Knobs and knockers

I bought a new car yesterday evening. I mean new new. Pensions mean I have an income. Pensions mean I can get finance.

The registration letter has just flipped over from K to L and my new SEAT Arona has an L registration. There can only be about 23,382 cars in front of mine in Spain with that registration letter. So far I haven't seen another on the road.

I parked the Mini outside the dealer and drove away without saying goodbye after nearly 220,000 kilometres or around 137,000 miles together. The SEAT had just 10kms on the clock. They'd put a red cover over it. As though there would be champagne and stuff. It wasn't like that. I sat in the drivers seat whilst Juan Carlos tapped the screen where the radio should be to tell me that this activates the automatic parking and that is the on/off for the mirror blind spot warning and so on. He wanted to know what colour I wanted the ambient lighting! I remember my mum being dead pleased that her Ford Prefect had a heater and rubber mats - it's a long way from there to mood lighting in the doors. At least the Arona still has some things I understand like the steering wheel and a normal six speed gear arrangement. It even has a handbrake lever and not just a switch. I suspect there will be hours of fun trying to work out the park assist, lane deviation warning and even how to work the music system

I drove it home stopping off at Lidl to buy some brandy. It seemed fine, a bit sluggish maybe, the car, not the brandy. Maggie came out of the house to wave us home.

Taking their revenge

I'm sitting in a shopping centre drinking coffee. If I'm lucky I have another seven hours to kill. If I'm unlucky I will have to get Maggie to come and get me. The car is in dry dock, with the BMW dealer. It has an intermittent misfire.

I have a great service contract on the car. I paid about 320€ maybe three years ago and for that I get the usual services at no extra cost.

It looks as though the it needs new brake pads said the service receptionist. 220€ said the receptionist. Finding an intermittent fault can be a sod said the receptionist. I can't tell you how much it will be until we know the problem. My Barclaycard trembled. You'll have to pay for the diagnostic test even if we don't find anything said the receptionist. I argued. My Barclaycard quaked. It may take more than today said the receptionist. I threw myself on his mercy. I can't walk home to Culebrón from here - about 45 km - please try.

So, here I am drinking coffee in the air conditioned shopping centre fearing the worst. Expecting a whopping  bill. But I suppose I've done pretty well out of the Mini service plan for the last few years.

Time for them to take their revenge!

And they did!

I'm home now. The total cost was 565€. They've not only changed the rear pads but the rear discs as well. The engine problem was some tube which was part of the valve set up. I think that it was a backpressure sensor if that makes sense. Anyway from my translation of his description in Spanish it seems that the misalignment of this sensor allowed diesel to flow directly into the exhaust system which may have sooted up the catalytic converter so that it may need regeneration. I bet that comes dead cheap. Oh, and as a little bonus he added that the gearbox sounded noisy and maybe that needs checking. The gearbox, good grief the car's only 95,000 kms old, a bit under 60,000 miles. Nearly new.