numskull

Yep. That’s who I originally used. Decided to give the business to a small indy, thinking they need the business after C19. Never again.

Decided to go ahead and I had the tyres fitted this morning. Chalk and cheese. The staff were polite, efficient and the garage was clean and tidy. In and out in 45 mins. I’m getting the wheel refurbed tomorrow and will submit the receipt for a refund; they’ve also agreed to a £100 goodwill refund on the tyres. I won’t be using them again. Tyres are great, but will report back after a few hundred miles, as brand new ones are always quieter and generally drive far better than old, irrespective of make/type.

….use National Tyres. They used to be poor, but now Halfrauds have bought them, they’re absolutely abysmal. I had booked to have 4 All Season Contis fitted at my local National via TyreShopper, another National now H company. Their useless website would not allow a booking to be made there, so a very helpful person at the National call centre to me to reserve them at another branch and they would then book the tyres to be delivered to my local branch. I turn up last Friday at 09.50 for the 10am booking. They check the booking and they remove the wheels and tyres. At 10.15 I’m told there’s a problem; they don’t have the tyres. I’m asked if I made the booking for Kingston and I explained the situation. He says they didn’t change the booking and they’ll be at the other branch. He rings them. They’ve put them in a cab and they’ll be here in 30 mins. Not a chance think I. At 11.10, I tell them to refit the P7’s. Simple game; knowing they’re don’t have the tyres, they go-ahead and remove the ones to be replaced giving the customer no choice but to wait til tyres arrive. I also see them scamming women into changing perfectly sound pads and discs. £695 for a front set on a Fabia but they’ll do them for £550. They also tried the same on the driver of a BMW 3 series; “see this (1mm) ridge here on the outside of the disc - that means it’s failed; they’ll all be the same so you need new discs and pads all round!” I leave at 11.40 and complain. The booking was made there and the tyres were delivered to them on Wednesday. They’ve also damaged an alloy. They’ve agreed to pay for the refurb and have offered an insult of a free MOT which I rejected. Booking is now made at a local Halfrauds today, but it should have been tomorrow - brilliant. 🙄 In two minds whether to cancel and get a refund.

Moving the seat all the way forward and then all the way back, or vise-versa, has worked for me in the past.

Yeah, it does.

Blimey… I can only dream of 50mpg on the motorway. I get 25 urban and the best I’ve had is 39 on a number of trips to/from Ireland. But then again, a 330bhp car returning 39 ain’t bad, is it?

OK, OK; I concede; Pirelli P7’s are complete and utterly ****e tyres, thee worlds-worst premium ditch-finding widow/er makers the world has ever seen and Pirelli deserve to go bust on the back of producing them. Everyone happy now? 😂 Conti All Season being fitted Friday. Eventually paid £710 fitted via Tyre Shopper (which, of course, is now Halfords).

Ahhh… right, from a standing start; yep, I see what you mean… I apologise. But unfortunately, all tyres can pretty easily be spun-up in the wet on FWD or RWD cars. My BMW 330c was bloody terrible.

@Q102. I stopped the purchase of the Michelins and I’m going to go for the Conti All Season you recommended.

All summer tyres performance deteriorate in winter. It was 3.5c when I left for work at this morning at 05.30 and the 2016 P7’s with 34,500 miles, still have tremendous grip in the wet. Having a quick look, Hankook Ventus S1, Conti Sport and Premium Contact, Dunlop SP Sportmaxx, Bridgestone Potenza S001, Yokohama Sport 107, Goodyear Eagle F1 are all cheaper than the P7. If you begin to, or actually loose a car in the wet, on a cold day on any U.K. road with P7’s, you’re almost certainly exceeding your level of competence and the speed limit; just because one has a Porsche, it doesn’t mean you have the skill to drive it safely at high speed under any road conditions. Having been the head of risk in two businesses, I’ve had the misfortune to see many people in serious own fault and, unfortunately, two fatal accidents - both car vs. tree on corners and neither of which were the driver - in performance cars they thought turned them into Pentti Airikkala. They weren’t.

Welcome to Briskoda. The unit receives the normal Freeview channels so no, they cannot be removed as such, but you can select your favourite channels and place them in a list, so they’re always easy to find. Do you have the Columbus manual? If not, it’s available to download on the Skoda website and gives you all the information you need.

👍🏻 I knew what he meant, but it was the fact he was just talking utter boolucks as he had no idea what the feck he was doing. This particular bloke has been there for years and is no doubt OK at changing the odd bulb and wiper blade but this was way beyond his level of competence.

Exactly… it was the “absorber” that made me smile! 😀

Probably as many as the Halfords idiot who said SWMBO Aircon was full of gas, so it was “broke” and it was probably the “condenser”, the “absorber” or the pump. He also noticed the clutch on the pump was not working. Took it to Kwik-Fit the following day and yes, they checked it and within 30 mins we had ice cold aircon. You guessed, it was completely out of gas; no leaks, no issues.

Interesting. Did you find them to be dangerous as a passenger whilst being driven round the Brands Hatch GP circuit by Jonathan Palmer (I have), or did they stick you in a ditch whilst you were driving on normal British roads? I ask as most competent U.K. drivers will rarely, if ever, reach the limits of standard road tyre performance whilst driving on normal roads. In fact, most competent U.K. drivers will rarely, if ever, reach the limits of standard road tyre performance whilst driving on a racing circuit either.

Not really. In reality, in a vehicle with a mechanical handbrake, one uses this as the “auto hold feature” when in traffic or on a hill. I wasn’t going to add more confusion by introducing VAG terminology to my post by separating the single function into two. VAG refer to the “Electronic Parking Brake System” as Auto Hold.

It’s 2022 not 1922. As others have said, you don’t need to do anything. Re the handbrake, try to just forget it’s there. You’ll probably find yourself looking for the handbrake lever for a few drives; I certainly did the first time I drove a car with an auto handbrake. When you pull away, it automatically disengages. When you stop it re-engages to stop the car from rolling. If you look at the dash, you’ll notice the handbrake light stays green. On a hill, it stops you rolling back; again the warning light stays green. However, when you park and stop the engine, the actual handbrake engages and the warning light turns red and the brake remains fully engaged.

https://www.tyrereviews.com

This was a couple of years ago. Never been back since; my business now goes to a local very well respected indy VAG specialist.

I had a discussion with the Senior Service Receptionist at Lookers Guildford who, in spite of my protest, insisted the 280 had a belt after she’d asked if I wanted a quote to change it. I suggested she check with a Tech and when she had to come back to tell me I was correct, as she walked away, called me a w@nk@r under her breath. Nice eh?

They have good specs but aren’t particularly liked by owners and came 7th in a test of 8 tyres last year. I had Accelera tyres fitted to the MK2 just before I traded it and they were excellent.

WTF??? I’ve tried putting the links in again and they were added then they were removed, replaced with the link to this thread, so here’s a direct cutnpaste…. Turtle Wax 53139 Hybrid Sealant Hydrophobic Carnauba Car Spray Wax 2 X 500ml Original Formula https://amzn.eu/d/7jVhH8m Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Pro Flex Car Spray Wax 680ml 53706 - Graphene Infused Detailing Spray for Car Showroom Shine & Gloss with Paintwork Protection Against Road Grime & UV Rays https://amzn.eu/d/ccUNffg

I’ve been really happy with the P7’s - they still grip like hell in dry and wet, but are crap in ice and snow (obvs) and they’ve lasted 6 years and 37,000 miles with a bit of cosmetic cracking on the tread edge. Yes, they’re a bit noisy on metalled roads but on the other hand, they’re near silent on tarmac. Now I’m old enough to remember the days of 175 65 15 Michelins on our Peugeot 604Si being as hard as coal and lasting 47,000 miles with practically zero wear on them when we sold the rust bucket and before that, a full set of Kelly Springfield tyres, mounted on white Weller wheels (don’t ask about the Minilites they replaced - young and stupid, see?) on our Cooper S lasting all of 3 weeks; but the grip was amazing. So 35+ years on, tyres haven’t exactly moved on at the pace of Safari, solid memory or processor speed, so I’ve got a sneaking suspicion the Michelins will not last anywhere near as long as the P7’s. Time will tell.

Yeah, unfortunately, the rolling resistance is much higher on All Season tyres.

Paste. However, I have the spray in the boot to top-up after removal of a bird strike! Bought from Amazon here. I bought the paste from a seller on eBay here who sells it for a great price. Boxes are bit damaged, but who cares. I also got the sealant spray for a two pack deal on Amazon sold direct from TW here.