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Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Well, the courtesy car problem has now been sorted...after much stamping up and down on the spot and flailing arms in a manic psychotic episode the hire company Enterprise were authorised to lend us a 'like for like' vehicle, after asking us if it was a 'requirement' that we have another estate i said that a large saloon car would be fine, after filling in endless amounts of paperwork i was given the keys to a nice new Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 SRI.
After using the car to do a 130 mile round trip to Chester this evening i have to say that first impressions are very favourable. Although the car does not have the looks to compete with the ZT-T the interior space, finish and performance are more than a match.
The dash mounted screen giving info like fuel range is a nice touch, as is the anti-glare rear view mirror that adjusts the amount of glare according to light levels.
The interior feels larger than the ZT-T as well to the point that i had to move the seat forward to feel comfortable on the pedals...almost unheard of for me.
The engine feels more responsive than my ZT-T's lazy V6 but i did miss that roar. On paper i believe the two cars are pretty much identical in performance but found myself slightly less confident of the handling as its more softly sprung than the MG..although the wife thought the ride excellent.
All in all i like this car very much, good performance, comfortable ride thats ideal for the wife and child, roomy interior, better fuel economy and has that 'easy to drive quality', what i mean by that is that you jump in the drivers seat, you turn the key and it takes you about 5 mins to feel comfortable with the clutch/accelerator, driving position, switchgear ect..a contrast to this would be my mates Stuarts Coupe that he lent me the other day, the poor driving position, the poor switchgear layout, the horrendous clutch/accelerator setup and the generally uncomfortable driver feeling meant that it took me well over 3/4 hours to get used to it.
My overall opinion is that, should i decide to get rid of the MG at a later date and choose to own a more ordinary looking car, i would definitely consider this model Vectra (less power than this model would just be pointless)......of course, the up and coming 240bhp Astra turbo would also be considered 
Posted by Mark @ 01:24 AM GMT
Monday, January 24, 2005
Just a quick update on the whole car thing....
The police have admitted responsibility for the accident (or they did when they spoke to my wife) and an estimator acting on behalf of the police insurance firm has been out this morning to look at the car and they have agreed in principal to repairs to and replacements of NS 1/4, rear bumper, 2 alloy wheels, 1 tyre, 1 suspension arm, boot lid, NS rear light cluster, OS front door..this work is expected to take approx 2-4 weeks depending on approval and parts availability and likely to cost in the region of 2K.
We have still not heard anything as far as courtesy car is concerned but my kind friend Stuart has lent me his Hyundai Coupe while he is away for a few days....which was nice of him
I managed to take some pictures the other day but as they are on my SLR and i have a bit of film to use up on it i don't have them available for display, i will try and get the film finished and developed in the next couple of days and stick them up on the site.
Posted by Mark @ 04:06 PM GMT
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Felt compelled to make a post even though generally i can't be arsed..so here's a story....
One bright morning a young lady known as Flick finished her work at her nightclub, locked up and proceeded to her lovely Anthracite Black MG ZT-T (the apple of her husbands eye) to find that the car had magically disappeared.
Concerned that some inconsiderate moron had decided to take her MG for an impromptu test drive she phoned the police to report it stolen.
Moments later she was contacted by the police who informed her that the car had actually, under their instruction, been removed from its legally parked location to a pound 'for safety reasons'.
The car was apparently causing an obstruction and was deemed unsafe to drive.....possibly because at about 3am that morning whilst responding to a 'ruckus' in Walkabout a police driver of limited vision, intelligence and driving ability saw fit to reverse into the back of the MG...
There's not really a morale to this story but is does seem to confirm that most people, when given a uniform and a response vehicle seem to think that they then become endowed with F1 style driving skill when in fact 90% of them can't drive for toffee...i mean...fucking reversing into a parked car in a parking bay in a small street!!!
The police have accepted that they are at fault (to bloody right) and have taken our insurance details and are apparently 'dealing' with the matter but today after i got home from jury service i got on the blower to my insurance company to 'fill them in' on what has happened.
The damage (i've not seen it yet) is apparently to the left rear quarter, the rear bumper..which fell off and the wheel, hence the unsafe to drive comment.
I have made it clear i want the car repaired at my MG dealership and i shall be making it clear to the MG dealership that i know the difference between a good paint job and a bad one and will not sign the car off unless it looks like a factory finish (going back to the days when i was a QC Inspector for Honda)
Posted by Mark @ 09:06 PM GMT
Saturday, January 1, 2005
First post of 2005 to wish you all a Happy New Year, for those of you with really shit will power that you have to make new year resolutions that you know you are destined to fail..good luck
Posted by Mark @ 12:12 AM GMT
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