| Jealousy? |
[Nov. 23rd, 2005|08:21 am] |
What is it with some drivers? Why do they need to comment on your driving? Is it jealousy? I've had two in three days.
The first there is a dual-carriageway onto a roundabout it goes from two lanes into one a little way off the roundabout. An artic in the left lane a Honda Accord Estate behind, no one in the right lane. Road is clearly marked that both lanes are straight on. I go to the right but decide not to pass the truck on the roundabout, as the trailer might clip me. On the way off the roundabout the truck runs wide and there is no room for me to overtake. I lay back and look to move in behind. The Accord is there and grudgingly lets me in. I lay a little way back from the truck so as to be able to see. For the next mile or so he is guesturing at me to close up and clapping.
The second was this morning. I come off a roundabout onto a dual carriageway in the right hand lane. I'm behind a van and there is a 4x4 to the left. There is lots of room in front of the 4x4 and I want to be in the left hand lane anyway. I push on the loud pedal and change lanes. At no point was I close to either vehicle or exceed the speed limit. Immediately I get flashing lights and w**ker hand guestures from the guy in the 4x4. I've no idea what I did other than perhaps wake him up from a morning snooze. |
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| How much? |
[Nov. 15th, 2005|03:04 pm] |
Just had the RX-8 serviced for the second time. This was a 25K service, the previous service was done before I bought it, which includes replacement of oil, brake fluid and other stuff. The cost of the service was £167. Compared with my past dealings with Alfa Romeo and their servicing costs it was a bit of a shock. How could it be so cheap? No complaint mind, I just hope it continues. |
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| Oh, that's the DSC light |
[Oct. 21st, 2005|03:50 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | rx-8 | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Come Rain Or Come Shine | ] |
Just replaced the rear tyres with another pair of Bridgestone RE040s. There are reports of tramlining and poor wet weather performance of these in the RX-8 ownersclub forums but I'd rather judge for myself with a decent set of tyres before changing from what Mazda put on. I used Event Tyres. They came in at the same price as My Tyres but that included fitting and balancing at my work. I could have got the club discount from My Tyres but I think that fitting would have been at least that much and this was much less hassle. Oh, for the record the cost was £143 each fitted, so £286 total.
Pulling away from work with the new, cold, rubber on the back and whoops. A little twitch from the back of the car and the DSC light came on. That's the first time I've seen it despite sliding the backend coming off every roundabout I could once I'd decided to buy new tyres. Its nice to see that it works. |
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| Slurp, Slurp |
[Oct. 11th, 2005|04:48 pm] |
More oil needed. Still at about a litre every 2,000 miles or so. Which isn't too bad I guess but does mean I have to keep on top of it. It would be easy to forget to check and run out. I don't know how much this oil has cost yet. They haven't charged me for it, just taken my details, because the computer systems at the garage were down. |
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| Slow updates |
[Sep. 30th, 2005|08:44 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | rx-8 | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Au Pairs - Intact | ] |
What's this, almost a month without anything to report about the car? Can this be true? Yes it can. A month has passed by without anything notable to report. Well other than having to buy another litre of oil and the petrol prices making you cringe. The oil usage seems to be about a litre every couple of thousand miles or so. That's a little more than the 156 but not that much.
[Update] I should really get around to drawing a new picture. I don't have the snarling Alfa ready to empty my wallet anymore so something more appropriate is needed. |
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| Glug, glug |
[Sep. 6th, 2005|01:12 pm] |
No updates for a while. I've been too busy just enjoying driving the RX-8. The oil usage doesn't seem too bad. I've just finished the second litre bottle, half of the first went straight in because it was on minimum when I picked it up. Picked up another litre of Mazda's best for the princely sum of £7.48.
Petrol prices are a bit silly at the moment. There is also quite a fluctuation even staying away from the motorway services. I've seen everything from 91.9p/litre to 96.9p/litre for standard unleaded. I reckon that every penny on a litre costs me around £1/week. That's not a lot all things considered. |
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| Oil Tanker? |
[Aug. 17th, 2005|07:44 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | rx-8 | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Blondie - Look Good In Blue | ] |
Went to the garage yesterday for more oil for the RX-8. Yes I had to top up the oil after I'd filled up with petrol. Someone made a comment about swapping the Alfa for an Oil Tanker. Still at least Mazda tell you that its going to use Oil. Alfa hide that information away and driving enthusiastically can get burn off all the oil between services resulting in an expensive bill.
So that's another £8.58 to add to the running total. |
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| First Post! |
[Aug. 11th, 2005|01:13 pm] |
First purchases for the new car. A set of luxury fitted mats and a litre of oil. So far I've spent £67.50 it will be interesting to see what the running costs are. |
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| Farewell My Lovely |
[Aug. 7th, 2005|01:16 pm] |
Well that's that for the Alfa 156. It has 5 more days of service before being replaced by a nice RX-8. Parked up yesterday I noticed a slight slope in the aspect of the car that wasn't entirely corrected by checking the tire pressures. Looks like the shock absorbers are on their way out. Add to that an audible clunk from the driver's side front when turning with full lock I foresaw more immediate expense. Time to make a move and the local car supermarket place has provided both a replacement vehicle and deal that I can go along with. |
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| Key trouble |
[Aug. 4th, 2005|01:50 pm] |
It had to happen. No sooner do I get my car back than I start to have new problems. So far no re-occurrence of the black smoke, thank goodness, instead the key is being troublesome. Sometimes it opens the car sometimes it doesn't. It looks as though pressing it harder gives better results. I would guess that the switch is on its way out. No way to fix it. The only thing to do is get a new key. Only £150 or so. |
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| Hmmmmm ... Is Black Smoke Good? |
[Aug. 3rd, 2005|09:00 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | alfa | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Eurythmics - Would I Lie To You? | ] |
Whilst out on a spin last night I changed down from 3rd to 2nd approaching a roundabout. Was that a puff of black smoke out of the exhaust? I tried again with the same result. The engine behaved fine for the rest of the evening but the black smoke is a little worrying. Is it just that the car has been sat unused for over a month and there is some rubbish there that needs cleaning out or is it a lurking engine fault? Only time will tell. Having had engine problems once though I think it better to ship it on. |
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| Running Time |
[Aug. 2nd, 2005|11:23 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | alfa | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Veruca Salt - Officially Dead | ] |
Now I've got my car back and have the quotes for the RX-8 the question is what to do? Looking at the Alfa its going to need the 72k service in a month or so. The front drivers side suspension is likely to need doing. Its still on the original shock absorbers, so expect those to go in a little while, and I've still got the original brake discs. I think the best thing is to price up that work on the understanding that they will all fall in the next 6 months and see what the damage will be.
Update: Brakes and 72k service are a little over £300 a piece which is about what the shocks with cost. So in the region of £1200 for those three. The suspension is around the £160 mark. One thing I had forgotten about was the exhaust. Catalytic converters are expensive. Looking at a very expensive bill for that. Oh and I'll need another set of tyres in that time as well. So far we are approaching £3000 without anything unexpected failing. |
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| Deep breaths |
[Aug. 1st, 2005|06:31 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | alfa, car trouble | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  giddy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. | ] |
Well I'm shocked. I got a phone call to say that the work was done. It took a few moments to register what it meant. Then came the demand for money, just shy of £1500, so the meaning became clear. My car was fixed. How could this happen? The computer was still showing partially assigned. It turns out that not one but two parts had arrived on Saturday and that the work was completed today. Its a good job I was sat down when I got the phone call. I'm not sure how I would have managed otherwise.
I'm now driving my car again which feels weird. I had to adjust the seat position, the mirrors, the steering wheel. Hmmmmm .. wasn't I the last person to drive it? Should I have to make all of those changes? The oddest thing though? Relearning the push button gearchange. No having to check for neutral before starting. No having to move the gear lever through the gate. The nice engine sound is there though and a pleasant acceleration. Still called in the Mazda garage and picked up the quotes for the RX-8. Something to ponder over. |
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| More putt putt than zoom zoom |
[Jul. 28th, 2005|01:27 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | car, zoom zoom | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Veruca Salt - Only You Know | ] |
Still no news on the actuator so its looking more and more like September before the Alfa is back on the road. I have got a courtesy car though. I did seem to recall Alfa getting upset at dealers giving out other than Alfas as courtesy cars to their customers. I wonder what they'd think of a Mazda 2? Oh, I remember now, that was only for customers with cars under warranty.
The Mazda 2 is probably a very nice little runabout. It has an eager little engine and a pretty good feel of the road through the steering wheel. The finish is much cheaper than the Mazda 3 I had though and I'm dreading long journeys in it. I forsee a number of stops along the way to unpeel and recover from the ride. That said is it free and, as such, cheaper than hiring. Hiring is looking a good option at the moment though, that or just buying a replacement car and selling the Alfa as soon as its repaired. |
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| Top men |
[Jul. 25th, 2005|04:15 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | alfa, car trouble | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Ultravox - The Man Who Dies Everyday | ] |
Another phone call from the garage. They have top men working on the case now. Its a race against time though. If they can't get a part over here this week then it'll be September. The workers of Torino have a great idea. August is nice and sunny, let's take August off. This doesn't appear to factor into the machinations of Alfa Romeo parts supply though, or if it does its along the lines of "so?".
Still, courtesy car on Thursday if they can't fix mine by then. I'd expect to be driving it for about six weeks after that. So what's that another 4-5,000 miles on the car. That'll make it cheaper to buy secondhand. The question is what sort of car will it be. Its a dealer car not a manufacturer car. The dealer is also a Fiat dealer. I have this suspicion that it'll be a basic Punto or Panda. Not a bad car for tootling around town but not suited for the long journeys I make. Oh well, if it is I'll have to review replacing the Alfa. It would be cheaper to buy something than continue to fork out for hire cars for a month. |
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| Is it contagious? |
[Jul. 22nd, 2005|10:44 am] |
At last! An answer to what partially assigned means. The part has been put into quarantine. Apparently this doesn't mean that it has contracted Asian Bird Flu or Smallpox or the Ebola virus. Instead there may be a quality issue with the batch of parts. Alfa Romeo as investigating this quality issue before allowing the parts to be used. This doesn't sound hopeful in terms of a speedy resolution. |
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| Still partially assigned? |
[Jul. 22nd, 2005|09:41 am] |
No update on the part yesterday. See what happens when you leave the garage alone for a day believing that they are on the case and will get back to you? Nothing, nada, nichts. I guess they've been busy and not had time to look into it. Perhaps they'll sort something out today. Then again, perhaps not. Personally I don't think that I'll get any update until after they supply me with a courtesy car.
Update: The garage called and explained the reason for the lack of call yesterday was that their computer system broke. They also lost phone connectivity for a while. |
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| Isn't Astra a Satellite System? |
[Jul. 21st, 2005|12:55 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | car rental | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Fischer-Z - Ho Ho Ho | ] |
Another week, another hire car. This week a Vauxhall Astra Club that a previous driver backed into something. Lovely scuff marks on the rear. Its safe to drive though and all of the damage is marked on the hire sheet so away we go.
First impressions. Its a much more engaging drive than the Vectra. You are driving it rather than riding atop it. The dials are better than the Vectra too. The rest of the dash is transplanted but doesn't look as bad in the Astra as it did in the larger car. The one real ommission? The AM radio only covers medium wave so no listening to TMS. Now the bad thing. It seems that the stupid positionless stalks are a Vauxhall standard. This is a trimuph of cool over simplicity. I thought that the indicator arrangement was bad enough but the same thing is on the wipers as well. There is no real way to work out what it is set to. Arrgghhhh!!!!!!
Well done Vauxhall, you have reaffirmed my resolve to never buy anything that you make. |
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| Partially assigned |
[Jul. 20th, 2005|12:45 pm] |
More news from the garage. The part is now partially assigned whatever that means. My understanding is that its a sealed unit, a single part. If this is the case how can it be partially assigned? Perhaps I only get it on a time-share basis, every 2nd week and alternating weekends. Or there is some sort of grudge match between the various people competing for the part. Last man standing wins!
Whatever the exact meaning the part has still not been tracked down and there isn't a date for it to be delivered. That means another hire car for this weekend. It will be the last one though, next weekend I'll have a courtesy car. Hurrah! Unless its not something suitable for motorway travel, in which case boo! Only time will tell.
Update: I got a call from the garagage after I'd left work. Still no good news but they had been speaking to people in Italy to try and find out what is going on. They were hopefull for some sort of answer tomorrow, at least to the question as to what partially assigned means. |
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| Something about chickens |
[Jul. 19th, 2005|09:24 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | alfa, bad service | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Tubeway Army - Me? I Disconnect From You | ] |
What is that phrase about not counting your chickens? It could also be applied to spare parts, actuators in fact. The status on the computer has changed from 'Back Ordered' to 'Unit Assigned' but other than that there is no apparent difference. The location of the assigned part cannot be determined nor can its likely arrival at the garage. All optimisim is now quelled pending a date from Alfa Romeo.
If I don't hear anything tomorrow I'm going to have to look at hiring a car again. Do I get something boring for the 240 mile trip home or something fun? |
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