My new mowtah

[Doggy]

or an old 406. Light blue estates are proper classy, IMHO

[Welly]

Sorry to see that happen mate you must be pissed off, I know I would be. Get the dent man out, that one looks like it'd come out ok.

Maybe you've gotta park e v e n f u r t h e r away from the other cars. I think modern motors panels are very thin and dent easy like this (all for weight saving and environment blah).

Last week I parked in IKEA in a nice little corner and then on the way to the passenger lift spotted the mother-of-all parking spots and I had to have it........pretended to have left my wallet in the car......ran back and shifted the motor proto....tucked it away in a no-one can get near mega space!....got some funny comments from her indoors when we got back to the car later though sometimes I can't relax if I suspect my car could get biffed in a Car Park.

[steve_earwig]

The first time I took the D9 shopping I parked it miles away from anything else. No chance of any trolley dings, no slamming doors open onto it. Half an hour later I came back to it and it was surrounded by builder's vans I even took a pic:


I'm afraid that's the way it goes, unless you never take your pride and joy anywhere you have to put up with other people's stupidity.

That's the beauty of the yoyo, I park it anywhere because I simply don't give a toss what happens to it. It does get damaged but it's more a chance for amusement than the heartbreak I'd have if I actually cared. I guess that's why I'll never bother to fix it because then I'd care.

[DaiRees]

New boots! Since I put the summer wheels back on they've been really annoying me. Noisy and uncomfortable and I'm sure that at least one of them had gone out of shape and was causing noise, oh and the were balding too

So I did plenty of research looking at noise and comfort ratings as well as the usual performance and cost stuff and these seemed to be the best tyres to suit my requirements.



£115 a corner from my friendly local tyre shop, so my wallet is in shock after shelling out for a full set but it could have been so much worse, quite easy to spend 200 quid a corner in this size.

What a difference! So much quieter than the Pirellis, it's like having another new car.

[Welly]

Nice choice! the Vredestein's get very good reviews, especially in the wet I think. Have you had the 4-wheel alignment done? your car would have settled a bit on its mountings and may need a tweak.

[DaiRees]

No I haven't. See what you're saying though, might have to find someone I trust to have a look at that...

[Welly]

I've seen loads of very new motors with weird tyre wear and it's the alignment where all the bushes and stuff have found there resting place. You really need somewhere with a Hunters machine.

£50 is well worth it to save wearing those expensive boots. Did you examine the tyres that had worn? was it even or more on the shoulders?

[DaiRees]

They were very evenly worn actually, a little more in the middle than the edges indicating a bit of over inflation but the inner and outer edges were very even.

Tell you what did annoy me a bit though, 3 out of the 4 had foreign bodies in them, 2 screws and a nail to be exact. Guess that's the result of working in a building that houses lots of other small businesses including a carpentry company and an engineering workshop.

[Welly]

Tell you what did annoy me a bit though, 3 out of the 4 had foreign bodies in them, 2 screws and a nail to be exact. Guess that's the result of working in a building that houses lots of other small businesses including a carpentry company and an engineering workshop.

That's terrible, I'd hate that

[DaiRees]

I haz been to the main stealers.

A couple of months ago I was driving to work one day when I stopped in traffic behind a bus, thought "that bus is ticking over loudly if I can hear it from here". Later in the journey I stopped by a lorry and thought "that lorry sounds exactly like the bus from earlier". Then I arrived at the office, parked up and thought... "oh buggah!". It was idling louder and with a different tone than previously, like a rattle. Only there at idle, went away as soon as I raised the revs a bit. Clutch in or out didn't matter, and once I knew what I was listening for I could even hear if when tricking along in gear in traffic and I let the revs drop right down.

The other thing that's been bugging me is that it has one of these "Volvo On Call" systems where you can press a button and talk to a nice lady to ask her directions to the nearest curry house etc... I spoke to them once. Ever. The day I set it up! Since my original, free 2 year subscription expired back in October I've been getting an "On Call Deactivated" message on the dash along with a yellow warning light every time I start the car, you then have to press the "read" button to clear it, every time. A minor annoyance yes, but an annoyance nonetheless. Having searched the Volvo forums there were several similar occurrences, some reporting that it would go away on it's own after a couple of weeks (it didn't), others saying it'd be there forever.

Eventually got round to taking it in to the dealer last week and it turns out that the noise was caused by a freewheeling auxiliary belt pulley on the alternator, that had stopped freewheeling . The helpful man also reported that he's able to activate the "security only" part of the On Call service for free, thus removing the error message.

So it's been back to the dealer this morning and had those jobs done, no more noisy idle and no more annoying message. Hadn't realised just how noisy it had become, it's like a new car!

No charge for either the pulley or the "On Call" job under warranty but it did cost me £50 shopping in Abergavenny while I was waiting for it, oops!

[Welly]

Daft thing is how many used 1.6D's are out there with the same problem but people think the noise is 'normal'.

My experience of the Volvo Dealers has always been good when I used them for the first 3 years. 'Peter' would turn up at my Office in a shirt & tie and take/return my car for a service and they'd put any removed filters/spark plugs in a clean bag in the footwell to 'show' me what had been replaced. I've got 15 used spark plugs in my tool cupboard

Have you had these annoying warnings yet? : You open a rear door before you get in the drivers seat and it warns you that whoever went in the back didn't put their belt on and the 'Milk' warning: 4 pints of milk on the passenger seat the weight of which makes the car think someone's sitting there without a seat belt on the amount of times I've had to 'strap' milk in is stupid

[DaiRees]

Have you had these annoying warnings yet? : You open a rear door before you get in the drivers seat and it warns you that whoever went in the back didn't put their belt on and the 'Milk' warning: 4 pints of milk on the passenger seat the weight of which makes the car think someone's sitting there without a seat belt on the amount of times I've had to 'strap' milk in is stupid

Yes, you seem to have a lower tolerance for this stuff than me though...

You'd hate my car Welters, I've got lane departure warning (audible alarm), collision alert (bright flashing lights acting as a HUD and, optional audible alarm), Distance warning (dim lights in the HUD if it thinks you're a bit close to the car in front, getting brighter as you get closer... how bright will it go?? ), BLIS blind spot lights (orange lights by the mirrors if there's something in the blind spot - that one gets really confused by the solid concrete wall alongside the outside lane of the A470 and brings up a message saying "BLIS System service required" or "BLIS blocked - consult dealer"), City Safety, sometimes accompanied by the collision alert (likes to bring up a message saying "City Safety Auto Braking Activated" as you try to reattach your own neck, I wouldn't mind but it usually happens if I arrive home enthusiastically and I'm parking in my own drive behind the wife's car... I wasn't going to hit it FFS!!).

When being Dad's taxi I often encounter the following scenario:
Me: "Come on Iwan, you're going to be late for Karate!!!"
Iwan: "Coming..."
Me: "I'll be in the car".
so I get in the car and start it up... (The car doesn't actually talk but let's pretend it does, it'll be funnier. They're actually messages on the screen )
Car: "DRIVe on"
Car: "On Call Deactivated" (at least that ones gone now!)
then here comes Iwan...
Car: "Left rear door open"
Car: "No rear seatbelts used"
Car: "Left rear seatbelt used" (good boy!)
then as we arrive at karate and Iwan takes his seatbelt off a nanosecond before the car comes to a halt...
Car: "BING BING BING, no rear seatbelts used"
Car: "Left rear door open"
Car: "No rear seatbelts used"
Me: "I f*cking know, there's no-one in the back now!!!!"

Then we do it all again in a slightly different order an hour later

Don't know what you mean about the milk though, I put the milk on the floor, not having it on my leather

The wife often puts stuff on the passenger seat in her car, being a teacher she carries lots of books and files and stuff, so her car often bings and flashes to say there's someone there when there isn't. She won't move the stuff or belt it in though, she just ignores the noise . Drives the kids nuts

[Rolebama]

Those talking ones drive me mad too. Years ago we had a works hack with a dodgy voicebox. First time I drove it, it told me that there was no oil pressure. (Just off Marble Arch in heavy traffic.) It lasted till I managed to pull over without causing major hold-up, and I phoned in. Was told it always does that. Wasn't overly keen on keeping on driving until it followed up with seatbelt not secure, water level low, engine over temperature, doors open and I think everything in it's repertoire. I felt a bit better about driving on then, but decided I'd never buy a car with a voicebox.

[Welly]

Blimey Dai that's a load of features, the older I get though I lean towards simplicity I really really do not 'get' gadgets and new technology, I have no interest at all, I'm far more interested in people.

[steve_earwig]

Oh. My. God. I think if I drove that I'd soon be re-enacting that scene in 2001:A Space Odyssey where Dave Bowman quietly dismantles HAL's brain after it locks him out in space.

I'm afraid.
I'm afraid, Dave.
Dave, my mind is going.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
My mind is going.
There is no question about it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I can feel it.
I'm a... fraid.