Mike Wrightson

Day one completed, very variable weather, but a very good drive. I even managed to keep up!

I have even less! I don't know how well the Citigo will keep up, but I'm gonna give it a damn good go

Looks like that can't be helped Loz. There was only one option that we could all use and for whatever reason it is not available.

It may be a deliberate feature to prevent the engine stalling.

Well, if you've only 4 people, then it won't be a problem. It's not wide enough to be a 5 seater anyway, but I can't really comment further as there is only me to get into mine :(

Glad you are happy with what was offered, though this little tale reminds me of why I don't bother doing factory orders or adding options.

I'm now definate for saturday. Sunday is still unknown, so I'll not be camping just in case. Lets see if the Citigo can keep up

iPad won't be locked to a network, but even if the 3 SIM is the right size for the iPad (unlikely), it will know that it's a phone SIM and not a mobile data one, and it will refuse to work.

Once the V5 and tax is all sorted, you could take them to small claims court for your expenses. You could tell them that they can either agree to cover your costs in full or you will see them in court for them. It's not your problem that they would lose out. They should have made sure everything was good to go before they sold it in the first place.

Possibly one of the least comfortable-looking race machines I've ever seen

Advertised figures are for a single trip, not a full tank average. I'd have to be really trying and at a max speed of 50 - 55mph in order to achieve a 70mpg on a decent trip I reckon. 65mpg has been done without much bother though 51mpg on short stop-start journeys is good going and bang on what I see for the same driving. Also, if you're going into high gears too early, it's possible you are wasting fuel that way.

Cycling up a 10% climb and not feeling like I was gonna die at the top It was a nice day to be out on the bike.

That's awesome! Austria you say? *makes note

Gearbox in mine can be a bit reluctant when stone cold, but once warmed up it's no problem at all. That's no different to any other car I've had though. I discovered a Hyundai Coupe's gearbox is incredibly stiff when it's been sat outside overnight at -15C. What I also do is I always leave it parked in gear. Either 3rd or 4th. So a cold start usually goes like this: Clutch down, into neutral, start engine, clutch up, idle a few seconds, select 1st, drive away.

Different rules controlling max wheel size. many F1 designers would love to run bigger wheels as then they can use bigger brakes and cool them better. Pretty much, yes. Big wheels are fashionable. Especially in the UK it seems. A supermini hot hatch does not need 20" wheels, even 17" is towards the "too big" end of the scale IMO.

That is how they will normally play it. If their drivers are particularly close, they might leave it one lap after the stop, then call the race off. They don't always do it though, it depends where their big rivals are at the time and other things.

Yes, if you want to buy the car outright and not just trade in after 3 years, PCP's are not the way to go.

I find I have a lot more respect for Rosberg and Hamilton now. Rosberg for being professional and obeying the instruction, even though he didn't really like it. Hamilton for coming straight out and saying that Rosberg deserved the podium more than he did. If the positions had been reversed, Hamilton would also have obeyed the instruction. Can you imagine any driver that is capable of winning races wanting to move to Red Bull now if Vettel is still there? No chance!

I wasn't. Was pretty much top book for mine!

Yes, that's correct. If you just hand the vehicle back, the contract ends. You will have nothing to pay (unless you are over agreed mileage or condition is poor) but you do not get any money back either. Handing back the keys is the worst of the three options unless you don't want another car. Best option is trading in. Here's another hint to maximise your equity - ALWAYS over-estimate your annual mileage. This pushes the final value down, then when you take back a car with a lot less mileage on it, it will be worth more I'll probably do between 6k and 8k miles per year, but my PCP is on 10k miles. When you trade in you can buy the next car on HP if you want, or even buy it outright with cash and you'll still get the equity. You don't have to take another PCP. Most PCP will be over 36 months, but you can do 24 months too and sometimes 40 months. Skoda also tend to throw in 3 years free servicing too, which can be a good saving for you. It'll be saving me at least £300. Do your homework about how much the car you want would be worth at 3 years old and with the mileage you expect to do. Compare that against the final payment, you want to see a decent gap between the two.

It's true, they can't remotely change anything on the cars from pit lane any more. They used to be able to at one point but it was banned. Telemetry is one way only. Me thinks that Vettel can kiss goodbye to any assistance from Webber in the forseeable future. Poor sportsmanship.

I've recently traded from a Fabia to a Citigo. Fabia was bought on PCP and I ended up with nearly £2000 equity from the trade-in value. Much better than I thought it was going to be. You can still negotiate the costs of the new car as normal. I just look to get the "cost to change" down to what I like and the dealer can take it from wherever he likes. They do work, but choose carefully. Ideally you want to have a car that holds its value well to have it work the best. As an example, my sister had a Hyundai i20. Nice enough car, and cost about the same as my Fabia. Same horsepower, similar spec etc. On the same valuation site, hers was worth nearly £1500 less than mine at the same age! She now has a Citigo and can't believe how much better it is) It depends how long you want to keep the car. If you want to keep the new car for 5 years, then don't buy it on PCP as it's more expensive than HP at the end of it all (unless you can save extra cash to pay the final payment off in one go). If you would be trading the car in after 3 years anyway, then PCP will work (this is what it's designed for) and makes the monthly payments more affordable.

I'll be honest, I would also like more power. I do miss the punch of my TSI Fabia, but this time around I need to save the cash as my situation is changing a bit and I do not want to end up struggling. In 3 years I can probably go back to something with some more go... I will see when the time comes. Any other small car with a small engine will not like hills either, but I have at least found that the Citigo will happily keep up with the traffic, so it could be a hell of a lot worse, trust me. At 20 years old, if you get something with "GTi" on, insurance companies will be queuing up to anally violate you. Since the Citigo is on PCP, it will cost you a lot to get out of it at this early stage. Sort the PID (if yours is that bad, surely it's faulty?), stick with the car and learn from it. Afterwards you will have another 3 years no-claims and that GTi will be much more affordable Oh, and car wash scratches are pretty straightforward to deal with. Decent polish and a couple of coats of wax and they will be gone. Don't do that again

If it's steaming up when driving, make sure you haven't left the heater on recirculate. That will cause it to happen pretty quickly. Sliding knob under the fan/heat controls - left is external, right is recirculate. Leave it at the left. Yeah, the sills get dirty, which has also happened in every other car I've ever had too.

Pic