I’m mobile again.
On Saturday I picked up the new car. There are a few niggly problems with it; at twelve years old there are bound to be a few. There’s a bit of rust on the bottom of the tailgate; not too much of a problem, easily sorted.
The fuel gauge doesn’t work properly. I didn’t notice on the test drive as it was showing just under a quarter full and didn’t alter. When I picked it up it was still about the same level, so I thought there’d be enough to get home. After 5 miles the warning light came on, so I pulled into the next petrol station and put a couple of gallons in. The gauge seemed ok so off I went. After 10 miles or so the warning light came on again, a tad annoying. I knew there was plenty of fuel to get home, so I continued until I got to Morrison’s, where I filled up. The gauge now showed a healthy full! We used the car that day a few times and the gauge would show either full or completely empty! On my way home from picking the car up I called into my local garage and booked the car in for a service and general look at, so the gauge can be dealt with then.
The other problem was that the rear washer doesn’t work. I had noticed this at the test drive. The motor’s ok so I asked them to look at it. Needless to say this wasn’t dealt with. Yesterday I took the covers off and removed the washer pipe where it entered the wiper unit. The water came through ok, so it looks like there’s a blockage in the unit. I tried poking out the holes with a pin to no avail. I have tried spraying the pipe work and holes with a grime and lime cleaner, but this appears to have had little effect. Ho hum, another thing for the garage to look at, it’ll probably clear by blowing with compressed air.
These are the only problems that I’ve found with the car, so far. The engine sounds good and goes like stink! It’s good to be able to accelerate again; the Peugeot was crap but this really moves. It is a 5 speed auto box and the kick down is fantastic. The interior is good, hardly any wear apart from the mat on the driver’s side. Not bad for a car that’s done over 185,000 miles. All the specs for this model reckon it does a combined 46 mpg, so it’s similar to the Peugeot.
Most importantly my golf clubs and trolley fit perfectly. A marvellous conveyance for a gentleman golfer! Actually the most important thing is that Michelle’s crates fit in, so I tried that, and with a bit of fiddling got them all in with space to spare. This means I should be able to get all her kit in the car without taking up part of the back seat.
There will need to be a couple of additions when I have the money. I’m not sure whether to fit my old Parrot Bluetooth device or go for an all singing and dancing stereo with Bluetooth and MP3 capability. I might go for digital too.
The other thing is to fit reversing sensors. Our last Merc was very easy to park and manoeuvre and this is the same, but there is a towbar so sensors would help; you just have to position them slightly away from the towbar. I’m not sure if the electrics work on it as I haven’t plugged anything in.
The weather forecast for the next few days is horrible so it looks like golfie is out this week. Actually I don’t think I believe it as the BBC forecast for round here today suggests it should be raining by now and we should have had cloud cover all day. It’s been very nice with lots of sunny periods; it’s sunny now as I write this so the BBC is making things up again, as usual. No doubt they’ll say everything was as they predicted.
This weekend we’re going to a book launch in Herefordshire so no golf then. Phil Rickman has released a new book so we’re off on Sunday morning; we’re staying 2 nights in a pub so should be good fun. We can’t go on Saturday as Michelle is working, but more importantly Pompey are at home to Cardiff so I’ll be going to that. We’ve just re-signed Benjani and a Norwegian international forward, Erik Huseklepp, who has impressed after only 6 minutes against Bristol City on Saturday. This should be a good game, and hopefully finish with 3 points to Pompey.
I’m not sure which car to take; I suppose it’ll depend on how the Merc does at the garage. It does seem that every time we get a new car we go away for a few days and this one is no exception. Normally we get the car then decide to go away in it, this time we actually booked some time ago, so maybe that’s why we now have a new car.
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