hehe thnx, that made me feel a whole lot better! and there's me thinking this will mean i'll no longer have to be on first name terms with my garage owner cause i now have a reliable Lexus... :)
aircon seems to work ok, it's blowing cold air when and if i want it to, as far as i can tell...
havent checked the PAS pump yet, I'll have a look this evening. steering seems fine though, dont think there'll be a problem. timing belt's up for a change at 120k i've been informed, so still 9000 miles to go, and the neon in the dash is working rather nicely, all my collegues were certainly impressed! B)