Took one step closer to ordering my towbar. Sadly, the shipping costs are half as much again as the towbar itself. With luck, I'll have it here for the school holidays... well, the week I'm taking off to be with my daughter (hand me that spanner please luv )

Took a bootful of bamboo cuttings to the local recycling centre yesterday in my Mk3, which seemed somehow appropriate

Darned near ran out of fuel. Circumstances made it hard to stop. The final dot had been on for longer than was comfortable... and it dropped through those last dots faster than I was happy with, sort of a 'you're getting low' to 'you're in trouble' in rather too short time.

When I could get fuel, she took 34.5L in the 37L tank, so although she wasn't about to stop dead, she wasn't far off it (assuming it actually does take 37, and the pickup is usually off the bottom a bit anyway).

One question, does that final light go off before it actually stops? Or is that last light all you get?

You mean that final blip on the gauge was still illuminated? You could have gone another 20 miles at least with no blips showing, I reckon! I usually ignore the low fuel warnings until I've only got one blip showing, and several times I've driven another 10-15 miles with no blips. Mind you, I know where all the fuel stations are on my usual routes, and their opening hours, so that's not as daft as it seems.

Does anyone else find the fuel gauge infuriatingly difficult to read? I'm getting used to it now, after nearly a year, but it's quite hard to tell at a glance whether you've still got one blip illuminated or not, because of the surrounding illuminated graphic, which to the uninitiated makes it look like you still have one blip to go even when you don't. Crazy, pointless, thoughtless design.

Edit - isn't the tank capacity 35 litres? If it took 34.5 litres, you were nearly running on fumes. Mine would have been showing no blips on the gauge at that point.

gar074 said:

You mean that final blip on the gauge was still illuminated? You could have gone another 20 miles at least with no blips showing, I reckon. I usually ignore the low fuel warnings until I've only got one blip showing, and several times I've done the last 5-10 miles with no blips. Mind you, I know where all the fuel stations are on my usual routes, and their opening hours, so that's not as daft as it seems.

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Take it easy, some people around here may call you stupid for doing that!

You are right though, plenty left with no bars showing. Up to 18 I've found

I've just checked the handbook with the car, and its claims the capacity is 37 L, 35 on the Trekking model. I've also found it claiming 35 on various UK sites. You'd like to imagine the factory knows what the capacity is.

As for you lot going for miles with no lights on, I definitely had the last light glowing brightly... and put 34.5 L in. Methinks I got too close to the bottom of the tank.

gar074 reckons I must've been running on fumes, my son reckons it does anyway.

What does each of the blips represent? A gallon a litre?

Woo hoo. Paid for my towbar today

I've ordered the detachable towbar from Umbra Rimorchi. I'm not sure why I'd need a detachable towbar, particularly seeing it'll be in use nearly every work day and so more or less permanently on the car, but it only cost an extra 20 euros over the fixed one so I thought it was worth trying.
Thanks to the tyranny of distance, it's costing more to ship the thing to Australia than to buy it

Now to decide which bike rack I'm going to buy and place an order for that It'll be a Thule and I think I know which one, but it's been a while since I looked at them.

I can thoroughly recommend the Thule 970 Xpress. It clamps onto the tow ball, and takes seconds to fit and remove. The bike stays stable even on twisty B roads and at speed on the motorway. I reckon ours must be at least 8/9 years old, and it still works like new. It needs very little storage space too.

gar074 said:

I can thoroughly recommend the Thule 970 Xpress. It clamps onto the tow ball, and takes seconds to fit and remove. The bike stays stable even on twisty B roads and at speed on the motorway. I reckon ours must be at least 8/9 years old, and it still works like new. It needs very little storage space too.

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Good thing I was off ordering one while you were typing this
(it'd been recommended on here before... possibly by your good self )

My only issue is that we have to mount an extra number plate behind the bikes so the gov'ment can get all it's speeding camera fines. Haven't worked out how I'll do that yet but I'm sure I'll think of something.

It's the old maxim, "You get what you pay for." With Thule, my experience is that you always get great design & quality.

Cleaned it

illy

illy said:

Cleaned it

illy

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You mad impetuous thing :slayer:

Ordered some goodyear all seasons for the front as the contis it came with look a little crazed, I'll report how they handle when they're fitted! :slayer:

Gave the wee thing a wash.


1.2 - are you mad?

Cleaned the fabric door parts, with fabric cleaner.
They look like new again.

The Pretender said:

Cleaned the fabric door parts, with fabric cleaner.
They look like new again.

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My door trim has grease marks from getting muck on my hands (more likely my arm) from the bike chain. Once I've got the towbar and bike carrier fitted, I'll clean them off - if I do it now, I'll probably put even bigger ones on to compensate.

As for the floor, I'm rather disappointed with my Panda - there's a distinct wear mark where my left heel sits on the carpet. It's already worn through the fluffy top and working on the tough inner weave. The only way to fix this would be to drop in loose, rubber mats, and those things never stay in place. Seeing Fiat have provided a rubber/plastic insert in the driver's footwell, it beggars belief that they've made it so small it's essentially useless.

aussiepanda said:

My door trim has grease marks from getting muck on my hands (more likely my arm) from the bike chain. Once I've got the towbar and bike carrier fitted, I'll clean them off - if I do it now, I'll probably put even bigger ones on to compensate.

As for the floor, I'm rather disappointed with my Panda - there's a distinct wear mark where my left heel sits on the carpet. It's already worn through the fluffy top and working on the tough inner weave. The only way to fix this would be to drop in loose, rubber mats, and those things never stay in place. Seeing Fiat have provided a rubber/plastic insert in the driver's footwell, it beggars belief that they've made it so small it's essentially useless.

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These work a treat in my Cross and for very little money:

http://carmatkings.co.uk/by-colour/rubber/fiat-panda-4x4-2013-standard-tailored-black-rubber-car-mats.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw_ci3BRDSvfjortr--DQSJADU8f2j78t-Cso8mXayOpkf9m6l_DJJ65zi6ZNvvacSiV6GahoC23jw_wcB

Ceidio said:

These work a treat in my Cross and for very little money:

http://carmatkings.co.uk/by-colour/...8mXayOpkf9m6l_DJJ65zi6ZNvvacSiV6GahoC23jw_wcB

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Thanks for the suggestion. I was imagining I'd go to the speed shop and buy a generic mat that'd drive me mad by slipping and bunching. These sound like a brilliant solution to a problem Fiat shouldn't have created in the first place

I found a great set of plain black mats at Supercheap for about $30. They seem to stay in place quite well.