Missile Man

Hindsight is wonderful, and all that, but I always ask them to inspect the car before I hand it over, so they can't deny it if it comes back with any damage.....

I got a pretty good look at the item you're referring to - white coloured and looks a bit like a submarine periscope! It is in fact..... a floodlight! Albeit it looks like it can be rotated if necessary.

<< Do bug eye owners wave in a certain way? >> Yep, uncurl fingers of right hand to the vertical, whilst retaining contact with palm of hand on steering wheel at the "ten-past" position. Maintain this posture until either: (a) other driver responds ( you decide that the other driver is not going to respond and you are then forced to fake tapping the steering wheel in time to the music that you in fact aren't listening to because the stereo is so cr@p

There you go. Keep at it Mucus, we just have to accept that a small number of Scooby drivers JUST DON'T GET IT

LOL

...........but the wave is subtle, don't want to look like a complete d!ckhead if the other driver doesn't reciprocate

yep, wave from me, and nine times out of ten I get a response

<< "how old is it?" >> BTW I have a personalised plate before anyone asks the obvious!

Couldn't believe it today, when I was stuck in a stop-start traffic jam on the M271 motorway. Went past a marked Police BMW X5 as their lane was moving slower. A minute later they caught up with me again, stopped alongside me and the driver wound down his window. Guilty conscience kicked in, and as I wound my window down I wondered what was coming "Very nice car" he shouted out, "how old is it?" and we proceeded to have a brief discussion about the Scoob in the middle of the motorway! Nice to have had such a friendly exchange, bet all the other drivers thought I was getting a telling off for something

I currently have a Disklok although to be honest it's a pain fitting and removing it and I admit I don't always use it when I probably should. I previously used a Stoplock Pro, which is nowhere near as secure as the Disklok, but did get used almost every time I parked up. IIRC the Disklok lasted about five minutes against attack in a magazine test, and the Stoplock lasted about one minute. Most of the others tested were defeated in a matter of seconds. Sorry, can't remember the prices.

Don't know how to do a link, but if you do a search on Road Angel you should find my thread from a few weeks back (£301.50 plus P&P from Networx Automotive). BUT there are lots of other detectors (& jammers) out there, depends what you're looking for.

Oh, sorry, your original question - er, well, apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs but your views on having a warranty are probably the starting point. On what you've said you must have a year or so left on it, and if I was you I'd also be thinking about whether I planned to extend at the end of the initial 3 years. Clearly, if you wish to maintain your warranty this rules out pretty much anything that doesn't come from the dealer. My car is standard, by the way, although if I wanted to do anything to it I personally would want to hang onto the warranty, having had what would have been a very expensive experience on a previous Impreza had it not been covered. Personal choice!

At last, another red mica bugeye in Hampshire Not feeling so lonely now....

Groan - no pun intended

Haven't watched it as I don't wish to cause myself further psychological damage

what's the speed limit in the car park?? Damn those folding mirrors are fast too Welcome (have I been on here long enough to say that yet?)

<< What is it with geometry and dealers? It is supposed to be done on the pre-delivery inspection and after 10k miles my two front tyres were shot. The guy doing the service said the geometry was way out and could not have been done at all at the PDI - and relieved me of £55 for the privilege. >> I've lost count of the number of times I've taken delivery of new cars (not just Scoobys) with misaligned steering wheels. IMO it's not unusual for a PDI to be skimped on << My Scoob is in for its 90K service with them on Tuesday so cross your fingers for me, all. And just don't ask how much. I said, don't ask! >> I trust you've asked for SIDC discount??

I also have a Road Angel, simply because I didn't want to spend over £300 on this type of gadget. Had no problems with it, but in principle I'm sure there are better products if you spend more money...

We are sometimes quick to criticise Subaru dealers (often justifiably I'm sure), but here's a positive story for a change. It concerns a dealer in Hampshire, most people will know who I mean. Bought the car there in January and noticed some steering vibration soon afterwards. To cut a long story short, this was eventually put down to uneven wear on the front tyres, which were just over half-worn (the rear tyres are virtually brand new). Seems a little strange that it took two attempts at checking the tracking and balancing to discover this, but hey-ho. Predictably, I was informed that replacement tyres would not be covered under warranty. I was then told that maybe they could "meet me half way" and fit a new pair of Kumho tyres at cost price of £58 each. I suggested they may wish to rethink this offer. After some further gentle persuasion, they have agreed to replace the front tyres entirely at their expense tomorrow morning. And the new tyres will be Pirelli P Zero Nero's to match the rears! This dealer is not always in my good books, but at least this time they've done the decent thing.

Nice car, in the best colour Well, someone's gotta speak up for us minorities....

<< I don't really want to use a certain garage in Botley, heard far too many bad stories about them!! >> Interestingly, I bought my car from the dealer you refer to a few weeks back, and immediately noticed steering vibration which I reported to them straight away. A tyre specialist has subsequently put this down to the condition of the front tyres, which were obviously in a poor state (ie. uneven wear) before I bought it. Whilst I knew that the tyres wouldn't have lasted forever, I had hoped to get a good few thousand miles out of them. I am currently in negotiation with said dealer over a solution, and I shall post the outcome in due course, good or bad! My other memorable experiences there are that the description of the car, as regards accident history before I bought it, turned out to be somewhat inaccurate, and I'm being generous there. But on the plus side they were very helpful when they had to take the gearbox to pieces on an Impreza I owned previously (which ironically is still sitting unsold on their forecourt six months later).

I knew someone who had a leased company car but he wanted to get out of the contract early (it was one of those contracts that ended after a set mileage was reached). He contacted a guy who had a small electronic box of tricks. This was plugged in to the car's diagnostic port, and the mileage was altered upwards within literally a few seconds. I think he had this done a couple of times between services, so as to maintain the apparent accuracy of the service history.

I'm pleased to say, after three phone calls, that the dealer has now agreed to take the car in for another look. Let's hope they get to the bottom of it!

Thanks for all the help

<< Contact the previous owner, best bet. If it is in a previous accident then the dealer should of told you. It is an official Subaru dealer isnt it? >> Official dealer, yes, based in Hampshire (I shall say no more). Salesman agreed upon examining the car with me that it had had a repair but claimed to know nothing about it before I pointed it out. Whilst I used that as a bargaining tool, I didn't exactly get the car for free. I am left with an unpleasant feeling about it as the repaired damage now seems to have been more extensive than it at first appeared, and I have also found another repair on the offside rear wing which has been filled. Which I find very interesting considering the salesman's claim that they "never use filler to repair vehicles because Subaru wouldn't let them". Will have to wait and see what the previous owner is prepared to tell me I think, whilst at the same time putting some more pressure on the dealer.