summers

15,000 in 14 months mainly pleasure including one 2000 mile trip to France. On average I fill up every fortnight and cover around 400 miles between fills. Only averaging 36 mpg which is disappointing though a lot of my journeys are short 8 - 10 miles.

There was a litre bottle in a zip bag when I collected my car from Alex Lawrie last year and then when it was in for service last week, besides the oil change, they left me another litre in a bag - nice! haven't used the first one yet so son can have the new one in his A4.

Yeti serviced last week at Alex Lawrie Skoda. As always excellent attention - gave me a lift into Liverpool. On my return the car was ready, valeted with oil, lube spray and a bottle of wine awaiting me on the passenger seat. Very happy to give full praise and recommend them - they are all nice guys as well. Peter

£10 donation to the tyre fitter's tea fund and yellow marker on each tyre - job done.

Totally agree - there appears to be very few reports of wheels being 'stolen' nowadays (even here in Liverpool before anyone else comments!!) - you are more likely to lose your locking wheel nut adaptor which creates endless expensive problems.

In reality most dealers make far more money from the 'servicing' element of their business than they do from the sales side. I appreciate they need the sales to feed the service dept. but the margins on servicing at any main dealers is incredibly high and of course in many cases we are locked in to their servicing to keep our warranties validated. Perhaps by letting them know the servicing would be done elsewhere and with a poor margin from the sale, this could have prompted the initial response from the Sales Manager?

Winters off yesterday. £20 to the tyre fitters which is a bargain as far as I am concerned - getting too old to be humping those heavy wheels around. Always mark which corner the wheels come off so they go back on with hopefully no need for balancing etc. I also keep a note of the mileage at the changes to see how much I get from each set - sad and boring probably!

I have a Thule rack : http://tiny.cc/5d16uw attached to a Witter detachable tow bar. Can't recommend the set up too highly. The rack shows up on the Columbus unit as a trailer when the electrics are connected.

I bought a trim tool of ebay for a couple of pounds - alternatively the credit card would be a suitable replacement. Peter

Ordered. Thanks for the link. Peter

I bought my Columbus unit from the same eBay site. Very happy with the product, delivery & communication with the seller. I made an offer below the starting price which he accepted. The new face plate for the Columbus is: 5L0858069L1QB - bought form Rainworth Skoda - 01623 623400 - £25.11 including next day delivery - superb service. A friendly Briskoda member near me fitted it - about 90 minutes and did the necessary recoding etc. (A bottle of wine for his help). The voice control on mine does not work but I can live with that. Everything else works perfectly and the iPhone connects easily each time via Bluetooth. The GPS antenna was cable-tied to a bracket behind the unit and it works fine. Hope this helps. Peter

Lost my OSR Roof Rail Trim yesterday. I will phone the dealers later to order a replacement and enquire if it will be covered under warranty. Not hopeful!

I bought a Columbus unit from this seller for my Yeti last June. It arrived very promptly and did exactly as it said in the advert. It was brand new and just what I wanted. Rather than pay the price quoted I made him an offer which was slightly less - he accepted my offer so both parties satisfied. Hope this helps. Peter

Thank you for providing this link. I have recently purchased Lightroom 4 and these tutorials seem very useful. Peter

Thank you for your efforts James - I will have one in whichever colour is available. Peter