sup dudes been a while, at least it feels like it, the last i remember i was on here i mentioned something about winter tyres on the fronts only and started a spam war. sorry about that. isn't really a thread for me to tag this onto so i thought i'd start a new one, hope you don't mind.
i suppose this is mainly for ppl out there who are thinking of ordering one or considering getting a used one to have an idea what it is like to live with day to day.
mine ticked over 7000 miles today. had it serviced today. was over the 12 months. was very lazy in getting it booked in. what prompted me recently was when i had the bonnet open for adding washer water, i had a look at the engine oil and i pulled out the dipstick and saw the oil was basically BLACK. errrrmmmm. I'm no expert but that's not good right?
so took it in today on a day off work. the stealer is a bit out of town for me but waiting was fine. was a lot less painful than i expected, i just waited an hour in the waiting area, watched a bit of cbeebies on the telly. that had free-wifi apparently but my mobile has a data bolt-on so i didn't need to use it for amusing myself with checking news sites. got a bit bored of that so had a flick through the papers, tried not pooing my pants after reading the Daily Mail and having a little lol at the Fiesta advertised as a "GTi" in the local car ads.
when the car was ready, when i got in the car, strangely the dash was saying the boot was open (
) went to the back, opened the boot and closed it again and dash said everything was closed. then started the car and found the bong with "SERVICE NOW!" still appearing on the screen. Isn't the dealer supposed to turn that off?
went back in and one of the service guys showed me that i can just turn it off with the steering wheel buttons. No moar bongs! w00t.
and the car was washed and even vacuumed inside. w00t. thanks Mr steeler. almost looks brand new again.
i do have to admit as sad as this may sound, i do regret slightly getting it. it's more to do with the price of fuel rocketing up, i think it is quite expensive for a guy to run a car like this. time has flown by really and if i knew price of unleaded would hit £1.40 or so a litre, i would have defo kept my old car. having said that i think cost of car ownership has gone up for all cars anyway, even insurance is stupid. foolishly forgotten to use the trick of adding parents as named drivers, i'll do it when i next renew. if i ever change the car it's probably going to be a smaller car with a more efficient engine.
but having said that, every time i get behind the wheel i think yep this is the car to start the day in! i think it's still the best all round car out there. i'm pleased i got it. it's just every car rolled into one.
i have got some nice nods from people saying it's a nice car. all guys though. No girls damn it! i can't remember whether i've said this on here before, but the most amusing comment was when i was at a KFC drive through and the dude asked me "is that a Mazda?" i'm like "wut? no! i didn't go on the waiting list for a million months for a mazda! now gimme my chicken!"
i believe i've been fortunate in that i've not had any major problems to contend with. engine seems fine. electronics seem fine. had the problem in the winter with the drivers door jammed shut, had to do the ungentlemanly crawl over for a bit, but that was fixed under warranty.
some things that really annoy me about the car though:
> automatic wiper - the 4 'settings' are all useless. it just seems to have a mind of its own. i leave it on the most sensitive setting but it seems to just randomly decide to wipe when it wants to. it only really works when it's raining properly. then when it stops raining, the wipers will stop, but i forget to turn it off at the stalk so every now and again in the dry it will wipe and i look a pleb. i'd just have the typical intermittent setting given the choice.
> turning on cool fan - in the really early hours i might need a bit of heating driving to work so i have it on say 20 to warm up the inside a bit. finish work, the heating of course still stays on 20 but it's roasting outside so i open the windows a bit and instictively roll down the knob anti-clockwise to "LO" and then the fan which i normally have on 2 bars just comes on full blast and just drowns the sound of the inside! why do you do this?! so i have to press down on the fan until it goes onto 2 bar. one of these days the down fan button will break the number of times i've pressed it.
one of my tyres had a slow puncture a few months back. was very difficult to tell on the 18 inch wheels. the car didn't even feel like it had a puncture when driving it. it was a good thing when i noticed it was a short journey cos the tyre was quite warm when touched. turned out to be a nail in the middle. a £7.50 repair at the local tyre shop (phew no need for a brand new Potenza!) i do now look more closely at the tyres now and i got a cheap little tyre pressure gauge thing from argos that i keep in the glovebox.
can you believe the local garage the air machine charges 50p a time??? wut??! 50p for damned bit of air
so yeah very pleased with the car. and amazingly still no speeding tickets, at least yet. i did get flashed by a front speed camera the other day though :-/ doing about 45 or something in a 30 at 2:30am on an empty road... no ticket yet.... the engine just picks up revs like kids stealing smarties.
oh, when i parked it up at the beginning of the afternoon, the forecourt has very little space, the only space i could find was behind this 4x4 car (sorry i have no idea what car it is! :-( ) but i was thinking cos it was on a little hill, i hope that 4x4 has the handbrake on, i dont want it to crash into my pride and joy! :-(
sorry if that was long winded. tell me off if you wanna. i'll go and cry over the petrol receipts.
