General What did you do with your Panda today?

[The Panda Nut]

Noop was playing builders van on holiday and Ruby did 3 trips to town. Gardening duties. Tomorrow one of them will be taking me out to lunch with an old mate from school. Slow shandys and some steaks. If its sunny Noop cos hes cooler, if its cloudy Ruby to stretch her legs. Now to write my lines.

I must not get done for speeding. 200 times.

I now have plumbing and plastering guys coming. I dont want to plaster or wall board, and I dont want leaking pipes on the new plaster! I could plaster but I think Im past it. I dont really know how to do soldered pipe joints. I have never cracked the knack. Ill do the bathroom and kitchen as its all new pipes, but not heating pipes under pressure. Slowly its coming together.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Of course there are exceptions, but, in general, I would agree with you. Of course it's in their interests to get you to bring the car to their workshops, but it's mostly because of the way the interface between the dealer's workshop and their customers is set up. Regardless of whether you ring in or approach directly to the service desk, the people you will speak with have very little technical knowledge because they are there to manage the workshop workload not work on the vehicles. It's not their fault. The technical people are round the back in the workshop and every minute they are talking to you is time they aren't working on the vehicles which is potentially loosing the dealership money - and the overheads on a big "flashy" new spotlessly clean dealeship setup are enough to cause the average punter to collapse with "wobbly" knees at the thought!

Yes, but even the ‘brand-trained technicians’ seem unable to diagnose anything themselves (they slavishly follow the computer and its fault codes), and can’t ‘mend’ anything (eg a break in a wire) other than by replacing complete, expensive units. I’d rather find a person who can methodically work their way around, aided by but not a slave to, the fault codes and actually find and fix that broken wire.
My 2013 Landy had to go to a very posh main dealer for a recall missed by the previous owner. I watched through the all-glass walls of the gleaming workshop full of JLR’s modern exotics as a young lad struggled to drive my Defender on to a ramp - it has a clutch, a gear lever and a handbrake lever (all ‘things from the past’ for most LR drivers now), and no parking sensors or cameras to help position it. I cringed…

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Yes, but even the ‘brand-trained technicians’ seem unable to diagnose anything themselves (they slavishly follow the computer and its fault codes), and can’t ‘mend’ anything (eg a break in a wire) other than by replacing complete, expensive units. I’d rather find a person who can methodically work their way around, aided by but not a slave to, the fault codes and actually find and fix that broken wire.
My 2013 Landy had to go to a very posh main dealer for a recall missed by the previous owner. I watched through the all-glass walls of the gleaming workshop full of JLR’s modern exotics as a young lad struggled to drive my on to a ramp - it has a clutch, a gear lever and a handbrake lever (all ‘things from the past’ for most LR drivers now), and no parking sensors or cameras to help position it. I cringed…

Yes, that's the problem with main dealers. They work mostly on pretty new vehicles so don't get much practice on more worn stuff. Corroded fixings and broken/corroded connectors/wires and a whole load of other stuff which comes with the older stuff is not seen that often. Even at the limited end of things that I work at with MES and VCDS it's so easy to take what the computer says as the problem and re[place a very expensive part only to find the problem isn't sorted because there's no continuity in a circuit or a fault elsewhere is throwing up a misleading code. So often on older stuff I find it's a connector corroded or sometimes a broken wire. You "fire the parts cannon" at your peril!

 

[Big gerry]

Let's see if we can keep this on top eh? Maybe a kind mod can make it a sticky

Iam afraid the only thing exciting I done today was three runs to the tip

 

[The Panda Nut]

Iam afraid the only thing exciting I done today was three runs to the tipView attachment 466070

Nice trailer. Dont Panda 4x4s tow well!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Nice trailer. Dont Pana 4x4s tow well!

PanDas do pretty well too.

 

[The Panda Nut]

PanDas do pretty well too.

I met a man who had towed a small caravan all over europe with a 169 1.1. Only ONE mountain it couldnt get up he said. If I find a good 2nd hand towbar for the 319 I miggt buy it then.

 

[The Panda Nut]

PanDas do pretty well too.

Whats with the big D...... Ok - I edited my awful typing.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Whats with the big D...... Ok - I edited my awful typing.

Sorry, no offence intended. correcting stuff like this is just too tempting with me having a wife who worked as a school administrator and is absolutely obsessed with correct spelling and grammar. Hardly a day goes by without her picking me or one of the grandchildren up on something!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I met a man who had towed a small caravan all over europe with a 169 1.1. Only ONE mountain it couldnt get up he said. If I find a good 2nd hand towbar for the 319 I miggt buy it then.

I've mentioned before that, many years ago, I built a "half ton" unbraked trailer. I towed it behind several of the vehicles I've owned until I had to part with my 1.9tdi Cordoba (the diesel was really great for towing. You really didn't feel it behind you at all. As against when I used to tow it behind the Imp Estate. Now that was very interesting what with the not very powerful engine and the light front end because the engine was in the back - had a few "frights" with that combo!) I never looked into having a tow bar fitted to the Ibiza or Scala but I have, more than once, considered fitting Becky with one. Now she's driving so well I'm going to do a very detailed assessment of her overall condition and if I don't find anything to worry about (of course the rear axle is needing done) then I'm going to get the axle done and fit her with a tow bar. First job after that is going to be to clear out the garage workshop and shed which will entail multiple trips to the council recycling centre.

 

[euroben]

Nice trailer. Dont Panda 4x4s tow well!

They really do!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Sorry, no offence intended. correcting stuff like this is just too tempting with me having a wife who worked as a school administrator and is absolutely obsessed with correct spelling and grammar. Hardly a day goes by without her picking me or one of the grandchildren up on something!

None taken, my typing is poor. On the phone its atrocious and Im open to ridicule on most posts. Being able to edit for a week helps me make it look less bad , but I ought to check things before posting.