Deep breath, fleet update time, my VSX 'Goldie' had been SORN'd for a few months so it appears that in protest she decided to threw some toys out the pram by way of the nearside front ABS sensor declaring a fault then a couple of weeks later the windscreen suddenly developed a mighty great crack whilst parked. After fitting a new sensor I ordered a replacement windscreen and had the most delightful chap turn up to fit it who was extremely complimentary about 'Goldie' and spent more time perfecting/tiding up his work than he did actually removing and fitting the replacement screen. Next on the agenda was an MOT which she duly passed without issue revealing that over the past 18 months she'd done 500 miles with most of that being done during a honeymoon trip to Devon, I re-taxed her yesterday so I can now enjoy the pleasure of taking her for the occasional drive and best of all I've now got her tucked up in a nice dry heated garage just as winter approaches, in fact she's rather familiar with this particular garage,,,
Dawn's BMW had a timely illumination of a the brake pad wear warning light last week, both her and I believed that the MOT on her car was due much later in the year but as it turns out the present one expires on Tuesday
Interestingly genuine BMW and one or two manufacturers of disc's for this car offer them with a plated coating which apparently prevents the disc rusting and offer guarantees between 2-4 years, having a nose around various forums suggests that this plating does indeed do as is claimed. Time will now tell me first hand about the effectiveness of the plating on these disc's as I fitted a new set (and pads) this afternoon, MOT is booked in for 9am on Sunday.
For some time now I've been on the lookout for a C5 Exclusive Tourer and having owned just about every version of Xantia since 1995 (not to mention suffering a degree of pressure from SWMBO for something more modern) I felt it was time for an update, I preferably wanted a 3.0 V6 or a 160 HDi manual (2.0 auto's are far too juicy = 10mpg less), finding a 3.0 is like rocking horse poo especially as I decided I had to have the three optional extra's of a panoramic glass roof, built-in Satnav and full leather seats, I did spot a 3.0 with these options oop norf whilst I was busy working on the Olympics but other than that the cupboard was bare then a couple of weeks ago a 2.2 with the above three options plus Xenon headlights and 19" alloys became available at a price that was too good to miss so I took the plunge and bought it.
So far I'm very pleased indeed with the car and if anything what's taken me by surprise is just how impressed I am with it, very quiet, the ride is very smooth and floaty and it has more toys to play with than I could ever imagine
It took me a whole week of searching through the handbook and internet to discover that the switch just to the left of the steering column turns the 'ambient dashboard lighting' on and off
put a hand into a door pocket and it automatically illuminates. The Satnav works very well so far, quite often these very expensive factory fit Satnavs are a pile of poo with tiny screens and are hard to program as they do not recognise full postcodes.
At some point I'd like to get the alloys refurbished as the face design is diamond cut with lacquer which is inevitably lifting due to corrosion. Tyres (245/40R19) are ahem somewhat expensive @ £220+ each but contrary to popular belief don't appear to have a detrimental effect upon ride quality as the suspension absorbs those annoying corrugations in the road surface very well indeed.
It's been interesting comparing the C5 with a Xantia, interior size is pretty much identical with the Xantia maybe having a very slight advantage in the boot size and maybe rear seat space but here I'm talking of about 1/2" no more, the non moving drivers airbag appeared strange for the first couple of drives where it felt confusing turning the steering wheel with the centre remaining stationary in my peripheral vision, the benefits of having the numerous control buttons remaining in the same place during turns makes for a pleasant change. The panoramic sunroof is simply wonderful making the car very bright and airy, pretty much an essential item for the car in my books as like all modern cars where their crash protection is significantly higher than older cars they can become rather dark and dingy due to their high waistlines if you don't have a glass roof of some sort.
The downside to buying the C5 is that it means that I have to sell one of my present fleet due to lack of parking space not to mention the cost of taxing and insuring all these cars especially as my daughter has recently passed her test aged 17, it costs more to insure her C3 than all the others put together. Sadly for me the car I have to move on is my HDi, whilst I'd love to keep her being realistic there'd be little point in buying the C5 if I continued to drive the HDi. This car for me is like sitting in your favourite armchair, very comfortable and dirt cheap to run as it never does less than 50 mpg (by comparison doing local drives the C5 is averaging 42.7 ATM) and is as reliable and loyal as my dog Barney. After regretting selling my previous HDi Exclusive estate I needed to make sure I was happy to let this one go as it must be just about the last one left in good condition with sensible mileage of 73k, the chances of finding another like it must be nil so I was just getting to the point of realsing that I'm completely happy with the C5 when Chris contacted me stating that he was interested in buying the car. Thankfully with Chris buying it I know that it's going to a very good home and will be looked after, I spent a fair bit of time and money getting this car up to scratch when I bought it so it would have rather broken my heart to see the car being abused in some way.
Other than servicing such as oils and filters the only thing I've needed to purchase recently was a new set of wipers, I was in Costco when I noticed some Goodyear flat blade wipers at a reasonable price so I thought I'd give them a try, what a result, one thing that's always annoyed me about Xantia's is that when the drivers wiper starts it return sweep it always makes a noise as the blade flicks over and sounds a thump on the screen, fitting these blades has stopped that annoying noise, I've tried Bosch, Valeo and other make standard/traditional blades but they all made that same noise. With that in mind I later bought another blade for the rear wiper of the estate and found that it wiped for the full length of the blade even at the top of the screen unlike the Bosch blade on there previously, these new wipers are highly recommended.
One other development is that I've taken on a full time job
whilst I've had a great time driving new Rollers around Europe that work is rather sporadic and my embarrassment levels were being breached on a daily basis with Dawn going off to work at all hours of the day and night, leaving me sitting there clicking the TV remote in one hand with a beer in the other as she set off working a three shift system was more than my embarrassment tolerance levels could suffer
This new job isn't too stressful and appears custom made for me
Now if I can get Dawn to retire then I'll be off like a shot, retirement is highly recommended, anyone who says they get bored being retired needs their head tested for traces of brain activity.
After spending two hours walking around the site and talking to what must have been every (clueless) security guard I eventually managed to find someone who had been briefed, I kid you not the standard of knowledge amongst the G4S security staff is beyond a joke. Thankfully the airport style screening into the Olympic venue itself is being done by the Army and RAF which came as a great relief as it meant that at last I found a group of people who actually knew what they were doing. 
