I've had my new car for 700 miles and 15 days now. Yesterday a passenger who should know better managed to grind-in a large portion of her Kit-Kat into the front passenger seat. Before getting a chance to get over it, and to top it today, I graunched an alloy wheel against the kerb when my attention was distracted.
Guys, the car is no longer new! Time for another.
PS Any tips on removal of chocolate from car seats?
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Guys, the car is no longer new! Time for another. PS Any tips on removal of chocolate from car seats?
Ah, I can sense Mapmaker waiting in the wings.....
My advise to you would be to pick up the yellow pages and ring a couple of car valeters, explaining the problem. You can get the Alloy refurbed for about £30 too if you are so minded.
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Ah, I can sense Mapmaker waiting in the wings.....
So can I!
You can get the Alloy refurbed for about £30 too if you are so minded.
At the moment my thought is to put on the spare (a full size alloy which matches) and try and forget all about it. But then what if I damage the new one?
The week started badly enough with HJ crowing on and on and on about the new A4 and now this. Fuel consumption not fanastic either yet either. I think it was Avant who said it would take while for the 1.9Tdi engine to loosen up.
If someone kindly lets me know how to put on a long post here I'll get around to detailing some more of the "new car experience". Most good - some not so.
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If someone kindly lets me know how to put on a long post here .......
Compose it at your leisure on your word processing software and leave this file open, then when you are ready to post simply Edit~Copy~Edit~Paste. Then delete the word processing file.
Blimey, me giving advice on computer techniques! This must be a first!
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Fuel consumption will get better. Had my A4 Avant since January and have done 8k miles and was also disappointed at first. Now it is always in the high 40s/low 50s which, given the heavy right foot I have, I am very happy with. Average since I bought it is creeping up and is now 47.1mpg. Most of the mileage is made up of my 15 mile commute to work on a-roads and 30 zones.
Agree chocolate on the seats is a pain - specially with the black upholstery. Do like the dual zone climate control though - I like to cook in the car but SWMBO likes it cold. Never reached a compromise before.
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Alas, I was so disappointed with every last thing about the A4 diesel quattro that I inherited from my predecessor that it has now gone back. As a long standing Audi customer it really seemed to be a huge retrograde step over earlier models. Audi have loaned me an A3 Sporthatch pro temps and the same build quality issues seem to be present there too. Ho hum... and it is not very nice to drive either.
Good way to get chocolate out of seats is to get some dry cleaning fluid or what used to be called carbon tetrachloride and "freeze" it off. But make sure you are in a well vented area and test on an inconspicuous area first.
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>> Guys, the car is no longer new! Time for another. >> >> PS Any tips on removal of chocolate from car seats? My advise to you would be to pick up the yellow pages and ring a couple of car valeters,
Surprised you didn't mention to try window cleaner? Or didn't it work on your seats?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=23211
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Surprised you didn't mention to try window cleaner? Or didn't it work on your seats? www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=23211
It worked fine, but I was prepared to take the risk. On a brand new car I would have gone with the valet approach and then got the seat scotchguarded.
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Sorry to hear about your alloy wheel, I managed to last 3 years before grinding one and I was as mad as hell (at me 'cos it was my fault!)
Chocolate on seat, I let our dog lick it all off, it did seem to remove the chocolate but there may be exess slobber to mop up after... :-(
Regards,
John R @ Work :¬)
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It happens-my now nearly new Corolla has two lovely door-dents from twits in car parks who insist on using my car as a door stop when they exit the vehicle. Grrrrrrrrr....
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My sympathy DE. I managed to mark the new BMW's alloys within 24 hours - is that a record?
As regards the chocolate, how about a fire extinguisher?!
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There are different ways of looking at this. My father had a friend who tried to keep his car new, taking excessive care about everything and worrying about any other vehicle manoeuvring in its vicinity. After about 5,000 miles he was getting fed up. Finally, one night after he had had one or two (this was pre-war) he got out, gave a wing a good kick, and said "Now I shan't worry any more".
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Chocolate on seat, I let our dog lick it all off, it did seem to remove the chocolate but there may be exess slobber to mop up after... :-(
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Off topic: Whilst the amount here is small so unlikely to be a problem, can I remind everyone that chocolate is poisonous to dogs.
www.vetheart.com/choc.html
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www.tipking.com/Laundry_and_Stains/Stains/A_to_Z_o...l
I have also found that spray on carpet cleaner (1001 I think) is good for this sort of thing
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Adds a whole new dimension to the saying
'He's such a misery, he complains his Kitkat is covered in chocolate'.
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Sincere commiserations.
Our V70 has a pathetic turning circle - the only aspect of design that I don't like - and when it was just a couple of weeks old, I too graunched a kerb having run out of room: Turning right in to narrow main road during rush hour. Traffic to the left and right let me out, but as soon as I was committed, the traffic to the right closed the door behind me. Nothing to do but to keep going... :-(
Chocolate: One of SWMBO's Pals who never seems to stop grazing ground chocolate in to her 306's fabric seats over a period of weeks before I noticed. I remove it by softening gently with a hair dryer, and then spraying on Halfords Upholstery Cleaner. I left the cleaner until the foam subsided, and then gently teased the remainer with a tooth brush dipped in warm water and washing up liquid. Having done this, I then wetted the area with clean water, and soaked up with kitchen paper.
Result?
Not a spot left behind.
My wife dropped some chocolate on the V70's leather faced seats, which cleaned off very easily with Autoglym Rubber & Vinyl Care. Simply wiped off.
HTH
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My kids were always grinding chocolate into my sierra seats, the best answer was luke warm water, other solutions left a stain mark. Blood that comes out well with cold water, sick is another matter you never get rid of it, no not even with £200 worth of solutions from halfords.
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Can I just mention at this stage that I hope you never offer me a lift?
;o)
No Dosh - Backroom Moderator
mailto:moderators@honestjohn.co.uk
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My Corolla Verso is two weeks old now.
The day we picked it up, I was convinced I had scraped one of my wheels just getting out of the dealers car park! Fortunately the noise was the engine testing itself (which it does every morning
with a kind of worrying crunching noise - the manual says don't
panic)
So, now I've got to the exit and decide I should crunch into
second gear because I've already damaged one of the wheels!!
I'm really trying not to worry about such things, as I know
more WILL happen sooner or later :-o (and I've got a little one
in the front with me every day who REALLY likes kicking
the centre console from his baby seat!)
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Fortunately the noise was the engine testing itself (which it does every morning
More likely it's the ABS system, rather than the engine making that noise.
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This is partly why I will always save several thousand pounds and buy nearly new, becuase within a month, its nearly new anyway :p
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I always go through nail-biting agonies when parking or manoeuvring my brand new car. Every inch of its pristine exterior and interior is obsessively checked for the slightest mark. Hours of needless valeting and repolishing are carried out.
The comes the inevitable: the first ding. The anguish and the pain..... then after a while the trauma recedes and a great sense of liberation descends. When the next ding comes, oh well must get that fixed when I have time, no worries....
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In my much poorer and crueller youth, I used to derive great satisfaction from spotting the first dented brand new car after dawn on 1st August.
Now I'm older and wiser and respond with "ouch......"
My sympathies to you, Dulwich Estate!
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Thank you all for the sympathy, understanding and chocolate removal tips.
Given time I'll try to do a full write up of the new car experience now that I know how to paste it in.
Here's one of the points I'll get around to moaning about: It took 10 minutes of white spirit rubbing (no good, so used meths in the end) to clean off the glue from the dealer sticker spread over 3 heated rear window elements - Grrrrrr!
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My kids are always getting chocolate on the seats. Not as bad as you may think to remove! Scrape the worst off and vacuum away, then use warm soapy water to dab off the rest with a clean lint free cloth. If there's still a mark, use something like Screwfix Upholstery Cleaner (fab product!) or Vanish Carpet/Upholstery cleaner. It should come up like new.
Baz
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