Andy665

The Meguiars APC is very gentle and very cheap, I buy a gallon at a time from http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk, you can use it on virtually any cleaning job, it needs diluting by anything from 4:1 to 10:1 so a gallon lasts for ages

Jim - Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner - great stuff for general cleaning (does everything from headlinings to wheel arch liners), agitated with a soft brush, quick rinse off and Aerospace 303 Vinyl and Rubber spray sprayed onto plastics and hoses and then wiped off - took all of 20 minutes

Picked her up yesterday. Presented really nicely and a good base to work from. Can't believe how comfortable it is and how much "shove" there is in 2nd and 3rd gear - got an almost old school kick in the back when the turbo spools up. Got to be clayed this week and then the polishes and waxes can go on, want to give the leather a good clean and conditioning, even though its already pretty good. Really love the Night Panel switch - one press and it kills the rev counter, temp guage, turbo boost guage, kills the display on the climate control and information display panel and just illuminates the speedo - makes night time driving a lot more relaxing I think she looks pretty clean for a 116,000 miler

I love the wheel but not sure if its too modern looking for a C

I called Avis yesterday to confirm that mine would be delivered as requested this morning. Apparently a load of bookings got transferred from the Renault website to Avis without the customers telephone numbers, Avis were instructed simply to cancel the booking. I called the Avis Customer Services number 0870 6086363 (only open 9-5) and spoke to the lovely Hayley. She apologised and re-booked for next weekend, as a goodwill gesture for the cock-up the car will be delivered next Friday before noon and collected the following Monday

Looks like John gave your "middle box" a quick polish :lol:

Jim - have you got the Fiat 500 brochure yet, requested mine from the Fiat website - one of the best brochures I have ever seen - a real work of art - be warned though - to have the brochure is to want the car :lol:

I spoke to the owner of TCS at the NEC last year, he was the first to admit that he doesn't know a lot about the C apart from the fact that he can make a decent amount of money out of them. I wouldn't expect much in the way of aftersales help from them however it doesn't mean to say I would not buy a car from them. If you know what you're looking for and see a car that ticks the boxes for you and its a decent price then it could be worth a punt

It shouldn't have had just twin pipes, if factory spec it should have had twin pipes either side, not especially big but definitely purposeful. 275bhp from the 4 litre W8 so very unstressed, automatics were constantly breaking their gearboxes apparently Nice used car if you can find one - only sold about 250 in total and most of those were registered as demonstrators and sold on cheaply, after all, would you £35k for a Passat 8-10k will get a good one now

Just checked the offers live from this Thursday - might not be great quality stuff but who's complaining at these prices http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/of ... sday08.htm

Jim - I'm with you on liking the 500 - there is definitlely something very likeable about it, I still like the Panda 100HP more though, thats a car very similar to the old Cinquecento Sporting in execution - however I wouldn't swap it for a C

....can anyone recommend a decent (but cost effective) plastic welding kit, want to give it a whirl on a couple of bits and pieces :lol:

Sonicriot13 - you have PM :lol:

If its gone to Northern Ireland I have a very good idea who it's gone to

Fornutely I do not conduct formal Mystery Shops, I call in on non Volkswagen sites when I have the time to check what they are like, if they are busy with "real" customers I'll leave them to it

I did consider Volvo T5's but they don't seem to wear the miles as well as the Saabs do, a lot of them havefallen into real bargain basement territory - actually found it quite difficult to find a car within my price range, even more so when you factor in that I wanted a manual

I'll check tomorrow. Looks like dropping the sump and cleaning the strainer is a job that I should be able to tackle myself

Have heard about the sump strainer issue and its top of my "to do" list

Well done Jim, once that little lot is fitted you will be beaming As Henry Royce once said "The enjoyment should last long after the cost has been forgotten"

Volkswagen as a network is, in my opinion, a lot better than most other manufacturer networks, I mystery shop circa 50 dealers per year and am always shocked at how bad things are in non Volkswagen sites. The job of a sales executive is not difficult, its about caring about your customers and doing the basics right and it mystifies me why so few sales execs (or Sales Managers, Dealer Principals etc) can't seem to grasp it.

Looks like a very straight example, anyplans for it or is it staying standard

I went to see an immaculate Mondeo ST200 estate that had done 74,000 miles less than the Saab. The thing that swung it for me was when I shut the door on the Mondeo - it kind of "clanged" shut whereas on the Saab it was a really deep thud. Seriously impressed with Saab 9-5's, might not be the best handling cars but the spec, reliability and friendliness of the few Saab specialists I have spoken to has been a real eye-opener. Strange that the most relaible 9-5's tend to be the ones with the 2.3 high output turbo lumps. Frightening to think that of the three cars in the family the Passat with 190bhp is the least powerful. Last point is the insurance, its actually only £20 per year more expensive than the Bora despite being a lot more powerful - £395 fully comp, protected NCDlegal cover etc

I've generally had very good service at Volkswagen parts counters, makes you wonder whether these are the people that should be in the showroom dealing with customers interested in buying a car

Even with the cost of labour in Bangladesh I think its prett amazing that a brand new car can be built for £1300

Current production Ferrari V12's are the 612 Scaglietti (just making the last ones now) and 599GTB. An old boss of mine had a 550 Maranello and was so disappointed wth the quietness of the standard system that he spent 6k on a Koenig six pipe system that sounded totally fantastic. V12 Ferraris of recent years have been criticised for having exhausts that are far too quiet, probably just an excuse to charge customers extra for a decent sounding exhaust