Spent a couple of hours with Chris last week end doing an oil change and a general bit of a check over for the winter and all seems pretty well. The Lexia showed a plethora of old faults in the ABS but that was all, and when they were cleared nothing reappeared.
Apart from the M5 hydraulic incident, my only disappointment this year has been that I couldn't afford to get the bit of paint work done that would make it into a "real" beauty. I was quoted £250 for the nose cone and the door tops on both sides, which I think was a pretty fair price, but I decided that a new cam belt etc was a better investment this year - and then it needed an exhaust. And tyres. Oh well, next year maybe.
I did have a drive of Chris's Xantia HDI Exclusive Estate which I had been looking forward to, and while I think it is a cracking car in every other respect, I found the pedals very close together and myself rather clumsy. I know my XM is an auto, but two of our other cars are manuals so I am quite used to switching - strange.
I'm really pleased with the new (ish
) Clio, it is getting used to being used after a long lay off and seems the better for it. A first fuel consumption check shows it to be doing about 33mpg, which isn't fantastic compared to the C4 diesel, but I am developing a soft spot for it, which I haven't for the C4.
As an aside, a mate of mine who retired about the same time as me but has done well with his investments has spent about two years looking for a "fun" car. After a million false starts, he has bought an Audi TT for about 13k at about five years old. I think he will LOVE it, butI can't help thinking how many interesting cars I might have been able to buy, sell and enjoy for about ten years or more on that kind of spend. My starting point might be a BX GTI
and an XM 24 valve, or maybe a ....
....auto...ummmmm