It’s arrived

[rafletcher]

😀 Picked up my Scarlet Flare Excel HB with JBL and pan roof today. Talking to the sales manager, deliveries are now into next year. I lucked into a dealer demonstrator order and got it in 4 weeks. First impressions, comfy, but quite a bit noisier on the 18” wheels than the 17” I test drove. And surprised to see Falken tyres as opposed to Dunlop, Michelin, Pirelli etc. Very impressed with the dealership, a branch of Steven Eagell Toyota. 

I’ll have a look in the boot tomorrow, to see how hard it will be to make room for the space saver spare I’ve bought. Dealer price for the conversion from TRK was over £500. 

[PeteB]

21 minutes ago, rafletcher said:

...space saver spare I’ve bought. Dealer price for the conversion from TRK was over £500. 

My RAV4 has 18" standard wheels, and came with a space saver.  I ordered a full size matching silver allow spare wheel and Bridgestone Alenza tyre which together cost £465.

My dealer told me that another customer bought a RAV4 that came with TRK instead and ordered a space saver, and said that with tyre that was over £400, plus another £100+ for a kit with the jack, wheelbrace, bolt to secure the space saver etc.

[rafletcher]

The Excel JBL/pan HB always comes with a TRK. The cost was for the dealer to make room for the non-standard space saver spare. 

[PeteB]

2 minutes ago, rafletcher said:

The Excel JBL/pan HB always comes with a TRK. The cost was for the dealer to make room for the non-standard space saver spare. 

so that doesn't include the wheel/tyre & tools?  Wow!

Far as I know with the RAV (it's the same deal that models with Pan Roof get TRK) it's just a case of lifting the TRK and holder out and dropping the wheel in.  Even better that a full sized spare fits under the boot floor with no mods either (at least on versions that came with a space saver- I think it's the same on those with TRK).

[Konrad C]

This is a topic close to my heart, in addition to in car entertainment and navigation. I will never buy a car if it does not have a spare, or the option to have a spare wheel! I actually got a full size alloy wheel to replace my space saver. here is my post - 

I have two people, my brother and a friend, who only had TRK in their cars, but had large holes or tear damage. It cost them hours to get replacements. I had a tear damage to my tyre last year, and less than 15 minutes (my friend timed me at about 10 minutes), I was on my way to help her catch her pre-booked train, she would have missed otherwise! 
Also the cost of the tyre at the roadside is a lot more than at tyre places (call out fees). 

I was going to buy a Honda Civic when I bought my Avensis (both secondhand), and the lack of spare put me off the Civic. Also the boot on some cars, are designed in a way not to carry a spare.  

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, Konrad C said:

This is a topic close to my heart, in addition to in car entertainment and navigation. I will never buy a car if it does not have a spare, or the option to have a spare wheel! I actually got a full size alloy wheel to replace my space saver...

Same here.  Although in the last 4 years I've only had 3 punctures (touch wood!) and they would most likely have been ok with the gunge, I've had about 16 since 2000, at least a quarter of which definitely wouldn't have been sorted by gunge.  In one case, a tyre blew out and there was no rubber at all left on the rim by the time I stopped!  (Now, that would require some very clever gunge!).

I notice the new RAV4 manual states that if you use the repair kit, you need to replace the TPWS (Tyre Pressure Warning System) sensor in that tyre - they can cost over £100! (but about £80 on the current RAV - I bought one for my full size spare).

1 hour ago, Konrad C said:

...I have two people, my brother and a friend, who only had TRK in their cars, but had large holes or tear damage...

I've been told by a couple of people that they or a family member didn't know their fairly recent car had a tyre repair kit instead of a spare wheel until they were told by the AA/RAC person who'd turned up to put the spare wheel on!

[AndrueC]

Seems like a pointless waste of money to me. In 30 years of driving I've never had one puncture. I don't think I know anyone else who has had a puncture either (pretty sure it'd be a big deal for them and they'd tell everyone about it). I've driven all over the country on various most types of roads and I've been fine. Not saying it won't ever happen but if it's less than once in 30 years then I say well done to manufacturers for getting rid of them. It saves me the hassle of having to check it periodically.

Are you guys driving over building sites or industrial areas regularly?

[Scottydog007]

7 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

Seems like a pointless waste of money to me. In 30 years of driving I've never had one puncture. I don't think I know anyone else who has had a puncture either (pretty sure it'd be a big deal for them and they'd tell everyone about it). I've driven all over the country on various most types of roads and I've been fine. Not saying it won't ever happen but if it's less than once in 30 years then I say well done to manufacturers for getting rid of them. It saves me the hassle of having to check it periodically.

Are you guys driving over building sites or industrial areas regularly?

Gee you wait to you get one. I have a new car for 3 months, another car came around the corner on my side of the road, I then drove slightly on the grass to avoid them, the alloy wheel rim took all the load on the curb, the wheel exploded. Wheel and tyre ruined. No foam kit would have solved that.

Another time near Brussels in a friends car he had a puncture road side, we both worked on it and were glad to replaced it quickly with a spare wheel because of cars and lorries driving so close to us.

Very recently a friend of my wife in her Mini late at night coming to my place got a puncture and wrecked the wheel by continually driving to my house. My neighbour changed her spare wheel. No foam kit would have solved that.

I can go on and on, I can only think your 30 years of your driving you are just going to your corner shop and back. Man I can tell you when you get a puncture it is hell of a nightmare.

I even carry an extension wrench because I know it is almost impossible to remove the wheel nuts that have been put on by an electric gun with the standard wrench given in car tool kit.

[PeteB]

Your experience is very different to mine too - see my previous post.

Mind you, I drive on some very dodgy surfaces: they're called British A Roads, B Roads, Motorways and local roads.  I've done over 450,000 miles since 2000 so I'd expect a few, but not as many as I've had.  I even change my tyres before they reach 3mm.

If I drove all the time on Spanish roads which are almost always perfect billiard table smooth these days (with perfect white centre and edge lines too) I might have thought again, but I even got a puncture there a while ago too! (and guess who's EU contributions helped pay for them!). 

[AndrueC]

Well I've been waiting 30 years so far and not had one so it seems strange to me. Most of my driving is a commute along a busy rural A- road so I suppose that'll be kept clean by traffic but as a keen golfer I've also driven a lot of rural B- roads. I used to get a lot of punctures when I was a cyclist but have never had one as a motorist.

Maybe there's something special about the roads around here but I doubt it. Most of them are maintained by Northamptonshire County Council and it isn't even solvent let alone having enough money to properly sweep roads.

[Timmon]

On 10/6/2019 at 8:52 AM, AndrueC said:

Well I've been waiting 30 years so far and not had one so it seems strange to me. Most of my driving is a commute along a busy rural A- road so I suppose that'll be kept clean by traffic but as a keen golfer I've also driven a lot of rural B- roads. I used to get a lot of punctures when I was a cyclist but have never had one as a motorist.

Maybe there's something special about the roads around here but I doubt it. Most of them are maintained by Northamptonshire County Council and it isn't even solvent let alone having enough money to properly sweep roads.

You have been lucky! I live in Brackley too, and have had a couple of punctures, one on the A43, but the most recent was on the A34 near Oxford. My old car, which had a spare, so the problem was sorted in a few minutes. But the repair kit would have been useless. I guess luck has something to do with it, and I survived last autumn when the Banbury road was closed, but I know a few people who had tyre damage using the back roads. I am not sure if I will bother trying to get a space saver tyre though, I will see how it goes.

[Konrad C]

AndrueC. Getting a puncture is a chance event. Nobody wants to have a puncture and then pay an average of £80 to replace a tyre! I have found screws and nails in my or friends tyre, which had gone in at an angle not to cause a puncture. I have punctures that only cost me £10 to repair. It is carelessness of the people who let screws or nails drop on the road. I once picked up a whole lot of new screws off the road! Also when going to the recycling centre or where there is DIY or building, there could be something on the road. My brother was at a friend in Devon, and there was a spike in the ground that ripped his tyre. This was on the private land belonging to the friend he was visiting. Since his car only has TRK, he had to be taken to KwikFit to get a replacement tyre. I would be fuming at the friend for leaving that spike in the ground. 
Let's hope you or someone you know, never gets a puncture at an inconvenient time, and need assistance that takes hours to arrive! I have always manage to change to my spare in minutes, but some people are not as able even to change their spare wheel.

When you or a friend does have a puncture, please let us know.    

[AndrueC]

1 hour ago, Timmon said:

You have been lucky! I live in Brackley too, and have had a couple of punctures, one on the A43, but the most recent was on the A34 near Oxford. My old car, which had a spare, so the problem was sorted in a few minutes. But the repair kit would have been useless. I guess luck has something to do with it, and I survived last autumn when the Banbury road was closed, but I know a few people who had tyre damage using the back roads. I am not sure if I will bother trying to get a space saver tyre though, I will see how it goes.

Me too, but I really wish you hadn't reminded me of that. The flashbacks are starting again. At first I used the Halse road but stopped as the nights drew in. So then switched to A43/M40 but M40 J10 is a horror in rush hour. Eventually I settled on the B4525 and the Helmdon road but then of course Gigaclear started digging up Middleton Cheney.

It's puzzling though how some people get more punctures than others. Given that we both live in the same town there must be more to it than locality. It seems like there must be something I'm doing differently. The only thing I can think of is potholes. I'm almost religious in avoiding any kind of defect in the road surface. I wonder sometimes if an MRI scan of my brain would show a significant part devoted to pothole location and avoidance strategy. For instance I know that when driving away from the Farthinghoe Recycling centre if you move out toward the centre line on the last left hand bend you can avoid a distinct bump that eventually becomes a pothole. And it bugs me that there seems no way to avoid the bump further along the road where they did a poor job of splicing the repaired surface with the old one.

Do you or other drivers pay as much attention to road surface?

As a matter of interest is your Corolla a red estate? I've seen one once or twice coming down Pavillons Way when I'm heading for work. Mine is a red hatchback. Notorious for never exceeding the speed limit no matter what others on the A422 want to do 🙂

[PeteB]

2 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

...Do you or other drivers pay as much attention to road surface?

Oh, yes!!!  For sure!   My first car was a 1960 Mini (actually it was an Austin 7 - they hadn't started calling them Minis when mine was made, but a Mini it was).  Rubber cones for suspension - it was a trade mark of Mini drivers that they never went over bumps, potholes etc, always drove around them.

These days, I add speed humps to the list - in fact on the Yarmouth seafront the humps are designated pedestrian crossing areas (although they have no legal status as such) and because I slow down so much, pedestrians often think I'm stopping for them and step out a couple of feet in front of me - but I've learnt to expect that and am ready.  In fact, when people are waiting, I often do stop for them, but only if it's safe - not if there's oncoming traffic (except when the step out anyway).

I'm also very careful about how, when the need arises, I mount kerbs or other obstacles, but as much as looking after tyres I'm trying to avoid upsetting my wheel alignment.

[Heidfirst]

23 minutes ago, PeteB said:

Oh, yes!!!  For sure!   My first car was a 1960 Mini (actually it was an Austin 7 - they hadn't started calling them Minis when mine was made, but a Mini it waslignment.

wasn't the Morris version a Mini from the start though?

I first properly learnt to drive in a 1966 Morris Mini (JYS 533D).

[AndrueC]

My first car was a BL mini. Failed it's first MOT with (you can probably guess) sub-frame issues. Mind you it also drank oil almost as fast as it drank petrol 🙂

I then moved on to the relative luxury of a base-level Mini Metro. My third car though was a much loved and missed Jet Black edition Metro. Still only a Metro but the trim was nicely done and whilst I'm not really into nostalgia (and certainly not for BL rubbish) if I had the chance to rescue and pay to restore a JB Metro I just might do that. I'd probably modernise a few aspects though. I do like my 21st century creature comforts 🙂

[PeteB]

1 minute ago, Heidfirst said:

wasn't the Morris version a Mini from the start though?

I think so, but IIRC the Morris was launched some time after the Austin.  My brother-in-law bought a brand Morris version around 1962/3 (I think they cost around £400 then) and believe the badges read "Morris Mini Minor"

[PeteB]

1 minute ago, AndrueC said:

... I do like my 21st century create comforts 🙂

Me too, but modern safety is my biggest 'like'.

If I'd been in any of the first 5 cars I owned when my first Prius was written off in 2002, I'd have been written off too!

You wouldn't get me in any of them today, except in a static display perhaps.

This shows just how things had progressed in 20 years since the advent of NCAP crash testing:

 

[Heidfirst]

11 minutes ago, PeteB said:

I think so, but IIRC the Morris was launched some time after the Austin.  My brother-in-law bought a brand Morris version around 1962/3 (I think they cost around £400 then) and believe the badges read "Morris Mini Minor"

according to Wikipedia "26 August 1959 - 101 - The first Mini launched, the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor"

Autocar seems to agree https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/anything-goes-throwback-thursday/1959-morris-mini-minor-road-test-throwback-thursday

[AndrueC]

And credit where it's due the A-series engine was something of a design achievement.

[PeteB]

12 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

according to Wikipedia "26 August 1959 - 101 - The first Mini launched, the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor"

Autocar seems to agree https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/anything-goes-throwback-thursday/1959-morris-mini-minor-road-test-throwback-thursday

OK, so I got the name right...  🙄

[Timmon]

On 10/7/2019 at 9:11 PM, AndrueC said:

Me too, but I really wish you hadn't reminded me of that. The flashbacks are starting again. At first I used the Halse road but stopped as the nights drew in. So then switched to A43/M40 but M40 J10 is a horror in rush hour. Eventually I settled on the B4525 and the Helmdon road but then of course Gigaclear started digging up Middleton Cheney.

It's puzzling though how some people get more punctures than others. Given that we both live in the same town there must be more to it than locality. It seems like there must be something I'm doing differently. The only thing I can think of is potholes. I'm almost religious in avoiding any kind of defect in the road surface. I wonder sometimes if an MRI scan of my brain would show a significant part devoted to pothole location and avoidance strategy. For instance I know that when driving away from the Farthinghoe Recycling centre if you move out toward the centre line on the last left hand bend you can avoid a distinct bump that eventually becomes a pothole. And it bugs me that there seems no way to avoid the bump further along the road where they did a poor job of splicing the repaired surface with the old one.

Do you or other drivers pay as much attention to road surface?

As a matter of interest is your Corolla a red estate? I've seen one once or twice coming down Pavillons Way when I'm heading for work. Mine is a red hatchback. Notorious for never exceeding the speed limit no matter what others on the A422 want to do 🙂

I think luck has a lot to do with it. I am not a boy racer, even though the SAAB Turbo I had before went like a bat out of hell if you wanted it too! On the A34 in January this year, I think something fell from an lorry, and I hit it, causing a blow out. It was something bouncing erratically down the carriageway, no chance of avoiding, so I managed to limp to the Middleton Stoney / Ardley turn off and pull into a farm gateway, Tyre totally destroyed. Previous time on A43, it was a screw in the tyre that caused the problem. Maybe the tyre repair kit would have worked, not sure as the tyre did suddenly deflated, but not really a blow out, just got worse over several miles until I pulled over to see what was happening. Other times were when I drove a lot for BT, I remember getting an puncture on the way to Bristol a few years back. Not pot hole related, so far!

No, I avoided red, because I thought everyone else would go for it as it is the advertised colour. Although red is very smart. Mine is Denim Blue, Hatchback. 🤩 

What model and colour did you choose?

[AndrueC]

1 hour ago, Timmon said:

you choose?

Red. My previous car was orange and I wasn't quite ready for a calmer colour :)

[rafletcher]

Red is the advertised colour for a good reason - it looks the best 😉👍   My previous car was an innocuous grey, and I decided I'd not be swayed by my wife's opinion this time 😎

I did wonder about the bi-tone, but in the end plumped for the pan roof (although that means I can' have roof bars AFAIK). Then on saturday I saw a bi-tone in red, and in the flesh it didn't (to me) look as good as the publicity shots. 

[Heidfirst]

2 hours ago, rafletcher said:

(although that means I can' have roof bars AFAIK). 

Interesting, if true. I had an Avensis TS with pan roof & roof bars.