Eunos Chump

 Small sportyish car is here, after a swapover in a remote Midlands truck stop.  Ride up there was very comfy in the Vel Satis, but the threat of breakdown was never far away. It is really quite small, almost Mini size.  Firm ride but not unacceptable, certainly better than a Cooper S.  Gearchange is comedy-bad, like a spoon in a bucket of gravel. Airbag light on, rear tyres are toast, fairly mucky.  17" wheels with tiny brakes.  This is the 1.6 Twinspark, only 120 BHP but it's very eager.  Gearing is quite low, turning over at 4000 RPM at 80mph.  Apart from the gearchange, it feels pretty tight and rattle-free.  And here is the cause of the gear issues, this shaft seizes and the plastic bushes wear out.  It's taken me about 6 sessions to remove this due to awkward access and my bad back stopping progress.

I have bought another Alfa, based on a single photo and a description. And it's still 200 miles away, residing with the chap who's having the Vel Satis.

Unfortunately the Vel Satis clutch issues have continued.  It is going to need a clutch slave cylinder and that means the 'box has to come off, and it would only be sensible to sort the rattling DMF and replace the clutch at the same time.  I like it, but not enough to fix that so it's going to another AS member in Bolton - group-funded by Autoshite folks. The Moonbus (the nickname Michelle invented for it, for example "your fucking moonbus is hemming my car in"), departs in a couple of weeks, when I'll be getting this Alfa instead (partly to solve the logistic issue of getting the Renault up north). Exciting.

Vel Satis is now fixed, after bleeding the clutch slave cylinder.  It's fed off the brake reservoir, and the level had got a bit low in there - didn't ping up an alert though, perhaps it's not working.  Need to watch the fluid level for a bit, maybe there's a leak somewhere.

BETRAYAL! The Vel Satis broke down the other day on the way home from work, with clutch hydraulic failure.  Spent about 3 hours waiting for the RAC, only for them to call me to say it would be another 2 hours at least.  It appears the fluid is shared with the brake reservoir and that did seem a bit low, so bought some fluid and topped it up but no change. Once the roads were quiet I drove the 20 miles home without a clutch, which was an interesting challenge with the added burden of an electronic handbrake.  Will have a look at fixing it over the weekend, with any luck it just needs bleeding.

 I'm still enjoying the Vel Satis, still unsure why.  The Mercedes rides better, handles better, sounds far nicer, is considerably faster and uses the same amount of fuel as this, yet the Renault is great.   Doh!  This error is pretty normal for this car though, it still works fine.  Apart from when it failed to disengage when I drove away once - I think it was because the car didn't full stop though, and it became confused.  Went down the road like a dog dragging it's arse along the ground until I manually released it.  Then there was a cow in the road, having a massive piss.  This was in Guildford, btw.  That was a very odd day.  I used a soft upholstery brush to clean all the surfaces, they've come up well.  The plastics have a thin layer of latex (presumably to improve the feel of them), but it scratches and muck gets encrusted within, which you can't shift easily.  Little clock tells time and lets you ...

It's here, it's vast, and I love it.  Definitely a wafting car - trying to go quickly results in engine noise and little of the promised Velocity, and in fast corners the only thing stopping it falling off the road is the fact you'll fall out of the seat first.  But those seats!  Wide and comfortable, it's nicer than my house (but that's not saying much, perhaps). Heated too. It's a big, soft cocoon of peace so it's definitely delivering on the Satisfaction front.   Took it to work today, bad traffic on the way home and had to make much use of the electronic handbrake.  Don't trust it, but at least I know where the emergency release is now.