It`s the little things..

I bought a new car last November and it`s OK.   It goes well, it`s comfortable, has loads of bells and whistles (most of which I don`t need or understand) and there`s plenty of room for Barney in the boot.   Now, it seems to me that with modern cars, big ends don`t `go` any more, crankshafts stay in one piece and suspension doesn`t fall apart.    But it`s the little things that plague my driving life.

For example, we`re driving down the M26 off on holiday and the radio aerial inexplicably just falls off.   There`s no way I can stop and begin a search for it on a fast moving motorway so I have to buy a new one.   Before we last went off to Cornwall, I did the usual thing of giving it a clean, checked the oil, tyre pressure and the screen wash.   As I topped it up, the screen wash promptly came straight out of the bottom.   Obviously a leak in the washer bottle; the garage had a look at it and told me that it must have been `impact damage` as the fog light had been pushed back a bit and there was a slight problem with  a  wheel arch.

The conclusion is that whilst the car had been parked somewhere, someone had given it a nudge and caused these problems and driven off, although to be fair there is no visible bodywork damage.   It`s going to cost £600 to sort it all out so I`m going through the expected drama with the insurance company and one bright day I might get the car fixed.

Now I confess to the odd `glancing blow` with assorted obstacles such as walls, gateposts and neighbours` cars (note the plural,) as a result of which there is the odd blemish here and there, but nothing major and nothing that the careful application of a bit of touch-in paint hasn`t put right.   But they`re all little things, little annoying things, things that I could do without.   I did wonder about Friday afternoons in Sunderland and whether I might have copped for one but that might be unfair on the car manufacturers.

Over the past 50+ years of driving I`ve had my share of real problem cars, eccentric ones, but most of the cars I have owned have been fine - no scrapes, nothing falling off, no anonymous nudging, no neighbourly issues - so maybe I`m just going through a problem phase with this one.   If things don`t improve though, I might be tempted to give it a good thrashing, send it on its way and try something different. It`s only the little things....but the clock is ticking.