peterb

Likes: excellent handling, great equipment, engine note, super-slick gearbox. Dislikes: thin paint, lack of low down grunt, non-folding rear seats, tyre roar on M-way. Do warn your dad that the engines on demonstrators often haven't been run-in which can make them feel gutless. Also, one gets used to having to rev the engine, but it feels strange at first.

It's a bit "Max Power" for my liking! Something looking that lairy needs either 200bhp+ or a 1.3L engine and a 17 year old driver with a reversed baseball cap. Peter PS Will it have bright pink "glow in the dark" washer jets?

I too use auto. With my old car I used to remember to h/l on for underground car parks or long tunnels. Remembering to turn them off was harder!

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." Is that close enough? That was Jesus' command to his followers. I'm sorry that we've let you both down. Peter

True, and I'm no technical car expert so I'm prepared to be corrected by those who know more. However the clutch and 'box may also have been misstreated: it may in addition have been driven at speed over kerbs, speed humps etc. Ultimately I guess it comes down to price and one's own attitude to risk.

There was a thread about this on honestjohn.co.uk a while ago. IIRC the consensus was that the car may have been thrashed within an inch of its life. It may also be harder to sell-on, of course.

Dark colours look great (my dark green is lovely). Keeping the car :D clean is no problem. Every time Mrs B or I go to Sainsbury's, we hand £5 to a nice man who washes it.

After a nasty scare when I got sideways driving into my garage (!) in the snow, we went to the skidpan on Saturday. National Driving Centre in Croydon (found easily by web search). Not a particularly glamorous location, but an interesting, well-run and fun experience. We drove a front drive Primera with ABS switched on and off and a rear drive Sierra without ABS. We had 30 mins in a classroom plus 90 or so in the cars. Cost was £120 for the two of us. Instructors were both ex-Police and the skidpan and training are apparently modelled on Hendon. Slipperiness comes from an oil/water mix and there are different road surfaces. The pan itself is quite small, but I never found this to be a problem and they made a fuss of it being purpose-built. The course covered various techniques, including: - thinking about “exit routes” (e.g. mounting a clear pavement) rather than just braking; - learning to feel when the back is going to let go; - correcting rear-wheel skids in both FWD and RWD cars; - taking effective lines into and out of corners to minimise chances of skid; - using ABS effectively to steer around an obstacle; - cadence breaking; - steering out of a locked-wheels skid by releasing break pedal. We learned a lot and had a good time. Even Mrs B, who was reluctant to go, has been telling all her friends about it.

Audi A4 - Came close but didn't make me "tingle" the way the IS did. Also the equipment list is c**p - they expect you to pay extra for basics like a CD player and a proper rear central seatbelt and serious extras like leather/electric seats cost ££££s. Volvo S6 - Quite nice looking and good engine (5 cyl turbo) but felt bulky. Also too middle aged. Honda Accord Type V (2.3l). Dealer screwed-up the test drive and I lost interest.

I've had the same problem - including the day after the 10,000 service :( In general, any kind of short trip where the car doesn't get-up to full operating temprature isn't good for a modern, catalysed car. To take an extreme case, driving out of the garage and then switching off may mean the thing won't start at all next time (see Saturday Telegraph Motoring supplements passim).

Do these bulbs dazzle oncoming traffic? I hate being blinded by Audis with blue lights.