loud bong when you turn the ignition on, it flashes up SERVICE in the instrument cluster display, and keeps an exclamation mark there permanently.

I'd definitely need to be 100% sure I could get the car enrolled in Mondial before signing any bits of paper.

Just gone back to look at your original post. The bolster on that driver's seat looks like it's seen a lot more than 30,000 miles...

Hearthly's Dealer, yesterday

My Merc tells me exactly how many days I'm overdue a service. 89 so far.

Yeah this is all starting to sound very fishy mate. “Can’t find service docs”.... really? And what sort of dealer just leaves all his shit in the passenger footwell when handing over the keys for a test drive..?
I’d say walk. Plenty more fish in the sea.

Not that he hasn't drove.

Just checked Autotrader, it’s chock full of really nice M135is for £15k with FSH and loads of options, 30-40k miles

There's precedent for this. As far as I know, all modern (2013+ I imagine) BMWs (and doubtless other manufacturers) store all of their service history on the car's computer. I don't have a service book for the 5GT, it's all in the vehicle status section on the iDrive.

So, if the dealer isn't aware of that, it's possible he doesn't realise that there are no service docs to find.

Doesn't excuse not having a service done since September though.

Ah ok, sorry I didn’t realise that. Still old school stamped up books with mine.

Yeah just had a scan myself, for the same money as they're asking I can get one of the same year and miles (or less miles), but loaded with pretty much every option.

Also, there's a 5 door variant so I wouldn't have to face THE MRS HEARTHLY BOSS due to a 3 door car arriving outside the house.

TBH the fact that the one I looked at today is 5 months behind on an oil service is enough to put me off, you don't deny a car with this sort of performance something as basic as an oil change. Plus it might well nobble it for the Mondial warranty, as the car knows it's needed a service for 5 months and will inform BMW of the fact when they plug it in.

You can also see the service history in the Autotrader advert that GazChap is talking about.

The epace is terribly uncomfortable even on motorways, I'm assured.

Fewer.

Yeah, that looks a much safer bet, Hearthly. Very nice car, full BMW service history and some choice options as a nice bonus. Gotta love red leather too, right?

Is that the Jag E pace? I thought they were supposed to be dead good likes

What I'll probably do is go through the BMW dealer here, they'll be able to get me one out of their network so it'll be totally legit, and be eligible for the Mondial warranty as well.

It was a scorchingly good car to drive (it's actually faster than the Type-R.....), but it makes sense to get the right one, with the right spec.

Shush, you.

Yeah deffo.
It’s always going to be quicker (and much better to drive) than “normal” hot hatches with only 4 cylinders and 2 litres to play with, and fwd/awd (crappy haldex). This is a proper piece of kit; stonking great 3 litre straight six, with rear drive and hence uncorrupted steering and proper driving dynamics, it’s the real deal; the true enthusiasts choice.

I absolutely love these, awesome cars.

Yeah. Helen did her Brum commute in it today and despite a lot of tyre and messing with modes she didn't like the ride quality at all, even just trundling through motorway roadworks at 50.

Compared to an mx5!

I think it's too far towards trying to be sporty for its weight and her requirements. Maybe the disco will be better balanced for her tastes, we'll see when they drop it off tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, I'm twatting the epace down country lanes and fast a roads tomorrow because it's my turn!

E pace or f pace?

I preferred the f pace drive to the disco sport but not to justify the price premium. Also even with the reversing camera, Ali couldn’t deal with the rear window of the f pace. On the flip side I knew I wouldn’t be able to deal with getting the disco and knowing I had a poor mans fpace.

So I got the Mercedes instead.

Epace. The full disco is the fpace equivalent, disco sport and epace are the smaller ones.

I think Helen's basically decided she wants the Kodiaq, she's asked me to see if I can get an extended test drive after we hand the disco sport back so she can do a more apples to apples.

By coincidence my work related driving tomorrow maps exactly onto the Skoda test route, I'm on a training course at the hotel we switched drivers in the car park of!

In the nicest possible way, surely it’s got to be the Jag over a Skoda?

Because it's a Jag but isn't as comfortable?

Getting the right car > badge snobbery, imo.

Yeah, most definitely.

Hmm. I freely admit for me it would be the Jag even if it had 3 wheels. That’s stupid on my part by my own admission but there we are.

Kern: the bonnet not shutting thing happened to me once (well, the mechanic sorting out whatever the latest woe was).

He said look under the lever you pulled to release the bonnet as the cable was probably kinked, preventing the pull lever from going all the way back to the original position and not giving enough slack all the way up to the catch on the bonnet.

That's pretty bonkers.

That’s how I roll

Will give that a try, thanks.

It's a Jag in the same way a diesel Cayenne is a Porsche though.

Chinese car over European greatness?

Noticed a fair few of my vacuum hoses were looking worn when I changed my coolant. Only £10 for a length that will do them all so that's on my things to do list. Agonising now over orange, red or lime.

Ordered my Jaguar badges too. An easy 12 BHP there.